I’ll go from the end to the beginning, our story first. As the @TurkcaparBariatrics KITCHEN team, we set out and founded this site with the passion of transforming a meal into a unique experience with the small amount of food that patients who have undergone gastric sleeve surgery can fit into their shrunken stomachs. I personally always thought of the small but delicious looking and tasting food sitting in the middle of a large white plate in a gourmet restaurant. In that context, you never expect to be stuffed. The appearance of the food, the detail on it, the effort it puts in, draws you in. That satisfaction can even keep you full, or at least you won’t feel hungry. I read in a study that people only become unaware of what they are eating when they are very drunk, someone who is on a diet can find themselves gorging themselves on carbohydrates, and nearly 20% of vegetarians eat meat. You somehow lose the aura and context of the food, that is, when you are drunk. In fact, people generally know how to eat well, they are much more conscious than in previous years. They try not to use flour, sugar, salt, they are careful not to consume carbohydrates, many food websites have titles like “healthy meals”.

But there are 2 things missing: 1. the importance of the protein amount of the meals, 2. portions. People generally gain weight because they do not think much about these two issues or do not know. They pay attention to the freshness and naturalness of the ingredients they eat, but they do not care that much about the amount of food or the amount of protein they put on their plates. They think that they can eat as much as they want just because it is fresh and natural.

Even though we call it bariatric at first, I can say that the portion size and protein value, which are important for patients, are suitable for every person who wants to eat healthy and should be a priority. That’s why our dietitians İpek and Dilara meticulously calculate the portions and protein amounts of the meals and we put this information at the beginning of the recipe. You don’t have to have had bariatric surgery, if you want to eat healthy and live a healthy lifestyle, you should stick to the portions on our site and make your choice by looking at the protein amounts we specify.

So how do we prepare these recipes?

Our dietitians first prepare everything on paper. Sometimes they take an ordinary recipe and wonder “how can we make it more protein?” (For example: They put a lot of yogurt in the soup as a seasoning, it both provides consistency and increases the amount of protein). Then we try the recipe at home, we take a photo before eating it. Then we eat it, if we like it, we add it to the list. If we, as a team, feel the unique experience I described above, and sometimes our friends we invite home, the recipe gets approval. But this was not the case with the Chia pudding for the first time, it had a delicious picture but no one liked it, neither its taste nor its consistency. Then, while we were talking on WhatsApp as a team in the evening, people slowly started to say, “Is there anyone who likes chia?”, “Do we have to use it?”, “Why do dietitians recommend it?”. We decided that chia is overhyped and that the food industry is disconnecting people from the truth, as the wonderful poet Khalil Gibran said, “Exaggeration is truth lost.” So we decided to write a blog post about it. Do you know the movie Lost in La Mancha? The director wants to make a Don Quixote movie, a lot of problems happen during the shooting, he finally runs out of money and the movie is left unfinished. He makes a documentary out of the remaining footage, as if to say “How could I not shoot Don Quixote?”, it’s quite humorous 🙂 (it’s a great movie, if you’re curious and want to watch it, here’s the trailer) Inspired by the movie Lost in La Mancha, we decided to write a recipe article about how we couldn’t make Chia Pudding, we took a photo of it but it didn’t look like anything. Our dietician İpek also wrote an article about Chia below, if you continue reading and even if you want to try it yourself, there’s the recipe below. Love, Berk Özler (Creative Director) In fact, this food, which the Aztecs and Mayans have used since 1500 BC, is not a new discovery, it has only recently entered our diet. Many healthy nutrition pages and dieticians’ social media accounts have started producing recipes with chia seeds. We tend to rely on such popular products. When it comes to losing weight, the waters stop flowing for many of us. We want to try something we have never tried before or something with a “cool” name. In fact, we, as dieticians, often recommend them, mostly in desserts and puddings. So can you honestly tell me who really finds chia seeds delicious and loves their texture? Have you ever thought that your taste buds may be falling victim to popularity when making recipes that use trendy products? Do recipes that we call healthy have to have different ingredients and be made from relatively higher-cost products? Could all these products actually be marketing marvels? Remember that the food industry and marketers prioritize their own interests first, at this point it is up to consumers to question what is right and wrong, and it is up to us health professionals to inform the public correctly. In short, you do not have to use chia seeds to make a healthy dessert, especially if you do not like the taste. Moreover, since chia is a tasteless grain, many products you add to it for the purpose of sweetening it may increase its calories too much. Fig soda, which has been in our diet for years and is unique to these lands (the recipe is on our website, you can access it here ), may be much more to your liking. Don’t look too far for health and healthy food, don’t be forced to consume tastes you do not like by falling victim to popularity. Health and taste may actually be closer than you think, there is no need to go all the way to South America. Stay healthy and with love. İpek Saroğlu (Dietitian Team Leader)