First I cut back on alcohol. Here, here, and here. Next to go, thanks to rising cholesterol levels, saturated fat. Finally, everyone got worried about sugar, no more than 25 grams/day, hasta la vista whole bags of M&Ms of an afternoon. But then a funny thing happened. If I cut back on sugar I wanted more alcohol, if I constrained my alcohol I wanted saturated fat, if I gave up fat, well, you get the idea.
Then I had a routine colonoscopy. Short story: prep is horrid, procedure is fine. Longer story: I had a polyp that needed removal; I have to go back in 6 years rather than the standard 10. So I looked up the dietary recommendations for colon cancer only to remember that I’ve reached my limits on self-denial. I can’t subtract anything else, I’ve tried, I’ve failed, no point wailing over limitations. Now what?
I can add to my diet. MOAR VEGETABLES PLEASE. Actually I’m writing this post because I was so pleased with myself for baking spiced ground chicken in a butternut squash and calling it dinner. But let’s pretend I have more to offer than simple self-congratulation.
How to get those moar vegetables? You could of course become vegetarian or vegan, but here’s a middle way. Let’s call it food physics, and it’s all about nutritional geolocation.
- Put your usual food on top of vegetables
- The aforementioned spiced chicken. First cut your squash in half and bake it until soft, maybe 20 minutes? Scoop out the seeds. Then chop up and sauté half an onion and some garlic, add some fennel seeds, add ground chicken, sage, salt, maybe some red pepper flakes. Put this into the hole in your squash and put it back into the over for 10 minutes or so. Dinnah!
- Lots of people have made “noodles” out of vegetables. I have not.
- Put more vegetables next to that usual food
- Say you’re going to make a stirfy, maybe, beef with broccoli. Switch. Make broccoli with beef instead. Also although I am uncertain whether tofu counts as a vegetable if you know how to treat it you will be rewarded. The trick is to marinate super firm tofu in soy sauce and chili paste, then sear it in your wok and dump it into a colander. Then stir fry your vegetables, then add the tofu back in with some more liquid – soy sauce, broth, rice wine. Alternatively, use super soft tofu sliced into 2×2 squares that are half an inch thick, in a braise. (Those measurements are terrible physics, but, hey.)
- On the plate where you planned to put a chicken breast, some pasta, and a salad, instead put half a chicken breast, some pasta, a salad, and a roast beet! Or a portobello mushroom baked with a little olive oil.
- Put more vegetables in your usual food
- Make your sauces with more vegetables. My favorite is chimichurri – essentially a vinaigrette in which parsley slush has a glamor moment. Yum. But you can also add carrots and spinach to tomato sauce. Essentially we are treating ourselves like recalcitrant toddlers.
- Just eat more of whatever vegetables you were eating in the first place
- Instead of a small box of Whole Foods salad, eat a big one. Yes it’s a lot of chewing but I guess that’s why we have teeth.
- Make four servings of spinach for two people. I like mine in a pan with olive oil, red pepper flakes, sliced garlic, and a dash of balsamic vinegar. Make sure the plastic top of your vinegar bottle doesn’t fall off into your spinach. You’re welcome.
This all probably sounds ridiculously simple. I am not Einstein. I need to deconstruct hard things. I also know that you guys will have really good go-to recipes for vegetable consumption and I am all ears. Ears on a body that is now eating more vegetables.
Have a wonderful weekend of squash, broccoli, arugula, red peppers, garlic, and possibly some lettuce. Love to all.
44 Responses
I buy bags of greens and put them into soup. Once they’re cooked they shrink and you hardly notice them.
@RoseAG, Funny how they do that isn’t it!
I agree. Veggies are important. I find beans incredibly satisfying and healthy, too. It took awhile for my body to adjust, but now I can eat them freely with no digestive problems. We make a low-fat version of refried beans from scratch and keep a tub in the fridge at all times. White beans with kale, Chana Masala, Dal — it’s hard to feel deprived. The Instant Pot is great for cooking dried beans.
@Donna, Yes! I made the move to beans and legumes when I first cut back on saturated fats. They take the place of dairy for me in many way.s
I make lots of casseroles and freeze them in portion sizes. In addition to limiting (or eliminating) the meat I use, I grind up a variety of raw vegetables in the food processor and add them to the stew, chili, beans, goulash, pasta sauce etc. I’m making. This adds lots of flavor, a nice texture and is a natural thickener, and is so easy :)
@Cynthia, I should try this, the grinding. Thanks.
I love vegetables,tofu,beans….you name it,I eat it
We make beef or chicken broth with “grünzeug”( carrots,parsley,celery-root and leafs)
I make all kind of cream soups,just cook it,season and mash (one can add some cream or butter in the process,but it is a completely different story :-))
I have mexican dinner tonight (more croatian mexican)-I’ve added zucchini and carrots to red,green and yellow bell peppers,onion,garlic and beans in one of the variations,I know it is veeery different from original,but…..vegetables
Have a wonderful weekend
Dottoressa
@Dottoressa, I love the idea of Croatian-Mexican food!
This is both simple and genius! The best part is how you know yourself. (But then I’ve been eating like a toddler for a year because it’s part of my personal “take back the food” movement :-)) For my own part, I can’t really find any appetite – or ability to eat – until I’ve had ~5 sips of wine.* It’s like the alcohol grounds my fluttery, hovering spirit and gives me the impulse to consume something cuz, well, it’s a thing humans do to stay healthy. At that point, I always try to focus more on the veg – even if that includes cheese sauce. Hilariously, my fave green veg by far is parsley. I eat it like an actual green and not a herb topping. So I feel very comfortable with that advice!
*Don’t worry – it’s not a gateway thing. Once appetite kicks in, drinking is not a requirement to continue eating!
@K-Line, You have such an intensity of spirit! I use the satiation of food to blunt desire for alcohol, hence the importance of Eating Enough.
As a pescatarian, I have no problem with meat, but I find myself leaning more toward vegetarian the older I get. As for vegan, never! I love cheese, eggs, yogurt, ice cream. I think what you’re doing is genius. Having some meat with a greater amount of veggies is probably a great way to go. As far as tofu, it is soy. We enjoy the ones from Trader Joe’s that are baked in either sriracha or Teriyaki. Cube those and throw them in your stir fry for a lovely meal. When I say we, I’m referring to daughters and I. Hubby is a total carnivore. We love going out for surf and turf for obvious reasons.
Now if only I could figure out how to successfully limit sugar and alcohol………….
@MaryAnne Estes, In truth I manage to limit sugar and alcohol by eating a LOT of food, so vegetables help me to do that and keep my weight stable at the same time.
I really like our (Canada’s) new food guide — the visual presentation features a plate divided in quarters — two of them full of vegetables, one with a variety of protein sources, one with a variety of whole grain foods, all accompanied by a glass of water.
We’ve shifted over the past few years as well. He does most of the evening meals and has become so much better about adding more veg, often making that the main feature (curried potato-cauliflour, Ethiopian cabbage, vegetarian cabbage rolls). I usually make vegetable soup or Buddha bowl or dahl for lunch. We’ve started building meals around Farro or WheatBerries. And so many beans. . . .
Thanks for this post — I suspect your readers will make this a rich resource for veggie-rich meal ideas.
@Frances, cauilflower, of course. . .
I try to do this for myself–roughly 1/3 of plate as protein and/or carbs, the rest veggies and fruit. When I eat this way, I’m a happy camper.
@Frances, That diagram is exactly what I mean. I had done all the subtraction on a plate I could do, so adding was the only way forward. I added more vegetables, thereby crowding out the rice and meat;). I don’t do well with grain-based meals, they don’t satiate, actually more vegetables with a little meat seems to fill me up best. Who knew! Bodies are so individual.
@Frances,
I really like the new food guide too! Did you see the This Hour has 22 Minutes parody of it?
I’m a big fan of veggies and always have been, so I am not sure how helpful this will be, but here goes!
I would say that basically all the time, you want there to be *some* fat both for the flavor-enhancing properties and for the satiating effects – if something is vegan, make sure there’s some olive oil or nuts or whatever (some ultra-“healthy” recipes are so lacking-in-anything-that-sticks-with-you as to defeat themselves; you want to 1. not be hungry after you eat and 2. enjoy what you eat, otherwise, what’s the point?).
My favorite maybe-less-obvious vegetable-forward meals (or “meals”):
1. Not-quite-minestrone (small amount of sausage for flavor and fat; 1 can beans; 1 can diced tomatoes; more veggies than you think can possibly fit in the pot; garlic; onion; herbs; optionally, a small amount of pasta)
2. Peanut sauce over vegetables with protein [tofu or animal] (there are peanut sauce recipes everywhere, and also packaged peanut sauces; I go for peanut butter+fish sauce+lime juice+some-form-of-capsacin and call it inauthentic but good), some rice or noodles optional
3. Pasta salad, but with the normal proportions of pasta and vegetables inverted – for instance, 5 units of vegetable to 1 unit of pasta, plus whatever meat or hard-boiled egg or marinated-and-baked-tofu is desired (dressed with vinaigrette, or with a mayo-y thing, or with a mustard-y thing, or with some sort of “Asian” dressing, or with peanut sauce, depending on the overall profile of flavors of the “stuff” in the salad).
Your idea of turning beef-with-broccoli into broccoli-with-beef is brilliant: take foods that you like that have vegetables as co-stars and bump the vegetable star status up higher and demote the foods that you are less-supposed to eat. Or take other foods and pump in vegetables instead of the less-supposed-to-eat foods. (but, again: make sure there is enough fat/protein/carbohydrate for it to both taste good and be decently satiating; it’s possible that you may be able to gradually reduce how much of a category a meal needs so as to feel like a meal, but work with where you are in terms of how much fat/carbohydrate is necessary, because sustainable works better for long-term health than theoretically-perfect-but-works-for-one-day-only.) Many vegetables (including winter squash) have enough carbohydrates to be satiating in that direction without the addition of a Regular Starch, while still giving you other benefits and not being *as* high in carbohydrates as a Regular Starch would be, but others tend to need a bit of help, and that is okay.
There is also half-a-bag-of-spinach sauteed in a bit of oil or bacon fat topped with lemon juice and a fried egg; using baked sweet potatoes as the foundation for all sorts of foods or as a snack; borscht; frittata-packed-with-veggies over veggies or with a side of veggies. Cooked whole grains and beans/lentils are also great for filling in and being hearty and satisfying, depending on exactly what your medical goals are (but I assume More Fiber is the colon’s request, and they’re good at More Fiber).
Figuring out really good snacks is also helpful, especially if you try new recipes and new balances in old recipes (because being hungry two hours after lunch is *fine* if you have a good snack and feel totally okay about that, but being hungry two hours after lunch is *not* fine if it results in a poor outcome.) Leftovers sometimes work for snacks; grain-and-cooked-veggie salads are tasty straight out of the fridge; fruit can be good; I personally like hard-boiled eggs, but I don’t know whether eggs are a Good Player or a Bad Player in your dietary world.
I also enthusiastically endorse trying out new veggies (just whatever looks intriguing at a produce stand or farmer’s market, whether or not you know what to do with it; take it home, consult the internet – or, at a farmer’s market, ask them), trying out new ways of preparing veggies (roasted! braised! chopped raw and marinated! They’re basically not even the same vegetable under each of these three methods.), and thinking about ethnic foods (baba ghanouj: mostly eggplant, all delicious; curried cauliflower: also fabulous).
Hope the Vegetable Increase goes really well!
@KC, Great ideas here, thank you! I always shy away from peanut sauces because they are sweet, but of course they don’t have to be. And yes to keeping that carb/fat/protein level at exactly the right place. I am good at snacks, almonds, yogurt with low sugar levels, apples, mandarins, and, as a treat, a piece of a sourdough baguette dipped in scads of olive oil. Or a whole wheat tortilla warmed up in the microwave. Meals have been the last bit, and I am feeling really optimistic about this new direction.
Funnily enough, I just had lunch. I took out of the fridge the leftover Chinese food from a restaurant dinner with friends. I threw out the container of white rice because it was going to turn into sugar in my body, no? I heated up half the fried tofu and steamed broccoli because portion control. Yes to everything you wrote here. I feel I’ve denied myself everything I’ve ever enjoyed and the only things left are vegetables. And I’m counting tofu as a sort of vegetable. Now I’m going to boil water for tea (without sweetener). Sigh.
@Jane, I just try now to eat more vegetables of more varieties, with olive oil or other sauces, and so far it’s not sad! Also I do eat some sugar at almost every meal, just a teaspoon or so in something chocolate or some honey, and then I keep it out of everything else. As I said I have limited capacity for self-denial. Health has to include mental health, IMO, or so I tell myself:).
Great topic! I’ve been eating more vegetables for years. Lately I’ve been having them for breakfast sometimes. Poached eggs on a bed of wilted baby spinach or spaghetti squash if great (similar to KC above). Spaghetti squash will disappear into soups. Spinach is great sauteed with garlic, etc., but I like it plain, too. A mountain of spinach wilted with half a chicken breast, half a pork chop, a few slices of steak, or salmon.
makes a great dinner. I also like a huge salad with those proteins and a few olives and nuts. There are also wonderful recipes online. I made one from Real Simple last week, baked sweet potatoes with the insides mashed with other ingredients and returned, topped with Tuscan kale cooked in coconut milk, toasted coconut over all. My New Roots is a great source of recipes and solid nutritional information.
@Marie, Oh yum! That recipe with sweet potatoes and kale and coconut milk sounds incredible. For breakfast is advanced, I bow to you;). I wonder if I can manage that…
I had my first colonoscopy several years ago. Yes, the prep is gross. However, not having a colonoscopy is worse. A family member (an inlaw) died of colon cancer a few years ago. He was nearly my exact age. Why didn’t he have the procedure? I don’t know. I’ve had polyps too. If I hadn’t had the procedures (I’ve had three), I guess I might have died, too.
Have you thought about beans and lentils? They can be very satisfying.
YES! I started doing basically this at the beginning of 2018 and lowered my a1c levels from pre-pre-diabetic to well within normal. Putting your normal food on top of vegetables is a winner technique. I’m now trying to go meatless two or three days a week, but I’ll admit, I rely heavily on eggs. I’m trying to learn to use high-protein grains, but it’s slow going so far.
I also have the issue of food elimination backfiring. I’ve cut way down on sugar and empty carbs, but now I crave a glass of wine with dinner. I used to almost never drink.
Jardala (lentils and rice with caramelized onions) is wonderful. But I’m wondering now – are caramelized onions basically sugar?
Funny and practical — thank you!
Great post – thank you for the reminder! My biggest trick is to keep a box of baby spinach in my fridge at all times. Whenever I get a fun salad to go/delivered, I double the volume with my spinach. I usually end up eating half for one meal and saving the rest for dinner or lunch the next day. Anytime I make a sandwich, I add some spinach leaves.
I am one of those people who can’t stand cooked spinach – only raw – so this works for me!
I went to pick up a prescription. The elderly female pharmacist tells me,” At this point its all about maintenance”. I might add she didn’t look too healthy.
I’m trying to face the fact that as the late Jim Morrison said “No one gets out alive”. My current goal is “compressed morbidity” which essentially means minimize disability and enhance health for as long as possible. The death thing is really difficult for me. Therapy only marginally helpful in dealing with the issue of death.
So If I eat my vegetables, exercise, cut back on my beloved sweets will I get some extra time.?
These are the questions of our time. Lisa your article reminds me that I am not alone in my struggle and that helps another issue anxiety.
With Love,
Luci
Love this post, and wish you well in your attempt to eat more vegetables. Here are some of my favorite ways to replace bad fats (poor things), sugar, and alcohol in my diet, and to add the fiber which we Americans are often lacking, and which our bodies, and our colons love: I adore tofu, which is in the legume family, so technically not a vegetable, but I think of legumes as vegetables, so there you go. One of my favorite foods is spicy tofu with greens mixed in. Slanted Door has a spicy organic tofu dish I love (Hodo Soy Beanery, Oakland). I order as my entree when I eat there. At home, I’ve narrowed my oil to olive oil. Period. I don’t care that it’s not neutral. I make a spicy oil using it as the base. Once a week I make a pot of black beans from tins of organic beans. (I’m not signed up for soaking beans.) I add in turmeric, and salt and pepper. I store the beans in the refrigerator and remove servings to make things such as, for breakfast, black beans with slices of Jalapeño pepper and garlic (thrown in at the last minute to keep its power), with a soft boiled egg on top. The same black beans, can have added to them whatever appeals to you such as spinach with a meat protein. (I try to eat only fish as my animal protein, and I feel bad about that.:) You can fold your black beans into whole wheat tortillas with chopped vegetables such as radish and onion and cilantro. I also use other beans to imitate less nutritious foods, such as white bean mash made by adding a tin of organic beans to olive oil and garlic and smashing with a wooden spoon while heating. This goes great with an arugula salad and salmon. Cooking is not that pleasurable of an activity for me unless I keep things as simple and whole as possible. For lunch, a tin of sardines with coarse mustard, and a salad of baby spinach or arugula with my vinaigrette of olive oil, champagne vinegar, garlic, mustard, and salt and pepper makes me happy. I love a baked sweet potato, and I adore baked acorn squash, which I bake with the seeds removed, upside down until the end, when I turn it over, season it, and finish cooking it. I love eggs (pastured and local), and think they are a nutritional powerhouse, so I make them with spinach folded in or, a favorite, with shiitake mushrooms. Seaweed salad is another favorite, which I always get when I go out to a Japanese restaurant. I love Miso, which is a wonderful fermented food. I have a tub of it at home, and I make it with greens, onions, and/or mushrooms. Everyday I have almonds with a whole milk organic yogurt (St. Benoit, Sonoma) and some sort of fruit. My favorite is blueberries. I also eat walnuts daily. I adore a a breakfast of oatmeal with walnuts and blueberries and almond milk. I use almond milk now for most everything but my morning half cup of coffee, to which I add a splash of Straus whipping cream (Marshall, Marin). Everyday I eat seeds, which are another powerhouse. I especially love pepitas. A wonderful salad is arugula, pepitas, radishes, in a garlic vinaigrette (inspiration Doña Tomas, Oakland). Avocados are on constant rotation. I eat cheese, but try to make it a seasoning rather than the center of the things. A cold salad of black beans, avocados, and greens is delicious. Chick peas with a green, served hot or cold, is also a delicious meal. I also love spicy hummus. Legume soups (black bean and lentil are favorites), with greens and mushrooms are another meal I find satisfying. Genetically, I have low cholesterol, low blood pressure, and good colonoscopy results, but I’ve always had integrative medicine doctors who wanted me to add the maximum vegetables to my diet anyway. In the 1980s, my doctor suggested buying an assortment of vegetables, cooking a serving of them in the microwave or on the stove if you are microwave averse, and eating them for a snack. Otherwise, it’s difficult to get to the “servings per day” suggestions (that I consider over-the-top:). I find the more I do this the more I want these healthful foods. During my car accident year and a half, I could not eat healthfully, my brain was odd. I’m grateful to be back to craving arugula. Have you looked at online cooking sites or hard copy cookbooks of vegetarian meals? I find people such as Mark Bittman to be inspiring on this subject. I have Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I’ve stopped drinking alcohol at home. At some point I realized I never liked doing it in the past, and don’t want it now. I have a cocktail, sparkling wine, or wine as a treat when I go out, am at a dinner party, or have a dinner party. After one cocktail or glass of wine, I try to switch to water for the rest of the evening. When I long for a sweet drink (I used to be a big Mexican coke drinker), I’ll add the juice of half a lemon, with one teaspoon of Demerara sugar dissolved in the juice, to Pelligrino, and I feel satisfied. I don’t eat white flour foods or pasta. My favorite bread is the Acme whole-wheat walnut, which is divine with a washed-rind cheese such as Époisses. Whole wheat has been my friend since childhood, because my mom baked bread (as well as canned fruits and vegetables). With all my food, I try to eat local and organic, and the ethics of the company matter to me. Apologies for length. (Apologies also, in advance, for any typos in the above that I’ve missed.) This topic excites me, I wanted to make a contribution, but I don’t have time to organize and edit, because this evening I’m going to an early-hour-start dinner party. (Blaise Pascal: “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”:) Good health to you, and good luck with your changes! xoxoxo.
I struggle with all the problems above. There’s one thing I do that I’m proud of. I buy organic garden vegetable soups or Amy’s lentil soup, for example. The cans say they’ll make 1 1/2 servings. Great, if I split the can into two servings, I don’t have enough, eat the whole can, too much. So I buy a variety of cans of organic beans, add [some of] the beans to the can of soup, and have two lunches. The beans are chosen to suit the soup. Throwing in spinach and other greens might make it a three day lunch!
Ok, I feel guilty but here goes. I’ve been buying the already packaged fresh veggie offerings at the market. Place them on a sheet pan, sprinkle with olive oil and kosher salt. Roast for about 1/2 hour at 425. Delish and done. Now I’m sure I’m paying more but at least I’m eating them. Then I love snacking on them or adding them underneath or across from some protein.
That’s my 2 cents. It’s love old and kosher salt that does the trick!
I love stir fry. Chop onion, green & red pepper, and any other vegetable you like. Gently fry in EVOO. Add garlic and Mexican spices, to taste. Add thin sliced chicken tenders. Stir fry together. Cook rice and serve as a side dish. Optionally, this stir fry with rice can be served in a wrap.
Had one done at 60, and another one due in four years. Prepping for a colonoscopy is the worst part of the procedure. Looking forward to Spring for the start of another growing season and a backyard laden with vegetables. In the middle of winter, once a week I prep a mixed of fresh store bought vegetables (whatever is available) and stuck a whole panful in the oven and baked until they are golden brown, a few might have a slight burn on the edges. I drizzled with good olive oil or homemade vinaigrette and enjoyed with a small portion of protein. Any leftovers are warmed up for lunch or eaten as a snack. One of my favorite light meal is lettuce wrap with well seasoned ground turkey, lots of shredded carrots and green onions. I’ve substituted boiled cabbage leaves when I didn’t have fresh lettuce on hand and they tasted great. With the zucchini gluts in the summer, I’ve added shredded zucchini to chocolate cake, brownie and quick break batters and called them vegetarian desserts. :) A great weekend to you Lisa. Amelia
Great ideas!
I make a point of having at least one vegetables side dish at meals. And of eating seasonal veggies. Which is not always easy during winter, as you can eat so many broccolis and cauliflowers in a week before getting sick of them…
I do that mainly to teach my daughter how to eat reasonably healthy (I never deny her dessert either, if she eats all her fruits and veggies), hoping something will stick with her for life…
Great post and I’m putting your ideas in practice. You might want to read “The Bad Food Bible” by Aaron Carroll. He’s a pediatrician and statistician who advocates common sense when it comes to diet. (He also contributes to the NYT Well.)
The Canada food guide has just been revised and they are suggesting way more veggies and lentils, beans and reducing or cutting out all meats and dairy.
We love chicken and I like to make big salads to go with our basic meals,
Curry dishes are a great way to pack in the veggies…I make a curry with cauliflower, peppers, carrots, onion, celery, garbanzo beans and its so flaovourful that you dont miss the meat! I use Vikram Vij’s family curry recipe…you can probably find it online.
Happy eating and good for you to be mindful of your health and being proactive with what you injest.
My own experiments over the past months have revealed a simple truth. We eat too much. Put too much on one plate in one go. Once I had realised this, everything became much simpler and more delicious. I start from a point of view that the vegetables are the meal, anything else is an extra. Plus: it is either vegetables OR potatoes, not both. Having too much choice muddles me. So, fish and potatoes or fish and green vegetables. A big bowl of green veg with dressing and some rice (maybe). You can eat very well if you just eat a large variety of vegetables and some protein. And dairy is an optional extra, not a daily necessity. I only wish I had worked all this out for myself about thirty years ago. Still, never too late. Good luck with the experimentation and, as we used to say (cheerily!) when I was a student nurse: keep your bowels open! (How they laughed…)
I’ve always made a lot of roasted vegetables, and I also make pureed vegetable soups that I add either some ground chicken or shredded chicken too. Very exciting.
So much great advice in these comments! My one hack is, like Kate above, to keep a box of baby spinach always on hand. Unlike her though I don’t eat it raw, but stir it into other things — a bowl of soup or rice, for instance, because the heat will wilt it instantly.
I’ve noticed the same pattern in all the lifestyle bloggers. Once they hit 60 it’s boom, health obsession. I’ve had an anxiety disorder since birth and made my peace with dying decades ago. I basically get no cancer screening, zero, nada. Why, with anxiety, I couldn’t deal with the treatment or the recurrence, so would have no quality of life. I will take the medical aid in dying route. I also have zero wish to live to old-old age. Ending up with Alzheimer’s and throwing away a lifetime of assets on “care,” no thanks. Needing “assisted” living, no thanks. Interestingly, in my anxiety forum, we get a few of the non-cancer fighters, the 1% of people who don’t get treated. They are kicked out of the health care system and the cancer forums for not being “fighters”.
I just read a research paper on the founders of the medical school in my area. These doctors, so in their 80s now, all refused treatment for heart conditions themselves, so made a concerted effort to die with their boots on. They don’t walk the talk. Two died in the last few years, one after a nice dinner and the other outside walking on vacation.
I hear you on the cuttings out! I was very annoyed to find I had slightly raised cholesterol, despite pretty healthy eating and exercise. However a fondness for hot buttered toast may have been to blame! I don’t miss mass produced processed cheese, and find I’m content really to savour more artisan produced cheese on visits to France or an occasional treat here.
As I get older I find I’m turning more and more to my preferences of pulses, grains, nuts, vegetables and fruit. We eat very little meat as a family – good quality meat is expensive, and I refuse to buy meat that has been raised in awful factory conditions. So organic (i.e. not stuffed with antibiotics and growth hormones) or traceable to a local farm is the only meat we buy, and I think the last meat we ate was at Christmas.
The French way of eating helps to get more vegetables into the diet. A separate salad course, plus vegetables served as a separate course from the meat. With alcohol, I refuse to give up wine, gin and cognac, but buy much better quality wine and have it less frequently. Because I don’t metabolise alcohol well I’ve never been a regular drinker, so I don’t have a habit to break.
This makes me sound like an annoying paragon, but I get very strong signals from my body about what it wants and doesn’t, regardless of what my tastebuds or ‘treat yourself/ I’ve deserved it’ thoughts might be.
A really great source of vegetable-based, gorgeously tasty and fresh recipes is the cook Anna Jones. Look her up!
This post reminds me of Laurie Colwin’s “Home Cooking.”
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