BariatricEating.com Health & Nutrition
Strong Opinions... on Serious Surgery
While everyone looks forward to this massive meal, there are inherent problems with its structure that never fails to leave diners in a carbohydrate coma that lasts for hours. Who has not heard at least five people in the living room groan ‘I’m about to burst’, or the classic ‘it takes a week to prepare and ten minutes to devour’ comment? As a chef who puts a lot into her food, those comments are not complements. I like being a gourmet rather than a gourmand and so do my guests even though they may not know it!
Wiktionary – Noun
Gourmand (plural gourmands)
1. A person given to excess in the consumption of food and drink. A greedy or ravenous eater; a glutton.
The traditional Thanksgiving feast is an even bigger problem for bariatric post ops who want to ‘have a taste’ of all of their comfort food favorites in order to ‘not miss out’ on life. Trust me; we missed out on nothing on the way to our top weight. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain when we change our attitude and are thankful for friends, family, and an extra 10 years to live now that we are not being choked by Morbid Obesity.
I am taking a controversial stand in saying that I don’t believe that people really enjoy the disgusting high fat, high calorie, buffet that the Thanksgiving Meal has morphed into. Most people don’t even place the food on a plate as a restaurant would serve; we just line it up trough style and let the feeding frenzy begin.
Think of how often we put away a bowl of food that only had a spoonful removed from it? How many times do we forget to put those insipid pale doughy supermarket rolls into the oven and no one misses them until we find them when we are cleaning up? We have all discovered the Jell-O mold in the refrigerator and laughed about it! How many dishes of food do we really need? It is simply out of control!
How about planning and preparing a Thanksgiving meal that is just as delicious but lighter to eat with full flavors that your family and guests can actually enjoy rather than inhale! We have turned a holiday created for thanks and reflection into a single food orgy that is so full of fat, carbs, and sugar, that no one truly enjoys the meal!
Overcooked Turkey
Canned Jellied Cranberry Sauce
Cornbread Dressing
Sweet Potatoes with maple syrup, brown sugar, butter, pecans, and marshmallows
Green Bean Canned Mushroom Soup Casserole with Canned Fried Onions
Mashed Potatoes with butter and cream cheese
Heat and Eat Dinner Rolls
Pumpkin and Apple Pies……. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Then if you are Southern add fourteen more carb dishes: Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, Macaroni and Cheese, Creamed Corn, Pinto Beans, MarshmallowCottageCheeseCool WhipPinkJelloSalad
Then if you are Italian insert an entire macaroni meal: Lasagna, meatballs, sausage, brasciole, broccoli rabe, cannoli, and cheesecakes.
This year serve your guests a beautiful plate of food that they will savor and taste. A meal that won’t
take a month to prepare. Our no sugar desserts don’t require you to turn on the oven. Trust me in that people will ask where their old favorite dishes have gone, but no one will miss them once they see and then taste your amazing Thanksgiving supper. Don’t tell anyone that it is actually good for them – that would ruin it.
Antipasto Salad
Rolled Boneless Turkey Breast with Apples & Sage
Mashed Caramel Pecan Sweet Potatoes
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Roasted Asparagus with Garlic and Olive Oil
Holiday Fun Ice Cream Cake with homemade Chocolate Sauce
Pumpkin Whip
Have a healthy happy and delicious Thanksgiving. Be thankful for all you have – family, friends, health, and good food. Don’t be sad about what you can’t eat. You can actually eat anything you want but our surgery gives us control to choose. Use food to accentuate what is really important – being together with people you want to see at the table twenty years from now. Increase that possibility!
Ciao, Susan Maria
Susan Maria Leach is the author of Before & After – Living & Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery (HarperCollins Publishers 2007), both a memoir and a cookbook – an intimate account of her own transformation as well as a guide for those who have undergone or are considering the procedure. As she has learned in the more than 7 ½ years since her own RNY procedure, weight-loss surgery is not an event with a finish line or a goal weight – it is the beginning of a new way of life.
She is also President of BariatricEating.com & BE Inc., and an officer of the Corporate Council of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery.
