by f1jim » Fri Jul 24, 2015 8:18 am
Just got back from 2 weeks of living/working in a small town in Texas. Needless to say, it's much tougher to follow a McDougall diet there than in my S.F. Bay Area home town. This Texas town has about 7 non-fast food restaurants and eating out is very difficult. Meat three meals a day is the expected menu and there are few deviations, A couple of observations.
Typically in California you can get whole beans at any Mexican restaurant as they are the basis for refried beans which are constructed with lard. In Texas they cook the beans with meat and call them Charro beans. Couldn't find any Mexican restaurants in a 30 mile radius that didn't have meat in them. Two restaurants offered to strain the meat out for me!
Local Subway restaurants look lost constructing Veggie Delight sandwiches. They found it hard to believe I didn't want any cheese on my veggie only sandwich.
The steak houses almost always offered baked potatoes but I noted the sides were very limited this trip. Usually it was canned vegetables.
Asian restaurants still represented the best options on this trip. Found a local Chinese restaurant called "China Wok" that had two regular menu items that I could eat. "Vegetable delight" and "Broccoli in garlic sauce" were good options. The owners were willing to modify several other selections to make them compliant. As expected, only white rice was available. Asian restaurants down there were like going to a Chinese restaurant in California in the 60's.
The only grocery store in town was still the best, most consistent source of healthy food. The produce section was rather spotty but always had staple starches. Rice and potatoes were always available and some surprising fruit choices were surprises. Local cherries were fabulous.
Daily temperatures around 100 were the norm and eating this way is the best way to deal with it. Nothing like meat, dairy, and oil to make the heat unbearable. It was a great trip but it's goood to be back to my eating routine.
f1jim
While adopting this diet and lifestyle program I have reversed my heart disease, high cholesterol, hypertension, and lost 54 lbs. You can follow my story at https://www.drmcdougall.com/james-brown/