My diet is none of your business. There, I said it.
This week alone I have been told to cut down my salt intake, count my calories, cut out corn and potatoes, limit rice and pasta, stop eating sugar (as if), eat anything I want as long as it is organic (organic donut anyone?) and cut out caffeine. None, I repeat none of this advice has come from my doctor.
This advice has come from a friend, a family member, another family member, yet another family member, a writer, another friend and a celebrity….in that order. Some has been to my face and the rest through dramatic articles and ‘news’ stories. I mean, really, the advice is constant and contradictory. It’s endless and confusing. Apple juice contains arsenic (thanks Doctor Oz)…even dieticians and doctors can’t decide what is right.
Every few weeks I have a panic attack about what is in my fridge and pantry. I’m killing myself and my kids. It’s my fault. I have to take control. But which advice do I follow? If my kids and I are mostly healthy and at a reasonable weight do I really need to do anything at all?
There’s something to be said about society when we can critique each other’s eating habits. Eating is very personal. When did we become so comfortable with commenting about what we are eating? At least fifty per cent of the advice I’ve received in recent week has been from people who could frankly stand to lose a few kilos themselves.
I’m not innocent. I give diet and exercise advice. But only if asked. And then I feel guilty for preaching. If asked how I maintain my weight I describe what I do but I always make sure to explain that this is what works for me, it won’t work for everyone and we all have different habits, cravings and lifestyles. It’s really about eating what we like but not too much, exercising when we can and shaking off all the terrifying food advice we’re bombarded with. Do your best. There’s no need for extremes. I might decide to reduce my salt intake if I’m feeling unwell, count my calories if I want to lose a couple of kilos for an event, cut out corn and potatoes if they becomes too expensive, limit rice and pasta but not cut it out completely, reduce my sugar intake (sugar is my drug of choice but I am only a recreational user), eat organic if I can find affordable quality produce and reduce my caffeine intake if my children ever decide to let me have a proper night’s sleep.
This week I spent four hours avoiding sugar and caffeine thanks to a Facebook link to a horrific lecture about how it was poison. Okay, sugar may not be the healthiest substance in the world but do I really have to run screaming from it and so abruptly? I lasted until 2pm. I might just reduce it I think. I’ll do my best but Easter is coming. I can’t promise anything. Is life really worth living without experiencing the crackle of a quality hollow chocolate Easter egg as you bite into it? Isn’t a cheese and tomato sandwich spectacular with a sprinkle of salt on it? My mum grows her own corn. It is sweet, fresh and bursting with flavour. My dad’s potato salad recipe is spectacular (boiled potatoes, tomatoes, onions, extra virgin olive oil, salt and oregano). I love steamed rice that clumps together and can’t eat chicken without it. Pasta is my life, just not every day. Coffee – I love you. Once or twice a day. You are my friend, my comfort, my five minutes of quiet time each day.
Come on dieticians…pick this apart. Tell me about my addictions, about the damage I am doing to myself and my family. Ignore the fact that we are all healthy and at a reasonable weight. Tell me about elimination diets, about breaking bad habits. Write some more sensationalised articles and books to scare me to death.
Obesity is a serious issue but I’m not obese. I’m no expert but I’m doing okay. Don’t gasp when I grab a biscuit (a work colleague) or raise an eyebrow when I scramble two eggs with yolks in the smallest amount of real butter (my sister). You look at your plate and I’ll look at mine. And for goodness sake, stay out of my children’s lunch boxes. I maintain that good quality potato chips with three ingredients (potatoes, oil and salt) are much better than your ‘healthy’ choice with fifty ingredients, most of which I can’t even pronounce. What is emulsifier? I rest my case.
Jo Abi is the author of the book How to Date a Dad: a dating guide released by Hachette Livre Australia. Her first love is being a mum closely followed by writing about being a mum. You can read more about her many and various exploits here.
What’s your diet like? How do you handle people talking about it?
Comments
153 Comments so far
Hi Jo, while I totally agree with you that the food information out there is TOTALLY confusing and it annoys me, I absolutely disagree with your comments about dieticians.
Have you actually went to see a dietician before? Because 9/10 dieticians will not advice you to lose weight if you are in a healthy range and will not give you contradictory advice like that if you go for a consult.
I went to a dietician recently and she adviced me when reading articles like “soy milk is bad for you!” think about how many times they have done these research and the sample size etc. I think reading articles that has “dietician’s” or “nutritionist” advice without actually going to a dietician and understanding your circumstances and goals can certainly mislead you
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This is just a bitchy gripe I have, but I need to vent it. I have a friend who is always trying to lose weight, but has INSANE views of what is healthy. She had a tub of hot chips for lunch yesterday and declared herself proud of her “really healthy lunch of vegetables”. This morning she mentioned she had curry for dinner, so she feels like her diet is going really well. I know it doesn’t effect me in any way, but for some reason it drives me crazy.
Is it because I find it irritating when people pretend indulgences are hardships? Or because I feel like she’s giving herself undeserved kudos? Or because I know it’ll be ineffective and I want to just tell her?
Who knows. But if we had a food policewoman in the group maybe they could pull her in line for me! Am I just being a total bitch or is that annoying?
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No it is REALLY annoying. And I would be dying to say something to her if I was you also. In the end of the day she’s just deluding herself
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I can’t stand people telling me what to eat and what not to eat! I pretty much eat what I feel like and luckily when I eat some junk I then crave something healthy. A couple of things I do (without really thinking about it) is I prefer to eat a piece of fruit rather than having fruit juice (I figure I’m missing out on the fibre) and I hardly ever have soft drink, I mainly drink water, tea and coffee. I must admit I do eat something unhealthy everyday but I don’t worry about it because I’m eating enough good stuff to counteract it!
It’s all about moderation
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Just some food for thought (pun SO intended) but do you think it’s any coincidence that we get fatter as the diet industry gets richer? The failure rate for the diet industry is upwards of 90% and yet grows every year. What other industry has such appalling success rate and yet still continues to grow? Can you think of one? That’s not suspicious AT ALL \sarcasm.
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I hate food lectures! I’ve had people lecture me about drinking and Up & Go and how many kilojoules are in muesli and “Don’t you know bread is really bad for you” or “If you keep eating that you will get fat!”. NO. No I won’t. I’ve been feeding my body for 26 years with no problems. None. And not that it’s any of their god damn business but carbohydrates are FABULOUS and I need them. Why? Because this morning I ran 20 km before work, tonight I’ll swim 4km, tomorrow I’ll ride before work and on the weekend I will spend hours cycling in the hills. And just to make the food Nazis have a fit I will tell them that the fruit toast I have in my hand is my breakfast, my third breakfast… for today.
AND if anybody gives me any food advice on this post I will take to them with a metaphorical flame thrower.
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Food is also social – sharing meals, cooking and recipes is a wonderful way to bond and communicate. I’m not trying to diminish the importance of good nutrition (and education), but I think it is healthy to sometimes consider food as a pleasure. I suffered from an eating disorder for years, and learning to enjoy the occasional indulgence was really important to my health, and my relationships. I love my fruit and veg, but I’m not going to beat myself up – or berate anyone else – for enjoying a glass of red or the occasional licorice allsort!
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Ahh Jo, long time no see lovely! Hope the family are all happy and well
I used to know a girl whom I called the Salt Nazzi. She would give the same old lecture anytime I asked for a sprinkling of salt on my meal. My reply would always be ‘Salt, yes I need that, it stops cramps!” he he he
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This topic is something that really gets on my nerves. I think it is the epitomy of rudeness that people feel it is ok to comment on other peoples diets, regardless of weight.
Comments are often incredibly hurtful and primarily unecessary.
Follow this link for a recent experience of mine…
http://soliloquiesandsnapshots.blogspot.com.au/
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Eat what you like (in moderation). I spent 4 years living in a third world country where most people couldn’t even afford to eat meat. After that experience I vowed not to cut anything out of my diet as I’m blessed to be given the choice.
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What pisses me off is ppl feeding my kids crap!!!!!! They are MY kids! And I choose to feed them healthily. Grrrr!
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I tried an elimination diet last year – no sugar, wheat, alcohol or dairy. I got so depressed I gave up after 2 weeks, I hated it! It was just psychologically too hard. I found a great fitness/diet lifestyle which suits me and makes me feel great. I lost 8kg over about 10 months last year, and am able to go back to doing what works when my waistbands start to feel a bit tight!
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I was with you until the last minute. It all seems very sensible, except for the part about chips in a child’s lunch box. If it’s a daily occurrence, it sounds like a pretty bad idea to me. But it’s your choice, of course.
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I lost 30 kgs last year and I was moderately surprised.
I started playing Footy and the weight just dropped off.
My eating habits slightly changed. I still loved my bacon and cheese sandwiches, I ate like a horse and my drinking habits were something interesting all together.
I got so irritated when a well known WAG had a go at me for my eating habits and told me she got to look so good by eating only protein and salads.
Mind you I am pretty solidly built which is good for where I play and am very strong (arm wrestle anyone?)
I walked off kinda miffed thinking,
“Good luck to you sweetheart, least I know I’m not embarrassing anyone with their foul smelling farts”
Two of my teammates are dieticians and wrote an eating plan during last season, the protein diet came up – and the embarrassing wind came up too!
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Yikes, two dietitians told you to play sport sans carbs?
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I recall when Georgie Gardner (Today Show) once said something to effect of ..”McDonalds is for obese people what the bottle shop is for alcoholics” and it helped me realise that there would be lots of people including Georgie, that probably haven’t ever had a real problem with their eating. I’m overweight. I don’t eat fast food, especially not McDonalds. I work out vigorously 3 times per week and I eat very healthy food. My problem is that I eat way too much of it and I find it extremely difficult to stop myself. I don’t buy junk food apart from dark chocolate and we always cook from scratch to avoid processed food and preservatives etc. I wish there was something to help people like me that struggle to restrain themselves from over eating!
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You should read “If not dieting, then what?” by Dr Rick Kausman. It will change your life.
Also my blog fitchocolatelover.blogspot.com
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I recently tried to quit sugar – like actually quit-quit. But the constant headaches and feelings of nausea were horrific. I know it may be just my body detoxing, but I’ll be damned if I am going to make myself sick trying to do what the ‘experts’ tell me.
I agree with Jo – eat what makes you feel happy and healthy, indulge occasionally in some chocolate and delicious baked goods and exercise regularly. It’s not rocket-science!
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Don’t you think that if your detox symptoms were that bad, sugar must be having a negative impact on your body? You don’t have to quit altogether, but if you suffer that much by going without it, you’re eating too much of the stuff.
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I did too, and I had the same symptoms. I was cranky, nauseaous, had headaches etc etc.
It was a HUGE wakeup call on the amount of sugar I was consuming on a daily basis and I guess you could say I was addicted. Once I got passed the initial slump I had never felt better. I was clearer (in my head and my skin!), happier, not bloated, less hungry all the time and more easily satisfied when I was hungry. Things that were not sweet before tasted sweet because the sugar wasn’t messing with my taste.
I don’t even miss sugary foods now.
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Just curious, how long was this initial slump? Did you slowly cut back the sugar?
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Eat what makes you feel good. It’s that simple.
Yes, sugar isn’t great for you and I know eating tonnes of it makes me feel like arse, but like Jo said… how BORING would Easter be without Easter eggs?!
I eat a balanced diet (nothing is “banned” on my plate), I exercise regularly, I’m slim, healthy and happy. So what if I had pasta and chocolate for dinner last night? (For the record, it was delicious!)
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“Eat what makes you feel good. It’s that simple.”
Eating crap, nutritionally-poor, energy-dense foods does make a lot of people feel good. They love the taste, they love eating it, and even if they regret it afterwards, clearly that doesn’t outweigh the positive feelings they get from eating it.
If it was that simple, so many people wouldn’t be obese and overweight.
I’m happy that it’s “easy” for you, but it’s not for millions of others…
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I think you should politely tell the “experts” to take a long walk off a short jetty.
What you eat is your business and no one should be telling you otherwise.
Ps. An emulsion is a mixture of fats and water, so an emulsifier helps the water and fat molecules bond. As an aside, milk is an emulsion, and if you take the fat out, all you are left with is cloudy water and the stuff known as parmalat, which has no nutritional value.
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Totally agree Jo, although for slightly different reasons perhaps.
When in my early 20s, I developed what people seem to think is an unusual allergy (it really isn’t) – Oral Allergy Syndrome. Put simply, it’s an allergy to raw fruit, raw vegies, raw nuts, and in some cases, raw eggs. Like other allergies, there are varying degrees of OAS. Some people are only allergic to certain groups of fruit or vegies, or only experience mild reactions. As it is a type of hayfever, most reactions are minor and anaphylactic reactions are uncommon – but possible.
As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, I have a reaction to all raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and to raw eggs also. Over time the reactions have become steadily worse, when I was first diagnosed, I only broke out in rashes when peeling potatoes and my tongue itched if I ate raw fruit. Now, just eating something which has touched a strawberry, for example, causes my lips and tongue to itch and swell dramatically. I’ve also reached the stage where everything has to be cooked to the point of mush to stop this sort of reaction. This means vegies are either boiled to the point of tasteless, or grated and well cooked, or roasted for quite a long time. No salads, stir fries, blanching, and steaming (unless it’s steamed to total sogginess). My husband works very long hours, and I have a job during school hours, and another part time job, plus two children to care for and a house to run. This being the case, I’m often pressed for time, so the only meal of the day in which I usually eat vegies is dinner and I rarely eat fruit (stewed apples anyone?!).
Over the years I’ve had varying reactions to revealing this, while some people do accept it without me having to press the point, it’s a rarity. For the most part I’m greeted with either polite disbelief, or outright scorn. The general consensus is that I just don’t like eating fruit or vegetables and have manufactured an excuse. A former supervisor went so far as to tell me I was lying, and from that point on whenever I ate she would make nasty jokes about my poor dietary habits, and if I bought anything sweet or fattening she would screech so the whole office could hear “oh look, she’s eating crap again!”.
I’d love nothing more than to eat “normally”, to be able to pick up a pear when I’ve got a sweet craving, or to throw together a salad for lunch. I’ve gained a fair bit of weight in the last 10 years since this started, and finding diets, meal replacements or Lite and Easy style programs is damned near impossible. I begin to express how sick I am of being judged for what others assume is laziness, or being finicky. From people in fast food places – on the rare occasion I get takeaway – smirking at the chubby woman ordering what they assume is the latest in a long string of unhealthy meals, to acquaintances offering me their learned opinions on ways to overcome this allergy (“just eat a little bit every day until your body gets used to it again!”), and those who can’t keep their ignorance to themselves and openly questions my honesty.
I’m sure I could manage my dietary issues more effectively, but I’m damned sure that very few of the wise souls passing judgement on my eating habits are far from perfect – even if they outwardly appear to be.
Pardon the ranting, I’ve never actually talked to anyone about my feelings on the subject before – but it seemed like a good opportunity to get it out there.
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Wow! Must admit I’ve never heard of this one before. I’m sure if you told me this to my face, I might react non-ideally, look disbelieving, etc. Please be assured, I’m happy to believe you! It’s just as simple as, I can’t imagine how you manage! It must be such a tricky allergy to navigate on a daily basis!
Please, at least consider that those people with disbelieving looks are actually thinking something like, “Wait…. what? What have I eaten today? How much would I have to change to accommodate….? Yikes! That’s gotta be *really* hard to deal with!”
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I agree that it’s rude to give unwanted advice on a personal level, but when as a society we’re facing unprecedented health problems because of our diets, who is allowed to speak?
Are we allowed to say that generally, we know our western diets are failing? Then, can we try to disperse information in general? I think it’s important to be honest about what our diets are doing to our health and to our planet, and to make sure the information gets out there. From there on in, it’s a personal choice.
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Yes it is a good idea to eat reasonably healthily.Treats are not a problem However “diet” is not a religion and people are entitled to eat what they like(whether it is “good ” for them or not) The “health nazis” really do turn people off and that is unfortunate but zealotry is never pretty.
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Is it just me or is anyone else troubled by all these people like Sarah Wilson who have done some quick internet course on nutrition and now sprout wisdom and advice as if they’re experts?
It reminds me of the story I read here about Google experts. It’s the same! Doing some course is not the same as having proper credentials.
I worry about all the so-called diet experts out there peddling things – and co-incidentally, they always happen to be selling a book or a product as well!
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Not just you, i “unfollowed” Sarah Wilson from Twitter for this very reason, I just couldn’t stand to read it any more. And that’s all she ever tweets about.
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Definitely! I visited her website not too long ago and wondered “How exactly did she transform herself from women’s mag editor to health guru?”
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I love Sarah Wilson and her site. But I understand what you mean. I choose to use her articles as a springboard for my own research so that I can make up my own mind before I take her ideas on board. I wish more people would do this too, because Sarah doesn’t present herself as an expert but rather writes from her own experiences (and so she doesn’t give academic citations or anything like that) but people tend to take her word as scientific gospel. Even Sarah doesn’t argue that you should do that.
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Hey Jo, what gives?
I love a good rant, don’t get me wrong, but what’s with all the hostility towards dietitians?
I’m a dietitian myself, and from the looks most people give when I present my painfully normal size 12 body and answer the question ‘So what do you do?’, I could indeed stand to loose a couple of kgees. Are their looks imagined? Probably. Who knows, who cares?
I, like you, believe people should be able to eat what they want. If you have issues with crappy fad diets, take it up with the authors (Blood Type Diet- a doctor, Atkins- a doctor, South Beach- a doctor, Sweet Poison and Big Fat Lies- a bloody lawyer!), incidentally don’t get your nutrition advice from a GP, they get like 2hrs of nutrition training.
If you’re healthy and choose to eat an entire packet of fruit tingles that’s your choice. One offs don’t do much damage. The truth of the matter is that for many people behaviour like this isn’t a one off, its the norm. On the other hand, if you’re someone with pre-diabetes or even full blown Type 2 diabetes, and are at very real danger of developing heart disease, you have a bloody right to know what that pack of fruit tingles is doing to your health. And that’s what we do, educate people, day in and day out, one person at a time. In the hope that they’ll take the advice and live longer disease free lives.
When you see ‘advice’ from a dietitian in the media, it’s the media source pushing their opinion on you, not the dietitian. Magazines have pages to fill, current affairs shows need content to put around the ads, and like it or not nutrition and diet advice sells! They call up a dietitian with very specific questions. The dietitian’s involvement gives the article credibility but don’t be fooled, it’s the journalist who’s in the driver’s seat.
Ok, rant over : ) Peace out
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Well ranted Jasmine! Very valid (and important to note) points
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“ditto” Jasmine
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Well said Jasmine. I’m a dietitian too and I agree 100% with what you’ve said! I’m happy to give my opinion when asked, but otherwise people can choose to eat and drink whatever they like. It’s just tricky that there is so much incorrect information out there- especially on the Internet, that people often get so confused and think they are doing the right thing.
Just a plug- if anyone is wanting individualized information from a professional, you can find a dietitian in your area on the Dietitians Association of Australia website: http://www.daa.asn.au
And by the way everyone, in Australia it is spelt DIETITIAN. Dietician is the American spelling (sorry, it’s my pet hate).
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Well said. It doesn’t exactly sound like the author has *sought* advice from a dietitian at all – as distinct from *receiving* it via the media and from friends. I suspect that, if the author exhibited no health problems, a dietitian would be pretty comfortable with a sensible, well balanced food intake. Dietitians are usually far more concerned with helping people who have actual health problems.
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yup… food is food. giving it more power than that leads to all sorts of problems.
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GAH I HATE THE FOOD POLICE! being a type 1 diabetic, I get this constantly from people who have no idea what they are talking about. The only people I take food advice from is my endocrinologist, my diabetes educator and my dietician who is specialised in type 1.
Just because your uncle’s friend’s brother-in-law’s sister is a type 2 diabetic, does not mean you are an expert. The amount of times people have been convinced that they know what I’m allowed to eat…gahhhh! There have been tears and a couple of screaming matches at family dinners!
(heads up everyone. If you have lunch with a type 1 diabetic, they can eat anything. yep, anything. Your pancreas is in your body, ours is in our syringes/pump. same thing! if you take cake away from us we will bite)
Oh and I HATE when people look at me drinking a diet soft drink/coffee or tea with sweetener, and say ‘you know that gives you cancer right?’ ahhhhh, 1) that study was flawed and has been disproven and 2) I either have drinks with sweetener and maintain my blood sugar levels or have real sugar, inject heaps of insulin for it, that insulin converts into fat and then I put on weight….ahhh I’ll take the stevia thanks
stevia is all natural guys, try it, much nicer taste than any of the other ones!
If we listened to everyone we’d have to cut out everything!!! My great grandma is alive and well at 99, and you know what? she mixed her eggs yolks in with butter too, and sometimes she even ate a donut! gasp!
don’t worry everyone! Life’s too short to spend hung up on food. everything in moderation and we’re fine.
…now where is that muffin I made this morning…….
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My pet hate is those ‘What I Ate Today’ type of articles that are often found in Sunday newspaper supplements. The ones where an impossibly thin socialite/media personality details a perfect, balanced healthy diet for a day and then a nutritionist will make comments such as ‘good, but you should try quinoa’ or some other superfluous advice. And of course the socialite/media personality will carefully omit any alcohol or cocaine consumption. Drives me nuts.
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Totally agree. Those ‘what I ate today’ pieces are total bollocks. Although I might also lie if it were going in a newspaper or a magazine.
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My ‘diet’ goes in ebbs and flows. I love pasta (and rice) so there’s many a lazy night when I’ll have pasta and a stir through for dinner, or go back for seconds of rice when we’re having a curry or stir fry. I generally feel guilty about it but in reality, I’m 61 kilos and I’ll eat carbs if I want to.
The other day I was chatting to a work friend about how I want to get in a bit better shape before my overseas trip in 12 weeks. She suggested I give up sugar… but between work, gym and uni, I don’t have the time or will to think that much about what I eat. And I like fruit! And what happens when I go away and eat what I want? My body will probably go into shock after being deprived.
My lunch today was a chicken stir fry with quinoa and cashews. Protein, veg, healthy fat, carb, fibre. Ticks all the boxes and as basic as you get! Nothing fancy and it’s kept me full for 5.5 hours. I’m having Spag Bol for dinner tonight and I’ll just keep an eye on my serving size (which is usually enough for two people…) I’m adamant that you can lose weight/stay healthy with carbs in your diet.
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I’m with you on the sugar thing…. years ago, I got put off by the fact that every low-sugar / diet product carried a warning about “Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine” on it – I was in primary school. Had no idea what these things were, just knew people were required to warn about it, so figured it was a possible concern. Same with aspartame, another artificial sweetener – maybe I’ve conditioned myself to it, but these days, I ‘instinctively’ gag on anything with aspartame in it. I’d rather have small amounts of stuff with natural sugar (even if it’s added, as long as it’s naturally-derived), than *anything* with an artificial sweetener.
Then a few years ago, my mum happened to ask her GP about it, and he said exactly the same thing – go with small amounts of sugar, preferably ignore the existence of artificial sweeteners altogether. She explained my thing that she’d always thought of as a ‘fussy kid fad’. He was actually impressed!
BTW, back then in primary school, I did look up phenylketonurics on Encarta (pre-Google!!), and found a lot of info on PKU, phenylketonuria. It was enough to convince me that any girl, or woman or child-bearing age, would be better off avoiding the stuff. PKU is one of the things they test newborns for, with that ‘heel-prick’ blood test, when they’re a few days old, before leaving hospital. It’s rare, but serious.
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Phew! I am not the only crayzee person in the world who dislikes the taste of artificial sweetener! I can tell the difference between ‘real’ drinks and ‘diet’ drinks. I’ve always been given grief for it, and been told that they taste exactly the same. But they do not! And there’s another allegedly natural sweetener that they’re slipping into cordial these days that tastes like an artificial one (sucralose, I think). Foulness all round! (I also cook with butter!)
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I am a bit of a health nutter. Given half a chance I will expand at length on my views of how you should eat raw beetroot everyday – fixes your liver right up.
But I just love bacon. I don’t care how many studies there are on how bad it is for you, how many chemicals there are, and how it makes you fat. And I am in absolute denial that it comes from a pig – I will put my fingers in my ears and start singing if anyone tries to lecture me on this.
And that is the difference. When I am telling you, it is my view. When you are telling me, it is a lecture.
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If you think the food police are bad when you are healthy try them when you are sick.
My husband has a malignant brain tumour which is now terminal and we have been sent dozens of ‘Dr Google’ links by friends and acquaintances about which foods he should eat to cure his cancer – asparagus, paw paw, all organic etc.
What is particularly annoying is when we don’t decide to give up conventional treatment and follow their internet advice they get quite nasty implying that he would must want to die.
As I said my husband is terminal and no food now will ‘cure’ him – due to the chemo etc I am just happy if he finds a food that he wants to eat so he doesn’t lose weight too quickly. If he wants cereal for dinner he gets it, if he wants a packet of tim tams then as far as I am concerned if they make him happy he can have them.
People who have a serious illness are under enough stress without the food police monitoring every mouthful that they eat.
I do believe that we should eat healthily and cook our food from scratch rather than buy takeaway etc but life can be very short and we should also be allowed to enjoy some chocolate if we want to – within reason!
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Sending best wishes through the ether.
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Kathl29 im so sorry to hear about your husband. As long as he wants to eat, then who cares! I’ve been through that situation with my mum and the amount of well meaning “good” advice is astounding.
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Hear hear!
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I’m so sorry to hear about your husband’s troubles kathl29. It is quite unfathomable to me how others, whether well-meaning or not, can interfere in your lives like that when you’re grappling with something so frightening.
Best of luck to you both, and I wish I could tell all those interfering busy-bodies to leave you alone!
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I’ve read about 20 articles/blogs about people trying to give up sugar and failing in the last few months (no one from here by the way, just in case anyone thinks I’m one of the nutters wishing cancer on people), and I have to say they’ve made me laugh a bit, because they’ve all basically been arguments for the ‘sugar is poison’ camp. If you give up sugar for two days and you experience headaches, achiness, fatigue, lightheadedness, irritability, uncontrollable cravings etc. shouldn’t that tell you sugar might be a bit of a problem for you?
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I eat pasta rarely, by rarely I mean maybe 3 times a year. When I do I don’t want to hear about some new fandangle slim pasta or how I should really be eating wholemeal pasta instead. I just want to enjoy my meal. If I wanted nutritional advice I’d speak to a dietician.
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Sure people can eat what they want. But we also have a personal responsibility for our health and wellness.
People need to be savvy about their food choices if they care about their health. Do your own research, experiment with food, trial and error etc, It’s about what works for YOU.
There are many conflicting ‘media reports’ out there about what to eat and what to avoid. I personally don’t have a lot of faith in ‘mainstream’ nutritional advice as most of it is out of date.
For example, most dietitians will tell people to avoid saturated fat when there is so much compelling evidence now that saturated fat is actually good for us, especially for our brains…but let’s not open that big ol’ can of worms!
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Dr Peter Attia and Gary Taubes have begun a foundation called NuSi to gather good and SCIENTIFIC information regarding dietary guidelines.
I cannot wait to see some of their research.
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Whoa… Where is this ‘so much evidence’ exactly?
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@ feline, Well, assuming you understand how to interpret scientific studies, a good place to start would be pubmed for peer reviewed scientific studies.
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Err… yes, I do know how to interpret scientific studies – a basic grounding in medical school. Followed by formalised education and examination-based assesment of statistics, scientific methodology, interpretation etc during my specialist training. Along with something else just as important – real-life clinical work that allows interpretation of the likely clinical significance of statistically significant findings. I’m just very interested to see that with the ‘compelling evidence’ you refer to, that you are obviously SO far ahead of all of the rest of the world’s scientists, cardiologists and clinicians, who still seem to be recommending saturated fats be strictly limited in our diets. Results from scientific studies and proven effects on long-term clinical outcomes are clearly not one and the same.
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Okay, firstly, I do not have a background in medicine and doubt I have your qualifications, secondly, the recommendation I made was not meant in a condescending manner as your reply seems to imply.
As a layperson (not strictly speaking, I do have some qualifications in the nutrition field) I am genuinely curious as to what you think of the real life work of cardiologists and clinicicans such as Dr Mark Houston and Dr Mark Schauss. Yes, saturated fat reduction recommendations seems to be the status quo at the moment but are they really the answer? Is this strategy currently working in the reduction of cardiovascular illness or even obesity on a nationwide basis? It seems not.
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I think the main reason recommendations aren’t working to reduce obesity and heart disease are because we are adept at knowing exactly how we should lead healthy lives… but not doing it. That just tells us that our education campaigns are ineffective, but not whether the recommendation itself is effective. I have a fairly neutral opinion about their work on saturated fat. I think its significance is easily overstated. I also bear in mind that a lot of criticism of low fat diets recognises the ill-effects of the excess carbohydrate (sugar) that is added to low fat food to compensate the flavour lost from fat. I’m with the dieticians on this one. I enjoy all foods in moderation, but try to steer my diet in favour of lots of plant foods. I believe the closer foods are to their natural state the better for us they are. I do not believe we need any nutritional supplements if we eat a balanced diet, and that nutrients derived from plants foods are far superior to pills in a bottle. I do not believe saturated fats are universally bad, but would far rather eat saturated fat in coconut milk than animal fat. As for red meat, I do not believe the campaign ‘we were meant to eat it’. I do eat it, but think it’s actually pretty bad for us. Smoking is evil – I don’t smoke but did when I was a student. I also believe that no amount of alcohol is good for us and eventually recommendations will be zero alcohol consumption. But I still drink. I struggle, the same as everyone else, to find a balance between a lifestyle I enjoy living and one that will give me maximum longevity. Because unfortunately, for me, they’re not the same thing
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Ponykid – You may not have been thinking condescendingly, but that’s the way it reads.
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I get a little cross with this sort of article..it’s strikingly similar to a recent one of Mia’s.
The reason I get cross is because it is apparent that neither you nor Mia have weight/eating/health issues (yet) and apparently eat well and exercise to some degree ..and most likely will continue to do so into the future. Good for you.
However, there is an increasing number of people out there who do NOT do this and struggle with weight, hypertension, pre-diabetes, diabetes and other diet related conditions. For them the “everything in moderation” does NOT work..they can’t do it but could read this article and think they are the same as you, that you and Mia don’t worry about it so they don’t have to either. (have another cupcake) (Although I’d like to think that you would actually pay a bit of attention to health/diet information that is credible and important..like being aware of the amount of hidden sugar in everything we eat..processed food is so much a part of everyday life that for many they can’t see the forest for the trees…or the 99% fat-free label )
They are the ones who would benefit by knowing a glass full of juice has a similar amount of sugar as Cola. They would benefit from knowing that instead of trying to count calories or eat low-fat (or the everythiing-in-moderation-diet) if they change WHAT they eat, whether it be cut out sugar and/or vastly reducing carbs they can get healthy without starving themselves.
Someone commented that people who share their anecdotal evidence “shits” them . I care about anecdotal evidence ..especially when it’s my family and my anecdote. I was so amazed by the drastic health benefits we reaped I feel it is important to share our experience because it just could help someone else. Totally up to them what they do with the information. And you know what? They ALL ask..we don’t bail them up and force them to listen to us.
I would LOVE to see MM do a post, or a series of posts on health and diet. Without exception, every person who has asked about our changes to our health (which is manifested outwardly as weight loss), have been as shocked as we were with how much sugar was in the foods we (and they) were eating every day.
So please, tell your friends to fuck off if you want, but don’t send out the wrong message to the members of public who actually do need some advice and guidance.
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Hear, hear!!
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I see what you are saying Guest, but I think that people are pretty smart and most would know that a glass of juice has the same sugar as a glass of coke or that eating “99% fat free” or “lite” processed food is not very good.
I don’t think we should underestimate how switched on most people are about this kind of thing. But, I see the point you are making – there are some who aren’t, but I think there are more people “switched on” then off, if that makes sense!
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Hi whippersnapper,
I hope you are right about that but I fear you are not. I see/hear/read pretty frequently people edifying fat-free or reduced fat food and how “crazy” it is to “cut out a food group” (apparently sugar is a food group..who knew?
). Let’s hope the message is getting out there though.
I do get annoyed when (usually) already health conscious, active people ridicule or dismiss as a “crazy fad” things like low carb and sugar free dietary advice. Often it is the nutritionists and dietitians who howl them down the loudest, when at worst they are encouraging people to eat as little processed food as possible and focus on real food.
I read your article about how sugar isn’t for you. Even though you don’t do it anymore, you seem to be keeping an eye on it anyway, which is a great outcome. For us, we don’t try to replace sweets, we really no longer have a desire for them. However, we aren’t fanatical about it. If we feel like some birthday cake or don’t know what’s in the dressing or sauce we just eat it. It’s pretty rare.
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Thanks Guest – so nice for someone to post something constructive and polite rather than getting “You deserve to get cancer and die because you eat chocolate”!
it is something important to keep an eye on, you are right. I also think the premise that you should eat similarly to what your grandparents ate is a good starting place (other than good food we have seen come on the market of recent times like quiona) – grandparents had cake/chocolate sometimes, just not very often!
Like I said, I’d much rather enjoy a row of chocolate than ingest sugar from a bowl of cornflakes that aren’t supposed to be sweet. I’m lucky I hate sauce too, I always have – hate mayo, hate tomato sauce, hate salad dressing (other than some very acidic lemon squeezed over), yuck yuck yuck!
It’s about being aware for me, rather than being rigid – that is what works best for me! I overindulged last week because it was my birthday, so I’ll reign it in for a little bit!
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Is there anyone alive on God’s green Earth who does not know about the amount of sugar in fruit juice? All this “what to eat” stuff is so useful to editors who need to fill magazines and the like with copy – the info is everywhere. And has been for years.
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Most people know that there is the same amount of sugar in fruit juice and soft drink, but a hell of a lot think that there’s such a thing as good sugar and bad sugar, and that if it’s at all fruit related, it must contain only ‘good’ sugar. Fructose is the same whether it’s in a banana or a Mars bar.
Obviously a lot of people are sucked in by low-fat, 99% fat free etc. labels. If they weren’t, there wouldn’t be ‘lite’ versions of just about everything in every supermarket in Australia. There are very few of those things that people would buy based on taste alone, so a lot of people must feel there the better option.
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As someone who’s been struggling with bulimia and binge eating for over 20 years I think you make some good points. I am obese and (of course) unhealthy because of this.
But I no longer spend thousands of dollars each year on binge food or each day with my head over a toilet as when I was thin but bulimic.
I am less a burden on the public purse in that as there are basically no successful programs to treat binge eating, I pay for my own Weight Watchers* membership rather than bulk billing eating disorder units and out patients. That said, I take it all with a grain of salt. I avoid heavily processed diet food full of fake sugars.I lose weight slower than most. Instead I’ve learned to eat fruit as a valid snack rather than something I didn’t deserve due to a day of binge eating. I’ve stopped drinking alcohol everyday. I’m trying to do the right things.
*Weight Watcher is obviously no solution for binge eating but it allows me a weekly weigh in, people to talk to and resouces that can be hard to access otherwise.
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type 2 diabetes = diet related condition in around 60% of cases. also caused by genetics/pure shit luck etc.
type 1 diabetes = not diet related. at all. pancreas craps itself and stops working one day.
just a friendly heads up from your resident diabetes advocate
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I like the sensible sarcasm in this article, it is funny! Agreed a moderate amount of anything is o.k, home cooked stuff is so much better than shop brought rubbish! Limit things rather than starve yourself of them. Ultimately stop listening to all the contradictory advice handed out willy nilly from uncredited research and start asking questions rather than believing all that you are told. Do your own research, take a little advice but check it yourself and never fad diet, live a life that you can sustain and are happy with
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I am a naturopath, I never presume my knowledge is wanted by others, if you want it I’ll give it but only if you ask. It is your responsibilty not mine, I don’t care what you do its none of my business, no judgement. Everyone is way too judgemental these days on everything, just let people be! Because I am a naturopath and live in a small community everytime I go to the supermarket everyone is looking in my basket, god forbid if I buy chocolate, yes believe it or not I am human too!
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What knowledge
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would that be the chemistry or biochemistry, the anatomy and physiology or the symptomology, diagnosis and pathology,& nutrition I studied for four years???
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I really want to say…
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!
I think part of society’s obsession with finding the ‘perfect’ diet is the reason so many people are obese and/or unhealthy. There is no ‘perfect’ diet for everyone, we need to learn what works for us and our bodies and eat that, regardless of what other people say or think…
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I love all food. So I’m going to eat it how and when I want and do my best not to feel guilty about it. I’m also going to excercise when I can and do my best not to feel guilty when I don’t. I loved this article.
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I agree is commonbloody sense when it comes to eating right! There is always a new dietpill/shake/book fad, it drives me insane!! I LOVE carbohydrates, pasta, rice, noodles you are my friend no matter how many people say you are bad.
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I usually try to eat real food, ie: food that hasn’t been too tampered with. If I want a biscuit, I’ll bake a batch myself so I know what goes into it (real butter, flour, nuts, eggs, etc.) rather than buy the packaged stuff with 30 ingredients, a bunch of numbers and words I don’t understand. I also prefer to make my own mashed potato (made with, surprise-surprise, potato, butter, salt and a tiny bit of pepper) rather than buy that potato-mash-muck from a packet.
I try not to judge the people who preach about how happy they are eating no-sugar-no-gluten-no-salt-no-dairy, but I really with they’d try not to judge me. When I posted a recipe for Irish colcannon on my blog, it was like I’d murdered a child! The DMs I got on Twitter were insane! “Cyanide works faster than butter. Do us all a favour and eat a rat trap.” Ooookay then……..
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People are so poisonous on the internet sometimes aren’t they? It is really quite upsetting when you’re the recipient and scary!
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It is a bit scary, but it also makes me quite cross. I’m not a nutritionist or a dietician, I know that not everything on my blog is healthy. All I’m trying to do is share some normal, everyday recipes and teach people how to cook the basics. I didn’t realise it was worthy of death threats!
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Butter is awesome.
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Omg, colcannon…..Now I know what I’m having for dinner tonight! Delicious
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What is colcannon?
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Can’t stand when people give you that “look” for eating egg yolks. Um…best part of the egg! Packed with the most powerful nutrients! If you want to eat the tasteless, useless part…go for it. But don’t be judging me!!!
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Oh dear god, why wouldn’t you eat the egg?! I’m an egg fiend.
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And by ‘egg’, of course, I mean ‘yolk’.
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What you put into your body is no one’s business unless you ask for advice. Before becoming a holistic health coach I used to be “one of those people”. Everyone’s constitution is different, which is why one way of eating doesn’t work for everyone.
I will say this about dairy, though…humans are THE only species who drink milk after being weaned…and it’s another animal’s milk! This cannot be good for your body.
I will stop here so as not to piss anyone off!!!
N
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I like the vibe of your post… so unjudgemental,…but I’m not surewhat a holistic health coach is, and I don’t think you are doing much for the industry by putting something so vague as “it cannot be good for you!”…with no reasoning other than – that sounds gross and unnatural!
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Ive never understand this reasoning behind why humans shouldn’t eat dairy. Humans do a lot of things with food that other species don’t, like fermenting food for example, or cooking it, which doesn’t make it bad for you. As you said yourself, everyone’s constitution is different, although I personally don’t tolerate dairy very well, I think it is perfectly nutritious for others.
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This is what I do
http://www.thesublimeyou.com
Cow’s milk has no nutrients that humans need. This is a part of one of my client sessions and I didn’t feel the need to go into it here.
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Im sorry @nicks02 but if you’re not prepared to back up your statement when someone questions you then don’t make the claim.
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Cow milk is for BABY COWS, just as human milk is for baby humans.
Cow milk contains growth hormones that help baby cows grow. They grow at a much faster rate than humans so, by deduction, their milk shouldn’t be consumed by anyone other than their species.
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by deduction eh… I appreciate that your practice has probably resulted in benefits to your clients by reducing or eliminating dairy, after all there are many people like myself who do not tolerate it well,
Nevertheless as I stated earlier, I dont think this would be the case for all people. I also think that a one year online qualification, does not an expert make and you need to be careful not to become one of those people who are perceived as contributing to the misinformation and confusion that abounds today. Perhaps take a look at the recommendations of other people in your field with extensive experience and qualifications and a history of success such as Joanna Mcmillan Price or Internationally speaking, Mauro Di Pasquale, or even someone with enormous success in the mass market nutrition coaching field; John Berardi. I know Im not likely to convice you otherwise but I do recommend that you question, question and question again what you think to be true about those things you have learned on any given course and be very careful about making blanket statements about what is good for all people nutritionally speaking. What works for one person will not work for all. Good luck to you in your practice.
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Sorry I don’t get it? Humans don’t need calcium, some fat, carbohydrates and protein? Or do you mean it is possible to get it from other sources?
Either way, milkshakes, cheese, icecream, yoghurt, chocolate… Yum! I’m grateful for cows.
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Of course humans need all those things, but they’re just as easily attainable from a lot of other unprocessed foods that don’t contain growth hormones, nor have been pasteurized or homogenized.
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Thanks for bringing that up, I actually agree with you and have always felt funny about drinking dairy. Abit off track Bobby calves which the milk is produced for are treated terribly. Think of that with your glass of milk.
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THANK YOU!
Recently we posted an article by Whippersnapper about how she quit sugar and hated it. The onslaught we received was worrying. A couple of people went so far as to say it won’t be a shame when she dies of cancer because she’s causing it by eating sugar.
Wait… WHAT?!
It’s not sad for someone to die from cancer because they eat sugar?!
For me the reaction was a bit like someone saying they got married, didn’t like it, had called it off and decided marriage wasn’t for them.
Then me coming along and saying “But my marriage works, and therefore you didn’t do it right. You didn’t try hard enough. You didn’t last long enough. It’s your fault. And furthermore how dare you publish this rubbish when so many people benefit from marriage. I hope you die because statistically people who aren’t married die younger.”
If I said that, I’d be destroyed in flames in five seconds flat… so why do we allow it when referring to other people’s diets?
Honestly, people, worry less about what other people do.
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^
“Wait… WHAT?!”
WTF??? That’s un.be.lie.va.ble.
That’s exactly how people react to women who say they tried breast-feeding & it didn’t work for them. As you might have noticed here sometimes …
And that’s shockingly rude
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Shockingly rude but also it’s pretty much a death threat. What would prompt someone to be so incredibly mean to someone they have never met? I just can’t comprehend this.
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I find it crazy that a new study comes out every week proclaiming something is good, only for it to be proclaimed bad just a few weeks later.
The average person (me included!) often does not have enough understanding of how the studies are undertaken and if they are even comparable, or relevant to them.
I just try to eat things that are as close to their original form as possible (non-processed). For sweet / treat type food, I try to stick to home made as much as possible so I know exactly what has gone into it.
I figure if I eat as well as I can 80% of the time, the other 20% where I might have a meat pie, hot dog etc.. is just living!
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Part of the problem here is that because research studies are written in scientific style, the media simplifies the message so that more people understand it. Sometimes the message is over-simplified and sometimes the message is distorted – especially if the journalist/blogger is trying to translate something that they don’t really understand. As a dietitian it is very frustrating to read media articles about research which has been misinterpreted.
In my opinion this creates a lot of confusion in the community and the media really needs to consider employing experts to look over health articles before they go to print.
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Ah, yes, but then the media would have to pay them properly. That stopped a long time ago.
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true
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Great article.
Everyone has to make their own choices. In my opinion, the best choices are ethical ones.
World Vision Australia – Demand ethical chocolate – http://bit.ly/wwGY7u
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Can I just say that dieticians are not the ones scaring you and sensationalising information. That is the media.
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Agreed. If people listened to dietitians (most of them) not the media things would be a lot simpler.
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What makes it confussing is that experts claim one this such as – eating unprocessed foods. But then get sold out to advertise a new highly processed weight loss bar.
Who can you believe?
Trust and listen to your own body I say. Your the one who knows it the best
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I’m prepared to say that any expert spruiking those products is just a bit of a sell out really and their ‘expert knowledge’ shouldn’t be relied on when some company is paying them…
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I am a dietitian as well and have to agree with anonymous and Sharon.
Continuing on from Sharon’s point about people thinking they are experts – it drives me crazy to no end when I read an article in a newspaper/magazine/other media about some new ‘scientific discovery’. Like others have mentioned already, just because you read something in the paper doesn’t make it true. Often these media stories are such huge beat ups – making a tiny study based on less than 30 cases into some sort of solid evidence.
I think part of the problem has to do with the lack/decline of science being taught at schools. I’m not saying that everyone should be a scientist (that world would be quite boring I think), but having the basics down allows people to take a more rational approach to some decision making. It’s not just limited to nutrition though – the climate change debate, vaccination etc. all requires some level of basic science knowledge to comprehend.
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I am a Dietitian and I am not going to pull apart your diet. You actually seem to have a healthy attitude towards food. No good dietitian would recommend you avoid sugar all together. No good dietitian would put you on a elimination diet unless you had signs of food allergies or intolerances. I think you have been confused on what a dietitian actually does. We never support fad diets and we give advice that is scientifically supported. Yes that science does change but isn’t that a good thing that we are always trying to improve and do better at our job. Most of our work is disease specific, meaning that if you turn up on our door step with high blood pressure, high cholesterol or type 2 diabetes then we are going to recommmend that you make changes to your diet but there is scientific evidence to suggest that those changes can reduce your chances of getting heart disease or improve your quality of life. If you turned up on a dietitians door step, they would gather a whole lot of information and if you had no risk factors for disease, were a healthy weight, and seemed to have a well balanced diet they would say good job and put you on your way.
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I am also a dietitian and my main comment is “ditto” to Anonymous. Jo, your diet is none of my business unless you ask me for my advice.
Accredited Practising Dietitians study human nutrition at university for at least 4 years but there does seem to be some confusion amongst the community about what we actually do. I work one-on-one with clients and I see my role as guiding individuals through their personal circumstances and helping them learn the skills they need to make healthier food choices; teaching the importance of balance between everyday foods and sometimes foods.
Like other dietitians, I find that many people think they are an “expert” in nutrition and will defend the latest “fad” and proselytise about it – it makes my job a little harder, but always interesting.
To find an Accredited Practising Dietitian go to the Dietitians Association of Australia website at http://www.daa.asn.au
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Maybe people need to stop looking so much at what their eating and look more into how and why they’re eating…
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Last week I read a blog post on a so called “professional” (her choice of words not mine) that dairy is bad for you. So bad in fact that it draws calcium out of your body – she wants me to believe that dairy depletes calcium. Makes my head burst. Where do people come up with this nonsense? They google it just like mia pointed out in her column about vaccinations.
The people who tell me what to eat based on their anecdotal evidence that they felt better because they had no sugar for 2 weeks or that they read somewhere that dairy is the devil in disguise just shit me
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That claim is based on science. T. Colin Campbell studied the effect of dairy on the human body and wrote the book “The China Study”. It is a very interesting read.
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My daughter never drank milk and it drove me to distraction! When she broke her collar bone, I said to the Doctor “wink wink” “she needs to drink more milk to improve her bones, doesn’t she?” His reply was that no, she didn’t as she got enough Vitamin D from the sun to keep up her bone strength. He was a specialist too….
Before that incident, I probably would have agreed with you. However, I still encourage all of our family members to drink milk, but I buy Trim, not full fat.
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Dairy does deplete calcium from your body. In order to process the dairy your body uses calcium (as it does when processing other items) and the amount of calcium required in order to process the dairy is greater than the amount of calcium our bodies effectively absorb from the dairy consumed.
Don’t forget, people used to think the world was flat. Sometimes things that don’t sound right at all can in fact turn out to have more than a grain of truth in them. With food I think its a sliding scale (IE dairy as a glass of milk versus dairy as a flavoured yoghurt) but don’t outright dismiss things because you believe them to be too outrageous a claim.
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Agreed
I really don’t know why people try to ‘convert’ others to their eating methods?
It isn’t a religion! You won’t get extra God points if we follow you!
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Yes yes yes! I really hate people judging my food choices, especially when I eat out with friends, which is very rarely, and they raise their eyebrows at me for ordering food they wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole; creamy pasta, something fried or stuffed with cheese and wrapped in proscuitto, etc. I don’t eat like this all the time but I don’t see the harm in indulging occasionally when eating out at a nice restaurant. If you can’t eat gorgeous food occasionally and enjoy every mouthful and not feel guilty for it, what is the point of living?
It’s the same with my choice to eat real food: real butter instead of processed margarine, real cream instead of some low fat, artificially thickened replacement, real milk instead of something with all the fat removed and replaced with who knows what, the list goes on. I balance my real fat with lots of fresh vegetables, salad and fruit and lean protein. In other words I have a balanced diet and I know exactly what I’m eating! To some of my friends and family, this behaviour is horrifying
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Oh Holly, I hear ya!! Just this weekend I was howled down by a family member for having full fat milk ony coffee. She ordered a “skinny” latte then proceeded to add two sugars – I had full cream milk with no sugar. She ticked me off for the full fat choice, criticised my choice to shop at the farmers market because she says it’s more expensive, bitched about how I’ve lost weight and complained because she’s struggling to lose weight even with low fat options. I then saw her kids the next day and they told me about how “lucky” they were to have had a certain fast food for dinner three nights that week. Honey, yes the veggies at the markets cost more than the supermarket, but they cost a while lot less than fast food three times a week – in both money and health terms. And yes, I’ll have my full day coffee, I’m sure it would contain less calories than your low fat, high sugar one.
Eating real food, for me, is the key. Fresh, whole, unprocessed food without all the chemicals. I believe strongly in chocolate, but I eat the dark kind with less rubbish added. And I believe in eating out but not in the car after getting drive through. I love butter and cream and I can read and recognise the ingredients – my food rules really, if you could recognise each ingredient, it’s ok to eat. If you can’t pronounce it or recognise it, don’t eat it.
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Oh Relish you sound exactly like me! Enjoy your real food, it’s sooo much better
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