Delicious, Low Heat, Slowly Cooked, Warm Veggies Can Easily Control Hunger

He was a 39-year old 240->219->235 pound man who was a 2 pack per day smoker and who also drank a "pot of coffee" a day. He considered his dietary "downfall" to be meats and cheeses. When he returned in follow-up, he had quit smoking, reduced his coffee to 1 cup per day, but in the process had gained 5 pounds up to his now 240. Because of his success in stopping smoking, I forgave his $20 copay.

I would like to say to overweight people don't overeat and do increase your exercise, etc., but most people who are overweight are going to continue to overeat, at least for a while. If overweight people were good at making decisions about food, they wouldn't be overweight. I believe that to lose weight, one needs to literally displace all the other foods that are causing the weight gain. I wanted him, and you, to trade in the high calorie foods for what I believe to be, in essence, no calorie foods: cooked vegetables - not including potatoes or sweet potatoes, nor the other night shades: Eggplant, zucchini, spinach, and peppers. If you are going to overeat, the correct idea is to stuff yourself with foods that are delicious, healthy, filling, yet low in calories = delicious slow cooked vegetables and vegetable soups so that there is no room for the higher calorie foods. I want you to eat slowly cooked soft warm - not hot or cool - vegetables in massive quantities. Slow cooking with a low heat is the key, and so doing gives things a wonderful texture as well as a remarkably enhanced taste! You won't believe how delicious these slowly and low heat cooked vegetables are until you have tried them. You won't be hungry if you do this all day long - and you can! How to cook the correct vegetables and how to make them easily and tasty!! Start with organic vegetables. As an example of how to cook any vegetable, let's discuss a difficult one: Cooking a whole head of cauliflower.

Put a ½ inch of water into a large pot, put the lid on, and bring the water quickly to a boil.
Wash the vegetables, then put the uncut (saves a lot of time) vegetable such as a whole head of cauliflower into the pot, put the lid back on, and turn the heat to the lowest click-stop.
Periodically try to insert a fork all the way through. If you hit any hard spot, it's not cooked adequately - yet. Keep cooking - usually about 30-45 minutes on low heat - until it is soft all the way through, but not "dead" looking.
I've used cauliflower as the example, but this is also exactly how to cook your brussels sprouts, broccoli, onions, cabbage, carrots, kale, collards, or winter squash, etc.!
The cooking time, till soft, will vary so use your fork periodically to test for softness.

To summarize: Cooked vegetables, vegetable soups and beans - that's it. See below regarding fruit. These guidelines are clear, can, and have been followed by thousands of my patients. The reason I recommend cooked vegetables and beans only is the vast majority of overweight people are not good at making decisions about food portions in the first place. So, rather than recommend 3 ounces of this, 6 ounces of that, ½ a slice of this, or a cup of that, keep it simple. Remember "KISS" = Keep It Simple, Stupid - just cooked vegetables and beans. You can have as much as you want of the cooked vegetables + 4 ounces of cooked beans a day if you are a woman and up to 6 ounces of beans a day if you are a very muscular man. You may also have any berry slow-cooked for about 20 minutes in one inch of a sweet juice using the lowest click-stop heat. H. Robert Silverstein, MD Hartford, CT

Here is a printable version (pdf) of Slow Cooked, Warm Veggies Can Easily Control Hunger.