Soooo I REALLY need some help here.
Okay. Where to begin.... I've been MIA for a while. I kind of fell of the vegan/vegetarian bandwagon a while back because I was just not feeling well on a vegan diet, despite doing everything right and paying painstaking attention to what I ate. I reverted back to omni, but still felt sick all the time...
To make a long story short I found out that I've had thyroid cancer for about 5 years. Go figure. So I've already had my surgery, and will have my radioactive iodine treatment within the next month or so. To prep for that, I have to be on a low-iodine diet for a few weeks.
I am wanting to try to use these couple of weeks to get a little more veganism and healthiness back into my life, so I decided to come here for ideas!
There are 2 things I need help with:
1. I need ideas for veggies/fruits that are touted for their cancer-fighting abilities
2. I need meal ideas for my low iodide diet.
Here are the rules for the low-iodide diet (I'll leave out the meaty eggy parts)
-It has to be gluten free, because I'm gluten free.
-No commercial milk substitutes
-Nothing from the ocean (sea salt, seaweed, nothing.)
-No soy
-Nothing cured (like sauerkraut)
-No store bought bread
-No molasses
-No red kidney beans, lima beans, navy beans, pinto beans, and cowpeas.
-No canned/packaged food that has salt or carageenen/ agar-agar in it
These foods need to be limited
Potatoes
grains
Rice
There is also a chance I may be taken off my medication for these few weeks, so I need things that can be made ahead and frozen, or that are easy to whip up.
Thanks in advance for all the help! :)>>>
In the same vein as fruits, I bet having plenty of ingredients around for smoothies would be useful, in case you are feeling too rubbish to cook. Also, I love how your first post was like, "Yeah, cancer thing is being dealt with, whatever, let's talk FOOD!" Spoken like a true VegWebber! :D
So tomorrow I'm on my Low iodine diet, but need foods that travel well since we'll be on the road. I'm planning on taking:
Eggplant dip
Lentil pate
salt free rice cakes
red grapes
maple roasted nuts or gluten free cookies of some sort...
Any other recommendations? I'd rather pack to much than too little. I don't want to get stuck or end up staying the night and not have food I can eat. It's just a day trip.
I was going to suggest unsalted popcorn
Are hemp seeds okay? Just a spoonful has quite a bit of protein and a very good omega ratio. I even see them sold in individual, single serving packs, although I usually buy the large bag and keep it in the fridge after I open it.
I was also going to suggest bringing along a can of low sodium refried beans but then I realized that pinto beans were on your no-no list.
Your "no" list has a lot of commonly used beans here. I wanted to suggest you look into two beans in particular that appeared to be allowed. Mong beans (skinned and split called "moong dal") and gram beans are important protein sources in India. There are other beans as well, and there are many recipes for making them into snacks, pancakes, soups, gravies, etc. Any Indian cookbook will have a lot of recipes for bean cookery, but the vegetarian ones even more so. Not sure where you live and whether it will be easy to find these things but they would be commonly available at a middle eastern grocery store and often at whole foods.
So sorry to hear about the cancer!!! I can't vouch for it, personally, but the book Crazy Sexy Diet is all about an anti-cancer vegan diet. I don't know how well it will jibe with your other restrictions, but it might be worth taking a look.
I am thinking about you! I do have this book, and it (and kris Carr's website) have lots of information, and some recipes (all non-processed types of foods you are talking about for the most part).
She is really into juicing and suggests many "green" juices or smoothies, made wih kale, and other greens. If this grosses you out (they are actually quite good I think, and I get grossed out easily), a smoothie with frozen bananas, blueberries, and kale is really good, and you don't notice the kale at all!
Your "no" list has a lot of commonly used beans here. I wanted to suggest you look into two beans in particular that appeared to be allowed. Mong beans (skinned and split called "moong dal") and gram beans are important protein sources in India. There are other beans as well, and there are many recipes for making them into snacks, pancakes, soups, gravies, etc. Any Indian cookbook will have a lot of recipes for bean cookery, but the vegetarian ones even more so. Not sure where you live and whether it will be easy to find these things but they would be commonly available at a middle eastern grocery store and often at whole foods.
Fuf, in case you're worried about moong dahl (aka green soy, in some Chinese markets)--it is NOT a soybean. It looks kinda like one but it isn't. I have researched this too (Hashimoto's sufferer, here) because soy and I are unfortunately not friends. So you are safe with it, split (yellow) or whole. I like it split better because the flavours of whatever spices etc you use penetrate better. Whole moong can be pretty bland and you can really "taste the protien" (ie it's hard to eat a lot of it.) It just seems awfully dense.
oh i love mung dal! I always get the split type, and I think it makes a tastier dal than either red lentils or toor dal. It's creamier or something.
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