Dan~
I love your idea of a poll or of trying to start a discussion about diet and health, but I feel your poll is way too limited. All kinds of factors play into what is a healthy diet. For example, some people have food intolerance and don't know it. The food that they are eating is making them ill and they don't recognize it. That could be different foods for different people and it could affect them in different ways. A good book on this subject is:
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Allergie...&keywords=food+allergies+and+food+intolerance He has some interesting case studies presented in his book.
I have always eaten a
very healthy diet as my background is nutrition. I was one of the healthiest people around, and one of the most physically active before I got ill. I do think it was a steroid shot to my knee that allowed a latent bacterial pathogen to become active. Then I think my immune system took a hit and viruses reactivated. Then I think both kinds of pathogens (as well as the antibiotics) affected my GI tract and I *think* I now have food intolerance. (And I never would have suspected that about me).
During various times in my life I have eaten vegetarian, or mostly vegan, or certainly whole foods with very little unprocessed foods and now I am avoiding all the major food allergens. I actually went on a few foods elimination diet for most of December and a good part of January. Only now am I adding foods back in. We will see where that takes me.
I've started a blog. Check out this page:
http://tinascocina.com/healthy-eating/ and the Resources page:
http://tinascocina.com/resources/
I do think diet plays a role in our health (obvious if you read the first link above). I also think it can play a role in our healing if we are eating a poor diet (which was not my case) or are dealing with food intolerance (which I think is an issue for me).
I will soon be putting up posts on how to eat healthy (Post 1 of at least a 10 part series will be going online today or tomorrow). I will continue to post all kinds of recipes, including allergy free ones, and also a few "treat" ones.
I am very interested in the discussion about food and nutrition and how it impacts our health so I will subscribe to this thread or any others that I notice on this topic.
And if anyone has suggestions on my blog, I would be interested to hear that.
So, let me know if you start a discussion about food and health, for I'd love to be part of it!
Best, Timaca