When I was growing up I was on a very strict diet:
a) Always eat everything on your plate.
b) You always have to take a sizeable portion of anything you’re going to eat. Dad determined what sizeable meant.
c) You always have to try something for the first time. In the case of green beans, it’s always the first time – You’ve never had them sliced this way before; or You’ve never had them with almonds before.
d) No cookies within an hour before a meal. And,
e) No fair using Cool Whip for your first scoop in an ice cream cone.
I really had it rough on this Childhood Diet.
It wasn’t until I went to college that I really started gaining weight. So, much so, that I had to stop taking seconds. Luckily, the food got so bad at college that I eventually ate nothing but salads. This was my first experience with an Avoidance Diet. This type of diet includes avoidance by counting calories, and just plain avoidance.
Since it was a church college, I also learned the art of Spiritual Dieting. This is where instead of saying you’re dieting, you say you’re fasting:
• Would you like some dessert? Oh, no, I’m fasting from dessert today.
• I’m sorry, I didn’t know you didn’t like broccoli or I would have left it out. Oh, no, it’s not that. I’m just fasting from broccoli at the moment.
• We’re out of mashed potatoes today. That’s ok, I’m fasting from them anyway.
See how spiritual it sounds?
Then there’s the Fantasy Diets:
==> See food – If I see food, I eat it
==> I can have all the dessert I want, so long as I don’t eat any entreés
==> Chocolate is a vegetable. It’s made from cocoa beans and beans are a vegetable
==> And the latest title, Eat the food you want for the body you crave
And there’s the Switcheroo Diets:
• Instead of eating lots of carbohydrates, eat lots of protein
• Instead of eating lots of protein, eat lots of carbohydrates
• I’ll trade you a piece of cake for two fruits
And for those with MCS, there’s the Extreme Diets or the Diets from Hell. The first of these diets is the Elimination Diet. You go on this diet to find out what foods you’re allergic to – as if you didn’t already have a pretty good idea. Basically this is a rice and water diet. Oh, sure, there are a few other things you can eat, but basically, it’s a rice and water diet. So, for a week, you only eat the very basics, then you start adding in things one at a time to see if you react. In the end, you find out that the only things you aren’t allergic to are rice and water.
Then there’s the Acid/Alkaline diet. This is a switcheroo diet where you eat more alkaline foods and less acidic ones. Guess which foods are acidic. You’re right – proteins like beef. And guess which foods are alkaline. You’re right again, your favorites – green leafy vegetables. Due to the results of the elimination diet, you were already on the Acid/Alkaline diet and didn’t even know it!
And the Rotation diet. Never eat the same food twice in the same week. When the only foods you can eat are rice and water, following the Rotation diet is extremely difficult.
And so, over time, you revert back to the Spiritual Diet:
I thought you were allergic to peanuts. It’s ok, I fasting from my diet today.
Book 2 My World of Food
Written by Dale Stubbart Blessed by Terry Stubbart
