Saturday, July 23, 2011

How many ways can one eat a bowl of rice?

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(Yes, there is a bowl of rice under there…  somewhere.)

I have this issue.  This issue with not being able to eat much.  Very sensitive tummy, very sensitive baby.  It cuts out a lot.  Like all dairy, all soy, all green leafies and the whole brassica family, all cucs and that whole family (which BTW includes watermelon which I didn’t know at first.  :(  ),  and most fruit (I can’t have it cooked, but he can’t have it raw).  I have started to find things I can eat regularly, but it isn’t varied much.  In the morning I have a bowl of homemade granola with almond milk.  Homemade, more so I know exactly what is in it than by any actual dedication to make this food issue more complicated.  This is about 6 days a week.  On the other day I have eggs and toast.  That’s breakfast. I know half of you are saying “YUM!” and it’s true, it is a tasty dish.  But with no variety it gets old.

Lunch is the hardest one for me.  I never know what to eat and half the time we are out.  I can’t have sodium nitrate so that cuts out about 4/5ths of the lunch meat on the planet (also 1/2 of all the fast food)…  so when we do make normal things like sandwiches it ends up being very expensive… often I do a BLT with nitrate free bacon, or a veggie sandwich, heavy on the avocado.  This too, gets old.

The other thing I have turned to is rice.  LOTS of rice.  My mix is 3 cups long grain brown rice to one cup mixed wild rice in the rice cooker.  When the family is eating something I can’t have, I turn to rice.  I add anything on top from a fried egg over rice with salsa mixed in to cilantro and tomatoes with a hard boiled egg (pictured above) to whatever leftovers we have in the fridge (with all the stuff I can’t eat picked out) put on top and heated.  I have a huge Pyrex of rice in my fridge at all times.  It’s my ‘go to’ meal. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about all the people who are coming up with food issues (or live with them daily).  What is going on with that?  I wonder what started the allergy epidemic happening.  Did we saturate our food chain so much that we as a race are becoming sensitive to the very core of what we are made of (food)?  And then there are the other food issues.  IBS, and Ulcerative Colitis, Chron’s and Celiac.  They are common place terms now.  Are we just more aware of them or are they really as newly prevalent as they seem?

And this concludes ‘Deep thoughts… with Val’.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

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7 comments

Appetite for Instruction said...

I heard a story on NPR yesterday about diet sensitivity being related to humans being too clean. I guess we destroyed some of the good bugs and worms that used to live in our digestive tracts. The symbiotic relationship is disrupted, causing auto-immune disorders, including allergies and chron's, etc...

Val in the Rose Garden said...

Interesting! I am thinking that it may have something to do with it. I know that bacterial flora in your system is really important. I will have to find that story! Thanks!

Blessings,

Val

Nancy Lynne said...

I don't think there is a single cause, and it seems to be particular to the USA. We do more to mess with our food here than anywhere else in the world. As someone who grew up when "Wonder Bread" was sold as something that was good for you, American's had a healthier diet then than we do now. In spite of the fact that "Wonder Bread" is not healthy. To see anyone carrying "belly fat" was rare and either meant that they were pregnant or drank a lot of beer. For the last 30 years or so, our food has been genetically engineered, treated with antibiotics and infused with hormones. Then there is high fruictose corn syrup and hydrogenated fat, both banned in some countries in Europe. Okay, I could go on and on here. :)

Val in the Rose Garden said...

I think you're right Nancy. I also think that in that amount of time we are sitting 10 times as much as we were when Wonderbread came out. That has to put serious strain on your stomach muscles and your stomach skin. I am a seriously active person for the times, and even I have found my self fighting belly flab just from sitting and crafting or time on the computer. When I put the computer on the counter (on a box cus the counter is too short for me) and stand instead of sit, it starts to go away.

But the insurgance of "frankinfoods" has always had me thinking... what are they expecting us to eat when they don't feed us real food? Instead of strawberries with a little bit of white sugar (which used to be a summertime desert constantly) it is now strawbery shakes (that have 400cal each and three different types of sugars) and strawberry flavored icepops (which in my estimation are not even food!). It's amazing... and yet, I had a coke today to get me through nap time so I could get the stuff I needed to do done cuz I can't have coffee. So who am I to talk?

Ugh... food issues!

Blessings,

Val

Nancy Lynne said...

Val!
"Frankinfoods" for sure! Artificial blueberries in muffins! Who thinks that is a good idea?
Wish I could stand up when on my computer. Back back makes that impossible.
Mexican Coke is made with sugar, not high fruictose corn syrup. (Costco sells it.) It's the only pop I drink, and then sparingly... When I was growing up, pop was not something people drank all the time. We only bought it to drink on vacation!
I think the tide is turning on the kind of food we eat, a bit. I see "Hormone Free" and "No High Fruictose Corn Syrup" or "Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil" on packaging more and more. We try to avoid those things. And pick non-hybrid seeds, when possible, for our garden. You are probably aware that there is an underground movement of folks growing plants for seeds that will reproduce seeds. Not sterile plant seeds, as many are now.
Did you post the piece I say on the little girl who grew sweet potato plants?

Nancy Lynne said...

Bad back..
ALL kids used to play outside until it got dark! :)
Blessings to you too.

Sunshine Alternative Mama said...

I think a lot of it has to do with diet, especially polyunsaturated oils and HFCS, plus everything artificial and all the preservatives. I also think that grains are a big part of it.

Interestingly, I recently found the "Perfect Health Diet" (which allows white rice products but no other grains). In the past I would have turned away or dismissed it but this time I looked because it addressed so many of my own issues, including not being able to tolerate grains. It's kind of paleo meets traditional foods with the addition of safe starches. It makes sense to me scientifically and it is working for my body, even to the point that I am now tolerating foods that should have been "safe" but were causing me issues, like wild salmon and almonds. J-Baby is happily eating fruits, which it took a lot of healing to get him to be able to do.

Anyway, we eat a lot of rice around here (white rice, actually, and I am so glad to have let go of the guilt that I was carrying over that). Well, the boys and DH eat a lot of rice, I eat more moderate carb and would honestly rather have yam or sweet potato than rice. I love that anything can go on it, and also that it can go into broths so easily.

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