Even with having some nutritional training, having a husband with complex medical conditions can certainly make life interesting especially when it comes to diet. Currently he should be eating a higher calorie, low sodium, low glycemic, high fibre, lower protein diet. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem but he has these phases where he just doesn't want to eat certain foods, doesn't have much appetite and he's always been a bit of a picky eater anyway. So here I am trying to figure out how to keep sodium and glycemic levels down, keep good protein levels, hide veggies and increase fibre in his food so that he'll have a balanced diet and that he'll also enjoy eating. I was even considering getting a juicer but I know he won't drink home made juices even though he'll drink ready made juice and vegetable blends from the store.
Well, one of the things I'm going to be doing is making a bunch of vegetable purees and put them in just about everything. What I'm hoping is that the sweetness of the vegetables is going to help offset any bitterness that the husband seems to perceive in the taste of food. This is going to be the most I've used my blender in a long time. I'm just hoping he's not going to ask me what I'm up to because I can just hear him in my mind saying "don't you dare". If I have to, I'll go and buy baby food to use. The trick will be to find ones that don't have added salt or sugar.
For fibre I'm thinking going to go and buy some inulin fibre as it is tasteless and colourless or perhaps some psyllium or ground flax seed. I'll be checking with the husband's specialist first as we don't want to affect his treatment but if it's allowed I'll be putting it in just about everything as well. If I choose the ground flax, it also has an added benefit of being high in omega 3 fatty acids which he needs. Hiding this in his food is not going to be as much of a problem as I have gotten him used to me putting things like All-Bran or rolled oats in his meatloaf.
I am hopeful that doing these two things is going to be useful, but with the husband's list of foods he doesn't like or thinks are icky it is still a challenge. It's very limiting when you can't use certain foods. His current list of dislikes are things like rice (he was never gassed about it anyway) meat, peas (my mom didn't like them either so I'm used to this one but I love them), beans, smoothies, wheat products except for stuff that's crunchy or too sweet like doughnuts, cooked spinach, celery, cucumbers, raw vegetables except for salads, anything in the cabbage family (important for their cancer fighting properties), nuts, seeds, tofu, yogurt, anything in a sauce, anything too soft like stews, leftovers, beet roots (good for the liver but he will eat the tops), and anything spicy so no curries and the turmeric in it with it's anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. I'd love the husband to eat a more Mediterranean diet but then again there are foods in it that he won't eat. If man could survive on desserts alone, hubby would be a happy camper.
So, it's going to be desserts that I'm going to be starting with. These are going to be great places to hide things like extra fibre, squash and beets. Adapting the recipes is going to be a lot of trial and error but it should be fun. I think the first dessert I'll make is a red velvet cake as there are recipes online for ones made with beets, it's replacing the sugar with stevia and finding low sodium baking powder and soda (they do exist) that will be the experiment. I'll let you know how it goes.
Do you have any tricks and tips on getting picky eaters to eat things they think they don't like? Let's share.
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