A Challenge

A little over a year ago Ben went for the first time to an American doctor for a check-up. The results were not surprising: he has high cholesterol. "High" may not be the best adjective - it's well into the 300's and "normal" is somewhere in the low 100's. High cholesterol runs in Ben's family and his dad had a quintuple by-pass surgery about 2 years ago, despite dieting, exercise, and cholesterol-lowering medications. So Ben was prescribed a statin immediately and also ordered to get blood work done every 8 weeks.

Eight weeks went by, and sure enough, his cholesterol was down in the "normal" range. But Ben is not one to settle with taking a prescription if there is any way around it. After re-reading the book "Eat to Live" by Dr. Fuhrman Ben decided to embark on a whole foods plant-based diet. The diet did not help his cholesterol levels but it did help him to lose around 25 pounds in just a few short months. Fast forward a bit: we had a new baby (Charlie), went through the holidays, and were surviving life with a newborn + a toddler. The diet greatly relaxed and our family had returned to eating what would be considered a "healthy American diet." Once Charlie was sleeping through the night, around May, we embarked once again on the strict diet. (Ben has been eating it strictly. The rest of our family does eat dairy and occasionally meat.)

We don't pay for cable but we do stream Netflix, and one great thing about Netflix is the number of documentaries they have. We have watched a few especially enlightening ones lately, including "Food, Inc." and "Food Matters." Some friends last weekend suggested to check out the new documentary, "Forks over Knives." Last night Ben and I watched this documentary and by the end of it, I'm not sure how anyone could argue with the facts presented concerning the "typical American diet" and the disease rates in America. This documentary confirmed what our family has been loosely eating for the past year, the whole foods plant-based diet and how beneficial it is for our bodies.

So now my struggle comes in: I grew up in small-town Oklahoma, granddaughter to the founders of a family restaurant famous for their calf fries and pamper-fried chicken. My dad was very overweight and died at the age of 50 when his heart went into cardiac arrest. I grew up knowing ONE vegetarian. I absolutely love cooking and baking and have never had someone tell me, "No, you shouldn't eat/make this." And while I have been doing my best to help my husband eat a strict diet over the past year, I often still bake cookies and breads when an opportunity arises, eating some myself and freezing the rest for when I have a craving. I am trying to wrap my head around what I clearly can see as the best thing for my family, and the passions that have grown immensely in me over the past 5 years.

Thankfully, we have found some very tasty recipe that stick to Ben's diet. And I am constantly on the lookout for more! I like variety and eating a bowl of plain salad greens every night just does not suit me. I will be sharing some of the recipes I have found that we like so that (1) I can refer back to them and also (2) in case others are searching for similar recipes.