Your kids will love this dairy-free alternative to ranch dressing from Food with Rachel.
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove minced garlic
2 tsp lemon juice
3 TBSP water
1 tsp chopped fresh basil or 1/2 tsp dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Keeps for one week refrigerated.
There have been a few times in my life where something made such sense or touched me so deeply, that I incorporated it into my life immediately. In December, my husband and I visited Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, where food is medicine and much more. Founder Gabriel Cousens, MD is known for his remarkable program to reverse diabetes, documented in the film Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days.
Dr. Cousens theorizes that the overgrowth of microorganisms and the toxins they create push our body’s “compost button.” We begin to break down, leading to debility and disease. Animal flesh, dairy products, stored foods such as wheat and oats, sugars, and processed foods introduce and feed undesirable microorganisms. This theory has come into greater acceptance now, with most gastroenterologists now recommending probiotics to drive out unwanted microorganisms. If you still doubt this, just think how often how often tainted meat, dairy and even spinach and almonds fertilized with sewage sludge make the news.
To turn off the composting program, Dr. Cousens recommends a nutrient-dense, low-calorie, high-enzyme diet of vegetables, sea vegetables, nuts and seeds, raw or heated to no more than 115 degrees F. He avoids cooked food because nutrients and enzymes that prevent composting are lost. He recommends fresh organic food because for many reasons, conventional produce is devitalized to the point where it supports “composting.” Members of the Tree of Life community tested what he now calls Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine. Within three months, symptoms disappeared while energy and mental clarity returned.
I’ve been curious about the raw lifestyle for a while but found the food either boring, too sweet or impractical for the home cook. What we found at Tree of Life was a delicious, simple way to eat that felt great.
The basis for day-to-day eating is an extraordinary salad and a pate. Imagine fresh spinach, arugula, lettuces, dandelion and other leafy greens with bell pepper, avocado, sea vegetables and fresh herbs. The dressing is a nutrient rich, creamy and flavorful part of the meal, rather than a condiment with little nutritional value. The pate, a creative mix of nuts, seeds, vegetables and seasonings, gives the meal staying power. Dr. Cousen’s also offers exceptionally tasty entrees from many world cuisines. Except for crackers and bread, these recipes require at most one to two hours of dehydrating at 145 degrees F, the low setting of an oven, if they need it at all.
Dr. Cousens has adapted the Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine to all constitutional types, even ones most systems say should eat meat. Considering the future of our planet, it doesn’t make sense for us to be eating meat as we do, even if it were produced in a healthy way. It requires huge amounts of fuel, water and other resources. Dr. Cousens’ Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine offers a way of eating that can heal us and our planet.
My first experience with the smoothie was part of a diet that promised better health by eating only fruit until lunch time. What a disaster! My blood sugar swung from high to low and my dysbiotic bowel went wild. That was the last time a smoothie crossed my lips on an empty stomach, until now. I’ve taken the smoothie to a whole new level. The New Smoothie is a quick and easy nutrition delivery vehicle.
The New Smoothie has 3 elements: liquid base, protein staying power, good-for-you thickeners and tasty phytonutrients. Simply choose at least one item from each category, blend and enjoy. Amounts are approximate. Use an amount that tastes good to you.
Liquid Base(1/2 cup total)
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Protein Staying Power
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Good for YouThickeners |
Tasty Phytonutrients
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Now, let’s turn the smoothie further on its head. This recipe comes from my friend Roger. He juice fasts one day every week and breaks the fast with this soup, or is it a smoothie? You decide. Whatever you call it, it’s a tasty way to work towards the six fist-sized servings of vegetables I recommend daily.
1 cup water or kombucha
Juice of ½ lemon
2 cucumbers, chopped
2 cloves garlic
Cayenne pepper or fresh hot pepper to taste
1 ½ - 2 avocados
Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Add parsley and fresh herbs for another tasty variation. Serves 4
Here’s another great way to get your vegetables.
1 ripe avocado
6-inch piece cucumber
1 cup fresh spinach
1 cup fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon wheat grass powder or other green poweder
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
2 cups purified water
½ teaspoon sea salt or juice of ½ lemon or lime
Put all ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. Thin as needed with water. Serves 1 – 2.
“Is soy okay to eat?” This is one of the most common questions patients ask me. Soy is widely promoted and widely damned. So what’s the story? Here’s what I’ve concluded.
Most soy sold in the US is genetically modified (GM). The European Union does not permit GM foods to be grown or sold in their countries because studies showed damage in most every organ in animals fed GM foods. The longest studies human studies of the effect of GM foods lasted only 90 days and were performed by the GM industry. The industry has fought scientists wanting to conduct longer-term independent studies. The ones that have been done have not been favorable.
The most common GM foods are soy, corn, Hawaiian papaya, sugar cane, sugar beets, wheat, rice and milk containing recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). GM foods are not labeled in the United States, so if it’s not organic, consider it GM. Yet organic is not a fail-safe. Eating organic will lower but may not eliminate your exposure to GM foods as GM seeds easily spread by wind and wildlife.
Most soy consumed in the US is in the form of soy derivatives, such as soy protein isolates and texturized vegetable protein. This is no different that eating white flour or high fructose corn syrup. These soy derivatives are everywhere in packaged, processed and fast foods. Many vegetarians replace meat with soy derivatives such as veggie burgers, sausages and protein powders. Case reports exist of hormone imbalances in people whose primary protein source is processed soy.
Some raise concerns about anti-nutrients in soy which block the absorption of minerals and other nutrients. Some say this does not appear to be a problem in a diverse minimally processed diet. If this truly is an issue, Asian cultures have gotten around this by eating fermented soy which reduces these anti-nutients. Examples of fermented soy include miso, tempeh, nama shoyu, a fermented soy sauce, and natto. Sea vegetables and sea creatures are a mineral rich part of the traditional Asian diet which would provide additional minerals over and above those blocked by soy.
What about hormones in soy? The estrogen-like compounds called isoflavones in soy are weak. As part of a diverse, minimally processed diet, this does not appear to be a concern. Asian cultures have been eating soy for millennia without feminization of their men. Weak estrogens from plants appear to block stronger estrogens providing an anti-cancer effect.
Soy clearly has elements of pharmaceutical interest such as isoflavones. Can we get these from eating soy foods? It depends. These isoflavones are available from tempeh, a fermented soy product, not from texturized vegetable protein, and to a small degree from soy milk.
So what is the best way to enjoy soy? As part of a diverse, minimally processed diet, favoring fermented soy such as miso, tempeh, nama shoyu and natto, and avoiding soy derivatives. Eat only organic soy.
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One of my passions is the pursuit of health. I practice medicine and write this column to share this passion with you. Just as our food choices impact our personal, community and planetary health, how you get to the place where you make these choices--the grocery store or farmers market, can impact these three areas of health, too. Which leads to another passion of mine, transportation cycling.
In the US, most of bicycle for sport, fitness or recreation, not as a means of transportation. US bicycles are built for sport. Notice how cyclists dress like Lance Armstrong. Yet, do you ever see anyone dress like Danica Patrick or Kyle Busch to drive their car? That’s the point. Most of us drive our cars to get places, but rarely consider riding a bike. And why would we? Most of us aren’t comfortable on a typical US bike. Leaning forward isn’t easy for most of us over 40, let alone bearing your body weight on your crotch.
It doesn’t have to be this way. In places like the Netherlands bicycles are designed for transport. Called Dutch Bikes, they are designed for a comfortable smooth ride in street clothes with room to carry parcels while keeping the rider clean. The bike is ridden upright, Mary Poppins-style, with your weight on your sits bones, not on your tender parts up front. Bags called panniers and sturdy baskets hold whatever you need to carry. The chain, brakes and gear shifter are enclosed. This along with fenders keep you clean in all kinds of weather.
I couldn’t find this kind of bike in Kansas City, so my Velorbis Dannebrog arrived in August from Denmark, via My Dutch Bike of San Francisco. My 50th birthday present, I call it my mid-life cri-cycle. It’s a beauty, bright red, and the most comfortable bike I’ve ever ridden. It leaves simply no excuse in my mind for not riding a bike, as long as you have two legs that move. I ride four miles each way to work, dressed in my work clothes, along a lovely back street route between my home in Brookside and my office in Prairie Village. I carry my briefcase on the rear rack and my lunch on the hook along side the rear rack. The front basket, when it arrives, will hold up to 35 pounds of cargo. My spandex bike shorts haven’t seen the light of day since my Velorbis arrived.
I’m finally getting an amount of exercise that makes me feel good. My husband notices the spring in my step and smile on my face. I’ve lost some inches if not a few pounds.
I look forward to the day when bike shops everywhere will offer these bicycles. Now that I have the right bike, I easily choose my Velorbis over my car for short trips to places like the Brookside Farmers Market and my local Hy-Vee. By encouraging transportation cycling, Kansas City can easily reach its goal of becoming a Platinum Level Bicycle Friendly Community and shed its reputation as one of the fattest cities in the nation. What a great thing to do for our personal, community and planetary health!
Right Fats, Right Oils
Gone are the times when eating healthy meant “low-fat” or “fat-free.” That was throwing out the baby with the bath water. The right fats are essential for balanced hormones, stable mood and behavior, healthy skin and heart, keeping inflammation at bay and more. It’s a good idea to get your fats from whole food sources such as raw nuts and seeds, avocado, eggs, safer fish, grass fed poultry and meats. Yet, most of us still cook with oil. So what kind oil is best for cooking?
I recommend coconut oil, grapeseed oil and ghee for sauteing and baking. Coconut oil, grapeseed oil and ghee tolerate high heat without burning or becoming rancid, unlike other oils.Ghee is pure butter fat, made by boiling butter until the milk solids settle out. Coconut oil is rich in anti-inflammatory fatty acids, but lends a sweet taste that may or may not be desirable. Grapeseed oil is rich in antioxidants and has a mild nutty flavor that you won’t taste in baked goods. Ghee is an excellent replacement for butter when sauteing. Baking recipes will need to be adjusted for it, however. Avoid coconut and grapeseed oils that are heat or solvent extracted. The label should say extra virgin, or expeller-pressed.
So what about olive oil? All my 1980’s cookbooks use extra virgin olive oil for sauteing. We now know that extra virgin olive oil loses it nutritional value and becomes rancid when heated even slightly. So, use it straight out of the bottle in salad dressing, for dipping bread, and drizzled over foods for flavor. “Cold pressed, extra virgin” increases the likelihood that the oil is rich in antioxidants and that the fatty acids are not rancid. It should come in a dark bottle to prevent light from damaging it.
A friend from France makes this simple, wonderful aioli. Some define aioli as a garlic mayonnaise, which doesn’t do it justice. Aioli has nothing to do with and is far more elegant than Hellmann’s or Miracle Whip. After chopping two heads of garlic and placing them in a mortar, he slowly added oil and salt as he ground the garlic with the pestle. We drizzled the emulsion over oven roasted fingerling potatoes sprinkled with cayenne pepper. Easy and so delicious!
I’m glad Trader Joe’s finally made it to Kansas City, but I won’t be shopping there. Trader Joe’s is step forward people who still eat packaged, processed food--out of a bag or box, ready- to-eat or heat-and-eat. Those seeking the best possible health like me, prepare food from scratch, with real fresh ingredients, just as you would find on the plant or the animal with minimal to no processing.
Kelly Hayford, in her book If It’s Not Food…Don’t Eat It suggests switching from processed, prepared foods to natural foods, but only 20% of your food intake at a time, that is, small steps. She also suggests switching from national brand processed, packaged food to health food store versions, then finally to making it yourself from raw ingredients. Trader Joes supports the middle step of Kelly’s approach. It’s a point you pass through on your way to eating healthy. Learn more about Kelly at www.FoodFitnessByPhone.com. She’s spot on!
So where do I shop? If you read Food Conscious each month, you know I sing the praises of CSAs and our local organic farmers markets. I’m grateful for Kansas City’s health food stores and grocers with decent natural foods departments, like Hy-vee. I shop Asian markets for sea vegetables in quantity at a lower price than health food stores. I buy online, too, primarily for nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and smoothie powders like carob and mesquite. I find the nuts and seeds in the bulk bins go rancid very quickly and there are great quantity discounts on the web.
RawGuru - www.rawguru.com.: Rawguru is my source for high quality, unpasteurized, truly raw nuts. Did you know that US grown almonds must be pasteurized before sale or that most cashews are steamed or cooked to remove the shells? I think this explains why most nuts in local health food stores taste rancid to me. Pasteurization, steaming and cooking eliminates beneficial enzymes, too. I buy goji berries, goldenberries and mulberries in bulk from Rawguru for a better deal than the eight ounce packages sold locally. When they have nut butters, they offer them for a great price.
Living Tree Community Foods – www.livingtreecommunity.com: Raw nut butters, like sesame tahini, are notoriously expensive at Kansas City’s local health food stores. Living Tree Community makes raw sesame tahini for 1/3 to 1/2 less. I buy by the case. They also sell wonderfully moist dates, raisins and dried cherries. Their almonds are pasteurized and they are very clear about it, where others aren’t. I respect them for this.
Nuts Online – www.nutsonline.com: If I can’t find it at RawGuru or Living Tree Community Foods, I shop here. They often have fresh, tasty pine nuts when the others don’t.
Thank goodness for Trader Joes, but keep moving forward on your journey to health.
I turned 50 in May. I marked the half century mark in a number of ways. Last month, I told you about my colonoscopy. If you've been afraid to go through it, don't be. The preps are easier than ever. It was a complete non-event.
I continued to celebrate my 50th year by checking heart disease markers which revealed a ticking time bomg. I have a high lipoprotein (a), often abbreviated as lp(a). Elevated lp(a) increases the risk of death from cardiovascular disease two to three times. I check it along with other heart disease markers in patients with a family history of heart disease.
Lp(a) is thought to be genetic adaptation to survive scurvy. When vitamin C levels are low, membranes, such as gums and blood vessels cannot repair themselves. We call this scurvy. People with high lp(a) survived scurvy because lp(a) plugged the leaks in their blood vessel walls. Nowadays, high lp(a) sets you up for hardening of the arteries, heart attack and stroke.
Interestingly, lp(a) is found only in animals without the ability to produce their own vitamin C. Humans evolved in the tropics eating an abundance of vitamin C rich fruits and vegetables. We lost the ability to produce vitamin C on our own, a genetic "if you don't use, it you lose it" situation.
A supplement called Bolouke, lowers lipoprotein (a). It's expensive and as soon as one stops it, the levels go right up. I've been researching alternatives. The late two-time nobel prize winning scientist Linus Pauling attributed hardening of the arteries to chronic scurvy, that is low grade vitamin C deficiency. He proposed higher doses than US government recommendations to reverse hardening of the arteries. It is thought that adequate vitamin C levels will also reduce lp(a). Vitamin C is inexpensive, compared to Bolouke and other protocols recommended by more alternative minded cardiologists.
Vitamin Research Products has put together a nice article for the lay reader on vitamin C and hardening of the arteries. You'll find Dr. Pauling's protocol in the article.
I will be happy to check your lp(a). Just let me know at your next visit. Stay tuned. The journey to diffuse the ticking time bomb continues.
