Just a note

Just an interesting note. My hubby was just put on a low-purine diet and they also suggested he have six small meals a day. Last night, a girlfriend of mine called and said she had just gotten out of the hospital. She was diagnosed with anemia, secondary to other chronic health problems, and told her to go on a high protein diet - and to start eating six small meals a day!

She was in a whirl asking me how she could possibly manage that and work. We worked it out. So if you are thinking about trying this, or have been told by your Doctor to go to six small meals, this is how we figured it would work for both of them.

My hubby eats when he gets up, has "second breakfast" two hours later on his morning break, a small lunch at lunch time, two hours later a small "second lunch", a "real meal" sized dinner right after he gets off work, and a small "second dinner" a couple of hours later (but early enough to not cause him heartburn all night). For him, on low-protein, his "second" meals are raw veggies like baby carrots or cut brocolli, raw fruit such as apples or bananas, and granola bars are a favorite with him, too.

We laugh about "second breakfast", lunch and so on. As you might recall, if you are a big Lord of the Rings fan, hobbits like to eat six times a day also. When they made the movies, in Fellowship of the Ring, Pippin asks Strider when they are stopping for "second breakfast" and he glares at the hobbit. Merry comments, "I don't think he knows about second breakfast." Strider does toss Pippin a nice, fresh looking orange, though. Now, there's a good raw food snack!

My friends situation will be a bit more difficult to work out for us. She is on second shift. We figure she can eat breakfast when she gets up, which is actually around 10 am. Her "big" meal will have to be lunch around noon, then another snack right before she goes to work at 3 pm. She has a short break around 5 or 6 and will have a snack then, a dinner break around 8 pm when she can have another small meal, and then one last break about 10 when she can have another snack. She will have one last small snack right when she gets home from work around midnight. Something that will set well for bed a short time later.

Her doctor has told her to go high-protein to solve her anemia. Actually, often anemics are told to become vegetarian. While there is a lot of iron and protein in red meat, there is also an enzyme that prevents you from digesting much of it. You actually get more good from vegetable proteins such as legumes and green veggies like spinach and brussel sprouts.

However, my friend has other health issues, so I will assume her Doctor has good reasons to tell her to eat lots and lots of meat. LOL. Besides, she doesn't like spinach. After some discussion, we figured that cheese is a good high protein snack that she can take to work. I'm sure we'll find other foods that will work for her, too.

Six small meals a day is not for everyone. I gained five pounds in two weeks trying to do it with my hubby. Our schedules are actually very different, so I just share the one larger dinner meal with him at the table now and eat a very light breakfast when I get up and light dinner of my own several hours after dinner with hubby.

I think the one thing you would really need to watch for is not starting to eat non-stop with all those snacks around (probably worse for those of us who work from home...and have those snack filled fridge's sitting around tempting us all day).

Good eating!