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♪ [music playing-- no dialogue] ♪♪.
Hi, my name is Christa Huxel and I'm a graduate dietetics student
at Eastern Illinois University.
Today, I'm going to teach you about neutropenia and the
neutropenic diet, and I'm also going to demonstrate a fun
and easy way to make neutropenic-friendly sushi.
For those, of you who do not know, neutropenia is
a condition that is defined as having an abnormally low
neutrophyll count in the blood.
Neutrophylls are white blood cells that protect your body
against bacteria and fungi and it's produced
in the bone marrow.
The lower your neutrophyll count, the more vulnerable
you are to infectious diseases.
Neutropenia can be caused by poor bone marrow function
or any condition that could destroy neutrophylls
or damage the bone marrow.
Some conditions can include cancer, autoimmune disorders,
or viral infections.
Neutropenics need to follow a strict diet
called the neutropenic diet.
Some general guidelines of the neutropenic diet are to avoid
raw fruits and vegetables, raw or undercooked meats,
unpasteurized dairy products, or yogurt with live active culture.
Some foods allowed in the neutropenic diet include
meats that are well-done, well-cooked eggs,
canned or cooked vegetables and fruits, baked goods,
pasteurized milk products.
And the purpose of the neutropenic diet is to
protect the neutropenic individual from the bacteria
that could be in foods or drinks that they consume.
Neutropenics are normally not allowed to eat sushi because
it typically involves raw ingredients,
however today I'm making sushi with all
neutropenic-approved ingredients.
The ingredients that we will be using today include cooked rice,
some rice dressing, and we also have some cream cheese,
imitation leg-style crabmeat, and nori seaweed.
The nori seaweed can be purchased at your
local supermarket in the Asian section or
at a local health foods store.
So let's get started.
First thing you want to do is bring one cup of uncooked
white rice to a boil with 2 cups of water.
You'll cover it and cook it for about 20 minutes, or until
the water is absorbed or the rice is tender.
You'll then want your rice to cool.
As your rice is cooling, you'll make the rice vinegar dressing.
This dressing is 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar plus
1 tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt.
You'll heat this until the salt and the sugar
are well-dissolved.
What you want to do then after your rice is cooled is to
add the rice vinegar dressing to the rice.
Then you'll stir it until it's well-incorporated.
It will be sticky, so that's not a bad thing.
And then once that's well-incorporated,
you'll take a sheet of your nori seaweed.
And you'll want the rough side of it facing up.
You'll then take a spoonful of your rice
and put it on your seaweed.
And then you'll just make a thin layer on your seaweed.
You'll want to make sure that your hands are thoroughly washed
and all the utensils and countertops and cutting sheets
that you will be using are thoroughly cleaned.
You'll then take your leg-style crab meat that I just kind of
cut up into little strips, put it down the center of your rice.
You'll do the same for the cream cheese that I already
have cut up in little strips.
What you'll do next is just take the section of the
seaweed that's closest to you and fold it over.
You want to tuck it in really tight to make
a nice, tight roll.
Then tuck in the sides, so make sure it all sticks.
Using a sharp knife, you'll carefully cut it down the middle
to cut it in half, and then cut it into smaller portions.
And that would be your sushi.
And it looks like so, and it's really delicious,
and it's neutropenic approved.
If you have any further questions about neutropenia or
the neutropenic diet, please contact your doctor
or your dietician for more information.
Thank you for watching, I'm Christa Huxel.
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