Food Question

When buying your groceries, but mainly when cooking... do you buy and cook according to only what you Like or what is recommended for your health?
Bacon is suppose to be so bad for us, but yet many of us eat it anyway. Eggs were suppose to be a death trap years ago. Science had even claimed how wonder sugar substitutes were- Bollocks.
Do you cook only what you like or what you feel is necessary for your health? do you use real butter?
Bottom line- how much do you care or pay attention to in regards to what is suppose to be healthy for us all?
For me I rotate. Don't eat bacon everyday- he does- unless I make him ham. Seldom do I make the same foods every week. Mark hangs his head when I inform him- no we do not need gravy with chicken fried steak. Yes, I was raised on it,
I could eat it all with biscuits and such but, it is very unhealthy. Twice a year I make white gravy- in the winter.
Having said all this- we both are overweight - why, is another Thread - um maybe later.
Just trying to determine if people our age really avoid so much of the things we grew up on and love to eat.
Attention all you weed and flower eating healthy people - feel free not to comment- just kidding

 

Due to my kidneys problem (low eGFR/kidney function) last year, that put me into the hospital for a few days, I can no longer eat pork chops, potato chips and very little bacon. Chicken is no longer on my list as a "favorite food". My wife, much more than myself, like pizza, but it produces too much acid in her stomach. For some reason, ground beef, whether from a grocery store or restaurant, doesn't taste like it use to. So, we do buy burgers or make burgers anymore.

As for "cooking at home", I don't do it nearly as much as I use to. When we grocery shop, we will buy stuff for breakfast (during the week) and lunch, but not much for dinners. I use to make meatloaf, fried chicken, oven baked pork chops, but just can't do that anymore. We use to make tacos and spaghetti at home, but, for us, it's much easier eating either at a restaurant.

As far as "eating healthy", we do and don't, however, more "don't" than do.

 

I cook whatever we like. We eat pretty healthy most of the time-- at least I think we do. I cook mostly everything from scratch so I know what goes into our food; sodium, sugar, fats, etc. We very rarely eat out unless family wants to get together and meet at a restaurant. If I am making mashed potatoes there is always gravy with it. My husband thinks he can’t eat mashed potatoes without it. I always cook and bake with real butter. We don’t eat very much fried foods, sweets, or junk food. We try to eat everything in moderation but it doesn’t always turn out that way. My husband has never been over weight and eats twice as much as I do. As for me these days, I weigh more than I care too. I always feel like I am a little chubby.

And I will say, I do get sick and tired of cooking all the time in my older age so there will come a day we will succumb to packaged foods, whether it comes from restaurants or grocery stores.

 

@Krystal Shay - you sound like us. @Yvonne Smith - I love specialty breads, like yours and the zucchini bread I made so much of.
from our garden last year. That alone or warmed with some real butter on it, I don't really need anything else from breakfast.

 

I buy what we like because if I don't, I am wasting money--stuff we don't like will be thrown away. We eat what we want, but I have always tried to make "balanced" meals including a green vegetable and/or salad. I started out learning to cook and always included meat/starch/green vegetable and pretty much have always done. Neither of us has diet limitations and we are fairly active for our ages. My husband has always been quite slim and I'm always fighting the same 10 pounds. If I make roast or country steak or any other fried meat there is always gravy.

I haven't bought margarine in over 30 years; I just prefer the taste of butter. We occasionally have bacon but as non-breakfast eaters we don't eat much of it. I like having a bit of bacon grease on hand to put in beans or whatever. I love fresh breads so I have to watch myself with those and I don't bake bread as much as I used to.

Honestly, at this age if fairly healthy I don't see much point in depriving oneself. It's not like a lifetime of poor choices is going to be reversed unless a person is addicted to junk foods, has diabetes, etc.

 

Wellllll, hubby has had some close calls in recent years and would not believe it was caused by what he ate. And he ate all the time from boredom not from hunger. He looked like he was 10 months pregnant. The daughter had a cancer scare and came to live with us. she and I started on healthy keto and it was great-- a fresh change from what we normally ate but hubby was not so inclined. I lost 35 lbs in short order and kept it off. No bread, cereals, pasta or sugar in or on anything. Basically no packaged food. We grow our own meat, eggs and veggies.
Finally, after the scares, hubby took to the diet and became svelt. I had to beat women off with a stick, until he took his hat off and they saw he had no hair.
Anyway, we eat that way until the occasional fall off the wagon. Once in a while we go out to eat or have a pizza. But since covid and price increases we save a lot eating home and well. Bacon and butter are fine.

 

I try to eat healthy most of the time. Sometimes, it's challenging because I have to keep sugary foods in the house to treat low sugar episodes. That makes it really tempting. In fact, I often hope for low sugar so I can have a few cookies.......

 

All our lives neither of us were big on eating out. We always brown bagged to work,except on occasion. Now living here there are no fast food places . My step daughter was raised on dining out..and hated it, she loved eating with us at home.
So that is a plus. I don't feel like I use much pre made stuff, but might could do better. I do try and keep my salt down and having done so for years- many things are too salty to me eating out or packaged things. I do like to have something on hand when I just am not up to cooking.

 

We never used to eat out much when the kids were all living at home, except for the occasional pizza. We do eat out more often these days, because I'm like Krystal and get tired of cooking every day. My husband isn't picky so we seem to have more sandwich days now, or 1-pot casseroles and soup/chili in the winter. Our kids always give us a bunch of restaurant gift cards so those come in handy.

 

This may seem disgusting, but would like to know. When you make something you don't like, to you ever re-vamp the dish? I do that as I hate to throw food away. Yesterday I made a crock pot meal with some link sausage . It was okay but not wanting to eat it again, I ditched it all except for the sausage. Diced it, a bit of onion,red and yellow peppers, with some shredded potaoe, 1/4 cup cheese, cooked and wrapped in a very high fiber wrap. I thought it was dang good and so did he. Wadda think ?

 

I cut way back on pasta because my triglycerides numbers went up on my last check up.