Thursday 18 February 2010

Food obsession

I seem to be spending most of my time thinking about food at the moment - of course, yesterday was Ash Wednesday and I was fasting, so that didn't help. But this new regime is hard work.

Because it's the only way we can get our four doses of supplements in with the requisite four hour minimum gap between them without cutting into our valuable sleeping time, we need to eat our tea just before leaving work rather than wait until we've had a chance to get home and cook.

We were away at the weekend and I didn't have a chance to plan menus and do any shopping and preparation, so on Monday I left DH to sort himself out. And guess what he had for tea...

Yes, that's right - three or four slices of buttered toast. Not a vitamin or mineral in sight, apart from his supplements.

So obviously I can't trust him to choose healthy food for himself, which means I need to do all the thinking for him. And each meal has to be portable, nutritious, tasty and easy for him either to eat cold or to reheat. The instructions from Foresight say no microwaving, but how else can he reheat his meals when he's in the office? I'm certainly not going to make him eat cold food all week at this time of year, and I'm sure my additive-free meals, made with fresh organic produce, are healthier than sending him to a cafe for his lunch. Plus a lot of cafes reheat their food in the microwave anyway.

So I'm working out what bits of the instructions we can follow and which bits we can't. And at the same time, I can't help wondering...

If we're taking dozens of supplements a day which give us all the vitamins and minerals we were lacking before, won't they be the wrong dosages if we change our diet and eat healthier food? Has this stuff been prescribed on the assumption that we'll carry on eating exactly the same stuff as we did before? Or is there no assumption at all about what we'll eat, meaning we could eat nothing but doughnuts for the next four months and still have improved health as a result of the supplements? Could we be like astronauts, getting all the nutrition we need from (not so) little space-age capsules?

Or am I just clutching at straws and looking for excuses to start eating chocolate again...?

4 comments:

  1. I ask myself that same darn question whenever I remember to put the prenatal and folic acid in my mouth! I mean, if they're giving me 100% or more of something in a pill, and some of this stuff, natural or not, you can OD on, how am I supposed to know what to eat??

    I'm astonished they didn't provide you any instructions in this regard. Since they didn't, my initial assumption is they think since you are using their services you obviously can't see fit to eat right (ha!) and therefore asking you to do so is a lost cause. But, I would probably contact them and make sure, if that's at all possible.

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  2. That is such a good question....and it does seem a little odd that they didnt give you more info about it... either way, surely chocolate isn't the horrible enemy? Just a little weenie tiny bit?
    It sounds like a lot of work to have to prepare all these meals in advance, but I guess if you did a whole bunch on the weekend then froze them the job would be out of the way for the week, I find it hard enough cooking for one meal at a time though so I don't envy you but feel free to slap me for saying that because in reality it is the smallest sacrifice really isn't it? We've all just got to keep our eyes on the prize....

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  3. That's the tricky thing - there's a huge long list of stuff to avoid, but if we followed everything on the list we'd have to turn into fruitarians or something for four months, and DH is putting up with quite enough as it is. Still, what's four months of inconvenience if it works, eh...?

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  4. It IS weird that they didn't tell you whether or not to alter your diet. I know that pills that technically have 100% of your daily intake won't give you 100% because your body just doesn't absorb things at 100% efficiency. So it must make sense to have a healthy diet, too. Maybe you could ask them?

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