Great diet and anytime drink

I have been looking for a low cal drink that I might enjoy instead of the tea POW's drank.  I was checking around and learned they were given several types of liquid drinks other than tea.  One drink I had never heard of, was Roasted Barley Tea ("RBT").

This I learned is a popular drink in Japan and Korea.  By chance I know someone of Korean ancestry and they were able to direct me to a Korean grocery store.  There I was able to purchase RBT in both tea bags and in bulk.  Surprisingly this was very inexpensive as 15 tea bags (large) each making 2 liters of tea was only $2.49.

I was first tempted to roast some of the barley I had on hand.  Better sense told me to buy it pre-roasted, bagged and ready to make since I did not know what I was doing.  I boiled 2 liters and threw in one bag and let it steep for 10 minutes as the package said.  It seemed weak to me, so I let it steep over night.  Next mourning the tea was noticeably darker and the kitchen smelled like I was roasting nuts. Yum.

Barley beta-glucan soluble fiber lowers cholesterol and reduces risk for coronary heart disease

Since Barley was a key item POWs consumed, I have included it in my meal plan. Barley is one of grains I have on my pantry shelf for the occasional recipe that requires it.  I found the following web pages on Barley helpful and informative.
Barley lowers cholesterol and reduces risk for coronary heart disease
Barley - all about

Hmmm.  Perhaps there was something more going on with feeding the POWs barley than I first thought.  Was feeding barley as part of their diet something that the Japanese knew was good for them?  Odd that it has taken 65 years for the FDA to "catch up" on this revelation.

Eliminating fattening foods from meals

I've been working on checking the labels on foods and getting ideas for food to select for the plan.  One thing I must decide like us all, is what do you do with all the fattening foods I have now and love.

Do you trash them?  Eat them as a way of saying goodbye and fond memories? Hope that someone else in the house will eat them and pretend that they are not there?

Clearing out that fridge and the freezer is another mine field. Do I really WANT to stop eating all this? That answer is no. What I want is to better use the foods I have and use them to my advantage.

Eating low or no fat

After looking over the food list and doing some internet surfing, it is clear that the POW meals were almost fat free. Since meat and diary items were limited and/or scare there was little to supply fat in the diet. By tradition, Japanese meals are lower in fat. Trying to wean myself away from food I like and reducing portions is going to be tough.

I'll search my pantry and the grocery store and see what items I can include that will help achieve an ultra-low fat diet. I'm looking for items that will fit into this plan, some will of course not be true POW foods.  Nutritional attention is important as I am not into getting sick. Beriberi was a real life threating ailment for POWs brought on by lack of the vitamin thiamine from their poor meals. An interesting book on Beriberi can be read HERE. Other diseases such as dysentery and Pellagra affected them.

I'm also looking into how the GI's that were repatriated were treated.
Interesting reading on potatoes here.