Love and Diet

Diet is such a personal thing. Many people define themselves by what they eat. A steak and potatoes kind of guy. A crunchy granola girl.  Try to change them, taking away the foods they know and love, and they become massively defensive. Because you’re not just taking away their food, you’re also taking away part of the essence of their being.

Add love into the mix, and things can get tricky. Can a vegan ever love a carnivore or vice versa?

“Sharing meals has always been an important courtship ritual and a metaphor for love. But in an age when many people define themselves by what they will eat and what they won’t, dietary differences can put a strain on a romantic relationship. The culinary camps have become so balkanized that some factions consider interdietary dating taboo.”

I remember when I started living my delicious life. I was in transition – just started dating this guy who was really into health food, and I was starting a strict regime of Ayurvedic cleansing and rebuilding. I said to him, “I don’t want to become a vegetarian!” As if that was such a bad thing.

I did go vegetarian for a while – and it felt great for that time. Then I learned so much about eating and diet – and that, for me, vegetarianism might not be the best thing, but not for the reasons that had detracted me from it when I was starting my adventure.

Changing your diet when you’re in a relationship can be difficult. You and your partner start out eating a certain way together as a couple, and life is good. And then you decide that maybe you want to eat better, get healthier, lose weight, or whatever. You’re making a change.

If your partner is supportive, great. It will still take some lifestyle adjusting, but it’s not such a big deal. You learn and figure it out. If your partner doesn’t like this new change, however, watch out. They might try to subconsciously (or worse, deliberately) sabotage you. You’ll keep trying to change but feel torn. What’s more important? The relationship or the diet?

Food has a strong subconscious link to love, said Kathryn Zerbe, a psychiatrist who specializes in eating disorders at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. That is why refusing a partner’s food “can feel like rejection,” she said.

As with other differences couples face, tolerance and compromise are essential at the dinner table, marital therapists said. “If you can’t allow your partner to have latitude in what he or she eats, then maybe your problem isn’t about food,” said Susan Jaffe, a psychiatrist in Manhattan.

Quotes from I Love You, But You Love Meat found in the New York Times.

Recipes: Steamed Sweet Veggies

Some of my clients have trouble with sweets. They crave them for various reasons, and frequently people will come to me for help in quitting sweets.

Getting sugar out of your diet can seem like an insurmountable task at times. If you eat anything somewhat processed, or any restaurant food at all, you’re likely to be eating sugar. The worst part is that you don’t even know it most of the time.

When you first start cutting sugar out of your diet, you might find yourself going through severe withdrawal. To ease some of the discomfort, try adding in some sweet vegetables into your diet. Add sweet-smelling spices like cinnamon and cardamom to your veggies, and you might not even notice that you don’t have a bit of sugar on them.

Start with any 2-5 of these vegetables:

Corn, carrots, onions, beets, winter squash, sweet potato, turnips, parsnips and rutabaga

1. Chop the hardest ones – like carrots and root veggies – into smaller pieces. Softer veggies, like onions, can be cut into chunks

2. Layer vegetables in a pot, hardest ones on the bottom – the bottom layer will cook more.

3. Add about 1 inch of water to the pot. Cook until veggies are soft.

4. Empty veggies into a bowl. Sprinkle with spices as desired. Use cooking water as a hot beverage or delicious sweet sauce

Drugs in Your Drinking Water

This disturbing report came out a couple of days ago: traces of prescription drugs have been found in the drinking water supply of 28 cities. That includes New York, which has always claimed to have exceptional water. I’m disappointed and now concerned about drinking out of my own tap. I’m considering getting a reverse osmosis filter – I hear that this is the only way to get all of the impurities out of your water.

Articles about the story:

CNN
Yahoo!
Slashdot
Gothamist

Recipes: Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Bread

I had three ripe bananas sitting on the counter, starting to get just a little too soft for my taste. I haven’t baked banana bread in ages, and I wanted to make a healthier version of the old favorite. So I substituted whole wheat flour for white, and replaced the 3/4 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon of stevia – a naturally occurring herb that sweetens without the calories or effects of white sugar. It turned out pretty good – a little more dense than I thought. I’ve adjusted this recipe to include more water than I used to lighten it up a little more.

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup mashed bananas (3 medium)
1 teaspoon stevia
1/4 cup cooking oil (I used walnut)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of an 8×4x2-inch loaf pan; set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of dry mixture; set aside.

In another bowl, combine the egg, bananas, stevia, cooking oil and water. Add egg mixture all at once to dry mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in nuts.

Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan. cool on rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing. Makes one loaf.

Recipes: Warming Kichadi

I am a big fan of kichadis (sometimes pronounced kitch-e-rees), especially in the winter. The cool thing about them is that they are a really easy one-pot dish that is a complete meal – you get your veggies, grains and beans all in one bowl.  They’re  easy to digest, and they are very good for balancing and healing your digestive system.

I made this one last night and I ate it for breakfast. Think soup is weird for breakfast? Try it yourself and see if you change your mind:

1 cup brown basmati rice
1/2 cup split mung dal
1-2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)
1 tablespoon garam masala
6 cups water
1 onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 more tablespoon garam masala
1 more tablespoon ghee
2 more cups water
2-4 cups chopped vegetables – try carrots, turnips, celery, greens, green beans, or whatever else you like
salt to taste

Method: Rinse rice and split mung, removing any debris.  Heat ghee in a large pot and add garam masala. When spices start to heat up and smell good, add in rice and split mung and saute for a couple of minutes. Add water, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

In a saute pan, heat up ghee and add chopped onion, garlic and more garam masala. Saute  until veggies get soft and fragrant. Remove from heat, and place in a blender with the 2 cups of water. Blend until smooth. Add mixture into pot with the cooking rice and beans. Stir, and add in chopped vegetables. Cook until veggies are soft, about 20 more minutes. Add salt at the end. Enjoy