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Food for a Fil Brit Family of Three

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by cojo1000, Nov 18, 2019.

  1. cojo1000
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    cojo1000 Member

    My wife arrived here in the UK in 2011 wearing size 6/8 clothing. Several years later this is nowhere near the case. Our 7 yo nipper is quite skinny. In my case I am lighter than I have been for a decade. My good wife had put on considerable weight since arrival.

    The food we each eat is different which is a nightmare to both buy and cook for. Whilst I am avoiding carbohydrates, my wife still goes with rice at every meal or if not then pasta or potatos etc. The nipper just wants to eat sweets and cakes all the time.

    Whilst my wife understands the role of carbs in ones diet, is aware of the consequences of eating too many, even for those with a working pancreas, she won’t budge off the cakes biscuits crisps doughnuts or cut back on rice, pasta, potato etc.

    I would be glad to hear how others are dealing with similar circumstances if any.
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2019
  2. bigmac
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    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    my wife eats rice often several times a day. her weight fluctuates about +/- 3 kilos. i weigh twice as much as her.
  3. Mattecube
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    Mattecube face the sunshine so shadows fall behind you Trusted Member

    Take the fuse out of the rice cooker!
    • Funny Funny x 2
  4. bigmac
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    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    my wife buys big sacks of jasmin rice--and uses a rice cooker. even though its well rinsed first--it ends up as a congealed block..with a sickly smell. i prefer american easy cook rice--in a saucepan.. cooked perfectly.
  5. cojo1000
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    cojo1000 Member

    Same here. Though we have some progress actually. We have actually stopped buying the large bags. So she eats less rice. However, the gap has been filled by the consumption of other carbohydrates and junk type foods. The problem here is that the nipper sees mom eating that food and wants the same.
  6. Mattecube
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    Mattecube face the sunshine so shadows fall behind you Trusted Member

    My wife arrived a size 6 to 8 and is now a 8 to 10.
    She eats rice on occasion but not often, she detests sweet food and moderates carbs.
    We do not buy frozen or processed foods.
    We set the scene when she arrived here in 2015
    Her daughter who came across in 2017 is similar. FB_IMG_1498592732694.jpg FB_IMG_1498592732694.jpg
    • Like Like x 1
  7. cojo1000
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    cojo1000 Member

    Reminds me of my trip to some caves in the summer in Buxton.
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2019
  8. Tony James
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    Tony James Member

    When my wife came over she asked what I would do if she gained a lot of weight. I told her that she knows where the door is. We still laugh about it now, 11 years on and 2 kilos heavier.

    We are both very aware of a healthy diet and we have rice possibly 2 or 3 times a week - mainly brown rice. She tries to educate her family in the Phils to do the same but with little effect.

    We have both noted how obesity has become a problem over there. The last time that I went, some 5 years ago, I was shocked at how many overweight Filipinas there were compared to my first visit 12 years ago. The diet of white rice and fizzy drinks has a lot to answer for.

    She went back for a few weeks earlier this year for a school reunion, meeting friends etc. Her old classmates were all chubby and asked her how she managed to stay so slim.

    I have noticed that many Filipinas over here, along with their children, drink a lot of coke, sprite etc and they and their kids also seem chunkier than they should be.

    Both white rice and fizzy drinks give a high blood sugar spike. Suggest replace white rice with brown, have sweet potatoes instead of the normal ones and switch to wholemeal pasta. Cut out the fizzy drinks and only have sweets, biscuits, etc as an occasional treat. Otherwise you might need to grease the door frame for her....
    • Like Like x 1
    • Winner Winner x 1
  9. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    I bought my wife one of these and she loves it now after trial and error for a week.



    The rice is always wonderful and doesn't stick to the sides as the older rice cookers always did :like:
    She always uses brown rice bought in 1Kg bags at Lidl.
  10. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    I hope this doesn't come over as being sexist, but it has always seemed to me that the fairer sex seem to put on weight very easily if cakes or cheesecake come into the house. Once the chocolate gateaux is in the fridge, it doesn't seem to last very long before there are just crumbs left....:confused:
    To balance the above, I have the same problem with ice cream - it has always been too tempting for me :confused:
  11. cojo1000
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    cojo1000 Member

    I don’t touch cake or cheesecake now unless it’s low carb. I sometimes make keto ice cream with double cream and cocoa powder which is pretty good. Both the nipper and my wife like it too.
  12. cojo1000
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    cojo1000 Member

    I enjoyed reading that. Thanks.

    An interesting thing about brown rice is it is as full of carbohydrates as white rice. So will deliver levels of sugar in almost equal measure. Surprising but true.

    Other thing Tony. Both of my wife’s sisters who both live in the Philippines are just as big if not bigger than my wife.
  13. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Jasmin rice is supposed to be a sticky rice, I prefer basmati but Jasmin is good for Chinese food and Filipino food, one of the main benefits of it being a sticky rice is that it is easily consumed along with a meat dish using fingers alone which is fairly common in the Philippines.

    I make rice in 140 to 150 gram portions my rice cooker (Tefal) which I bought in 2006 does it perfectly for a batch of 13 to 15 portions, that's 6 cups of basmati, I freeze it all after portioning to plastic bags, takes 2 minutes 30 seconds to heat from frozen and is pretty much perfect.

    Jasmin is known as a fragrant rice that's where you're getting the smell from, basmati also has a distinct smell but I really like it, I actually know it is ready before the yellow light comes on in the cooker by the aroma :)
  14. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    An interesting side note about American rice is that the arsenic content is quite high, most Asian brands are far lower in arsenic, the arsenic problem is ameliorated a little by cooking in excess water i.e. in a pot on a stove as you do and then draining and allowing to dry a bit at the end, when you use a rice cooker all of the water is absorbed by the rice which means that most of the arsenic is still there in the cooked product.

    I only found this out recently when my eldest daughter told me about arsenic in rice, she's a bit of a health nut :)
  15. bigmac
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    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    my wife enjoys eating with her fingers--but always asks me first. i tell her we all eat with our fingers--in macdonalds.

    the only concern is she leaves the cooked rice in the cooker for a day or more. if i see it i fridge it.
  16. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Yes Ana would always ask me as well when I was there, I suffer from misophonia and sometimes but not always the sounds people make when eating drive me insane, but generally I never had a problem with anyone eating with their fingers, there is a certain comfort that they take from it, a link to home and childhood I guess.

    Rice is potentially very dangerous if left in the rice cooker and can cause food poisoning, I would always freeze it as quickly as possible.
    • Informative Informative x 1
  17. Aromulus
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    Aromulus The Don Staff Member

    What, at times, irks me a little is the simple fact that when one is in pinas one shares food that has been out and about for a while and some of it is covered in flies, but as soon as she gets back to the UK, all hell breaks loose if I buy something that has been reduced because short dated.....

    Rice is another thing.......... She knows the danger of leaving rice out but she doesn't practice much what she preaches...

    But I love her to bits......

    I just refuse to eat older rice............. besides I try to avoid it anyway as it bloats me.
  18. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Yeah that's funny Ana was like that when she was here, no amount of explanation would suffice to get her to use anything past or near sell by date.

    And I have suffered food poisoning in the Phils.
  19. bigmac
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    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    this reminds me--i'm cooking a big pot of beef stew today..my wife likes that--lots of root veges and gravy.
  20. Mattecube
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    Mattecube face the sunshine so shadows fall behind you Trusted Member

    Now there is a bring back moment!
    Many years ago while living at home mum would often make a big pan of stew, as it neared the end we would use it as an offle type food for the dog
    One Friday night when I got in feeling peckish, I enjoyed the stew and thanked mum in the morning for leaving it out, she just grinned and asked dad "had he fed the dog this morning with the offle?

    I never discovered if it was a wind up!
    • Funny Funny x 1

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