Red #40 or organic?

I'm A and studiously avoid anything on list B.

We're lucky here in Spain that we can get fresh fish relatively cheap (Dorada, Tuna, Swordfish, Lobsters etc) and fresh daily so mostly we eat that sort of thing. Only Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Arbequina) and no red meat - turkey or chicken once or twice a week but might knock that on the head when the bird-flu hits.

Generally breakfast with fruit/berry shake, organic yoghurt, teaspoon of organic peanut butter and almonds and pumpkin seeds. Great for a power boost pre-gym.

Other than that we order organic veg once a week and eat a lot of Tahini and Nori from the health food store. Try to eat only wholegrain bread and pasta and not much cheese - Ricotta is an exception though as it is made with whey and that is a muscle building powerhouse. Muscle burns more fat!

Personally I think that health is the most important thing you have - all else is secondary.

Umm.....that's it.

I'm definitely in category B.

I've got very poor eating habits. I'm hopelessly addicted to caffeine, and I almost always eat pop tarts (which I know are bad for me) for breakast. I eat granola bars on occasion, though not regularly.

I feel okay, though I know that I could have more energy if I ate more healthful foods. I also don't sleep well, but I'm not sure how that's tied to my diet.

I try to run every day, generally about a mile and a half, and it's a pretty hard work out. That's a bit sad...

No, I don't really consider what I eat.. I'm usually very busy through the work day, and I tend to consume whatever is available.

I am a college student and I am mostly in B even though I try to stay in A. I work out 4 times a week and it is not easy to not eat pizza and drink beer because that is what is expected for my age. I am so extremely busy

B. i don't eat healthy. i only drink pepsi and beer. i suppose the variety of beers might be considered healthy. occassionally i'll have a corona, with the requisite citrus chunk, so i'd say about once every couple of months i get my single fruit serving (lime wedges count, right?). i like dark, heavy beers (there's extra carbs that way; are carbs good for you? idk, dieters and health-nuts tend to disagree with anything i say on food). my diet is almost entirely pizza, and i don't much care for toppings, so its cheese and bread, rarely some pepperoni.

its a wonder that i'm able to get up every morning.

i tend to blame my daily tiredness on the stress of the job. but my overworking is not the cause of my bad diet, i don't much care for healthy foods.

i never work out.

i consider what i put into my body to be tasty.

Beer and pizza is fine! That is, pizza made with real pizza dough and topping made with organically grown/farmed meat and vegetables etc, and beer brewed the way beer is supposed to be brewed.

I guess that eliminates all the big name brands.

I try to stay with Category A as much as possible: to me it's tastier, and secondly its the only health insurance plan worth subscribing to.. and far more affordable as well.

THIS IS SO WEIRD, I JUST CREATED A SCREENNAME WITH RED #40 IN THE NAME A MINUTE AGO

God, this gets added to my synchronicity log.

I have a ton of synchronicity in my life, it's really kind of disturbing. I lie, I don't have a synchronicity log, I wish I had started one because I think that if I start one now, it'll be incomplete. :/

Health food fanatics seem to me to be the least healthy people I know. I don't know if they became unhealthy before or after they switched to the "healthy diet".

I put myself on a restricted diet where I avoided a whole bunch of stuff in order to get a health problem under control late last year. I continued to get worse until I went out and had a big pig out with dry rub BBQ ribs and spicy mexican food - then a lot of my energy came back.

The only vegitarians that seem to be able to stay healthy (IMHO) are people from India - I think that it is due to having a vegitarian culture for so long (so you get lots of resipes and stuff).

I guess that my diet is better than most - I eat and drink organic stuff (esp milk and cream), and I don't eat a lot of chips/pop tarts etc. However, my motivation for this is taste rather than health - organic food tastes better.

Health food is a bunch of tosh. You are as healthy as you want to be. What is in your mind, and your projected image of self is what makes you healthy.

Now, if you really believe eating rabbit food makes you healthy, then its quite likely that it will.

If you believe eating burgers and fries makes you fat and lethargic, then you probably will be.

Now, if the popular concensus changes so that eating burgers and fries made you healthy, you'd be suprised just how many people would start to feel alot better.

Me, I eat what I like, when I like, and I'm perfectly fine.

I fall under list C, eating for body composition.

C:
Vegetables and/or fruits with every meal
Low GI carbs
Protein with every meal - poultry, lean beef, whey protein, casein protein
Healthy fats through the day - fish oil, salmon, flaxseeds
30+ g. fiber every day
1 g protein per 1 lb body weight every day
5-7 meals per day
avoid trans fats
avoid HFCS
avoid soy

I follow the above for 80% of my meals.

What I find even more fascinating than whether people eat healthy, is what some people think is healthy and unhealthy eating. People focus on such weird things, like organic and "red #40" in their attempts to eat healthy.

Organic food is way better than conventional food, just based on taste alone. I'm not sure if red dye is a poison, but it is worth while avoiding poisons (which eating organic stuff helps with, as it is pesticide free).

Of course, you can eat a bad diet entirely composed of organic health food, but eating a balanced diet of organic food is better than eating a balanced diet of conventional food.

Used to eat relatively well, rarely eat out or fry foods, but not particularly emphasizing eating right. We didn't eat badly but we didn't eat vegan or organic either. My highest cholesterol was 160.

A few months ago I found out I have a non-blockage related heart condition, so now I am on a 'cardiac diet', low fats and low salts, very little prepared foods, red meat, etc.

I would try eating organic, but it's insanely expensive!

I don't think that healthy and unhealthy is necessarily the right terminology for what the original topic was. I think that what Fellowship is referring to is really unnatural stuff and the general premise of synthesized food or chemical designed food. I think a lot of that stuff may not be healthy but really you should have more scientific evidence to back it up than exists for a lot of those preservatives. My inclination is to avoid it, I tend to think that at the least the human body has evolved to depend on certain foods and I'd just assume rather not mess with that junk. But of course in practice I eat plenty anyway.

I've made some strides in the last few years trying to eat both a little bit more natural and more healthy which is quite an improvement for me because I was born and raised on fast food. I can't just eat lettuce and carrots and soy and that shit. I've cut out evil Taco Bell from my diet. Started eating a bit more Thai and Indian type food although just very simple stuff. I still get Wendy's every day at work which isn't great but I like it and I've downgraded to a simple hamburger and a baked potato instead of fries and iced tea instead of Dr. Pepper. I eat a lot more Trader Joe's stuff these days, their foods tend to be both more natural then a lot of the stuff you find at your Safeway and more tasty IMO. Being lazy when it comes to cooking has meant that my new fad is eating the Trader Joe's frozen pizza, I'm now the official bitch of the Pizza Mascarponi, Pesto Pizza, Margherita and the Tart d'Alsace. IMO the key is eating stuff that is tasty enough that you don't just say fuck it and go for something much worse but more appealing.

I don't think there are any great dieting secrets but I do think that people don't focus enough on sugar or salt and look at carbs and fat too much maybe. I think, and granted I can't substantiate htis really, but my suspicion is that a lot of the diabetes and heart/high blood pressure problems in the US stem from eating too much of the above. I also tend to think that people focus too much on the type of calories, ie carbs or fat, when in many ways the more important issue is eating moderate portions and not getting too many calories in total.