Like many Americans, I am fighting a losing battle against weight gain. In an effort to lose weight and improve my overall health, I've tried a lot of things.
For four months, my husband and I ate a pure vegan diet. I'm not sure how vegans can leave the house...or get beyond five steps from the nearest bathroom. After four months of careful cooking, eating and food preparation, I stepped on the scale. I hadn't lost a pound.
We've tried high protein diets, which seem to work spectacularly for my husband. I can lose a little weight, but not much on that diet. Plus the real problem is that after about six months, I'm ready to commit murder for a bowl of pasta.
The only real substantial weight loss I've had was on a 500 calorie a day liquid fast which was monitored by a doctor with weekly visits. I lost the weight but only kept it off for about two years. I was unable to maintain this weight. The minute I started eating more than one full meal a day, the weight started back on.
Nowadays, I read food labels and try to make intelligent choices about the foods I eat. I've been buying cereal and protein bars that are geared toward weight loss. One commonality is that they all seem to be made of styrofoam. Don't get me wrong, some of them are very tasty, but the texture is like packing pellets. What is that? Puffed rice?
I have long since quit buying rice cakes. I'm not saying that they are not edible. I had a coworker who stuck one in the microwave with a slice of cheese on top and called it a meal. I've tried all the toppings and the texture is still a dealbreaker for me. The smaller, chip sized ones are okay, in fact, the caramel and apple cinnamon ones taste like candy to me. Eating them 'chip sized' seems to negate the texture problem somewhat. But the full sized rice cakes are a killer to me. The texture problem revolves around the fact that they squeek on your teeth. I can't get past it. But now that the styrofoam pellets are in granola and protein bars, it's kind of hard to get away from it. So, is this the future of weight loss foods? Styrofoam?
--Sandee Wagner
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3 comments:
I agree. No food should squeak as you bite into it. I did the protein bar thing before.
One day I was eating one when my brother came by and pinched off the end of it. He chewed it and made a sour face before he snatched the wrapper from me. It boasted something like 21 essential vitamins and minerals and he said to me, as he spit 75 of the calories I was relying on to curb my hunger into the sink, "Yeah, and I can taste every last one of those vitamins and minerals."
Soy nuggets, you try 'em? They can sometimes taste like dirt. YUM.
RD
It's completely depressing. If I eat well, my digestion goes straight to hell. There is some magical balance that I've never been able to hit while dieting.
Most of the high protein bars taste like crap. Or the consistency is marginal. I bought some full bars. They are like a diet rice crispy snack. They are chewy and the sticky whatever it is masks the squeeky teeth noise. spw
I eat Atkins protein bars because I tend to be protein-deficient. One day I'd left one at the hospital and my sister, during her overnight vigil with Mom, snacked on it. "That protein bar wasn't too bad for a protein bar," she told me the next morning. "But that brown stuff drizzled on the outside AIN'T chocolate. No matter what they say."
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