Well, I’ve taken the easy way out. If you haven’t heard yet, I’m now a food and nutrition blogger for WebMD – yay! The easy way out? I have to write a weekly post to their new blog called, “Real Life Nutrition: A Fresh Take on “Good for You”.” So, as soon as the post is up, I will feature the beginning of the article with a link to the blog site for the remainder of the article. I hope you like it – my posts are all from the “guyatitian’s” perspective. Hit me up in the comments – I’d really like to know what you think. Enjoy!
Why do I refer to myself as the Guyatitian? For starters, I’m a male in the predominately female profession of dietetics who’s also outflanked at home by estrogen from my wife, three daughters, two female cats and two female dogs. But when it comes to eating, I’m just a regular guy. I enjoy all sorts of foods but don’t always make choices based on whether a food is “good” for me or not. Admittedly, for me, taste and satisfaction trumps nutrition.
Over the years, I’ve found that my food philosophy is not that different from other guys. So when it comes to approaching guys about changing their eating habits for health’s sake, not surprisingly, they are the most challenging.
Guys aren’t always driven to make lifestyle changes simply based on a diagnosis or a set of bad lab tests. Unless there is compromised physical, mental or sexual performance at stake, most guys won’t budge on their daily routine. If there is the slightest hint of deprivation or feeling that they’re being sentenced to lifelong dietary boredom, any hopes of adopting healthy habits will come crashing down like a house of cards.
Salient advice for the caretakers of men. Taste and satisfaction must come first.
Don’t come out of the gate with “Honey, try this…it’s good for you!” That’s certain death for any hope of change. I find the easiest thing to do is to start with dishes guys like and make simple and delicious, yet meaningful, modifications.
- Swap out/reduce saturated fats like butter for healthier fats such as olive, canola, or soy oil, avocado and nut butters
- Swap out fatty meats for lean cuts of beef, turkey, chicken or vegetarian meat substitutes, beans or mushrooms.
- Overload his plate with lots of salad, veggies, and fruit and make traditional center-of-the-plate items side dishes. For a visual of his, check out the MyPlate icon at www.MyPlate.gov .
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David Grotto's Nutrition Housecall 
Big congrats Dave!! I am looking forward to reading your features on WebMD…any chance you’ll have some “Talk like a Pirate” posts?!?
Best,
Gina P
Thanks, Gina! Hmmmm…what would a pirate eat? That might be fodder for a future post – thanks!! You are officially my ‘nutrition wench’! 🙂
Dave
Great advice David!
Guys have trouble with “diets” because they’re deprived. However, if they learned HOW to cook, not just WHAT to cook, they can take advantage of the tips you’ve given here.
If your Mom or Grandma didn’t teach you to cook, you’re unfortunately left to recipe books and celebrity chefs on TV. The problem is neither of these actually teach you HOW to cook.
The Food Network is the MTV of Food. MTV used to play music, now they’re entertainment ABOUT music. The Food Network is entertainment ABOUT food, they don’t teach anyone to cook.
Neither will you learn how to cook from a book. Written recipes won’t teach you to cook any more than having sheet music will teach you to play piano. There are too many variables in recipes that always lead to frustration.
The best way to free yourself from recipes and cook like a chef at home is to examine the basic cooking methods. When you learn HOW to saute, broil, grill, roast, then you can create your own recipes from what you have on hand.
Knowing HOW to cook anything is a skill that will save you time, money at the grocery store, improve your health, reunite your family over dinner, eat a greater variety of foods, and have this skill for the rest of your life.
I posted your article to my FB followers. Nice job!
Chef Todd Mohr
WebCookingClasses.com