Talk about health

It's not easy to change what or how you eat. I don't mean moving to chopsticks from fork and knife, or eating standing up rather than sitting down. No, I mean which foods to eat and how to prepare them.

I thought about this after my daughter was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries a month or two ago. She hasn't got a full-blown version, but more of a borderline case. But, it explains some of her symptoms that we worried about.

It would have been simple to start her on a life time regime of tablet taking, but what knowledge I had led me towards investigating other ways of tackling it. Fortunately, there are several good books that explain all about the condition and ways of adjusting lifestyle to accommodate it so that tablet-taking fades from the foreground. Although tablets can be a useful addition.

In broad terms, the dietary changes are to limit carbohydrates and increase the amount of exercise. The idea is to control the insulin levels so that the weight gain and other symptoms are controlled. And, it's not a bad idea for the rest of us, too.

Anyway, given that the principle is a straightforward one, we all decided the best way to make it work is for all of us to go on the same diet. OK, so cut down the carbs. That's bread, potatoes, cakes and the rest. Easy, you say? Well, so did I until you try to do it. Toast for breakfast, potatoes with the evening meal. You can surely cut down on portion size or find an alternative such as sweet potatoes or pasta.

I agree it should be simple. But if you've gone through life eating the kinds of food your parents and friends eat it's not so easy. You have to rewind your brain and start again with your weekly shop. You start visiting parts of the supermarket you haven't been to before. And, you get to know your local health-food store better as you ask for the more unusual items.

Cooking and preparation times are all different, so you need to rearrange your routines around mealtimes. And you consider whether each ingredient is protein or carbohydrate. It's amazing how disrupting it can be, especially when you get to my advanced age!

But, by far the biggest problem is lunch. Just look around at the middle of the day. Sandwiches, bagels, wraps, cakes, biscuits, pizza, burgers - all manner of convenient and fast food to pick up for lunch. How can you get around that?

Even at home, a quick lunch tends towards the sandwich end of the spectrum. Something few people consider is the amount of carbohydrate in lunch. A nice sandwich and a latte, followed by a Danish doesn't sound a lot. But in carb and calorie terms it's a lot to take in a few short minutes.

Preparing a healthy lunch that is easily carried and will meet your nutritional needs takes time and thought, not to mention a suitable container and utensils to eat it with. And, just look at the sugar content of those drinks.

You see. It's not as easy as it looks. SO spare a thought for my daughter and the many like her who are trying to avoid what many of us take for granted.

Perhaps more of us should give the sandwich and drink for lunch a miss. Healthier options are out there but they take some finding!

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