Diet Fun

Can a diet be fun? Surprisingly yes, if you're creative and know what to mix and blend you can.It's just a matter of being open and experimenting. It'll make a new lifestyle change exciting.

This has been my mantra now that I'm on the cirrhosis diet. I have to admit it was more than daunting at first. Let's face it , giving up sugar and salt  is life changing.It's giving up cookies and the occasional cupcake. The salt is even worse. I have to give up my beloved pretzels and bacon along with the occasional bag of chips. Salad dressings, thanks to their high sodium content are also off the table. The one that kills me is the veggie broth, my always go to  when I feel sick or just want a very light meal. Luckily one of my favorite soups, Well Yes comes in  lower sodium and thankfully tastes the same. Other soups aren't so forgiving so it's up to me to get creative about them. I found a recipe for homemade veggie stock that sounds delicious , I can see adding whole wheat fusilli and chickpeas for a much healthier version of pasta e fagiole. I could also add Beyond Meat crumbles for a heartier chowder like soup. As for the salad dressings, I can use vegan Nayonnaise which tastes like the real thing. It's a low sodium sauce that can be blended with turmeric or cumin, both liver building spices. I also plan on cooking with those spices. I live them already and am looking forward to using it to flavor lentils and chickpeas.

As for the sweets, I was more than ecstatic to discover that very dark chocolate actually helps in slowing down cirrhosis. I went out and bought the seventy-five percent bars. These have a slightly sweet flavor but tastes more like baking chocolate - which I love. I decided to cut and then grate it into a cup of almond butter. It's the perfect sweet snack - and almost decadent in its' flavor.I plan on mixing it with plain Greek yogurt which I can also have. The Slushie cup I used for my Pepsi slushies can be used for making a kind of ice cream with these ingredients. I can't have the regular kind due to all the sugar but I can have this. I also plant on chopping and pureeing different fruits and mixing it with the yogurt for different iced treats. (Greek yogurt can also be used for dips for veggies too). As for candy' even the sugar free is out of bounds. Yet there are grapes and blueberries to enjoy and snack on. I can melt the  dark chocolate and dip strawberries and other fruits in it.  As for cakes, I'm looking into whole wheat ones sweetened with honey. This will be the rare treat, made on birthdays and holidays. There is an oatmeal cookie made with blackstrap molasses - again this last is acceptable, that I'm looking into too.

This diet won't kill me. Thanks to being creative , it will save me. There's so many ingredients I can play with to create delicious meals and treats. I'm looking forward to all these changes.

Gimme Sugar The Soft Drink Controversy

There's a major controversy in the New York metro area. It seems that besides a tax on sugary drinks there are also commercials showing the bad side of drinking too much of the stuff. It's annoying.It's not that I'm from NJ and find pontificating from a mayor that's not my own irritating. I just don't like to be told what to do with my eating habits. Neither do others.

I can understand the need to show smoking and alcohol PAs. Too much of either is deadly and can harm others. However what one chooses to eat or drink with one''s meal is another matter. Yes,sugary drinks are bad for every and anyone - kids or adults - whether it's soda , sweetened teas or coffees. Yet, Coke and Snapple are a part of our everyday diets, much more than cigarettes or a bottle of beer could ever be. We could switch over, It's easy to wean yourself off them. Yet that let that be your choice - not one made fo r you or me

As far as regulating sugar intake - why let it stop at drinks? Every processed food has some form of it in them. Do we tell people not to indulge in French or Russian salad dressing because those have sugar. Do we cut out Girl Scout cookies or the occasional morning Danish? What about the chocolate? Will there be a ban on white and milk chocolate because it's not as healthy as dark? Then do we go after fruit because that contains sugar too - as does corn . It gets ridiculous after a while, doesn't it?

How far will it go? Will we wake up one day and find the Sugar Police at your doors? The illegal white stuff won't be cocaine anymore, that's for sure. Just think Prohibition could be brought back - not for Jack Daniels but for Pepsi!