Burger King’s new Satisfries, are getting a lot of media attention for being lower in fat than the competition’s (i.e. McDonald’s) and than Burger King’s normal fries.
But what about the sodium levels of the new offering? Media attention has focused on fat, but sodium for most fast food fries is off the charts. Burger King’s regular fries, for example, have 710 mgs of sodium on them, about half of my daily allowance of 1,200-1,500 mgs. That one reason I don’t eat fast food any longer, except for the occasional salad to which I add my own oil and vinegar to avoid high-sodium dressings.Continue reading “How much salt is in Burger King’s new Satisfries?”→
I wrote recently about the one year anniversary of my angioplasty and about how my life has changed in the past 12 months. Although it wasn’t intended as such, the Morton’s steak house chain gave me a gift for that anniversary. It promoted Aug. 13 as national fillet mignon day and offered mini-fillets for $1.
I didn’t expect much for $1, but I’m not supposed to eat more than six ounces of red meat a week anyway, so I was just happy to be able to walk into a restaurant at lunchtime and order something beside salad. The special was only available at the bar, so that’s where I sat. I also spent $4.75 for a diet Coke. I asked the bartender how much the minis weighed and she just shrugged and so I ordered four to start, thinking they might be an ounce each.
A plate of three mini-fillets at Morton’s, I ate seven in all on Aug. 13.
Super Bowl Sunday is upon us, an annual ritual that has become more about eating and TV commercials than the game itself. All over this country, people will be gathering for Super Bowl parties and that will mean mountains of food — ribs, burgers, beer — and a cavalcade of other foods that those of us on no-salt, no-fat diets can’t eat any longer.
So does that mean fasting on the big day, much as you do the rest of the year? I have held a Super Bowl party at my house for many years, but will not be having it this year. That’s because I’m changing the menu drastically and people accustomed to my old ways would not understand.
But it doesn’t mean I won’t be eating. I’ve searched out alternatives that will still allow me to eat with the game and have some of the old food fun I was once accustomed to. Let’s start with some basics, like salsa. Salsa has become as American as apple pie, but it’s usually loaded with salt, so it’s generally a no-no now. But I’ve found low-salt salsa at both Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Combine that with salt-free, tortilla chips from Trade Joe’s. Fourteen unsalted chips have seven grams of fat. I also have salt-free potato chips with nine grams of fat per ounce and a low-fat, low-salt popcorn from Trader Joe’s with three grams of fat per ounce.My low-salt, low-fat Super Bowl treats.
Kroger has a fat-free cookie that has only 25 mg of salt per cookie, another treat I’ll have tomorrow.
And then for the main course, I’m making my own whole wheat manicotti filled with low-fat ricotta and covered with my low-salt homemade tomato sauce. My sauce has less than 200 mgs of salt per quart. Since I’ll likely use less than a pint on my manicotti, I’ll have only about 100 mgs of salt from it.
So I’m ready for kickoff and you can be too, just search out the low-salt, low-fat treats out there. John
My wife and I recently spent a holiday week at Disney World in Orlando, going at perhaps the busiest time of the year. But the crowds weren’t worrying me so much as was the food, or more precisely the lack of food that I can eat on my no-salt, no-fat, no-sugar diet.
Would I be able to find any healthy food at Disney? Or at Universal Studios where we also planned to spend considerable time? And what about in Orlando itself, a place I think of as a mecca of fast casual restaurants that have little to nothing healthy on their menus?
The bottom line is that in four and a half days there, I lost four pounds from the combination of little to eat and all the walking we inevitably did. Disney World surprised me with a healthy option for lunch, one of the best I had on the trip in fact. Universal was a total junk food mecca, as were the places we ate in Orlando itself, TGI Friday’s and Carrabba’s, an Italian chain.The start of my Disney DayContinue reading “Can you eat healthy at Disney World?”→
Having angioplasty August 13, 2012, has completely changed what I eat. It has made me a man on a restricted diet, cutting out fat, salt and sugar whenever possible. And it also has greatly changed me. In the four months since the surgery, I’ve lost 23 pounds and now weigh roughly 193 pounds.
In recent years, I’ve cut out or cut back on many of my favorite foods. Pizza and Chinese food, for example, which I once ate weekly, are now a rarity for me. The same can be said for one-pound T-bone steaks and many cheese-filled Italian dishes which I’ve reserved for only holidays. Potato chips and french fries, once daily items for me, also are mostly gone from my diet.Days of eating giant meatball subs like this one are over for me.Continue reading “How Will Having Angioplasty Change What I Eat?”→
Hello everyone, welcome to my new food blog, Living on a Restricted Diet. If that title sounds grim, I apologize, it’s meant to simply sound like the reality many of us Baby Boomers face as we get older and deal with more health-related issues that impact how we eat.
In August, 2012, I had an angioplasty done to open an 80% blocked artery to my heart, for example. Since that event, I have completely changed my eating routine, giving up scores of foods I truly loved. I was one of those people who lived to eat rather than simply ate to live. So it’s been a painful process for me.Trays fo stuffed shells were once my Super Bowl party main course. No more though.
But I’ve learned valuable lessons along the way, along with creating my own no-salt, no-sugar, no-fat recipes, and want to share them with you. I also want to hear what you’ve done because I have no illusion that my approach is the only correct one. I leave that kind of hubris to those writing other food blogs, including one I founded and left after it adopted an incredibly self-righteous tone that included repeatedly insulting me and what I was going through. Continue reading “Welcome to Living on a Restricted Diet”→
Continue reading “How much salt is in Burger King’s new Satisfries?” 
The No Salt, No Fat, No Sugar Journal 