A big problem with fried fish, is not just the oil but the batter. it's loaded with carbs and it soaks up the fat.
husband cooks fish for me (or I cook it myself) by using a non-stick pan and a thin smear of butter (which is fabulous for flavour, you really don't need the fish sitting in a puddle of it). Cook the skin side down first, leave it there until you see the fish go opaque for more than half its thickness, then turn it over. Serve it straight onto a plate and eat immediately - better than anything else. Not only is it easier (no fussing about batter or crumbs) but it tastes better, plus it's healthiest.
Or if you really want no-fat 9with only slightly more fuss) you can make fish parcels. I get a square of aluminium foil, put some slices of fresh ginger root in the foil, a couple of thin slices of onion, put the fish in the parcel, splash in a teaspoon of teriyaki sauce, drop on a couple more slices of ginger and onion, fold up the parcel carefully so it won't leak, then bake in the oven (or on a barbecue) until the fish is cooked. If you need to open the parcel to check, do it carefully to void a steam burn. Again, tastes fabulous, is very healthy and it's easy. It takes less watching than cooking in a pan and I use the free time to make a quick salad.
Janet, I sympathise about the weight and medical conditions adding to the problems. All you can do is the best you can do; don't beat yourself up over what you CAN'T change.
And poverty food - it's known to make it much harder to keep your weight down, because carbs and ft are cheap calories. If you look around at the fast food available to you in your area, and analyse it - you will find the unhealthiest is also the cheapest, as a rule. Even the more expensive though, is often still not good for you. It might be OK for young adults who are fit and active enough to burn off the extra calories, but for those of us who can't exercise, or who are on medications which make us hungry or pile on fluid, fast food of any kind is a nasty trap. Similarly, the sort of food we can afford, is likely to have lots of hidden fat & carbs in it, simple carbs too and not the healthier wholegrain ones.
We are surrounded by easy calories in a world where we don't have to go out and dig for it or hunt for it. We have more calories within our collective reach than we can safely consume, while half the world starves. The expectation of wide choice range means our western countries produce more food than we can consume, with the associated environmental/energy costs of the production, the transport, the waste disposal issues.
I guess that's one more reason while I'm trying to grow asmuch of our own food as possible. I'm still working on that one...
But I do find that as I diet, I get more obsessed with food and often end up cooking too much to feed other people.
So maybe in my own way, my diet is adding to the world problem!
Gotta watch out for that one...
Marg
