"Eating Healthy"  - What does that mean?

Health:
  the state of being free from illness or injury.

Healthy:
in good health. "I feel fit and healthy."

Eating:
taking into the mouth, chewing and swallowing food.

Most everyone believes that it's good for people to follow a “healthy diet”. There are many different opinions on what specific foods constitute "healthy eating", but, what does "healthy eating" really mean?

Healthy eating means eating a variety of food that gives one's body the nutrients it needs to maintain its health. (Nutrients are protein, carbohydrates, fat, water, vitamins, and minerals.)

Most people have a basic knowledge of what foods work for them, and naturally eat accordingly. What about getting more knowledge about food, would that make us more free of illness or injury? How much of our attention do we need to focus on how "healthy" our eating is? Too much focus on how to eat healthy is now labeled as an "eating disorder", Orthorexia, which is characterized by an extreme or excessive preoccupation with avoiding foods perceived to be "unhealthy".

Those who advocate "healthy eating" primarily focus on eating "correctly" to  AVOID the future consequence of becoming sick, developing disease, and death. But can ANY eating behavior REALLY give one a GUARANTEE of future good health?

No it can't. The reality is that we are all going to die. The bodies of those of us who live long enough to become old will wear out. Many of us will get injured, become ill, or develop disease before that happens … no matter how "healthy" our eating is. My personal opinion is that we need to lighten up, and stop taking the issue of "Eating Healthy" so seriously.

Below is a video of comedian, Lewis Black, ranting about milk and water in our "Health" conscious Culture. Warning: It contains Profanity. 

                    
By this definition, I am clearly insane.

Today is Day One of an experiment involving a rather extreme food plan which, in the past, proved to be unsuccessful for me.

I've made a few changes, individualizing it a bit, but the main thing that is really different is my current mindset. Perhaps that will be enough to provide me with positive results.

No diet is for everyone, but every diet works for someone. If I find it effective, sometime this year I'll post more details.

The word "Diet" simply means "food and drink regularly provided or consumed, i.e. habitual nourishment".

However, our present pop culture has basically changed the term "Diet", to primarily mean "a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one's weight".

All research indicates that none of those "regimens" or methods are effective to reduce people from fat to a "normal" size long-term, except for a very tiny fraction of the fat population.

That information appears to have gotten around because just about everyone is trying to give their Diet - i.e. eating regimen, "way of eating", or "lifestyle", a different label… anything other than the word "Diet".

"Intuitive Eating" type "nondiets" have been doing this since they first introduced their concepts - "eat when hungry, stop when full".

Lean Cuisine now has ads that say "ditch the diet and go on a try it!" and then suggest that people eat their frozen meals to lose weight.

Special K now says to stop worrying about the number on a scale…but they still want people to buy their products in an attempt to lose weight… they just want this to be called "Size Sassy".

Weight Watchers now says they aren't a "Diet", they're a "lifestyle choice".
Yeah ... It's a lifestyle where you choose to be on a Diet.

The Bottom line is that all eating plans are diets, no matter what they are called. They can say it's "not a diet", it's a "lifestyle", a "way-of-eating", a "nondiet", "size sassy", but at the end of the day it's still the same Diet concepts that have been proven to fail the vast majority of people, and… in fact… have the exact opposite of the intended physical result on the majority of people who try it.

Call it what you will. My observation is that the fat people who become "normal" size and maintain that size for more than just a few years, manage to do this through doing the hard work it takes to continually and consistently oppose the natural physiological desires of their "reduced obese" bodies. Rather than allow their bodies to tell them how to eat, they use their minds to overrule those bodies and consciously choose to eat food containing far less calories than their individual body desires.

Forever … one-day-at-a-time.
It is possible, but it isn't easy.  
See Running Down the Up Escalator.