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07/28/2007 Archived Entry: "Cook At Seliano on TV, Diabetic Diet"

I somehow knew that the mention of diabetes and diets would elicit email, but not as much as I got – an avalanche. Thanks to all of you with your encouragement and advice. Before I clarify some things about that, and answer some of the questions you posed, let me alert you to something exciting.

This Monday, July 30, Eyewitness News, channel 7, the 5 o’clock news report, is doing a feature on gastronomic travel that includes Cook at Seliano. The day before I left to come to Italy, they sent a reporter and camera man to my apartment in Brooklyn to interview me and a couple of people who have been my guests here in Paestum, Italy, for cooking classes and cultural excursions. Then, this past Monday, during our first cooking session, I shot some video that I sent back to New York for them to include. How much of my amateur tape will they use, I don’t know. At exactly what time will the feature air on Monday, I don’t know. Usually, features such as this aren’t scheduled until near the end of the program. Perhaps you will have the time to watch it. Or, maybe you can record Eyewitness News and check it out when you do have the time, and can fast forward to this feature.

Now …

I probably should have told you that I did, indeed, consult a nutritionist about my hopefully reversible diabetes. Big shot, know-it-all Schwartz didn’t think he needed one. I told my doctor that I could do this alone. But then breakfast stumped me. I made an appointment. I was very impressed with the nutritionist on the phone. But then … well:

Although the woman I saw knows plenty about diabetes and how, technically, to eat when you have it, I didn’t think her specific food advice was good for me. I don’t think she knows much about good food. I was shocked, for instance, that she didn’t know that Italians eat pasta as a first course, not as a side dish. And I was dismayed when she recommended that I eat, as a salad dressing, no-fat yogurt – the Fage brand I spoke about in my last letter, and that she thought was a “new” product – blended with Lipton’s onion soup mix. I told her I’d rather eat no salad dressing than eat that. Lipton's Onion Soup mix? Okay, once a decade at a Super Bowl party with sour cream and potato chips! I don't want or like a gloppy salad dressing. I am perfectly happy with a salad dressed very, very lightly with great olive oil and great vinegar, or even just lemon juice and no oil. If it has olive oil I know I have to compensate for the fat by cutting back somewhere else, or whatever. That’s sort of basic. She said, “Oh don’t go all gourmet on me.”

She does, however, know just how many grams of carbohydrate to eat, how much protein, etc. I had been feeling a little lightheaded in the afternoon, and she said it was because I had reduced my carb intake too much. Music to my ears. With the medication I am taking – Metformin – she said I should eat between 30 and 40 grams of carbohydrate at each meal, plus another 20 for a mid-morning snack and 20 in an afternoon snack. For that, I rejected her no-sugar candy bar. I prefer a couple of high-fiber flat breads and a piece of cheese, since these snacks should be accompanied by some protein. I have been eating a bit of cheese here and there. When I eat a full-fat cheese I eat only a little bit. An ounce is about 100 calories. When I eat a lower-fat cheese, such as the Vermont Cheese Company’s Fromage Blanc, I can have more, much more. A hard-boiled egg is a good snack, too. It doesn’t sound exciting, but for now I am actually enjoying it. I also can snack on leftovers – such as a piece of fish from the previous night’s dinner.

She thinks an English muffin for breakfast is good, although I think it is just white bread after all, and I would much rather eat the delicious and more nutritious whole grain bread that I usually eat. I know why she recommends the muffin, though. It’s easy. It has 26 grams of carbs, and most people like English muffins. I mean, I do, too, but when my weight loss goal is to eat only 1,500 calories a day, every calorie has to count, and I like to eat at least 25 grams of fiber a day. White bread has practically none. Two, even three slices of my bread – Eli’s Health Loaf -- is the right amount of carb, calories and fiber for breakfast. Beware, however. I checked the label of the Health Loaf at Costco, which carries it, and it has nearly twice as many calories and carbs as the same but smaller loaf I buy at my local grocery. The Costco loaf slice is a much bigger slice. The smaller loaf has only 12 grams of carbohydrate and 3 grams of fiber, which, says the nutritionist, counts only as 9 grams of carb.

For relatively lean protein, you can have an egg or two, or a good amount of that no-fat strained yogurt, which I enjoy. Sometimes I sprinkle the yogurt with zatar, the Middle Eastern herb mix that usually contains a few sesame seeds, too. For a few days there I was making tsatsiki, blending the yogurt with grated cucumber that I squeeze out to remove their water, a tiny bit of minced garlic, and dill. Or dried mint. I also did it with fresh chopped chervil that I saw at the Greenmarket and figured it would taste good for a change. Chervil has a subtle licorice or anise flavor.

Thirty to forty grams of carbohydrate translates to 2 ounces (usually 2 slices) of bread, or 1 cup of pasta, or ¾ cup of rice, or a small potato – like that. Not so bad. Those are small amounts, but not as little as you might think.

Yesterday, we had lunch at L’Archetto, a very good restaurant in Taurasi, the famous wine town in Avellino. They served two pastas -- handmade orecchiete with asparagus and mozzarella, and scialatielli with porcini. Each portion looked like about a cup. I ate half of each and that was pretty satisfying. Normally, I would have downed both plates entirely, then eaten someone else’s unfinished portion.

Lean protein means lots of fish, which I noted in my last letter, but also it could be in the form of white meat chicken or turkey without the skin, or very lean meat. For instance, cooked ham can be very lean. Prosciutto anyone? The nutritionist seemed to think veal is lean meat, but it isn’t necessarily. I picked at a veal sandwich at Aidelman’s deli in Brooklyn before I left. It was pretty fatty – deliciously fatty, but not something I could allow myself to each much of.

Beef, because it is high in fatr and calories, has to be a sometime treat now. Pork – well, unless it is fatty I don’t really like it. It’s too dry. By me, white meat chicken is too dry, too. But I went to my favorite Turkish restaurant before I left – Taci’s Beyti on Coney Island Ave. and Avenue P, in Brooklyn – and they make fabulously moist and well-spiced white meat chicken on skewers. Middle Eastern and Turkish restaurants are usually a safe bet when you are dieting. They have so many delicious vegetable dishes. With coban salatisi, shepherd’s salad, which is chopped tomato, cucumber, and onion with dill and oregano very lightly dressed, I was in heaven. I had a snippet of my friend’s lamb shish kebab – just a taste. I restrained myself on the bread, and, among the mezze, I concentrated on the braised artichokes and leeks. Not too much.

And so it goes.

I think I will get off this diet jag in my next missive. This could get boring fast.