The food of the week (actually last week, I'm just late) is Romaine Lettuce. I love Romaine and would gladly eat it anyday and will when it is looking good and not all wilty.
Romaine lettuce
Not all lettuce is created equal, but if you start your meal with a salad made of romaine lettuce you will be sure to add not only a variety of textures and flavors to your meal but an enormous amount of nutritional value. Most of the domestic U.S. harvest of romaine lettuce and other salad greens comes from California and is available throughout the year.
Lettuce is synonymous with salads as they are predominantly made from crispy green lettuce leaves. Most varieties of lettuce exude small amounts of a white, milky liquid when their leaves are broken. This "milk" gives lettuce its slightly bitter flavor and its scientific name, Lactuca sativa derived from the Latin word for milk.
2 comments:
Hi...
I love romaine lettuce but it absolutely kills mhy stomach! I can't digest romaine or iceberg lettuce at all - they cause horrible stomach cramps. I can better handle arugula and other greens - and if they're cooked (as in turnip greens,collard greens, etc.) I have no problem at all.
I have IBS - do you think that's the reason I can't process lettuce? Needless to say it makes it harder to diet because salads are out as a regular meal.
I most definitely think the IBS has something to do with it. Romaine is an insoluble fiber. By mixing both soluble and insoluble fibers, you can gradually increase the amount of insoluble that you can tolerate. The smaller they are, the better. Instead of eating a salad to start your meal, finish with the salad. That way, the insoluble comes after the soluble.
If nuts give you a problem, grind them finely and incorporate into things. Dice veggies that are insoluble and add to a soups, stews, pastas. Make vegetable stock or even dips (spinach, etc).
The same can go with the foods that are high in sulfur or real acidic (garlic, onions, leeks, cabbage, tomatoes, citrus). Make smoothies, potato/leek soup, roasted garlic soup.
If you start with say a 95/5 ratio then gradually build on that(a couple of weeks at a time of each ratio), you should get to where you can slowly tolerate more of insoluble foods.
As for wanting to just have a salad for your meal, maybe deconstructing the salad.
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