Let’s just admit it, ok.   We all love to eat.  If we had our way, we’d eat all the time.  Why?  Because it makes us feel good and if the food or drink is real tasty, well even better.  At the same time however, we can’t seem to not feel guilty after indulging in this glutinous pleasure.  And usually if the guilt factor doesn’t come into play, then the weight factor does.  What’s a food lover to do?

The answer is to eat healthy!  Sort of “having your fruit and eating it too.” According to Dr. Trisha MacNair a writer and medical researcher with the BBC, the healthiest way to lose weight - and keep it off - is the gradual approach of a general policy of healthy eating, rather than a crash diet. Cut down fats as far as possible (beware fats in cooking) and keep sugar intake low, maintain energy levels with plenty of carbohydrates, and fill up with lots of fruit and vegetables.

Experts also agree the key to healthy eating is the time-tested advice of balance, variety and moderation. In short, that means eating a wide variety of foods without getting too many calories or too much of any one nutrient.  Tips include eating a variety of nutrient-rich foods, enjoying plenty of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, maintaining a healthy weight, eating moderate portions, eating regular meals, reducing, but not eliminating certain foods, balancing your food choices over time, knowing your diet pitfalls, making changes gradually, remembering that foods are not good or bad, and exercising regularly to maintain a healthy weight.

But how often do you hear "You are what you eat"?  A recent study says it differently:  That “apparently, you are what your children eat,” as well.

After a six-year nationwide study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine revealed in December 2006 that people who live with children (under 17) are more likely to eat pizza, cheese, cookies, ice cream, bacon and other high-fat foods.

Obviously that’s a bad thing.  But ultimately, adults need to change not just their own diets, but their children's as well, said Helena H. Laroche, the lead author of the Journal report and an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa.  And the time to start is well before school age - when children fall prey to the influence of their pizza-eating peers. Nutritionists say children's eating habits begin at or before birth.  Most nutritionists agree children will be picky about food if they are not exposed to variety when they are young..

Here in these small, but busy islands, people tend to be in a hurry out of necessity.  You’ve got to get home to cook, get to the next job, catch the ferry, pick up the kids, run home change and get to the ballpark for your slow pitch league, etc.