Eating right: it's not all bad news.

"Australians are not eating enough vegetables, legumes and fruit, fish, seafood, poultry, eggs, nuts and seeds, according to the National Health and Medical Research Council."
The tagline for an article yesterday.

That is a long list of things we aren't eating enough of. It's such a worry! My eggs always expire. I don't know anything about seeds. I'm too lazy to count the days I eat fish, and anyway, fish shopping is a scary snobby world! I don't know the different types. I don't know if I'm buying fresh fish or over-fished fish or imported fish. What am I looking for in the fish eyes, glassy or not glassy? I feel safer eating anonymous tinned tuna on toast, because I've never had to look at its eyes, but that's probably wrong.

Anyway, I thought I'd read the actual guidelines to see if they had helpful details. I haven't yet, but on the website I found a sample meal plan for a woman. One thing struck me:

I'm already doing it!

Why have I been so worried about my diet? I really have, for ages and ages, had a vague sense of not eating as well as I should, not having enough discipline. It was totally unnecessary! I'm just eating normal food like muesli, yoghurt, salad sandwiches and stews, normal food, which is exactly what is recommended*. Where did I get the idea that if it isn't quinoa and salmon with legumes and kale, it's unhealthy? Why did I start thinking that a salad sandwich was failing the food pyramid? When did the bar get set so high, and who by? Or maybe I was just counting up all the bag of chips or the blocks of chocolate and cancelling out the 3 healthy meals I ate every day. So now I think if I'm not eating fried fast food several times a week or coco-pops for breakfast or drinking a bottle of coke a day, I'm winning, so stop worrying and enjoy it.

*At the moment, the only thing I do different to the guideline meal plan is the evening snack: the recommendation is yoghurt and fruit salad, NO WAY. I do yoghurt, but with a chocolate cookie in it. And usually a little bit of chocolate as well. There is no chocolate in that meal plan, an unrealistic oversight.