In here I’m going to write about my take on the Fridge Love author’s stance.

The fact is it appears people who *need to* lose weight have been successful in doing this using the Nutritarian Diet. On this strict diet you limit your salt intake to 1,000 mg per day. You cut out using any oil–even don’t use olive oil.

Limiting sodium to 1,000 mg per day sounds OK. Though I take with a grain of salt the author’s advice about “meal-prepping” for hours on a Sunday everything you’re going to eat in the coming week.

Doesn’t chilling out sound better than overworking yourself over the stove in your limited free weekend time. I’d like to talk about “workarounds” for those of us with a low energy level or who are otherwise unable to make our own soup from scratch every week.

The canned soup I buy has salt and sometimes cane sugar. I use the Amy’s Organic varieties that are free of safflower or sunflower oil: split-pea, low-in-sodium lentil, tomato bisque, quinoa red lentil and kale, French country vegetable, and porcini mushroom.

The other Amy’s soups list safflower or sunflower oil as an ingredient. Those are unhealthy fats. Dr. Frank Lipman, MD in his book How to be Healthy advises readers to steer clear of these oils as well as to not use corn, canola oil, cottonseed, and vegetable oil too.

Sadly, the Amy’s Organic Soups used to cost $3.29. They are now $4.99 each. Still a “time savings”: when you don’t have the energy to make your own soup.

As a one-person household I spend 30 minutes each evening cooking dinner for 5 days a week. Some of us have the energy and love cooking elaborate recipes with 8 or more ingredients. I dare submit that this is not real-life for most of us.

The Fridge Love author to her credit cites mushrooms as a super food. For years now I’ve scrambled organic shitake mushrooms with organic eggs for breakfast. She is against using eggs.

Eight ounces of tofu has 18 grams of protein–more than two eggs. I’ll give you here the one Fridge Love recipe soon that I’ll be using: Tofu Eggs. It requires only three or so ingredients.

Sadly too, it’s hard to qualify for SNAP benefits or food stamps when your income is too high. I recommend using a food pantry. Even though a person might be too proud to want to do this it’s worth considering.

Lastly: I’ll end here with a sage idea: “Take what works and leave the rest” when another person–even a so-called expert–gives you advice.

I accept that I can’t adhere to the nutritarian diet. (I’m Italian–I’m going to have a pastry once or twice a month!)

What I have done is reorganize my fridge and freezer according to Kristen Hong’s guidelines as to where to store food items inside. I’m also buying the Anchor Hocking glass True Seal containers to store food in.

My New Year’s resolution is to focus on health. Coming up a few new recipes that are easy to make.