Chemisty Experiment-Type Foods

[sawdust]

Now that I'm feeling better, I'm going to make a better effort to eat more home cooked food. I think I eat better, less-processed, kinds of things on average than many already, but I think I'm going to continue trying to cut out as much of the chemistry experiment-type foods as I can. Where I was once happy to trade all the work of it for convenience, I'm not so sure this was wise?

I'm sure it varies a great deal between restaurants and the kinds of foods prepared, but how much of what ends up on your plate do you think arrives to the kitchen in a bag, box, can, or carton?

 

[Mark63]

I'm sure that you are on the right track with eating fresh preparred food. You may stilll find that some foods give you a problem, but if you do then you are in contol and able to avoid them in the future.

Good luck,

Mark

 

[ameslouise]

I think eating more fresh food and less prepared food is wise for everyone, not just Crohnie's. I was once more adamant about it than now, and need to get back to that.

My motto used to be "never eat anything with a label" - it was hard to stick with, but worth it. I wish I could get my 9 year old to eat better, too!

Good luck in your quest! -Amy

 

[Miss Spencer]

Now that I'm feeling better, I'm going to make a better effort to eat more home cooked food. I think I eat better, less-processed, kinds of things on average than many already, but I think I'm going to continue trying to cut out as much of the chemistry experiment-type foods as I can. Where I was once happy to trade all the work of it for convenience, I'm not so sure this was wise

Yep, you said it - not so wise. :smile:

I use to be like you but have undergone huge changes in the past five years.

Seems daunting at first, but now I could NEVER go back to my old way of eating.

In line with the way I am eating to manage and hopefully one day recover, I avoid the following:

ALL processed foods from a carton, box, tin, packet, including but not limited to:

Frozen meals and anything that requires microwave use
Baked goods
All dairy
Salt
All meat
All wheat / flour / bread
Heated oils
Fried foods, deep fried foods, everything cooked in recycled oil
Sucrose, sugar, concentrated sweeteners, artificial sweeteners
Etc....Etc...


Corn & rice – although I may be able to introduce these again at a later stage after the inflammation has receded.

So all this involves following a very healthy diet. Since it is hard to buy healthy food out, 99% of my meals are prepared at home from scratch.

I am following Dr Joel Fuhrman's diet steps for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

 

[Rebecca85]

I cook from scratch, but do use stuff like meat, dairy and flour. One thing I have been doing is following recipes for 4 people (there are only 2 of us) and freezing the leftovers so I have home made 'ready meals'. Then if I am going to be late home from work or something, I'm not tempted to buy microwave meals for convenience.

 

[AndiGirl]

Thank you! I'm getting some terrific ideas.

 

[David in Seattle]

Sawdust - I like to say "I buy FOOD, not PRODUCTS." If it's got a brand name, it's likely to be overpriced, chemical-ladden crap. I agree with Rebecca, making 4 + servings is usually only slightly more prep than making 2 or 1. Great way to save time.

 

[glum chump]

I rarely, if ever, use anything out of a can or a box. If it has more than three ingredients, or a word that I can't pronounce, it isn't coming into my kitchen. The only exceptions are bread and Special K cereal. In terms of "can" foods, I keep certain kinds of canned/jarred foods as pantry staples. I find that if I have some things stocked in my cupboards, I can usually cook a quick meal of some sort. My staples are tomatoes, salmon/tuna, artichoke hearts, olives, capers, anchovies, pesto, sundried tomatoes in olive oil, frozen peas and spinach. I also keep a different Asian sauces around to make a quick stirfry or fried rice.

Like Rebecca and David, I cook extra and freeze. I make lots of casseroles, stews, lasagne, and soups and freeze the extras. Or, I cook to reuse in some other form. So, for example, I may buy a couple of turkey thighs or breasts and roast it for our dinner, and then the next day, we can make sandwiches from it. We also do that with other meats since we don't buy deli meats anymore. I will roast a couple of chickens at once and the options are endless: roast chicken dinner, using the chicken to make chicken pot pies, chicken stew with biscuits, chicken quesadilla, chicken soup, hot chicken sandwiches with gravy, etc. It's nice to have the meats already prepared and everything else comes together really quickly.

Preparing your own food does take more time, but having stuff on hand and having one "busy" day of prep makes the meals on other days come together a lot more quickly!

Kismet

 

[supercellbaebe]

Sawdust, there are some fab ideas in this thread, proper food is without a doubt better than Chemistry experiments.

But, and its a BIG but. Try to make sure you don't over focus and stress over the foods you're eating. Over the years I have made the mistake of becoming totally paranoid about eating this, that and the other... And at the end of it all, the actual stress I was putting myself under by trying to avoid all the "chemicals" has actually made me so ill, that now I can't eat anything, with or without chemicals. :frown:

The effects of stress on IBD are far worse than anything chemicals in food could do, so you must avoid stress as much as possible. Fussing over chemicals, IS stressful.

But rightly said by yourself and others in this thread, chemicals are best avoided if poss. Just be chilled out about it! :thumright:

:ghug:
xxx

 

[Lydia]

I love crockpot cooking. Its an easy way to make dinners from whole foods.

 

[sawdust]

No worries, supercell. I've decided to take steps in the direction toward better food, but I know that it's untenable to be able to go completely over the fence and fret every ingredient, every molecule. When I started thinking about all this, I knew that I wouldn't be able to completely control food that might be served at a friend's house or in a restaurant, or even in every circumstance at home, but I still wanted to endeavor toward better eating. You're right though - obsession, stress, and worry need not apply. Bad news it seems for us.

When I was flaring, I tried harder than I've ever tried before to stick to the appropriate diet for me, waiting until not only did I achieve benchmarks of improvement, but until I got to discuss things with my doctor and whatnot. That's a hard lesson I've learned before and was determined not to learn again. But it did get me reading labels again and thinking about it. I wish I could remember what I looked at, but it had an ingredient that was hyphenated twice and I just decided that it can't possibly taste good enough for me to eat that.