VENTING about ridiculous horrible stupid food environment!

[marthaNH]

Just want to get it off my chest. Like most people on here, I am more than a little bit controlling when it comes to food, not just because I am following a prevention protocol but also because I really have an investment in weight lost and advantages gained from eating a colorful, delicious, but definitely constrained diet!

So. For work reasons, I had to attend a luncheon today. It was served by students in a culinary/restaurant management program. I teach tonight at the same location, and don't get to go home until almost 9 pm. I usually fast until 11 or 12. So this morning I get up early, work for a couple of hours, then take about a mile walk to check my blood pressure at the drug store (just switched meds) and grab the best veggie deals at the storefront vendors in my Brooklyn neighborhood. Knew I was facing a weird food day today so MEANT to pack my backpack with good foods but was delayed and had to run out without it. Still fasting.

So. At the luncheon, I get to choose my appetizer and entree, plus whether or not to have wine. So to start they bring me a bread basket and three mini-fish sticks (with French name, actually delicious) as an appetizer, and have no good choices for entree so ask for the mixed vegetable salad with pasta, thinking I will eat the veggies and not much pasta. What they brought me was a TINY bowl of what was basically about a quarter cup of pasta with a veggie garnish! Four little cubes of tomato and one leafy stem! I passed on the wine because I don't drink and even if I did, that would have been booze on an almost-empty stomach. In desperation I tore off a chunk of bread and put butter on it.

AND THEN without being offered a selection or being given the chance to decline, I am brought an extravagant dessert that is basically a pecan pie tart with whipped cream, a cookie, and chocolate-and-caramel syrup! By now the bread basket is gone and the servers have disappeared and I have to sit through all these talks and activities with this thing sitting in front of me. It has been 16 hours since I've had real food at this point AND I ATE IT ALL.

I'm just frustrated and furious. I have a sick sugar buzz (because I never eat like this), don't get to go home for another six hours and I need to be on my feet and energetic for the final 3 hours of that time. So I left the building and went to a market, picked up a bag of almonds and a fat free strained yogurt. I ate most of the nuts and will have the yogurt before class starts.

And I just want to say that besides howling about somebody having NO IDEA what an entree salad is supposed to provide in the way of food, that we have a sick, sick food environment. If you are relying on the market (not a market, I mean the edible aspect of the market economy) for your food, you are GOING TO GET SICK. Thank god my mother taught me to cook. I don't know how young people with full time jobs and children manage to stay on a decent diet. It's time-consuming and expensive and you need some skills and knowledge that a lot of us just don't have. Shame.

AARGH. Thanks. Five more hours to go. I will try to regain my sense of humor now.

[NF52]

Been there, done that, MarthaNH,
Decades ago I worked in a regional program that hosted administrators for a yearly dinner. Since some of the kids were in the baking class, you could count on an impossibly rich dessert. Of some consolation, they did believe in veggies and salads. I'm guessing that you hit a program that is heavy on the baking. Maybe a conversation with the program director would spark some dialogue and thought?

[SusanJ]

martha, we all feel your pain, and have gone to events without a food backup. It is a sad indictment that dessert tends to be the star of the show at most catered events.

And as we all experience, restaurants aren't much better. Asking for no gluten and dairy sometimes leaves very little on a plate. I know someone who graduated from a similar program, runs his own restaurant (Italian, heavy on the pasta and cream) and he and his wife are now overweight (in their 30s), with 3 kids that are learning to eat this way. It's like we're training chefs to be sugar-drug dealers, so people get addicted and of course, return to a restaurant for more sugar...

[marthaNH]

SusanJ, YES. I teach over in one of the academic departments but mostly interact with students aiming for communications design or computer graphics work. I understand the pressures on these culinary/baking students and future restaurant managers. They need steady employment, #1, and they would mostly really prefer to be successes in their own communities, not in mine. But lord, lord. I compared that day's cronometer report to the day before's, and could only say "no wonder" to the epidemic of metabolic disorders out there. You eat like that on a good day and you don't have a prayer.

[Julie G]

And as we all experience, restaurants aren't much better. Asking for no gluten and dairy sometimes leaves very little on a plate.

This is one our our pet peeves! I can't tell you how often I've eaten out with two asparagus spears as my side dish. Grrr. While this is difficul to navigate at a catered event, we've gotten better managing it at restaurants. Instead of asking the waitstaff to hold the bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, whatever; we now ask them to REPLACE it with extra veggies. Most restaurants comply without batting an eye. Some charge extra. At least we end up with actual food on our plate that we can eat.

Funny story. At one of our meet-ups, I had the surreal experience of dining with Drs. Bredesen, Wahls and Gundry all at one table. We were at a Mediterranean restaurant. The poor unsuspecting waitress brought a huge bread basket over and all three of them screamed: "NO, take it away!"

[marthaNH]

Funny story. At one of our meet-ups, I had the surreal experience of dining with Drs. Bredesen, Wahls and Gundry all at one table. We were at a Mediterranean restaurant. The poor unsuspecting waitress brought a huge bread basket over and all three of them screamed: "NO, take it away!"

I'm not going to be able to get that scene out of my head!

[Sara]

I guess it goes without saying but the more we can plan ahead the better off we will be. I try to keep a healthy meal bar and a handful of nuts in my purse or backpack for those occasions when I don't have time or healthy options available. And yes... please deliver me from those bread baskets! Especially the warm ones.

[Lindy]

I guess it goes without saying but the more we can plan ahead the better off we will be. I try to keep a healthy meal bar and a handful of nuts in my purse or backpack for those occasions when I don't have time or healthy options available.

Sara, what meal bars have you found that work for the Bredesen protocol? I shop at three different organic health-food stores and haven't found any meal or protein bars that totally fit the guidelines. I would love to stock up on one that did!

[marthaNH]

Sara, what meal bars have you found that work for the Bredesen protocol? I would love to stock up on one that did!

Same here! I saw a box of them yesterday that looked promising, but then saw that the first ingredient was dates, and was afraid it would be as sweet as all the others. I usually rely on nuts and a small thermos of yogurt. I can carry a can of sardines if I will be able to eat in privacy, but the smell tends to draw stares in a crowd, and it is inconsiderate to dispose of the can and extra oil in an office wastebasket. I was thinking today that I ought to stock up on canned trout the next time Trader Joe's has it, because I think that will be less pungent. I find it delicious.

[Sara]

Lindy, I love the Bulletproof Bars, lemon are my favorite... however they do have some collagen in them so if you are trying to stay dairy free they may not be the best solution. Funny you are asking me as I recently spent some time researching and found that the bars that are free of gluten, dairy, sugar, etc. are high in carbs. My most cost effective and easiest solution are to grab a handful of almonds or other nuts and a few baby carrots. Even a hard boiled egg but keep it under wraps as they smell.. I know that goes without saying... but try unwrapping one in a roomful of people and see what happens - right up there with fish! Turkey jerkey - watch the sugar and half a green banana are good snacks once in a while. Last but not least, Dr. Gundry approved food list under Energy Bars includes Quest Bars, B-Up Bars, Human Food bar, Adapt Bar. Watch for dairy. I am going to be traveling for a few days so I have been stocking up. Good luck! Sara