What Does a Healthy Diet Consist Of? :

A survey undertaken by the British Food Standards Agency highlights how confused consumers are when it comes to a "healthy" diet.

That's because of the constant debate over exactly what constitutes healthy.

Of note:

• 73% recognized importance of eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
• 19% wrongly thought eating plenty of fruit and veg could "outweigh" eating fatty, sugary foods.
• 58% realized foods high in fat and sugar should only be eaten occasionally.

But, what about carbohydrates? What a dilemma.

Only 11% of people correctly said it was important to eat lots of starchy foods, the survey of 2,094 people found. (via BBC )

Here is where things get tricky, and the state-sanctioned starch-heavy diets (e.g. Food Pyramid) come into play. Not everyone agrees that it is "important to eat lots of starchy foods".

Here is the "eat well" plate from the Food Standards Agency (UK equivalent of the US FDA):

See a full-size version here .

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