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Life in 6 Land

Category Archives: McDougall

Intimidated by Veggies

I get a sense that some people, friends, co-workers and even family (excluding my wife) are a bit intimidated when I talk about”McDougalling” and how it affected my lifestyle. As I have said previously, this is NOT a diet. While my physician begs to differ, this is a lifestyle change. I’ll agree with you, the reader that this is lifestyle not for everyone, but arguments could be made that it should be.

By no means do I feel as if I am supporting a cause. I don’t consider myself “vegan” or “vegetarian” rather I eat a plant-based, whole food diet. Yet many I talk to seem to be rather narrow minded when the words “vegan” or “vegetarian” are spoken. Many conger up images or sitting in front of a big plate of salad and eating tofu for your sustenance rather than meat. It seems I am asked on a regular basis, “What do you eat?” I tell them, anything I want that is not meat, dairy or oil based. More importantly after nearly 30 pounds of weight lost, I have not been hungry since living “plant strong.”

But it’s not about weight loss alone, I have seen wonderful results internally, as my blood work numbers were trending in the correct direction. Meaning my total cholesterol was going down, my LDL (bad) cholesterol was down, my HDL (good) was unchanged and my Triglycerides were down. Toss in about 45 minutes of weights or exercise a day and it’s just a matter of time before my appearance begins to change. That is MY goal, as they say, “lead by example.”

Men especially seem to puff out their chests, being the “manly” thing to do and start to make jokes and be humorous when it comes this way of eating, backing the call of “I need meat!” in order to survive. In what I have experienced, no you don’t. Much like not supporting a vegan cause, I don’t lobby for PETA or think someone who does eat meat is a bad person. Each one of us my decide for ourselves what is best. It has taken 42 years, but going plant-based has been the best move for my health. Why would I want to change?

 

Healthy Oil is a Myth

I am sure if you were a friend on my Facebook account you would think I was pushing the plant-base, whole food lifestyle. Some mistakenly term it “vegan” but I consider my more than “just vegan.” I have come across way too many recipes from vegan web sites that end up using a considerable amount of oil. Dr. McDougall and other well known physicians have said time and time again that OIL is not beneficial and adds little to the healthiness of your food.

Unfortunately the way foods and oils are marketed, you would think olive oil is there as a “heart healthy” alternative. It’s not (in my opinion), but I am not a doctor, nor am I going to argue or belabor the point. I don’t cook with it and the program that Dr. McDougall has laid out has no recipes that include it. After further researching his point (and that of Jeff Novick, RD). As Jeff notes, “14% of the calories in olive oil come from saturated fat. The current recommendation from the American Heart Association is to limit our intake of saturated fat to no more than 7% of calories” (source).

If that example isn’t clear enough, here is another common use, see if you can relate. “If we add 2 tsp. of oil to a 1/2 cup serving of steamed vegetables, we would raise the total calories from 25 to 105, and the majority of the calories (76%) would now be coming from oil. This side dish is also now 11% saturated fat.” Again this is coming from a registered dietician and is based on what “healthy” qualities oil brings to a diet. None and that is why I stay away from it now.

Now that I have sidetracked myself, I am trying to figure out how to present this to my parents. No matter what I say or how I say it, they won’t change their ways when it comes to cooking and eating. I tell my mom the success I have had the past 3 months, the weight I lost and the improvement in my blood work and I don’t make any headway.

I know, I said I won’t push this lifestyle on anyone and I won’t. But to have my mom, who is an outstanding cook sit there and tell me olive oil has redeeming qualities I don’t accept it and I know that her opinion is based on myth (which Dr. McDougall dis-spells) and not fact.

The past 3 weeks I have monitored what I eat closely. Using a program called Fit Day, along with a recipe builder call Spark Recipes I can input all my ingredients to a recipe and get a nice breakdown on the nutritional data and enter it in my food log so I can see if I am adhering to the way I want to eat. So far, outside of my 6-pack of beer a week I am doing very well. In fact I wrote about this in Tracking My Food earlier this month. While this is probably going to the extreme I find it very interesting as to what I cooking and eat. The number don’t lie, from calories eaten vs calories burned to my overall weight, which continues to go down to how my nutritional data breaks down.

I just wish I could get my parents to recognize there are healthier ways to eat. When we vacation with them in March, I hope to introduce them to a few of the recipes we frequent, like potato enchiladas. While I don’t expect them to make wholesale changes in their lives, I would like to see them make some changes to improve how they eat. We will see just how they take to what I cook.

Just Small Potatoes

I am still about 2 weeks short of going 4 months since changing my diet and eating habits. It’s been a wonderful change that has benefited myself, wife and to a lesser degree my son. Along with the blood work results trending down, my weight it down nearly 30 pounds and I have been walking and lifting weights more than I have done in the past. As of yesterday my wife was down 11 pounds, but hasn’t adhered as strictly as I have. I am fine with that, for the most part she eats what I cook but has come to find a favorite in these last few months.

Never before did I think we would be buying 20 pound bags of potato or 10 pounds of sweet potatoes. I didn’t think I would be search for the best deals on bulk foods, such as nutritional yeast, beans and rice. Yet as soon as I find the best way to store these items I will make the plunge and buy in bulk. I was surprised to see Costco carrying a 25 pound bag of brown rice and a 20 pound bag of pinto beans.

Potatoes have become our “new meat” at the dinner table. I know that sounds a bit strange, but this ingredient can used in many dishes in a variety of ways. My wife used to enjoy eating my turkey & spinach enchiladas. When I change my way of eating, giving up meat I was able to find a enchilada recipe that used potatoes as the meat filling. Much like the turkey recipe, I would saute garlic and onion with some vegetable stock or broth and then add the chopped, boiled potatoes. Add in some spinach and cover with sauce. It’s a quick and simple recipe.

This has been the staple of our diet for the past few weeks, my wife cannot get enough of the potato enchiladas I have been making. I could use a change, unfortunately I don’t have the time to cook 3 different meals a night to feed the family. I have been scouring many vegetarian and vegan web sites and started to collect a fair numbers of sites that I will hope to use in the future. Unfortunately cooking on the McDougall program is a different than a cook claiming to be vegetarian or vegan. Many of these recipes still use a fair amount of fats, including olive oil. I have found that the case with a few vegan cookbooks I have recently purchased.

As I have mentioned before, this is a challenge but a welcome one. I have been fairly successful making meals that are relatively quick and easy and taste good. I know many I talk to about the way I eat have a misconception I am stuffing my face full of salad. That could not be further from the truth. I have yet to be hungry since I changed my eating habits and if I do get hungry, then chances are I have missed a meal. This has been too frequent at work, as I do not take lunch and hesitate to spend any money to eat out.

Tonight was a bit of an experiment. I found a recipe online for sweet potato burritos. The wife’s comment was “interesting taste.” I guess these won’t be able to replace the potato enchiladas. Still these burritos had a nice flavor that could easily be modified or spiced up to your liking. It also included onions, kidney beans along with cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, mustard and soy sauce. I know, it doesn’t sound good, but it was. Recipe soon.

Cooking Within Limitations

Cooking. I enjoy to cook, never have been trained in the culinary arts, so I guess you could call me self-taught. I have watched many of the Food Network shows, just to watch the food preparation and the recipes. Changing my diet to a plant-based, whole foods lifestyle has not been as difficult as I expected. What is great about this way of eating, being able to experiment even more with food.

Tell a chef to make a dish with 3 ingredients and I am sure many could put together a very good meal. Take away 3 ingredients, in my case, meat, dairy and oil and the task of cooking becomes challenging. It’s one I am up to and I am always on the lookout for new recipes that might go over well with the family.

Neither my wife of son have embraces the “plant strong lifestyle” 100%, I will give them both credit, they are eating many of the recipes I keep trying. In fact my wife now weighs less than when she had our son, Zachary, something she had not been able to accomplish with some of the “fad diets” she had put herself on.

As for my son, we still feed him processed foods that are quick and easy, such as chicken nuggets and french fries, but I have been able to pass of a few healthier options on him. A few weeks back I was able to get him to eat a spicy black bean burger on an thin whole wheat bun. I did include a small slice of American cheese, but hey, it’s a start. He now eats my spaghetti and pasta, which is also whole wheat and the sauce is homemade and includes no oil. So while we are still giving him some of those kid favorites, I am introducing him to some new foods.

Co-workers make comments about me not eating meat or being vegan or vegetarian, rarely do I correct them. Many recipes that follow vegan and vegetarian guidelines include dairy and oil in preparation. The McDougall way of eating does not include either, which is where the challenge comes in. But with everything else in cooking, there are substitutes. I spoke about it yesterday, but I miss cheese. Thankfully I have made a cheese sauce a few times that I find satisfying. There are some others that I have on my list to try.

There are also foods that I never ate growing up as a kid. The two most recent foods I have tried and really enjoy, sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts! The sweet potato could be the “perfect food.” It’s high in fiber but low in sodium and cholesterol, it’s sweet, but gives you good nutritional value, the proteins in a sweet potato have antioxidant effects and  it’s a filling meal in itself.

Recently found a very cool web site called The Post Punk Kitchen and while I have yet to try any of Isa’s recipes I do have plans to. They look great and I am sure taste the same. So you don’t think you can eat this way, the compromise and make one day or even one meal, like dinner without meat, dairy or oil. You might be surprised at just how good it is. My suggestion: Potato Enchiladas, Skillet Refried Beans and Mexican Rice (with or without Pinto Beans).

Cheese. I miss cheese.

You won’t hear me complaining when I look at what I have accomplished since October, 2011. I have taken on a new lifestyle, some like my family physician would call it a “diet” but it’s more than that. It IS a lifestyle change. Many would consider it “extreme” and not have the drive and willpower to do it. That’s fine with me. I did this for me, in order to get myself healthy. But that’s not to say I don’t miss some of the foods I have given up.

While I probably shouldn’t I still drink beer, albeit nowhere near the amount I drank prior to October, 2011. I could easily go through a case, mixing micheladas all day long as I worked around the house. Unfortunately, that drink might be a thing of the past because of the sodium content in Clamato. If anything I will really limit the amount of Clamato I take in because of the sodium.

More than anything I miss cheese. Since giving up dairy I have been yearning for some sprinkled cheese on top of my enchiladas or placed in the middle of my spicy black bean burger. I have tried a few non-dairy and soy cheese, while they are not bad it’s not cheese. Unfortunately these cheese substitutes are also pretty high in fat content. In my eyes, they should be used sparingly.

That has me combing the Internet looking for a recipe that can be used as cheese. I found a few and it wasn’t until this last week did I try it. Author and cook, Julieanna Hever provided a full meal plan for Super Bowl XLVI. One of her dishes was Hearty Nachos that had cheese. This was a recipe in itself!

Now for those who love the aroma and taste of a piece of cheese, I would not get your hopes up too high. The basis of this cheese is made from cashews, a red pepper and nutrition yeast or “nooch” as it is known in vegan. circles. And no, I don’t consider myself a vegan.

What it does give is a cheese flavor, due to the nooch, along with the consistency of a cheese when melted. The color was pretty close to what a spicy Velvetta would have been, if used instead of a substitute. I have been using this recipe for a week now and it seems to fit the bill when looking for something that calls for cheese.

Since then I have found some other recipes on the Internet for making non-dairy (usually nut based) cheese. Chances are you won’t be serving at your next party, but it’s much healthier than processed cheese. There is also a company in the UK who makes nut-based cheese and sells them. No word on that cheese coming to America though. But in my world, there is a substitute for everything. Well, maybe not beer.