My husband and I attended the Boston Vegetarian Society’s Food Festival a few weeks ago. We had the opportunity to sample dozens of delicious vegan foods and to pick up a wide assortment of vegan propaganda—one of my favorite parts—like stickers that said “Praise Seitan” with a little pentagram graphic and t shirts with the slogan “Only Kale Can Save Us Now!”. We were fortunate to have the chance to listen to lectures by world famous chefs, physicians, and film makers. One lecture in particular, given by Dr. Pam Popper, motivated me to revisit our nutritional standards once more. Her philosophies and advice are based on cause-and-effect studies, rather than correlation studies. This makes the most sense to me.
Cause and effect studies are studies that show direct relationships between an event and a result. An example is that if you stand under water, you get wet. Simple. I am not saying you cannot prevent the water from touching you, either by using an umbrella or a waterproof jacket with a hood; but it is obvious that when water touches you, it causes you get wet.
My friend Charlene shared a perfect example of a correlation study: If you eat ice cream, you are more likely to drown. Sounds crazy, right? The reason those two events are lumped together in that way is that people eat more ice cream during the summer months, which is also when more people are likely to go swimming. And drownings are most likely to occur from swimming accidents. The only connection is that both activities take place during summer. The lack of connection between eating ice cream and drowning ends there. Eating ice cream does not cause anyone to drown. So why would we draw a solid conclusion from that correlation?
Many of the studies we see on the news or read about in health magazines are based on correlation rather than on cause-and-effect. Many studies are also funded by those involved in making money from the sales of certain agribusiness products, and by drug companies who are far more interested in selling their drugs to mask or relieve symptoms of our lifestyles and diets rather than finding and eliminating the actual causes of our health problems. No one makes money by taking away or solving the problem, and yet, if we eliminate the causes or solve the problems, we improve our health. We don’t need to take medications. We don’t need to give our money to conglomerate agribusiness, or to drug manufacturers.
So, back to Dr. Popper. She talked about altering biomarkers with medications, and how taking a cholesterol drug changes the reading of your blood cholesterol. It changes the number. It does not necessarily change the way your arteries respond to eating foods that contribute to clogging your arteries. Or how taking medication for type 2 diabetes does not necessarily change the way your organs manage the glucose in your system, or the breakdown of body functions over a long period of time that occur as a result of type 2 diabetes. The diabetes still affects the whole body, even though the drugs change the numbers. This doctor addressed how diet—what you eat every single day—is what creates the actual change in the body. Diet alters biomarkers, and also alters every single physiological aspect of the body, its organs, and its functions.
The aspect of her lecture that hit me the most was about fat consumption. She discussed how fat consumption negatively affects our health. She suggests, after studying cause-and-effect studies for many years, that we should consume far less fat. The actual numbers? 10-15% of our daily calorie intake. If you eat 2000 calories each day to maintain your weight, only 200-300 of those calories should come from fat. It sounds like a lot of calories when you look at the numbers, 200-300 calories. That’s a whole breakfast. But 1 tablespoon of oil, any kind, is about 120 calories. I can eat that in a few minutes, just with a can of smoked almonds beside me while I watch a movie! She suggests that if we need extra calories, we eat them in the form of starchy vegetables and legumes.
What about the good oils? Dr. Oz says olive oil is good for us. And coconut oil? Isn’t that supposed to be the new wonder oil? And walnut oil? Avocados? Oil is fat. Period. Eat some fat, but make sure it comes from the foods we eat. There is no need to add oil to get fat into our bodies. We require such a small amount that there is plenty in 1/4 of an avocado, a tablespoonful of nuts, or a handful of seeds. 10-15 % is enough.
So I bought her book, Solving America’s Healthcare Crisis. I started reading into her research. I’m sold. And now, I am attempting to cut back our fat intake. The easiest way to start is to STOP ADDING OILS TO OUR FOODS. There is plenty of fat in what we eat without adding more fat. So, more roasting, more steaming. Less sauteing. And if I do saute, I try to use only a teaspoon of oil, then add a tiny bit of water at a time to keep the food from sticking or burning. So far, it’s working out well. I’m not sure we have reached the optimum low levels at every meal, and I cannot obsess on this all day long, but I can definitely be more aware, and prepare our meals with more emphasis on vegetables and less emphasis on added fat.
Potatoes, which are loaded with nutrients and filling starch, are not my favorite vegetable. I do like french fries, and although delicious, they are loaded with oil. To work on my new goal of not adding oil, I have been trying to come up with a way to eat them that excites my taste buds while also giving me enough calories to meet my dietary needs. I had a beautiful stock of organic potatoes from my CSA share from Alprilla Farm and an empty belly. I foraged around in my refrigerator and pantry, filled my steamer basket with water, scrubbed nine organic golden potatoes, and an hour later, served this delicious dinner to my family. I made extra, so we could have them for dinner a couple of times, and lunches for the week.
Vegan Twice-Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
8-10 potatoes, scrubbed and pricked all over with a fork
2 c broccoli florets
1 c mushrooms, diced
4 c kale, washed, leaves pulled from stems and cut into bite-sized pieces or 4 c baby spinach, washed
1 can rinsed black-eyed peas
1 c plain almond milk, maybe a little more or less
1/2 c nutritional yeast
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced
1/2 c minced scallions, green ends only
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Method
Heat oven to 400 ° F.
Place potatoes directly on oven rack and bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until tender.
While potatoes are baking, steam broccoli and kale for about 5-7 minutes, or until just tender. Set aside. If using baby spinach, add the spinach for the last minute only.
Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray. Heat skillet and add mushrooms. Saute until mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
Pour black-eyed peas into a large bowl and mash them well with a fork. Add 1/2 c of the almond milk and the nutritional yeast. Stir to combine.
When potatoes are tender, carefully remove them from the oven and transfer them to a cutting board. Turn oven temperature down to 350 ° F. When just cool enough to handle, slice each potato open length-wise, scoop out the flesh, and add to the black-eyed peas and almond milk mixture. Set aside the skins.
Using an electric mixer or a potato masher, combine the potatoes with the black-eyed peas and almond milk, adding more almond milk until the mixture is thick, as for mashed potatoes.
Add the chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, scallions, salt, and black pepper. Mix well. Fold in the broccoli, kale and mushrooms.
Use a large spoon to generously stuff each potato skin. Place the stuffed potatoes on a cookie sheet and bake again, this time for about 20 minutes, or until hot through.
Serve two halves for a meal, with a green salad dressed with lemon juice or your favorite balsamic vinegar.
Elizabeth Runs 