Opinion | Breast cancer blog: Big Mac dreams
My appetite has awakened slowly from its slumber. I am finding a seemingly happy medium between the old and new me
Since the surgery, since the sentence, since the reality set in that the diagnosis is breast cancer, my palette has shifted. I used to be a voracious grazer and at times eater - a snackaholic, storing crackers, cookies, chocolates in my desk drawer at work.
That was the old me. The old me, I sometimes reminisce, detested drinking water. I was a Diet Coke girl and loved to swing by the 7-Eleven and pick up M&Ms or Tim Tams. I went through a phase of pineapple buns and milk teas, which almost became my staple breakfast. I went through a stint of ramen noodles for lunch and dinner. I acquired and consumed food without much thought, perhaps taking for granted my health and well-being.
Here in Hong Kong, I thought I ate considerably more healthfully than I had back in meat-and-potatoes country (aka my homeland). I ate mostly Chinese, a lot of veggies, rice, the occasional fatty and sweet Shanghainese dishes (delicacies from my ancestral origins). I thought I ate healthfully (we have a domestic helper who is good enough to open her own café).
Of all the things I loved most about Hong Kong, food was first and foremost. In nearby Causeway Bay, I could easily pick up sweet soy milk, rice and fried noodle balls. I could head to the upper floors of shopping centres such as Times Square and enjoy some of the best foods in the East and West. I was a lucky girl.
Since the surgery, and being told I have a mildly fatty liver too, something shifted, mostly a mindset. I didn’t need any pushing or prodding. I was perhaps scared into my new norm of eating.
When my father – who is in the medical field – recommended eating more apples and bitter melon, I had apple and bitter melons for lunch and dinner.