On "healthy" food

What is healthy food? What does that designation actually mean, anyway? 

The answer is not as simple as you might think. On occasion, when I talk about the way I eat with people, someone will protest with "but (insert food here) is healthy!" Is it or isn't it? It's not a black and white answer: it depends what your goals are. 

Take, for instance, an apple. Apples are relatively low in calories (around 50-55 per apple, depending on the size and particular species), and a good source of water. They're low in fat (obviously), low in sodium (again, obviously), have no cholesterol. They're high in carbohydrates and sugars (roughly 15g of carbs, about 11g of which will be pure sugar - "but it's natural!" you cry - yup, but it's still sugar!), and have no protein worth mentioning. They're not a significant source of any micronutrients (aka vitamins), either, providing at the most, 7% of your daily vitamin C needs, and not much of anything else. 

If you're looking for a food high in protein, apples are not "healthy".
If you're looking for a food low in fat, apples are "healthy".
If you're looking for a food low in sodium, apples are "healthy".
If you're looking for a food low in carbs/sugars, apples are not "healthy".
If you're looking for a food high in iron, apples are not "healthy".
If you're looking for a food low in calories, apples are "healthy".
If you're looking for a food high in vitamin D, apples are not "healthy".
If you're looking for a cholesterol-free food, apples are "healthy".
If you're looking for a food high in dietary fibre, apples are not "healthy". 

Do you see where I'm going with this... ? 

It's important to know what your goals are, and why. This is especially important when you're reading an article online that someone on social media linked that decries one way of eating and praises another. It could be that whole grains are a healthy option for one person. However, if another person is trying to lower their insulin and/or lose weight, foods with lower carb values will be a better option. Chicken is an arguably healthy food (as long as it's free of chemicals and hormones, which is another argument altogether...), yet a vegetarian would obviously not want it as a source of protein. It really depends on what your personal and physical priorities are. 

So yes, the Mediterranean way of eating may be a good fit for one person, while a ketogenic or paleo way of eating may work better for someone else. Someone with heart disease will likely want to make different choices than a high-performance athlete. Children have different needs than the elderly. There are certain foods which are pretty reliably "healthy" for almost anyone, though. Here they come: 

• Foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids. These include: olive oil, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, herring, trout, etc), avocados, nuts (especially walnuts)
• Leafy greens, especially spinach and kale - high in nutrient value, low in anything that could be considered harmful
• Eggs. Nature's perfect food (unless you're a vegan, I suppose!)
• Flaxseed (especially ground - the whole seeds don't break down as well!) and chia seeds. Perfect for when you're looking for more fibre but don't want the carb/sugar values of fruit/vegetables with it!

Everything else is pretty much debatable, depending on what your personal needs are. Speaking of fibre and flaxseed, here's a great recipe for flaxseed mug "muffins" that I've adapted from Genius Kitchen (I omit the stevia, which (in spite of being a natural sweetener) still provokes an insulin response (which I'm personally looking to avoid). Sometimes I add blueberries, either fresh or frozen. (Thanks for putting me onto these, Kate!) 

Mix together: 1/4 cup ground flaxseed, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 egg, and 1 tsp olive oil in a mug. Mix it very well, so that all of the egg and flaxseed are properly mixed together. Microwave it for one minute, and voilà! I eat mine directly from the mug with a spoon. Optional: add 2 tbsp blueberries. If they're frozen, microwave the muffin for 1:30. 

One of the only foods I would say is utterly without redeeming qualities of any kind, which no one needs for any reason whatsoever, is sugar. Sugar comes in many, many, many forms, both naturally-occuring (honey, maple syrup) and incredibly processed (sucrose/table sugar, maltodextrin, etc) and everything in between. This is one thing which your body can get absolutely nothing good from, and which will only do you harm. If you're going to cut out one thing from your eating patterns completely, let it be sugar. And let that also include every other sort of sweetener, whether it's natural (like stevia) or artificial (aspartame, sucralose, xylitol, etc.) Otherwise... judge according to your needs, and weigh every article advertising a "healthy" way of living or eating with a large grain of salt, with your own personal needs in mind! This stuff isn't easy to navigate, so it's important to figure out how to separate out what's true and what will be healthy for YOU.