bok choy – in thriver words

The Flip Side

When you’re stuck it can be helpful to remember there’s always a flip side. I remember reading an article when Tom Green’s comedy was in its heyday. It described his method for creating comedy as turning things upside down or inside out to find the most bizarre opposite. Doing something similar can help move you out of negative head space.

Like vinyl records, we all have emotional grooves that entrench our thoughts and keep us going round and round in the same place. Often, these grooves were created by a significant event that was dangerous, scary, or had high emotional stakes. It’s easy for us to slip back into one of these grooves when we experience emotions similar to those original events.

Vinyl also tended to have spots the needle would skip. Both problems keep the album from moving smoothly through a tune and then shifting seamlessly to another.

If you’re old enough to remember vinyl, you may also remember that placing a penny on the record player needle arm was sometimes sufficient to keep a record from skipping. And you could manually move the arm to unstick the needle. As annoying as the problems were, there were solutions. The same is true of the emotional and mental grooves we tend toward.

One technique for making it easier to move forward is to remember, and make use of, the flip side. I’m not saying look for a silver lining. There are those, but that line of thinking doesn’t usually acknowledge that there’s a cost to only seeking the positive. Instead, we need tools that allow for the downside while also offering peaceful, productive ways to move on to the next tune.

So how can we use the flip side?

First, identify the feeling or obstacle that’s keeping you stuck. Don’t worry about being petty or silly. How you feel is how you feel. Name it.

Once you’re identified what’s holding you back, ask what would be the exact opposite of that? For example, let’s say you’re jealous that your husband can eat pastries of any kind, anywhere, at any time. And, let’s say he eats them in front of you all the time with no apology.

What’s the opposite of jealousy? In this particular instance, you’re jealous that he can eat pastry in abundance when you can only have it under very controlled, specific, limited circumstances. Rather than focus on his abundance, focus on increasing your sparse consumption.

How can you consume pastry all the time? Do you really want to? What if you experiment with it to see how it makes you feel?

So, flip jealousy to curiosity and experimentation and flip scarcity to abundance. Bake or buy a freezer load of pastries your dietary plan allows. For several days, eat a pastry every time your husband does. Then examine how you feel.

Are you still jealous of him?
Do you want to continue eating pastries along with him?
Did you discover there’s something you like better than pastry that you want to keep in the freezer or pantry?
Does eating pastry make you feel better or worse?

The answer is your guide for breaking out of your rut. You may discover that you don’t like that much sugar and carbs because they make you feel sluggish. Or you may discover that what you saw as abundance feels more like gluttony when you’re the consumer. And if you discover that you’re happy matching him, then you’ve learned it’s important to develop a way to continue doing that.

Maybe you don’t feel jealous. Maybe you just feel like your required diet isn’t satisfying. How would you flip that feeling?

This one can be tough because the enjoyment of food is affected by taste, texture, expectation, and effort. But try letting yourself get extra hungry. Then eat the least satisfying food you’ve been eating on a regular basis. Does being hungry change the experience?

Another way to flip that scenario is to gather three foods you considered the most satisfying before you understood your dietary restrictions. If these are foods that will NOT cause an allergic reaction or adverse immune response, eat them – but only two bites of each. Is it possible that just a bite here or there would diminish your feeling of being deprived?

Or you may learn that these foods make you feel bad and you hadn’t noticed before. You may learn that these foods aren’t as satisfying as they once were. You’ll discover whatever you discover. Being open to all the possibilities and observing as objectively as possible are the keys to accessing the most helpful information.

If you’re dairy free but have avoided nut-based ice cream because you don’t like nuts (as long as you aren’t allergic), flip the script and try it.
If you can’t eat spinach but have never tried bok choy or dandelion greens, flip the script and opt for a new exotic green.
If you hate hot soup, try cold.
If you hate fruity yogurt, try it plain.
If you hate plain yogurt, add honey or fresh fruit.
If you hate hamburgers, try steak.
If you hate fried chicken, try grilled, smoked, or rotisserie.

Our work and home schedules take us through the same territory over and over again. We often get locked into routines and forget to think beyond our current habits. We begin to think, I can’t have fried chicken rather than I can’t have fried chicken battered in wheat flour.

Another way to look at the flip side is to make lists of all the foods you CAN have. You may be surprised how long the list is. It’s easier to shift our mindset when we change our point of view.

Don’t be afraid to experiment until you find a technique that allows you to easily explore the flip side. It can make all the difference.

Basics Are Best

While trying to decide what to plant in my winter garden, I keep remembering basics are best! There’s no reason to try to reinvent the wheel during a season that’s tough on plants.

Would I love some root vegetables? Absolutely, but I know that my rocky soil means waiting a very long time for dwarfed carrots. Would I love some sugar snap peas? Of course, but a single elongated frozen stretch will render the stalks too fragile to produce. As a result, I’m going with multiple greens.

And why not? Mache, bok choy, romaine, and Swiss chard will grow well and I love all of them. They may be simple greens, but they rate highly as healthy foods. Basics as the best food isn’t an idea that’s only true for the garden. It’s a great guide for a healthy diet in general.

No need for fancy fads or packaged health products when your diet is a variety of protein, vegetables, fruits, and some grains. And unless there’s a specific medical need, good nutrition will negate the need for supplements.

Why is it so hard to stick to the basics?

Availability. There are people in my neighborhood who can walk to the dollar store as quickly as they can walk to a grocery. Both are filled with packaged products that will stay fresh for a long time.

Produce is available from the grocery, a community garden in the spring, and a farmers market spring through early fall. But the walk to fresh produce is longer and the food won’t last long.

Fresh meat and poultry are only available from one store in walking distance. Without a way to comparatively shop, fresh meat may be deemed too expensive. Given the obstacles for procuring fresh food, it’s no surprise the neighborhood is considered a food desert.

For those of us who have reliable transportation, plenty of funds, and time to shop, it can be easy to overlook the ever-present gaps in availability.

Time. When you keep preparation simple, cooking doesn’t have to take much time. But it’s hard to do that prep when you’re in your car chauffeuring kids to activities or parents to doctor’s appointments.

Sugar, salt, fat. Processed food is chock full of sugar, salt, and fat. All of those may make you want more of all of those.

Chemicals. If you’ve ever switched from processed to fresh food, you may remember a gradual change that eventually allowed you to be able to taste the full flavor of vegetables. Ultra processed food has many additives that make you crave more of the same. Until your system resets, it’s as if natural flavors have been muted.

Procrastination. Preparing and cooking fresh food requires a bit of preplanning unless you’re just peeling a banana or crunching an apple. Put off doing the dishes and you may not be prepared to cook. Hesitate and you may end up too hungry.

Advertising. Let’s face it, advertising can be effective. I saw a new restaurant I want to try in an ad last week. I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Misinformation. Every fad will bring with it some sort of endorsement or study (perhaps not all that scientific) that shows it has the potential to deliver some miracle. It probably won’t. If you can approach the same problem by getting back to basics, try that first.

Peer pressure. What we see people do regularly seems normal so we often do the same without giving it a second thought.

Habit. I grew up eating mostly fresh food. My sister grew up eating mostly processed food. We developed different habits and expectations for what constituted delicious food. Habits are hard to make and hard to break.

The phrase back to basics sounds like simplifying down and making things easy. But we all know when it comes to a healthy diet, it can even be complicated to simplify. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth it. Basics are best!

Leave Well Enough Alone

When it comes to food, sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone. I have a friend who tries every new superfood nutrient powder that comes along. Mostly, they buy it and it sits on the counter, but they believe this will make them healthy while eating fast food fried chicken plus some lettuce every other month.

There’s no shortage of these products. I’m confident I could find one that’s gluten-free, low histamine, and pleasant tasting. I’m also confident that it would cost more than the few cents per serving I’ll spend producing Swiss chard, arugula, lettuce, and bok choy in my garden. So why would I be tempted to opt for a powdery substitute?

I’m not saying there’s absolutely no benefit to these products or that they shouldn’t be added to an already healthy, balanced diet. If you are creating a shelf-stable survival kit, they may be a good option. If an elderly relative has trouble chewing, they may be a good option. If you are traveling and uncertain about access to fresh fruits and vegetables, greens powder may be a good option. But for anyone who has access and can tolerate the ingredients in fresh form, a powder is not a superior substitute.

Flour that has been processed until it has virtually no nutrients left, then enriched is not better than flour that is less refined. Orange juice from concentrate that sits for months and then has flavor packets added so it will taste fresh is not healthier than eating an orange or squeezing one for juice.

Academics and food scientists have attempted to create functional ice cream that provides more health benefits than regular ice cream without the drawbacks. Along the way, some interesting things have been discovered. Dairy fat wasn’t shown to be associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes when compared with calories from carbohydrate. But replacing 5% of the dairy fat calories with other animal fat or carbohydrates from refined grains was associated with a 14% and 4% increased risk respectively of type 2 diabetes. Substituting whole grains for 5% of the calories on the other hand resulted in a 7% lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Even in this experimentation, whole foods proved healthier.

Ice cream may even reduce the risk of heart disease for diabetics. A few years ago, a Harvard doctoral student who had studied the relationship of dairy foods to chronic disease for his thesis presented evidence that eating ½ cup of ice cream per day was associated with a lower risk for heart problems. I’d like to believe this finding! I feel like ice cream has healing properties.

Even so, I’m sure homemade or local creamery ice cream without added fillers is better than commercially produced grocery store ice cream. I’m lucky to live less than a mile from a local creamery so a healing bowl of ice cream is never far away. Neither is the temptation to eat way more than half a cup.

When I was growing up, there would have been no reason for this post. The emphasis on processed and convenience food was small. Most of my family’s food came from the farm. I learned to love the smells, textures, and taste of fresh vegetables from the garden.

And my mother wasn’t keen on extra work in the kitchen. As a result, she kept things simple. That example inadvertently helped shape my preferences for healthier foods.

That doesn’t mean I’m a proponent of a raw food diet, but I do support including raw vegetables and fruits in meals every day. Why? They retain all of their nutrients. But also, I don’t think bananas, apples, peaches, grapes, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, oranges, arugula, lettuce, tomatoes, or baby bok choy are enhanced by cooking.

I don’t want to miss out on the peppery bitterness of arugula, the sweet juiciness of a fresh blackberry bursting open in my mouth, or the tender crunch a baby bok choy stem adds to my salad. I would miss all of this pleasure if they were ground into a powder.

When healthier and more pleasurable intersect, it’s best to leave well enough alone!

Grown-Up Nutrition

Bok choy packs grown-up nutrition into a few tiny calories. I’ve been eating a lot of baby bok choy the past few weeks. It’s the one thing in my garden that hasn’t been stressed by the heat.

Before this summer, I may have eaten bok choy a few times in stir fry, but I was generally unfamiliar with this green. Thanks to my sister providing seeds, I’m having the opportunity to discover how much I enjoy it.

I’m harvesting leaves rather than waiting for larger stemmed groupings. The leaves are tender and sweet – not exactly what you expect from a cabbage. As the plants grow larger, the aroma becomes more cabbage-like and the stems become tougher.

Whether you eat them raw or cooked, a one cup serving has a mere 9 calories. Of course, the cooked version will gain calories if you add meat or fat to the pan. And a salad may have added calories from other vegetables and dressing. Even so, with a little attention to ingredients you can get a remarkable amount of nutrition packed into a minimal number of calories.

Bok choy is high in antioxidants as well as cancer-fighting compounds like vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, folate, and selenium. It’s also a good source of the inflammation reducing flavonoid quercetin. And the good stuff doesn’t stop there. Bok choy contains many of the essentials for maintaining strong healthy bones – calcium, phosphorous, iron, magnesium, and vitamin K.

Including greens high in folate (like bok choy) in your diet during pregnancy can help prevent complications like spina bifida and anencephaly, a severe congenital condition in which a large part of the skull is absent along with the cerebral hemispheres of the brain.

I love a food that promotes good health without a load of calories, but the best thing about bok choy is it’s delicious! I read something recently that called it a gateway green. I can see how that’s an apt description. The mild sweetness makes it appealing for the consumer who isn’t yet accustomed to the bitterness found in many greens.

The mild, pleasant flavor makes a great background for prominent flavors like arugula and dried bing cherries, but it also blends well with more subtle flavors like red bell pepper, celery, cucumber, and carrots. Because I’m harvesting early, the stems are delicious chopped into a salad.

If you enjoy cooked greens, bok choy is great stir fried or sautéed. You can also cook it like more traditional mustard, collard, or turnip greens.

The other day, I filled a pot with chopped bok choy and a cup or so of chopped Swiss chard. I filled the pot with water to the top of the greens. Then I added about a cup of chicken broth, a chunk of onion, a jalapeño pepper with stem and seeds removed, a spoonful of chili garlic sauce, a dash of tamari, and some salt & pepper.

I brought the pot to a boil, then simmered the greens for about 20 minutes. You can vary the cooking time to fit your preferences. I’m from the south where we overcook things.

The result is flavorful, but mellow and just what I was looking for. I’ve eaten it as a side with both chicken and steak and have not been disappointed. Not to mention, I feel as happy as a child when I enjoy grown-up nutrition from baby bok choy!

https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-bok-choy#091e9c5e8205d559-2-6