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Eating My Way Back to Health
By Chef Paul Onishi
 My career in the restaurant business has always afforded me opportunities to sample the best that the culinary world has had to offer. At that time, I took full advantage of every appetizer, entree and dessert set before me! When it came to food, the utmost importance was presentation and most of all taste. I cared very little about my high fat diet and the effects it was having on my body. My mantra was “out of sight, out of mind, and now on to the next gourmet meal.” That was up until my urologist informed me that I was a very likely candidate for prostate cancer.
Finding myself at the crossroads of heeding his warning or taking that next inviting bite of crispy prime rib fat, I gave into my fears of future health problems. I embarked on a very lonely but hopeful journey of redefining my eating habits. I will never forget walking down the isle of a local health food store for the first time. It was like being in a foreign country! Things looked familiar but they the ingredients made me very suspicious. Just from reading the labels I could tell that it was without "substance" namely salt or fat. Being a chef I decided to see if there was a way I could adapt these products to my lifestyle without compromising my health. I found the journey exciting because it challenged my creativity.
Creating and eating healthy became a lifestyle for me but it wasn't long before I was drifting back toward the dining table of compromise. My career took me out of the kitchen and into the classroom with high school students, most of whom cared little for fruits and vegetables. Before I knew it I was "sampling my way back" to the same old lifestyle again.
The first of this year started off for me with a trip to the emergency room of Queen's Hospital for an angiogram and possible angioplasty. I was resigned to going under the knife because I knew all those years of gourmet pleasure might have caught up with me. I decided, much like a repentant sinner asking for another chance, that I would go back to my old ways of eating healthy. When the cardiologist told me that my arteries were completely clear and that I required no medication, I was shocked but even more motivated to stay that way. I began a regular regimen of exercise and prudent eating habits. I have been able to maintain my weight and have renewed energy and feel better overall.
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