My Raw Vegan Husband

Sarma's Favorite Green Shake, Sarma's photo too

My husband Marc doesn’t have it easy. For today, I’ll stick to the food part but trust me it goes far beyond that. In terms of food, I’m sure there are weekends he wished we didn’t have to lug the giant, non-wheeling (the stainless steel didn’t come with wheels!) cooler into the car. Maybe he had hoped that life would have less lettuce, more gluten or that he wasn’t asked if everything was organic. Despite my tendencies, Marc maintains a fairly “normal” diet. He loves his beer, bread and coffee and on many nights from the kitchen I hear something resembling “Daaaad you ate all the cookies. “  Marc’s a fit guy plays hockey, skis in the winter, cycles and plays tennis and golf in the summer. There are marathons and triathlons but still…lots of beer and cookies.

We leave for vacation tomorrow. A client recently enjoyed the “not just juice cleanse” from One Lucky Duck the takeout outpost for one of my favorite restaurants Pure Food and Wine. I’ve done many of the popular cleanses before but I thought this one might work for Marc. There are two versions and one wasn’t necessarily geared at weight loss but it’s raw, vegan and very different from the way he typically eats. Marc looked at the sample menus and decided to give it a try (have to say I was shocked, the guy previously wouldn’t drink a green juice). This past Saturday, I looked over at Marc. It was our last ski weekend and we were out at a local restaurant. In front of my man was a festive green, St Patrick’s-themed Bud Light and a Patron on the rocks. “What?” he said in reaction to my eye rolling, “I have to get it in while I can”.

Monday was the first day. For solidarity, I signed myself up for “Shine” and Marc for “Glow”.  At 7am I realized Marc was still in bed, I think he was fearful of his coffeelessness. I’ll admit I wasn’t looking forward to a caffeine free workweek so I made us a cup of coffee to split. The kids, home on spring break, woke up and my older son asked for BACON. I made bacon (organic, nitrite free) and waited for our first delivery, it was delayed and Marc left for work without food. Later, my son and I delivered his first bag of food to his office and he reached in and grabbed his Blue Sunset smoothie.

I know, he looks thrilled

 He enjoyed it; even my eight year old enjoyed it. Later in the day, after his taco salad I received an email “I could eat like this forever.”

On one hand I agreed, everything we were eating was fantastic. On the other hand I couldn’t believe Marc was eating this food without a complaint.  He had cut out dairy, meat, fish, coffee, refined sugar, most grains and was drinking green juices, eating shoebox-sized salads and enjoying himself. I am still split as to whether this is a male thing or a testament to the fact that if food is interesting and satisfying, change is quite manageable.

We weren’t hungry at all this week. Some of my favorite items were the Swan Juice (cucumber, spinach, dandelion, grapefruit, tarragon, spearmint and yuzu), a Spicy Sesame Salad and chocolate pudding. Marc loved the taco salad, the tortilla wraps (give him Mexican-y and he’s happy) and the Mallomar.  There were some really funny moments too.  On Day 2, I saw dinner was  “Portabella and Hempseed Burger”. Marc hates mushrooms. I hid the menu card and placed the slider-sized meal on the table. Marc ate the delicious concoction with pickled pink onions.

This is a salad plate so you get a sense of the portion.

 He then asked what he had eaten. On Wednesday, Marc realized he had plans to go to the Ranger game with two colleagues. First, he rushed home for his Brazil Nut Crusted Sea Vegetable Croquettes. He met the guys at steak house at the Garden and had seltzer.  They had steak, creamed spinach- the works and gave him such a hard time for his cleanse. One day I left some greens over from my lunch. I had saved them in case dinner was sparse. At 10:30pm Marc eyed the greens and pulled them out “this is delicious” he declared. He had come a long way from the cookies.

Sarma, the owner of One Lucky Duck has two great cookbooks. When you read through the recipes you realize how involved raw food is. There’s soaking and dehydrating and many steps but it was a real treat having the deliveries this week.

Have you experimented with raw food? Ever done a cleanse? Do you think food changes are different for men versus women?

What to Do When You're Married to Mr Bagel

 

It was October 29^th, the day of the weirdly early snowstorm in NYC, my Blackberry buzzed indicating an email. The email was from a client but not just any client; this client was supremely driven to look fierce at her upcoming birthday bash. Our whittling work started months ago and momentum has been steadily building toward the 11-11-11 party date. We’ll nickname her B (for birthday). B has been mentally filed in my unstoppable category.  The email read, “I ended my run on 59th Street which just so happens to be the site of my husband's office.  Since he's slammed with work, I bought some coffee and surprised him.  While there, he offered me half a bagel."

My heart skipped a beat but it turns out that B resisted the bagel and reminded her man of her birthday plan. I congratulated B on her snowy run and bagel resistance. I then asked, “what are we going to do about Mr. Bagel?” She replied:

Mr. Bagel is 6'1" and has weighed within the same 5 lb. range for at least 20 years. What do you do when you're married to a handsome, rail thin man with the metabolism of a 25 year old who can eat whatever he wants?  It's like I'm married to the male version of Heidi Klum.  (And isn't it nice that I think of him that way?) To be fair to Mr. Bagel, he does do many things right.  He just can indulge when he wants without consequence.  Me, not so much.

I told B I could relate. My husband’s version of being good is skipping the second beer or the kids’ cookies. A few days of this sham stringency and I have to listen to “I feel really good.” Most men are metabolically superior to women and somehow our lack of noticeable nose hair or gender-based chance at a couple of extra years doesn’t seem like a fair trade. My advice:

• Remind Mr. Bagel  (all “misters” are forgetful) that love isn’t expressed in carbs but with green juice, salmon and calorie free jewelry. I have learned, the hard way, that men sometimes need the ground rules spelled out.

• Another tactic that works is to appeal to aesthetics. “Eating bagels may work for you but giving me a bagel is essentially giving me a muffin top.” It’s then his choice of a fierce of flabby wife. 

• For some men, a scientific explanation can be effective. Men like knowing how things work. “A bagel is equivalent to 6 pieces of white bread which breaks down to sugar which in high amounts predisposes you to diabetes and heart disease.” A little exaggeration never hurts. We’re women after all, right?

• And while I’m not suggesting this before Friday, sometimes it’s good to keep Mr. Bagel sated and surprised (and I’m not talking about that) so in rare circumstances I do suggest having the crappy bagel. It’s all about trade offs and in my experience that buys you about five healthy fish and vegetable meals.

B, I would be happy your Mr. Bagel is the male Heidi Klum and that “you feel that way”.  Other Mr. Bagel’s look this this.

Have a happy birthday and a great party.  You’ve worked hard and it shows and you can probably guess what I’m getting you for your birthday…

Do you have a Mr. Bagel in your life? It can be a friend, family member or coworker. How do you silence a saboteur? How do you manage food or metabolic differences in your relationship? Ever run in a snowstorm?

Take it With a Grain of Salt

I love blog requests, this came from a client last week:
  I'd like to know what you think about salt.  My husband says I shouldn't put it in anything, even when the recipe calls for it.  I know that my body reacts negatively to it and that it is better to avoid it (and given the paucity of salt we eat, things, especially fast food, tend to taste overly salty).  But soy sauce on sushi, salt on edamame, and even on some scrambled eggs, tastes good.  What do you think?  Is a sprinkle a good thing or a bad thing?

First, I think whomever is making the recipe gets the final say on what goes in it. Just so you don’t think your husband is the only one with questionable salt habits, my husband salts everything before tasting it. So we don’t all “shake” the same but I’m getting off topic.

We do need some salt. It's  particularly important for people, like yourself,  who bike and run outside in the heat. Salt or sodium is lost in sweat. The higher the temperature and humidity, the more sweat and the more sodium you lose. While I don’t think salt replacement during exercise is warranted for workouts or races under 90 minutes. I do think some salt does an athlete good.

While dangerous hyponatremia or low sodium is rare. Too little salt is as dangerous as too much. Salt is needed for muscle contractions (our heart is a muscle), salt moves nutrients and water into our cells and interestingly salt may be a mood food or mood mineral. Research from the University of Iowa showed rates deficient in sodium chloride (table salt) shy away from activities they normally enjoy.  I provided the link if you’d like to learn more about rat fun but let’s suffice it to say we’re very similar to rats.

The amount of salt we need isn’t all that much. The AI or “adequate intake” which differs slightly based on age is 1500 mg or about ¾ of a teaspoon of salt. The UL or “upper limit” is 2300mg and 2000mg is 1 teaspoon so this is a little over that. To put this into food context show how easy the AI is to hit:

• 1 medium pickle has about 800 mg of sodum
• 4 slices of smoked salmon have 500mg
• canned beans have 500mg in ½ cup (rinsing reduces this number almost in half).
• Sushi Roll (naked, sans soy) 500-1000mg per 6-piece roll.

As to what type of salt to use, there are a few I love. Himalayan Sea Salt is unrefined so it’s a more natural product in a more raw state and contains more minerals (84 different minerals) than processed table salt. I like the Himalania brand. I also used Kosher salt and received a gift of Sicilian Lemon Salt recently. Table salt contains iodine (can throw off taste) and can contain additives so look at your labels. The only ingredients should be salt.

So salt via soy sauce (unless you're gluten free) or with edamame or eggs is absolutely fine.  You mentioned “reacting negatively” and I assume you were referring to bloat. Bloat may be telling you you over salted. Salt can be sneaky, here’s a list of some surprising salt sources. So don’t close the salt cellar just hide it from your husband.

Are you pro or anti salt? What type do you use? What are your favorite salty foods?