The Opportunistic Bear Diet is Turning Way More Plant-Based than I Thought

Omnivores but mainly very frugal gastronomes

Once my life started revolving around food, it was clear that food meant meaning.

I explain.

I’ve never really cared for fast food or food trends. I didn’t jump on the bagel craze of early 2010 and surely didn’t realise what cruffins were until they went out of fashion.

Don’t even let me start with macarons: I never cared.

Food is a search for an inner meaning. This is why I am much more interested in old-fashioned food (let’s not call it traditional this time) than innovation. I find more pleasure in reading a Babylonian recipe book written in cuneiform on clay than a journalist who goes on forever about the latest Bottura’s four-hand dinner.

Like any of you, I live in this world, but like many of you, my interests are selective, obsessive, and impervious to any external influence.

That’s why, when I look at my journey into gastronomy, I see an eclectic, obsessive, and yet dispersive individual. I have an everlasting love for polenta with mushrooms, pasta al pomodoro, pizza with veggies, and bread in any shape or form.

I have also had flings with Sefardi and Russian and German cuisine. I have long-lasting catch-and-release relationships with Lebanese, Chinese, and Thai cuisine. I fondly remember East African cuisine and have a newfound love for Indian cooking.

I have a deep or shallow relationship with certain dishes.

On alternate days, I could live off pizza and bread topped with babaganoush and hummus. I am also sure I would not cry if I could never eat Beurre Blanc sauce or bisque again.

But without any doubt, if I had to track my eating habits and my pleasure since childhood, I would have to admit that I always experienced more and more happiness in vegetable dishes.

I do not buy meat at home; I only see dairy sparingly.

Milk enters the house just in case of purée —that happens solely when Ratte potatoes are available and my better half is in the mood for cooking. If it were for me, I’d blend them into oblivion with my Thermomix.

I'd instead stick to masked potatoes. Or, even better, steamed and then pan-fried or roasted.

Eggs—I never liked them, safe for being cake ingredients. When I was living alone, I hardly ever had eggs in the fridge outside baking a cake, and more than once, I remember throwing away a several months-old package with eggs inside that I did not use after the occasional baking.

Eggs became an acquired taste for me after I met my better half, who loves eggs. I started appreciating things like Shakshouka but could eat it without the egg with the same pleasure.

Fish is expensive, and frankly, I would always prefer a nice date outside the house to enjoy a beautiful seabass, an octopus, or clams—with none of the fuss required, from arguing with the fishmonger to schlepping the fish home to preparing it.

However, the more I read and educate myself about overfishing microplastics, and heavy metals, the less fish and seafood seem delicious. I recently read a study about the empathy of octopuses, and I wonder.

I only started eating fish as a teenager and seafood as an adult. I do not have “primal memories” of these flavours and could have done without them.

I am sluggish - yet this laziness vanishes when I can sautee, wok, steam, or roast some vegetables and then eat them.

A scoop of lentils, perhaps prepared as Dal or Moroccan style, or some roasted chickpeas or stewed beans.

Maybe some diced tofu - if I’m alone, as he does not like tofu and does not like it.

That, some vegetable soup, and the meal are ready.

Counting that breakfast is, more often than not, some bread with nut butter and a dollop of puréed fruit with some coffee and vegetable milk, or some müsli, you get the picture.

My home life is frugal compared to the luxury and hedonism of some of my restaurant outings.

The more the restaurant scene skews towards fine dining, the less interest I have in it. Personally speaking.

There’s hardly ever wine at home outside the wine cellar; if there’s beer, it’s because it’s summer and the beer is alcohol-free. In the last four years, I drank a lot of wine - more than ever in my life - and I got extremely tired of it. I got tired of feeling exhausted after more than one glass, so that is where I am drawing my line.

I hate feeling tired.

Then, I started reading articles and the newest research that put the role of alcohol in our well-being into place: spoiler alert, there is no place for alcohol in our bodies.

With this knowledge, I started feeling less appreciative of alcohol, even natural wines. It is curious how it is all in our minds, right?

Now that I have “unlocked knowledge,” I cannot put it back into a box and ignore it. I know the damage alcohol does to my body, so I cannot pretend it is all fine and enjoy that anymore.

Sad, but perfectly understandable.

Once, I saw a documentary in which Alex Honnold, the El Capitan solo climber, talked about his diet. He described it as an almost Mormon diet of nuts, vegetables, and fruits.

That perfectly fits my domestic lifestyle.

When I go out, I, a gastronomer, never used to refuse a plate. I used to eat everything - safe for durian, pigeon, and a strange sausage that tastes like a pig’s butt that I once ate.

Yuck.

My dietary preferences have become increasingly plant-based over time, and I am sure that the more I read and study, the more likely I will eat only plant-based foods.

I’ll probably still have some rare concessions for the time being.

When I live in Portugal, it is almost impossible to refuse to eat fish—especially the marvellous ikejime-caught ones, the Azorean fish, and some seafood that is not in danger. There are microplastics, mercury, and other heavy metals, but I can take it once a week, perhaps, and just for the months I spend on the Atlantic.

The less meat, dairy, and eggs I eat, and the more I read about a plant-only diet, the less I like the taste and the less I will eat meat and animal products. The idea of ingesting cholesterol and those proteins makes meat, cheese, and eggs unappealing. The idea that my lifestyle is contributing to climate change makes me feel guilty beyond measure.

And the endless possibilities opened up by learning more about plant-based cuisine feel like a thrilling adventure.

Dr Shireen Kassam

writes:

When it comes to ‘adding years to life and life to years’ (in the words of Dr David Katz), dietary factors are key. We know that diets associated with both healthspan and lifespan are ones that is fibre-rich, prioritises plant sources of protein over animal sources (beans, lentils, pulses, nuts, seeds, soya), minimises/avoids ultra processed foods, especially processes meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, cakes/pastries/fried foods, and minimises/avoids red/processed meat. This is otherwise known as a plant-predominant, plant-rich, plant-forward or plant-based diet (so many names!). There are several ways of composing such as diet that can include cultural and traditional norms.

Review of the plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine news January 2025