darn the oil !!!

March 14^th, 2012

This dietary change I’ve undertaken eliminates meat, dairy, and OIL. Have you cooked without oil, or tried to order food out somewhere without oil? Tricky! I know I know, olive oil is good for you, right? Certainly you could google up the health benefits right now, including some articles espousing the cholesterol lowering powers of olive oil. On the other hand, look up the nutrition data about olive oil – really, look it up now. You have a search engine within reach, I am sure. It has hundreds of grams of fat per serving, and…nothing else. It’s just fat. Now look up the same data on an avocado, that fruit that is so vilified for it’s fat content. Look it up yet? See, it has dramatically less fat, plus some vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, and calcium. All that said, I think cooking and ordering oil free is going to be challenge.

I’m out of town on business now, and for dinner I picked a Thai place that was noted as ‘Veg Friendly.’ Hoping that meant it had vegan fare, vs being a place that induced laziness or comas, I ventured into my first experience as a Vegan In A Restaurant. It was fun! I picked an appetizer that had that a lettuce wrap instead of some kind of crispy fried wrap, and had noodles and veggies with tofu for a main dish. It was spicy hot enough to make my shaven skull shiny with sweat, and tasted fantastic! The tofu was a more than adequate chicken substitution. A few bites in I thought, ‘…aaaaand this is probably loaded with oil.’ Oh well. I won’t beat myself up over it, having easily avoided meat and dairy completely for a few days now my total calorie and fat counts have to be way down, right? Say ‘yes of course they are Marck’ because then I’ll feel better.