How much is the fast food and restaurant industry losing because of their dismal (to non-exisent), food labelling and failure to offer options free of animal products? The saga of my shopping trip to Westfield's Garden City Shopping Centre at Mt. Gravatt

I went shopping yesterday at Westfield Garden City and spent just $2 on lunch, even though I would have happily forked out more (up to $15), in a decent eating venue for something that didn't include animal products and/or large amounts of added fats/oils, because of my health and weight issues.

As I go to a large shopping centre about once a fortnight, I'm saving over $330 a year and business is losing that amount.

Almost everything offered included meat and/or dairy which I don't eat (options containing neither were severely limited and very uninspiring) - and while some outlets provided calorie labelling for their food, there was zero information about the amount of fat in  anything (or info on any other ingredient for that matter). So even if something looked as if it didn't contain meat or dairy, chances were it was chock-full of added fats or oils, which I also refuse to consume.

As more and more people want to know what they're eating, the refusal of businesses to provide a breakdown of ingredients must be costing them a fortune.

I went into Coles, purchased one large wholemeal roll, plus one banana and two mandarins, then made myself comfortable on some shopper seating, popped the banana into the roll and followed up with the mandarins. Hence my $2 spend . . .

Chocolate date muffins: A really yummy recipe that's healthy too!

Just made some really healthy, low-calorie, low-fat choc & date muffins! They're really yummy (just had one with coffee), very moist, sweet and chocolatey . I worked out they have about 242 calories each, while shop/cafe muffins are about double that (according to my Google search). Here's the recipe (makes 14 muffins):

smile emoticoI worked out they have about 242 calories each, while shop/cafe muffins are about double that (according to my Google search). Here's the recipe (makes 14 muffins):

3 & a half cups of whole wheat flour
3 cups of chopped dates
7 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 cups of water, plus 2 thirds of a cup of water
4 teaspoons of baking powder
2 large mashed bannanas

Turn oven on to 180 degrees C

Throughly mix dry ingredients

Add water & mashed/pureed fruit & stir in

Distribute mixture into silicon muffin baking moulds (fill each one right to the top & no need to grease, the silicon baking moulds don't stick). Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

They're also great for freezing . . . and they're made without added sugar, fats/oils and/or animal products

About . . .

Hubby and I live in Logan, just south of Jimboomba, though we were both born in South East London and emigrated to Australia in 1989. This blog is inspired by Forks Over Knives and Planeat, plus my personal health and weight loss journey. I also plan to document local resources and experiences as they relate to plant-based eating.

Born in 1957, I've struggled with weight problems my whole life. I was teased at school because I was fat, then got quite thin in my early teens (the bullying motivated me). I hardly ate and looking back, I can see I bordered on anorexic. Luckily I got better without treatment, as I returned to normal/slightly chubby before I was 20.  However, it taught me how painful and difficult it is to starve yourself - and how obsessed with food you become when you're denying your natural instincts to eat. It's hard to think about anything else, which is why (I guess), "Diets" fail. Daily hunger pangs aren't sustainable, nor is worrying about every mouthful or "Portion size" you devour. It's no way to live.

I qualified as an RN in 1978, the same year I married my husband. He was a student nurse too and we met at work.  Fast forward to 2014. Our three kids are young adults and we have one grand child.  My weight had gone up and down over the years. In my mid forties I shrank from a size 16 (at my biggest), down to a size 12 (at my smallest), by living mainly on fruit and veggies (as much as I wanted, no portion control), for about a year. However, it wasn't sustainable and when I started eating "Normally" again, my weight gradually crept up. By 2014 I'd returned to a size 16. Little did I know that while my approach to weight loss was right, I was missing some key info about the importance of grains and root vegetables.

Hubby was 6 foot and lean when I met him and not a big eater, though he liked sweet stuff and fast foods.  He never smoked (me neither), and didn't drink much alcohol. However, over the years his weight increased. Like many guys, in his fifties by 2014, he carried a solid spare tyre. Then disaster struck.  Out of the blue, he started to get chest pain when he walked uphill, which went away when he rested. So eventually he took a stress test which he failed miserably. He almost passed out so it had to be cut short. A couple of days after that he had an angiogram which showed a 90% blockage in a key coronary artery, plus some smaller ones.

All this came as a complete shock.  We had no idea things could get that bad with almost no symptoms. His chest pain wasn't long-standing, he'd only had it a few weeks (and he only told me about it a few days before his stress test, because he knew I'd panic). Stunned, I rushed him to hospital the same day we got the angiogram results (on a Friday evening), and they admitted him. Talking to the consultant cardiologist the following Saturday morning, he told us the very first symptom of heart disease in 50% to 60% of people is sudden cardiac death. Chilling. We were lucky.

That weekend I had a meltdown.  Hubby's Dad dropped dead from his first heart attack at 42, with no warning signs. Understandably, I was terrified of that tragedy striking again, so in between spending most of my time at the hospital for the stent procedure, I took a determined approach to clearing out all the oily, fatty, animal-derived and sugary foods from our kitchen.  I filled several rubbish bags and threw them in the dustbin. When my other half eventually got home and opened the pantry and fridge, there were a lot of empty spaces staring back, but he didn't argue. He'd had a bad scare too.

I had some old Pritikin books on my shelf gathering dust, so I dragged them out and replaced all the unhealthy stuff I'd dumped with whole grains, beans, pulses, fruit and veggies.  I also knew my husband wouldn't stick to anything that made him go hungry, or expected him to fill up on lettuce leaves and apples. "Portion control" and living on salads was out. So what did I do? I said we could eat as much as we wanted of the comfort foods like like bread, potatoes, pasta, fat-free noodles, rice and plain cereals (plus veggies and fruit), but the animal products, oils, fats and refined sugars would have to go.

Over the next few weeks a strange thing happened, even though we were eating more food than before (and a bigger variety), we began to shrink. I hate weighing myself (so I only did it once, while hubby was in hospital), but I noticed my clothes were getting looser and work colleagues commented on my slimmer figure. When I was brave enough to step on the scales again a few months later, I was over the moon to see I'd lost 10 kilos. As for hubby, he eventually lost 16 kilos, dropped three waist sizes and his overall cholesterol plunged from just over 6mmol/L to below 3mmol/L (even though he slashed the Lipitor dose he was prescribed by 75% and finally stopped taking any at all).  He's had no more chest pain or any other cardiac symptoms.

The cardiologist was very pleased with my husband's results at his follow-up appointment and told him to continue with whatever it was he was doing. He also said if he can keep his overall cholesterol that low, he can actually reverse the build-up of fatty plaque in his arteries. Dr. Dean Ornish's study has already proved this. Dr. Ornish is the American doctor who treated ex-President Bill Clinton's heart disease.

However the doctor was less enthused about Hubby's refusal to continue with the statin drugs, but their long-term effects, coupled with their debateable ability to prevent fatal heart attacks cemented our decision. Plus the average cholesterol level of the rural Chinese (who eat a mostly plant-based diet), is about 3.3mmol/L (as documented in The China Study). Heart disease is very rare in that population and they don't take statins.

Of course, my research didn't stop at my old Pritikin books.  I came across Forks Over Knives and a whole community of informed, talented and passionate people who are telling everyone about plant-based eating and how it heals many wide-spread, chronic illnesses (like type 2 diabetes, cardio-vascular disease and arthritis). Even if you're not sick from our Western diet (yet), you can still lose weight easily and naturally. It's time to tackle the epidemic of obesity, cardio-vascular disease and other chronic, diet-caused illnesses with real solutions!