What does “healthy eating” mean to you? It’s a question I’ve been wanting to ask for awhile. And it came up last Friday during the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! (ICBINB) Test Kitchen event, so I thought now would be a good time to bring it up.
First, some highlights of my visit. ICBINB flew me and a few other bloggers to visit its test kitchen in New Jersey, and to get our thoughts on food trends.
The Test Kitchen chefs cooked for us…
We tasted some delicious food made with ICBINB, like these Carmelized Onion & Fig Mini Pizzas.
We took a trip down memory lane – remember these Fabio commercials? So entertaining!
Later, we made some chocolate chip cookies…
And sampled them, of course!
We also had time to talk to the ICBINB brand team who asked us what we and our audiences look for in foods. Some of the answers included organic and locally grown foods. And I brought up eating clean. While ICBINB spreads are lower in fat and calories than butter, they do contain some artificial flavors. Now, I don’t eat completely clean – as you can see in the picture of me shoving a cookie in my mouth – but over the past year or so, I have been avoiding most foods that have preservatives or artificial flavors in them. I used to eat a fair amount of them, though, and didn’t think anything of it. I was still eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and watching my calories, and thought of myself as a healthy eater.
Which brings me back to my original question – what does “healthy eating” mean to YOU? Do you eat only organics? Just whole foods? Or do you allow some processed foods in your diet? Do you avoid sugar? Skip artificial sweeteners? Or have some from time to time? Are you a vegetarian? Eat only raw foods? Or do you just watch calories and fat and call it good? And what about butter – do you go for the real deal, or prefer a lower fat spread?
There are different variations of “healthy eating.” What’s yours?
What a fabulous opportunity! BTW, every single time I hear the Turn the Beat Around jingle I think of you!
Clean eating to me is non-processed foods…good ole whole foods. I’d say in every given day I eat 90% clean. I still have those artificial sugars to answer to!
Ummm… it’s Turn the TUB Around…
How cool for you! I would have had to have a cookie too!
I eat pretty good but not perfect. I use Splenda & Stevia so trying to balance that. I do eat mostly unprocessed stuff. I don’t eat frozen dinners or packaged foods but I do have some “bars” if I am in a crunch for protein & I just have leeway for my treats on the weekend. I think I eat fairly clean about 90% of the time but I am not crazed if I eat something with sta. fat every so often. I can’t afford all organic so….
Great question!
I think I am at about 90% too. Gotta have my chocolate, though!
Eating healthy to me is trying to make the best choices I can everyday. I try to eat foods that are minimally processed or that don’t have ingredient lists a mile long. I avoid trans fat and HFCS and limit my sodium consumption. But I also know that some processing takes place with food and I am okay with that. Tofu is an example, good for me but processed to get it to the form it is. It’s about eating in a balanced diet of good whole foods with an allowance for the occasional slurge to enjoy life.
Yes, gotta have the splurges!
Hey Cookie Girl!!!
I want one!!! Oh, who am I kidding…I want four of them cookies!!!
Healthy eating: for me, it’s “moderation”. So, I would say that most of what I eat would qualify as healthy (but not necessarily organic). And then there are those snacks – which I “try” to limit – but are still there (just usually eaten in moderation). And that occasional burger and fries at a restaurant…(it IS occasional!!!)
And…being we are close to the cows and all … here in WI – butter (the real stuff…usually)!!!
I confess – I had way more than 4! Chocolate chip cookies are the best! Especially right when they come out of the oven. Say hello to those WI cows.
Honestly, I’m satisfied with a diet that doesn’t involve massive numbers of Little Debbie snack cakes and heaps of potato chips. That said, I’m at about 90-95% whole foods these days, with an occasional day off the track, just for fun and interest. I doubt I’ll ever get to the 100% stage consistently, mostly due to lack of effort or interest.
“Just for fun and interest” – love this! I wonder what kind of interesting things you try…
I tend to modified my diet depending.
Mostly I eat 1) Vegan (high percentage fruits, vegetables and some nuts, with
2) Seafood
3) Low fat/ No added fat oils
4) High percentage raw (except the seafood)
Wow, I don’t think I could do the mostly raw thing! Do you enjoy it?
Oh how awesome!!
When I think of eating healthy, the less in the ingredients list the better. The less additives absolutely the better.
I do on occasion allow something else, but I feel and do so much better the closer to mother nature I eat.
I’m the same with the ingredients list, but I didn’t used to be. I used to mainly look at the nutrition label.
What healthy eating means is that you eat a variety of colorful healthy fruits and veggies and organics when possible. In my house we are not perfect but we are getting better
I’m definitely not perfect either – always evolving!
Looks like you had a great time. My idea of healthy eating… fresh food, freshly prepared. Staying away from packaged, boxed and frozen.
Yes, it was fun! I’m seeing a lot of the fresh food theme in the comments…
Sounds like a cool trip. Healthy eating means lots of fruits/veggies, grilled chicken, whole grain, etc. for me and the fam and preparing fresh meals at home. We occasionaly have some stuff we know isn’t great for us, but mostly we stick to eating healthy. We kinda feel sick after we eat the not-so-healthy stuff.
I’ve been Lacto-Paleo for over 2 years now, so eating helthy to me means: fresh, whole foods, no processed crap, no sugars, no hydrogenated industrial oils, no grains or legumes (esp soy!), etc.
I wouldn’t in a million years eat ICBINB. I certainly wouldn’t feed it to my children. Hydrogenated soybean and rapeseed oils? Chemical preservatives? Yuck! It’s real butter all the way for us.
For me, simple, whole, fresh foods are the way to go. I don’t miss sugar, fast food, or packaged crap one bit, and at 45 I’m healthier than I’ve ever been (and over 150lbs lighter) and now I actually enjoy my food rather than obsessing over it!
Healthy eating to me means 1)natural, either it grows or was alive 2)low fat!!3)food that doesn’t make me feel bogged down 4)food that proves to make me live the longest life I can. Not always easy,”not healthy” food is a lot easier and less expensive.
Healthy eating to me means:eating foods that have ingrediants that are 100% natural. I am a label detective!The less ingrediants the better and not processed. If I can not pronouce a word in the igrediants I don’t ingest it! Having had migraines for many years and by being a work in progress discovered: that artifical foods and preservatives were causing them! Bottem line is make the connection between what your body is telling you ie how it feels and what you eat. It is all sooo connected. Healthy eating is a personal choice.”No foods are forbidden except when your body tells you so”Lima Ohsawa
Sally – Interesting that the ingredients were causing your migraines – glad you figured that out!
I used to think it meant nothing more than Low Cal, Low Fat, High Fiber… aka similar to the Weight Watcher’s diet but NOW… I know it’s a LOT MORE! Much like Sally Jones (above) I am on a mission to eat unprocessed, chemical free foods. I’m trying to go “Organic” but like many can’t afford it 100% so I pick and choose what I can still buy affordable and “EAT CLEAN”. I won’t lie, I do still buy some processed foods but they are VERY limited. Basically if there’s more than a few ingredients and those ingredients are NOT simple, such as organic wheat & water for a pasta, then it’s NOT going in my body anymore!!!!! I’ve battled and WON against cancer 6x & that’s ENOUGH!
I am so amazed by your strength to beat cancer so many times – that is so awesome! And I’m with you on eating clean – just made the change in the past year or so, and I am soooo glad I did.