Basically eating

The following food-oriented posts come courtesy of Canadian Thanksgiving, which was this past weekend. Viva the full turkey dinner! Viva mashed spuds and gravey! Viva the indigestion coming from my gut, which is unaccustomed to so much fat and starch at once and has been punishing me for the past few days!

I firmly believe that healthy eating is easy, quick, enjoyable, and creative. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy my junk food – I love baking and never blush at the caffeine or sugar content in my morning coffee. Overall I maintain a healthy, balanced diet; perhaps it is a little too low in calories and protein from time to time, but that is something I’ll be working on. In general, though, my diet is pretty darn clean. Healthy eating habits are easy, once you’ve got some basic guidelines and nutrition ideas to work with. Everyone knows that picking up an apple is a heck of a lot healthier than picking up a store-bought muffin, but having a more utilitarian understanding of basic nutrition does help us keep a more steady eye on our healthy eating targets. Happily, there are plenty of resources out there that can help people understand basic food and nutrition facts.

While not everyone likes government-issue food guides, the Canada Food Guide does a damn good job of hitting the basics. The website has information on what constitutes a portion size, general estimates for how many calories a day you should be aiming for (very general estimates, but still useful), tips on eating well and building good habits, and so on.

Recently, I’ve also become a fan of the Dietitians of Canada website as a source for solid, consumer-friendly nutrition info. Much of the information provided is very basic and sometimes even a little juvenile, but I believe that is a good thing. Considering the average person’s distorted ideas of the complexities of healthy eating, having a solid and reliable resource such as this one helps show how very, very easy it is to make healthy eating a normal and habitual event.

The UK's Food Standards Agency has a good healthy eating website called Eat Well. The site features an interesting Food For Sport section that has a fair selection of reasonable, clear-cut, non-complicated info about how to eat for an active lifestyle. I'd recommend plowing through the whole website, though, as there's plenty of info to be had here.

If you've come across some particularly good and straightforward resources on basic and healthy diets, please pass them on to me.