What’s healthy to me…

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It occurred to me that I should define healthy a little more. I have friends who believe very strict rules and live by diets I couldn’t tolerate. There are folks who believe in raw food only, which sends my health in a fast downward spiral. There are folks who live in horror of carbs and won’t let a piece of bread pass their lips, and for them pasta also doesn’t exist (don’t even mention cakes or cookies). Others think all meat is poison. Name some other extreme opinion about eating and I probably know somebody who follows that…

Healthy for me has more to do with trying to have a generally healthier diet than the usual American diet of fast food, fried food, and a usual lack of nutrition and to live within the rules that wheat and dairy sensitivity have imposed upon me. My basics about food are pretty simple: First, for every theory about food and whether it’s good for you or bad for you, the opposite theory probably also exists and several dozen theories that land at points in between. Second, there is no theory that applies to everyone. Third, eat fresh fruits and vegetables — it’s about the only suggestion that shows up on virtually every list. Whether the fruits and veggies need to be raw or cooked is a whole other issue. Fourth, you have to learn what works for you.

One of the things I learned for myself is that I have to eat red meat every 3-5 days. I really fought it and I ignored more than one practitioner who told me I should eat red meat. Eventually even I had to notice that every time I ate a hamburger my color got better and my energy lifted. Now I know that if I go too long without I will start losing energy and keep feeling worse until I eat some.

Fruits and veggies are a big issue for me. I grew up in that era of canned and frozen fruits and vegetables and thus I never liked them. When I discovered fresh veggies it was a whole new world but I’d never gotten the habit of eating them all that much and though I made more of an effort I realized a few years ago that I could still easily go for days with very few helpings of fresh vegetables or fruit. The main way I handle that now is through the fruit and veggie smoothies that I mentioned in the last post and through making casseroles and soups that have more than one type of vegetable in them. Now I have a friend who can eat bowls of undressed spring greens and enjoy every bite. That’s not me and I don’t think it’s gonna be me in this lifetime… 

Dessert, other than sorbet, pretty much always has wheat and/or dairy products so I only eat home made desserts in which I can substitute spelt or gluten free flour and almond milk or Silk creamer and sweetener other than white sugar.  But I do eat sweets.  I try to keep a limit and I don’t have sweets more than once a day but I do eat them and that alone makes some of my more pristine friends shudder.

So, when I present recipes that I’m claiming are healthy, be aware that it’s healthy to me.  I’m not writing posts about it in order to proselytize about what is and isn’t healthy as if I’m a great authority.  I’m just sharing what I’ve found works for me — and if you like yummy recipes, they’re yummy.

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4 thoughts on “What’s healthy to me…”

  1. To me, ‘healthy’ generally means made with wholesome ingredients and minimal nasty additives. For instance I know heaps of people who eat diet ‘yoghurt’, which is full of artificial sweeteners and thickeners and flavoured to taste like apple pie or something else which yoghurt was never meant to taste like! My homemade greek yoghurt may have more fat/calories, but I think it is infinitely healthier. Overall if you eat everything in moderation, you’ll probably be ok, I think people freak out way too much about certain foods! Thanks for an interesting post.

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