So today we started the low-iodine diet required for Ben's radioactive iodine treatment coming up in 2 weeks. We were given a very long list if "can't haves" and a very short
bland list of "eat-these-insteads".
Essentially Ben can have no iodine.....meaning no salt.....meaning no taste..........totally kidding!
We actually
had a very delicious meal tonight. It was surprising!
We have discovered that we will have to get a
little inventive.
The diet includes no iodized
salt (which is in almost all prepared and manufactured foods), no dairy
of any kind (ice cream is out... wah wah), no commercial breads or grains, no egg yolks, no canned foods, no foods
with any added salt in the ingredients, no chocolate (gasp!), and quite a
bit more foods you never thought had iodine in them (red dye 40. What the....?!). We took our tiny list
of foods we could eat and went to the store tonight. I will be posting
our food adventures to our blog if anyone else would like to check out a
no-iodine diet menu. I think it will actually be the start to a wonderfully healthy relationship with our food. Your meals have to basically be prepared out of fresh food only so you can control the amount of iodine. We are both actually really looking forward to it. Being the supportive little wifey that I am, I am going to stick to the same diet but still having a semi-functioning thyroid and need for thirst and metabolism control, it is essential for me to have iodine in my diet (as it is for most of you) so I will allow myself to cheat and not feel bad about it one bit. :) In all actuality I am helping Ben by eating the foods he shouldn't have. ;P
Tonight we had our own version of a taco salad. We
used country style hashbrown potatoes pan fried up in a small amount of oil with ground beef, lettuce,
home-made salsa (using tomatoes and sweated onions) and fresh avocado chunks. It was really tasty!
We bought some
un-iodized salt to use.... thank heavens for that!
So I think I actually like this a lot better than using chips underneath. It is better for you and not so full of fat and processed gunk. It created the perfect amount of crunchyness too.
Mmmm..... I am sure we will be making this again (even when we don't have to).
{I would have posted a picture but I didn't}
