Do your parents know anything about nutrition?

Mine sure dont. When I was seeing my nutritionist with my mom, she told the nutritionist "she doesn't eat any sugar!" Yeah, by the way, Im a carb lover. She thinks that if I dont eat candy or honey (which she says is SOOO healthy), or drink juices with sugar, Im sick minded, and that I have to get sugar. She had no idea carbs and sugar have a thing or two in common.

And she says anything that's natural is good for you. Like these flapjacks. They are like, 500 calories per bar. Not a big bar at all. I could easily eat one of them in 15 mins. But those are natural, so my mom says they're healthy... Right. She also says halvah is healthy. That, too, is something like 500-700 calories per 100 grams (which is a small portion). But nooo, of course it's healthy; It's NATURAL. Of course, licorice is so so so healthy too. And she doesn't like seeing me eating normal chocolate, but if it's organic, it's healthy and I have to eat at least a square of it.

(By the way, did you know that pizza is healthy? It has so much veggies on it, it's good for you! -_-' )

Your mother isn't actually all that wide of the mark. Don't be so dismissive.

There are few genuinely unhealthy foods around.  What there are are plenty of unhealthy diets.  If you eat wholesome, nutritious foods 80-90% of the time, you can legitimately enjoy the occasional candy, chocolate or flapjack as part of the other 10-20%.   And what's pizza....?   Bread with tomatoes, vegetables, meat and cheese?   None of those individual foods are 'killers' are they? 

If you ate nothing but sugary flapjacks and greasy pizzas that would be an imbalanced, unhealthy diet.  If you ate nothing but vegetables, fruit and brown rice that would also be an imbalanced, unhealthy diet.   Enjoy a good balance of all different types of foods (including small amounts of sugar, liquorice and halvah, why not?) and resist the urge to write certain things off all together.  

Aww don't be so harsh on your poor mum! (well you can..coz shes ur mum lol)

Sounds like most parents if I'm honest.  My mum however, is a vegetarian, allergic to wheat and dairy produce, allergic to chocolate and loads of types of glucose stuff so her diet is limited to rice, ricecakes, fruit and veggies....which all sounds very healthy but means she doesn't get enough calories.  So basically she's always bombarded us with healthy food from the word go.  Even if she doesn'y know toomuch about the actual nutritional content of foods, she knows whats healthy so we've always got tons of veg lying around!!

from the sounds of it, while your mum is (perhaps incorrectly) assuming that anything natural is automatically very healthy, you're making a similar mistake and assosciating low calorific value with health. a flapjack might have 500 calories, but it's a damn sight healthier than a packet of sugarfree wine gums which only has 90.

i agree with gi-jane - diets should be balanced.

Original Post by jenniekinns:

Aww don't be so harsh on your poor mum! (well you can..coz shes ur mum lol)

Heh, maybe I am a bit too harsh... xD I know she wants just the best for me, it's just that Im so fed up with it. But I do agree with her that it's better to eat 500 calories in halvah than it would be in pure crap like candy.

There you go again referring to 'pure crap' when that's not accurate.  And you're also making the mistake of thinking 'high calories' is automatically unhealthy.   You don't have to eat 500 calories of halvah or candy.... you can have a small amount of either or both.

It's good that your family is going with you to the nutritionist.  Everyone will be able to take something away from it and work to find a happy balance.

i read somewhere that there is less caffeine in a bar of chocolate than in a cup of decaff coffee...

i watched a programme on children with food phobias who would literally only eat chocolate or pasta (very limited diets, anyway) and one of the psychologists spoke about how damaging the media can be in promoting the idea of 'junk' food and 'healthy' food - if your sole source of calories is chocolate buttons then they certainly aren't junk food - they're keeping you alive! i'm not suggesting that chocolate buttons are in any way a healthy way to sustain a body but i suppose the point i'm trying to make is that we shouldn't underestimate or eradicate certain food groups just because they're not from wholefoods. if you're recovering from an ed - a life threatening illness - it really doesn't matter where your calories come from as long as they're coming from somewhere.

a while ago i had a dietician appointment because i  decided my diet (which included a magnum ice cream every day) was 'unhealthy' and wanted an alternative meal plan. she took one look at my food diary for the day and said that the only thing unhealthy about my diet was that it was too low in calories.

moderation moderation moderation. mwaha.

...one of the psychologists spoke about how damaging the media can be in promoting the idea of 'junk' food and 'healthy' food

Exactly... This passage from an excellent book illustrates the point you're making I think. 

A few years ago, Rozin (psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania) presented a group of Americans with the following scenario: “Assume you are alone on a desert island for one year and you can have water and one other food. Pick the food that you think would be best for your health”

My parents don't know too much about nutrition and they are both overweight. These things are obviously related. My mom doesn't take into consideration that restauraunt prepared food is worse for you, she thinks a good way to modify her diet is to get more take out. She tries to pick "healthy" sounding items that are actually not - just because it's fish doesn't mean you can bread it and fry it in butter put it on a bed of pasta in butter and it'll still be healthy!

I recently decided to be a pescatarian (no meat but fish) and my dad was CONVINCED i wouldn't get enough protein. He's nutritionally a little better than my mom but he still doesn't really know. He doesn't understand how many other sources of protein there are and how much protein is in the things I regularly consume (eggs, milk, cheese, tofu, greek yogurt, tuna, oatmeal, high protein cereal). I actually made a bet with him that he would count his protein for a week and obviously I count my cals so I know how much I get and we'd see who gets more. I won. On a much lower cal diet (I would estimate my dad consumes an upwards of 2500 or 3000 cals. I eat between 1500 and 2000 depending on my work out) with no meat I actually got MORE protein than my dad. He felt pretty silly.

However, my mom's trying to lose weight now, and she asked me for advice. I told her food to cook for herself and about how much to eat a day (she won't count cals) and I think it's starting to work :) I'm no nutritionist but I felt really good that I knew enough about something to actually advise another person!

My mom has battled anorexia and bulimia most of her life, but does not see them as health issues...only weight loss methods. Now that shes in her 50s, it is plainly obvious how her "methods" have completely destroyed her health. Her skin looks bad, her hair is a disaster, she has no muscle tone anymore and she's constantly depressed. But, it hasn't really stopped her. 

When my mom saw that I was losing weight, her competitive drive kicked in and she stopped eating again (she wasn't overweight, just not as skinny as she'd always been). She lost some weight...and some hair. Now, just eating the bare minimum, she is gaining weight. All her weight goes to her middle and since she has lost muscle everywhere else, so the skin sags. She's also shrinking in height (bone problems, likely).

So, she won't eat but she buys boxes of donuts and cookies for my little brothers...one of whom is diabetic. She doesn't grasp the difference in carbs and that is sooooo important where the 13 year old diabetic is concerned. Thank goodness he knows what is what. Since he moved in with my dad (who is very aware of good nutrition thanks to his new wife) hes put on 30lbs and grown several inches in just a few months! (Thank goodness, he was beginning to look like walking death). My 17 year old brother is also conscious of his health, is in excellent cardio condition and has ample muscle mass from lifting, but also has a massive sweet tooth. Poor guy can't resist those donuts! 

She's trying though. She's been cooking a lot of fish and vegetable meals (though still eating very little). Unfortunately she covers everything in crisco, salt, or margarine and only keeps white wonder-type bread at the house. My brothers (I have four) and I are doing our best to educate her. Sometimes she gets angry, thinks we aren't appreciative of her food (she is a great cook, just an unhealthy one). But slowly, she's seeing the light. I'm trying to help her adjust her calorie intake to repair her metabolism. She's so scared of eating, since she doesn't want to gain, that its an uphill battle.

When I was growing up, I was always the kid who would go to school with thick, whole grain bread slathered with organic preserves and natural chunky peanut butter; I'd never even heard of a lunchable; icecream was a very rare treat; fast food was even more rare, and when we went it was only when my grandma convinved my mom to let us go; my mom would bring dixie cups with ranch dressing, baby carrots and celery sticks in them to school parties when every other parents brought cookies or something...

I guess my mom was also vegetarian when I was little, but I didn't find this out till recently.  She'd cook meat for the family, I guess, but mostly she'd use soy products.  I had no idea that my mom's famous meatloaf was made with TVP till I found the recipe this summer.

She always bought soy milk.  I grew up on brown eggs from the chickens we had on our old farm.

Yeah, my mom was really into health food.

I half blame her for giving up, and letting me gain weight.  And for that, I half blame her for the ED I developed.  I know all of that is my fault...but I don't know.  Somehow I feel that if she still used green spinach noodles for supper, made her whole grain bread, used real butter...etc, I'd be a lot healthier than I am now.

I miss how she used to be...

WOAH! If my mom was like your I probably would go NUTS... or I just wouldn't be as knowledgeable in the nutrition field & would probably be 5000 pounds! My mother is extremely healthy and has always been ever since I have been alive at least. She never let any junk food in the house (and when I say that I mean NOTHING! The only thing we could have was cheerios {rarely} &/or Ezekiel Bread {which is disgusting to a kid's pallette}) - When I was little I would rebel and go to my friends house & eat every bit of junk food they had (every so often I would see my friend's parents leaving as I left my friends houses, and my friends would later inform me their parents were going to the grocery store because I ate everything in their house!!!) but now I am & will forever be a healthy eater who follows in the footsteps of her very healthy & intelligent about nutrition mother. My dad on the other hand is completely dense about nutrition and eats for pleasure & because food is good... I mean, I do the same thing but I also incorporate nutrients & antioxidants into my diet while he just incorporates pig fat & lamb! ha ha. Oh well - each to their own I guess. 

My mom knows a little bit. She tends to leave my food decisions alone, but she does help me figure out calories sometimes.

My whole family is overweight, so none them really know much.

My dad's situation is very ironic, because he's a doctor. o_o; He should know better... Dx