The frustration of what to believe.

[Mrs-M]

Anyone else in this camp? Feeling overwhelmed with frustration (even confusion) as to what to believe?

For example, soy milk is better than cows milk. OK then, so six months ago I give up on buying cows milk (for myself) and start on soy milk, then I run into a specialist at my local health food store who says, "oh no Margaret, stay away from all things genetically modified". Oh, OK, I guess back to cows milk again then.

Another example, you read an article stating that we should eat this many (number of) servings of this or that each day, then another article comes along that suggests different.

It's all so ridiculous. The only thing I believe is, no one knows a darn thing about anything anymore. And the part that amazes me the most is how our government and regulators allow the use of garbage ingredients in EVERYTHING, yet no rigorous testing or research is done to ascertain whether or not the stuff we are ingesting (or using) from day to day is safe. Yet the articles keep a comin'. Buy this, don't buy that, eat this, don't eat that, drink this, stay away from that.

[treehugger]

Well, I know you know this, but there's no such thing as one size fits all nutrition advice. You have to do your own research, weigh the pros and cons, and decide for yourself.

But I can answer at least one of your concerns. Stick with organic soybeans/soymilk to avoid GMO.

Kara

[reader99]

I've been alive long enough to notice that "facts" come and go. When I was a kid, eggs were nature's perfect food, nutritious, digestible, affordable. Then for a while there, eating one egg would kill you outright because they contain <gasp> cholesterol. Then someone mentioned they also contain lecithin which helps process the cholesterol to where it is legitimately needed, the brain and nervous system. Then you could have two eggs a week, but be afraid. Now, eggs are back! I could give many examples.

My own screening system is:

-Is it real? Margarine is not real, butter is.

-Is it traditional (anywhere)? Traditional diets have supported populations through thick and thin over millenia - corn, beans, tomatos and peppers in Mexico, pasta, olives and tomatos in Italy; many others

-Does my personal body feel better or worse from it? I don't do so well with grains, so my carbs come from sweet potatos, lentils, beans (and chocolate). Each body will have different preferences.

Anymore, I barely notice what the media are promoting or demoting this week/month/year.

[goldensmom]

Yes, I feel that way a lot of the time regarding many things. If I have a question or concern and research it, I can find opinions and studies for, against and in between. For foods, I usually end up with simple, whole and natural. Like reader99, I’ve lived long enough to see facts come and go i.e., eggs are bad, eggs are good; coffee is bad, coffee is good; wine is bad, wine is good, etc. I grew up drinking non-pasteurized, straight from the bulk tank cows milk/cream, now there are so many studies regarding the dangers of it but I’m still alive. With most products that I don’t have experience with I rely on opinions of others I trust and reputable studies. Yes, it is overwhelming and frustrating with so much information readily (but not necessarily reputable) available.

[iris lily]

I don't let the fear mongers dictate what I put in my mouth.Why now is milk supposed to be bad? I mean, is it more than the fat content, the hormones, ?

DH drinks 2 gallons of milk a week and he is Mr. Health. It is whole milk. He works off all those calories. He also grew up drinking milk that was so rich it was yellow. His cholesterol measure is something to envy.
I drink 1/2 gallon skim milk a week. I do like soy milk as well but the GMO scaremongering is not anything I'm paying attention to. This thread reminds me that I need to switch back to soy lk now and then.

Now, I will say this: if I had small children in the house I'd probably be less blase about these food scares, I'd pay a bit more attention.

[RosieTR]

Here is why this information is like this: Scientists Joe and Ann do a study, say, with blueberries. They feed rats nothing but blueberries for 2 weeks til the rats poop purple. Then they measure, say, the rat's blood (compared to rats eating the Standard Diet). Lo and behold the rats have 3 genes known to fight cancer that are a little higher than the rats fed Standard Diet for 2 weeks and they publish the study. Some science journalist reads the study and writes an article in Prevention or somewhere about how you should eat blueberries every day to avoid cancer. The journalist extrapolates some amount of blueberries you should be eating every day: a 250 g rat eats 5 g of blueberries a day which means a 80kg person should eat about a kg and a half per day which translates to about 3 lbs of blueberries per day. And then you're left thinking "who the heck eats 3lbs of blueberries a day???" Especially when blueberries are like $6/lb. So then those same scientists figure out that if they inject compound X from the blueberries into the rats each day they get the same effect as feeding the rats the blueberries. So everyone clamors for pills of compound X, for which they charge $25/100 pills. And on and on. No scientific study I've ever seen suggests that a diet low in red meat (or meat in general), low in simple sugars/refined carbs and high in fiber and (real) color is bad. If dairy bothers you, don't have dairy. If you like cow milk better than soy, drink cow milk. Have a beer or glass of wine if you like, just not 3 or 4 or 8 or 10. Have some meat now and again if you like, just not every meal and perhaps not even every day. In fact, there's very few things you should eat every day except fruit and vegetables. Eat a different grain some days. Eat different fruits and vegetables different days. Eat butter sometimes, olive oil sometimes, peanut oil sometimes, fish sometimes, beef sometimes etc etc etc. The thing to remember is this: a person who's fit and does a lot of exercise most days isn't going to pork out by sitting on the couch for a day or two eating chips and ice cream. That takes weeks or months. Likewise, an overall healthy diet can probably accommodate a cookie or some fries now and then, just not every night or meal. Don't stress.

[ApatheticNoMore]

My own screening system is:

-Is it real? Margarine is not real, butter is.

-Is it traditional (anywhere)? Traditional diets have supported populations through thick and thin over millenia - corn, beans, tomatos and peppers in Mexico, pasta, olives and tomatos in Italy; many others

-Does my personal body feel better or worse from it?

+1 My screening system is the same. My personal body tells me very clearly that it doesn't like too much dairy (via a sore throat, waking up with mucus etc.. and so I try more or less to listen to it ..... imperfectly yea because having a perfect diet is nearly impossible). As for "is it traditional?", some take this far enough to try to go back to paleolithic times via paleo diets, the thing is noone is 100% sure what exactly they ate back then AND *some* people are very well adapted for more modern things like dairy and yes perhaps even grains. I think the Weston A Price stuff is trying to be a middle ground when it advocates soaking grains and so on. The only thing is they are too in love with dairy and other animals products for some people's bodies (some people don't do well on that much dairy and meat).

I actually think the screening looking at what diets are traditional is better than studying study after study which as Micheal Pollan says are reductionist (looking at single nutrients and everything).

I would recommend getting organic milk if you buy dairy. Organic soy milk will be free of genetic modification (at least U.S. organic standards do not allow anything genetically modified and I'd assume it's the same in Canada). Dairy is traditional in some parts of the world and not in others (which explains why some don't tolerate it). However it is my understanding soy milk is not traditionally ANYWHERE in the world, which yes raises red flags for me. Soy products like miso and so on are traditional in Asia of course, but soy milk isn't. It's totally a 20th century product is my understanding. There is sigh, actually some research showing some harm from excess dairy, such as a link with ovarian cancer. Still if the choice is dairy or soy milk with no tradition anywhere ..... dairy is looking better. Some of the nut milks may be good choices.

[Miss Cellane]

As RosieTR points out, a lot of the information that floating around out there is a single fact taken in isolation. But nutrition is far more complex than eating one single food or avoiding a single group of foods. And there are so, so many conflicting opinions out there on what you should eat that researching what a healthy breakfast is could take weeks. At some point, you get hungry and you just need to eat.

Reader99 pretty much summed up how I approach eating. Is it real? Can I make it myself? Have people been eating this for eons? How do I personally react when I eat something? One thing I also consider is whether a given food is traditionally an everyday food or a special occasion food. We now have ice cream and cake cookies and potato chips and candy available 24/7. It used to be that these calorie and fat rich foods were holiday foods, eaten a few times a year, not every day. There were exceptions--people doing manual labor might have pie with a meal because they needed the extra calories, but few people had candy and cake daily. So I try to keep my daily diet to "real" food and save the "holiday" food for special occasions. Bread, yes. Cake, no. Fruit, yes. Ice cream, not so much.

The "experts" keep trying to come up with the one perfect eating plan. My theory is that there isn't one. You know how different people react differently to the same medication? There's an antihistamine that my older brother swears by, but that does less than nothing for me. There's another antihistamine that another brother loves, but it turns me into a narcoleptic. And a third antihistamine that does everything I want an antihistamine to do, but no one else in my family will touch.

Medications are chemicals. So is food. People react differently to medications, why not food?

If you've got a medical issue that diet can help, it makes sense to experiment with eating different foods to see if they will help. But if you are generally in good health, I don't see the point of obsessing over every single bite.

I’ve tried several of the low-carb diets. I end up feeling terrible every time. People tell me I didn’t follow the diets long enough, but I just don’t think I should feel that badly for a week with no improvement. So I’ve increased my protein intake a bit and reduced my carb intake a bit and increased the vegetables (I’ve always eaten more than enough fruit, no matter what dietary guidelines you’re looking at). And I feel good and have a lot of energy, so this is the plan I’m sticking with, no matter what is said about carbs in general.

[Mrs. Hermit]

+1 Reader99 and Rosie.

[Gina]

Years ago I tried to do what 'they' said was best, but there were always new conflicting claims and it was confusing... So I said 'to h*** with it', and decided to just eat what I preferred. I mostly still do. Studies will come and go.

What is funny is that many of the things I kept consuming just because I liked them are now considered to be good again. Butter over of margarine, hot tea, chocolate, eggs, limited wine... and I've always adored blueberries. I have switched over to whole grains because that made sense, and less salt, and I cook just about everything from scratch.

As to milk, I've discovered almond milk and have been using that lately. I like cow's milk better, but I've had allergy issues over the years so Ive been counter conditioned.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

And the part that amazes me the most is how our government and regulators allow the use of garbage ingr.

One word on this: MONEY - it dictates everything. Doesn't matter if it isn't good for you, there is somebody lobbying for it because it lines their pockets big time!

[IshbelRobertson]

I've bought only organic meats for over 20 years (and we are a country which does not allow GM foods at present - but I suspect that will change). I buy organic butter and either bake my own, organic bread or buy it. I also try to buy locally and in season. I cook most things from scratch, including making my own pasta.

That has been my decision,based on my gut feeling about food and the environment. However, my husband is a bit faddish about things. When bread was considered bad, almost 30 years ago, he insisted on buying those polystyrene tile breads rejoicing in names like Nimble here in the UK. Then they said 'back to the drawing board', it's THOSE type of breads that are bad for you'. He stopped. Oh, then he decided that olives (which he had always refused to eat, despite always holidaying in the areas where it is a part of the diet) were wonderful and he now eats them by the handfu, let's not go there re butter versus horrid plasticised spreadsl.... need I say more?

My Mum had a philosophy (although she didn't give it such a high-faluting term) which was - all things, in moderation. I try to keep that in mind!

[Mrs-M]

It's nice hearing from everyone. I draw comfort from reading your take on things. I do know choosing natural- and with the least amount of ingredients is best, still, I have a hard time fending off jitters and gut-responses brought on by aggressive and controlling studies suggesting this or suggesting and telling of that, only to find out a short (even extended) time later, that the findings published were skewed and inaccurately researched or simply drummed -up and used as a filler.

I have always been a fan of the old saying, "everything in moderation", and I actually try and live by that adage, yet I still find myself teetering forth and back whenever I come across new information that doesn't support the information and findings last released.

There's no doubt, having children (young children at home) feeds ones anxious state, as does the constant to-and-fro we are constantly exposed to from day to day, but I just wish (for a change), that when reports and studies are released and published, the information provided would reflect a more positive and solid basis of truth and parallel, rather than simply an expulsion of meaningless hot air disrupting the flow of commoners like myself.