168-Calorie Mushroom 'Pasta'?

Well, no, it's not pasta. But it's a nice alternative.

It's a meat-like mushroom ragu, made just the way Italian meat sauce is made, served over steamed red peppers cut into strips to remind you of pasta.

Me, I find it's the sauce-y part that makes me feel I'm eating pasta, not the pasta part.


Mushroom Ragu

Saute in 1 T. olive oil:

1 medium onion, chopped fine.

When translucent, add in batches:

10 oz. mushrooms, chopped fine.

When the mushrooms are tender, add:

1 t. garlic,
2/3 cup packaged eggplant caponata (or other lower-fat Italian vegetable mix),
1/2 c. chicken broth,
2 T. tomato paste,
1 t. pepper.

Heat until the flavors meld. Then mix in:

1 t. butter sprinkles ('Butter Buds' or similar brand).

This makes about 2 cups with only 430 calories in the whole thing.

A single half-cup serving contains (by my math):

107 calories, 2.7 g. protein, 7 g. fat, .5 g. saturated fat.


A nice way to serve it is to steam some strips of red bell pepper or zucchini. Also heat 1/2 c. frozen spinach in a small amount of fat-free chicken broth. Salt these both to taste.

Place the vegetables in a bowl, top with 1/2 c. of the ragu, then sprinkle with 1 T. parmesan cheese.

The whole thing is only 168 calories!

At that rate, there's even room for desert.

--E. R. O'Neill

125 Calorie Soup.

I had this as a snack last night.

Then I 'made' another bowl by adding the ingredients to a microwaveable container and sticking it in the fridge. Voila! I've got a snack for tomorrow.

1 c. organic chicken broth
1/4 c. chick peas
1/4 c. frozen corn
1/2 c. spinach
1 slice lemon
1 T. tamari
spices to taste--e.g., pepper, cayenne

Heat everything except the spinach in a pot until hot through. Add the spinach, and when it turns bright green, serve it.

Adding one ounce of chicken makes it about 150 calories--155, to be precise. (Use only 2 tsp. of tamari, and it stays 150.)

--E. R. O'Neill

Sample Day's Diet.

So what exactly do I eat on the Duh Diet?

Well, right now I'm aiming to lose weight, to get to the weight I want to be, and then to find out how much is the right amount for me to maintain that weight.

So right now, it's all very simple.

• I drink water before and during every meal and most snacks--that's five to eight 8 oz. glasses a day. Indeed, when I'm hungry the first thing I do is drink a class of water.
  
• I eat small portions. I don't think about filling up; I think about what is a reasonable amount of food--usually not more than 4 oz. of any one thing.
  
• I emphasize fruits and vegetables. Most snacks have one, and most meals have one or two servings of fruit or vegetable.
  
• I then add low-fat protein--e.g., soy, chicken, yogurt.
• I reduce or avoid fat--in dressings, cooking, etc.
• I include a certain amount of fiber.
• I do not eat until I am full. I eat a reasonable amount and stop.
• I emphasize 'real' food over prepared, processed things--but I will eat a protein-rich and low-calorie bar as a stopgap, such as when I'm sick of eating fruit.

Breakfast.
8 oz. water
multivitamin supplement
1 small orange
1/2 c. oatmeal, cooked
1/4 c. non-fat yogurt with raspberries

Snack.
8 oz. water
Zen bran cake
8 oz. sugar-free soy milk

Lunch.
8 oz. water

Salad consisting of:

• 1 chopped apple
• 1 chopped pepper
• 3 oz. chicken breast
• 4 oz. spicy peanuts

With dressing consisting of: 1/4 c. nonfat yogurt, 1 T. sesame oil, 1 t. hot sauce, 1 T. soy sauce.

Snack.
8 oz. water
Luna bar
Nonfat latte

Snack.
6 oz. decaf coffee, 6 oz. low fat milk

Snack.
8 oz. water
6 oz. carrots
8 oz. soy milk

This is about 1400 calories. That's a really small amount. But I ate many times a day. My lunch salad was HUGE. And adding just a tablespoon of fat would add another 120 calories.

Indeed, my breakdown suggests it's: 33 grams of fat, of which only 7 is saturated; 84 grams of protein (which is a ton), and nearly 40 grams of fiber. (The Zen bran cakes have 13 grams of fiber. An apple, poor thing, has just three.)

(Yes, I keep a diary right now of how many calories and grams of this and that I'm eating. It's to educate myself, to discover what I'm really eating, and to make sure I get enough protein to stay healthy.)

That's more fat than Ornish would allow. I didn't count carbs, but it's way more than Atkins. But, like the Zone, it's very heavy in protein. Unlike Atkins, it's much lower in fat.

Now this particular day I didn't really have dinner. It just happened. I wasn't super-hungry at night. And I was content to eat some small snacks.

Also, I somehow find 100 calories or so of nonfat latte or coffee with low-fat milk actually fills me up and satisfies me quite well. Maybe it's the hot liquid.

Also that 6 oz. of carrots in the evening actually did fill my stomach nicely. YES I could have eaten more. I could have eaten a couple nice slices of pizza. But I did not need to eat pizza. I ate what I knew was reasonable, nutritious and low in calories. I wanted that more.

No actual weight loss today from yesterday. But after losing almost ten pounds in about two weeks, the weight loss slows down. The next five pounds--which will take me beyond where Atkins could ever get me--may itself take two weeks. But it will be worth it.

I already fit into my clothes better. And I know somehow that eating fruits and vegetables and lots of water must be pretty darn good for you.

And although bread's still a bit too processed and caloric for me, I still get to eat grain (oatmeal) and may even include some brown rice pretty soon.

--E. R. O'Neill

Nearly Ten Pounds in Under Two Weeks.

I started dieting on Thursday night, January 5 at 6 pm.

At that point I weighed 164 pounds. It's just at the bottom of the 'overweight' designation for a man who's 5'7" (which I am).

As of today (1/17/06) I weigh 154.5. So I've lost 9.5 pounds--my fancy digital scale works in half pound increments--in less than two weeks.

Now this isn't all just drinking water and eating lots of fruits and vegetables.

I actually started by fasting. No, not the not-eating kind of fasting. The clear broth kind of fasting, except I didn't limit myself even that much. (I blogged about it. And also here.)

Why did I do that?

Well, partly I wanted to jump start the process. I notice lots of diet books have you start out on some absurd regimen to get you to loose five pounds right away so you'll be encouraged--some would say 'hooked' or even 'converted.'

But there's more to it than that. There's a logic in such diets. It's not about suddenly taking off ten pounds and then going back to eating Twinkees and Pork Rinds.

• It's about making friends with hunger. Yes, you can eat broth or fruit all day, and yes you will be hungry, but no you won't die.
• It's about starting from next to nothing and then adding foods in gradually, the good ones first, a few at a time.
• It's about building a new foundation for healthy eating.
• It's about re-training yourself, one obstacle at a time.
• It's about starting in your kitchen and working outward from there. (You can't just suddenly drop in at McDonalds while on a diet and expect to make good choices. Come to think of it, if you stop there in the first place, you've probably taken a wrong turn already.)

Making Friends with Hunger is actually an interesting process.

A few days ago I ate very little one day--about 1200 calories. The next day I 'pigged' out and eat 2000.

Looking back at my food diary (more on this later), I realized that on the 1200 calorie day I ran errands. I only had a nonfat latte while out. I wouldn't allow myself to stop and eat something unhealthy. And I forgot to bring along a piece of fruit or a protein bar (very processed, but useful for emergencies).

So instead of eating every two or three hours, I went about five hours with nothing but the latte.

Well, after initally feeling hungry, your body does a bit give up. You know you're still hungry, but you kind of settle into it.

(Also that low-calorie day I actually had rather a big, relatively fatty breakfast. So it could be that a certain amount of fat makes me feel full. I'll have to find out.)

Learning and Re-learning.

One of the most helpful ways you can think about the aspects of yourself you don't like and would like to change is: it's not the essence of who you are that's bad; it's the habits you have learned.

You learned to be this way. And if something can be learned, it can be unlearned or relearned.

You need to figure out how you learned the habit you don't like and then find models for better habits.

It's tempting to substitute new, weird rituals for your old, weird rituals: only eating yogurt and apples instead of eating everything under the sun from burgers to pizza to donuts.

But in this, as in so many things, moderation and variety should be your watchwords.

There are no 'magic' foods that 'cure' you.

It's not all about cucumber juice or leek soup or nonfat yogurt.

There is no magic hidden inside foods.

There are only the prosaic choices you make, the ways you choose to live.

So now, as pangs of hunger ache through me, and the apple I ate doesn't quell them, and I forgot to bring a protein bar, I'm going back to work so I can go home and have some lunch.

But waiting an hour won't kill me--if I eat in moderation afterwards.

And that is a comfort.

--E. R. O'Neill

The Sad Truth.

Freud was right--but not for the reasons he thought.

Freud famously argued (in Civilization and Its Discontents) that human beings cannot be happy--at least not to the extent that they are civilized. Civilization--cultivation, being brought up into specific modes of conduct--involves giving up on primal impulses.

We defer, deflect, sublimate, and generally just go without the most basic forms of instinctual gratification: punching in the nose the person who ticks us off, jumping on the person who makes us hot and bothered, scarfing down the food that makes our mouths water.

Instead, we make a cutting remark or fantasize about punching the guy in the nose, try to appear alluring and send charming emails, wait until dinner and then eat a sensible portion.

But not the last one.

If you belive Darwin--and not everyone does--human beings today are the result of natural selection.

The human beings who weren't very hungry did not get out of the cave to find food, and they died off before they could have children.

The human beings who could not accumulate lots of nice fat died off during the long harsh winters or during seasons when food was less abundant, if "abundant" is even the right word.

Cut to: the 21st century. We have food aplenty. And not just any food. But the most caloric, concentrated, processed, sugar- and fat-laden food available to the widest population any civilization has ever seen in the history of the planet.

Indeed, the cheaper food is even more laden with calories, fat and sugar than the healthier stuff: think the dollar value meal at the fast food joint vs. the baby organic vegetables from that very chic market.

The sad truth is: our bodies constantly tell us we are hungry.

They are not going to stop.

If our bodies hadn't told our ancestors were hungry, they would have died.

So now we're stuck with bodies set for scarcity and adversity in times of horrid excess.

There is only one thing to day.

You must recognize that hunger is not going to go away.

A lot of diets will tell you that on those eating plans you will "never be hungry." Eat only fats and proteins and you'll "never be hungry." Eat only grains and raw vegetables and you'll "never be hungry."

Those things may be true, but do you really want to eat that way? No bananas? Or no fat?

Not really.

The truth is far sadder.

You will always be hungry. At some point, for some length of time. That is reality.

You cannot eat based on hunger.

You cannot eat what you want, when you want, in the quantities you want--until you are full.

You cannot eat every time you are hungry, so that you are no longer hungry.

You cannot use food to chase away all hunger all the time.

At some point you must accept that hunger is just a fact of life.

Freud thought we were destined to be miserable because we were civilized. But when it comes to food, the culprits are natural selection together with a capitalist society based on selling us crap we don't need and that's not particularly good for us. (That is: we're only miserable food-wise because biology imposes on us one set of demands and society another, not that the two are implacable opposites, as Freud rather dourly supposed.)

Freud or no Freud, it's not as bad as all that.

It simply means that you must use some other basis for eating.

You must eat sensibly and rationally based on common sense that everyone knows about food, eating and diet.

Yes, I'm talking portion control. I'm talking about eating a reasonable amount, an amount that will stop the main hunger pangs, an amount that is healthful and nutritious.

And then stopping. Push yourself away from the table. Do not have seconds or thirds. Do not have a big desert. Do not try to eat until you cannot eat any more. You will succeed--but only temporarily, and the victory is really a defeat.

The plan is simple. 1. Eat at regular intervals. 2. Control your portions. 3. Avoid excessive calories--excess fat, highly refined products like sugar.

In future entries, I'll talk more about how to re-organize your eating, how to re-educate yourself about how to eat, what to eat, how much to eat.

Basically: you need to find out how much is a reasonable amount for you and for the weight you want to be.

Again, it's not rocket science. You might not need any more help or advice at this point. You could figure out the rest yourself.

But come back, and I'll share with you my experiences, techniques, methods, tips and tricks.

It gets a lot more fun when you actually get to focus on the food you get to eat.

But the first step is simply to recognizing that jamming as much food into your body as it demands is what got you where you are, and it won't work to get you where you know you need to be.

--E. R. O'Neill

What Is the "Duh" Diet?

The basic idea of the Duh Diet is simple.

It is, in fact, simplicity.

Losing weight and eating right should be connected. There should not be one 'magical' way of eating to lose weight and another, prosaic way of eating in real life. There should be only one way of eating--the best, healthiest way--leaving latitude for losing weight, maintaining weight, needing more energy when we exercise, less when we don't, occasional indulgences, etc.

The Duh Diet takes from any and every diet what they accept and have in common and leaves the rest--the fads, the fancies, the fantasies--behind.

For example, the Atkins Diet has a lot of good ideas in it. Eat lots of vegetables. Eat the healthiest, most nutrient-rich fruits. Avoid heavily-processed food. Limit saturated fat from dairy.

Or take Food Combining. Behind the magical theory that food 'rots in your stomach' in the wrong combinations--yes, dears, it's called digestion--is the very simple notion of eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, spacing your meals, controlling your portions.

Or take the Ornish Diet. Less than 10% calories from fat? Don't eat, e.g., more than 25 g. of fat a day (for a guy my size--5'7" with a medium build)? Are you nuts?! But the rest of the diet makes sense. Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Favor whole grains over refined foods. Avoid dietary fat, especially saturated fat.

Do you see a common picture emerging here?

Sure. These are the General Precepts of the Duh Diet.

1. Drink six to eight glasses of water a day.

Everyone agrees on this. No diet says "don't drink lots of water." Some say it's to stay hydrated. Some say it 'flushes fats and toxins.' Who the heck knows. But it seems to be good for you. Could it possible be bad? It seems unlikely. It's just common sense.

Water fills you up. It helps you avoid eating other things that are worse.

2. Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

This is not complicated. Every diet says to do so, to some degree.

Fresh fruits and vegetables, raw or lightly cooked with little or no added fats or sugar, are rich in nutrients, full of fiber, and they're mostly water. They're filling and low in calories. Plus they're insanely good for you.

If you eat a lot of these, you won't eat so much of the less healthy stuff.

3. Eat protein that's lower in saturated fat: chicken, fish, lean beef, soy, non-fat dairy.

Fat has more calories than carbohydrates or protein. It's yummie and filling and carries flavor well. But it probably makes you fatter. And the saturated kind--which is prevalent in beef--seems to be artery-clogging.

So, given the choice, choose the protein with less saturated fat.

4. Avoid, limit or eliminate food that's higher in calories: heavily-refined foods like sugar and white flour and those foods laden with them.

As a result of processing, sugar and white flour have plenty of calories, very densely packed. But most of the fiber and other nutrients have been refined away. Yes, white flour has protein, but it's left with very little else after the refining.

"Refining" is such a funny thing. It suggests getting rid of something gross, base and low. No nasty fiber or vitamins! As if that somehow 'purifies' the foods.

Compare equal weights of an apple or a green pepper with a muffin or piece of candy. The 'refining' has made the latter foods much more dense with calories and much more sparse on nutrients (unless they get added back in).

So eat these foods in much smaller quantities. Eat them last.

It's called "dessert" for a reason. It's the little special treat at the end, not the whole reason for eating.


Is that it? Four Simple Precepts.

Not entirely. But that's a good beginning.

And one of the key underlying principles of the Duh Diet is widely known as the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Sweetheart.

Remember: eating healthfully is not mysterious. It is a lifelong practice and habit. It involves discipline, self-control, social support, motivation and common sense. It shouldn't require you to become a research chemist or join the equivalent of a religion--the Cult of No Fat, the Cult of No Carbs, the Cult of North Beach, etc.

Somehow in the U.S. we want losing weight to be mysterious, an endless spiritual quest. It can't be as simple as making better eating choices. There must be some trick, otherwise we would have reached our ideal weight a L-O-N-G time ago, right?

No. Just because you are confronted by an endless parade of books and magazine headlines telling you How To Lose Weight and Keep It Off or How To Lose 5 Pounds This Weekend, doesn't mean there is anything new or mysterious in all these proposals.

We all know that in a capitalist economy like ours "new" products are seldom so different from the old ones. It's just an attempt to get you to throw out your old LP's and buy them all over again on CD.

So don't believe the hype.

Don't pay anything for a diet.

Do what you know is right.

--E. R. O'Neill