I like to think that I’m making some healthy food choices, for the most part. I know my diet isn’t perfect. I don’t even aim for perfect. I’d have to give up too much of my favorite treats to get to that point. I don’t even think that focusing too much on nutrition is great for your overall wellbeing. A bit of fun has its place now and then. That said, according to this new study I’ve read, we Americans think we’re doing far better than we are, and it’s really holding us back!
Are Our Healthy Food Choices Really Enough?
The study I read about surveyed 9,700 people. A massive 85 percent of them were under the impression that they were making more healthy food choices than they actually were. This has me taking a closer look at what I’m putting on my plate and what that picture looks like overall.
What I’ve found out is that I have an odd habit of choosing one very good ingredient and thinking that it somehow excuses a lot of other unhealthy options throughout the rest of the day. For instance, I’ll have blueberries on cereal and somehow believe that the berries offset the sugar-laden bowl of refined carbs I’m wolfing down at twice the serving size recommended on the box. Or I’ll add an egg, cherry tomatoes and microgreens to an instant ramen packet and somehow trick myself into thinking that I didn’t just eat 600 calories’ worth of fried noodles (seriously, look at the nutrition table!). Bacon is fine as long as each strip is wrapped around an asparagus spear, right?
So, I’ve Been Doing It Too
The research was conducted by a US Department of Agriculture team that found that there are some major disconnects between what Americans think we’re eating, and the healthy food choices we’re actually making.
A massive 85 percent of us rated our diet as being notably more healthful than it actually was. That’s not good news. The reason is that if we think we’re doing better than we are, then we’re not going to understand why certain consequences arise, and we won’t know what to change in order to correct those problems.
The researchers asked the study participants to rate their overall diet as being poor, fair, good, very good or excellent. Then, they completed 24-hour food questionnaires to show what they were actually eating on a regular day. The researchers compared the ratings with the food logs. Unfortunately, they didn’t align – just like mine.
Check Your Healthy Food Choices
My non-medical, non-expert recommendation for you if you want to know if your impression of your diet algins with your healthy food choices is to use a free app or website (ShareFit or MyFitnessPal are easy options) and track every bite of food you take for a day. Ideally, you should do it for more time, but do it even for one day.
Then, have a look at your results. Try hard not to alter your diet just so that it will look better in your tracking. Or, if you do make more healthy food choices so that it will look better in your tracking, be sure to make a note of how often that happens. It will tell you something!
