A lot of us need serious nutrition advice: We all know that we should raise our own food, make our own bread, etc. and that processed food is bad for us. But in the real world, if you’re working and raising kids, your time is limited-you have to take what’s available from the local grocery store.
Frozen dinners (Stouffers, Lean Cuisine, etc.) are convenient for working people, and most of them seem to provide a good amount of protein. Chicken tenders are also convenient, a lot are not much good for you but some at least are healthier than others (Perdue All Natural, for example.) What we need to know is, if you check labels and avoid anything with nitrites, nitrates, artificial flavors or colors, large amounts of sodium, and preservatives, isn’t that about the best you can do? If you avoid all this, isn’t what you eat basically healthy?
Naturally fresh, unprocessed food would be best, but I don’t know anybody who has time to look for all natural food-we have to take what’s available in the grocery store. So that’s my question-if you choose carefully from what’s available at the local store, isn’t it possible to eat healthy?
Thanks for any advice-I ‘m sure a lot of people like me are wondering the same thing.
A lot of people on this subreddit really seem to micromanage their food intake. It’s great to try to find strategies to improve your eating habits but it’s crazy to me to never eat processed foods, sugar, simple carbs, etc. or consider them “poison”.
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to eat processed foods in moderation. Eating only frozen dinners and fast food obviously isn’t healthy but you should be able to balance your intake of whole foods and processed foods to what works best for you.
I do also think that meal-prepping is a really good option for working people. If you have a few free hours over the weekend, you can make a couple big batches of nutritious home-cooking. Things like soups, stews, chili, and curries are very easy to scale up and don’t take a ton of time to make. Then you can divide it into servings and freeze, and those servings will stay fresh for months. So it’s definitely the healthier option than storebought freezer meals.
>We all know that we should raise our own food, male our own bread, etc.
Nah that’s a fallacy, and you’re setting the bar too high for yourself.
I buy almost exclusively whole foods from the grocery store, it’s very easy (once you get into the habit of it). Frozen fruit and veg is totally fine. You can get low salt canned veggies and beans for cheap. Wholemeal bread is commonplace, as are wholegrain cereals. Plus grocery stores stock loads of fresh produce. Even 100% peanuts peanut butter is available now, that used to be a speciality wholefood store thing.
The hard thing is having time to cook, and relying on processed snacks. With kids especially that’s a challenge, since kids can be fussy and refuse healthier foods.
I like the adage “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants”. I reckon that’s the best you can do.
People are used to hyperpalatable foods though, and readjusting to simpler whole foods takes some time.
I’m from Europe and here it is much more easy. Just buy veggies fresh or frozen and eat a lot of them. Moderate sugar and salt intake and use about 1g per kg bodyweight of the mostly unsaturated type.
Cooking does not need to be difficult. Chicken breast, fish fillets, lean beef are fine sources of protein and iron.
You can cook an easy dinner in less than half an hour that’s tasty and healthy. But some skills are needed. And good food is slightly more expensive than the crap they try to sell you for less.
But you have to take some time. And some time to eat as well - sit at the table, enjoy the company. Slow down en eat with attention.
So 1. Learn to cook. Practice, try, it’s not so hard!
It’s very possible to eat healthy. I work full time and go to school full time. In ten to fifteen minutes I can steam vegetables in one pot and toss some meat in a pan or my George Foreman. Or, toss them in a bowl with some fat (I use olive or coconut oil) and seasonings and put them in the air fryer. Need to plan ahead? Meal prep is also a huge help. And Google is your friend on air fryer cook times and recipes for any appliance (crock pot, instant pot, air fryer, stove top, oven). A lot of places have precut vegetables for an even faster time of it.
Things that are important take at least a little time and effort. If you don’t have an hour or two on your day(s) off to peel, chop, and portion for the week then either you need time management help or it’s not as important to you as you think it is.
Fruit, eggs, and oatmeal are also fast and healthy.
Just buy frozen ingredients instead of frozen meals. Or tinned. Maybe a little fresh fruit. No need to eat ready meals when you can just cook some meat and veg out of the freezer in a similar time. Tinned or frozen foods last for ages so you don’t have that problem of needing to use the food before it goes off.
I feel you’ve forgotten that there is a middle ground between essentially being a 21st century hunter-gatherer, and eating exclusively pre-made and highly processed meals.
It doesn’t take much time to add some frozen vegetables or a side salad to a meal you’re already making, or to swap your chicken tenders for chicken breast/thigh (with a little seasoning or a sauce such as teriyaki). These are all available from the supermarket/butcher, and don’t have a nutrition label that you need to check.
My tip is to pre-plan your “lazy” meals so that the easy thing to do is eat healthy. For example I always have instant miso soup paste, instant edamame noodles, and frozen vegetables in my house so that the “lazy” thing to do is make a healthy and filling miso soup. It takes less than five minutes, is far easier and healthier than anything pre-made, and is less effort than ordering fast food.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong if you carefully chose the products. But then I don’t know us foods. Frozen dinner doesn’t sound healthy or something I would like to eat, but maybe I’m completely wrong here.
What I don’t understand is the argument that people don’t have time to cook. First of all eating is essential, why not just take a bit of time. You take time to watch tv? You waste time on the phone? You spend time to shower? You spend timeDoing sports? Why not invest half an hour a day for cooking and eating? Preparing fresh chicken, meat or fish, a few vegetables and rice takes maybe 15-20mins total. Is that really too much? Hard to believe for me.
I was raised by a single parent who was not only was too exhausted to cook, but personally didn’t enjoy the act of cooking outside of special occasions (birthday lasagna, etc.) Consequently, I grew up eating frozen dinners; Stouffer’s was a staple for me and I still feel nostalgic for their meatloaf and mashed potatoes, even over homemade. These habits transferred over to me and I kept eating mostly frozen dinners until my 30s.
I would say that eating more minimally processed food that I prepare myself has been a boon for my health. It also costs less per meal.
If eating frozen food is what someone needs to do for their situation, then I support that, but my suggestion would be to look into alternatives first, such as meal prep by making a protein, small carb serving, and veggies ahead of time and eating those throughout the week.
That said, my tip for frozen food, as well as canned soup, is to bulk it up with veggies. The aforementioned Stouffer’s meatloaf doesn’t come with a veggie side, so throwing some frozen veggies in the microwave will help to round out the meal. Something like Lean Cuisine’s broccoli alfredo will only have like 5 skimpy broccoli florets, which is just stupid. ADD MORE. You can also add canned beans and other veggies to canned soup for the same purpose. Broccoli is especially fun in soup because the crown of buds is like a sponge for the broth.
Cooking your own meals from fresh ingredients REALLY doesn’t take that much time, if you are not looking for lasagna every night. Surely you must have 20minutes per day for that.
Only time consuming thing about that is just waiting when it’s done, for example cooking rice or making a soup.
You don’t really have to go through all the effort of baking your own bread and growing your own vegetables. You can grab a fresh whole wheat loaf or fresh fruits and veggies right in the produce section of most grocery stores. Frozen versions also exist and are of the same quality if not better when they’re out of season.
Smaller cuts of fresh meat cook relatively quickly, eggs cook in no time, veggies are quick to steam or saute in oil and spices, pasta and rice and potatoes are pretty quick to make, and there are even quicker forms of rice like parboiled if you’re really tight on time. Making extra of this stuff to take with or freeze also generally only takes slightly more time then but will save you a bunch in the future.
My point is, you should really just be eating whole foods that are already easily available and don’t really have much of a label if that’s what you’re worried about. They don’t have to be elaborate meals, herbs and spices are your best friends for flavor.
Frozen and boxed meals are fine sometimes, but even the “healthy” ones usually have loads of salt or something. You could learn what should and shouldn’t be on your radar in one semi-long grocery trip if you want to eat that stuff more regularly, so you’ll know what to choose in the future. But there really are much better options while you have that stuff in moderation.
\> What we need to know is, if you check labels and avoid anything with nitrites, nitrates, artificial flavors or colors, large amounts of sodium, and preservatives, isn’t that about the best you can do? If you avoid all this, isn’t what you eat basically healthy?
This is a hard question to answer.
First, from a definitional standpoint, there is not large agreement on what is healthy. You mention nitrites, nitrates, and large amounts of sodium. I don’t think it’s clear whether those are problematic or not - the evidence is poor - but I can say that if you eat to avoid those and the way you eat gives you type II diabetes, you made the wrong choice from a risk perspective.
Second, I think you are presenting a false dichotomy. For those of us with access to good supermarkets, there are lots of good whole foods available - meats, cheeses, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, etc. - that can be used to make healthy meals.
And yes, it does take more time, just as exercising takes more time, or doing things that keep your brain active takes more time.
Processed food does present better and worse choices, but broadly speaking, it’s worse nutritionally than the things you would make yourself.
I can cook a steak in 15 minutes. Grass fed red meat from ruminant animals is incredibly healthy when prepared correctly (not charred black). Eggs are always easy, and there are a million ways to prepare them.
I’ve found that eating mostly animal foods really decrease prep time and increases simplicity.
I do this and I feel like I am a real-world person.
I set aside a couple of hours on a Sunday, cook up a massive batch of chicken and vegetables and freeze the lot in portion sizes.
Mostly this is for myself to eat between breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is typically a fruit smoothy. Dinner is typically with the family.
Dinners with the family is ultimate whatever the kids will eat. We have about 4-5 sure-fire winners on rotation with them.
These posts are the main reason I think programs like WeightWatchers do so well. It changes the mentality from a close look at calories and nutrition which would require A LOT of dedication and willpower to a broad stroke of here eat all you want of these healthy bland foods and take an allotment of points for ‘less healthy’ foods. Oh you want this ‘really unhealthy’ food? Ok but it will cost you almost a whole days worth of ‘food points’.
Whereas just eating chicken, broccoli, and a baked potato will never get you over your food points.
So I think you have the right idea, just try to eat natural, unprocessed foods that you make/grow yourself or are local. Beyond that limit everything else. If if comes wrapped or packaged then have very little of it. You are doing the best you can to eat ‘basically’ healthy in the modern real world.
You can either be super detailed and micro manage everything you eat, writing down each calorie break down for optimal nutrition using an app, or take a more general approach like the WW one I mentioned, or an even more relaxed general approach of just common sense.
Basically if you find yourself feeling unhealthy and going in the wrong direction, correct course. Have a yearly physical, get blood work done, and eat common sense foods while avoiding processed stuff as much as possible.
Cook large batches of things in the off times (like weekends), separate them into individual bagged meals, freeze, then reheat in microwave when wanting to eat them. That way you can make whole food meals fresh but frozen, and quickly. Stews, soups, roasts, all with veggies, yams, potatoes,etc. Whatever you like in them. Use a big pot, or a crockpot, or one of those Instapots or whatever they are called.
Leave any commercially made quick meals for emergencies only, don’t depend on those. This is what all those workout/bodybuilders and other such folks do who also work full time and such.
Look into dump meals. Im a full time college student and parent of 2 active children and we do a lot of crock pot dump meals or casserole. On weekends I will do regular dishes and on my late school days my husband will cook since it’s his day off but we generally have a well balanced diet.
I’m also a pasty chef and in school for nutrition. Bread and pastas aren’t the worst thing we can eat. Yes would from scratch be better because less additives but they are very time consuming to make and sometimes it’s about conscience. Just make sure you are picking whole grain options over white breads and pastas.
This is my strategy: Buy and eat simpler. I actually like “plainer” meals/foods. I buy lots of fruit: apples, oranges, grapes, bluberries, etc. Wash and eat. I put my veggies in the oven or steam - kale, broccolli, carrots, green beans, potatoes - cook with chicken while I do other things. Pour a little olive oil into the pan and sprinkle some pepper.
I buy chicken (breasts and/or wings), cut them up, and place them in separate containers to cook over a few days. One night of cutting up gets me about 3 days. I buy containers and do the same for my veggies. This way I just have to drop them in the pan/pot on busier nights.
I compromise and buy store bought yogurt and whole wheat bread (usually Rudi’s Bakery) because I don’t have time to make my own. Yogurt is easy to eat and requires no prep. I also compromise and buy Annie’s cheese bunnies and plain popcorn (never the microwave kind or ones that come with butter or that extra stuff) for snacks.
I don’t drink sodas but like a glass of pomegranate, grape, or orange juice sometimes. I mostly drink water.
All of these things I buy at the grocery store. I simplify by purchasing whole, fresh produce and fresh poultry so I don’t have to worry about ingredients. For my processed food, I try to stick with products with the least amount of ingredients as possible.
Doesn’t frozen food take a half hour or so to heat up? You can cook fresh food in the same amount of time. Don’t feel the need to make complicate meals. There’s also so many nutritious foods that don’t require any cooking/prep - fruit, nuts. Poultry and veggies don’t have to require a lot of time, either. There are also decent snack options that aren’t too badly processed (yogurt, certain kinds of popcorn, well.. crackers are crackers but we all have our indulgences).
Our lives are taken up by working and the expectation to do everyone on our own. We have to master it all. It’s not realistic. Originally the ‘tribe’ would band together and get things done. Everyone’s too individual now.
I can buy a pre-marinated protein from Trader Joe’s and cook it with vegetables in an air fryer, and also cook rice simultaneously in a cooker, in about the same time it would take to make a bunch of crappy frozen meals. Throw in a bag salad instead of veggies if you’re really pressed.
Anybody who says they need to resort to frozen meals because they are too busy either has zero ambition, motivation, or skill.
This is actually why I started using a subscription food service. It is a bit more expensive than just shopping yourself; but it offers a decent amount of variation, most meals take less than 30 minutes to prep/cook, and they have a lot of healthy options.It did save me some money because I started ordering out way less
People tend to make healthy eating way more complcated than it needs to be in my opinon when they say it’s ‘too complicated’. It doesn’t have to be- optimizing your food to your preference is one thing but basic healthy lifestyle is attainable to everyone it just requires cutting out a lot of nonsense that’s being marketed to us.
It’s simple, not easy and I struggle with it from time to time.
I don’t really pay attention to nitrates and stuff like that- I’m into macros and antioxidants and a more vague health-profile, I guess. I also consider calories.
Buy fruits and veggies- frozen or canned veggies are great and cheaper in general and you can buy them in noodle or rice mixes- buy sauce packets or spices and make a shit ton of stir fries. Mexican, Italian, asian, just garlic and salt and pepper, anything- I eat this most days for at least one meal and I do a big cooked salad for another sometimes.
Cut and prep fresh veggies one day a week and store them in the fridge so it’s easy to make quick stir fries or other meals. I use mock meat mostly, but also fish and chicken, you can use beef- it takes like 15 minutes tops on the stove and it’s so healthy it’s ridiculous.
I also use lean cuisines for quick-grab lunches when I’m headed to work if I don’t want to make anything in advance. I eat whole grain cereal, low calorie protein bars, thai-flavored tuna on toast, I make over-night oats and mix them with fruit or peanutbutter and that doesn’t take very long. I eat a lot of turkey jerky as a snack and little fiber one brownies.
I absolutely have treats and sweets but I try to be moderate and intentional about it and don’t eat out much other than special occassions.
But max out your veggies and fruits- that’s the big one. canned or dry beans are great additions to salads and sitr fries.
> processed food is bad for us
Not sure if anyone else addressed this, but this statement is a fallacy. If you make your own bread, you processed flour (which is processed wheat), water, and yeast (which processes the flour and water before you bake) by mixing and baking them.
There are plenty of processed foods which are perfectly healthy. Take Cheerios and the low-fat milk I pour on it. Cheese. All meat, with the possible exception of some fish you might buy which hasn’t been cleaned, unless you bought the whole cow and cut it up yourself.
Pretty much everything is processed in some way before it makes it to your home. If everyone took the time to grow and harvest everything for their family unit, who would make the smart phone I reddit from?
It’s very possible and doable to obtain whole and near whole foods from your local stores and chain stores. Worst case, walmart now carry’s organic food, though I’m not 100% sure on the legitimacy but it’s better than a frozen dinner or paying 3x for a meal from a restaurant.
Consume within a healthy calorie range. Try to eat whole foods. This can be done by either cooking at home or by going to restaurants/fast food places that operate with whole foods and little added ingredients. Places like Chipotle. Get exercise.
This is exactly the kind of thing I want to see. I don’t have premium authentic food ingredients from france and italy that I can season with herbs I grow on my windowsill and eat with my perfect horrifyingly white teeth.
Depends where you live and your budget of course. However if you have access to big supermarket (majority of UK) or alternatively online such as Amazon fresh,ocado etc - you will have access to a massive source of fruit, vegetables, grains, beans/pulses and a good selection of meat. Meat is the hardest to source from supermarkets as much of it is factory farmed rubbish. However you can usually find at least some free range/organic meat that is acceptable to eat. As for speed it shouldn’t be an issue. For example for my tea I had free range pork tenderloin chopped into chunky medallions (fried for roughly 5-10 mins), brown rice/quinoa in a microwavable pouch (2 mins) and some steamed green veg. I had Greek yoghurt, berries and Granola for desert. None of it took long to cook. Maybe it’s a cultural thing if most people you know eat ready meals. Most people I know cook have proper food and make meals from fresh meat, eggs, rice/pasta and add a few veggies. Especially once you get past the student stage of life.
I order online chicken, eggs, beef, beef liver, get potatoes and veggies from the local shops.
Freeze the meat in 300g portions and cook it daily in the air-frier. Just putting the stuff inside pressing the button and after 20min yum yum yum
I’m fortunate in that I can get meat from local farms but even my lowest effort grocery hauls don’t contain processed foods. I personally don’t find it hard/inconvenient at all to avoid processed foods.
If there aren’t healthy options available, it’s easy enough to not eat for half a day until you can get some real food
Every grocery store has fresh salads , veggies, fish , rotisserie chicken etc. I’m an extremely busy mother in sales and drive minimally 4 hours per day. It doesn’t matter where I’m at , I can always find a better alternative for a fresh and healthy meal.
Ok so I commented earlier as a reply to someone else’s comment about what processed foods are. I am currently really excited about this topic and am literally wrestling with the same questions you are. I absolutely love to cook but also work full time and hate being in the kitchen in all my spare time constantly. So I have been trying to find quick and easy but also healthy recipes and snacks. I wanted to share some ideas I’ve been trying implement on my journey.
replace snack foods with fruits and veggies as much as possible. Fruits and veggies are high in fiber and will make you feel more satisfied. Plus they are good for your gut health by feeding the good bacteria in your gut. Bonus points that they’re usually fast and convenient.
put fruit and nuts or seeds on the counter or table so you are more likely to grab that when you are hungry. Pre cut veggies when you buy them and put them in the front of the fridge so you remember to eat them. Put sweets in harder to reach places and save them for special occasions. Also buy fewer sweets. Added sugar is basically empty calories and has no nutritional value so there’s really no point in eating it except to make us feel happy.
sheet pan dinners are your friend! Take chicken or fish and pair it with almost any veggie or multiple veggies. Throw it in the oven with seasonings or spices, and there you go. Dinner for the whole family.
you can also pair rice with just about any meat and veggie. Or just veggies. Good way to do meatless meals every so often. Like beans and rice or rice and broccoli.
experiment with your favorite cuisines. Try new foods. It’s really fun. Obviously don’t go over board if you’re busy because then you might burn out. Maybe once or twice a month try a new recipe.
We all know it’s pretty difficult to eat right in in our society….everyone thinks they know best about nutrition. Everyone is claiming one diet is better than the other. We’ve got contradicting messaged in the media. And the worst thing is science seem to change constantly. Even the dietetics and science/medical community can’t seem to agree on what’s right.
My mom was a registered dietitian for 40 years so I’ve always been pretty health conscious. But I realized even she was given bad information by her own industry thru no fault of her own. Like for instance she swore by low fat foods, allowed my siblings and I to eat sugary cereals for breakfast, and was ok with artificial sweeteners. But these things may not have been that great. I don’t think low fat is the answer, not sure about sweeteners, and the sugar industry has been lobbying for years that sugar is basically ok. So that’s what she probably thought too.But she was doing the best she could with the info she was given by professionals in her industry. Not her fault if they were wrong.
Anyways despite all the mixed messages we are getting, the one thing I’ve learned is listen to your body. I’m pretty sure eating a piece of fruit is better than a bag of chips. Even though the fruit might have had pesticides or something sprayed on them, I know fruit and veggies make me feel better than highly processed food. And if I have to spend 30 extra minutes cooking whole foods each day to be able to function better, think better, and feel better, then I will.
I know when you work full time and have kids it’s probably really hard to spend extra time in the kitchen. Plus dealing with picky eaters is no fun. But it could also be a learning experience for the kids. If they watch you cook and try new foods they will be more likely to do that when they get older. Have them help with small things that are age appropriate. Plus preparing food and sitting down to eat can be a thing to build connection and memories with your family.
I agree with eating better but the cost of healthy foods is insane. Almond flour crackers are $5 a 4oz box! I have IBS D and I find it hard to eat what will work for my gut because of cost. Hell even unhealthy food has gone way up.
Grocery stores (mostly) seller prepackaged salads, cooked chicken, chopped veggies/fruit. Also dinner options that are take and bake (HEB for example has protein+vegg bake-in-the-container options in the deli area).
Those options can get someone into eating healthy with minimal prep, until they’re comfortable sourcing the ingredients and cooking on their own.
I appreciate all (or most) of the comments. I’m surprised to see that some people were offended by my use of the phrase “The real world.”
For a lot of us, THIS is the real world: we work on our feet all day (two jobs at times), we don’t have access to whole food outlets, our time is severely limited, we have kids to raise (sometimes on our own) , we have limited cooking skills, and limited money. And we’re always tired-some of you (a few) will know what I mean. As for why I assumed everybody here is American- I didn’t . This happens to be the country I’m living in, so how they do things somewhere else is (or should be) obviously of limited use to me.
That is the real world for many of us. I’m sorry, but advising us to invest more time and money ( ‘natural’ foods are always more expensive than what’s on the shelf), to feed ourselves and our families better is not helpful.
What I had in mind was-how can people who are trying (with limited resources and limited time) to achieve proper nutrition best do so, using what is easily available and easily prepared. Some of you gave very useful replies to that, and I’m grateful.
Virtually all calorie-sufficient eating patterns provide you with enough protein, so I wouldn’t worry about protein.
I recommend taking a look at the following expert opinions.
World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet): “Eating at least 400 g, or five portions, of fruit and vegetables per day reduces the risk of NCDs (2) and helps to ensure an adequate daily intake of dietary fibre. Fruit and vegetable intake can be improved by: always including vegetables in meals; eating fresh fruit and raw vegetables as eating fresh fruit and vegetables that are in season; eating a variety of fruit and vegetables.”
Also WHO (https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/nutrition/a-healthy-lifestyle): “Eat a nutritious diet based on a variety of foods originating mainly from plants, rather than animals.”
United Nations (via the Food and Agriculture Organization https://www.fao.org/nutrition/education/food-dietary-guidelines/background/sustainable-dietary-guidelines/en/): “Such recommendations include for example: having a mostly plant-based diet, focus on seasonal and local foods, reduction of food waste, consumption of fish from sustainable stocks only and reduction of red and processed meat, highly-processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages.”
As another commenter pointed out, frozen vegetables prove approximately equal in nutritiousness to fresh vegetables.
We eat a lot of grain bowls. Cook up a grain (rice, quinoa, barley, etc). Have a protein or two to add on top (for us, that’s usually some combination of beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, or occasionally seafood). Have a bunch of veggie options (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and whatever else is in the fridge/freezer… Cook the ones that need to be cooked). Have a sauce (cashew yogurt, balsamic vinegar, etc). Oh… And make sure there’s a fat/flavor source (nuts, avocado, or something along those lines). Everyone gets a bowl with an appropriate amount of grains, then goes down the line getting the toppings they want. Kids call it “pick what you want”.
Now, in the winter, we change it up sometimes. Instead of a bowl of grain, you start with a bowl of some sort of soup base. Tomato soup, carrot soup, broth, or something else. The rest of it is pretty much the same, although usually doesn’t involve lettuce (although you can certainly have a salad on the side). Or, we do baked potato bowls, which are the same as the grain bowls, except they have a baked potato instead of the grain.
During spring/summer, sometimes we drop the grain and have salad bowls….
It’s all pretty easy and doesn’t require a ton of effort. And my kids don’t complain because they can choose which items they put on it. When we first started, I had to specify that they needed at least 2 veggies on their bowl, and I still sometimes have to remind them that they must have a protein… But overall, it works pretty well.