We ate healthy tonight! Uh, maybe.....

We had a yummy supper tonight! It consisted of grilled trout, caught by Jim and his dad a few weeks ago, (and frozen since then), broccoli florets with parmesan and herb topping, and Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice. Yummmm!

But was it healthy? I don't know any more.

This all started a few weeks ago when I was bored one afternoon. I had some laundry to fold so I turned on Netflix. We get it through our Wii. Innocent, little naive me went searching for something interesting. I found a documentary entitled "Forks Over Knives." Ok, it's about food. I'm doing Weight Watchers now. Maybe this will teach me something.

Boy, did it ever!

"Forks Over Knives" is a documentary espousing the benefits of a plant-based diet. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I just accepted that idea and went with it while watching the whole film. It wasn't until about 75% of the way through the film that I started to wonder just exactly what they meant. It was also about that time that they first said the word...

Vegan

Yes, a plant-based diet means Vegan. I feel stupid for not recognizing it earlier.

There are several good reviews of this film on various blogs. I wouldn't even begin to try and review it here. My first overall impression, though, was WOW! You can REVERSE heart disease? That caught my attention. I've got a family history riddled with heart disease. I've been on Lipitor for the last 4 years or so (except when I was pregnant with or nursing J4). So I was intrigued.

But after reading Denise Minger's review on her blog, Raw Food:SOS and Rhys Southan's review on the blog Let Them Eat Meat, I'm coming down from the plant-based mountain.

And really starting to question whether anyone knows what's good for us or not.

The premise of this film was simple: ALL animal products are bad and will kill you. No, really. That's pretty much it. Watch the film and see for yourself. But what about fish? One time in the film, some guy (don't know names, but he was a professional looking fellow with credentials) says that if it walks, runs, swims, or flies, then it's bad for you. Really? Fish? I thought fish were ok.

So that's one view. Here's another:

My Weight Watchers program has you eating lean protein. (22 slices of Hormel pizza-style Canadian bacon are only 1 point! woohooo! Had them at lunch today with crackers and Laughing Cow cheese thanks to Hungry Girl.....) Fruit and veggies are all (well, almost all) 0 points. They figure that even though some are high in sugar or fat, no one ever really got fat by eating too many fruits and veggies.

Hungry Girl.com (my newest food find) claims to "provide a happy medium -- a bridge between the average junk food diet and the idealistic way of eating perfectly healthy at all times." Ok. Most of her recommendations are good, natural foods. But she lists some that are low fat and no fat. I thought we'd moved beyond the "fat is bad for you" stage. She also lists plenty of sugar-free foods. But these usually contain artificial sweeteners. While I'm nowhere near being a health nut, I still don't want these chemicals in my body.

Then there's the whole organic, local food movement. Strawberries from the corner of Joyce and Crossover? Good! Strawberries from Walmart flown in from California? BAD!!!

So what's healthy? What's "good for you?" When I was growing up, popsicles, cookies, and candy were all junk food. They still are. But Hamburger Helper was healthy! Today, it's not. (too much salt, possibly too much sugar, white pasta, red meat, processed, processed, processed!) But that's what I grew up learning was "healthy!"

Peanut butter is healthy! No, it's junk food, No, it's healthy!

Alpha had some dental work done the other day so I fixed her some jello. I've always heard that it's good to eat when you can't chew because it's a good source of protein. While calculating the WeightWatchers points on it, right there on the back of the box next to the 2g of protein it said, "not a significant source of protein." ****sigh****

So what am I "supposed" to eat? What do I feed my family? Am I killing my children by giving them chicken? Only if it's fried, but not if it's grilled? (oh, wait. Charred parts cause cancer...) What if it's already diced up and cooked and comes in a bag so that I can have supper on the table in about 20 minutes Tuesday night when I have to go to a meeting at 6:00? Is that bad?

I bought Pillsbury Halloween cinnamon rolls for our breakfast tomorrow. I'm probably going straight to mom hell for that one.

So I'm confused. I don't know what's healthy and what's not. It depends on who you ask. And no one group seems to have any better evidence than any other group. You can show almost anything with a "study." (I worked briefly in the biostatistics field. I've seen it happen.)

But for now, I'm going to enjoy having eaten our fish dinner! I'm going to try and have us eat more fruits and vegetables and maybe a little less meat. My family doesn't know it but they've all been put on Weight Watchers! Muhahahaha! (except that they've been able to eat almost endless amounts of early Halloween candy while I've had to count all of mine.....) Is this the best plan? Who knows? But it's the best I can do at the moment. I guess only time will tell.