Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Don Miller, Rhonda Clark
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000232
|
00:01 Hello! We will be talking in this program about one of my
00:05 very favorite topics, Foods!, we have a lot of information 00:12 now a days, some things very surprising, 00:15 surprising information that can help us to know how to use 00:19 nutrition to stay in the very best of health, 00:22 so we hope you will join us for this program. 00:44 Welcome to Help Yourself to Health, with Dr. Agatha Thrash 00:48 of Uchee Pines Institute, and now here is your host 00:52 Dr. Thrash. 00:55 I have always known that foods contain a lot of chemicals, 01:01 when we say the word chemical we tend to think of something 01:05 like what we spray on plants to make them grow or to make 01:11 them not grow, or to keep bugs from being on them. 01:14 But chemicals are what we are composed of, 01:18 our bodies are composed of those same chemicals that occur 01:22 in plants and in the soil and in the air and water. 01:26 So when we study plants and study foods to learn what things 01:32 are in those that can do some good for us in the body 01:37 we immediately begin to discover some very wonderful things 01:43 such as the powerful neuro- protective influences of 01:48 blueberries. 01:49 There are substances, chemicals if you will in blueberries 01:54 that can protect the nerves, can protect the brain, and 01:59 can make one's brain and nervous system stay young longer. 02:03 Now you may say but I have my favorite foods 02:07 and I want to continue to eat those favorite foods. 02:11 But I would like to have Rhonda Clark be with me now and Rhonda, 02:19 you work at Uchee Pines as a counselor. 02:21 - Yes I do. 02:22 - Do you cook sometimes also? 02:23 - Once in awhile I have the opportunity. 02:25 - I heard not very long ago you had been the Sunday cook 02:28 for the student cafeteria, is that correct? 02:32 Yes, I enjoyed that a great deal. 02:33 - What did you make that time? 02:35 - Well for breakfast we made a lovely fruit crisp, 02:37 and then for lunch we had haystacks, which is a favorite 02:39 at Uchee Pines. 02:40 - Fruit crisp, that's fruit down is a bowl with a crisp topping. 02:44 - Yes! 02:45 - Baked until it is nicely baked. 02:48 - Yes, warm with a golden brown crust. 02:50 - My favorite way to serve a crisp is a hot crisp 02:55 in a bowl with banana ice cream on top. 02:59 - Sounds delicious. 03:01 - Since you didn't pick up on that I guess you didn't 03:05 serve banana ice cream. 03:06 - No! Just a little soy milk. 03:07 - Very good, well I like soy milk on it also, and almond milk 03:12 I like almond milk and almond cream, 03:13 if the crisp is not to rich. 03:16 Now what things can you tell us about the person who has 03:21 a lot of favorite foods, and the person knows that they maybe not 03:26 so healthful as they should be, I would like to make them more 03:30 healthful, but I certainly don't want to miss my very 03:34 favorite food. 03:35 I remember when I was thinking about my favorite foods 03:40 and trying to make them more healthful, I thought well 03:44 one of my favorite foods was a stew made with some contraband 03:51 little things from the ocean, which I don't use any more. 03:56 Don't even like to call their name because I don't like to 03:59 even think that I use to eat those little creatures, 04:02 but what can you do... 04:05 I was thinking what can I do to make a nice substitute 04:10 stew, and so it was potato stew, and it is wonderful, 04:16 use the same little oysteretts on top and oh it a 04:19 very nice stew. 04:21 Tell us about favorite dishes and what you can do with those. 04:24 - I will, I know that many of my favorite dishes prior to 04:28 learning about the benefits of a total plant based diet 04:31 had meat in them, and what I wanted to focus on today 04:35 on the program was how can a person whose favorite dishes 04:38 have meat as a prime ingredient learn to make those or enjoy 04:43 those in a meat free way. 04:45 I'm certainly glad that you are saying something 04:47 about substituting for meat because although the 04:52 very many agencies, governmental agencies and other agencies 04:58 are working diligently to try to make meat a healthful dish 05:03 as it is currently available to the consumer. 05:07 We just have to say that meat is unhealthful, 05:10 and when you learn some of the practices in the marketing 05:16 of meat they are unsavory practices, and so of course we 05:21 want to change a meat dish for something else, 05:25 so give us some tips. 05:26 - Well I wanted to give some tips and started with favorite 05:29 dishes, many of my favorite dishes already had a plant based 05:34 substitute or alternative out there that as I tried them I 05:39 enjoyed them greatly, for example spaghetti, 05:41 spaghetti sauce is a favorite, spaghetti with a nice rich hardy 05:46 meat sauce, but I tried a marinara sauce instead, 05:50 completely plant based, very delicious, many other examples, 05:55 fajitas, there were wonderful vegetable fajitas that were 05:58 available, very tasty I didn't miss the meat at all. 06:01 Chili, you make a lovely vegetarian chili, 06:04 or a vegetable lasagna, instead of a meat lasagna. 06:07 So many of the favorite dishes you can just try the vegetarian 06:10 alternative for them and find that they are quite tasty 06:14 and delicious. 06:15 Many of my favorite recipes also included ground beef 06:21 and what could I substitute for ground beef? 06:24 In a recipe that calls for it in a sauce or a soup 06:29 a lovely alternative in barley or wheat kernels, 06:33 wheat berries also known as bulgur, these make a nice 06:37 chewy grain that very nicely replaces ground beef 06:42 in for example spaghetti sauce or a soup, I also liked meatloaf 06:49 and found that there are wonderful alternatives for 06:52 ground beef in a meat loaf, ground nuts, grains, 06:57 brown rice, I know brown rice is a main ingredient 07:00 in some of the loafs that we have there at Uchee Pines. 07:02 - That's a favorite of mine. 07:03 - And legumes like the beans they can be used as a 07:08 replacement, even bread crumbs made from a nice whole grain 07:11 bread. - Or rolled oats. 07:13 - Oh yes, rolled oats are wonderful, a binding agent 07:17 a nice replacement for meat in a meatless roast recipe. 07:20 Now sometimes people miss that chicken breast or steak 07:28 or slice of roast beef that forms the entree for the meal 07:32 and some substitutes that we can recommend: 07:36 tofu is a wonderful alternative, 07:39 I was a little reluctant to try tofu, there for me was a little 07:43 mental block that I had to get past because it looked very 07:46 different than anything I had tried before. 07:48 But tofu is actually quite lovely, it really has not much 07:52 flavor on it's own and takes very nicely the flavors 07:55 of things that you marinade it in or prepare it in. 07:58 Tofu comes in different consistencies and that lends 08:01 itself nicely to different types if recipes, but a firm 08:04 or extra firm tofu sliced marinated in a sauce, 08:09 like a barbecue sauce or favorite sauce that you have 08:12 and then baked in that sauce can make a lovely alternative 08:15 for a meat entree. 08:17 Tofu is certainly a very versatile food because if you 08:25 slice it and freeze it, it takes on a bit of toughness, 08:29 where as just out of the container that you bought 08:32 in the store it's so crumbly and so soft you would never 08:37 believe that it could ever take on a toughness, 08:40 but just freezing it and thawing it, then it can be 08:44 used in various marinades to make a nice meat consistency 08:53 type of dish. 08:54 Now I've been a vegetarian for so long I don't miss the meat 08:57 consistency either, I am just as happy to be without it. 09:01 But sometimes there are people who miss that and so it's very 09:06 easy to accomplish that. 09:08 - Another nice chewy alternative is the cap of a 09:12 portabella mushroom, they have a wonderful flavor, 09:16 Oh! They're delicious! -and I will tell you some ways I 09:18 use them. - Ok! They're lovely just 09:21 brushed lightly with a nice soy sauce, get the unfermented 09:25 brand of soy sauce and grilled or broiled, that's a nice way to 09:29 prepare them. 09:30 They can be prepared really just by themselves, just steamed 09:34 or baked, how do you prepare them? 09:37 Well I generally start with some onions, and sauté 09:42 the onions is just plain water and maybe some thin strips of 09:49 carrots in the water and braise that a little bit and then 09:57 put the mushrooms in and cover it and let them steam for 10:02 quite a long time. 10:03 A nice weight loss measure is a full portabella or other 10:12 kind of mushroom such as some of these 10:17 oriental mushrooms and just steam them and squeeze a 10:22 little bit of the water out of them and put them in a couple of 10:26 lettuce leaves and the person eats that with just a little bit 10:31 of something like unfermented soy sauce, or just a little salt 10:38 and or a little bit of onion powder or garlic powder, 10:44 just absolutely wonderful as a sandwich that has almost no 10:49 calories in it, what 40, 50 calories in it couple of 10:54 lettuce leaves and a portabella mushroom. 10:56 Yes, very nice and an interesting thing about 10:59 portabellas, and shiitake, and maitake mushrooms 11:04 is that they have known anti cancer properties, and known 11:09 anti-oxidant properties. 11:11 Now an anti-oxidant is a substance that slows down 11:16 the aging process, a pro- oxidant or oxidant accelerates 11:22 the aging process, so we want to do what we can to slow it 11:25 down and a portabella mushroom does have these anit-aging 11:29 properties. 11:30 An interesting thing is that shiitake mushrooms can be 11:34 grown on a wet log that you have in your back yard 11:38 if you are a good gardener. 11:40 - Have them immediately available. 11:43 - That's right, you mentioned some bits of meat in dishes, 11:49 have you ever tried chick peas, like in chick pea ala king? 11:55 - Beans and other vegetables can make a wonderful alternative 11:58 for meat, it's something that you don't think of, 12:01 a special vegetable can even be featured as the main entree 12:05 of your dish, a stuffed pepper made with a lovely tomato sauce 12:09 rice filling or an acorn squash steamed and then half filled 12:14 with a nice vegetarian type stuffing, those can make lovely 12:17 main dishes. 12:18 Even something as simple as a baked potato or a 12:21 boiled artichoke can take the place of that main meat 12:25 that you've been having, and those also work well then 12:29 in stews, in soups, and stroganoff's, places where you 12:33 are used to having bits of meat or chopped meats, 12:37 chopped tofu, chopped portabella mushroom, chopped asparagus 12:42 there's lovely things that can be used in place of meat 12:45 to make the recipes delightful and much more healthful for you. 12:49 Now one thing Dr. Thrash that I think is just indispensable 12:52 for someone who is wanting to transition to bringing more 12:56 fruits and vegetables into their diet, beginning to 12:58 eliminate the meat and the animal products from their diet 13:01 are good vegan cookbooks. 13:04 - Oh yes! 13:05 - Cookbooks that really can help guide you, instruct you, 13:08 and give you recipes to try. 13:10 So if you contact 3ABN they will be happy to direct you to 13:14 Uchee Pines where we can lead you to some good resources 13:18 either in our book store or other places where we can 13:22 help you get in touch with resources that will truly be 13:25 completely free from animal products and be delicious and 13:28 beneficial for your health. 13:29 - Yes, I have enjoyed the substitutes that you can have 13:34 for various meat dishes, and some things that aren't really 13:38 a substitute in a sense but like olives, the great array of 13:45 dishes that you can make with olives, and if you want to go 13:48 to a little expense such things as artichoke hearts and 13:52 Chinese chestnuts, all of those can be nicely used to assist one 13:58 in making very delicious and very satisfying vegan dishes 14:05 you use no meat, no milk, and no cheese, I have asked 14:09 Dr. Donald Miller who also is a good cook and does a lot 14:15 of his own meals, Dr. Miller welcome to the program 14:19 and what can you tell us from... I know you've got a great store 14:23 of knowledge about how to cook properly, and how to serve, 14:28 I have seen a table in your house all set for the guests 14:35 and it's a beautiful table, I guess you probably picked those 14:38 up somewhere in the world maybe when you were 14:41 a Marine or something. 14:42 - Right, well my silverware which is really teakwood handles 14:46 came from Thailand and my China wherever, 14:49 but as far as cooking I'm not really and extremely good cook, 14:54 I'm a basic cook. 14:55 I believe that where as I have a lot of cook books, 14:59 I do have a lot of cook books and I do love to cook 15:01 and when my daughter lived with me years ago we would 15:05 make some very nice things, but I have been single for 15:07 many years and so I am more basic, I like potatoes, 15:12 I like rice, I like just the very simple things. 15:15 Basically in my line of work that comes in very handy because 15:19 I do a lot of traveling, now I go to places like Japan, 15:23 and the food there is absolutely great and what they are finding 15:27 is not so much finding but what the statistics are telling 15:31 us that Japanese women are the longest lived women in the world 15:36 or the longest lived people, average about 85.53 years 15:41 is the average age of a Japanese woman, which is quite a long 15:45 life, men come in second behind Icelandic men at about 78.6 15:51 more years, and so they have a very long life span, 15:54 and we wonder why is that? 15:56 The number one contributing feature, what they are 16:01 telling us is their diet. 16:03 Their diet is very rich in vegetables, very low in 16:08 animal fats, they do have animals there but when you 16:11 figure you've got this island, which is what Japan is, 16:15 with basically two large plains on which the 125 million people 16:19 live, you don't have a lot of room for animals 16:22 to be roaming about. 16:23 - You might have some goats up in the mountainous regions. 16:25 - Well they have bears up in the mountain regions too, 16:28 to eat the goats so. 16:29 - I guess there aren't to many. 16:31 - Not to many, but any way, they eat a lot of vegetables, 16:37 and the thing I've noticed in Japan as you travel from 16:40 city to city, which you go through a lot of towns 16:42 in between is all rice fields. 16:45 You've got this large plain and you've got rice fields 16:48 everywhere, and every available piece of land is planted with 16:52 something like fruit trees. - Everyone has, right. 16:55 - Some kind of permanent herb that lives there that they use 16:59 in their cooking very, conservative use of their land. 17:03 - You don't see large manicured lawns you see large 17:08 manicured rice patties, and vegetable gardens and trees, 17:11 and everyone has it that has enough room to have one 17:14 and so the diet is very good there. 17:17 I love the food in Japan, now granted they do eat a lot of 17:20 fish, but when I say a lot of fish, there is a lot of fish 17:23 in the diets, but it is usually a small amount of fish 17:27 to go with all the rice, with go with all the vegetables 17:29 all the other things which makes for a very good diet. 17:33 Other places I travel, I was in Ukraine one time 17:37 and it was Christmas, Christmas Day which is a big day, 17:40 now this isn't the, I don't know how you call it, 17:43 it's the Orthodox Christmas which is the first Sunday 17:47 I believe it was in January. 17:50 So here we are at this big meal, and there is a doctor 17:53 at the end of the table and I am the only vegan at the 17:58 table, and they all know I am a vegan, 18:00 so they send me out special things and the doctor at the end 18:04 she said it's easy to be a vegan in America because you have 18:07 such a big selection, and I asked her I said 18:10 what do you add to your diet that's missing in what 18:15 I'm eating right now? 18:16 All you can add, I mean if you are over there, 18:19 it's not like you can add if if you are not a vegan, peaches 18:23 in December, all you are adding is chicken or pigs or cows. 18:29 Which adds nothing more than more protein which is something 18:33 that is very much not needed, fat which is very much not 18:36 needed, and all the other things that go with these products. 18:40 So here I am eating potatoes, I'm eating cabbage, 18:44 I'm eating carrots, I'm eating onions, I'm eating cushaw. 18:48 - And walnuts, and beets. 18:51 - I'm telling them there is plenty of food here to eat, 18:54 I am perfectly satisfied with the food there. 18:57 In the summer time when you have the apricots as we 19:00 remember that summer we were there in Kherson. 19:04 - Oh yes! We had a team there and everybody just loved the... 19:07 - Apricots and cherries, and you've got all these fruits 19:11 and vegetables, and what they do is they store these things, 19:15 the things you can eat basically fresh are the things 19:19 that you can store for long periods of time, 19:21 you can take a head of cabbage put it in a cool place, 19:23 and it will be there all winter long, along with the carrots 19:26 - The beets of course are every where. 19:31 - Absolutely, the onions, the garlic, and I mentioned the 19:34 cushaw that's what the call the grains over there, buckwheat, 19:38 I never liked buckwheat in this country, 19:40 I love buckwheat over there. 19:41 - They know how to prepare it just right. 19:43 - They do know how to do this, and of course they've got 19:45 their Borscht, which is nothing more than a nice vegetable soup 19:49 which has a lot of beets in it which is sort of a red, 19:53 all I leave out is just don't put in the sour cream 19:56 into my soup, the soup is perfectly good, 19:59 very healthy soup, so they have everything that we need 20:02 for our diets. 20:03 I hearken back in my mind to the time when back in the 20:07 mid-Victorian period in England when Lord Palmerston 20:11 was the prime minister of England, and the Scotts clergy 20:17 sent a petition to Palmerston because they were having a 20:20 Cholera epidemic up in Scotland and he says please, 20:24 ask the people of England to have a special day of prayer 20:28 and fasting for us up here having this Cholera epidemic. 20:31 Palmerston wrote back, now this is very interesting, 20:34 he died in 1865 so this is really early stuff, 20:38 what he came up with he says have the people clean and 20:42 disinfect their homes, provide the people with good food, 20:45 and good water, and proper raiment and you will have 20:48 no reason to pray or fast nor will God hear your prayers 20:53 while these His preventives remain unheeded. 20:57 - My that was very insightful and foresightful. 21:01 - For the times in which he lived, this is back in the times 21:03 of Pasteur and whatever else, this man had his fingers on 21:07 the pulse of what was really wrong with the people. 21:10 Clean up your act, clean up your diet, it's the westerners, 21:14 we in the western world, the western developed nations 21:17 we're dying of the colon cancers, we're dying of the 21:21 stomach cancers, we're dying of diabetes, and these things 21:24 are virtually unknown of in the areas, Africa. 21:28 I go to Africa, the main food in the parts of Africa 21:32 I go to is a food called Shema? which is made from mealy meal 21:36 which is nothing more than maze or corn ground up 21:38 into a porridge, and they make a very thick paste out of this 21:42 porridge and you get a big lump of this, 21:45 and then they will have a couple types of what they call 21:47 relish, not the type of relish what we think about 21:49 but it might be some sautéed cabbage, or it might be some 21:53 eggplant that is sautéed, you have little bits of this, 21:56 and you take a handful of the Shema, 21:59 you eat it with your fingers there, you form it with a ball, 22:02 stick your thumb in it, and you scoop a little bit of this 22:05 relish into the ball and then pop it into your mouth 22:08 and eat it. 22:09 - So the little ball that you make is walnut size or 22:12 acorn size? - It depends on how big 22:14 your mouth is, it depends on how hungry you are. 22:17 It is small, what you can hold with your fingers closed 22:21 in your hand, it's just a nice.. - What about walnut size 22:25 or a little smaller? - Yes! And the nice thing 22:28 about this, is while you are chewing on this, 22:30 you have to go back and you spend some time chewing 22:32 because you are not bringing another handful up right away. 22:35 - With a fork you can keep shoveling it in. 22:38 - You keep shoveling and swallowing, shoveling and 22:40 swallowing and you never chew well. 22:41 Now in India I have a bit more of a problem because 22:45 their main staple is rice, and I love rice, 22:48 and then they have their curry. 22:50 Now we have to leave a little bit of the hot stuff out of the 22:53 curry but it still is very good what they make us, 22:55 but to mix the rice and the curry just right, 22:58 and to get that into the ball and into the mouth 23:01 without having it drip down your elbow and all over the 23:03 floor, I did not have quite the amount of success, 23:07 but I found that... - It must be a bit more liquid. 23:10 - Much more liquid, and they've got a way of squeezing it 23:13 between their fingers or something, I mean they are 23:15 artists at it, but wherever I've traveled in anywhere 23:18 in the world it's no problem being a vegan, it's Irkutsk 23:23 I mean this is talking about Siberia almost on the shores of 23:26 Lake Baikal, I go into the markets there, there is a 23:31 wide variety of soy products. 23:34 There are many people from North Korea and China there 23:37 and they've got their foods and their foods basically 23:40 reading T. Colin Campbell's The China Study, 23:43 he found that these... and this is a wonderful study, 23:46 he found that these people don't get all these different 23:48 cancers and diseases because their diets are so simple. 23:51 You can go to the market and they are selling the seaweed 23:55 they are selling the noodles, they are selling all these 23:57 things, and I can look at all of it, every single bit of it 24:01 is vegan, and yet we say we'll die if we become vegans here 24:05 and that's not the case. 24:06 Calcium is not a problem, protein is not a problem, 24:10 everything we need God has provided in a vegetarian diet. 24:14 - Yes! Absolutely! And sometimes people say well, 24:18 but I don't like let's say seaweed, well I brought a sample 24:23 of seaweed, - Can I have some for my next 24:25 meal? - This is probably my favorite 24:29 type of seaweed, I like this very much, I can see by your 24:34 mouth watering that you do too. 24:36 Well this came from Korea, and these sheets are... 24:40 I like to toast them briefly in the oven just a few seconds 24:45 I turn the oven on, by the time it comes up to the temperature 24:49 I am ready to take it out, then I just fold this 24:54 a couple of times, and then I have these little sheets 24:58 that I can easily break apart, and you have this little thing 25:04 and if you use chopsticks which are nice to eat with rice, 25:09 you just drop one of these on the rice and with the chopsticks 25:13 you just pick it up with the seaweed and the rice and it's 25:18 introduced into the mouth that way. 25:20 Another way that I just really love the use of seaweed, 25:25 by the way seaweed has been recently found, this is a fact 25:31 that seaweed has anti-cancer properties in it and it is 25:36 believed that one of the reasons why the Japanese women 25:39 live so long is because they do eat a good bit of seaweed. 25:44 - And their cancer rates are extremely low in Japan 25:46 they get cancer yes, but it is extremely low compared to us. 25:49 - And it seems that they handle certain types of cancers a lot 25:53 better than we do in America. 25:56 So what I do is to simply spread let's say my bean dish 26:02 right here and then I roll it up as a Sushi, of course you have 26:07 to do this on the plate, but you just roll it up like this 26:10 and then you eat it as a sandwich, and if this end 26:14 leaks a little bit you just hold it like that, and it's a 26:17 wonderful conversation piece when you have people visiting 26:20 with you, you serve a platter of these nicely toasted sheets 26:25 and it does very nicely that way. 26:28 Then here is another thing, this you will not find I guess 26:33 in a lot of foreign markets. 26:35 - It's amazing how much you find over there. 26:38 - Is that right? - Yes! 26:40 - Well I like Shredded Wheat especially if it's made with 26:43 these ingredients. 26:44 - Whole wheat, nothing but the wheat. 26:46 - Whole grain wheat, that's what it says, whole grain wheat. 26:49 The advertisement was what attracted my attention to this, 26:56 it says three easy steps to reduce calories, loose weight, 27:00 and maintain a healthier heart, number one, this is one step, 27:05 replace two meals a day with any Post healthy classic cereal 27:10 and then they give you as choices, 27:13 Honey Nut Shredded Wheat and Bran, Frosted Shredded Wheat, 27:19 and Shredded Wheat, of those the one that I would tell you 27:23 to use is the Shredded Wheat. 27:25 Then they also say, focus on portion control, don't overdo 27:30 the size of your portions, and once you've had a good portion 27:34 don't go back for big seconds. 27:36 If you need something more after you've already eaten a 27:39 plateful, then just eat bread, if you are really hungry 27:43 bread will satisfy genuine hunger, and then of course 27:47 the last thing they say is to get plenty of exercise. 27:50 And those are things that anyone would be well advised to follow 27:54 and a regular diet. |
Revised 2014-12-17