Answer: Either.

Explanation:

The old rule was that “healthy” meant “in good health” and “healthful” meant “promoting good health.” So a person could be healthy but the best a food could hope for was “healthful.” Now though, according to Merriam-Webster Online, “healthy” can be used as a synonym for “healthful.”

But there’s a price to pay: Some sticklers in the audience are bound to think your standards are too loosey-goosey. If your readers are likely to be old-school grammarians—and you’re not in a feather-ruffling mood— you can’t go wrong with “healthful.”  No, you can’t go wrong, exactly. Although non-stickler readers are apt to think you’re a bit of a fuddy-duddy. So you make your choice and you take your chances.

June Cassagrandes discusses the problem:

I think most people would say that “healthy diet” is more popular and more natural-sounding than “healthful diet.” So why does the L.A. Times use “healthful” and, just as interestingly, why do I often change “healthy” to “healthful” when I’m copy editing marketing pieces?

It’s because, in language, you have to pick your battles. And, when you do so, you have to take into account your reader and the context in which you’re writing. Readers who believe “healthful” can’t mean “healthy” notice what they believe to be an error. And errors, real or perceived, are distracting. So you, like the L.A. Times, may want to make the safe choice by opting for “healthful.”

Just be aware that you can’t please all the readers, all the time. I think I’m going to stick with “healthy.” A little benign feather-ruffling keeps the work day lively.

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Answer: Either one.

Explanation:
I empathize with the commenter on this Wordwizard thread who said “Oriented and orientated are evidently synonymous, but I can’t stand it! Can anyone give me some ammunition for my claim that ‘orientated’ came to be accepted only after sufficient misuse? Or at least that ‘orientated’ is a poor substitute for ‘oriented?’”

There really isn’t much help for either of us — the most comfort we can take is that “orient” was the original form and “orientate” arose later.

Here’s an excerpt from a fascinating comment from Ken Greenwald:

The word passed into English in the 14th century via Old French as the adjective and noun ‘orient.’ With the spread of Christianity into Europe it became customary to build churches with their longitudinal axes pointing eastward toward Jerusalem. This practice gave rise to the use of ‘orient’ as a verb (via the French ‘orienter,’ a derivative of the adjective ‘orient’— 1727-41) meaning ‘to cause to face or point toward the east,’ to turn east. It was then used by extension (1842) to mean ‘to place or adjust in any particular way with respect to the cardinal points or other defined data.’ And then, finally, in 1850 it came to be used figuratively to mean ‘to adjust, correct, or bring into defined relations, to known facts or principles; to put oneself in the right position or relation; to ascertain one’s ‘bearings,’ find out ‘where one is.’”

> Read the rest of that thread.

Sigh. It appears that “orientated” is every bit as correct as “oriented.” I will just have to bear up and accept it.

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