What food is actually healthy?
 

Happy President's day everyone! After going to the gym, I got home and watched 3 health documentaries.

Food Inc., Killer at Large, and Dirt The Movie.

Without boring you to death, the gist of it was to not eat processed foods and that even the "healthy" stuff in stores like Walmart isn't actually good for you.

So I have one simple question. What food is actually healthy?

Meats have steroids, fruits and vegetables has pesticides, grain based products are saturated with carbohydrates, anything in a can has preservatives, water from the tap has metals and harmful chemicals.

So what should you eat? What should you drink? Where should you get it from?

What food is actually healthy?


Hunter

Hi!
Food Inc. is terrifying, isn't it!
Everything at the grocery store will have preservatives, pesticides, etc. Unless you want to start your own farm, you may have to accept that you can't avoid it all!
What I am doing is only buying from the outer edge of the grocery store (all your food groups), nothing from the aisles. Meat and cheese from the deli, milk and eggs, fruits and veggies, bakery fresh baked stuff (trying to avoid the bakery desserts though! Soooo good).
If you can afford it, get free-range/organic animal products (meats, eggs, and milk/cheese). Personally, I am afraid of added hormones/steroids rather than pesticides and preservatives. Also, free-range eggs taste better!
Some people swear by the hunter-gatherer diet, or the vegan diet, or other trends. To me this seems like too much money and effort to get all the nutrients you need. Fill up on veggies and fruits as much as you can stand to... :)

I would just stick with meats, veggies and fruits, some grains, no refined sugar or breads. Wash the veggies and fruits off well, don't worry too much about the pesticides in the fruits and veggies, or the steroids in meats, that's about the best you can do. Unless you can afford to buy steroid free, range meats and organic fruits and veggies, even then nothing is guaranteed.

As long as your staying away from processed foods, you're doing a LOT better than most people!

Today, I think it's hard to identify one. If one still exist then along the way it will become unhealthy since preservatives will be added, so on and so forth. That is why, we need to eat moderately . That means not too much of this and that. In short, we need balance diet for there are no 100% healthy food.

According to my experience the natural food is actually healthy like natural protein and nutrition diet when comes to your fitness, if you only want to gain weight or something like that so the steroid and supplements gives you very fast results, but these things are not long lasting they even harm your body internally. I suggest using natural pure diet like meat eggs milk fresh vegetable and fruits.

This is a topic that I've put a lot of thought into. We don't adhere to any specific diet, we just do the best we can with what is available. I grow what I can, I buy directly from local farmers when I can and we eat simple meals with smaller portions so we can afford healthier food.

Taking what clean, healthy foods that are available to me at a reasonable price and feeding my family for a week is an adventure.

Yep, organic is more expensive, but the cost is not as high as it once was. For example, I can often find organic apples and oranges that are priced the same as conventional produce in season.

Health food is food considered to be beneficial to health in ways that go beyond a normal healthy diet required for human nutrition. Because there is no precise, authoritative definition from regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, different dietary practices can be considered healthy depending on context.

I see what you mean but take away all of those things and you aren't left with many, or really any, options. Drinking water and nothing else won't keep you alive.

Steering clear of foods that are processed is a huge step in the right direction, and despite the pesticide notion you can't go wrong with fruit and veg. Let's face it pesticides aside they are still the nutritious foods that your body needs to stay healthy.

You can get meats that are 100% steroid free so you could look into that.

The truth is we can all scare ourselves half to death as to how foods may or may not be slightly inflicted by something, but if they were really that dangerous to you then people would be dropping like flies all around you, and you don't see that happening right?

I would say to buy your food locally and stay out of the supermarkets as much as possible. My local farmers market sells all kinds of produce in season. All of it is grown organically. I can also get local, grass fed, hormone free beef within 10 minutes of home. The produce I have found to be comparable in price to what I can find in the supermarkets, but the beef is more expensive. I think you (general you) have to decide what is important nutritionally and financially and go from there.

Fruits, veggies, except avocado's, grains.....stay away from any meats, fish, dairy and cooking oils as much as possible, including olive and canola oils.

For my purposes food is healthy if it provides required nutrients for you, you will actually eat it and you are successfully losing weight will eating it. Instead of freaking about how healthy any specific food in your diet is, worry more about the overall composition of your diet. What I mean is the reason I got overweight in the first place wasn't because I was I wasn't eating wild caught salmon instead of farmed salmon, but because I was eating too much fast food too often, drinking too many beers and too much soda too often and not eating enough fresh fish, fresh fruits or fresh vegetables on nearly enough of a regular basis. I am not saying that organic foods are bad per se, but often the more pressing immediate problem for most people is that your diet has too much fat, salt, sugar and not enough fiber in. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. As long as the overall composition of your diet is improving, the amount of sugar, salt, fat are decreasing and the amount of fiber that you are getting from your foods are increasing, than your off to a good start. Occasionally you will have some junk food. What matter is that frequency and quantity of crappy stuff is decreasing. Because foods with less fat, sugar, salt and more fiber tend to be less calorically dense its possible to eat fewer calories of foods while still eating moderate portion sizes.

I'd say the amount makes it good. Just eating tons of apples can't be good. Besides fish can be really healthy unless you eat it every day.

Real Simple asked the country’s top dietitians and nutritionists to tell us which superpowered ingredients we should be incorporating into our diets regularly. Here are their combined picks, plus some simple and delicious preparation suggestions.
Mushrooms
Meaty and filling, as a stand-in for beef they can slash up to 400 calories from a meal. They may also protect against breast cancer by helping to regulate a woman’s estrogen levels.

why are you saying no to fish ? that's pretty healthy

i wanted to know that iam unable to sleep at night and have a constant headache...can u help me with any solution to solve this problem..??

Iam a vegetarian can u suggest be any food items to be healthy..??

Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is healthier than any one food. Vegetarians eat plenty of f&v! If you talk to your doctor about your diet, he or she may suggest watching your vitamin B-12 intake because vegetarians tend to come up short there. Breakfast cereals, eggs, cheese and tofu are sources of that vitamin, along with vegetarian burgers. Nutritional yeast that has been fortified with B12 is a great source.

the best food
 

i think that the best food is natural foods without any chemical product.

I think the question (which I also ask) is good but I have come to think not only what is healthy? but what is healthy for the individual? As the saying goes, one person's meat is another one's poison. I do best with protein, some carbs, a tiny bit of dairy and no sugar. Veg of course but I am allergic to tomatoes. I love tomatoes but for me... poison. So, what is healthy for you? Have you observed what makes you feel better and what doesn't?

I LOVE mushrooms. But if you suffer from candida (yeast) not a good choice (mold.) Just an example of individual needs, as I said above.

I think eating whole foods as compared to processed foods is healthy. You don't have to go to extremes unless you want to. Avoid packaged foods as much as possible. For example, make things like mashed potatoes or scalloped potatoes from potatoes you buy in the vegetable aisle, not from a box. Read the ingredients. You can't pronounce half of them. That's why you can put them in your pantry and not eat them for 8 months and they don't spoil. Make home-made chili and soups instead of using canned from the store. Eat a lot of vegetables from a wide variety. If possible, make them fresh or frozen, not canned. If you have to buy canned, look for sodium free or drain and rinse them well before cooking in water, not the liquid that comes in the can. Stay away from empty calories, such as candy, baked goods, salty snacks. There is no nutrition in them and your body does not need them. And don't say you're buying them for the kids because they don't need them either. Don't introduce these snacks to your children at a young age. They will learn about them soon enough when they go out into the world and hopefully by that time, healthy eating habits will be firmly planted. Don't take them to fast food restaurants. They don't want that food, they want the toy in the bag and the playground. If necessary, take them to a family type restaurant. They will learn table manners and how to behave in public, while eating a healthier meal. Let the kids help you cook. They will be more willing to eat something that they prepared themselves.