What to Eat?

[Guest guest]

Someone once wrote to me, " Saying what is forbidden is pretty depressing.

How about a list of what you can have? Please, someone who knows. "

My reply to her was as follows:

Why depressing? I suppose if your diet has been mainly pasta, rice, and

potatoes, it would be.

It's downright scary to completely rearrange the way you think about food,

and what you consider healthy - especially when what you're asked to do

seems to fly in the face of what you've always been told. Whether you've

been a vegetarian, a consumer of the Standard American Diet (SAD), or even

someone who has tried, really tried to eat healthy, you're going

to be making changes when you become an SCDer.

Making the changes, giving up foods you may enjoy, or which are part of

your culture, isn't easy. You may worry that people will think you are

strange for going on such a restrictive diet. Or for putting your child on

one!

Especially threatening is making all these changes if you are physically,

mentally, and emotionally fragile because of the condition of your health

or that of a loved one.

That said, you can have a wide variety of meat, vegetables, greens, fruits,

cheeses, eggs, yogurt, etc. How you COMBINE these to make wonderful gourmet

meals is entirely up to you.

I can state that Harry and I are eating better than we ever have in over 30

years of marriage.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, I used to have my parents over once a week for

dinner. It was all SCD.

One week, we had grilled catfish, and a shrimp salad with homemade

remoulade dressing, and vanilla ice cream with blue berries.

Another week, I did cheese burgers with steamed mixed veggies and homemade

ranch dressing, and we had lemon cream pie for dessert.

The next week, we had roast chicken and dressing, steamed green beans, and

finished off the lemon cream pie.

Then we had steaks, with mock-potato salad, and mixed green salad with

honey-mustard dressing.

I've also done super gourmet meals, like the oyster dinner for my Dad's

birthday, including oyster and artichoke bisque, oysters Bienville, oysters

Rockefeller, oysters Fitzpatrick and oysters on the half shell. Or the meal

for their wedding anniversary with Greek-style egg-lemon soup,

rosemary-garlic lamb roast, and savory mock-rice pilaf. You should have

seen me last year for my parents' 60th Wedding Anniversary Celebration! We

had ten family members in town for it, and I did SCD dinners four nights in

a row for everyone, since, with me, my sister, my niece, and my

great-nephew all SCD, it was easier to do SCD dinners at home than to try

to find restaurants that would accommodate us. (I also got to come up with

foodstuffs for the 90 person party my folks had that the SCDers could eat

without feeling to out of place AND provide yogurt for all of us!

Be aware, also, that when I do these meals, they must also be free of added

sodium because of my mother's congestive heart failure.

I also tracked down a low-sodium cheese to use for Mom (it wasn't SCD

legal, so I used proper cheddar, monteray jack and provolone for the rest

of us) so I could do Mexican food for my folks. My guacamole has been quite

highly rated -- even by someone who hates avocado!

It's got a little tricky in the months since Katrina because I found myself

working full time for the first time since my back injury in 1982. My crock

pot has been my lifesaver! (See

http://www.scdrecipe.com/wp/2006/08/03/hurricane-katrina-crock-pots-and-the

-scd/). So has my Foreman grille!

SCD has forced me to think out of the box as far as meals are concerned.

But limiting? Not on your life!

And speaking of guacamole, I wonder if those avocadoes are ripe yet?

-- Marilyn (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA)

Undiagnosed IBS 25 Years, SCD Five Years

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund