Do you agree with the statement you are what you eat

When I was younger I was quite naive and I too thought that if you ate the right food, didn't smoke or drink and kept physically active then you wouldn't get any nasty diseases. And yet a vegan friend got breast cancer, when they made us believe it would be highly unlikely, and another non smoker, non drinker, 'clean living' lady got lung cancer! This shattered the theory I had read about.

That’s quite true loveOc. I agree with you.

Sadly some folk do get cancer despite their best efforts to stay fit and healthy, and that is dreadful for them.

All I was saying is that being seriously overweight does increase the chances of developing any one of a number of serious illnesses, so for that reason I would agree that we are what we eat.

3dognight: ......tinned macaroni cheese on toast for dinner, and then fish fingers chips and beans for tea
You confused me there, and then I realised the meals are round the wrong way (for me). I would say the macaroni cheese for lunch (not dinner) and the fish fingers for dinner (not tea). For me 'tea' is something you have in the middle of the afternoon with a piece of cake.

Apparently if you want a warm, healthy, glowing complexion you should eat plenty of colourful foods like peppers and tomatoes. A Mediterranean diet is the healthiest. There's no doubt that eating plenty of fruit and veg will keep you healthier than not eating them. Oats are better than wheat and a few nuts better than crisps!
Chocolate.....that's another story.

I think that saying is true.
I would hope that someone who ate three healthy meals a day with no snacking would be in a better state of health than someone who give little thought to what they consumed, if given a range of medical tests by their GP.

I know if I have a day where I don't think I've eaten very healthily, for example if I've had something like tinned macaroni cheese on toast for dinner, and then fish fingers chips and beans for tea, the next day then I will cook from scratch healthy food for us next day.

Yes, love0c, true.

Try telling a small child with cancer where they have gone wrong, JenniferE
Or someone who has led a healthy life that they brought it on themselves and should not burden the NHS.

This is the leggings debate all over again.

I have obviously misunderstood. I think you can do your best, eat sensibly, eat a balanced diet, exercise, do not smoke and drink in moderation. Yet, still become ill, get cancer. Hence, I said cancer has no rules.

I absolutely agree. The way I ate before contributed to being diagnosed T2 diabetic..I changed my diet and have been a reversed diabetic for the past 5 years.Never needed any medication and GP says’No further action necessary ‘

Mind you other actions like smoking and drinking can also impact one’s health

When I see families unloading junk food to the conveyor belt in the supermarket, they generally look pasty faced!

The fact still remains though that being very overweight regardless of what is eaten has been proven to lead to many life threatening diseases.

It’s all down to portion size but of course processed food is the unhealthiest.

We live in times when so much is known about the dangers of obesity and it’s shameful that so many chose to ignore the advice then expect the overstretched NHS to pick up the pieces.

LoveOc the title is Do you agree......you are what you eat.

Cancer has no rules.
There's lots of advice given on foods that are carcinogenic and which foods help to protect.

You are what you eat, surely has little to do with how much we eat and everything about the quality of the food we eat.

If you live off over-processed ready meals and cheap take-aways, avoid fruit and veg and lap up sugar then you are going to be unhealthy, fat or thin. Eat good quality food and cook from scratch and you will be much healthier than the first group I mentioned, fat or thin.

I started out with good intentions today.
Then my husband brought me home a chocolate muffin!

I think that too often we equate health with weight and it's not always the main thing to be concerned about.Eating for health is what we should base our food intake on and cutting out "junk food" eg high sugar,fat foods and increasing Veg and Protein instead may lead to weight loss but should also improve us in other ways we may not see.
Vampire Queen my sister and I were a bit like your daughters, she always thin and me plump,I am now Hypothyroid and think I probably always had a bit of a problem with that and she didn't.

I thought this thread was about how you look. Cancer has no rules.

To a large extent I do agree in that eating too much to the point of obesity has a massive impact on our health in terms of the number of avoidable diseases it leads to.

Type 2 diabetes for instance is mainly caused by being overweight and it costs the NHS billions per year.

Then there are various cancers and heart problems etc, so yes we are what we eat , or rather how MUCH we eat.

I find it so sad to see how many fat children there are these days compared to years ago when a fat child was in the minority.

Yes, generally speaking, but many people eat what they like with no bad effects.
And vice versa. I had a friend who was the most healthy eater I have known and had cancer in her early fifties.

I think so. It is harder to lose weight the older you get. If you remain active all your life you will keep the weight off. We can all gain a few pounds over Christmas, in the winter or when going through a bad patch. However, cut back for a little while and the weight will go. If you pile the weight on and do nothing about it, you only have yourself to blame.

flexible that's very, very little. I'd love to know how those calories are broken down..

I think that holds true for some people but not for others. My DD2 eats constantly and is a size 10. She's always been that way. I swear she has hollow legs. DD1 is very careful about what and how much she eats but she is constantly fighting her weight. When they were children they were checked by the school nurse on the same day. A few days later I received two letters. The first told me that DD1 was overweight and the second that DD2 was underweight. I was 'invited' to see a dietician to discuss changing how I fed them. The problem was that they both ate the same foods.

I've come to the conclusion that some of us are meant to be thin and some chubbier. It's not just what we eat but part of our genetic make up. A dietician once told DD1, if there was ever a famine she'd have far more chance of surviving than her high octane sister. Didn't help lol

Well I certainly don't look like a lentil eater despite how often I eat the b*gg*rs.

Same here FlexibleFriend! I've even been told that perhaps I don't eat enough and my body is thinking I'm starving! Just imagine if I did eat more!

Aren't a lot of us a bit chubbier than normal? I have the post-Christmas belly but I know it'll go again by about March!

I haven’t actually dieted for years, not have I weighed myself. I know I’m overweight, but I also know I stay pretty much the same.
Well, I usually stay much the same, I’m feeling a bit plumper around the middle now, so a bit of control needed.