Food Diary - apologies for the odd spacing

Wednesday September 29th, 2010
Breakfast: 3/4 of a strawberry & nut "Kind" bar
Lunch: Grilled chicken, broccoli, one slice of avocado topped with tiny tomato & onion bites, several balls of fresh mozzarella cheese & one small carton of milk from the school cafeteria.
Snack: 1/4 of a strawberry & nut "Kind" bar before walking home from school.
Dinner: A grilled pork chop + sauce, rice, beans; sides of sour cream, and pico de gallo.

Thursday September 30th, 2010

Breakfast: nothing

Lunch: 1 iced coffee with extra milk and some sugar from Dunkin Donuts with their turkey, cheese and bacon flatbread.

Snack: Nothing.

Dinner: Half a vegetarian burrito from Qdoba (cilantro rice, beans, tomatoes, onions,  tortilla, & guacamole), a side of sour cream and side of their tortilla (Sopa Azteca) soup (grilled chicken, spices, broth, onions, cheese, sour cream).

Calorie Count

Wednesday September 29th, 2010

Breakfast & Snack: 112.55

Lunch: (no measurement available for grilled chicken), 35 + 160 + 34 + 300 = 529

Dinner: 250 + 150 + 76 + 181 + 18 =  675

TOTAL: >1, 316. 55 calories

Thursday September 30th, 2010

Breakfast & Snack: 0

Lunch: 90 + 410 = 500

Dinner: 375 + 160 + 50 + 170 = 755

TOTAL: 1, 255 calories

On the more "sensual" side of the food....

Wednesday September 29th, 2010

Breakfast & Snack: Eaten "on the run" while on the way to school (breakfast) and on the way back from school (snack). Nothing was rushed, the bar was leisurely eaten while I walked.

Lunch: Somewhat rushed. I got my food late and only had twenty minutes to eat while throwing a birthday celebration for one of my best friends (and annoying the rest of the cafeteria by singing a hybrid of the Pokemon theme song and Happy Birthday loud and off key). The chicken and broccoli were grilled and steamed respectively, with the latter tasting somewhat bland and watered-down. The avocado was absolutely delicious and yes, it did spread over the mozzarella cheese balls (adding to their taste.) 

Dinner: The pork chop was well done, with a little sauce and tasted absolutely delicious. I was a little disappointed because the bone in it was a larger than usual (about the size of a quarter of my palm) but I ate the whole thing anyway. I ate at a casual pace, watching TV with my family (House for this evening). The pico was beginning to turn, a little too sour for my tastes so I didn't have much.

Thursday September 30th, 2010

Breakfast & Snack: Nothing to eat, nothing to report.

Lunch: I was on my way to get ready for a scholarship interview so I suppose I was rushing a little. I asked for the iced coffee to be light but they barely put any milk in it, oh well. It wasn't exactly to my tastes and I don't like my coffee to actually taste like coffee so I can't quite say I enjoyed it all that much. To me, it was bitter but I was running late and overall don't find it worth it to hassle anyone over food not being prepared to test. There isn't really anything to say about the flatbread sandwich - I wasn't paying attention to the taste.

Dinner: Yum <3. The soup was my favorite, as usual. Spicy but not spicy enough to overshadow the taste of the chicken or vegetables. 

Overall...
I usually don't get a certain feeling while eating any particular food, instead, emotions that I get during a meal come from the when and where that the meal takes place during. My friends and I are trying to fit all of us on a bench in the park, leaning to either side of the 6th or 7th floor front staircase, or huddling around a cafeteria table because someone had to stay in for lunch, the only thing I can think to describe the feeling is that a feel me. 

Family Foodways

"Don't waste food. There are starving children in Africa who would love to have as much food as you do." This is something that both myself and my parents have grown up hearing. While I have been raised Native American, many of the beliefs related to food I've grown up with have little to do with traditional food for us like the Three Sisters (Corn, Beans & Squash) and instead relate much more towards the various health problems in my family. Additionally, both of my grandparents grew up dirt poor and because of such, my grandmother acts like wasting food is the utmost crime against the world and my grandfather will graciously eat whatever food you put before him, regardless of how bad of a choice it would be for him because of his health problems. To better look at how I view food, I have to look at what my parents think of it because for several years of my life, my thoughts were the direct product of their food related thoughts merging together.

My father, to start with, put it simply, said, "My mother's food sucks. Her cooking sucks. I don't have anything to say." While that might seem mostly useless, I can speak of his mother's opinions to some extent. Whenever I visit her, I almost always wind up pulling rotting food from her refrigerator and kitchen counters because like my mother's mother (Baba), she doesn't believe in wasting food at all. She will gladly eat a rotten orange or buy orange juice about to expire because like my mother's parents, she grew up in rather poor circumstances. While she also stressed constantly never to waste food, most of my views are a result of how my mother's side of the family views food. Baba believes that one should never waste food, however, she's willing to compromise the health states of the family to follow that believe. Growing up, my mom recalls that her mother would make enormous quantities of food that would be served day after day after day. Growing up, my mother was predisposed to Crohn's disease (which she now has) and for her, repeating eating was an awful thing to do. My mom also has had Acid Reflux since a very young age and for that condition, there are also certain acid based foods (like tomato sauce) that should be avoided. Baba refused to believe food could get you sick and didn't change her cooking habits. My grandfather has Type 2 Diabetes and high blood pressure. As such, foods high in sugar and sodium should be avoided. When he was diagnosed my grandmother once again refused to change her cooking habits.

Over the years, the multiple conditions or diseases that my mother and grandfather were trying to avoid all together and prevent from increasing from their pre-disposed states, or keep under control, nearly all fell on them or worsened. My grandmother's solution? Stop cooking all together. (She's resumed cooking now and still doesn't seem to comprehend basic nutritional information, no matter who tries to explain it to her. So for the record, in case you weren't informed, adding water to a very high sodium meal does not get rid of the salt in the meal - it only dilutes the salt's concentration in the dish.) With my family's medical history being a clearly connected to the foods that they ate, not only has "healthy eating" been promoted to me as I've grown up (grilled meats instead of fried, fruits instead of chicharrones) but knowing how to curve a diet in favor of an individual's health has been stressed even further.

From the experiences of my grandfather, I have learned many tricks of how to keep well (ie, not passed out from a sugar crash) with my insulin resistance. I know that an apple or peach is preferable to a pineapple that is not only high in sugar but the sugar and carbohydrates in it will be broken down a lot faster because they are "simple" sugars. Eating pineapple would result in a blood sugar spike and then crash for me. I have to second guess even the foods that are generically considered healthy by most of the population.

Note: No official inventory of my fridge is available at the moment as I'm feeling under the weather and don't want to risk contaminating the family's supply of food. However, off the top of my head I'm certain of the following items being in it:

• Milk
• Lactaid Milk
• Apple Juice
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Butter
• Ranch Dressing
• Vinegar
• Lite Italian dressing
• Cold Cuts (Ham, Turkey, Salami)
• Cilantro
• Advocados
• Peppers
• Chipotle Ranch Dressing

Food - Initial Thoughts

When thinking on food, I realize that I’m likely to be biased for several reason varying from health and of course my own personal opinion. To start with, I’m pre-disposed to diabetes because of insulin resistance which means that my body has a hard time processing and making use of the sugar that I eat as it can’t make use of the insulin my body produces. To fend off and put off my chances for fully developing diabetes I really have to watch what I eat. As a general rule of thumb, candy and carbs from things that are not vegetables are horrible for me; two pieces of bread without any protein will start to knock me out within twenty minutes of eating it. Pasta is very rarely an option for me. In theory, I could have all of these things in moderation but more often than not, if you give me a serving of, let’s say, chicken low mien, I’m not going to want to eat only the few bites I’m allowed to. So I’ve chosen to rid my diet of things I know are bad for my insulin resistance, lest I give into the temptation of how delicious they are and choose to splurge.

Another thing that affects my views on food is my heritage. I was born and raised Native American and as such, I’ve certainly eaten things that most people would avoid eating. (For the record, Bambi and Thumper are entirely delicious.) Likewise, typical or delicacies foods from other cultures such as insects or the brains of certain animals are capable of making me turn the other way.  Between my health and my heritage, I place different food related priorities in front of others. To start with, because of my health, I do my best to have a balanced meal so that I’m not ingesting too much of one particular food and make sure to have lots of protein (which has been suggested by my endocrinologist) and before bed or at dinner, eating food that’s sugar will enter my blood stream at a much slower rate than junk food would. For example, eating a helping of rice at dinner or some nuts before bed instead of splurging on desert or having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

 As of now, I prioritize food that is healthy for a diabetic – low in sugar, hopefully high in protein, salads, vegetables, steamed, boiled or grilled food instead of fried food etc. Self control must be used because my brain oft times wants to prioritize iced tea, juices (which will put me to sleep just like certain carbs will), chips and perhaps things like pie. My sweet tooth is a terrible master at time and likes to try and trick me into thinking “satisfying” food for the moment > not needing to be on medication of the rest of my life.  However, I have been making many improvements for the past few months and hope to continue to do so.

As for initial thoughts, I’m not exactly sure I have any. I think I have more ‘concerns’ in the sense that I don’t want this unit to turn into a health related “fast foods are awful for your body” unit because we’ve all heard that. We’re all capable, functioning young adults and we should be able to take responsibility for what we do to our bodies  in addition to making sure we care for them and learn moderation.  (In short, all the things that have been preached to us since middle school.) I would much rather learn about things like how food may be used in rituals or traditions aside from my own. For instance, I was watching the discovery channel and one tribe in African secludes the bride-to-be with her mother and grandmother were they continuously feed the young woman foods aimed to make her gain weight so she is nice and plump by the time the family is ready to find a suitor for her. (In attempts to show that the family is a good one and can take care of themselves in addition to spoil themselves.)