Optimum fiber

Eating healthy can taste good. No lie.

By Jill Strauss

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

This affirmation was one of many painted on a soothing mural of the Berkshires that decorated a 150-foot wall of the gorgeous Canyon Ranch Health Resort in Lenox, Massachusetts. I thought about it often during my stay there two weeks ago. That’s right, I decided not to spend my vacation on an outward journey, traveling to exotic sites, investigating different cultures, indulging in rich and provocative taste sensations. Why should I? These activities are the norm for this food writer. Instead, I decided to spend five vacation days at a luxurious spa in New England where I traveled inward, investigated my thought patterns and got back in touch with the real requirements of my body.

Guiding me on my way was Canyon Ranch Medical Director Mark Liponis who has a profound interest in nutrition and preventive and integrative medicine. His lecture “The Science of Weight Loss” emphasized the importance of keeping insulin in the bloodstream low. “Fiber slows down the body’s absorption of sugar,” he said. “The slower the body absorbs sugar, the less insulin your body makes. The less insulin, the better the body’s metabolism and the less weight gain.”

And the good doctor stressed that his strategies for weight loss would improve my metabolism, energy level, and overall health. Thus, for five idyllic days I took his advice. I didn’t deny myself food. In fact, I ate more whole grains, beans, soy products, and seeds in one day than I usually consume in a week. I gave up white sugar, white flour, and hydrogenated fats, increased my exercise, reduced my stress, and asked myself “What do I need right now?” before eating.

The good news was I lost a few pounds and felt terrific. The bad news was it was time to leave. “How will I survive in the real world?” I asked myself during one of my last meditation classes at the Ranch.

Visions of fried clams and whoopee pies danced in my head. “Let them go, let them go,” I thought. And then my yoga instructor said something that seemed to come directly from the mural with the maxims: “Change your thoughts and change your world.” So I thought about tofu and organic strawberries and I remembered a spot that my vegetarian friends often visit: a health food store in Biddeford, Maine that carries these products and even serves lunches in its café. “That’s it! I’ll go to the health food store as soon as I get back home,” I promised myself. And that is exactly what I did.

At lunch time on the day after I arrived back in Maine, I entered the New Morning Natural Food Market and Café in Biddeford, strode past the cookbooks and the couscous, past the frozen soybean patties and fresh organic produce, and abruptly stopped at a table at the back of the store. I read the menu of the day on the whiteboard above my head and almost cried with delight. Almost every dish was fraught with fiber, particularly the Tempeh Reuben (a sauerkraut and smoked soy sandwich), Organic Salad (composed of mixed greens, grated carrot, chic peas, flax meal and pulverized sea vegetable), Spicy Chili (loaded with red kidney beans rather than hamburger), and Garlic Bread (whole wheat bread spread with tofu based “Nayonaise” instead of butter). Even the dessert, Frozen Fudge Smoothie, was made with soymilk and oats rather than cream.

I went back for several meals at the New Morning Café after my first one and even shadowed young vegetarian cook Kristina Pelletier for a day. Always, I was impressed with the effort to be conscious of the different health needs of customers. The flavor of some of the ingredients that go into these meals, however, can take some getting used to.

I adjusted to Nayonaise at Canyon Ranch. It’s a fairly sweet and bland mayonnaise-like substance that blends well with garlic powder and other spices. Although Emeril Lagasse will never revere the creamy concoction, it did compliment the hearty and slightly spicy chili that I ordered. Smoked Tempeh (aka fakin’ bacon) on the other hand, which has neither the crisp texture of bacon nor the irresistible taste of pork, will be on my grocery list only if scientists can prove that this product will rid me of every free radical in my body forever. But the Frozen Fudge Smoothie . . . that is another story. This drink was so chocolaty and satisfying that I asked Pelletier if I was hallucinating.

“I used chocolate flavored soy milk,” the chef brazenly admitted, but after she reminded me of the cholesterol lowering properties of soy and oats I felt less guilty for risking an elevated insulin level. “Don’t worry too much,” veteran New Morning sales clerk and whole foods advocate Susan Albee told me when she saw how frustrated I was getting trying to perfectly adhere to my new optimal health regime. “The important thing is you’re becoming aware that there’s a better way.”

I’m not saying that I’ll never again eat fried clams or whoopee pies. A life completely devoid of sinful pleasures is unimaginable to me. But my voyage of discovery this summer did teach me the benefits of mindful eating, and this is a better way.

Jill Strauss can be reached at straussj@adelphia.net