Fancy Feasting? Let's Keep It Simple

Lately, it seems like every "health" article I come across describes foods and dishes I'm not accustomed to and/or foods that I straight up can't pronounce.

I see recipes for kale, flax, and kefir smoothies and toasted quinoa (pronounced keenwa) with pine nuts and figs. I've even come across a suggestion to bring "charcuterie" with "Aux Délices des Bois’s hot soppressata" to my upcoming cookouts.  (No I did not look it up; I refused to google what that dish is out of straight principle). My students always say that if you can't pronounce it, then it's probably not healthy. Now they're talking about additives and processed foods, but I can't help but make a small connection here.

So I guess my random question of the day is:

When did eating healthy become so complicated?

I think that a lot of people are over-thinking the concept of healthy eating, especially on the internet.   Many websites make me feel like every meal has to be this incredible experience that challenges my cooking skills as well as my palate.

Or they tell me that I'm a conformist because I eat grains and cheese. There are so many conflicting ideas that I imagine quite a few people just throw in the towel and eat junk just because they don't know what to do.  Maybe that's why fast food and convenience foods are so alluring. Not only are they quick and relatively cheap, but they're simple.  You know exactly what you're getting.

Don't get me wrong. I love to cook and I love trying new recipes, but when time and energy are low, I like to keep my meal planning simple. I stick to foods that I know taste good to me and I keep the basic food groups in mind. I save recipes that I know work, and I try to make eating healthy as easy as possible for myself.  Maybe we're so overwhelmed with trying to be chefs and "foodies" that we're missing the big picture. 

A quick judge to tell if a food is healthy is to try to fit it into a food group. If you have to stretch it, then it's not healthy. For instance, you can't say ice cream is healthy just because it has dairy in it. Keeping to that little rule can really help to put things into perspective. I really think the key to eating healthy is finding foods we like to eat that happen to fit nicely into the major food groups.  But then again, that sounds too simple to really work, doesn't it? ;)