“Lesson from a carpenter”
We had a carpenter neighbor, who, just like any other carpenter in our place, lived on a subsistence diet. From him I got a valuable lesson, a bit ironical perhaps, when he said “for one who is hungry, any food is delicious.”
I and he experienced hunger several times in the course of our lives. But I had food when I did while he sometimes did not.
A study in contrast:
Two guys I normally have lunch with are lessons of nutrition in a nutty way. Both are overweight and are fighting a losing battle against keeping fit. Previously preferring brown sugar over white, now both don’t put sugar at all in their black coffee; both caution me against sugar-laden iced tea. One is cutting down on his rice intake while the other has started drinking more water. One has a mild case of diabetes, takes drugs to keep his cholesterol in check and has a history of cancer in the family; the other cannot eat crabs and avoid arthritis at the same time.
I have no food hang-ups. I eat whatever I feel like eating when hungry, dislike brown sugar and, were they not so expensive, would have loved to eat crabs more often.
Lose weight without going hungry:
We live in world of ironies these days. While keeping fit is a must, yet our lifestyles are laden with conveniences to make us more lethargic. Our incomes allow us to eat whatever we want, but high-blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, stroke, cancer, etc, limit our range of culinary choices.
We are deluged with “health” foods to suit every occasion, but every occasion can impose limits on one’s food predilection. Take these health tips from the Internet. These types of food are supposed to help shed off a few calories without the resultant food-craving that follows after a vigorous workout or a hard diet. But each has their own caveats. Consider these:
1. Eggs:
According to Prevention, eggs are a great source for hunger-quelling protein, about 6 gms per egg, and studies show that women on low-fat diet but ate 2 eggs for breakfast, 5 days a week, lost 65% more weight and had an 83% reduction in waist circumference.
But a study I came across showed more women die of cardiac arrest than men. I hope this health tip won’t make the statistics worse through cholesterol build-up.
I used to have fried egg every morning for breakfast until my late wife insisted that I cut back. Now I have it when there is no other item to go with bread.
2. Almonds:
This is high on Vitamin E and monounsaturated fat, one of two good fats responsible for lowering “bad” cholesterol (LDL). It’s “fatty” component can keep one’s appetite sated for hours. Studies showed that dieters, after using almonds for 6 months, lost 63% more weight, 50% more body fat, and 55% reduced waistlines compared to those on high-carb diet.
The downside is that almonds are not endemic to the Far East making it difficult, if not expensive, to get to sustain dieting in the long haul. And cases of salmonella infections in 2001, 2004, and 2006 make it risky to take non-pasteurized almonds from other sources other than the U.S.
Oh, I love almonds – those embedded in rich Cadbury chocolate bars.
3. Avocado:
Yuuuummmm, one of my favorite fruits. It is super delicious if scraped to a paste, mixed with a little cream, then sweetened with white sugar and taken ice-chilled; perfect if taken with a two slices of buttered toasts or as a desert.
This fruit is a mayhem of nutrients. 75% of it is fat, mostly monounsaturated, it has 60% more potassium than bananas and is rich in Vitamin B, E and K. It has the highest fiber content among fruits, 75% of which are insoluble, the rest soluble.
It grows abundantly in the tropics but if grown in the backyard, is highly seasonal, making it difficult to get most time of the year.
4. Apples:
Growing in post-colonial Philippines made me shun apples. It’s too bourgeoisie. I started eating it when geo-politics started to lose its luster, but only during the Christmas season.
Might as well. Apple is temperate, same as almonds, making its supply scarce and expensive to support a long-term diet.
Nevertheless, studies show that 40% is shorn off one’s weight if one or two apples are taken before every meal. And apples have very low calorie content.
Should be good for a friend of my daughter. She has more needle marks than a junky from the weight-loss injections she’s taking. She wants to have the best of both worlds – being sexy and food-crazy. So far all she’s got for her efforts are tiny black spots all over her body.
5. Oatmeal:
Oatmeal is considered as the ultimate food for weight loss programs. Its high soluble fiber slows down digestion keeping us full for hours. Studies show that a breakfast of oatmeal every day coupled with a 15 to 30 minutes walk can make one lose 10 pounds in 12 weeks.
I was born few years after WW II and the Philippines was deluged with powdered milk and oatmeal under the aid program of the U.N. Recess at school was either one or the other or both. I can’t live on oatmeal. I hate the stuff and until today I still don’t take it. My daughter is an oatmeal buff but then she doesn’t take anything after 6 pm and she works out regularly.
6. Peanut butter:
I love peanuts but I don’t take peanut butter. Too American-ish. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with eating tons of peanuts, is there? Unless one has uric acid problems, which I don’t
Anyway, a research on “peanuts” showed this legume to be an encyclopedia of nutrients making this article tiring if I write about them all.
There are many ways to feast on peanuts and studies shows that dieters snacking on peanuts or peanut butter lose more weight than those who don’t.
Not if they take peanuts my way. I love roasted but adore salted peanuts more. Either way, I delight in taking them with a bottle of ice-cold coke.
Caution: Molds, i.e., Aspergillus flavus, can easily set in producing aflatoxin – a very nasty carcinogenic. This never occurred to me while eating moldy raw peanuts. I just brushed the molds away.
