what are my eating habits these days?
Nov. 26th, 2017 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaIn a conversation with my step-sister, who has recently switched to a healthy vegan diet (she points out that many forms of candy are technically vegan, but she isn't eating them either), she asked what my eating habits are like these days. Having taken the time to type it up, I thought I would post here, too.
Expensive! I buy organic whenever it is available, and I eat lots of nuts and seeds, fresh fruit and veg (not cheap this close to the arctic circle), local when it is available (surprisingly, it sometimes is). My food log says I am typically eating:
25 to 30% starch Mostly home made breads, home made noodles, porrige, rice, or other small grains, or, less often, potato.
15 to 20% fruit This is highest in late summer when all of the berries on our property are ripe. Fruit I mostly eat raw (both fresh and frozen), but I do put black currants (we have so many bushes) in my cooking, especially things like spaghetti sauce or lasagne, and make a un-sweetened jam from them that I use the way others use ketchup, and I often put berries in breads, cakes, and cookies.
15 to 25% veg This is higher during the summer when I have plenty of garden kale and wild nettles to eat (both of which I have also dried for winter use). I also eat lost of store-bought veg, both fresh and frozen, and, in the case of a few things (tomato, artichoke, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, corn) canned.
15 to 19% protein Mostly nuts, seeds, beans and eggs, but sometimes I eat moose or reindeer as both are readily available in Sweden and neither of these trigger the same issues with my digestion as I had when I used to eat store bought meat. (Note: I haven't really tried other types of meat in years, so I don't know if it is just US and Australian meat industry products that my body objected to, or if Swedish store bought meat would also be a problem) However, even when I eat moose or reindeer, I treat it more as a spice than the main feature of the dish.
13 to 15% dairy (I dislike most forms of fat, other than butter, which I love, so unless I am cooking for a friend who is allergic to dairy, if the dish needs fat at all, I use butter). I also eat yoghurt on my muesli and berries on mornings I am feeling extra hungry (otherwise I like plain water on my muesli and frozen berries) and use yoghurt in my baking. Now that I am mostly living alone I am not bothering to buy milk, as it doesn't keep till I get around to using it, but I do have powdered milk in the house for use in baking if I am out of yoghurt.
0.8 to 1.2% junk (anything containing honey or processed sugar, or any oil that isn't dairy has a % of junk in it. Also, if I happen to eat some packaged food that contains preservatives (very, very rarely happens, and then only if I am being fed at a friends house), I count some % of that as Junk as well). I never eat store bought candy or sweet baked goods, so all of my sugar intake is in the form of home made baked goods, which I tend to make with less sugar than typical cake and cookie recipes call for. I do sometimes also use store bought jam, which contains sugar, but we buy the "low sugar" versions, and I normally only use it in baked goods, it is otherwise too sweet for my tastes.
Expensive! I buy organic whenever it is available, and I eat lots of nuts and seeds, fresh fruit and veg (not cheap this close to the arctic circle), local when it is available (surprisingly, it sometimes is). My food log says I am typically eating:
25 to 30% starch Mostly home made breads, home made noodles, porrige, rice, or other small grains, or, less often, potato.
15 to 20% fruit This is highest in late summer when all of the berries on our property are ripe. Fruit I mostly eat raw (both fresh and frozen), but I do put black currants (we have so many bushes) in my cooking, especially things like spaghetti sauce or lasagne, and make a un-sweetened jam from them that I use the way others use ketchup, and I often put berries in breads, cakes, and cookies.
15 to 25% veg This is higher during the summer when I have plenty of garden kale and wild nettles to eat (both of which I have also dried for winter use). I also eat lost of store-bought veg, both fresh and frozen, and, in the case of a few things (tomato, artichoke, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, corn) canned.
15 to 19% protein Mostly nuts, seeds, beans and eggs, but sometimes I eat moose or reindeer as both are readily available in Sweden and neither of these trigger the same issues with my digestion as I had when I used to eat store bought meat. (Note: I haven't really tried other types of meat in years, so I don't know if it is just US and Australian meat industry products that my body objected to, or if Swedish store bought meat would also be a problem) However, even when I eat moose or reindeer, I treat it more as a spice than the main feature of the dish.
13 to 15% dairy (I dislike most forms of fat, other than butter, which I love, so unless I am cooking for a friend who is allergic to dairy, if the dish needs fat at all, I use butter). I also eat yoghurt on my muesli and berries on mornings I am feeling extra hungry (otherwise I like plain water on my muesli and frozen berries) and use yoghurt in my baking. Now that I am mostly living alone I am not bothering to buy milk, as it doesn't keep till I get around to using it, but I do have powdered milk in the house for use in baking if I am out of yoghurt.
0.8 to 1.2% junk (anything containing honey or processed sugar, or any oil that isn't dairy has a % of junk in it. Also, if I happen to eat some packaged food that contains preservatives (very, very rarely happens, and then only if I am being fed at a friends house), I count some % of that as Junk as well). I never eat store bought candy or sweet baked goods, so all of my sugar intake is in the form of home made baked goods, which I tend to make with less sugar than typical cake and cookie recipes call for. I do sometimes also use store bought jam, which contains sugar, but we buy the "low sugar" versions, and I normally only use it in baked goods, it is otherwise too sweet for my tastes.