Eating Healthy

Yesterday one of my coworkers asked me where to go to get lunch. I bring leftovers almost everyday so I don't know why he asked me (I suppose I was just there). Then he said he'd want something healthy. And said he should go to the sandwich place near by. He looked at me oddly like I had said something crazy. But then I asked what he meant by that because I remember a conversation I overheard a year or two ago in in law school . . .

I was checking my email, waiting for class to begin, and eavesdropping on two men in my class. (I like eavesdropping) One was a tall, incredibly lanky guy who looked like a classic New Englander and the other was a husky frat guy from the upper midwest. And I found this conversation fascinating to over hear because I could not imagine that either of them cared about healthy food but that's what they were talking about.

They were talking about cashews (or maybe pistachios) I think and they said they weren't healthy. In my head I thought they were crazy since nuts are totally healthy, much more so than soda, oreos, or low-fat Doritos. They agreed on nuts cashews (or pistachios) being unhealthy and said it was because they had too many calories. I was thinking "no duh" that's the point of nuts they have all the nutrition needed for a little seed to start growing. But high calorie doesn't mean unhealthy. (While I am not a fan of rampant weight gain in myself.* I do not think high calorie food are unhealthy.)

Bacon is healthy!
By the why, Walker Bros

I guess I would call myself a member of the Michael Pollan school of thought regarding healthy food--traditional foods are healthy (regardless of calorie count) and mass produced industrial foods (like low fat salad dressing) are not. If you're interested in this concept I would read Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto I read it in college and I finished it before returning it to the library.

To illustrate! To me these things are healthy: homemade fruit pies; butter, bread, fruit, vegetables, cheese, olives, avocados, bacon, ham, crispy chicken skin, &c. I think these things are unhealthy: oreos, margarine, sandwich bread from the store (one of my favorite things about college was that I could have white bread and margarine at every meal), Doritos, Diet Coke, low-fat almost anything, &c.


On some of the other blogs I read, the bloggers talk about clean eating and I believe that most of them understand it to mean something very similar to what I've described thought it seems like they always choose lower fat options than I would. I'm at a healthy body weight right now and otherwise living a high stress life so I need to have joy where I can find it--like on the outside of a roasted chicken.

I do avoid certain delicious food that are generally healthy because of my specific health concerns. (I have alluded to this in my recipes where I say butter or olive oil.) I have high cholesterol (just the bad kind) and I do not want to take medication for it since I take so much for my allergies and asthma so I avoid butter and other high cholesterol foods.  But, just because its bad for me, I don't think it's bad for everyone. And, fat itself isn't bad since you need some to insulate your neurons and held absorb vitamins.


I'm interested to hear why you guys think of as being "healthy!" It had never occurred to me that there was such a range of opinion about this before a year or so ago.



*Mr. Handsome must be the skinniest man alive and I try so hard to get him to gain some weight to no avail. I feel like Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sprat when we're out in public together.