It seems like everything these days cause cancer, heart disease, diabetes and so on. I know what to do for weight loss in the broadest of terms - consume less calories than I can burn - but what is considered healthy anymore?

There is so much information out there, many even actual studies, that contradict one another. An example, drinking milk may or may not contribute to cancer. Juicing is good for you but then again, it's still sugar and should be had in moderation. Eggs have no effect on blood cholesterol but then people with high cholesterol shouldn't eat eggs either. Meat is bad for you because of the saturated fat/meat is good for you because how else did the caveman eat? Have a plant-based diet which is healthy or wait you can't because unless you're diligent about what you put in your body or take supplements, you can have a deficiency.

Not taking genetics or food sensitivities into account, how does one know what food to consume if there is so much conflicting information out there. It's like all the food out there is out to get you.

And then there's the theory that the above mentioned foods don't matter, all that does it calorie restriction and it's benefits of longevity.

In my effort to lose weight, I've focused on limiting my saturated fat, sugar, and eating intuitively. But then what else is left that somehow won't kill me one way or another?

Oh, I know how you feel! My dad ate clean organic foods and exercised every day of his life, died of a horrible bone cancer at age 76. His mother lived to 99 and she ate all sorts of fried foods, cheeses, sweets. But she also ate A LOT of vegetables and fasted often (for religious reasons).

The one thing they had in common was that they BOTH DIED. It's inevitable. We're all going to die. Hate that! Doesn't matter how perfectly we eat, it still happens.

I don't know how long I'm going to live. I'm 52. I've lived a pretty clean life. I grew up eating the organic foods and I still do. I like to eat clean proteins from wild-caught fish to grass-fed bison and free-range eggs. I still have type 2 diabetes. It's genetic, from my mother's side of the family. There's cancer in my dad's side of the family. There's also osteoporosis, but I just got my bone density scan and I was told I have the bone density of a super healthy 20-year-old. So I dodged that bullet!

I think living in fear is probably not healthy. I make the best choices I can make with what I have available to me. I look at my cousins that are around the same age as me. The healthy ones eat like I do, exercise, have wonderful social connections, take time to relax and enjoy life in moderation. The unhealthy ones drink a lot of alcohol, smoke the "herbal cigarettes", still overeat and make very unhealthy food choices. They live hard. And they look so much older than the rest of us.

But we're still all going to die...I'm choosing to live well while I can.

"All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous." - Paracelsus

Don't be fooled by blog and news headlines. They take science out of context and filter it through their agenda to get traffic to thier site or eyes on their paper.

Organic means natural. It doesn't mean healthy. Pesticides are used in organic farming that are just as dangerous as synthetic pesicides.

GMO being dangerous to your health primarily based on a single and pretty crappy study on rodents.

HFCS is no different than any other sugar and the studies done that show the danger have massive doses, also on rodents.

I could go on ... but the point is that if you eat a diet based around primarily whole foods, you're going to be just fine. We don't even know if there is a diet that has the best health. If there is a diet that proviides optimum health it probably varies from person to person.

Don't get caught up in the details. Focus on the fundamentals.

This response really hit home for me. I have no advice or answers, just reading through what everyone posts

I don't worry. In California everything gives you cancer. Which is why you see pesky warning labels on otherwise harmless products.

The best bet for a long life expectancy is to be female and of an average weight.

I just don't see old, fat guys.

Or tall ones. (Has me worried ...)

No, I once knew a guy who was 6'3" who made it into his 90s.

Oops, you'd call that a shortie!

^^^

Genetics.

You can eat like crap and smoke your entire life and live to be 90 but you don't want to play russian roulette either...just saying for argument's sake.

Just remember everything in moderation.

I know how you feel. What gets to me are people who all of a sudden learn something and throw out perfectly good food that they'd been eating just because a new "study" came out that says you shouldn't eat it. One thing to do with these so called "studies" is follow the money. Who paid for it? Of course it is going to be skewed their way.

I was trying to add more soy to my diet a few years ago and all these "studies" came out telling us how bad it was for women to consume too much soy. I forgot who paid for that study. No, I didn't throw out all the stuff I'd gotten, like Gimme Lean, and what not. I finished it. However, I did notice that once I quit eating it, my headache went away. Well, that told me that too much soy in my diet, and my diet only, is not good for me.

My boss has gout and has to be very careful. However, he is one of these people who preaches to the rest of us on why we should not be eating leafy greens. The vitamin K is bad for you. Nobody can tell him that while they are bad for him because of his gout, we can eat them if we choose. Nope. We're all wrong. Also, because he goes to one of the top podiatrists at Stanford, he now tells us what types of shoes we should be wearing. I have plantar f in both my feet, just because he has gout doesn't mean that we should wear the same types of shoes.

Good luck. It is hard to know what to do. Why can't someone come out with the type of living plan we used to be able to do? Remember? It was when bacon and eggs and lots of sunshine were good for you.

I do think most food we eat here in North America is crap.

There are days where I wish I lived in a forest cabin and could just eat berries, nuts, and whatever my husband shot with an arrow.

I know that's not practical in today's world but it is what it is.

.... says the girl who just drank a diet root beer

I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer last summer and was told it was due to my "environment" and not hereditary. The excess estrogen in my fat cells were feeding the cancer. That literally makes me sick to my stomach.

That being said, I still do drink diet soda and put Sweet & Low in my coffee. Every single thing that every study says causes cancer started to stress me out to the point where it was going to be starvation that killed me and not this cancer.

I get tested every 3 months now to check the status of the cancer and how my medication is managing it before I have the only cure available, a hysterectomy at 37. My saving grace in making it this far without having surgery yet (I'm trying to have a baby) is my weightloss, that's it. I literally have shut off the feeding tube to my cancer cells by going on a medically supervised diet and cutting out any and all "bad" foods. My eating lifestyle was literally killing me.

I do honestly believe, deep down in my heart, that once cancer is in a body that it never goes away and never gets cured. It's just a matter of whether it gets activated again. I have no scientific proof behind that, it's just my personal observation in life and people I knew with cancer at one point.

elvis, I'm so sorry to hear about that. Bless your heart. You have a huge challenge ahead of you. I had my hyste when I was 38. I welcomed it. I was done with having kids and was sick and tired of bleeding to death. I felt so much better.

Prayers are yours. Please keep us updated. You don't have to go through this alone.

Sorry to jack the thread but wanted to acknowledge elvis. I saw her post somewhere else on here and didn't comment then.

It does get confusing. Coffee is bad for you. Coffee is good for you. Meat is bad for you. Meat is good for you. Vegetables are good for you. But only if they're organic. Organic vegetables are a crock. Carbs are good. Carbs are bad. Milk does a body good. Milk is hormone laden and intended only to fatten baby calves. Low fat diet. High fat diet.

I think only Michael Pollan has said it best. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." This statement says it all, let's break it down.

Eat food (real food, not processed food, food only that is recognizeable to your gread grandmother. Tweenkies, low fat mayo, fat-free cheese, doritos are not real food.)

Not too much (Do we really need a tub of popcorn at the movies? Do we really need 20oz colas? What is a serving size? Portion control!)

Mostly plants (the plant based diet is the only undisputed diet in the nutritional world. Eating fresh perishable foods should make up the bulk of our diet. What I like best about this statement is that it does not exclude other foods like proteins or even sugars, it just points the way to eating fresh food as the bulk of our diet).

One of the greatest things I learned here at 3FC is that there is no one way of eating that will work for everybody. Some people (like me) thrive only on high-fat diets, and plenty of others don't. The only general guideline that seems to be a common thread is to avoid the processed end of the spectrum. Honestly, I think it's the stress over this stuff that's causing the most disease, not the food!