What we should and shouldn't eat

Hypnotist Paul McKenna thinks the very importance we as a society attach to having a balanced diet is the biggest reason the majority of us don't have one.
In his book he writes about a fascinating 1930's experiment, where "scientists gave a group of toddlers unlimited twenty-four/seven access to a vast range of foods from ice cream to spinach, essentially allowing them to create their own diet over a period of thirty days based on their own sense of what they wanted to eat and when. The result? While they each chose different foods at different times, every single child in the study wound up eating what was considered to be a balanced diet over the course of the month."

So if we weren't from a young age heavily influenced by other people (parents, experts in the media) telling us what we should and shouldn't eat, would we end up with a reasonably balanced diet because we possess a naturally developed sense of what we want to eat based on what our bodies need to survive?

Moderation in all things is pretty good advice when it comes to diet.

We should eat what we like because what we like takes into account all the variables of what we've been taught, what we find good and what we desire. That said, there are some things we'd like to eat that we can't as the beautiful lady by the pool on holiday reminded me.

I could eat beans on toast all day long.

Angry Dad wrote: I could eat beans on toast all day long.

Me too! Beans are full of protein. I would love to eat fillet steak everyday but it would mean intensive colonic irrigation sessions.

I eat a lot of bananas, avocado pear , pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds as well as olives. I also drink a litre and a half of bottled water a day. My stools are always firm and I never suffer from heartburn.

I'm a firm believer that you are what you eat. If you eat beefburgers all the time you will end up looking like one.

If anyone is feeling lethargic and continually tired then give up tea and coffee for a week and drink cranberry juice and pomegranate juice and your body will automatically detox.

If you are a fat bastard and want to lose weight then every time you feel peckish eat a raw carrot or a piece of celery. Avoid savouries like crisps or peanuts and cut down on alcohol and the pounds will drop off within a week.

I'm on mackerel and walnuts and Beetroot juice and Bananas but you dont want too many of them as the potassium can speed up your heart rate to dangerous levels a GP friend told me bananas that is.

'My stools are always firm'.

Too much information RT !

We are all, for whatever reason, built differently. There are undeniable differences among individuals and the rates at which they lose and gain weight. Doesn't everybody know at least one person that eats junk and doesn't exercise and never gets fat? The calorie intake of some alcoholics that are stick thin must be astronomical, yet some people find they have a beer gut as soon as they start drinking a few cans a night.
We also have different psychological relationships with food. Resisting the Mars bar in the fridge is a completely different task altogether for some people than it is for others - some rely on the endorphins their brain releases when they're eating, where others eat simply to satisfy the needs of their stomach. Just like how some of us drink for fun, and others drink to temporarily block out unwanted thoughts, in which case it becomes an addiction.