No More Burgers for Bill

Hard to believe, I know, but it turns out that even Bill Clinton has decided to get off the meat and dairy train and focus on a plant-based diet.  Keenly aware of his own mortality after having a stent implanted, and looking forward to his daughter’s wedding and hopefully grandchildren, Bill Clinton vowed to slim down and improve his heart health. He adopted the essentially vegan diet advocated in the book The China Study.  The book, written by  T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II, looks at the results of the China Study, a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine.  The study showed that people with a diet of largely animal-based foods have more chronic disease, while those eating primarily a  plant-based diet are the healthiest.

Tara Parker-Pope wrote about The China Study in her January 7^th column in the New York Times.http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/nutrition-advice-from-the-china-study/?src=me&ref=health

Like Bill, I too want to live a long healthy life, not only because I have a beautiful two year old grand child whose life I want to be a part of , but because I want to live a long and vigorous life.  Switching to a plant based diet may seem hard, but it’s actually liberating.  Cooking has never been more fun. There are worlds of cuisine to explore and many, many wonderful cookbooks and websites to consult.  Plus to lose weight and keep fit, you don’t have to count calories or focus on portion size or what you can’t eat etc.  Just cook and eat unprocessed real whole foods!  Your tastes will change in matter of weeks.    Plus, kitchen clean up is a breeze!  No more  scrubbing the disgusting burnt on remains of cooked animal parts from your pots, pants and oven. No more disgusting odors in your kitchen, or in your garbage…

Tara Parker-Pope interviewed Dr. Campbell.  Here’s a portion, but check out the whole interview by accessing the article in The New York Times by clicking the link above.

Q.  So how should we be eating?

A.  I don’t use the word “vegan” or “vegetarian.” I don’t like those words. People who chose to eat that way chose to because of ideological reasons. I don’t want to denigrate their reasons for doing so, but I want people to talk about plant-based nutrition and to think about these ideas in a very empirical scientific sense, and not with an ideological bent to it.

The idea is that we should be consuming whole foods. We should not be relying on the idea that genes are determinants of our health. We should not be relying on the idea that nutrient supplementation is the way to get nutrition, because it’s not. I’m talking about whole, plant-based foods. The effect it produces is broad for treatment and prevention of a wide variety of ailments, from cancer to heart disease to diabetes.

Q. Do you advocate a 100 percent plant-based diet?

A. We eat that way, meaning my family, our five grown children and five grandchildren. We all eat this way now. I say the closer we get to a plant-based diet the healthier we are going to be.

It’s not because we have data to show that 100 percent plant-based eating is better than 95 percent. But if someone has been diagnosed with cancer or heart disease, it’s smart to go ahead and do the whole thing. If I start saying you can have a little of this, a little of that, it allows them to deviate off course. Our taste preferences change. We tend to choose the foods we become accustomed to, and in part because we become addicted to them, dietary fat in particular.
If we go to a plant-based diet, at first it might be difficult, but it turns out after a month or two our taste preferences change and we discover new tastes and feel a lot better, and we don’t want to go back. It’s not a religion with me, it’s just that the closer we get to a 100 percent plant-based diet, the better off we’re going to be.

Potatoes - The Rodney Dangerfield of Vegetables?

Every week I look forward to reading the Fitness & Nutrition section in the New York Times, especially Martha Rose Shulman's column Recipes for Health.   It is always informative, and she offers recipes for delicious, often vegetarian, food.  One of my favorite recipes is Provencal Potato Bouillabaisse or “Poor Man’s Bouillabaisse” which she posted on October 20, 2008. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/health/nutrition/20recipehealth.html?ref=fitnessandnutrition)

This regal soup is made with the simplest peasant ingredients - Yukon gold potatoes, onion, leeks and tomatoes (fresh or canned), and perfumed with the queen of spices, saffron!  The aroma is sensuous and the burnished orange tint of the broth is gorgeous.  Her recipe suggests slipping in whole eggs (one per person) during the last 5 minutes of simmering, but it is totally unnecessary.

 

Check out my version on my Favorite Recipes page. 

Haute Cuisine of Oats

My favorite breakfast cereal is savory steel cut oats with fenugreek, celery (yes, celery!) and fruit.  For two generous servings: In a sauce pan, combine 1/2 cup steel cut oats,  1 1/2 c water with a pinch of salt, 1 - 2 Tbs of fenugreek (seeds), finely diced celery (2 small stalks is enough) and a peeled and chopped apple or pear if you like. Bring to a boil, then simmer slowly for about 15 minutes.  The celery and fenugreek add earthiness and depth to the rather bland oat flavor and apple or pear adds a subtle sweetness.  When done, take the pan off the heat, cover and let sit for a few minutes.  To serve, dress it up with chopped walnuts, dates, raisins or figs, and then dribble some olive oil on top, dust with freshly ground pepper and, if you are really ambitious, add chopped cilantro.  If you've a sweet tooth or you are a traditionalist, like my husband, you'll skip the olive oil and pour on some warmed almond milk.  Either way - it's a great reason to leap out of bed in the morning!

Pizza - Ready for Prime Time

Pizza is a wonderful vehicle for vegetables.  My favorite recipe for pizza dough is on the recipe page - it's quick, easy, foolproof and delicious (and freezable). Make it simple with thin slices of fresh tomato, splash on a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with fresh herbs before serving.  Or dress it up with slices of roasted eggplant, artichoke pesto, caramelized onions, slivers of garlic, sauteed shitake mushrooms, whatever flavors you're craving!  With a delicious crust, roasted veggies and fresh herbs, cheese is superfluous.

Vegetable Fun

Here it is the first day of 2011 and I'm beginning a project inspired by my growing obsession with plant based eating.  Stay tuned for commentary, photographs, links, recipes and hopefully discussions with my followers/readers while I peel through the universe of vegetables and plant based foods.