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What's good for you is bad for you, and vice versa.

Posted on 13th April 2022

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Show all posts in this thread (Nutrition & Food Safety).

I feel thoroughly disheartened after reading this article on Womans World. Apparently, whte rice is better for us than brown rice, because brown rice contains the wrong kind of fibre/fiber (roughage to us Brits).

My partner, Sheryl has been trying valiantly to make our diet healthier, and that included a short-lived experiment with brown rice (which we gave up because we simply didn't like the taste).

The matter of which kind of rice is healthier is only one of a huge list of food and drink items where books and the Internet are full of contradictory advice. That list includes:

  • Coffee, where the advice ranges from drinking none to drinking up to 5 cups per day (apparently coffee is good for the heart, blood pressure and the prevention of cancer);
  • Meat, where advice ranges from eating none, to only low fat meat (ostrich, venison, etc.), or eating only white meat, all the while bearing in mind that you must get enough vitamin B12 (I supplement my B12 intake with marmite);
  • Butter, which was demonised because it contains lots of saturated fats, but it now seems that these are a special kind that are good for us;
  • Wine and other alcoholic drinks, where some advise avoiding it completely, and other advice suggests one, or in some cases two, glasses per day;
  • Fruit juice, where some advise that it is healthy (in moderation), while others suggest no juice, but only whole fruit, and the avoidance of fruit such as bananas, mangos, etc.;
  • For diabetics, carbohydrates such as sugar, flour, bread, potatoes and sweet-corn/maize.

The advice is changing constantly, and it is impossible to keep up.

My advice? Everything in moderation.