The Elimination Diet Step 117supermarkets have sought to introduce their customers to exotic foods and
there is no excuse for a limited parochial view. There are many hundreds of
fruits to eat on a regular basis.
Then vegetables: much of what I just said about fruits is true for
vegetables. Even northerly Maine is well able to raise a variety of edibles,
including but not limited to: asparagus, beans, beets, broccoli, Brussels
sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage,
pop corn, sweet corn, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, kohlrabi, kale, leeks,
lettuce, muskmelons, onions, parsley, peas, peppers, pumpkins, radishes,
rhubarb, rutabagas, spinach, squash, tomatoes, turnips and watermelons.
I found several lists on the Internet and the consensus is that there are
around 400 readily available vegetables for daily eating.
Out with the fluff
All in all there are well over a thousand readily available foods. So when
patients say to me “What on earth is left to eat?” they get a sharp lecture in
common sense.
Why would anybody miss eating the everyday foods, except because
of laziness, habit and addiction? Bread, muffins, pastas, pastry and pizza are
all wheat foods, with or without the yeast. Corn turns up in corn flour, most
carbonated soft drinks (they use corn syrup as a sweetener), instant coffee,
cornbread, polenta, pizza, pasta, tortillas, cornflakes and numerous other
sugared breakfast cereals, cakes, cookies, muffins, waffles, instant desserts,
ice cream, margarine, processed cheeses, jam, peanut butter, sandwich
spreads, sausage, ham, bacon, wurst, variety meats, bolognas, popcorn,
chocolate, chocolate ‘flavor, chewing gum, sherbet, any dextrose-containing
food, candy and chocolate bars, to name just a few. Even whisky, gin and
most vodkas belong in this group – wheat (or corn) and yeast!
Corn, corn, corn. That’s very monotonous eating in my book!
I am constantly astonished by the dismayed look I see when folks
realize they are not allowed the usual breakfast cereals. You would think I
was taking away their citizens rights! Yet to me these breakfasts-in-a-box are
no better food or texture-wise than eating cardboard fragments.
When I suggest fish, liver, kidneys and chops instead, with fried
vegetables, they look at me as if I said a dirty word. Yet to me this is a
far healthier lifestyle breakfast. What’s more the fat content blunts your
appetite for many hours. There is absolutely no reason to be hungry on an
exclusion diet. Try it and you’ll see.