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Hello! We will be talking in this program about one of my
very favorite topics, Foods!, we have a lot of information
now a days, some things very surprising, surprising information that can help us to
know how to use nutrition to stay in the very best of health,
so we hope you will join us for this program. Welcome to Help Yourself to Health, with Dr.
Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute, and now here is
your host Dr. Thrash.
I have always known that foods contain a lot of chemicals,
when we say the word chemical we tend to think of something
like what we spray on plants to make them grow or to make
them not grow, or to keep bugs from being on them.
But chemicals are what we are composed of, our bodies are composed of those same chemicals
that occur in plants and in the soil and in the air and
water. So when we study plants and study foods to
learn what things are in those that can do some good for us
in the body we immediately begin to discover some very
wonderful things such as the powerful neuro- protective influences
of blueberries.
There are substances, chemicals if you will in blueberries
that can protect the nerves, can protect the brain, and
can make one's brain and nervous system stay young longer.
Now you may say but I have my favorite foods and I want to continue to eat those favorite
foods. But I would like to have Rhonda Clark be with
me now and Rhonda, you work at Uchee Pines as a counselor.
- Yes I do. - Do you cook sometimes also?
- Once in awhile I have the opportunity. - I heard not very long ago you had been the
Sunday cook for the student cafeteria, is that correct?
Yes, I enjoyed that a great deal. - What did you make that time?
- Well for breakfast we made a lovely fruit crisp,
and then for lunch we had haystacks, which is a favorite
at Uchee Pines. - Fruit crisp, that's fruit down is a bowl
with a crisp topping. - Yes!
- Baked until it is nicely baked. - Yes, warm with a golden brown crust.
- My favorite way to serve a crisp is a hot crisp
in a bowl with banana ice cream on top. - Sounds delicious.
- Since you didn't pick up on that I guess you didn't
serve banana ice cream. - No! Just a little soy milk.
- Very good, well I like soy milk on it also, and almond milk
I like almond milk and almond cream, if the crisp is not to rich.
Now what things can you tell us about the person who has
a lot of favorite foods, and the person knows that they maybe not
so healthful as they should be, I would like to make them more
healthful, but I certainly don't want to miss my very
favorite food. I remember when I was thinking about my favorite
foods and trying to make them more healthful, I
thought well one of my favorite foods was a stew made with
some contraband little things from the ocean, which I don't
use any more. Don't even like to call their name because
I don't like to even think that I use to eat those little
creatures, but what can you do...
I was thinking what can I do to make a nice substitute
stew, and so it was potato stew, and it is wonderful,
use the same little oysteretts on top and oh it a
very nice stew. Tell us about favorite dishes and what you
can do with those. - I will, I know that many of my favorite
dishes prior to learning about the benefits of a total plant
based diet had meat in them, and what I wanted to focus
on today on the program was how can a person whose
favorite dishes have meat as a prime ingredient learn to make
those or enjoy those in a meat free way.
I'm certainly glad that you are saying something about substituting for meat because although
the very many agencies, governmental agencies
and other agencies are working diligently to try to make meat
a healthful dish as it is currently available to the consumer.
We just have to say that meat is unhealthful, and when you learn some of the practices in
the marketing of meat they are unsavory practices, and so
of course we want to change a meat dish for something else,
so give us some tips. - Well I wanted to give some tips and started
with favorite dishes, many of my favorite dishes already
had a plant based substitute or alternative out there that as
I tried them I enjoyed them greatly, for example spaghetti,
spaghetti sauce is a favorite, spaghetti with a nice rich hardy
meat sauce, but I tried a marinara sauce instead, completely plant based, very delicious, many
other examples, fajitas, there were wonderful vegetable fajitas
that were available, very tasty I didn't miss the meat
at all. Chili, you make a lovely vegetarian chili,
or a vegetable lasagna, instead of a meat lasagna.
So many of the favorite dishes you can just try the vegetarian
alternative for them and find that they are quite tasty
and delicious. Many of my favorite recipes also included
ground beef and what could I substitute for ground beef?
In a recipe that calls for it in a sauce or a soup
a lovely alternative in barley or wheat kernels, wheat berries also known as bulgur, these
make a nice chewy grain that very nicely replaces ground
beef in for example spaghetti sauce or a soup,
I also liked meatloaf and found that there are wonderful alternatives
for ground beef in a meat loaf, ground nuts, grains,
brown rice, I know brown rice is a main ingredient in some of the loafs that we have there at
Uchee Pines. - That's a favorite of mine.
- And legumes like the beans they can be used as a
replacement, even bread crumbs made from a nice whole grain
bread. - Or rolled oats. - Oh yes, rolled oats are wonderful, a binding
agent a nice replacement for meat in a meatless
roast recipe. Now sometimes people miss that chicken breast
or steak or slice of roast beef that forms the entree
for the meal and some substitutes that we can recommend
tofu is a wonderful alternative, I was a little reluctant to try tofu, there
for me was a little mental block that I had to get past because
it looked very different than anything I had tried before.
But tofu is actually quite lovely, it really has not much
flavor on it's own and takes very nicely the flavors
of things that you marinade it in or prepare it in.
Tofu comes in different consistencies and that lends
itself nicely to different types if recipes, but a firm
or extra firm tofu sliced marinated in a sauce, like a barbecue sauce or favorite sauce that
you have and then baked in that sauce can make a lovely
alternative for a meat entree.
Tofu is certainly a very versatile food because if you
slice it and freeze it, it takes on a bit of toughness,
where as just out of the container that you bought
in the store it's so crumbly and so soft you would never
believe that it could ever take on a toughness, but just freezing it and thawing it, then
it can be used in various marinades to make a nice meat
consistency type of dish.
Now I've been a vegetarian for so long I don't miss the meat
consistency either, I am just as happy to be without it.
But sometimes there are people who miss that and so it's very
easy to accomplish that. - Another nice chewy alternative is the cap
of a portabella mushroom, they have a wonderful
flavor, Oh! They're delicious! -and I will tell you
some ways I use them. - Ok! They're lovely just
brushed lightly with a nice soy sauce, get the unfermented
brand of soy sauce and grilled or broiled, that's a nice way to
prepare them. They can be prepared really just by themselves,
just steamed or baked, how do you prepare them?
Well I generally start with some onions, and saut�
the onions is just plain water and maybe some thin strips of
carrots in the water and braise that a little bit and then
put the mushrooms in and cover it and let them steam for
quite a long time. A nice weight loss measure is a full portabella
or other kind of mushroom such as some of these
oriental mushrooms and just steam them and squeeze a
little bit of the water out of them and put them in a couple of
lettuce leaves and the person eats that with just a little bit
of something like unfermented soy sauce, or just a little salt
and or a little bit of onion powder or garlic powder,
just absolutely wonderful as a sandwich that has almost no
calories in it, what 40, 50 calories in it couple of
lettuce leaves and a portabella mushroom. Yes, very nice and an interesting thing about
portabellas, and shiitake, and maitake mushrooms is that they have known anti cancer properties,
and known anti-oxidant properties.
Now an anti-oxidant is a substance that slows down
the aging process, a pro- oxidant or oxidant accelerates
the aging process, so we want to do what we can to slow it
down and a portabella mushroom does have these anit-aging
properties. An interesting thing is that shiitake mushrooms
can be grown on a wet log that you have in your back
yard if you are a good gardener.
- Have them immediately available. - That's right, you mentioned some bits of
meat in dishes, have you ever tried chick peas, like in chick
pea ala king? - Beans and other vegetables can make a wonderful
alternative for meat, it's something that you don't think
of, a special vegetable can even be featured as
the main entree of your dish, a stuffed pepper made with a
lovely tomato sauce rice filling or an acorn squash steamed and
then half filled with a nice vegetarian type stuffing, those
can make lovely main dishes.
Even something as simple as a baked potato or a
boiled artichoke can take the place of that main meat
that you've been having, and those also work well then
in stews, in soups, and stroganoff's, places where you
are used to having bits of meat or chopped meats,
chopped tofu, chopped portabella mushroom, chopped asparagus
there's lovely things that can be used in place of meat
to make the recipes delightful and much more healthful for you.
Now one thing Dr. Thrash that I think is just indispensable
for someone who is wanting to transition to bringing more
fruits and vegetables into their diet, beginning to
eliminate the meat and the animal products from their diet
are good vegan cookbooks. - Oh yes!
- Cookbooks that really can help guide you, instruct you,
and give you recipes to try. So if you contact 3ABN they will be happy
to direct you to Uchee Pines where we can lead you to some
good resources either in our book store or other places where
we can help you get in touch with resources that
will truly be completely free from animal products and be
delicious and beneficial for your health.
- Yes, I have enjoyed the substitutes that you can have
for various meat dishes, and some things that aren't really
a substitute in a sense but like olives, the great array of
dishes that you can make with olives, and if you want to go
to a little expense such things as artichoke hearts and
Chinese chestnuts, all of those can be nicely used to assist one
in making very delicious and very satisfying vegan dishes
you use no meat, no milk, and no cheese, I have asked
Dr. Donald Miller who also is a good cook and does a lot
of his own meals, Dr. Miller welcome to the program
and what can you tell us from... I know you've got a great store
of knowledge about how to cook properly, and how to serve,
I have seen a table in your house all set for the guests
and it's a beautiful table, I guess you probably picked those
up somewhere in the world maybe when you were a Marine or something.
- Right, well my silverware which is really teakwood handles
came from Thailand and my China wherever, but as far as cooking I'm not really and extremely
good cook, I'm a basic cook.
I believe that where as I have a lot of cook books,
I do have a lot of cook books and I do love to cook
and when my daughter lived with me years ago we would
make some very nice things, but I have been single for
many years and so I am more basic, I like potatoes,
I like rice, I like just the very simple things. Basically in my line of work that comes in
very handy because I do a lot of traveling, now I go to places
like Japan, and the food there is absolutely great and
what they are finding is not so much finding but what the statistics
are telling us that Japanese women are the longest lived
women in the world or the longest lived people, average about
85.53 years is the average age of a Japanese woman, which
is quite a long life, men come in second behind Icelandic
men at about 78.6. more years, and so they have a very long life
span, and we wonder why is that?
The number one contributing feature, what they are
telling us is their diet. Their diet is very rich in vegetables, very
low in animal fats, they do have animals there but
when you figure you've got this island, which is what
Japan is, with basically two large plains on which the
125 million people live, you don't have a lot of room for animals
to be roaming about. - You might have some goats up in the mountainous
regions. - Well they have bears up in the mountain
regions too, to eat the goats so.
- I guess there aren't to many. - Not to many, but any way, they eat a lot
of vegetables, and the thing I've noticed in Japan as you
travel from city to city, which you go through a lot of
towns in between is all rice fields.
You've got this large plain and you've got rice fields
everywhere, and every available piece of land is planted with
something like fruit trees. - Everyone has, right.
- Some kind of permanent herb that lives there that they use
in their cooking very, conservative use of their land.
- You don't see large manicured lawns you see large
manicured rice patties, and vegetable gardens and trees,
and everyone has it that has enough room to have one
and so the diet is very good there. I love the food in Japan, now granted they
do eat a lot of fish, but when I say a lot of fish, there
is a lot of fish in the diets, but it is usually a small amount
of fish to go with all the rice, with go with all
the vegetables all the other things which makes for a very
good diet. Other places I travel, I was in Ukraine one
time and it was Christmas, Christmas Day which
is a big day, now this isn't the, I don't know how you call
it, it's the Orthodox Christmas which is the first
Sunday I believe it was in January.
So here we are at this big meal, and there is a doctor
at the end of the table and I am the only vegan at the
table, and they all know I am a vegan, so they send me out special things and the
doctor at the end she said it's easy to be a vegan in America
because you have such a big selection, and I asked her I said
what do you add to your diet that's missing in what
I'm eating right now? All you can add, I mean if you are over there,
it's not like you can add if if you are not a vegan, peaches
in December, all you are adding is chicken or pigs or cows.
Which adds nothing more than more protein which is something
that is very much not needed, fat which is very much not
needed, and all the other things that go with these products.
So here I am eating potatoes, I'm eating cabbage, I'm eating carrots, I'm eating onions, I'm
eating cushaw. - And walnuts, and beets.
- I'm telling them there is plenty of food here to eat,
I am perfectly satisfied with the food there. In the summer time when you have the apricots
as we remember that summer we were there in Kherson.
- Oh yes! We had a team there and everybody just loved the...
- Apricots and cherries, and you've got all these fruits
and vegetables, and what they do is they store these things,
the things you can eat basically fresh are the things
that you can store for long periods of time, you can take a head of cabbage put it in a
cool place, and it will be there all winter long, along
with the carrots - The beets of course are every where.
- Absolutely, the onions, the garlic, and I mentioned the
cushaw that's what the call the grains over there, buckwheat,
I never liked buckwheat in this country, I love buckwheat over there.
- They know how to prepare it just right. - They do know how to do this, and of course
they've got their Borscht, which is nothing more than
a nice vegetable soup which has a lot of beets in it which is sort
of a red, all I leave out is just don't put in the sour
cream into my soup, the soup is perfectly good,
very healthy soup, so they have everything that we need
for our diets. I hearken back in my mind to the time when
back in the mid-Victorian period in England when Lord
Palmerston was the prime minister of England, and the
Scotts clergy sent a petition to Palmerston because they
were having a Cholera epidemic up in Scotland and he says
please, ask the people of England to have a special
day of prayer and fasting for us up here having this Cholera
epidemic. Palmerston wrote back, now this is very interesting,
he died in 1865 so this is really early stuff, what he came up with he says have the people
clean and disinfect their homes, provide the people
with good food, and good water, and proper raiment and you
will have no reason to pray or fast nor will God hear
your prayers while these His preventives remain unheeded.
- My that was very insightful and foresightful. - For the times in which he lived, this is
back in the times of Pasteur and whatever else, this man had
his fingers on the pulse of what was really wrong with the
people. Clean up your act, clean up your diet, it's
the westerners, we in the western world, the western developed
nations we're dying of the colon cancers, we're dying
of the stomach cancers, we're dying of diabetes,
and these things are virtually unknown of in the areas, Africa.
I go to Africa, the main food in the parts of Africa
I go to is a food called Shema? which is made from mealy meal
which is nothing more than maze or corn ground up
into a porridge, and they make a very thick paste out of this
porridge and you get a big lump of this, and then they will have a couple types of
what they call relish, not the type of relish what we think
about but it might be some saut�ed cabbage, or
it might be some eggplant that is saut�ed, you have little
bits of this, and you take a handful of the Shema,
you eat it with your fingers there, you form it with a ball,
stick your thumb in it, and you scoop a little bit of this
relish into the ball and then pop it into your mouth
and eat it. - So the little ball that you make is walnut
size or acorn size? - It depends on how big
your mouth is, it depends on how hungry you are.
It is small, what you can hold with your fingers closed
in your hand, it's just a nice.. - What about walnut size
or a little smaller? - Yes! And the nice thing about this, is while you are chewing on this,
you have to go back and you spend some time chewing
because you are not bringing another handful up right away.
- With a fork you can keep shoveling it in. - You keep shoveling and swallowing, shoveling
and swallowing and you never chew well.
Now in India I have a bit more of a problem because
their main staple is rice, and I love rice, and then they have their curry.
Now we have to leave a little bit of the hot stuff out of the
curry but it still is very good what they make us,
but to mix the rice and the curry just right, and to get that into the ball and into the
mouth without having it drip down your elbow and
all over the floor, I did not have quite the amount of
success, but I found that... - It must be a bit more
liquid. - Much more liquid, and they've got a way
of squeezing it between their fingers or something, I mean
they are artists at it, but wherever I've traveled
in anywhere in the world it's no problem being a vegan,
it's Irkutsk I mean this is talking about Siberia almost
on the shores of Lake Baikal, I go into the markets there,
there is a wide variety of soy products.
There are many people from North Korea and China there
and they've got their foods and their foods basically
reading T. Colin Campbell's The China Study, he found that these... and this is a wonderful
study, he found that these people don't get all these
different cancers and diseases because their diets are
so simple. You can go to the market and they are selling
the seaweed they are selling the noodles, they are selling
all these things, and I can look at all of it, every
single bit of it is vegan, and yet we say we'll die if we become
vegans here and that's not the case.
Calcium is not a problem, protein is not a problem,
everything we need God has provided in a vegetarian diet.
- Yes! Absolutely! And sometimes people say well,
but I don't like let's say seaweed, well I brought a sample
of seaweed, - Can I have some for my next meal? - This is probably my favorite
type of seaweed, I like this very much, I can see by your
mouth watering that you do too. Well this came from Korea, and these sheets
are... I like to toast them briefly in the oven just
a few seconds I turn the oven on, by the time it comes up
to the temperature I am ready to take it out, then I just fold
this a couple of times, and then I have these little
sheets that I can easily break apart, and you have
this little thing and if you use chopsticks which are nice to
eat with rice, you just drop one of these on the rice and
with the chopsticks you just pick it up with the seaweed and the
rice and it's introduced into the mouth that way.
Another way that I just really love the use of seaweed,
by the way seaweed has been recently found, this is a fact
that seaweed has anti-cancer properties in it and it is
believed that one of the reasons why the Japanese women
live so long is because they do eat a good bit of seaweed.
- And their cancer rates are extremely low in Japan
they get cancer yes, but it is extremely low compared to us.
- And it seems that they handle certain types of cancers a lot
better than we do in America. So what I do is to simply spread let's say
my bean dish right here and then I roll it up as a Sushi,
of course you have to do this on the plate, but you just roll
it up like this and then you eat it as a sandwich, and if
this end leaks a little bit you just hold it like that,
and it's a wonderful conversation piece when you have
people visiting with you, you serve a platter of these nicely
toasted sheets and it does very nicely that way.
Then here is another thing, this you will not find I guess
in a lot of foreign markets. - It's amazing how much you find over there.
- Is that right? - Yes! - Well I like Shredded Wheat especially if
it's made with these ingredients.
- Whole wheat, nothing but the wheat. - Whole grain wheat, that's what it says,
whole grain wheat. The advertisement was what attracted my attention
to this, it says three easy steps to reduce calories,
loose weight, and maintain a healthier heart, number one,
this is one step, replace two meals a day with any Post healthy
classic cereal and then they give you as choices,
Honey Nut Shredded Wheat and Bran, Frosted Shredded Wheat,
and Shredded Wheat, of those the one that I would tell you
to use is the Shredded Wheat. Then they also say, focus on portion control,
don't overdo the size of your portions, and once you've
had a good portion don't go back for big seconds.
If you need something more after you've already eaten a
plateful, then just eat bread, if you are really hungry
bread will satisfy genuine hunger, and then of course
the last thing they say is to get plenty of exercise.
And those are things that anyone would be well advised to follow
and a regular diet.