2011 SNAP Challenge: Final Thoughts

Today is the last day of the SNAP challenge for me and I want to take a few minutes to record my thoughts. As I mentioned in previous posts, this year was about gaining perspective on a plant-based diet so I could make a more informed decision about implementing it or at least more of it, on the Food Outreach menu. Sure a plant-based diet is healthy but our clients depend on us for the bulk of their food and I don't want them to feel like one more thing is being taken from them. If we're going to move more plant-based items onto the menu, they need to be delicious, satisfying, and something I would be happy to eat myself.

What I learned

-A plant-based diet can be satisfying, "satisfying" being the keyword, even for the most diehard meateaters. I'm not going to pretend that my lentil soup had my mouth watering the way a thick slice of prime rib does but I'll no longer judge meatless dishes for the sins of my wife's "chicken casserole"(think one can of chicken in a mountain of pasta).

-An added benefit of the plant-based diet seemed to be weight control. I've been recovering from strep throat for the bulk of the challenge so I have done zero training and I'm down almost 4# in 7 days. I didn't have a fever and last I checked strep didn't make you hypermetabolic. More importantly, I felt full, really full, almost bloated the whole challenge, yet I lost weight. The majority of plant-based foods naturally have a low caloric density because they are almost fat free and full of fiber. To clarify: heart healthy or no, fat has almost twice the cals of protein or carb per gram so when you practically eliminate that from your diet, you free up a lot of caloric budget.

-Eating healthy on a budget is not impossible but it is time consuming because it requires so much planning and meal preparation. I'm an R.D so take this with a grain of salt but I think eating on a budget is the real challenge and not necessarily the healthy part. For example, maybe you can't buy your organic apples or $5-a-box, 100% whole grain, antioxidant infused, fiberlicious cereal but you can buy bag apples or generic oatmeal and still come in on budget. They may not taste as good and/or be what you prefer but that's a budget issue, not a nutrition issue. That being said, I'm a healthy, nutrition professional with my own transportation so I'm not playing on the same field as someone with a chronic illness and dependent upon public transportation.

In closing, it was another valuable experience and I hope to see even more people particpate next year.

Thanks for reading!

Josh