Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's not easy to eat vegetables...so goes the content of this NY Times article on why Americans don't eat their vegetables.
I am having my own dilemma with the preparation or lack thereof, of the vegetable.
I am beginning the process of de-oiling my existence (more on that later) and taking on the vegetable as the mainstay of my new heart-healthy palate. Easier said than done. Last night I munched on sugar snap peas - sold at my grocery in a convenient small bag already washed and ready-to-eat. I also had a bag of carrots and a bag of grapes while on the run - sold at a convenience store in little bags already washed and ready to pop in my mouth. OK! But one can only eat so many raw vegetables in a day, no?
I am discovering that I don't know how to cook vegetables easily or well. So it is much easier to eat a bag of potato chips (still no meat!). But upon closer inspection of this issue, there is another, more dastardly explanation...
We are all junkies and the taste of fat is our drug. One of the points that Dr. Esselstyn makes in his book is that the more fat we eat, the more fat we crave. There is a chemical, biological pattern that leaves us desiring that taste. When you add that fact to the emotional tie that many of us have with foods, we are sitting ducks. In the good Dr.'s estimation - it takes 90 days of oil free, living to get rid of the cravings. Then the taste of vegetables will be quite different. It's a 90 day challenge.
BTW, oil free is not fat free. Fat occurs naturally in a number of grains and other plant foods. We all know by now that fat is actually good for your body. But the fat and oil added for FLAVOR is the killer. Remember when McDonald's french fries were the absolute best on the planet?? They were fried in LARD. Ugh. Lip-smacking good ribs are so because of the tasty fat and oil in BBQ sauce. Yum. Potato chips in canola oil or baked with expressed sunflower oil are equally tasty because we get to taste that wonderful flavor of oil/fat.
I did a taste test yesterday...potato veggie chips with sunflower oil vs. Guiltless Gourmet yellow corn chips with no oil. Both are tasty. But I want those veggie chips and can leave the corn chips. I'm convinced it is the taste of fat that I crave. UPDATE: drat...I tried the GG chips as recommended in the Dr.'s book as oil free. Then I look at the bag, advertising bolder, crispier...yep, they added oil. Up next, baked Doritos - but I'll check the label first :(
So as I transform my pantry and palate, I am weening off of the worst offenders of fat/oil, just to get accustomed to making choices. I'm working on a food menu. But I know that one day in the very close future, I will have to go cold turkey, go through withdrawal, and hopefully come out the other side with a hankering for tasty veggies!
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Sunday, September 26, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Warming Up
I'm embarking on a journey to reclaim my heart. This is not a blog about relationships or love as you normally know it. It is about a relationship with food and love of myself. But this is not your traditional diet blog or homage to "The Biggest Loser." This is about a radical change in my diet to save my life. (Cue dramatic music).
I am undertaking the Dr. Caldwell T. Esselstyn scientifically formulated heart healthy diet. If followed fastidiously, I expect to prevent further heart disease and reverse the heart disease I have. It is radical and extreme when compared to a fast-food diet. It is natural and healthy when compared to oh, say...a prison diet. It is plant-based, oil free, and challenging. But I want to live more than I want to eat and that is a good thing.
Both my parents died from vascular diseases. My mother had a massive stroke and suffered from arteriosclerosis. She had a quadruple by-pass. As a young mother she had a massive brain aneurysm from a congenital defect and had a major stroke. At that time she was a full-figured gal, but not fat. At the time of her quadruple by-pass and years later her death by stroke, she was 110 pounds. It wasn't her weight, it was her arteries and what she ate that killed her. My father died of Alzheimer disease which is basically a vascular problem of the brain and not the heart. He suffered from mini-strokes long before he got dementia but felt his healthy regimen of exercising and limiting his fat intake would prevent a major stroke. His father had died instantly from a massive stroke. My odds for avoiding a vascular disease related death are slim.
Given this family history, the rational course of action for me would be to watch my weight, exercise, and eat carefully. But humans are inherently irrational. I am well beyond full-figured, my nutritional intake is heavy on the intake, light on the nutrition, and my exercise is limited to walking a few blocks back and forth to work every day with a 2 flight stair climb to my office. I have high-ish blood pressure, I don't know what my cholesterol is, but it has never been over 220, and the HDL/LDL and Triglycerides are who knows. I am getting all of this checked to find out just what my starting point is.
Bill Clinton recently showed up on the scene having obviously lost a good bit of weight. He says he did it for Chelsea's wedding. He also did it to reverse his heart disease which has resulted in his having a stent put in sometime in the last few years. It was his wake up call. I don't want to get that call. I think I have heard my heart calling me and telling me to stop the madness!
Bill got on the Dr. Esselstyn plant-based, no oil diet. I got the book, which I will regularly reference here, and read it in one sitting. It had the same effect on me as another book had 3 years ago when I became a vegetarian. I decided to become a vegetarian when I read the book "Skinny Bitch" written by two models who had health science and nutrition degrees. In their book they described in vivid detail what some of you may have seen if you watched the recent movie Food, Inc. The Skinny authors pointed out that if animals are inhumanely slaughtered and cared for in the factory farms, then their angst at the point of death will stay with the meat. We are what we eat and I stopped eating death that day.
As a vegetarian, I soon discovered that many foods could be consumed - like french fries and potato chips. I could not give up seafood, so I became a pescetarian (a veggie who eats fish). I also could not give up dairy or eggs which made me, basically, a meat avoid-er. Ben & Jerry's - no problem on the meat avoid-er diet (plus no growth hormones in their cows). Veggie quiche is very tasty. Fruit pie with a wonderful butter crust is exceptional! I gained 30 pounds. But, hey, I don't eat meat!!
So now I am ready to face my deepest fear - that I am headed for a heart attack and Alzheimer disease and it ain't gonna be pretty. I am putting my faith in Dr. Essylstn and his 20 years of research that has reversed heart disease in his patients and kept their cholesterol under 150, all by being near vegan and not allowing any oil in the diet. I am now one of his patients - by virtue of buying his book - and will be a plant eating, oil resistant, heart healthy, long-living woman. Emphasis on the long-living :)
I am using this blog to chart my trials and triumphs and to give myself moral support. It is rather like the Julie blog about Julia Child - except I don't get to eat roast duck or butter. But I do get to be healthy without drugs or stents. I think that's a plus.
Tune in for day one. I'm preparing myself now by gearing up my pantry, preparing recipes to have at the ready, mapping out a food menu for the first month, and saying goodbye to Ben, Jerry, Tilamook, Eggland, and all the other foods on my meat avoid-er diet.
I am undertaking the Dr. Caldwell T. Esselstyn scientifically formulated heart healthy diet. If followed fastidiously, I expect to prevent further heart disease and reverse the heart disease I have. It is radical and extreme when compared to a fast-food diet. It is natural and healthy when compared to oh, say...a prison diet. It is plant-based, oil free, and challenging. But I want to live more than I want to eat and that is a good thing.
Both my parents died from vascular diseases. My mother had a massive stroke and suffered from arteriosclerosis. She had a quadruple by-pass. As a young mother she had a massive brain aneurysm from a congenital defect and had a major stroke. At that time she was a full-figured gal, but not fat. At the time of her quadruple by-pass and years later her death by stroke, she was 110 pounds. It wasn't her weight, it was her arteries and what she ate that killed her. My father died of Alzheimer disease which is basically a vascular problem of the brain and not the heart. He suffered from mini-strokes long before he got dementia but felt his healthy regimen of exercising and limiting his fat intake would prevent a major stroke. His father had died instantly from a massive stroke. My odds for avoiding a vascular disease related death are slim.
Given this family history, the rational course of action for me would be to watch my weight, exercise, and eat carefully. But humans are inherently irrational. I am well beyond full-figured, my nutritional intake is heavy on the intake, light on the nutrition, and my exercise is limited to walking a few blocks back and forth to work every day with a 2 flight stair climb to my office. I have high-ish blood pressure, I don't know what my cholesterol is, but it has never been over 220, and the HDL/LDL and Triglycerides are who knows. I am getting all of this checked to find out just what my starting point is.
Bill Clinton recently showed up on the scene having obviously lost a good bit of weight. He says he did it for Chelsea's wedding. He also did it to reverse his heart disease which has resulted in his having a stent put in sometime in the last few years. It was his wake up call. I don't want to get that call. I think I have heard my heart calling me and telling me to stop the madness!
Bill got on the Dr. Esselstyn plant-based, no oil diet. I got the book, which I will regularly reference here, and read it in one sitting. It had the same effect on me as another book had 3 years ago when I became a vegetarian. I decided to become a vegetarian when I read the book "Skinny Bitch" written by two models who had health science and nutrition degrees. In their book they described in vivid detail what some of you may have seen if you watched the recent movie Food, Inc. The Skinny authors pointed out that if animals are inhumanely slaughtered and cared for in the factory farms, then their angst at the point of death will stay with the meat. We are what we eat and I stopped eating death that day.
As a vegetarian, I soon discovered that many foods could be consumed - like french fries and potato chips. I could not give up seafood, so I became a pescetarian (a veggie who eats fish). I also could not give up dairy or eggs which made me, basically, a meat avoid-er. Ben & Jerry's - no problem on the meat avoid-er diet (plus no growth hormones in their cows). Veggie quiche is very tasty. Fruit pie with a wonderful butter crust is exceptional! I gained 30 pounds. But, hey, I don't eat meat!!
So now I am ready to face my deepest fear - that I am headed for a heart attack and Alzheimer disease and it ain't gonna be pretty. I am putting my faith in Dr. Essylstn and his 20 years of research that has reversed heart disease in his patients and kept their cholesterol under 150, all by being near vegan and not allowing any oil in the diet. I am now one of his patients - by virtue of buying his book - and will be a plant eating, oil resistant, heart healthy, long-living woman. Emphasis on the long-living :)
I am using this blog to chart my trials and triumphs and to give myself moral support. It is rather like the Julie blog about Julia Child - except I don't get to eat roast duck or butter. But I do get to be healthy without drugs or stents. I think that's a plus.
Tune in for day one. I'm preparing myself now by gearing up my pantry, preparing recipes to have at the ready, mapping out a food menu for the first month, and saying goodbye to Ben, Jerry, Tilamook, Eggland, and all the other foods on my meat avoid-er diet.
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