You Are What You Eat

By Larry Teren

The other night I attended an event celebrating a life-cycle event. The food was served buffet style. Anyone could walk up to a long table as often as they desired and grab as many helpings of the food that their stomach would handle. One hot pan had potato puffs and egg rolls side by side. There was another pan with rice and very small cut up vegetables. Another had little chicken strips while another had beef. I’m assuming it was a Chinese cuisine motif.

Toward the end of the evening, I passed by in an area when suddenly the host, but not the one celebrating the special event in his child’s life, grabbed the caterer, I guess, while holding a plate full of beef smothered on top of rice. He pointed to the plate held in his hand and commented that this was the way the rice should have been served- with the beef blanketing it. As usual, seeing a conversation that needed another opinion, I threw my two cents in.

I said to both gentlemen, “I’m glad it wasn’t.”

They looked at me like what the heck did I know about serving food. The caterer asked, “why?”

I replied, “because I don’t eat beef and it would have meant I would not have had any rice.”

At that point, they both looked at me like I was a Communist and asked in unison, “are you some kind of vegetarian or what?”

I lamely replied, “No. I don’t eat beef. I eat poultry. Beef is not so good for you.” You see, I have this thing where I never met a soap box I didn’t like and have a need to preach to the world.

The caterer looked at me like I was trying to personally ruin his business, while the host, an old friend whom I’ve known since he was a little kid adept at picking pockets, looked at me as if I was saying I was a cross dresser.

Hey, to each his own, I guess. At least they served chicken. Most caterers don’t think about the health aspects of what they serve, only the size of the portions and the method of cooking. Yes, they do now avoid cooking using saturated oils, butter and other artery hardeners and cholesterol enhancers . And I acknowledge there are events where the guests are given the choice of beef, poultry or fish. But when was the last time you attended an event where they made a conscious effort to provide a dessert option low in calories? Maybe it’s impossible. Or maybe most hosts figure that guests will deny themselves certain liberties with the main course but quickly indulge with dessert, figuring they deserved it by staying so long at the event and not rushing to go home.

Thankfully I don’t have blood sugar problems but know several people who do and have a difficult time fighting off the urge to cheat. Too often little is done to accommodate those people because no one wants to put on an invitation, “are you a diabetic?”

Here is a good starting point for those who have recently discovered that they suffer from diabetes as to how to shape a diet tailored to food restrictions: http://diabetes.webmd.com/diabetes-diet-healthy-diet-basics

Hey- you can call me a turkey if I make a beef because I’m just plain chicken.

[Note: I nor the host of this website are medical professionals nor claim to have medical expertise. We do not endorse any medical practitioner or solution to health problems. Always seek a competent health care professional.]

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