These last few weeks I have been reading all about going vegetarian and about how to eat more healthily. I am interested in doing this in the same way I am interested in reading the children’s history books: I know I should do it because it will make me a better, more rounded person, but I really really can’t be arsed. (Although in the case of eating more healthily presumably I might become a less rounded person – that’s the plan.)
I’ll be upfront: we are already a bit boringly good with food in our house. When William was diagnosed with kidney disease we switched to a low-salt diet (or as much as we could given that lots of ready-made foods come laden with salt, even bread and breakfast cereals) and cut out almost all processed foods, thereby cutting out pretty much all the crap – preservatives, colours, flavours, bad fats, salt and quite a lot of sugar – from our diet. I bake a lot and we cook almost everything from scratch. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen but not as much as I first thought I would as I have home-cooked express cooking down to a fine art. But I am not a cook. I don’t like cooking. I do it because it became a priority for my son’s health. And we have all benefitted.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to start including recipes here or start waxing lyrical about tofu. But I was interested to read this archive NY Times article that low fat diets are frequently unsuccessful and that low-carb diets are more successful, and possibly less dangerous, than I thought. Clearly I was busy, possibly baking chocolate cake, and missed those bits of news. When William had to start taking statins we were given the low-fat diet argument so I’m not sure what to believe now. (That’s this week’s bedtime reading, and I’m pretty sure I won’t have any difficulty falling asleep this week.) So that’s the first possible dietary change (for me only, as I want to lose a little bit of weight and keep it off without having to continually diet in the future. The children don’t need to lose weight as they are as skinny as rakes and my mother continually tells me to cook them more puddings. Can’t Mum, I’d eat the puds too. But I am interested in finding out whether eating full fats aid dietary absorption of vitamins and so on.)
I know already that as a family we need to eat less red meat and I am very happy to exchange those meals for vegetarian ones, just how to go about it? That’s the second change.
And then I clicked through to a few fantastic food blogs and it reminded me that we are not eating as healthily as we might be. When I was pregnant with Edward I had to switch to a low GI diet when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. But as the months have passed I have slipped away from low GI eating, even though I still eat very little processed food. And I need reminding: I have a 50% chance of developing diabetes in the next 10-15 years. I want to be healthy enough to donate a kidney to my son when he needs one. I want to be around for my little boy who may really need me if he goes into kidney failure. I want to live long enough to see all my children grow up and I want to be healthy in my old age.
So dietary change number three is to make an effort to get back to low GI eating and primarily to wholegrain foods (bread is the big one because with pasta and rice I mix a little bit of white pasta or rice in with the wholemeal pasta/rice and it tastes ok, but eating brown bread really is like eating the dust from under the filthy rug on the living room floor). This week I have bought some wholegrain granary bread – granary is good because the ‘bits’ in it help regulate blood sugars – and I hope that will be better tasting than regular wholemeal bread. Regardless, I pack the children off to school with brown bread because they can fight with the dinner ladies instead of me about not eating it. One less battle. And as we all know, parenting is about winning the war, preferably by letting someone else deal with the battles.
Now I just need to find a low-sugar chocolate cake. Otherwise I’ll be eating to live, not living to eat.
Who’s with me? I need a low-GI buddy group. We can swap lentil stories! We can share sugar-cravings! We can talk tofu! (I’m not selling this well am I?)
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
good for you about these resolutions…… but wait! whole grain bread doesn’t have to be yucky! i’ve been baking a recipe called “featherpuff bread” from The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book — amazing. A light loaf with lots of nutrition.
Sarah, thank you so much for the book suggestion, it looks great and I will definitely try the featherpuff bread first.
I love wholemeal bread – the white stuff (unless it’s French bread, or very nice fresh crusty white) is horrible and tastes of cardboard. I love the Co-op’s seeded batch – full of bucketloads of goodness (though not sure about the salt content).
I’m already vegetarian and am still overweight. I’ve had great success with low GI diet, but find it difficult in the winter, because I really love my stodge! I used Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Low GI book, which has some wonderful recipes in and information on adapting it for children.
I would love to join you on your journey. But not quite yet!
We have a local Co-op, I’ll have to check our their bread, it hasn’t occurred to me to buy it from there (don’t know why, habit I suppose).
I love Rose Elliot’s books! I have her baby vegetarian book which I love and I use it to cook for all of us, I’ll have to check out the book you mention, thanks.
The move to vegetarianism is to get away from eating so much red meat as there is only so much I can do with chicken and William’s kidney-related protein requirements and heart-related low fat requirements are tricky. The GI diet will hopefully control my weight and blood sugar. The two diets together will, I hope, make me a lean, mean fighting machine (or at least a mother that can keep up in her children’s football games). But I love my winter comfort foods too so it’s going to require a fair bit of discipline which I’m not entirely convinced I have.
I know what you mean about healthy eating just possibly verging on the boring (not to me, but I’m studying nutrition!). But I think it is possible to make it interesting. This week, I’m trying agave nectar for the first time – low GI and v sweet. It’s excellent on stewed apples. Low-GI is the way to go – will join you happily. Lots of nuts and seeds and beans and lentils. They really do fill you up until the next meal – but I really need some nice recipes.
Agave nectar sounds interesting. It would be good to find a low GI natural sweetener given my terrible sweet-tooth.
I’ll have to see if I can find some good recipes and try them out. I’ll let you know if I find any really good ones!
Take heart from me! I used to be terrified of lentils. Hadn’t a clue what to do with them. But now I add them to lots of things, and sometimes (like tonight) even just cook them on their own. If I can do it, anyone can!
There’s a good blog called Chow and Chatter, which I have found helpful.
I’m not an adventurous cook and I’m definitely stuck in a cooking rut, the thought of trying new things is a pain if I’m honest. But I’m going to persevere and I’m glad to hear that other have been won over to things like lentils!
Liked Chow and Chatter.
Just found your blog on the Blogging Carnival…I had a post too from my blog Inside the Wendy House! I just wanted to wish you luck with your healthy eating…I’m trying to lose weight too. I am a lentil eating, tofu marinating veggie with a soft spot for cake!! So if you ever do find the ultimate low sugar chocolate cake….send me the details!!
I will Wendy, and thanks for commenting!
No greater incentive than to stay healthy in case you do donate….what a fantastic mum you are!!
I started a vegan diet earlier this year and although I really enjoyed it because it was so alien to me I found it time consuming which at the moment is not what I need.
Good luck with it Ella.
That’s the problem I have too. I’m stuck in a food rut because it’s easy to prepare what you know and I don’t really have time to mess about with new recipes, sourcing new foods, experimenting with what the children will/will not eat. I’m impressed that you managed a vegan diet, we are slowly trying out new vegetarian recipes with the idea that hopefully they will become easy and little by little will replace the meals we currently eat.
I am following the harcombe diet, which is a low carb diet. I am allowed to eat carbs, just not at the same meal as fats. In the last 8 weeks, i have lost 12 lbs. I dont find it too difficult to stick to, although i do occaisionally feel if i dont have cake i might die. Evidence suggests however, that this is not the case, and i am still here. In a usual day i will tend to have a bowl of porridge with a chopped apple for breakfast, a protein/fat meal for lunch, something like chicken or fish with salad, or eggs, and then probably a fat meal in the evening too. Tonight though, i am cooking quorn, which is a neutral food, so i might have wraps or baked potato…..
Email me if you want more info.
Low carb is difficult enough to do if you are a non mammal eater like me, and unless you have a great affinity for cheese, cream and eggs, it might not be for you….
Emma, thanks. It sounds like a really good diet but I don’t know if I have the time to think about what combines with what. If I could meal plan a few weeks at a time though this kind of diet might work for me.
Congratulations at losing so much weight, that’s fantastic.
{ 2 trackbacks }