Optimal diet for good health....

[babygrant]

I've been reading about proper nutrition and the best diet for optimal health.  I have two boys who suffer from chronic constipation, I suffer from being overweight, anxiety, depression, and I have a hubby who is also overweight and who smokes.  I've read into paleo/primal eating and I find it interesting and a natural way for our family to eat, but then I read about vegan/vegetarian lifestyle and that also seems interesting.  I'm just not sure which is the healthiest.  We've done the high fiber thing for the boys paired with lots of water and still constipated.  Eliminated dairy, still constipated.  I've added fish oil, 10,000 iu of vitamin d, and a b complex and my anxiety is about a 1 out of 10 now instead of a 10 out of 10, except for when it really escalates for about 5 days AFTER my period.  I lost 40 pounds on a very very low fat diet when I was waiting to get my gallbladder out, but emotionally and physically I felt HORRIBLE, so I know that wasn't a healthy diet for myself.

So in your opinion, which is the best way to eat for optimal health?

[Deir]

 Well- I tend to go with the traditional foods diets. Simplest ideas to me- low sugar and refined grains, organic and free range eggs and meat. 

[babygrant]

bump

[tanyalynn]

I'd say it really needs to be focused on problem-solving your health problems, in the context of your health history, combined with your kids, and your extended family to the extent that you know it.

For me, avoiding stuff like gluten and dairy has been the biggest lever, food-wise, to help me get better.  My DH?  Not so much, but low carb, in the primal/paleo style (so still avoiding gluten) seems to work for him (doesn't work for my DD, which is messing with me--I can't feed them the same things, grr -- but it's interesting, she doesn't do good on higher protein diets, so while I probably could go super-high fat, that's hard and not as tasty, but she seems ok with legumes and some grains, so she gets them and ideally DH doesn't).  I do better on more fat than DH, though as I'm getting healthier, I'm not needing quite as much fat as I did a few years ago.  But it's taken a few years of trial and error to figure out some of this, and it started, for me, with asking why my health was different than other people who lived similar diets/lifestyles. 

So... some of it's trial and error.  And to the extent that you can identify whatever the underlying problem is, that would help too--you post here a fair amount, and it seems like the frequent fliers on the Health & Healing board usually have something more than the usual "eat some more veggies, exercise a bit more" type of health problems, yk? 

[MsFortune]

I'd stay away from fad or extreme diets.

Eat as close to the ground as you can.  Simple, as little processed as possible.  

Low fat, low calorie.