Who says there has to be milk in cheese?

ME!!!

So, part of my new PCOS diet is to cut out dairy. A friend of mine is also on this diet for the same reason and she told me that she has been trying veggie cheese. The next time I went grocery shopping I saw some veggie cheese slices and put them in my shopping basket.
I used them to accompany a tuna and egg sandwich.


I tried a bite of the 'cheese' (cheddar flavoured) by itself and it tasted of nothing.... until the after taste came and then I had to rinse my mouth out with water. On the actual sandwich I couldn't taste it at all and so there was really no point to adding it in the first place. I shall still try some of the grated 'cheeses' out there too, but my expectations are not great.

And here's a thing; are they really any good for you? The current trend in thought is that the less processed food the better. Grains and pulses have been processed so they don't resemble their natural form at all. This, in turn, has led to and increase in obesity and other health problems due to people eating highly processed (high salt, sugar and fat) diets. Switching to a whole food diet, the experts say, will help to maintain a healthy weight, ease digestive problems, reduce chances of cancer..... the list goes on.

So what about these 'cheese' slices? Sure they are made from vegetables (actually its soy based), but they neither look, taste or smell like any vegetable I've ever come across. And the list on the back isn't too promising either; sorbic acid, carotenal, canola oil, rice starch. Part of the problem with the modern processed diet is that it exacerbates the PCOS caused by insulin insensitivity by unloading lots of simple sugars into the body at one go. It may well be that eliminating dairy from my diet is an important aspect of managing my PCOS, but are the substitutes actually any good, or am I returning to the world of processing in a disguised form?

Todays lunch was a much better success, I made seafood Pho.


Pho cubes sent from vietnam were dissolved in hot water with ginger. I then added some bean sprouts and bamboo shoots. The seafood mix, which was cooked inside the pho water, included squid, octopus, shrimp and white fish. This soup was added to bowls that contained some ramen noodles, sliced red pepper and sliced green onions. A little bit of hot cock sauce was added at the table and then came the best part, eating it all up. A great source of protein and only a few noodles. In fact, I didn't even need to eat my noodles as I was full from the seafood and vegetables.