Monday’s Leftovers: What’s left to eat?

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It’s been a while since I was able to plan a menu, shop and write about food.

Finding time to write has only been part of the problem: finding suitable things to eat and actually feeling like cooking has not happened that often recently and you wouldn’t want the same list, repeated like Groundhog Day, but this month, I took a different approach so that’s “news.”

Anyway, I promised something food-related and the reason is because, Diamond Geezer recently published his low cholesterol diet - a table of foodstuffs that someone with a “cholesterol high score” should and shouldn’t be eating.

Amongst a heap of other papers, I have two cholesterol readings here of mine and, having deciphered how these things seem to work (the scale is different in the UK than in Spain), I find that I had two rather high scores too. They didn’t give me a diet sheet, mind you. In fact, the doctors didn’t seem to have been at all bovvered, because I don’t recall being given any advice on it at all.

Would they have done if I was Spanish, I wonder? Hummmm …

Anyway, even ignoring that issue, it’s already been found that Solo living ‘doubles heart risk’, because “Smoking, obesity and high cholesterol are all more common among those who live alone.” Well, I’ve addressed the first, I am not anywhere near the second, but we can see where there’s still room for improvement.

Certainly, like many people, I thought I had a more or less healthy diet, being a mostly (occasionally lapsed) vegetarian. But, if you look at the chart, the very things that I would shovel down with “careless abandon” in place of meat (eggs and cheese), it turns out, are things I should probably aim to avoid.

Someone else in the family is currently “under the doctor” (well, not literally), waiting to see if she’ll need an operation to have her gall bladder removed and as she was without internet access, I did a bit of research to find that the problem, once again, is due to a build up of cholesterol. She’s vegetarian and her husband’s reaction was “but she’s vegetarian“. But, as we’ve discovered, that’s not a sure thing, when she smokes, eats eggs, cheese, white bread …

There very likely are other factors, but based on the “available evidence” and as I already feel like crap, a healthier diet has to be worth a try, hasn’t it?

Spanish revueltos (luxury scrambled egg dishes) I’ll miss most. Oh, alright and pancakes and French toast (eggy bread) and, well anything “nice” really!

Even seemingly innoxious rice and pasta - the white type, the only type I can buy locally - it seems, are not a good idea more than sometimes. So my risotto with cheese (despite vegetables), might have been a health hazzard (and not just from that Kermit in a blender, goes to Sellafield appearance either.)

Yes, I looked at the table and nearly cried, so I can see how someone who is not yet in pain will look at that and think, “No thanks, I’d rather die young than have such a boring life with such a restricted selection of foods.” Oh, I did too.

Trouble is, I don’t think it works that way. Once the rot sets in, you don’t die, you just wish you were dead from the pain you are in and the things you cannot do. Then you will agree to any diet restrictions. Then might be too late.

Thus, avoiding items in the “Avoid” column (for obvious reasons) and placing little emphasis on any in the “Sometimes” one (for similar motivations), this month, I’ve attempted to make the best of what’s left in the “Often” column.

And let me tell you, this has been no easy task, living where I do! Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what (few) items I managed to get on a recent shopping trip.

Written by Pamela Heywood - Visit Website | Leave a tip | Buy me something