Sugar. Saturated fat. Salt.
Eye catching nutrients that have been in the media spotlight recently. All of which has caused great confusion for pretty much everyone.
I completely agree that people need to be educated about nutrition. Science needs to be shared. However what I’ve seen is a media frenzy and the wrong messages being shouted out, whilst the key message are swallowed up.
It very much feels like we have started focusing more on single nutrients instead of looking at our diets and lifestyles as a whole. It doesn’t add up to me. If we focus on reducing sugar then will this lead to not eating yoghurt and calcium levels dropping? Personally I do not sit down and add up how much sugar I have in a day. At least not on a regular basis. What I do look at is the balance of my diet. How many portions of fruit and veggies I eat, oily fish, whole grains, high fibre foods. Then I focus on eating whole unprocessed foods when possible and cooking from scratch. I drink water, tea with no sugar or herbal tea. Sugary snack foods are a treat food. For me it works.
I have clients who have spreadsheets detailing all their nutritional intake for the day. Pretty time consuming and confusing as when you try to make one nutrient balance the books another one slips up.
I’m not sure there is a perfect diet. I think it’s all about choosing sensible, achievable goals and working towards a sustainable healthier lifestyle. Small changes you can stick to.
Such as :
Eat another 2 portions of veggies a day.
Step away from the cereal bars and back to the fruit bowl with some nuts and seeds.
Swap sugary soft drinks for a sugar free version, homemade fruit water, herbal tea or no added sugar squash.
Build activity into your day, everyday.
Rant over.
What are you doing to make achievable steps toward a healthier lifestyle?
It has become quite complex and confusing. You’re so right! People need to go back to the basics and focus on eating more fruit and veg and eating less junk.
Yes healthy eating really can be simple!
Well said indeed. Totally agree – so sensible too!
I think the obsession with single nutrients drives marketeers to look for ways to exploit them. Like the low fat yogurt which is full of sugar, or the reduced sugar drink when we could just drink water which requires no sugar to be reduced. The massive reduction in salt on crisps in recent years is obviously good but if that drives people to think of crisps as healthy, it’s not so good.
There is no bad nutrient only bad diets.
A great point. I agree a focus on nutrients does lead to a change in how products are made and marketed. Which can be good but also adds more confusion. With sugar for example, our labels do not specify between total and free sugars, so it’s hard to for the public to tell what is in that product.