I have to admit that I am a bit confused by why people seem to think that the Super Bowl is an excuse to get together and eat a boat load of unhealthy food. It was a few years ago that I realized that the Super Bowl has become like Thanksgiving, from a gorging perspective, only the food is even more unhealthy. People get together to eat buffalo chicken wings (fried wings rolled in butter and Tabasco nothing healthy here), nachos (often made with Velveeta need I say more), cheese and cold cut trays (please pass the nitrates *ugh*), and other various things I wouldn’t even consider consuming. When did the Super Bowl become all about eating and more importantly why doesn’t anyone serve something that resembles whole food? Seriously this really has to change. We need to collectively show people that healthy food can also be delicious food.
If you wanted to have a Super Bowl gathering why not make it
a healthy version, or at least offer some healthy options for those who want
them? I would suggest things like:
·
Veggies and hummus (there are so many hummus recipes on my blog I couldn't pick just one)
·
Cashew queso (which you could dip veggies, pita
chips, potato cubes, or bread cubes)
·
Bean-based chili topped with cashew crème fraiche
or vegan cheddar cheeze
·
Buffalo tofu or tempeh (hold the Earth Balance
but keep the Tabasco) or Chermoula tofu which is delicious and unique
·
Guacamole and chips (or my favorite cucumber
chips)
·
Fresh fruit dipped in chocolate for dessert
When I look at the list above that actually seems rather
decadent to me, but I suppose it is all a matter of perspective. No this list isn’t your traditional Super
Bowl fare but it also isn’t going to send anyone to the emergency room with
chest pain. Did you know that your risk
of heart attack is elevated for more than 6 hours after a high fat meal (like
the traditional food consumed during the Super Bowl)? I read that years ago and never forgot it. Now I know it is because of what the fat does
to the flexibility of your arteries.
However how it works isn’t important, just knowing that it happens is
enough to keep me on the straight and narrow.
I Need Your Help:
Friday I was chatting with my vegan RD friend (*waves hi to Courtney*) because I was extremely frustrated that one of my friends has serious health concerns and yet this person seems insufficiently motivated to change her current lifestyle which is killing her. I know that sounds a bit dramatic but the situation really is actually bad. This friend is younger than I am, by almost 10 years and has a laundry list of health problems and it just breaks my heart to watch her continue to deteriorate. Initially I had thought that being around me more often would be the kick in the butt she needed to make change. After all, my friend was interested in getting healthy. She always asked me questions about health, losing weight, preventing cancer, and exercising so naturally I assumed that this meant that she wanted to improve her health. However I realized earlier this week that my friend is clearly not ready to change yet in spite all her health problems. *sigh* I am trying to understand what is holding her back but she doesn’t seem to know or possibly she is afraid to tell me because I am “too healthy”. I have no idea what is going on but for some reason my friend can’t communicate to me what thoughts or fears are getting in her way.
The reason that I am telling you this is that I would really like your help. In order to help as many people as possible I feel as though I would be more effective if I understood what types of things hold people back. If you read my description above and saw something that reminded you of yourself please email me. I would love to “talk” with you so that I can begin to understand what types of issues are stopping people from making lifestyle changes. If you used to be this person but you made changes I would love to “talk” with you too. If you know what finally pushed you into making changes please share. You can reach me at veganepicurean@gmail.com.
Signing Out:
Sorry this is a short post but I hadn’t actually planned on writing one until I saw a commercial this morning for Super Bowl fare and that started my wheels spinning. See what I mean about I am always thinking? Clearly I should have been meditating rather than checking out the weather so that I could plan my day.
Enjoy your weekend and I hope that you will find something healthy to eat at your Super Bowl gathering this weekend. I hope that you all have a happy and healthy weekend. J
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Hi Ali! Thanks for the super bowl line up. And as for your friend, that sucks that she has so many health problems at such a young age. I guess, as they say, you can lead a camel to water but you can't make him drink. I think what inspired me to change my eating was 1. hearing things that I already knew I should be doing from the right people, and 2. having always been someone who leaned toward constant improvements in my lifestyle/eating habits. I try to lead by example but what's true is that most people are just not interested followers. Go Patriots!
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie,
DeleteYou are welcome, glad I could help.
It is sad about my friend. Thanks for your input. I guess I need to focus on being a good example and hoping for the best. Like you said it has to come from her. I am like you in regard to wanting to make constant improvements to things. Sadly it appears we are in the minority. When there are so many other people who are saying things to the contrary it must be difficult for people whose primary source of nutrition information is the mainstream press. Maybe one day more people will be open to a diet like ours.
Enjoy the game tonight,
Ali
Well my Superbowl party wasn't the healthiest, but it wasn't the worst either. Thank goodness my friends brought a lot of the food, because I had a huge cooking snafu and didn't have time to make a couple of my planned dishes. I stared a big pot of veggie chili with the onions, garlic, etc. and then some seasonings, broth, chipotles and diced tomatoes...and then I added my soaked kidney beans! After about half an hour I realized what I had done and since the beans weren't yet soft, I painstakingly removed every one of them from the mix, rinsed them and put them in boiling water to finish cooking. I cooked them too long and then noticed that the skins were a bit tough, so I removed a lot of the skins before putting them back into the chili. Then I added some tempeh, cooked it all a little more and transferred most of it to a crock pot to keep warm. Whew! And after all that work, hardly anybody ate it (I guess the pizza and other dishes looked/tasted better) so my husband volunteered to eat chili with his lunch all week!
ReplyDeleteLaura,
DeleteI had a few bean disasters when I first started cooking my own too. Why do those things always happen when people are coming over? ;-) My reaction would be thank goodness we had healthy leftovers for lunch. It is sad that people always gravitate to the unhealthy stuff like pizza isn't it? *sigh* One day I hope more people are like us and make the connection that what you eat matters when it comes to health.
talk with you later,
Ali