Whole Food
YOUR WHOLE FOOD PLANT-BASED GUIDE TO HEALTHY EATING
Autumn 2020 Issue 1 Vol 1
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Essential Eating For 2020 pumpkin | sesame seeds | brazil nuts berries | citrus fruits | garlic | ginger cinnamon | turmeric | mushrooms & more
To understand why, see P17
WFPB recovery experiences
Coping with COPD
*Contains FREE 7 page Covid-19 Special* wholefoodliving.life
ICLAY MEDIA NZ & Aust $8.50
Plant-based Recipes
Dr Neil Barnard: What dairy is doing. P35
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Where we stand THE WHOLE FOOD CONNECTION
Health
Food
It all starts with our most basic, primal desire. Even before our need for shelter or our desire to procreate, food comes first. The recipes for the food we talk about in Whole Food Living are all based on solid scientific research and clinical experience gathered over the last 50 years.
Environment
Our health, good or bad, is the result of the food choices we make. There are genetic and environmental conditions that can affect our good health but for most of us, our health will be determined by what we put on our plates. For this magazine, food and optimal health is the primary focus.
WFL Optimal Health Guide
The third and final factor in the whole food connection is environment. Why? Because the condition of our environment is affected by our food choices. Understanding the connection between food, health and the environment is key to developing a sustainable world.
Whole Food Plant Based The WFL Optimal Health Guide is a simplified, visual explanation of different eating styles. Our policy is to assist and encourage plant-based eating and to explain the significant health benefits available to those that become fully whole food plant-based. WFPB eating is comprised of foods drawn solely from the first four categories of the table. Strictly speaking, sugar, oil and salt are off the menu for people who are fully WFPB based, especially those who have experienced serious medical events. We place sugar, oil and salt along with highly processed foods in the Avoid category as a warning because, unless you prepare everything you eat at home yourself, you are unlikely to achieve a perfect score. In your quest towards better eating, don't let perfect become the enemy of good.
WFL MEDICAL DISCLAIMER The medical and/or nutritional information covered in Whole Food Living magazine is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek medical advice before using diet to treat disease. 4 wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS Critical contents of this magazine, particularly articles that cover medical issues, are referred to our editorial consultants. Our consultants are: * Dr Mark Craig * Dr Caitlin Randles * Dr Martyn Williamson
Editorial
T
Thanks for all your good wishes
he response to our first issue of Whole Food Living was overwhelming. Thank you to all those who have sent congratulatory notes, given us a thumbs up and just generally promoted the publication absolutely everywhere. Whipping something like this into shape really isn't easy. Not only is it an exercise in balancing the figures, but you also have to strike a balance with the content of the magazine itself. On that score, an overwhelming request has been for more recipes and we hope we have satisfied that need in this issue. Something that did surprise us was the incredibly positive reaction we've received from people that still follow the traditional diet. So many people are reviewing the way they eat. While some will continue to keep animal products on their plates, large numbers of you have a keen desire to know more about plant based eating. We want you to know that meat eaters are welcome here! While we don't cook those products for ourselves anymore. we can assure you that you will find the best advice we can muster on what plant healthy meals should be. Once again, from both Catherine and I, welcome to Whole Food Living magazine. Somewhere within the covers of this magazine. we hope you will find
Down country delight
Some of the ceiling lights at The Wooden Farmer cafe in Putaruru, New Zealand are made from old, craftily re-purposed milking cups. Kinda shines new light on the future of dairy.
something that makes you think about your continuing good health. If you're like me, and you can turn the clock back a few years, then you might be able to ask yourself: when did I ever seriously review my state of health? Unfortunately, and if you are pointing the finger back at me, then the answer would be - rarely, if ever. I was always of the view that if you ate what you thought was healthy, then everything would work out fine. And you know, for some people that happens. As a first step, the kind of review I'm talking about here is not a doctor thing. Doctors are certainly an important part of the process of course, but the kind of self-examination I'm talking of here happens inside your own head. For practical advice on this turn to P44. On another note, where would we be
without the kind of traditional baking we all grew up with from childhood? Answer: Probably a lot better off would be the whole food response. The fact is, traditional baking is made with a heap of highly refined product. It's laced with sugar, usually contains a considerable number of cholesterol packed eggs and mostly no fibre. So why then should we feature any information on the history of traditional baking in Australia and New Zealand - on P46. Well it's relevant because it focuses on upsizing and enrichment two of the key elements that developed the sweet tooth and put us in the health state we're all in today. Finally, who could have imagined after all the horrors faced in the bushfires that a far more deadly and disruptive force lay in wait? Coronavirus (Covid-19) is a cynical, nasty piece of work, although virologists find it quite fascinating. At the point we go to press on this issue, Italy is in complete lockdown, the US has halted air travel from Europe and Australia and New Zealand are battening down the hatches. We've thought a lot about how much to write on this issue but in the end, apart from following all the warnings, what else can any of us do? Well, healthy eating, is pretty much our last and best line of defence. For more on that see P16.
Viewpoints
Producers
Whole Food Living (ISSN 2624-4101 (Print) | ISSN 2703-4313 (Digital)) is subject to copyright in its entirety. The views expressed in this publication are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of Iclay Media. No responsibility will be accepted for unsolicited material. No liability is accepted by Iclay Media, the publisher, nor the authors for information contained in this magazine. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and veracity of all content in this publication but neither Whole Food Living nor its publisher Iclay Media is responsible for damage or harm of whatever description resulting from persons using any advice, consuming any product or using any services in Whole Food Living's print, electronic publication or website.
Editor: Peter Barclay
Peter Barclay, Editor
Contact us 67 Kayes Road, Pukekohe, Auckland, New Zealand 2120 p. (Peter) +64 27 218 5948 e. editor@wholefoodliving.life w. www.wholefoodliving.life
e. peter@wholefoodliving.life Food Editor: Catherine Barclay e. catherine@wholefoodliving.life
Advertising & Promotions John Emanuel e. john@wholefoodliving.life Printer: Inkwise, Christchurch Distributors: NZ Post & Iclay Media Contributions & Assistance Contributions & assistance is gratefully acknowledged from the following people: Stephanie Wynn, Dr Mark Craig, Dr Martyn Williamson, Dr Caitlin Randles, Dr Gemma Newman, Dr Cheryl Wilson, Robyn Chuter, Bella, Jackie Norman, Emma Strutt, Simone Hayward, Ian Duffield, Nikki Rhodes, & Franko Heke. And a big thanks to Mal & Jodie for the use of their Kerikeri property.
wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
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CONTENTS 40 30 24
General Features 15 It Began with a Rose It stated with prick to her finger, a lot of pain, and a whole food recovery.
17 Caronavirus Can whole food help? Two medics offer their thoughts on this devastating illness.
27 Auckland Plant Pod Moves are afoot to establish Auckland's own Plant Pod.
28 Bella Tells Her Story A chronic COPD sufferer gets WFPB help.
32 A Chance Meeting A chance meeting led Jackie to a new life. 6 wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
35 Dr Barnard Explains Menstrual pain can be a major issue for many women. Is dairy to blame?
37 How Not to Diet Emma Strutt dives into Michael Greger's hugely popular new book.
40 A Matter of Choice Dr Caitlin Randles explores the obesogenic environment.
42 Eat with Your Eyes Simone Hayward explains how food affects our eyes!
46 Inflammation Robyn Chuter - on recovery from serious health issues.
50 How to Change Dr Craig shows how your ability to change connects with your personality.
52 Upsizing Who is to blame and does it matter. A backward look at a current problem.
References Many of the articles published in this magazine refer to scientific studies. To see these click on the QR code or go to the url below.
Click or scan QR image for references. wholefoodliving.life/ref-autumn2020
66
The inside goss On Eating Out: "Don't try to re-educate kitchen staff on the problem with oil. They are unlikely to believe you." "Intermittent fasting is gaining popularity as a way to manage food intake," Dr Edward Walker.
55
NO! Dr Mark Craig does not wear his Mohican wig during surgery hours.
26 Recipes 10 Turmeric Discover more on the amazing healing properties of this incredible spice.
14 Go for Greens Our vegetable Miso soup is a powerhouse of goodness and tastes yummy too!
16 Pancakes Some blueberry, banana, maple syrup maybe. OMG.
31 Crispy Rice Paper Rolls A fast, super simple idea and filling too.
38 Roast Cauliflower Great for dipping, can be used in omelets and more.
44 Microgreens They might be micro but they sure pack a healthy punch. Ideas on how to use,
49 An old favourite Still a hint of summer left for some. Go on, indulge yourself in this old favourite.
54 Crispy Potatoes
"We must recognise enrichment as a different phenonenon from supersizing and tackle it directly." Professor Helen Leach explains On feeding children: "You need something they can spoon into, something you can use a fork with. It could be the fingers or something you can dip, something that's crunchy," Simone Hayward.
Yes! It can be done and without the use of oil too.
59 Stirfry Without Oil Easy stirfry with spicy peanut sauce.
63 Smoothie Bowl Staying indoors? Treat yourself with a healthy delight. wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
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WFPB ADVOCATES INTERNATIONAL
Dr Scott Stoll
Dr Michael Klaper
Dr Kim A. Williams
Dr Shireen Kassam
A former Olympian and now is co-founder and chairman of The Plantrician Project and Regenerative Health Institute amounst numerous other organisations.
Gifted speaker on plantbased nutrition. Teaches other health care professions on the importance of nutrition in clinical practice and integrative medicine
An American cardiologist and currently head of a Chicago medical centre. Vocal on the benefits of plant-based nutrition to cardiovascular health.
Founder and director of Plant Based Health Professionals UK. An honorary senior lecturer at King's College Hospital London. Passionate about plant-based nutrition.
Dr Michael Greger
Dr Colin T Campbell
Dr Pam Popper
Dr Caldwell Esselstyn
Founder of NutritionalFacts. org a significant resource in both videos and researched writings on the benefits of eating Whole Food Plantbased.
A biochemist and author of The China Study. He coined the term Whole Food PlantBased, at age 86 he is still regularly speaking at plant based events.
Founding president of Wellness Forum Health offering educational programmes on transitioning to healthier diets and lifestyle habits.
Author of Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease. Former Olympic athlete now directs the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. He, his wife and family are all strong plantbased advocates.
Dr Neal Barnard
Dr John McDougall
Dr Alan Desmond
Dr Dean Ornish
Founder of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and a very active member of the WFPB Community.
Dedicated to helping people transition to a WFPB Diet. Runs 10 day retreats for people making the transition to a plant-based diet.
Leads a Gastroenterology clinic in Torbay, South Devon UK. Advises plant-based dietary treatment for many chronic digestive disorders.
Founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research institute, California. Creator of the Ornish program for Reversing Heart disease.
8 wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
WFPB ADVOCATES Australasia
Dr Mark Craig A lifestyle medicine and General Practitioner in Mt Albert, Auckland, NZ. Founder of True South Medical and founding member of EBE.NZ
Dr Heleen RoexHaitjema A Paediatrician and Co-. Founder and chairman of Doctors for Nutrition. Based in Teringie, South Australia
Dr Luke Wilson
Dr Coral Dixon
A GP in Wellington NZ. Co-Founder of Two Zesty Bananas, Board Director of Doctors for Nutrition and coauthor of the BROAD study. Founding member of EBE.NZ.
A General Practitioner in Mt Maunganui, NZ. An advocate of preventative medicine and lives a plant-based lifestyle with her physio husband Brad and their two daughters.
Hannah O'Malley
Dr Martyn Williamson
Robyn Chuter
Dr Adrian Griscti
A clinical Pharmacist and founder of The Better Base in Nelson NZ. She has an eCornell Cert. in Plant-Based Nutrition. Founding member of EBE.NZ.
A General Practitioner in Alexandra NZ. Co-Founder of Plant Strong Living, Founding board member of EBE.NZ and Central Otago Health Services Ltd.
A Naturopath, counsellor, EFT therapist and Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner, Founder of Empower Total Health, Australia. Based in Robina, Gold Coast.
A rural General Practitioner in South Australia. He is a fellow of ASLM, and a Ambassadoc for Doctors for Nutrition. He counsels and educates on healthy living.
Emma Strutt
Dr Nick Wright
Dr Caitlin Randles
Dr Malcolm MacKay
An Australian practising Dietitian and Nutritionist. Founder of Greenstuff Nutrition. The Queensland Lead Dietitian for Doctors for Nutrition.
A General Practitioner based in Gisborne. Co-Founder of Plantbasedvideos with his partner Morgen Smith. Co-Author of The BROAD study.
A General Practitioner based in Auckland. Deputy chairperson for EBE.NZ. Passionate about educating on Whole Food Plant-based living.
A General Practitioner based in Melbourne Australia. Co-Founder of Plant Based Health Australia. He is Resources Advisor for Doctors for Nutrition.
wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
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" India has the lowest dementia rates in the world; they consume 25 to 50mg of turmeric daily, which prevents inflammation of the brain." - Dr. Sunil Pai M.D.
Turmeric
The healing spice
lthough common in Indian cooking, many Europeans A have still to discover the
incredible healing properties of Turmeric. This bright orange/yellow spice has been used in Indian cooking for thousands of years both for seasoning, and for it's medical benefits. Only recently has science grasped the benefits of the medicinal compounds within Turmeric called curcuminoids. The most important of these curcuminoids is curcumin which has natural anti-inflammatory properties.
Anti-Inflammatory
It has been found that inflammation plays a big part in most chronic Western diseases and that curcumin is so potent,it matches many anti-inflammatory drugs without the side-effects, fighting inflammation at a molecular level. Inflammation is the body's natural way of responding to an injury or infection, whether short term or long term. Some 10 wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
are obvious like a cut or sprain. However, some inflammation is built up over time like arthritis. Arthritis sufferers in one trial showed that curcumin was more effective than anti-inflammatory drugs. Research is starting to also look at the benefits of Turmeric on Alzheimer's disease. Once again, it is known that inflammation and oxidative damage play a part in the condition. Curcumin has been found to reduce both. Studies show that it can help clear plaque build-up, which is a crucial feature of Alzheimers.
your body's natural response is to send white blood cells and enzymes to the injury site to protect it from further infection and inflammation. Tip: Mix two teaspoons of Turmeric with water until it becomes a thick paste, this can be applied directly to the wound before it is covered with a bandage. The paste fights the inflammation and speeds up the healing process, with less scarring. Turmeric essential oils have been used on the skin to help with acne, again to fight inflammation but also to prevent scarring.
Antioxidant
Turmeric is an antioxidant that fights free radicals that cause ageing and many other diseases. It also stimulates your own immune system, making it a win-win.
For your skin
Something else Turmeric has has in store that Indians have known for years - it benefits your skin. Turmeric paste is used on wounds to help the healing process when you are injured,
The Power Combination Scientists have found that combining Turmeric with black pepper is a powerful weapon. The curcumin in Turmeric and the piperine in black pepper have shown to improve health due to their antiinflammatory, antioxidant and disease-fighting qualities.
Turmeric roots in smoothies Peter and I have been blending in Turmeric roots into our blueberry smoothies for a while. Our mix is: 1 banana | 1 apple | 1 pear if we have one | a thumb-size knot of turmeric root | a cup of frozen mango and around 1/2 cup frozen blueberry.
Crispy Turmeric Chickpeas Ingredients: 1 can chickpeas 1 tsp liquid amino 1 tsp Garam Masala powder 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp Cumin powder 1/4 tsp Garlic powder 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Method: Preheat oven on bake at 180°C (350°F) Drain liquid from Chickpeas (keep the liquid for other aquafaba recipes see P56 ). Mix chickpeas in a bowl with Liquid Amino. Add dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Place mix on a baking tray covered with a baking sheet or silicon sheet and bake for 45mins (stir mix at least once in that time). Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Great on its own, in poke bowls or salads.
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Aloo Gobi INGREDIENTS
METHOD
1 large onion diced 3 cloves garlic diced 3 cm piece of fresh ginger grated 1/2 tsp cumin powder 1/4 tsp garam masala powder 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/4 tsp chilli powder 1 can crushed tomato 5 medium potatoes - diced small 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock 1 medium cauliflower - cut into small florets
1. Heat 1/4 of the vegetable stock in a wok or large frying pan over medium heat. Saute the onions until soft then add garlic and ginger and the powders. Cook for 1-2 mins. 2. Add tomatoes, potato and the rest of the stock. Cover and simmer for 10mins. Add cauliflower and cook for a further 8 mins until potato and cauliflower are tender. 3. Serve on brown rice, garnished with coriander.
You can't be serious! t ' n o d y e h T want oil? n o s p i t t u o g n i t Ea a WFPB diet
hen staff on -educate the kitc 1. Don't try to re ely to oil. They are unlik the problem with believe you. ahead. nt menu and call ra au st re e th ck 2. Che ful, s can be very help Many restaurant an ve ll them you ha especially if you te allergy to oil. , it often in mixed company t ou g tin ea n he . 3. W hing before you go pays to eat somet n te of de dishes; they're 4. Look at the si if your meal s es tr ai w your suitable, then ask om these. can be created fr you. hoever is serving 5. Be polite to w hat you have to explain w Remember, they want to the chef. et and Go to happycow.n . ow C py ap H se 6. U will be p. Many of these download the ap ls oil, s which often equa vegan restaurant e of at be more consider but they can also your needs.
Vegetable Miso Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Method
1 packet rice noodles 3 cups vegetable stock 3 cups water 4 Portobello or Shitake mushrooms (sliced) 8 leaves from baby pak choy (cut in half length ways) 3 spring onions (sliced) 2 Tbsp Miso paste 2 Tbsp Tamari sauce
1. Use a large stockpot fill with the stock and water and place in athe rice noodles, pak choy and mushrooms. 2. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat, simmer for 5 minutes. Add the miso paste and Tamari sauce and slow bowl until the miso has dissolved. 3. Place in the spring onion and simmer for a further minute. Serve in a large bowl, sprinkle with chilly flakes.
14 wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
I
spent almost ten years trying to manage my Rheumatoid Arthritis with Cortisone injections, Methotrexate, Sulfasalazine, NSAIDs, Hydroxychloroquine, Leflunomide, Prednisone, Humira and Etanercept otherwise known as Enbrel they are the ones I can remember. They were the hardest years of my life, but now, I’m writing this because I want to say to anyone that suffers from the same symptoms I had; there is hope out there. After pricking my finger on a rose, the first joint swelled up. By the time I got to the doctor, the middle finger had begun to swell as well, but I couldn’t remember hurting it. A blood test confirmed that I had a high Rheumatoid factor, but I had no idea what that meant. The doctor did explain it, but to be honest, I didn’t think too much about it. Today I know that rheumatoid factor is an immune system protein that attacks healthy body cells. High levels of rheumatoid factor in the blood can indicate an autoimmune condition, such as rheumatoid arthritis. But I wasn’t ready to know all that then and looking back on it now, I realise I was in total denial. Rheumatoid arthritis - that was for old people, not me. About 12 months later, I started developing a really dry mouth. I had no saliva anymore, my lips were dry, my eyes were red, itchy and sore, and I was applying eye drops every day. People would say to me what’s happened to your eyes they look really sore (No Shit), well that was what I thought anyway. I put up with it for a while then one day, about 12 months later, I was sitting in a dentist’s chair. I opened up my mouth, he looked in and asked me if I had Sjogren’s. I had no idea what that was, and he told me it was a condition you normally have when you have Rheumatoid Arthritis. He also explained I would need regular hygienist appointments, so bacteria didn’t build up in my mouth. As time went on, the pain started in the middle finger of the other hand. Same thing, swollen joint, stiffness, red, burning and painful but this time I hadn’t done anything to cause it. Then it went to my feet. I had stiffness in the mornings, but after walking around for a while, it would get a bit better. It wasn’t long before I had to walk on my heels. I couldn’t put my toes on the ground due to the amount of inflammation in my feet. Sadly my high heel days were over. It got to the point where I couldn’t even rest a sheet on my feet because of the pain and, God forbid somebody accidentally standing on it! The pain was excruciating and would take up to 30 minutes or so before subsiding. By this point, I couldn’t do a lot of the
It started with a rose A story of personal recovery by Cheree Schiele
things that I could do before, certainly not without a lot of pain and frustration. Gone were my days of mowing lawns and cutting the hedges, and my favourite, water blasting! The vibration of the motors made the joints in my hands swollen, stiff and sore for days afterwards. I always knew I didn’t want to stay on these drugs forever and often wondered what else they were doing to my body if they were suppressing my immune system maybe. What else were they doing? I started understanding that the side effects (which I hadn’t had before), could be attributed to the Etanercept. I needed to look for other options and came across Dr John McDougall, the author of The Starch Solution and many other best selling books. I started watching his YouTube videos and began to learn about whole food plant-based and the many other doctors that were doing similar things. It made me think - how do I find a doctor in New Zealand that does what Dr McDougall does? By sheer chance, I was looking at the Little Bird Organics website and saw that Dr Mark Craig was going to do a talk titled ‘Sick to Strong’ so I booked two tickets and dragged my daughter along with me. Within 10 mins of listening to Dr Craig, I was on my phone booking an appointment to see him (he probably thought I was a bit rude being on my phone while he was talking), but it was something I needed to do!
A week later, I was sitting in his rooms, and he was totally supportive of what I wanted to achieve. To me, this was GOLD. We made a plan and had some catch-ups over the next few months. Not only was Dr Craig supportive, but he walks the talk, and that’s important to me too. So, if you’re sitting there going around in circles questioning the system like I was, then its time to do something about it. I started following the whole food plantbased diet and after a couple of weeks made a decision! I came off the meds. I was nervous, even scared! You feel like you’re on your own and it’s a big decision to make because you’re told you can’t come off your medication just like that! I usually took my Enbrel injection on a Sunday, so I decided one Sunday not to have it and just see how I went. You have to understand, normally I would be hanging out to have my weekly injection, but then the next Sunday rolled around and still no symptoms. Then I took another plunge and headed to California to do Dr John McDougall’s 10 day live-in programme. I figured if I was going to do this whole food plant-based thing, I wanted to immerse myself. I am no longer on any medication; have been pain-free for five months now and have my energy back. A whole food plantbased lifestyle is good for many reasons; Rheumatoid is just one of many.
wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
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Incredibly delicious whole wheat pancakes
Ingredients
Method
1 cup whole wheat flour 1 Tbsp baking powder 1 cup unsweetened almond milk 2 Tbsp maple syrup 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp vanilla extract
1. Mix together all dry ingredients 2. Add the almond milk and maple syrup then stir until mixed. 3. Let it stand while you heat your non-stick frying pan or crepe maker hot plate. 4. Add mixture to pan in 1/2 cup portions. 5. Flip pancake once several bubbles appear on the surface, cook for a few more minutes before setting aside on a warm plate.
16 wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
Whole Food Living Magazine - Covid-19 Special
Bubbles for everyone S
ix weeks ago who would have thought that a food market in Wuhan, China, could empty the streets of New York, take planes from the sky across the world and confine us to living arrangements we call bubbles. Now, as April arrives, we still struggle to comprehend the paradigm shift that's been forced upon us. Where will it lead? In this Special Edition Dr Scott Stoll expresses the hope that the crisis will help us all to gain a deeper understanding of what matters most - our health. It beggars belief that, worldwide, our health could have anything to do with who last touched the supermarket trolley or picked up the handle at a petrol pump. But that's what paradigm shifts do - they force us to review the ground on which we stand. It's life, but not as we know it and for many, unfortunately, it's no life at all. At times like this, we reach for certainties in a bid to understand what it was that put us here. As far as Whole Food Living is concerned, there are
only two issues on which we have absolutely no doubt. 1. That science has confirmed the virus originated in animals and 2. That those most affected by the virus are mostly victims of lifestyle illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, stroke and much more. A significant proportion of these illnesses all connect with what we eat. We don't deny that Covid-19 also takes some seemingly healthy younger people as well but generally, our older population is most at risk. For many years whole food plant-based advocates like Dr Stoll have recommended a diet free of animal products as the ideal way to strengthen immunity and gain optimal good health. It might take another paradigm shift but the others, we believe, are on shaky ground and Covid-19 looks set to burst their bubble. Peter Barclay, Editor Whole Food Living
wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
17
Whole Food Living Magazine - Covid-19 Special - Whole Food Living Mag
Would you like some help? If you would like help in changing over to a plant-based diet then contact anyone on the list below for professional and experienced advice. Please remember some of the medics and health care workers listed here may be busy and may not be able to respond immediately.
Internationally recognised plant-based nutrition expert, Dr Scott Stoll, has issued a series of clear and unequivocal statements on the benefits of plantbased eating in the face of the current Covid-19 threat. In a webinar broadcast on April 24, Dr Stoll encouraged everyone to “double down” their efforts and focus strongly on foods of known benefit to the human immune system and as well as those that reduced inflammation. Along with advice on what to eat and how to shop, Dr Stoll said it was essential for us to reduce stress levels and actively work on ways to remove FEAR from the current situation. He also had tips for health care workers and how to deal with locked in teenagers. The following are some selected excerpts from his hour-long address and its subsequent Q & A session hosted by Forks over Knives founder and president, Brian Wendel.
Understanding the data will help us to dial back on fear
Dr Mark Craig, MD Auckland truesouthmedical.co.nz 869 New North Road, Mt Albert Auckland, New Zealand
Dr Martyn Williamson Alexandra, NZ plantstrongliving.co.nz 616 Kaikorai Valley Road, Kenmure, Dunedin. 9011
Stephanie Wynn Online & by phone movinghealthforwardnz@gmail.com
movinghealthforward.nz Ph: +64 210 223 2618
Robyn Chuter Gold Coast
8 Auriga Court, Robina (Gold Coast) QLD 4226 Ph: 07 5663 9013/0432 766 884 empowertotalhealth.com.au
Dr Malcolm Mckay Melbourne
Consults within Australia Plant Based Health Australia wholefoodsplantbasedhealth.com.au
18 wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
V
iruses are not a living would be able to preserve the substance, but they necessary medical resources, reproduce, and they can cause so that’s why this was a kind of disease in humans and animals. first, an unprecedented event This coronavirus is part of a for all of us with an infectious common strand of virus that disease. we frequently find in animals, What’s really interesting and some of these viruses can with this Covid-19, because it is mutate and leap from animals much more infectious than the into humans. It’s called the spillflu, we see a much more rapid over effect. They’re also called spread. With the flu virus, the Dr Scott Stoll zoonotic viruses. They start in spread is about 1.4. So, if I were animals and can end up infecting humans. to have the flu, I would spread it to about That’s what we’re seeing here with 1.4 people, and if we did that ten times, we Covid-19. It’s part of a family of viruses would end up with about 14 people being called the SARS-COVAR virus family. This infected. one apparently mutated from the Wuhan What’s really interesting with Covid-19 animal markets, and now they’re thinking is that it has an infection rate of about it leapt from bats into humans, but more of three. So, if we play that out over about that research is going on. ten spreads, that equates to about 59,000 There is actually an excellent article people if we do the math properly. That’s that just came out in Nature on March why we see this rapid spread across the 17, 2020, that studies the DNA tracing of globe. It’s highly infectious. this Covid-19 virus back into the Wuhan It is not as infectious as SARS or MERS markets. about 10 to 20 years ago, but we are There are lots of general viruses that do seeing a higher death rate, especially in not cause severe illness, but this Covid-19 older populations. virus appears to be much more highly We are going to be reviewing some data, infectious even than the flu virus. We and data I think, will help put some clarity had the epidemic in 2009 with the H1N1 on what we are facing. I really hope that which was kind of a global pandemic. the data will dial back the fear because we With the H1N1 and the spread of the flu, see a lot of fear-based projections in the we didn’t experience the same level of media today. They are only projections. containment and shutdown of the world We don’t have the data to verify those that we are experiencing with Covid-19. projections. In a year from now, we’ll have Because they were able to identify it a much better understanding. early and they believed that containment
gazine - Covid-19 Special - Whole Food Living Magazine - Covid-19 Special
Facing up to the fear
W
hen we look at the research on fear and anxiety, we see several things. Fear and anxiety have a strong association with suppression of the immune system and a greater likelihood to get infections. A large meta-analysis reviewing 300 studies also showed that when people have chronic stress, chronic fear and depression, it reduces their cellular and humoral immunity – the very types of the immune system that are responsible for fighting infections and viruses. During this time, as coronavirus has spread across the globe, it has also gone with this fear that has been ramped up. And, if you watch the media too much, it’s very easy to fall into the fear. I want people to disengage from fear and move in the opposite direction. We don’t want fear in our life. Fear is nothing but False Expectations Appearing Real. It’s anticipation of an uncertain future and the dread that something might happen. Some of the ways we can deal with fear is to retreat back to what we know now. That’s why I started out by looking at the facts and understanding what we know about Covid, what we know today. We need to keep looking at the facts, the science and how to maximise our immunity, and how to prevent from getting the infection in the first place. And we’re also learning that when we have a healthy lifestyle, and we’re eating a whole food plant-based diet that is rich in plants containing phytochemicals and anti-oxidants so that our immunity is boosted giving us a very low susceptibility. So, this science, its data and facts can really help us to overcome this fear. By disengaging with fear, we engage in hope. Hope does some very powerful things. When they do functional MRI’s of people’s brains, and they look at the effect of hope, they find hope turns on multiple sensors in our brain. We begin planning a future and strategising how to get there. So, rather than retreating into fear, we start looking at the current circumstances and into the future. Now, this is not ignoring what we are facing today in this crisis with the pandemic and its challenges. It is about looking at the positive aspects of making better lifestyle choices.
We will get through this crisis. We will overcome this crisis. There will be an end to it, and we will be moving forward. Things will not necessarily be the same. Some things will be better, some things will be affected negatively, but as we move with hope, we actually begin to see possibilities and potential. Our brain will begin shifting out of contracting down and pulling in, which fear does, into expanding and looking at potential, possibilities and making proactive choices. I urge everyone to disengage with fear and move in the opposite direction by going back to science and data, going back to the choices that you are making every
day and look at the possibilities that are going to come out of this. For example, I was just talking with someone who has a business making fermented vegetables, and they were telling me their sales were up 300 per cent. The searches on Google for ways to enhance your health have gone up tremendously. One of the positive ripples I hope will come out of this is that people recognise that their diet is important, that eating plants is important, that taking care of yourself and making wise lifestyle choices is really critical and that we will see a wave of health move into the future.
Safety at an older age
Dr Stoll said there was no data on whether older populations that have been plant-based for some time were safer because of their diet. “I would hypothesise, and I believe, that if you are in that more mature population, even 70 to 80, but you are healthy, exercising, eating a plant-based diet, I sincerely believe that your risk of significant impact by the disease is very, very low. Probably about the same as the
population aged about 40 to 60. “As we look at those higher numbers in the 60s and up, at least 75 to 80 per cent of them are facing chronic disease. That’s where we see all the heart disease, diabetes and cancer. “So, it’s more than likely that higher number of death and severe disease in the aged population is due to the fact that they’re facing chronic disease and are on multiple medications to manage them.”
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Whole Food Living Magazine - Covid-19 Special - Whole Food Living Mag
Bifido Bacterium
Lacto Bacillus
Streptococcus Thermophilus
Lacto Coccus
Propioni Bacterium
Microbiome is ground zero for our immune system T
here is so much we can do to take back control of our lives with our lifestyle choices to improve our health, the health of loved ones and the health of our families. Ground zero for our immune system is our microbiome. The more we see come out in the literature every week, the more we see that our lifestyle choices impact the health of our microbiome. The microbiome is the 50 to 100 trillion bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal system that are impacted by our lifestyle choices like food, and habits and stress and exercise, sleep and toxins in our environment. If we have a healthy microbiome, it impacts the health of our immune system by at least 75 per cent. A healthy microbiome increases the ability of our
immune system to fight off infections like Covid-19. When we are eating an animal-based diet or a processed food diet, or sugar: those things can shift the bacteria in our gut within 24 hours and, over the course of three days, we can see a significant change in the types of bacteria that live in the microbiome. When we are making the right choices, those bacteria help to improve our cellular and humoral immunity – the types of the immunity that fight infections. We also see that fermented foods, shown in one interesting randomised control trial, directly increased the number of bacteria in the gut. In this trial, they saw that fermented foods increased the serum IgA levels which potentiate the immune system to fight infections.
Exercise boosts immune function T
here are some wonderful studies looking at exercise and immunity. In a randomised control trial conducted in 2018 that looked at two groups of people, one that were exercising and another group that didn’t exercise over the course of a month. They found that the group that exercised consistently every morning had far more neutrophils and leukocytes in their blood than the group that didn’t exercise. Neutrophils and leukocytes are really important because that is the active component of your immunity that would be responsible for fighting infections like Covid-19 or a flu virus or bacteria you might pick up from your children or someone at work. It showed that those numbers were statistically higher in people that were exercising on a regular basis. Through other research, we know that exercise has been shown to boost the immune function and to help our
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body fight off infection and recover from injuries. Exercise is a really important component of maximising your immunity. It’s also a great way to alleviate stress and take back some control into your life. This would be a good time to turn off the news channel and turn on a positive audiobook or podcast from Forks over Knives or someone else and listen to something that inspires you and activates you proactively into your future while you are exercising.
“I’ve got to adding fermented foods on my salads as a salad dressing as a way to get fermented foods in every single day. “Optimising your vitamin D is very important. If you haven’t or at least until you can get it tested, then at least 2000 to 3000 international units daily, and for all of us in the plant-based community, then a supplement of vitamin B12. Exercise, lowering stress and sleep are also important principles to maintaining a healthy immune system. “Right now, many people are quarantining themselves and watching Netflix and eating junk food which is exactly the wrong thing to do during a season like this. “We see that eating whole plants optimises the immune system in quite a few ways. It impacts the microbiome. “The bacterial populations in our gut, including lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, those bacteria are really important for digesting the fibres in whole plant foods. As those bacteria digest the fibre, they produce these short-chain fatty acids like butyrate. Those acids improve our immune system and they also turn off key inflammatory switches in our body. By eating whole plant foods, we optimise the health of our microbiome. The flavonoids and phytochemicals in those plants also stimulate immune function, help us to fight infections and dial back inflammation as well. Other important plants like shitake mushrooms and raw garlic have been shown to support the immune system as well and enhance our body’s ability to fight infections. Dr Stoll encouraged eating a wide variety of whole plant foods at breakfast, lunch and dinner and removing all processed foods, animal foods and sugar. “Eating sugar can suppress functions in your immune system for up to four hours. Removing that out of our diet is really critical at times like this.
gazine - Covid-19 Special - Whole Food Living Magazine - Covid-19 Special
Dr Scott Stoll: Working with teenagers over the crisis W
e have teenagers in our house, so we know some of the challenges of working with them, but you know, I think this is a great opportunity for us as parents to have honest and real conversations with our teenagers. Rather than just telling them what to do, try to teach them and educate them about how to make better choices. This is not just about them acquiring the disease. This is about them being part of a community that is trying to stop the spread of the disease. It’s very possible for a young person to be an asymptomatic carrier of Covid-19. Unintentionally they could be out in the community spreading Covid-19 and infect other people who are vulnerable. And so, what I would teach my children
is to come from a place of compassion and concern for those that are vulnerable in our community, especially the older population that is facing the disease. We need to do our best to protect them. You can say here’s the thing that we can do as a family, here’s the thing that you can do as a teenager to protect those people that are vulnerable. My family have decided that we are going to make some changes, learn some new things. We’re going to learn a new language as a family. We are doing two weeks of webinars and studies as a family. We’re encouraging our children to take this time and pull back and learn some new things but also encourage them to recognise that they are part of the solution for this Covid-19 crisis.
Hand washing, does it work? I
t certainly does Dr Stoll says, and he adds, as we’ve seen with Covid-19 and other viruses like the flu, these viruses are really passed through the transmission of bodily fluid. Covid-19 is believed to be passed through the aerosolised mucus particles from a sneeze or a cough that end up on hands or hard surfaces. On average, we touch our faces between 16 and 23 times an hour. So, personal hygiene is really important because if we are sneezing on surfaces and we’re sneezing on hands, we’re shaking hands with somebody, then we are passing those things along to other people. It makes for an easy transmission of those viruses from one person to the next. So, the science of hygiene has a lot of credibility and a lot of support. Good hygiene is something we all should practice on a regular basis. It’s simple things. Dr Semmelweis, who found the practice of handwashing with pregnant mothers, established the fact that handwashing saves lives. We should all learn to practise better hygiene. That includes washing your hands under warm water for 20 seconds. And to get a good idea how long 20 seconds is, set your timer on your phone, put it up next to the sink and then put some good soap on your
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Amazon Prime Search: The Big Fat Lie hands. Scrub them front, back, and each finger and watch the clock for 20 seconds. That will give you an idea how long 20 seconds really is. I think for most of us we do not wash our hands for 20 seconds – a little bit of soap on the palms, wash them off and we’re good to go. But this is an excellent opportunity for us to learn the
World of Pain
benefit of good hand washing. And with coughing and sneezing, we’ve often been told to cover our mouths. We do it with our hand, but then we don’t go back and wash that hand. The easier thing to do is cough into your elbow because it’s a part of your body that is not often
Search: Youtube An excellent 60 Minutes doco describing how all this happened and carries a warning that this might not be the last time we experience such disruption in our lifetime.
touched.
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Coronavirus: Can whole food help? Amidst rising concern over the rapidly spreading coronavirus (Covid-19), we sought opinions from some plant-based medics on whether a plant-based diet was likely to be of any benefit. Here doctors Martyn Williamson of Alexandra, NZ and Gemma Newman from the UK present their views.
E
at more plants! That's one of the messages UK plant-based doctor, Gemma Newman, says is essential if people want to do the best they can to bolster their immune system. In a recent online post, Dr Newman says in the face of coronavirus, keeping your immune system as healthy as possible is vital along with the following: 1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8. 9. 10.
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Wash hands frequently with soap and water. Catch coughs and sneezes with a tissue and throw it away. If you don’t have a tissue, sneeze into your elbow. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands. Avoid people who are unwell as much as you can. By eating more plants, you will increase your phytonutrients, such as flavonoids and polyphenols. Good gut health means a better functioning immune system. Zinc from pumpkin and sesame seeds. Selenium from Brazil nuts, Vitamin C from berries and citrus fruits. Anti-viral foods like garlic, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, elderberry and mushrooms. A vitamin D supplement may be helpful. Prioritise sleep Reduce your stress Stay hydrated Gentle exercise
Dr Newman notes that, according to a large Chinese study, more than 80 per cent of confirmed coronavirus cases are not severe. "To put this in perspective, Public Health England tells us seasonal flu has a mortality rate of below 1% and kills around 17,000 people in England each year."
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Less inflammation on WFPB diet could translate into reduced infection risk W
ill a WFPB diet protect me against the coronavirus? At the moment, we can’t answer that question at all based on available evidence. Coronavirus is so new and we are learning more about it every day. What does seem to be apparent is that healthier individuals are more likely to mount an effective response to the virus while the less healthy are more likely to get severe infections and more likely to die, just like the flu! Older people and smokers appear more at risk, the latter because they will already have inflamed and damaged lungs. We can only speculate at this stage. So what about us plant-eaters? Well, we know that we have less ongoing chronic inflammation in our bodies than those on the standard western diet (SWD), which could translate to a reduced risk of severe infection. We know that a healthy gut microbiome contributes to immune health and anyone eating WFPB will have a healthier microbiome than they would on SWD. In fact, these changes may occur quite quickly over days or weeks, so it’s worth starting now if you haven’t already. Also, animal studies have shown that some of the flavonoids found in fruits and vegetables provide protection against an array of viruses and show reduced severity of infection following injection of an influenza viral load following a bout of stressful exercising. This, in effect, meant lower death rates, reduced ill health and faster recovery. The same was found for apple polyphenols in a different study. A quick search of the evidence reveals multiple works linking plant-based nutrition with improved immune health. At the same time, I can’t find any studies demonstrating increased resistance to respiratory viral epidemics based on
plant-based nutrition. This absence of evidence, however, should not dishearten as there is no evidence either way because it hasn’t been formally tested, at least not in the searches I conducted. So what conclusions can we draw? Firstly, we can’t rely on our diet protecting us, so it’s really important that we adopt all the precautions advised. Secondly, we should adopt lifestyle practices which enhance our health and immune system if at all possible, and we should do this anyway whether there is an epidemic or not. It will only do our overall health a power of good. A calorie sufficient WFPB diet falls into this category. To receive the full benefits for immune health, it is essential to ensure we eat a wide range of fruits and vegetables – remember, eat the rainbow. And, make sure we consume sources of nutrients like selenium (brazil nuts) and zinc (whole grains, tofu, tempeh, legumes, nuts and seeds). Soaking and cooking will improve the absorption of the latter by reducing the impact of phytates. As well as healthy nutrition, we should add in regular moderate to vigorous exercise, while avoiding overload and exercise stress. (So a virus outbreak is not the best time to exhaust yourself in the local marathon!) Also, remember to love! Sounds simple yet we forget so easily. Each day practice being grateful for three things in life that day and express your love to those you care for—such an easy way to enhance immune function and well-being. Minimise stressful situations and overwork. Get plenty of sleep. Stop smoking and avoid or minimise alcohol. Go on, take the plunge and put yourself in the healthy bracket, you’ve nothing to lose and heaps to gain.
Whole Food Living Magazine - Covid-19 Special Health workers:
Be sure to keep yourself safe
D
r Stoll paid a special tribute to all health care workers required to work under the current strenuous and challenging conditions. I have many colleagues that are facing these challenges, the stressful environments of hospitals, the deluge of patients – I just want to say thanks to them for all of their work. It’s important, as you leave the hospital to have hospital clothes and home clothes. Obviously, lots of people change into scrubs when they get to the hospital but don’t wear the same clothes home that you worked in. Leave all of those at the hospital. That includes shoes. And again, proper hygiene, if you have the opportunity to shower before going home that would be
optimal but certainly hand washing. And, if you have hand wipes in your car then wipe down surfaces before you go home would also be really important. While circumstances vary, most hospital workers have been recommended to put on eyewear, masks and in some cases, more significant outerwear to protect themselves. Again, not touching the face. I want to stress that because it’s really important to break that habit so that we’re not infecting ourselves and infecting others. And you should work to keep yourself healthy. I don’t need to go into fine detail but making sure you get a good night’s sleep (7 to 9 hours a night) is really important. Turn off technologies, like TV etc.
Take care when food shopping Going at off hours is a good way to meet up with less people. If you are going to touch the handle of the shopping cart, make sure you wipe it off first. They usually have hand wipes in the store, but if they don’t, you can take some along gel to wash that off. Also, in regard the products themselves, the level of potential contamination with the products themselves is really pretty low. If you have concerns, the CDC recommends you can spray them with
an aerosol containing alcohol or Lysol or chlorine. You can make your own spray with a little chlorine and water if you have any concern about the products you are picking up. It’s always good to wash your produce with water when you get it home, then soak it and let it dry before you use it. Of course, if you are standing in line, just make sure you have that social distance to just take care of yourself and others during that time as well.
Type 2 diabetics urged to make a serious effort to change their diet The data shows that people who are living with type 2 diabetes are at a greater risk for the disease because the immune system is somewhat compromised, Dr Stoll says. So, it’s an excellent opportunity during this season to really double down on a healthy lifestyle. As this thing started ramping up, I decided to double down and make myself even healthier. So, if you are someone that is living with type two diabetes or type one diabetes, this is an outstanding opportunity and an important reminder that now is the time to go for it. And the good news is for people living
with type 2 diabetes is that a healthy lifestyle with a whole food plant-based diest as the foundation and some exercise can send type 2 diabetes into suspension and remission within two to four weeks. I would encourage everyone to log in to the resources at Forks over Knives, and we have great resources at planticianproject. org and seek out a really aggressive diet and exercise lifestyle intervention in the next month, and you will see an incredible improvement in your insulin resistance. You’ll not only reduce your medications, but you will also be decreasing the potential impact for Covid-19 to have an effect if you happen to get it.
Looking at some of the typical symptoms of Covid-19 The typical symptoms you might face when you encounter Covid-19 would be a fever, chills and aches. It tends to be much more related to respiratory symptoms so that that would be cough, shortness of breath and pneumonia type symptoms. These are the common symptoms, and they differentiate it from the flu where you would have fever, aches and chills but not a significant respiratory impact. The time to seek medical care is when you are experiencing: 1. Significant shortness of breath. 2. You start to notice a blueish colour to your lips or your nail beds which would imply that you are not getting enough oxygenation through your lungs. 3. You are really struggling to breathe or, 4. You have those symptoms, and you have significant other concurrent conditions like heart disease, cancer, diabetes and hypertension. In those circumstances, it would be important to seek care earlier rather than later. For most of us, it is not necessary to seek care immediately but, if we experience those symptoms, we should quarantine ourselves to prevent others from receiving the disease from us. It’s our personal responsibility to our community to dial back in our house for at least 14, maybe 21 days, take good care of ourselves, drink a bunch of green smoothies, eat a bunch of kale and rest and recover with fluids.
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Shared Medical Appointments:
M
uch like a consult in which I see parents and children or friends in the same room, I hold a consult for the group. There are different types of shared medical appointments (SMA). It can be anything and everything that isn’t urgent medical care. Obviously, not good for a heart attack or asthma attack. Some clinics run an SMA for whatever reason patients need to see a doctor. Those appointments will vary widely from day to day. The patients come together with their various concerns as they would do for any regular GP appointment. Each are consulted one at a time, while everyone involved learns and can provide support. A programmed SMA has a set educational agenda in addition to supporting patients to address their needs. I have run programs for weight loss, improved mental and physical wellbeing, as well as one for people living with Polio. I plan to expand my groups to address heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis as well as other conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis. SMAs are only limited by one’s imagination. How does an SMA work? SMAs are much like any consultation with a doctor, with a little bit of organising at the beginning of the first consult. Typically, the reception staff sorts the appointments. A facilitator runs the group and documents while the doctor attends for the ‘consultation’ aspect of the session. For my clinic, I am all of the above and I find it works well. The first consultation, medical confidentiality is discussed and an agreement to not discuss anything another person has said or done outside of the consult is signed. Of course, I am happy for my patients to spread good health information that I present. During the first consult, we all introduce ourselves and I outline the few simple rules to keep the consults running smoothly. If anything private needs to be said or examined, then the doctor and patient can leave the group room to a private consult room. For my programmed SMAs, I have handouts, informative videos and provide strategies to implement, to assist the group to achieve its shared goals. For example, the Gutbusters Program
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The group answer to dealing with several modern health issues
Dr Cheryl Wilson, GP FRACGP, Flinders BMBS, Dip SIM, B.Sc www.doctorwilson.com.au
(Healthy Weight for Women and Waist Loss for Men; information available at https://lifestylemedicineprograms. com/#aboutlms) is about understanding how our bodies and minds work, in addition to not only learning about nutrition and physical activity but also preemptively address possible hurdles or obstacles that trip up our good intentions. I also provide The Lift Project, an excellent program created by Dr Darren Morton. The Lift Project is available online at https://www.theliftproject. global/ and can be done in the supportive and fun SMA environment. It uses Positive Psychology, Neuroscience and Lifestyle Medicine to lift our moods and wellbeing to the best it can be. The science and research behind how we think, eat, sleep, move and much more are addressed and demonstrated in an understandable and fun way by Dr Morton’s videos. If needed, I can step out of the room to print referrals and scripts while the
group watches the video lessons. These SMAs run weekly or fortnightly for a set number of sessions. Each session addresses how everyone is going and introduces new strategies, techniques and education. In addition to watching the education videos done by experts in their field, I typically hand out further information that I have collated through my years of study. I prefer to provide handouts, particularly for important concepts, so when someone goes home, they can review it and be able to refresh their memory. Some of the programs have resources, links and downloads that are available online. Both the programs mentioned above have great workbooks that we can all work through together. I have a small ‘library’ of books that I have read over the years. I keep the valuable ones on my desk, so my patients can borrow them if they would like. I have a few different recipe books for people to start having fun trying new
Dr Cheryl Wilson from Berri, SA, explains what her Lifestyle Medicine training has taught her about Shared Medical Appointments (SMA), a consult option she enjoys providing to her patients. She says the concept is not new. It is common to have more than one consultation in a room with several people. Typically, it’s a family, with each person having a shared or different health concern, but the patients being consulted do not have to be related. She says not only are SMAs effective as a regular consultation but there is evidence that patients are more likely to achieve their lifestyle goals when they address them in a positive group setting.
plant-based recipes. If they find a book they like, then they can order one of their own. Often people are pleasantly surprised how easy a plant-based meal truly is. These programs and recipe books allow patients to move through and past their initial concerns about creating a meal that doesn’t revolve around meat. It’s great fun to see people realise that plant-based eating doesn’t narrow down their taste options; in fact, it does the exact opposite. Free of the ‘meat concept’ there are so many wonderful tasty foods and meals to enjoy. Why book an SMA? There are several reasons why SMAs are of benefit. I believe that nothing compares to sitting across from someone who is in the same situation as you are. They get it. Without saying a single word, they can relate to your experience. I believe there is something powerful in that, that I can’t provide as a health care provider. I can’t emphasise enough how much
I find SMAs to have a great positive atmosphere. The fellow patients pitch in with strategies they use and with support for each other. I often find myself writing down a tip or resource to share in the future. We are all learning. Everyone has something to offer. If someone expresses that they are discouraged or frustrated, others in the group speak up about how they share a similar experience and often provide good, supportive advice. As a doctor, I can go into far more detail for an extended time during an SMA than I could with a one on one appointment. This eliminates the time pressure. In a typical GP consult, I would give a handout on Whole Food plant-based nutrition. During an SMA, I can go into the details, providing tips, resources and answering questions. There is no doubt patients benefit from this and I truly enjoy being released from the pressure to hurry up and wrap it up. We are more likely to achieve our
lifestyle goals when they are addressed in a group setting and that is worth the effort of trying something new just in itself. With more people comes more experience, more insights and information. I’ve seen friendships made. Laughter enjoyed. There is nothing like sitting across from someone who is in the same or similar situation to know it’s ‘not me, it’s all of us’. Challenges? The only challenge I have come across has been recruiting men to the weight loss group. It’s a shame, as I know they will have a great time as well as get healthier. Some people avoid SMAs due to having participated in support groups that were negatively focused or had participants that tended to ‘just whinge’. That just hasn’t been my experience with SMAs. If anything, when someone starts talking negative, they are typically readily supported and encouraged by their fellow patients. To be quite honest, I wouldn’t be doing something if the benefits weren’t worth the cost and efforts. Though a program like this might not be of interest to everyone, I am confident that my patients do benefit from the advantages that come with a Shared Medical Appointment. I particularly enjoy the atmosphere of the groups and they serve as reminders for me to practice what I preach in my own life. I’m sure I am mentally and physically healthier for providing the programs. There is no doubt in my mind SMAs are well worth it. They will remain a core component of my practice. I invite you to seek out the Share Medical Appointment service nearest you and give it a go. What have you got to lose? More importantly, what have you to gain?
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Conversation Starters Apricot Almond Bliss Balls INGREDIENTS 1/2 cup raw almonds | 1 cup dried apricots | 2 Tbsp shredded coconut | 1 Tbsp chia seeds | 1/2 tsp vanilla essence | 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon METHOD 1. Place almonds into a blender and pulse until roughly chopped. 2. Add all other ingredients and pulse until chopped. 3. Using a Tablespoon make balls from the mixture 4. Place in fridge to cool for at least 1 hr before serving.
Date Bliss Balls INGREDIENTS 2 cups raw walnuts 1 cup shredded coconut | 2 cups dates | 1 tsp vanilla essence METHOD 1. Place walnuts into a blender and pulse until roughly chopped. 2. Add all other ingredients and pulse until sticky 3. Using a Tablespoon make balls from the mixture 4. Place in fridge to cool for1 hr before serving. 26 wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
Auckland move to establish plant pod I
n early March Auckland based MD, Mark Craig, hit the keyboard to send out the first formal invitations to a meeting he hopes will become a regular attraction on the city's growing whole food plant-based scene. For some time he and a group of supporters have been keen to establish an active 'Plant Powered Pod' along the same lines as similar groups in Australia, the UK and in the US where the idea originated. Despite all the preparations, however, he didn't mind admitting to some last minute nerves when Whole Food Living caught up with him in late February. "I just hope people turn up," he chuckled as he thumbed through details for the meeting currently expected to be held on March 28th at Grey Lynn Community Centre at 5.30pm, check for confirmation. Plant Pods are part of a growing international movement of thousands of people interested in finding out more about and or following a whole food plantbased diet and lifestyle. "It's a social occasion for family, friends and children," Dr Craig says, "and I would like to see it become a regular thing." He said the plan was to see others take over running the meeting and have it become totally community based. Plant Pods are a development of US
based PlantPure Communities and grew out of the 2015 hit movie, Plant Pure Nation. It aims to build stronger, healthier and more sustainable communities worldwide. An underlying tenet of PlantPure Communities is to get the word out about important scientific nutrition research, much of which was led by T. Colin Campbell, PhD., and detailed in the book, The China Study. Dr Campbell serves as an advisor to the organisation. Nelson Campbell, the son of Dr Campbell, is the founder of PlantPure Communities and directed the PlantPure
Nation film. The pod movement has been growing steadily. In 2018 new pods, like the one planned for Auckland, were being registered at the rate of 10 a month. By September last year registrations were being received at 29 a month, and coverage worldwide had spread dramatically. But in late February the background on plant pods wasn't the first thing on Dr Craig's mind. "I know it's going to be a lot of fun but, right now, I'd just like to know where we'll hold the meeting!" he said.
Tiny house village for Muriwai P
lans to develop a tiny house community at Muriwai west of Auckland later this year, have a whole food connection. The settlement is set to be established in an area of the Muriwai campgrounds and will become New Zealand's first tiny house village. Developer Kyron Gosse appears to have overcome what has been a considerable problem in New Zealand - how to legally provide space for a collection of tiny houses without falling foul of local government regulations. Gosse has come up with a business model he calls Freedom Village where residents buy into a holding company with
a licence to occupy. He says each house owner will own a share of the land and will also earn a percentage of the profits from the cafe to meet their expenses. His long-term vision is that owners will one day be able to live free from that income. His purchase of the Muriwai campground, with its mix of cabins and caravans, included the Muriwai Lodge Store, which Gosse plans to turn into a whole food, plant-based cafÊ. The former chef is already in talks with an operator – while the upstairs (see picture above) becomes a co-working space for the community.
Of the overall project, Gosse says "this is a place for visitors to Muriwai as well as tiny house owners, a place to meet and socialise, to collaborate and grow. " His plan is for 18 tiny houses on the 8477 sq m site close to the beach, all built by their owners. Because the houses are all on wheels, the village complies with the 1985 Campground Act, solving the problem for many would-be tiny house owners. The house lots are expected to sell for around $200,000 and are being handled by Bayleys agent and Muriwai resident, Jayne McCall.
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Bella explains how a diet change helped I
t all started in 2015. “That’s when I started to really feel unwell. Smoking did it. I’d had asthma since I was 26 but I thought I had that under control. “I was a heavy smoker, and it was the coughing. It started with the coughing. I was building phlegm all the time and doctors said it was more like emphysema and related to COPD." But then, from about her mid-30s, things gradually got worse. Now, at 65, Bella has been diagnosed with fullblown Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and when asked about the effects of COPD on her life, she has only one word to say, “drastic.” The way she ended up was a far cry from the person she once was. “I’ve always been a very fit person. I was always on the move, always doing something. That had stopped. “I was at the point where I had to stop and rest every 20 yards or something, so I could get my breath back. I was only sleeping two or three hours a night, and then I would wake up in a coughing fit, or I would wake up breathless. I was just not sleeping well. “It was all broken sleep; I was always waking up about every two or three hours to either breathe or to cough.”
For heavy sufferers, COPD might be slightly more bearable if only for its breathing difficulty, but a common feature of the condition is a regular stream of anxiety attacks. “Of course, that’s there because I’m struggling to breathe and I’m getting more and more upset because I can’t finish what I’m doing. I had to stop. I had to give up even making an effort. “I loved mowing lawns; I can’t do that. Or, I should say I couldn’t do that because I’m starting to do it now. Now I can do a lot of things again.” For Bella, almost everything changed when she became whole food plantbased. And, after such a long experience with COPD, she can now clearly identify what has altered. She can recognise what traditional medicine does and doesn’t do. “In all this time they haven’t changed the medications. I’m still getting the same medications I was getting five years ago. I was gradually getting worse, not better. They were giving me steroids.” Bella found out about using nutrition to help treat her condition when she was given a copy of Whole Food Living magazine last November. “It’s been a big change. I’m now doing
a lot of things I wasn’t able to do. And I can truly say I’m not stressed anymore over any of it.” The problem of stress is a major issue in COPD. It comes from the fear of not being easily able to catch your next breath or, of whether you will catch it at all. A combination of a sense of panic, frustration and anger sets in. Sufferers of the disease experience frustration at the loss of things they could once easily do and anger at themselves for letting it get this way. When she read the first copy of the magazine, she found that a comment in the story by Rajaram Raman P48 (WFL Issue 1) made all the difference. “I read it had done wonders for him, but it was the black cat in the basket story that did it. It helped me get rid of a lot of the food like dairy that I loved, LOVED. It was the way he described milk as being like puss. It reminds me. That’s how I see milk now. It’s just the way he described some of the foods and him explaining what some of those foods where helped, helped a lot. Bella says her family members are amazed at the difference they see in her. “They can’t get over it. They don’t see the coughing. They don’t see me struggling to breathe. The most
COPD: An outsider’s experience I
knew that talking to Bella was never going to be easy - and I avoided it for several weeks. It wasn’t so much what I thought she might say that ruffled me; it was the deep-seated memories I knew she would awake in me that bothered most. My mother suffered and died of COPD, and it was the most horrifying experience for all of us. The picture you see to the right is of a woman I never knew. This lady was healthy and had endless energy. If there is any recollection I have of her looking this way, I would have been maybe five or six years old. I was the oldest of three younger siblings. We all knew the person that left us on November 12, 1975, at the age of 54 was only a faint resemblance to the woman you see in this picture. Mum’s sickness was bad from my early years in primary school and only got worse. In the end, she could hardly walk up the hallway without gasping
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by Peter Barclay for air, and she often collapsed on the floor from the lack of it. Another tank of oxygen which always stood on her side of the bed became her only hope. And then there were the pills - just an endless array of them. All of them sorted in plastic containers. On a really bad night, she would gasp for air, get nothing, then reach for an inhaler on the bedside table. If she missed it or couldn’t find it in the dark, she panicked. Then everything would get much worse. In those moments, her anxiety seemed to increase tenfold, and the oxygen mask made little difference. The sound of her gasping for air was unbearable. Then we would hear Dad calling for the ambulance. Sometimes us kids never came out to see her off. We could hear them trying to bring “the stretcher” in through the front door, and we just lay there
thinking. “Is she going to die tonight?” It took years for mum to die. And, by the time she did achieve it, she had stopped smoking for seven years. Some days were better than others, but Mum was always sick. None of us fully realised that she was addicted to the ‘cancer sticks’ she so desperately craved. Funny how things work out though, she never got cancer. Chronic emphysema was her lot instead. At one stage mum was manager of the IHC workshop in Masterton. I remember some of the rooms there being covered in a fine white powder that came from the balloons they tested. That’s when the coughing first started getting bad but by then, so too did her smoking. Watching someone suffer the effects of COPD is excruciating. You wish you could help. Of course, you always try to help by holding an arm or hand, but they shrug you away because they know they can walk up those steps and why should
her COPD dramatic thing for me is the coughing and the stress because I used to go and hide so they wouldn’t have to see it, but they knew it was happening anyway.” Bella’s change has also had an impact on the wider family. “They’re trying to give up the sugar and dairy. They’re not willing to give up the meat yet.” Becoming whole food plant-based is not always an easy change for some but for Bella, it is worth it. “For me, it certainly was worth it. I did it for my health. I mean, I was at a point where I felt I was looking at death’s door. “Now I can actually mow the lawns, clean my house and do my washing all in one day. Before it was broken up within the week. It would take me two or three days to mow a lawn and almost all day to wash my own clothes which is not much.” Bella now believes medical professionals should be looking at suggesting dietary change as an option for dealing with COPD. “I think they should be looking at it. They keep giving us more drugs instead of advising us of the natural stuff out there.”
Alveola membranes break down
Normal alveoli
Emphysema inflamation & excess mucus
Normal bronchus
Bronchitis
It’s never too late to quit P
rotective cells in the lungs of exsmokers could explain why quitting smoking reduces the risk of developing lung cancer, scientists have determined. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, UCL and their collaborators have discovered that, compared to current smokers, people who stopped smoking had more genetically healthy lung cells, which have a much lower risk of developing into cancer. The research, published in the journal Nature in January, is part of the £20 million Mutographs of Cancer project, a Cancer Research UK Grand Challenge initiative. The project detects DNA ‘signatures’ that indicate the source of damage, to better understand the causes of cancer and discover the ones we may not yet be aware of. The study shows that quitting smoking could do much more than just stopping further damage to the lungs. Researchers believe it could also allow
new, healthy cells to actively replenish the lining of our airways. This shift in the proportion of healthy to damaged cells could help protect against cancer. These results highlight the benefits of stopping smoking completely, at any age. Lung cancer kills around 9000 Australians annually and a further 1600 New Zealanders each year. Smoking tobacco damages DNA and hugely increases the risk of lung cancer, with around 72 per cent of the 47,000 annual lung cancer cases in the UK caused by smoking. Damage to the DNA in cells lining the lungs creates genetic errors, and some of these are ‘driver mutations’, which are changes that give the cell a growth advantage. Eventually, an accumulation of these driver mutations can let the cells divide uncontrollably and become cancerous. However, when someone stops smoking, they avoid most of the subsequent risk of lung cancer.
Studies prove diet change relief from COPD
A Rawea (Molly) Barclay they need your help to do what they’ve always been easily able to do? Even today I’m still ashamed to think that mum’s death came as a great relief, for all of us. And I wonder, had we known that diet could have made one iota of difference, would we have changed? It would have been such a small step.
twin pair of studies from Columbia and Harvard Universities found that consumption of cured meat bacon, ham, salami etc. - may increase the risk of COPD. It’s thought to be due to the nitrate preservatives in meat, which may mimic the lung-damaging properties of the ni-trite by-products of cigarette smoke according to Dr Michael Greger. In his book How Not to Die, he says a landmark study published in 2010 proved that increased consumption of fruit and vegetables had a beneficial impact on COPD patients. The three-year study found that
patients eating a traditional diet got progressively worse, but, in contrast, the disease progression was halted in the group consuming more fruits and veggies. Not only did their lung function not get worse, it actually improved a little, he notes. The researchers suggested this could be due to a combination of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of the fruits and vegetables, along with a potential reduction in the consumption of meat, which is thought to act as a pro-oxidant. Whatever the mechanism, a dietary change is helpful.
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Lentil Shephards Pie
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
1 lrg onion diced 1 cup diced carrot 1 cup diced celery 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 tin brown lentils 1 cup peas and corn mix 2 cups vegetable stock 2 bay leaves 2 Tbsp tamari sauce 1 tsp mixed herbs 1 tin chopped tomato 5 medium potatoes 1/2 unsweetened soy milk
1. Preheat oven 180°C 2. Boil the potatoes in water. 3. Using a separate pan, add a small amount of vegetable stock and saute the onions, carrots and celery for 10 mins. Add in all other ingredients, other than the potato and soy milk, and cook for a further 30mins on low heat. 4. When potatoes are soft mash using a potato ricer or hand masher mixing in the soy milk to smooth the mixture. 5. Place lentil mix into a casserole dish, top with potatoes and sprinkle potatoes with smoked paprika. 6. Place in oven for ten minutes, or until the top browns. 7. Remove from oven and serve.
Crispy Rice Paper Rolls Ingredients 6 large rice paper sheets 1 packet baby cos lettuce 1 small lebanese cucumber (sliced into sticks) 1 large carrot (sliced into sticks) 1 can whole baby corn 1 red capsicum
Method 1. To stop the rice paper from sticking to your work surface, run a tea towel under water and wring it out, fold in half and place on bench. 2. Fill a large flat container, like a pan or quiche dish that is more than the size of the rice paper sheet, with luke warm water. 3. Take one of the rice paper sheets and drag it across the water. The sheet should still be firm but totally wet.
4. Place wet rice paper onto the tea towel and layer the cos lettuce along the middle of the paper, leave enough room top and bottom to fold in the paper. 5. Layer on top of the lettuce all other ingredients (two or three each) and then finish with another layer of cos lettuce. 6. Fold top and bottom edges down then fold in side edges and tightly roll up. 7. Set aside on a plate and repeat for all sheets. Then prepare the dipping sauce shown below.
Dipping Sauce Combine 2 tsp Tamari Sauce, 2 tsp rice wine vinegar and 1 tbs sweet chilli sauce in a small bowl and stir until well combined.
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Chance meeting leads to a complete change Going WFPB caused an almost instant change for Jackie Norman. In this article she explains how.
M
y husband Gareth and I never imagined that switching to a WFPB diet would change our lives! We were already committed vegans and had been for two years, but while we cooked everything from scratch and ate both healthily (at least, to the best of our knowledge), we were far from the stereotypical ‘skinny vegans’. In fact, we had both managed to cram on weight instead! Even with regular exercise, nothing we had tried seemed to make any difference, and for me, especially it was a little soul-destroying. More distressing however, was that over the past two years, I had been suffering from various debilitating health problems. Even after major surgery, I was still living with chronic pain in the form of pudendal neuralgia. In my case, this is a condition which causes severe nerve pain in the pelvic area. I have never experienced pain like it; it is hard to describe, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Prior to my diagnosis, I was bedridden for seven months and was understandably depressed. Knowing what was wrong with me helped, but I was on daily doses of Gabapentin and Amitriptyline, as well as Panadol every
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By Jackie Norman Four months after going fully WFPB, I was 12kg lighter and back to the same weight I was before I became ill. How good I feel depends very much on the food choices I make. four hours. I was no longer able to drive and the medications frequently affected my daily functioning when it came to being able to work. There was no rhyme or reason to my pain but I did come to realise that it was often affected by certain foods. Over time I cut out wheat, gluten, all alliums, high FODMAP foods – anything which seemed to result in a flare-up. While it helped, I was still very much controlled by my condition and the daily bloating I experienced really got me down. Sometimes my belly was so distended I looked at least five months pregnant! The more bloated I was, the worse the pain. We knew a little about WFPB eating but had always felt we were already doing ‘enough’ by being vegan. While we tried to cook with as little oil as possible, we felt that a ‘no oil’ approach was too much, too hard. We honestly didn’t think we could do any better. By chance however, we met a new friend,
Stephanie Wynn, who happened to be both WFPB and a Whole Food Plants Only Nutrition Coach. Over an informal dinner we learned different ways of cooking and preparing food and were instantly inspired. We never realised cooking without any oil at all could be so tasty, we had always thought it was necessary! Even more amazing though, was that Stephanie felt adopting a WFPB, oil-free way of eating could actually help my nerve pain. I was almost too scared to hope after so long that anything I did would actually work, but what she said made so much sense, I had to try it. The relief I felt from changing to WFPB was almost instant, literally within a couple of days. Considering how healthy we had always believed we were, it was amazing to realise how much oil we had previously been using – not to mention a little embarrassing now! By going WFPB, Gareth also stopped consuming most of the
processed foods he was so fond off, such as white bread and no longer had sugar in his coffee. The weight just absolutely fell off him; it was quite something to see. He lost around 10kg in two weeks! As for me, I also started to lose the extra 10kg I thought I was stuck with forever. Better still, though, I realised that I was no longer starting to need my pain medication as much. Some days I didn’t need it at all! The days began to stretch into weeks, and there was absolutely no doubt. My diet – in particular oil – and my pain was connected. I can’t begin to explain how it felt to finally feel as though I had some control over my life and my body. Before I was 46 years old, yet I felt so much older and at the mercy of my condition and my medication. I thought this was it. This was my life. I felt I was a burden to my husband and was full of guilt. I felt my illness, and his having to care for me was holding him back. Four months later, I am 12kg lighter and back to the same weight I was before I became ill. How good I feel depends very much on the food choices I make – but it is on my terms. If I eat something with oil in it, it is my choice, and I always end up paying for it physically and get a sharp reminder not to do it again! I have learned it’s really important not to try and please other people when sticking to a particular lifestyle or way of eating. Many well-meaning people offer to cook for me, and it is always so appreciated, but I have got to the stage now that I just have to explain how important it is that I eat WFPB and no oil. Because my medication has been so greatly reduced now, I am able to drive again, and I have my brain back! Gareth and I love nothing more than hiking together, and he says he is so proud at how far I’ve come in such a short time. Better still, my doctor was amazed at my blood pressure at my recent checkup and said I no longer need to take any medication for hypertension! I never imagined in a million years that something such as nerve pain could ever be connected to my diet. A chance meeting literally gave me my life back, and I couldn’t be more grateful. FOOTNOTE To contact Stephanie go to: www.movinghealthforward.nz
Coffee: relaxing & healthy? A
ctually yes! New research shows that coffee does have health benefits. In an apparent reversal of previous thinking, it has been found that earlier studies didn't always take into account that known high-risk behaviours, such as smoking and physical inactivity, tended to be more common among heavy coffee drinkers. In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, some studies have found an association between coffee consumption and decreased overall mortality and possibly cardiovascular mortality, although this may not be true in younger people if they drink large amounts of coffee. Its been shown that coffee may have health benefits, including protecting against Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes and liver disease, including liver cancer. Coffee also appears to improve cognitive function and decrease the risk of depression. And WFPB oracle Dr Michael Greger agrees. He points to a study done in 1986 by Norwegian researchers who discovered that coffee was associated with less liver inflammation. The results were replicated around the world, and in the United States, a study was done with people at high risk of liver disease - people who were overweight or drank too much alcohol. Subjects who drank more than two cups of coffee a day appeared to have less than half the risk of those that drank less than one cup. "Then, a 2013 review of the best studies to date found that people who drank the most coffee had half the risk of liver cancer compared to those that drank the least," Dr Greger says. More than 1000 active ingredients have been found in coffee and, in Dr Greger's view, more studies are still needed. He believes moderate daily ingestion of unsweetened coffee should be considered a reasonable adjunct to medical therapy for those at high risk of liver damage such as people with fatty liver diseases.
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Menstrual Pain Could dairy be to blame? For some women, the arrival of their monthly cycle can signal the onset of intense and debilitating pain. In this article, Dr Neal Barnard explains that there could be a simple answer and it affects men too. Peter Barclay reports.
T
he human body’s natural ability to heal is something we mostly take for granted, and many of us accept without question. Take, for example, a small cut or scratch to the skin. We accept that by putting a Band-Aid on it or rubbing an antiseptic cream over a scratch that it will be gone in a few days and we’ll think little more of it. But in an address in Whangarei late last year, international plant-based expert and researcher, Dr Neal Barnard, invited his audience to take a much closer look at the ‘obvious’. “It’s not the bandage that heals your skin. It’s in the DNA of your skin cells that begin the reprogramming that allows the skin to join back together,” he said, “and it also enables blood vessels to join back together and enable blood to flow again.” Doctor Barnard’s address covered a wide range of issues, but in the beginning, he first challenged the idea that we can’t change what we commonly accept as ‘fate’. “So many people imagine if you’ve got a heart disease, you have it for life if you have weight problems your just stuck with it forever. Or, if you have type 2 diabetes, you will always have type 2 diabetes,” he said. But research done by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and others showed something different. “What we started to see is that the body can heal. And the healing process is amazing. It is not just the skin, the bone, the heart; it’s many organs in the body.” Conditions affecting issues such as these were well known Dr Barnard said, but then something happened that forced him and his team to go down a completely different track. “I was sitting at my desk one day, and my phone rang. It was a young woman who said, Dr Barnard, I can’t get out of bed. I said what’s the problem and she said I have got such terrible cramps I just can’t move.
“Now many women get menstrual pain, but for some, it is just off the scale and that was her situation. I said to her, well maybe I can do some pain killers for a couple of days, but I started to think, how can I prevent this from happening again?” Dr Barnard said he started considering the symptoms she described and realised there was a parallel with women who have breast cancer. “Back in the 1990s, we were concerned that women that were diagnosed with breast cancer would have their cancer cells fuelled by oestrogen. Female sex hormones circulating in their blood were like fertiliser on weeds; in this case, the weeds are the cancer cells. “If a woman with breast cancer has extra oestrogen in her body, those cancer cells can grow and can spread. And if she has not had cancer yet, adding too much oestrogen to her blood makes cancer more likely to occur. “I started to think. If you have extra oestrogen in your blood that thickens up the lining of the uterus a little too much and then, when it disintegrates with the menstrual flow it releases prostaglandins that causes cramp, and I wondered, how do we reduce oestrogens? “What we knew about cancer patients is that if they go on a high fibre diet or a very low fat diet, the oestrogen levels will settle down”. Dr Barnard said they also knew there were oestrogens in certain foods, particularly dairy products like milk and cheese. “So, I said, how about this? I will give you pain killers for a couple of days but for the next month would you like to try a dietary experiment. And she said I will try anything. “I suggested no animal products in your diet that way everything you’re eating is from a plant, and it’s got fibre and keep oils low, so there is not much of any type of fat in your diet.
“A month later she called me and said this is the most amazing thing. Her cycle had commenced with no symptoms at all and every month she stuck with it she discovered that she was completely symptom free until she decided, at one point, to modify her diet a little bit and go back to some of her previous ways and the pain hit her again. So, she said OK enough of that.” Although the outcome was positive, however, it was still only one patient. “It made us think that maybe, there was something going on here. So I connected with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Georgetown University and said I want to do a test. “We brought in a large group of women all that had moderate or severe menstrual cramps. We split them into two groups. One group got the diet that I just described, and the other group were to take a supplement, effectively a placebo. “After two months, they switched. People who were taking the pill now started the diet and vice versa, and we found something really interesting, As their menstrual periods approached the first thing they said is we feel differently. What do you mean? “Well, normally I would have bloating and water retention, and that was shorter in duration, they had symptoms that didn’t really last very much. And they reported their mood swings were not so much an issue, and when their period arrived their pain was shorter in duration and lower in intensity, and for some women, it was gone. But one of the women in this study taught him a special lesson. “We asked all of the participants not to use any hormonal medications in the course of this study. By hormones I mean anything that will affect the body’s hormones like the birth control pills for example because that would skew our results and so if they were sexually active, they had to use some other contraceptive measure.
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“One woman in the study said don’t worry about me, my husband and I have not used any type of contraception in years. We wanted to have a baby, but it turned out that she wasn’t fertile. She said she didn’t ovulate and her cycles were so woopy they had not been able to conceive. “Well, the second month when she was on the vegan diet, she said, I have got bad news and have got good news, so I said, what is it? The bad news is that I have to leave your study, and the good news is I am pregnant. And it was true; she was pregnant, she gave birth after a nine-month healthy pregnancy.” About eight years later Dr Barnard said he ran into the woman again. “I was giving a talk, and she came to hear me, and at the end of the talk, she wanted me to speak to her three children. “The point I am making is whether we are talking about menstrual cramps or we are talking about infertility we are talking about hormonal conditions for which women will be paying someone an enormous amount of money for pills and treatments. He said the unfortunate outcome to all this was that not only was romance turned into a sterile medical exercise to find when a woman was ovulating but, “it may be that our foods are causing hormones to go haywire.” Dr Barnard says research indicates that dairy products are to blame. “When you take milk, the trace of the hormones in it can be measured. When you turn milk into cheese, cheese is much fattier than milk. So the hormones go with the fat.” The situation affects both women and men.Dr Barnard said researchers had looked at men that have fertility problems and found that men that consume the most cheese have lower sperm counts. “In other words, it looks like the female hormones that are in dairy product are enough to cause hormone haywire in a man’s body. Well, can this really be significant? Umm, the answer is probably yes. “Researches in California looked at women who have previously been diagnosed with breast cancer. It turned out the women in this Californian study, women who consumed the most high fat dairy from cheese especially, they had a 49% higher risk of dying of their breast cancer compared to women who eat the least high fat dairy. “A lot more research has to be done here. What we believe is happening is that the estrogen made in a cows body and is increased when she is pregnant,
Dr Neil Barnard gets into the milk. Then it becomes concentrated in cheese; although there are only traces, it is sufficient to affect the reproductive biology of men and women.” Dr Barnard cited another example of a young woman, an aerospace engineer, who had been stationed on active duty overseas for an extended period of time. During her absence, she had no access to cheese snacks, macaroni and cheese and craved them on her return home. Her friends took her to restaurants, and one gave her a takeaway cheese dinner. She ate cheese dinners regularly over the next 48 days “She gained weight, but she also started to develop some symptoms. Pain in her abdomen, that got especially bad with her monthly cycle. She saw her doctor and said I didn’t have this before so I don’t know what this is?” A laparoscopy revealed that she had endometriosis. “That is a special test where you make an incision in the abdomen, and you put a scope in the abdomen, and you look inside. So, the doctor looked at her abdomen looked around, and he sewed her up, took out her chart and wrote, endometriosis - cells that are supposed to be lining the uterus have escaped, and
they are now implanting all around the abdomen. “They swell with a monthly cycle and cause intense pain. It can also attach to the fallopian tubes and the ovaries and strangle the fallopian tubes and cause infertility. “ Various medical treatments did not solve her condition. Hysterectomy (complete removal of the womb) was suggested. The hysterectomy was scheduled, but before it happened, a friend suggested changing to a low fat vegan diet. Her friend had previously heard that low fat vegan diets affect hormones. “She started feeling a lot better. Her energy was better. She was losing weight, and her pain started to diminish, and it diminished, and it diminished, then the doctor did a follow up laparoscopy.” The doctor closed her up, spoke to her husband and said that her endometriosis was virtually all but gone. “And her husband said well you know she has been feeling great. She went on this completely vegan diet, no animal products at all, keeping the oils really low and ever since then she has been feeling so much better. “The doctor said no, no, no, no. Foods don’t cause endometriosis, and there is no way that a diet change can make it go away. This has to be a miracle. So apparently that is what has been written into her medical notes. She had a miracle.” “What am I getting at? In all these patients, you have oestrogens that have been out of sync from where they are supposed to be. And then, when we change our diet, things get better. “Now I mentioned one suspect, that is cheese and dairy product, and if you haven’t got dairy products out of your diet then let me encourage you to make a note to self to get them out of your diet right now. “I just can’t figure why humans felt that they needed milk from a cow anyway.”
Your Body In Balance Tour
D
r Barnard is touring several US cities this year to promote his latest book, Your Body In Balance. The book covers the new science of foods, hormones and health and its second chapter delves into curing cramps and pre-menstrual syndrome. He points out that while you may be tempted to select a chapter featuring a specific personal concern, he cautions against cherry-picking its contents. “The same nutritional solutions that help cramps or infertility can also have a powerful influence on thyroid problems or even cancer,” he says. Available on amazon.com
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How Not To Diet D
r Michael Greger’s recently published latest book, How Not To Diet, has quickly become a best seller - and it’s not hard to see why. For those of you not familiar with his work, Dr Greger boasts an impressive resume. He is the powerhouse physician responsible for the popular website nutritionfacts.org, has previously authored the international bestseller how not to die and its associated cookbook, and is a founding member and fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. I’ll be honest when I first heard Dr Greger was releasing a diet book I had little interest in reading it. I am very familiar with Dr Greger’s work, so I knew that it would be a stellar resource for those who were interested, but I thought (as I’ve been thinking for a while now); does the world really need another diet book? If these books really worked, why are there so many of them and why are 67% of Australian and 65% of New Zealand adults still overweight or obese? The parallels between How Not To Diet and your typical diet book, however, are few and far between. Firstly, this is a book about details, not the usual fluffy gimmicks often found in other options. This heavy tome packs in almost 5000 scientific references, all of which have been read and critically reviewed by Dr Greger and his team of researchers before being woven into the narrative of the book. Yes, it is a sizable text but don’t let this put you off as Dr Greger does a great job of taking complex science and distilling it into simple principles making it a surprisingly easy and entertaining read. Additionally, if you don’t feel up to the task of consuming 570 pages of text, there are ‘food for thought’ summaries at the end of each section that briefly summarises the science and provides practical advice for real-world implementation. The book is broken into five key sections; First, we take a deep dive into the causes and consequences of overweight and obesity while also touching on the array of ‘solutions’ we have implemented thus far to combat the issue. Dr Greger rightly summarises this section by stating that ‘until the political will is summoned to make industry-wide changes in
A review by Emma Strutt
Accredited dietitian and nutritionist Emma Strutt initially worked within the hospital system. She now runs Greenstuff Nutrition (greenstuffnutrition.com) and also works as a research assistant at a Queensland medical research institute.
our food supply, we need to take personal responsibility for our own health’. The next section tackles just that by walking the reader through seventeen key ingredients for the ideal weight-loss diet. In my work as a dietitian, I have seen the vital importance of proper client education when it comes to achieving sustained results – understanding the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ really helps the ‘what’ stick and this section does an excellent job of helping the reader really understand the science behind key weight loss and health concepts like calorie density, food groups, the microbiome and added sugar, fats and salts (just to name a few). Having this knowledge will also prime the reader to navigate the myths and misconceptions all too commonly touted in the nutrition space. The next section is short and sharp, moving beyond his seventeen key ingredients. Dr Greger discusses the need for an efficacious, safe and sustainable solution. Here he ties everything together in a neat, tidy bow and discusses the best research supporting a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet not only for weight management but also for its health promoting benefits. Special mention is given to the exceptional New Zealand trial, the BROAD study, which to date has achieved the greatest weight loss ever recorded at six and twelve-month follow up when compared to other such interventions published in the scientific literature. The final two sections discuss additional weight-loss boosters and
specific tweaks one may like to trial in an attempt to maximise the body’s natural fat-burning capabilities. The wideranging topics include chronobiology, intermittent fasting, sleep, stress, hydration and appetite suppression, amongst many others. Given the comprehensiveness of this section, even the most seasoned nutrition expert will likely find new information here. Dr Greger makes clear that not all 21 tweaks are scientific ‘slam dunks’ but presents the available evidence which then allows the reader to pick and choose what they may like to trial. You can now also find these tweaks on the nutritionfacts.org Daily Dozen app. I am aware that Dr Greger has received some pushback for this book; some are claiming he takes a reductionistic approach and is making a WFPB diet too complex. If you like to keep things simple and have no issues with weight then perhaps you might agree, but simply telling someone who has struggled with their weight to ‘eat more whole plant foods’ is about as helpful as teaching someone to surf by giving them a board and saying ‘go catch a wave’. Dr Greger provides solid foundations which may well be enough for most people, but also offers up an additional portfolio of tweaks and tips to choose from that could potentially accelerate weight loss. If you like details or appreciate having a thorough understanding of the science behind various dietary strategies, then this will be a book to add to your ‘to read’ list.
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The Incredible
er w o fl li u a C t s a o R le o h W
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R
oasted Cauliflower has become a very popular dish and an amazing centerpiece at any occasion. Due to it's shape and wide range of flavours when roasting, there are an impressive number of dishes you can add roasted cauliflower too.
Try the following ideas: Pizza topping | Toss through a salad hot or cold | Add to wraps | Mix in with other roast veges for a large feast | Break them into small florets and serve with a dipping sauce | Put into omelets | Make into cauliflower rice
INGREDIENTS 1 whole caulliflower head 4 cloves garlic 2 Tbsp tahini 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast 3 Tbsp lemon juice 2 tsp smoked paprika 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/4 tsp chilli flakes & sesame seeds.
METHOD 1. Preheat oven to 210°C 2. Mix all ingredients except the cauliflower and chilli flakes & sesame seeds in a blender until smooth 3. Prep the cauliflower by removing the green leaves and slicing the cauliflower as per photo to the left. 4. Place Cauliflower slices into roasting pan and baste with 1/2 the blended ingredients. cover the base of the pan with water/vegetable stock. Cover and roast for 30 mins. 5. Baste with remaining blend and cook for a further 20 mins covered and then baste with the pan juices and roast for another ten mins uncovered. 6. Remove from oven and garnish with the chilli flakes & Sesame seeds. wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
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Is the health and wealth disparity T
he link between diet and the impact on our health is undeniable. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes are collectively termed ‘noncommunicable diseases’ (NCD) and, according to the WHO, are responsible for 71% of global deaths, 80% of which are premature or avoidable. These diseases are closely correlated with obesity, making diet a major modifiable risk factor. Aotearoa New Zealand has the third highest rate of obesity in the OECD, affecting 1 in 3 adults. There is compelling data that unhealthy diets contribute to more death and disability than tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse combined with one comprehensive study attributing 1 in 5 deaths to an unhealthy diet. These diseases first noted in western countries have now spread globally, largely influenced by the spread of the ‘western diet’ via powerful food corporations. When talking about the population’s diet and individual food choices, it is important to apply some context. What actually dictates what we eat? Is it simply down to personal responsibility or education? Unfortunately, the bigger picture in nutrition is often overshadowed by tedious debates about the exact optimal macronutrient content of our food. The current reality is that the majority of the population has a fairly homogeneous diet pattern and incidence of chronic lifestyle diseases continues to escalate. NCD disproportionately affects people in areas of social deprivation. Astonishingly, our public health challenge in these areas has completely flipped in the last century, from undernutrition to overnutrition. Ultra-processed, energy dense foods more commonly known as ‘junk food’ are high in calories in the form of salt, sugar and fat but are nutrient poor. Unsurprisingly, there is a direct linear relationship between the consumption of these foods and the prevalence of diet-related non-communicable diseases. People who consume these products on a daily basis consume an extra 500 calories per day than those who do not. There is undoubtedly a consensus amongst nutrition experts that diets that incorporate more whole plant foods
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and eliminating or minimising processed foods and animal products are the basic principles of what constitutes a healthy diet. So if we know what a healthy diet looks like, why is it so difficult for us to shift towards it?
Factors that influence personal food choices and the obesogenic environment. Personal choice to a large extent is an illusion. Mainstream understanding perpetuated by the powerful food industry is that individuals make a choice with what they want to eat. If people are overweight, then they should just eat less or exercise more. But actually, there are some systematic relationships between larger socio-economic factors like inequality that constrains the choice of people to eat healthy nutritious food. This creates what is known as the ‘Obesogenic environment’ which is a tightly interconnected web of complex factors.
Physical availability of fresh produce Studies show, in areas of social deprivation, access to fresh produce is more challenging. Geographical areas where access to fresh produce is limited or non-existent are known as ‘food deserts’. Furthermore, the composition of food available in a supermarket is tailored to the level of social deprivation in an area. For example, there is less shelf space devoted to healthy food in more deprived areas compared to less deprived areas. Conversely, the proportion of processed and nonperishable foods such as tinned goods is higher.
Fresh produce is perishable A factor limiting access to fresh produce if you live in a ‘food desert’ is that these goods are perishable. If you are on a lower income and perhaps only shop every fortnight due to financial and logistical constraints, you will be more likely to purchase foods that have a longer shelf life and these tend to be more processed.
You would think that losing weight would be as easy as doing exercise and choosing a better diet, right? In this article, Dr Caitlin Randles explains why it’s not that simple. Source references for this article can be accessed from P6.
Powerful transnational food companies care about profits not people There is a linear association between the density of fast food outlets relative to areas of social deprivation. In New Zealand, 13.7 fast food and takeaway outlets per 10,000 people in the most deprived areas and 3.7 in the least deprived areas. These areas with high relative density of unhealthy food outlets are known as ‘food swamps’. Fast food outlets are a symptom of our current food system where the ‘free market’ decides what we
y down to personal food choices? The lack of regulation on marketing junk food to children is an obvious failure of the current system. In New Zealand, children watching TV at peak time (9am - 6pm) are exposed to 8 unhealthy food adverts per hour. Likewise, a median of 9 adverts for unhealthy food are found around schools. Sadly, the number of adverts is higher around lower decile schools. Children are unashamedly targeted through all media channels resulting in a failure of the self-regulatory system to protect our children and young adults. One study found exposure to unhealthy adverts, especially during school years, may have long-term effects on eating choices and contribute to poor eating habits in young adulthood. In addition, food companies have the freedom to use cunning and divisive marketing that is designed to deceive adults and parents. For example, in New Zealand, 26% of unhealthy food products have a nutrition claim on the front of the packet. This is designed to entice the consumer and persuade them they are making a healthy choice which is frankly unethical.
Economic factors
eat. Transnational food and beverage corporations penetrate a market by drastically reducing the price and increasing the availability of ultra processed, energy dense foods. These foods are engineered to be optimally palatable with the intention of overconsumption. This results in an increase in energy availability at a low cost. The outlets are strategically placed in areas of lower income where people have limited available resources such as time or money.
Food marketing shamelessly targeting children and deceiving adults
The proportion of household income spent on food needs to be acknowledged. For families in New Zealand on income support or minimum wage, food is around half and a third respectively, of household budget. When costing a ‘healthy diet’ as set out by current national dietary guidelines, it is unaffordable for these families. How can we expect these families to change what they eat when they simply do not have the disposable income to make the changes we recommend? Taking it further, if the income support and minimum wage does not provide people access to a healthy diet, we cannot be surprised when health inequalities continue to perpetuate.
Lack of time A barrier to good nutrition that is commonly cited in the literature is lack of time. Research shows that individuals and families that spend the least amount of time on food preparation tend to be working long hours or multiple jobs.
Furthermore, these individuals are more likely to prioritise convenience foods such as takeaways or ready meals that are heavily processed. By contrast, greater amount of time spent on food preparation within the home was associated with a higher diet quality consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. This is by no means an exhaustive list of barriers. What it shows is that the more deprived communities have far greater exposure to energy dense foods that are directly correlated with obesity and diet-related disease. The food environment is substantially more obesogenic.
What needs to be done? It is essential that our food supply and the obesogenic environment is made into a political issue. Otherwise, the health disparity between rich and poor will continue to widen. A report in the Lancet identified three barriers to policy change: 1. Food industry opposition 2. Weak government 3. Weak civil society. The rhetoric that obesity results from unhealthy food choices or a lack of will power remains a concerning source of stigma. It also continues to perpetuate the inequalities we see in our health statistics because people feel personal shame or blame if they are affected by a diet-related chronic illness. We need to put corporate interests and consumerist values aside and stop allowing powerful food corporations to decide what we consume. That said, improving health advice for individuals by educating and empowering people to make healthy food choices is also essential and will certainly contribute to positive change. However, unless we address these wider issues, health advice in our clinic rooms will be largely redundant. Upstream interventions through policy change needs to be a large part of the conversation. The default environment needs to favour healthy lifestyle choices rather than a postcode lottery. The individual food choice approach is failing us.
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Food: It's a visual thing, we eat with our eyes
I
t doesn’t matter whether the food is vegetarian, vegan or plant-based if you’ve got a plate of food in front of you that looks appetising then you’ll try it. That's the view of plant-based chef and whole food plant-based advocate, Simone Hayward of Inglewood. When it comes to creating great food, the eyes have it, she says “Most people won’t even question whether its vegan or whatever because it just looks tasty. So, I think the whole thing about being vegan or anything doesn’t matter. It’s a mindset. “If people are so used to having a meal that’s got three-quarters of the plate with meat or dairy and then a little portion of plants with a piece of grey broccoli or something, then they’re not always going to be happy about plants.” She says when it comes to planning a meal, rather than thinking from the beginning around meat and dairy “start by thinking what carbohydrates, what grains and vegetables you are going to start with. Then build your meal up from there.” “Generally, people, when they see a lovely plate of food in front of them they don’t ask what it is. The feeling is if it looks really delicious, then they think this is amazing. They just want to taste it. “And even before you taste it, it’s your eyes; now your mouth is salivating because you’re trying to imagine what it tastes like.” For children, Simone says the secret is in taking things like carrot sticks and providing lots of dishes they can dip into. “You need something they can spoon into, something they can use a fork with. It could be the fingers, something you can dip, something that’s crunchy. That’s what is important in a healthy plate of food. Simone says real understanding about eating healthy whole food still has a long way to go. “I think many people have a bit of an understanding of what vegan is, but I think if you ask most people what a plant-based meal is then they start saying meatless Monday or just eating loads and loads of fruit and vegetables. I think it’s only people who have done some research or followed my page or read your magazine that really understand what it is. “I mean, people still ask me two-and-a-
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half years on, why don’t we have any oil or where’s the oil? Or they say, it’s healthy. But we know it’s not.” Simone and her family went plantbased because she has sarcoidosis, an autoimmune and inflammatory disease affecting multiple organs in the body. For Simone, it’s in her lungs and lymph nodes and the chest cavity. “It flared up to the point where I needed treatment. The only treatment was steroids, and I thought no, no, I’m not doing that. And my doctor said I’ll give you six weeks and you do this silly thing that you think you can do with your diet and when you come back there’s every chance you will have to go on medication. I said, ok. “I was at the point where I was wheezing, and my kidneys were starting not to work so well. I didn’t know about plant-based at this time but a friend of mine, she’d turned vegan and she’d just done this juicing thing, there was a film about it (Fat Sick and Nearly Dead), and she’d lost loads of weight. “Then I thought, well you’re not eating anything, of course you’ve lost weight! But her skin looked better, and she was telling me she was sleeping better. Simone watched the movie but what caught her attention was the mention of
Forks Over Knives at the end of it. “I looked at that movie, and it changed my mind straight away. As soon as I watched it, I was on it.” At this point, Simone was still eating meat and dairy but, she says, what she focused on was the science behind why animal products, processed foods and oils are not good for your body. She was particularly struck by what the movie said about dairy. “It was the information about dairy and inflammation. And, because sarcoidosis is an inflammatory condition I thought, yeah that makes sense. I gave it up that day. I didn’t give up meat immediately because that was really expensive, so I wasn’t throwing it away. We finished off the milk but all the cheeses we threw away.” More movies like What the Health followed and in six weeks she had lost 8kgs. “The first thing I learned about going plant-based (because no-one tells you) was the amount of food that you have to eat. You eat so much food because you want to feel full and I thought there was something wrong with me or something wrong with us.” And, initially, her children kept saying they were hungry. “When you start on a plant-based diet,
Left: Simone and her daughter Janayah, along with some of the food she has made and features on her site, simonesplantbased.kitchen you do have to think of the portion sizes because the portions are almost double. It was so different because you feel satiated, but you’re not actually bloated, and I was so used to feeling like that. It was quite a hard thing to get my head around. “With children, you think about what nutrients you are giving them. You ask yourself what am I giving them - which is dumb really because why didn’t you think about it before? “I mean, nobody ever asks you where do you get your protein from until you go vegan and nobody cares about your nutrition until you go vegan.” Simone always had a desire to be a chef and had surrounded herself with different books but, when her thinking changed and she re-reviewed them, she realised “a lot of them are not that healthy. “It was just trial and error. Working out how much to feed ourselves, I was still in that meat, carb and veg mindset. I’d had 40 years of eating like that. Then I realised I could have six things on the plate or I could have eight things on the plate.” But when it came round to the question of protein, she realised she was probably already doing everything that was needed. “I realised that if we had enough variety of different foods, then we would all get enough protein anyway. The change in the mindset was the biggest thing, really.” But the change also had a big impact on her children, Jamari 13, Josiah 4 and-ahalf and Janayah, two-and-a-half. “Janayah has never had any meat or dairy, Josiah can’t remember how meat
and dairy tasted, and Jamari eats this way at home, but when he is out, he can choose. “With Jamari I think I’ve educated him enough so that he knows how food makes him feel. He’s stopped having dairy when he is out because he has realised for himself that he gets more spots. “For me, with him being that age it was about educating him so he can make a choice for himself. He can see how certain foods make his body feel, seeing it for himself and putting that together. But it is hard for him because he is at that age where he is so influenced by his friends and advertising that aims at his age group. Now, Simone has developed her own family hunger test. “If my kids tell me they’re hungry an hour after eating then it’s a sign that I need to look at not just what I’m cooking but how much they’re actually eating.” One dish she does that the family finds very filling contains fried rice and vegetable “but I add in tofu and potato as well, and it can also contain black beans.” Black beans aren’t always a favourite with kids but, Simone says, because the rice is black they don’t really see it. It puts good fibre and iron into the meal as well. “You need to be a bit more creative than just veganising your old meals. That’s what I did, in the beginning, to get everybody into whole food.” Her husband Stephen is a born and bred Kiwi and comes from a dairy farm near Hawera. The change was harder for him but, Simone jokingly admits, “he didn’t
have a lot of choice. It was grin and bear it really because I do all the cooking. “We did agree that when he was out, he could choose what he wants. And I thought that was ok because if he eats one time when he is out he eats four times at home. So, what’s better? It was a compromise for me, but it was better than him having to hide that he was having a pie or whatever or even resenting me for trying to get him to change. “But now he’s fine with it. He comes home and often his workmates are all saying ah that looks really good, or could I have some. No, he’s quite proud now. He’s lost weight and feels a lot better.” Simone started her web site to share her family’s journey. She also wanted to prove a point and educate people about the health benefits of being plant-based. “You can eat healthy but still have it fun. Healthy food does not have to be boring, it’s not all just salads and chickpeas, although we do eat a lot of those!” As a social worker, Simone’s efforts centre on helping people make more positive choices. And, she’s well aware of how expensive food can be for families. “Things like lentils and rice and all those other grains aren’t necessarily expensive, and they go a long way. It’s just a matter of knowing what to do with them and how to flavour the food to make it taste good. “For us, I think it’s about educating and inspiring people to try plant-based food because you can make it really appealing and really tasty.”
Don’t forget your microgreens! W
e all know that eating up your greens is essential for good health, our gut health thrives on rich greens to help fuel growth of healthy gut bacteria. Microgreens are seedlings of vegetables and herbs that are picked while they are still young. The plants you can grow as microgreens are limitless. A large selection can be found at shoots.co.nz. Microgreens are packed with far more nutrients than when you grow the same plant to its full height. Research has shown that they contain more variety of polyphenols, vitamins, antioxidants and minerals than their mature plants. Polyphenols are found to help lower risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and certain types of cancers, where the
antioxidants help to reduce stress and enhance cellular sugar intake for diabetes. Microgreens can be grown indoors using pods hydroponically like those found at micropod.nz. They are ideal for tiny homes or apartment dwellers and can be grown all year round. Very quick to grow and harvest in less than two weeks. They use very little water compared to maturing the plants to their full size. Great for salads or added to sandwiches and wraps, they have a strong, rich flavour so are fantastic for garnishing pizzas and soups. Microgreens are now used often by restaurants for added visual presentation and because they add a real zing to dishes. Just a hint of mustard or a clip of coriander
can totally transform the dish. Dr Qin Wang, assistant professor at the University of Maryland, USA, found that the microgreens of red cabbage, coriander and radish were four to 40 fold more concentrated with nutrients than their mature counterparts. “For example, red cabbage microgreens had 40 times more vitamin E and six times more vitamin C than mature red cabbage. Coriander (cilantro) microgreens had three times more beta-carotene than mature coriander,” Dr Wang said. “Because microgreens are harvested right after germination, all the nutrients they need to grow are there.” When harvested at the right time, Dr Wang says microgreens come packed with nutrients, great flavour and good texture.
Spoiled for choice
Y
ou can grow them in boxes or on the window sill and when it comes to deciding what you want you are spoiled for choice. Here’s a short list: Basil, Kale, Broccoli, Pak choy, Peashoots, Rocket, Mustard, Watercress, Coriander, Radish Dill, Lemon Balm, Arugula
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Microgreen that salad A
dd some zing to your green salads with some wisely selected micro greens tossed through.
Try adding some radish and mustard greens or some lemon basil and pea shoots. It can really make the difference to the taste of the salad while also increasing the nutrient concentration in every bite. Experiment and enjoy!
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Y
ou may never have stopped to think about it, but every time you become unwell in just about any way, inflammation plays a key role. That role is obvious in diseases like arthritis – inflammation of the joints – but perhaps less obvious in others. For example, a major symptom of the common cold is rhinitis, or inflammation of the nasal passages, which is triggered by an immune response to viral infection1. Ischaemic heart disease – the clogging of arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle with a cholesterol-laden plaque, which can lead to angina and heart attacks – is driven by inflammation of the inner lining of the blood vessels2. Certain types of cancer can be initiated by chronic inflammation, and all types rely on inflammatory processes to grow and spread3. Fatigue, a feeling of exhaustion, weakness, weariness, sleepiness, and irritability, is strongly correlated with high levels of inflammatory chemicals throughout the body, including inside the brain4. Depression is also associated with elevated levels of inflammatory chemicals inside the brain, and throughout the body5. Inflammation also plays a key role in obesity. Fat cells, especially those that comprise visceral adipose tissue (VAT), the type of fat that is stored deep under the skin in the abdominal cavity, produce inflammatory chemicals which induce insulin resistance, making it harder for you to lose weight6. Furthermore, obesity itself may contribute to depression, and not just because people feel bad about buying their clothes in the plus-size department, but because the inflammation generated by excessive body fat stores affects brain function by interfering with the metabolism of neurotransmitters (chemicals that nerve cells use to communicate with each other, and with muscle and gland cells), and ramping up the activity of stress hormones7. So what is inflammation, what’s driving all this inflammation underlying common health complaints, and what can we do about it?
Fuelling the inflammation fire Inflammation is a response by the body’s immune system to a perceived threat, such as invading bacteria or viruses, or tissue damage. It is a powerful defence mechanism that evolved to protect us against infection, and to initiate the healing process. The inflammatory response is initiated by chemicals released by certain types of white blood cells – the ‘soldier cells’ of our bodies – which cause:
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n o i t a m Inflam
why you are fat, sick, tired, Based in Robina on Queensland's Gold Coast, Robyn Chuter has over 24 years clinical experience in solving complex and chronic health problems. She offers consultations in person or by telephone and Zoom. In this article, she explores some of the key inflammation drivers in our diet and gives answers on dealing with them. For more information check out her website www.empowertotalhealth.com.au
References
To review reference annotations stated in this article go to P6. 1.
Increased blood flow to the affected or damaged area; 2. An influx of fluid, proteins, and white blood cells from the general circulation to the site of tissue damage; and 3. Increased permeability of blood vessels so that defence and repair cells can slip through the blood vessel wall and enter the threatened tissue to carry out their work. When we catch a cold, sprain our ankle or cut our finger, the inflammatory response lasts only a few days, and resolves once the cold virus has been fought off, or the tissue damage has been sufficiently repaired. This is known as acute inflammation. The symptoms we experience during the acute inflammatory response, such as fever, pain, fatigue, headache and sensitivity to touch, are unpleasant but temporary, and will resolve once the inflammatory process has done its job. Think of these symptoms as purposeful, intelligent messages from your body, instructing you to rest, avoid using the injured body part, or stay away from people whom you might infect! Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, occurs when the inflammatory response is unable to complete its mission of fighting off infection or repairing tissue, or when it gets its wires crossed and starts attacking your own tissue as if it was a
foreign invader (autoimmunity). This can happen if a virus or bacteria is able to outmanoeuvre your immune system, or if a tissue is subjected to ongoing triggers of inflammation. One of the strongest triggers of inflammation is endotoxin, otherwise known as lipolysaccharide, a component of the cell wall of many types of bacteria. While you might think that exposure to infectious disease would be the primary source of this threat, many animal foods such as pork, turkey, cheese, yoghurt and ice cream contain significant quantities of endotoxin – and this endotoxin is not destroyed by cooking, nor by stomach acid or digestive enzymes8. When researchers exposed human white blood cells to 27 different foods (fruit, vegetables, dairy products, meat and processed foods), they found that several of the meats, dairy products and processed foods (notably, chocolate) contained endotoxin, and that these foods cause white blood cells to release inflammatory chemicals9. The researchers speculated that: “The occasional ingestion of meals high in LPS [lipopolysaccharide] and/or BLP [bacterial lipopeptide – another immuneactivating compound produced by some bacteria] could promote transient, mild, systemic inflammatory episodes that predispose subjects to the development of atherosclerosis and insulin resistance.” I would add that for many people,
depressed, in pain and what to do about it
consumption of these inflammationgenerating foods is anything but occasional. A typical day’s food intake for many people includes yoghurt at breakfast, a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, and burgers or Bolognese sauce made from minced meat for dinner, followed by chocolate or ice cream (or both!). Such a menu provides multiple ‘hits’ of transient inflammation, with each one wave of inflammation just beginning to subside as the next begins. It’s worth emphasising here that the bacterial substances that set off inflammatory reactions were found to be “minimal or undetectable in fresh fruit and vegetables.” This research adds to the insights gained from previous studies, which found that a single fast food meal containing egg and sausage induced inflammation in the arteries of healthy young people, that persisted for more than 6 hours afterwards10; while a meal containing animal fat caused inflammation in the lungs of healthy people, leading the researchers to speculate that regular intake of such foods may contribute to chronic inflammatory lung and airway disease, including asthma11. Endotoxin isn’t the only dietary culprit in inflammation. A study examining levels of inflammatory markers after intake of different foods found that people who consumed cream experienced not just increased levels of endotoxin, but also of the inflammatory markers NF-kappaB and TNF-alpha. On the other hand, in those given a glucose (sugar) solution to drink, NF-kappaB and TNF-alpha levels rose but endotoxin did not. Neither orange juice nor water caused any rise in inflammatory chemicals12. One of the most fascinating links in
the inflammatory chain involves the role of excess body fat stores, particularly the visceral fat that accumulates in the abdominal cavity. While adipose tissue’s raison d ‘être is to store fat, if visceral fat cells become ‘overstuffed’ with fat, they start to release cell signalling molecules called adipocytokines, or simply adipokines. These include interleukin (IL) 6, tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), and their effect is to drive white blood cells into fat tissue and set up a chronic inflammatory state.13 And the problem of excess visceral fat is not confined to people who are overweight or obese. Even normal weight people can be ‘thin-outside-fat-inside’, or TOFI. Fortunately, a low fat wholefood plantbased diet has been found to significantly reduce both overall fat stores, and visceral fat, in just 16 weeks - without restricting food intake.14 The bottom line here is that the major determinant of inflammation levels in our bodies – which in turn determines our risk of disease – is something completely under our control: our daily food intake. And while consumption of whole, unrefined plant foods is linked to lower risk of inflammation-related disease15, consumption of animal products and refined carbohydrates has the reverse effect – in spades.
Sins of omission & commission I often describe the effects of dietary choices to my clients with a tongue-incheek reference to the Catholic church’s concepts of sins of omission and sins of commission. Sins of commission are bad things which we know are bad but choose to do anyway, while sins of omission are good things we can and should do but fail to do. Interestingly, Catholic theologians
don’t consider either type to be more ‘sinful’ than the other; both kinds are equally pernicious. In my analogy, the Western dietary pattern, with its heavy reliance on processed grains, sugar and animal products, and only token amounts of fresh, unprocessed plant foods, leads us to commit both sins of dietary omission and commission: •
When we fail to consume ample amounts of fruits and vegetables, we omit from our diets the abundance of anti-inflammatory compounds – such as carotenoids and flavonoids – that they contain.
•
And conversely, when we eat eggs, yoghurt, beef, chicken, white bread and soft drinks, we load our bodies up with highly inflammatory substances, and the ‘punishment for our sins’ is the disease processes that eventually result: heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disease, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, depression, skin disorders and a host of other nasties.
Healthy eating is a package deal. It’s not just a matter of eating some token ‘goodfor-you’ foods to expiate your dietary guilt (like having some iceberg lettuce on your white-bread cheese-and-ham sandwich); you have to minimise or avoid the ‘bad-foryou’ foods as well. Fortunately, renouncing your dietary sins need not mean a life without culinary pleasure. Healthy food that fights inflammation is attractive to all the senses, enjoyable to eat, and imbues your body and mind with vitality and joy – just check out the delicious recipes in this magazine!
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Raw Beetroot Salad
INGREDIENTS Salad 1 large beetroot, peeled & grated 2 apples, grated small 2 carrots grated 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 1 cup mint leaves, chopped 1 can kidney beans Dressing 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 Tbsp lemon juice 1 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce 1 Tbsp maple syrup
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METHOD 1. Mix dressing ingredients and refrigerate 2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients and mix 3. Pour over the dressing and serve
DON'T FORGET
the old staples
W
hen many of us take on a WFPB diet we sometimes think that the old food we were used to as a kids is no longer available to us. But a lot of our old staples are still available.. A good classic summer dish is the tomato, onion, cucumber in malt vinegar. The combination of tastes in a wholemeal bun or bread with some lettuce and chutney just can not be beaten.
Ingredients 4 Tomatoes 1 large brown onion 1/2 telegraph cucumber Malt vinegar
Method Slice up the tomatoes, onion and cucumber and place them in a serving bowl. Cover with Malt Vinegar, then turn over the food so all is coated. Refrigerate until ready to serve. wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
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How to succeed in changing C
hange can be challenging. We like familiar, routine, stable situations for the survival advantages it represented in evolution. But we have to be cautiously open to novel ideas and opportunities as they can also deliver significant benefits. The same is true now as it was 100,000 years ago when much of our physiology and behaviour had evolved. Those wanting to change to a whole food plant-based diet will undoubtedly attain a survival health benefit, but there is the hurdle of change - what do I now need to buy, prepare and eat, how do I cook it, will I be deficient in anything, how do I deal with eating out and social situations and so on. I see many people for consultations who are interested in changing to a plant-based diet but need a hand in doing so. Psychologist Doug Lisle, who works at the incredible True North Health Centre in Santa Rosa California, compares transitioning to a whole plant foods diet, in a world where unhealthy processed and animal product laden foods are the norm, with learning to drive backwards, i.e. it can be done by just about everyone, but you have to concentrate and maintain some discipline while you do so.
Knowing your ‘Why’ I take some time when I meet a new person for help with transitioning their diet, to understand their reason for wanting to change and the context of these changes in their life. Some people have conflicting or competing interests that may hinder their ability to truly make sustainable changes and it’s important for them to become aware of these in order to address them. Sometimes, indeed, people just aren’t ready to make a full transition to a plant-based diet, and so gentle encouragement to address these outstanding issues, while making more gradual or small changes in their diet, is the right thing to do. It is better to make small gradual changes in the right direction than to shoot for the moon, fail and give up completely. Different personality types also transition in different ways. Some are more all or nothing, like me, and transition completely in a short time, while others do so over a longer more gradual time period. I ask my patients two questions right
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Dr Mark Craig is often asked about making the change to a plant-based diet and explains that your success centres on your personality type. In this article he offers some incites on understanding different personality types and how they are likely to handle the shift.
at the start when they come to see me for help with transitioning to gauge where they are in the behaviour change cycle. They score out of 10, each: 1. How motivated are you to change your diet? (‘how sold are you on the diet’), and 2. How likely do you feel that you will succeed? This makes explicit the subconscious thought processes the person is having and reservations about their ability to ‘succeed’. It can then guide us to find out what these are and address these concerns.
Stages of behaviour change Behaviour change is a much studied psychology subject matter and there are many models to describe the processes one might go through in making changes. This has been particularly studied for many addictions such as smoking and drinking, but now also for dietary improvements. One of the most well known models is The Transtheoretical or ‘Stages of change’ model. It describes the stages of intentional behaviour change a person will go through: 1. Precontemplation - where people are not aware of the need to change their diet for their health 2. Contemplation - weighing up the pros and cons of changing, no decision made as yet as to whether to do so. May involve reading internet information and watching documentaries such as Forks over Knives. 3. Preparation - decision made and getting ready to make a change within 30 days - involves more detailed reading up on what to eat, recipes and cooking and where to get your nutrients.
4. Action - change has been made recently, i.e. adopting the diet 5. Maintenance - continuing healthpromoting behaviour strategies (e.g. having a routine for buying and making food, and preventing relapses back to the previous diet 6. Termination - where there is no desire to revert to the previous diet My frustration as a doctor with definite knowledge of the huge health benefits of changing to a whole foods plant-based diet, is seeing people who are not ready for change, knowing that they could make great heath gains if they did so, but not having the time, resources or follow up to spend with people to introduce the idea to them. Normal GP appointments are 15 minutes long, barely enough time to get a basic understanding of a person’s reason for attending. They then end up getting the usual medications for their conditions and not much changes. Nevertheless, I always try, even briefly, to mention the health benefits to patients of a plant-based diet, either as an alternative to medications or as in addition, in the hope that some will take it on board. Some do, and often not necessarily the people one might expect sometimes. This can be very rewarding when it happens, but I call this approach the equivalent of telephone ‘cold calling’ throwing the idea at a lot of people (I may see up to 25+ patients a day) and seeing who it sticks with. The above frustrations are why I started my own longer nutritional consulting/coaching appointments for people who have gone through the stages of pre-contemplation and contemplation by themselves and at either the preparation, action or even
to a healthy plant-based diet maintenance stages. These people often need specific help, including affirmation that what they are doing is right, tips for what to eat and not eat, useful resources and aids (e.g. recipe books, meal plans, reliable nutrient intake information), answers to specific nutritional disease questions, accountability and encouragement. It is extremely rewarding to take people through this process and the beneficial outcome of these changes are that the success stories sell the diet on to others considering similar changes. As Dr Michael Klaper says, “a whole foods plant-based diet is a bit like a hatpin in a cloth sack. Sooner or later the point comes out”.
Personality affects change While I am talking with a person wishing to change diet, I am also assessing their personality type. Certain personality types are very successful at making and maintaining changes whilst other types struggle. Doug Lisle describes the following Big Five personality traits as being most conducive to help transition, in his talk entitled ‘Getting along without going along’ (on Youtube): 1. Being not very open to new ideas or suggestions 2. Being very conscientious 3. Being much more introvert than extrovert 4. Being not very agreeable with others (a good thing here!) 5. Being very psychologically / emotionally stable. People who are very open to new ideas or suggestions are not very conscientious, more extrovert, very agreeable (go along with other people’s suggestions easily), and psychologically less stable find it hard to make changes that stick. If you do have the above vulnerabilities (not ‘flaws’) in your personality type, then you can still make the desired changes, but you may need to use strategies to help you succeed. For example, if you are too agreeable or extrovert, when people question why you are making a change (some people find it threatening to themselves when a friend changes their behaviour and may try to derail them), you may say something like, “well, I’m just trying this vegan thing, my doctor says it would help me, and it seems to be working so
Precontemplation
1. Contemplation
Maintenance
6.
The stages of change model
2.
Relapse
Determination
5.
3. Action
Enter & re-enter at any stage
I’m going to try it for a while,” or similar sentiments, in a vague sort of way. This helps deflect attention from yourself and takes you off the pedestal it may otherwise seem you are now on and makes it seem to the other person that there is no great threat here, no one is challenging their way of eating or criticising their dietary habits, and the issue defuses. If you are not a very conscientious personality, there are useful tactics such as planning meals at the start of the week in advance, having regular cooking routines to follow, and paying people to help such as employing the use of a ready made meal service (such as Kavita at the wholemeal.co.nz). If you score low on emotional stability and prone to say emotional eating, you will benefit from strategies such as making sure you only have healthy food in the house when you shop, making it hard to make an unhealthy choice, and eliciting support from friends to reinforce good dietary behaviour. ‘Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good’ is a phrase I often use. It means don’t give up just because you find it hard to stick to the optimal, whole food plant-based SOS free (salt, oil and sugar) diet. All of us can improve our diet to some degree no matter what stage we
4.
are at, and it is important not to make eating this way so mentally stressful that it becomes a negative thing in your life. Any moves in your diet to a more unprocessed plant-based direction will be beneficial. Remember, stress, exercise, sleep, and toxin avoidance are the other important domains of well being. That said, people often ask, “Can I just make moderate changes and get the benefits I want?” This is an article in itself, but moderation tends to keep people trapped in old dietary habits, a slippery slope. The word itself in behaviour terms is nearly meaningless, researchers finding it can mean eating what you like, as much as you like, when you like, and it is better to continually make significant beneficial dietary changes than to remain anchored to your old diet. There are so many benefits to a whole food plant-based diet that it is really worth taking the time to understand your personality type, and the tried and tested methods you can use to stick to the diet once you have found your ‘Why’. Please get in touch if you or your friends would like help with this process.
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T
here, in a food cabinet at The Wooden Farmer Cafe in Putaruru sits a piece of Australasian baking history - a Louise cake. And, if you head over to Bennydale, where The Wooden Heart cafe offers a broad mix of traditional fare, you will also find another historic favourite - ginger crunch. The two cafes and their locations are completely unrelated of course but, for Otago University Emeritus Professor Helen Leach, the story behind these two slices and several other of our baking favourites, there is a close connection. In an address delivered in Wellington late last year, Professor Leach presented details of her investigations into our baking history where she found that not only were we guilty of upsizing the portions we were eating but of enriching them too. She cited the Chinese chew as an example. “What was going on in New Zealand and Australian kitchens was enrichment,” she said. “It involved butter but not sugar. And it was not led by manufacturers trying to increase sales of their products. It was a trend that emerged in the home kitchens of both Australia and NZ, so blame must lie in our homes with our mothers and our grandmothers.” The original American recipe for the Chinese chew never contained butter but “by adding four ozs of butter to the
Who to blame
Upsizing: Was it mum or the Americans? original American recipe, the kilocalorie content of a typical proportion changed from 123 to 193.” Over the years, Professor Leach has amassed a collection of more than 2000 old cookbooks. “Now many, like me, are showing their age and their proximity long ago to sooty stoves or eggbeaters or just greasy fingers. The oldest dates back to the 1880s the majority fall into the category of fundraising books, also known as community cookbooks.” She says the fundraising books provide valuable information about cooking habits of particular communities over the years. “The national multiple edition recipe
Fetchingly presented on a paper doily, ginger crunch is a regular offering at the Wooden Heart Cafe in Bennydale.
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books like those from Edmonds, Aunt Daisy, the Women’s Institute, provide kitchen output of successive decades. Including the popular dishes, overseas influences and access to ingredients. “They also provide valuable information about the evolution of recipes, and that is where the archaeology comes in. Such as the pavlova, on which I wrote a book with my sister Mary about the trends in pavlovas and who invented them.” Prompted by an article titled “Nostalgic recipes from our Kiwi Past,” and using the database she had developed, Professor Leach decided to look into the history of a particular local favourite, uncooked slices. “I found that these uncooked squares and slices made their debut in the late 1940s, quite an important time in terms of the slow lifting of rations. “Underlying this research is my investigation of one of the most important food-related issues of the 21st-century - supersizing. “We have all noticed the increasing sizing of bars of ginger crunch, Louise cakes and muffins in the display cabinets of our local cafes. My friends and family normally cut these into two or three portions, at least while I am watching. At the same time, we blame the bakers, the chefs, the cafe owners and ultimately, the Americans that started the giant muffin fashion.” But it’s all a bit more complicated than that, she says. She referred to a “classic” American research paper produced by Dr Lisa R Young and Marion Nestle and published in 2002. Titled “The contribution of increasing portion sizes to the obesity epidemic,” Professor Leach said the authors concentrated on food items prepared outside the home, but they did compare two editions of a classic
American cookbook ‘The Joy of Cooking’. “They looked at the 1964 and the 1997 edition. The later recipe specified fewer servings of the same recipe. Meaning that the portions were expected to be larger. When I read this paper, I realised that the data from my collection of cookbooks would be a perfect place to investigate this process.” She discovered that supersizing food had been underway in the United States since the 1970s “and we weren’t far behind,” she says. “Like most people, I believed that supersizing was comparatively recent. So, I decided to test that view against various editions of the Edmonds Cookbook. I compared the 1992 edition with a copy of a book called “Edmonds Classics” published in 2005. Because it emphasised favourite recipes from the past, I expected to find the old recipes converted to metrics but otherwise unchanged. Wouldn’t you? But I was wrong. The editor had made significant changes.” Some of these changes represented supersizing such as Afghans going from 30 to 20 biscuits, Almond biscuits from 36 to 25, Yoyos 26 to 16, cinnamon cream oysters from 16 to 12, bran biscuits from 30 to 20, rock cakes from 20 to 16. “They are all the same amount of ingredients but the instructions in the end as to how many slices or pieces to cut, show supersizing.” She said it was simple supersizing with no change in ingredients or quantities, just a decrease in the number of portions and therefore an increase in their size. Mostly in the horizontal dimension. “While these six recipes were all for baked items spread out over an oven tray, what about the squares and slices you bake in a tin of a specified size usually 20 x 30 cm. You multiply these by 1.5 to 3 while still using the same tin but where would the extra volume go? Upwards, of course. “Typically, the old recipe was cut into 24 squares each 5 x 5 and the same squares may now end up being twice as thick as in the original recipe. You could call it vertical supersizing, but it may also involve something else which I have called enrichment.” Professor Leach said the most blatant example of enrichment in the Edmonds Classic Book occurred with Ginger Crunch. The original 1993 recipe contained ingredient requirements of 50gms of butter and half a cup of icing sugar. Twelve years later the same
recipe called for 150gms of butter and 1.5 cups of icing sugar. “The result you can see in many cafes with its sickly layer of thick icing overwhelming the original crunchy base. Ginger Crunch has been both enriched and then usually, supersized.” In the 69th edition of the Edmonds Cookbook, Professor Leach noted the producers had reinstated some of the restrained old ingredient levels.
Her discoveries here led to her to increase the number of cookbooks under comparison, but once again she found her discovery of supersizing and enrichment confirmed. “As a result of my analysis of historical records, I am now convinced we must recognise enrichment as a different phenomenon from supersizing and tackle it directly,” she concluded.
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No oil crispy potatoes You can still get really crispy crunchy potatoes with a soft centre without oil. Enjoy their rich flavours without the oily aftertaste. INGREDIENTS 9 medium potatoes 1/3 cup of aquafaba (liquid from a chickpea can 3 Tblspn cornflour Dried thyme or rosemary Pepper for taste METHOD Preheat oven to 200°C (450°F) Peel the potatoes and cut them for roasting. Boil potatoes until they are slightly soft when you pierce them with a fork. Drain, and let them steam dry, leaving them in the pot. Add the aquafaba and cornflour to the potatoes. Put the lid on the pot and shake several times until the potatoes are coated and are furry. Coat the potatoes with the liquid at the bottom of the pot. Place the potatoes in a lined roasting pan (using either a silicone mat or baking paper), spread them out, so they are not touching. Sprinkle over the thyme/rosemary and pepper to coat them as desired. Place in the hot oven and cook for 45 mins turning once halfway through. Change oven to grill for 5 mins if you wish a more crispier look.
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Roast Capsicum Hummus with Kumara Sticks Roasted red capsicum hummus Orange kumara sticks Roasting capsicum Place whole capsicum's into an oven tray, cook on 180°C for 30 mins turning every 10 mins. Remove from oven and place capsicums in a lidded container to sweat for 10 mins, this allows you to easily peel off the skin of the capsicum.
Raw orange kumara (sweet potato) make fantastic dipping sticks. Full of Vitamin A, E and C they are virtually fat-free and a wonderful source of antioxidants. They make a great addition to your vegetable platter along with carrot, capsicum, cherry tomatoes, celery, cucumber and olives. Peel, slice into sticks and enjoy!
1 can chickpea (drained) 1 garlic clove 1/2 tsp cumin 2 Tbsp lemon juice 1 roasted capsicum (skin removed) 2 tsp coconut aminos seasoning 2 Tbsp water Add all to a blender and mix until smooth, add water in small amounts if needed.
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TRAVEL
Cycling through Europe By Ian Duffield
I
f you’ve ever stewed in the traffic porridge waiting to crawl over the harbour bridge, or at the entrance to the Wellington tunnel where four lanes compress to one, you will have wondered if there was a better way to organise your transport. And you know the answer: it’s the century-old bicycle. Europeans worked out decades ago that the best way to reduce car congestion is to invest heavily in bike paths, and marry them to an efficient public transport network. The marriage has been so successful that cycling, for all ages, has become the norm. Trains throughout Europe carry bicycles at little or no cost, the carriages are clearly identified with large bike logos painted on the side, and on the larger trains, these are predictably the first and last carriages. Europe is crisscrossed with bike paths, the tracks on which our ancestors walked for centuries, with many now adapted solely for bicycles, and some of them finessed to a level better than the “best“ roads in Aotearoa. More recently, the European Cycling Federation has had government support to upgrade many of these routes for thousands of kilometres in the Eurovelo network ( www.eurovelo.com ), a score of north-south and east-west routes, to a standard comparable to our best cycle paths. It’s not perfect: despite good signage, you still get lost, or you unexpectedly meet gravel detours, and occasionally the paths are combined with roads. Fortunately, in such cases, the route usually blends into minor roads with little traffic. Cycling is undoubtedly the best way to travel in Europe. You can puddle along quietly at the speed you choose, stop at will to enjoy the visual splendour of river landscapes, the beautiful architectural styles of the towns and villages, and your encounters with other travellers and Café staff. A huge advantage for vegan Kiwis like us is that in Europe, you see very few farm animals. Perhaps the animals are well hidden, but the upside is that the fields are unfenced - you can enjoy a vista of
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acres of sunflowers swaying in the wind, without them being framed with barbed wire. In June and early July, four of our whanau (Cathy, Jesse, Danielle and me), traced a route along Germany’s bike routes, following four rivers which link some of Europe’s World Heritage towns. We began in Frankfurt and trained to near Rothenburg ob dem Tauber which is one of the few towns with its mediaeval wall still intact. We then climbed over the divide between Germany’s two great waterways, and followed the Altmühl river, through contours of wheat and rye, down to the Danube, and then eastwards along Eurovelo 6 which bowls along beside the famous river to its mouth at the Black Sea. At its most northerly point, the river reaches Regensburg, another Heritage town and the cycle path actually crosses the town’s famous Steinebrücke, the world’s oldest functioning bridge built in the midtwelfth century. Following the Danube took us to Passau, renowned for its cathedral with the largest pipe organ in Europe. (They hold daily lunchtime recitals.) From Linz, in Austria, we trained up into Czechia to Cesky Krumlov, which with a fairy tale castle, is billed in tourist literature as a mini-Prague. The cycle path north through Bohemia is called the Greenways Route and winds around the Vlatava river on its way to the Czech capital. After a brief sojourn here (a great sampling spot for vegan kai), we resumed cycling and joined the Elbe cycle path which flows from the Czechia hills for hundreds of kilometres to the North Sea. The Elbe is dotted with famous cities, including Wittenberg and Dresden, where we were lucky to be able to spend a few days before completing our journey in the vegan Mecca of Berlin. Travelling can be like cutting your finger: it’s hard to stop bleeding money! But biking and camping, provide possibilities for drastically cutting costs. Even better, it’s evident that eating a basic whole foods vegan diet provides the energy to bike hundreds of kilometres.
The pastel colours of Rothenburg.
All you need is love Since the l980s the John Lennon Wall in Prague has been filled with Lennon inspired graffiti.
Photos by Jesse and Ian Duffield
Bike by train Trains throughout Europe carry bicycles at little cost. Carriages are easily identified by their large bike logos.
Eat out, eat healthy Walking the medieval wall round Rothenburg.
Slunce in Ceske Budejovice easily took out the journey’s ‘Best Cafe’ award. wholefoodliving.life | Autumn, 2020
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Healthy plants honoured with their own year T
he contribution that healthy plants make to New Zealand’s wellbeing and economic sustainability was highlighted at the launch of the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) at Parliament in late February. “Healthy plants are the backbone of New Zealand’s wellbeing and make a significant contribution to our economy,” says Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) Chief Executive, Mike Chapman. “Horticulture, including viticulture, contributed approximately $9 billion to the New Zealand economy in 2019. “Fruit and vegetables are essential for healthy people. However, as many as one in five adults and one in six children in OECD countries are obese* at the same time, one in five children under five are malnourished. “Healthy plants offer food security, not only for New Zealanders but for the people in the countries we export food to. Healthy plants are also a significant contributor to New Zealand’s human capital, providing employment and healthy food. “As a result, planning for future food security, particularly enabling the best use of our land, in these changing times is very necessary,” Chapman says. Philippa Stevens, Group General Manager Science Services at Plant & Food Research, says plants are a vital part of New Zealand – both for our economy and our culture. “Globally, New Zealand is recognised for its exemplary management of pests and diseases, both pre- and post-border,” she said. “Our horticultural industries use science-based sustainable production systems to ensure our fresh produce is free of pest and disease and meet or exceed the exacting residue requirements of many global markets. Our produce is exported to 128 countries worldwide with very few barriers.” She noted that NZ’s native species were being increasingly exposed to new threats as more goods were imported. And climate change was now creating beneficial environments for pests and diseases that previously could not establish here. “IYPH provides the opportunity for us to highlight and celebrate the work being undertaken to protect our plants for the benefit of New Zealand.”
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Blueberry fields forever C
onsumers worldwide may soon be experiencing tastier, fuller-sized blueberries year-round, thanks to a new partnership that will bring premium quality berries to customers around the globe. Plant & Food Research and global fresh produce company T & G Global have announced an agree-ment to breed and commercialise new varieties of blueberries. The programme will produce new varieties of blueberry that will provide improved yield and re-sistance to disease. Larger, tastier berries will become available over an extended harvest season. The first new commercial varieties could be launched globally in the next 12 months
under T&G Global’s Orchard Rd brand. “Blueberries are a key strategic play for us in building our global portfolio, and we’re delighted to build another global category to emulate the success of our premium apple brands. We know there is strong consumer demand for blueberries and teaming up with Plant & Food Research means we get access to a pipeline of world-class varieties,” says Gareth Edgecombe, CEO of T&G Global. The new partnership builds on an existing agreement that grants the global fresh produce grower and marketer, T&G Global, access to a suite of Plant & Food Research-bred and licensed blueberry varieties for production in Australia.
Hop extract helps suppress hunger
A
new study shows that a New Zealand hop extract can help reduce hunger pangs when using fast-ing as a way to manage food intake. In a clinical trial conducted by Plant & Food Research, Amarasate™ - an extract from a hops cultivar bred and grown in New Zealand – reduced feelings of hunger in young men undertaking a 24-hour water-only fast. This suggests that people who are undertaking periods of fasting to manage their food intake – such as intermittent fasting regimes – may benefit from using Amarasate™ to keep their hunger at bay during their fasting periods. “Intermittent fasting is gaining popularity as a way to manage food intake,” says Plant & Food Re-search scientist Dr Edward Walker, who led the study. “We know that Amarasate™ triggers a signal in the gut that tells the brain to stop eating and can reduce food intake when taken before meals. We wondered if this same mechanism would work in people that were fasting, so undertook a study examining hunger during the most challenging type of intermittent fasting day – a 24-hour water only fast. “The results showed that Amarasate™
reduced feelings of hunger, even over meal periods when we tend to feel hungrier. The study suggests that Amarasate™ can give people who wish to incor-porate fasting into their lifestyle a better chance of completing their fast and support them in reaching their health goals.” The randomised, double-blind, placebocontrolled trial analysed the feelings of hunger of 30 young, healthy men who fasted over 24 hours – from 6pm to 6pm when only water was con-sumed. On three occasions over three weeks, the men were given either Amarasate™ or placebo at 16 hours and 20 hours from the beginning of the fast and asked how hungry they felt every 30 minutes subsequently. When taking Amarasate™, the men reported a significant reduction in hun-ger. In addition, the increase in hunger observed at lunchtime (approximately 18 hours from the start of fast) when taking placebo was absent when taking Amarasate™. Amarasate™ is the extract of a hop cultivar bred by Plant & Food Research and only grown in New Zealand. The results of the study have been published in the online journal Nutrients.
No fry vege stir fry with spicy peanut sauce INGREDIENTS 1/2 cup cooked brown rice 1/4 Vegetable stock 2 garlic cloves crushed 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger 1 Tbsp grated fresh turmeric (or 1/2 tsp ground turmeric) 1 diced brown onion 1 courgette sliced 1 carrot thinly slived 2 cups sliced mushrooms 1 cup sliced green beans 1 cup small broccoli florets 2 cups red cabbage 2 small pak choy (broken into leaves) 2 Tbsp reduced salt soy sauce (or tamari) Peanut sauce 2 Tbsp salt reduced peanut butter 1 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce 1 Tbsp salt reduced soy sauce (or Tamari) boiling water
METHOD 1. Heat the vegetable stock in a large frying pan and add the garlic, ginger and turmeric. 2. Add vegetables (except for pak choy)and cook over a medium heat, stirring regularly, until veges are tender (add more vege stock if necessary). Add pak choy at the last and stir through until reduced in size 3. While veges are cooking, in a small bowl combine the sauce ingredients using enough boiling water to make a smooth paste. 4. When veges are tender serve on rice drizzled with the peanut sauce.
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Green School: First day nerves by Peter Barclay
W
ow! How life has changed since I took these pictures six weeks ago in New Plymouth on February 10th. The young lady in the picture above is my granddaughter, Willow, who was part of a small group of parents and first day pupils attending the formal opening of her new school. Green School is an inspiring concept. Although traditional in the sense that students can still gather all the NCEA credits they desire, it's basic kaupapa (ethos or policy) is quite different from run-of-the-mill Kiwi education. "Education without walls." is how its owners, John and Cindy Hardy describe it and follows on from Green School Bali, established over 10 years ago. He says Green School was founded with the purpose of nurturing changemakers, and green leaders. "Cynthia & I always dreamt of a global network of Green Schools. The Green School mission is one that we passionately believe needs to be taken to the world.” The school is based around ideals of sharing and caring for the environment. Three environmentally friendly “Waka” are at the heart of the school campus. Waka number three is set to become New Zealand’s largest and tallest non-concrete building. The beautiful Oakura River flows through the school grounds. In keeping with the school’s core principle of sustainability, the buildings have been built from locally sourced timber with just six per cent waste result. More than 20,000 native trees have been planted on the site over the past year. The campus features a tropical house where students will learn to grow and nurture plants. Two nurseries are set to turn over more than 15,000 plants per year, including fruit and vegetable trees allowing students and visitors to pick fresh produce on-campus. Now that's a different school and one I could only ever dreamed of attending. But how things change. Take a look at the people to Willow's left. Two good friends greeting each other and my granddaughter now living in a world of "no handshakes, no hongi and no hugs."
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The opening ceremony was great but, Simone Hayward (P36) should have been called on to do the food.
P
There's a zoo in your poo but should you get it tested?
eople are paying hundreds of dollars to have their gut microbes analysed, hoping the insights will allow them to adjust their diet and improve their health. But these testing services are based on science that’s still in its infancy, as we explain in our recent paper1. So while there may be great promise for analysing our gut microbiome to help diagnose and treat people in the future, for the moment knowing what’s in your gut is mostly a curiosity.
But aren’t these tests based on science? The idea of your gut microbiome – the whole community of gut microbes and their products – influencing your health is gaining momentum. Over about the past two decades, the gut microbiome has been linked to everything from inflammatory bowel disease to depression. So it’s been appealing to think if you just knew what was in your gut microbiome, you could tweak your diet and create a “designer microbiome” to improve your health. There’s preliminary evidence analysing the gut microbiome in a stool sample can help predict who will do well on a certain diet. There’s also some evidence it can help predict which people with inflammatory bowel disease respond to medical treatments. But these findings are far from being applied more generally and for routine health care. One day, we may understand how combining information about your microbiome with other test results, such as genomic tests (sequencing your human genes) might help. The idea is that this would help people prevent disease and medication sideeffects, predict their future risk of disease, and help choose a personalised diet for optimal health. For instance, information about someone’s microbiome, when combined with blood tests and their diet, can predict how someone’s blood glucose levels respond to specific meals. This 2015 study also showed that by analysing someone’s gut microbes you could tailor their diet to keep their blood
In this article, Amy Lougman, a Research Fellow at Deakin University, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Heidi Staudacher, from the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin look into your poo and ask if testing, at this stage, is worth the effort.
glucose under control. Again, while the prospect might sound appealing – and the potential impact huge – we don’t yet have the evidence to implement this more widely. There’s also much we don’t know about the microbiome itself. For instance, scientists don’t agree what a healthy microbiome looks like, we haven’t sequenced all of the bacterial genes, and we don’t know what they do or how they interact. So while we are starting to understand the ideal microbiome for health, it is still more of a rough sketch than a blueprint.
But I’m curious anyway Most companies ask you to send in a stool sample, which you take yourself and post in a secure package to a laboratory to analyse the results. Each company is different. Different companies analyse your stool sample in different ways. For instance, some tell you the relative abundance of bacteria down to the genus level (but not the species level). Some tell you which strains of microbe are present (not just bacteria, but viruses and fungi too) and their function. Some tell you which of the microbe genes are expressed and active. All of these are legitimate approaches to analysing your gut microbiome, and you could expect a reasonable degree of accuracy.
with others they’ve analysed. But they can’t compare them with an “average” or “healthy” microbiome because an individual company doesn’t sample the whole population, and scientists haven’t yet defined a “healthy” microbiome. Some companies advise the types of foods you could eat to boost levels of particular bacteria. You might also be told that a certain bacteria can be associated with some health condition, like obesity or constipation. Ideally, alongside your results would be an explanation about the types of research the insights are based on, limitations of the evidence, and a caution the results cannot be considered medical advice. Unfortunately, consumers don’t always receive this information, and it can be hard to know what to do with the test results.
What about privacy? Another important issue to consider is who has access to your test results and under what circumstances. This has been a concern with take-home genetic tests in the United States. Although data about your microbial genes may not seem sensitive and private as your own genes, ensuring you know who might have access to your stool testing data is an important consideration. There’s research to see whether the microbiome could may one day be used in forensics, demonstrating the very personal nature of these data.
In a nutshell Given the complexity of the gut microbiome and its interaction with us, its host, we still need large research trials replicated across different centres to make sense of the data. So-called microbiome diagnostics could become central to optimising health and improving care of people with chronic disease in the future. But, for the moment, knowing the specific community of your gut microbes will only serve to satisfy your curiosity, not improve your health.
How do you interpret the results? The companies also differ in how they supply and interpret the results. The company may compare your results
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The amazing Aquafaba whipped cream
METHOD INGREDIENTS 1 tin Chickpea liquid (aquafaba) chilled 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup 1 tsp Vanilla essence
Drain chickpea liquid (aquafaba) from a can of chickpeas (setting aside the chickpeas) into a large mixing bowl. Using an electric beater mix the aquafaba until it forms white peaks, slowly add the maple syrup and vanilla essence while still beating. Serve immediately.
SM O
OTHIE T
Smoothie Bowl Tips 1. Chill the bowl beforehand, this stops the smoothie from melting quickly. 2. Go Deep. A bowl is better deep than wide. Once again stops quick melting 3. Make it thick - nothing worse that a drippy, drinkable smoothie in a bowl.
L W BO
ime to bring out your inner creativity. Smoothie bowls are exactly what the name says, "Smoothies in a Bowl", the combinations are endless!! The only difference between a smoothie and one in a bowl is natural thickeners are used make the dish more like a desert. Some thickeners to consider are chia seeds, banana, peanut butter, raw oats, avocado or ice. Then there is the toppings, once again endless. The trick here is to go for texture, be inventive. As Simone says, we eat with our eyes!
Smoothie Ideas Mango: 1/2 cups frozen mango 2 bananas 1/4 avocado 1 Tbsp lemon juice 1/4 cup almond milk 2 dates Tops: granola, fresh strawberries, mint, sliced banana Blueberry: 1 cup frozen blueberries 1 frozen banana 1/2 small avocado 3-4 dates 1 cup almond milk Tops: Blueberries, ground flaxseed, peanut butter, dried coconut.
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WFPB dietary recommendations e rect s a di itality. W e a h d v nd hav e an dicin ellness a e all you e for a e m r d w asi ur s ou s her ood i nship to o e eat. Put endation l. w io e relat are what e recomm ell you fe cludes a h t w y in l l y t w r rea and t urself ho FPB) die excluding t h g tau ile r yo d (W been to see fo lant-base foods wh to what t h p y mont ole food hole plan . Contrar nutrition h e s w g f w t g o l A al h imally re ty t o e i e y r g r a i n in v a large at, fish, d ght we ca means m ds e u le le foo le o any m e been ta nts. Who h w ho ss la av we h d from p proce we eat a w o t e w e hen st ho we n sed. orry s ws be utrition. W have to w e are e o c n o r k p ody as w mn ever Our b e maximu diet we n n, as long eed to be g itio t th ed en to ge plant-bas ugh nutr ther do w l, reducin o o i r s food getting en lories. Ne tion cont ay r a t o c u p t gh his w u t abo u . o o e g b r n n a i d fib ge at eatin concerne g enough simple e ts. w y fi n l i over s or gett zed at ho the bene e t a i calor will be am amazed a re You n mo e v e is and
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For those that choose to eat animal products Eat little or no dairy. Make or buy oat or other plant milks if you feel you need milk. Dairy is implicated in all of the major health issues today: cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Eat only free-range eggs and very sparingly. Eggs contain the highest cholesterol of all foods. Our body makes cholesterol and doesn’t need any extra. Egg consumption is strongly associated with diabetes and cancer of the colon. Eat fish from line-caught clean rivers. Fish from the sea contain high levels of mercury and also plastic from polluted waters. Eat grass fed free-range meat sparingly. Remember meat (red and white) is high in saturated fats and cholesterol. A very small portion a day is far better than one large portion a week. Think of meat as a flavouring rather than a food group if you feel unable to eliminate it for now.
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Note: It is recommended to advise your doctor before embarking on dietary changes, especially if you are on medication or have a medical condition.
Eat as much as you want from these four main food groups fruits | vegetables | grains | legumes Fruits
Legumes
All whole fruits - not dried
All beans, lentils and peas
Non-starchy vegetables
Drinks
Leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, salad, vegetables etc
Water, herbal teas, unsweetened plant milks
Starchy vegetables
All herbs and spices
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, root vegetables, corn etc
Whole grains
Omega 3 sources
100% whole wheat and other flours, oats, brown rice, quinoa etc
Chia and flaxseed
Eat sparingly from the foods below • • •
Nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut Dried fruit, sweeteners, coffee, tea, alcohol, 100% fruit juice Refined soy and wheat products like tofu, tempeh and meat alternatives
Avoid the following foods • • • • • •
Meat, including fish, poultry and red and processed meats Dairy, including milk, yoghurt, cheese, cream, butter, eggs Liquid oils, including olive, coconut oils, and margarine Refined flours, and grains such as white bread, rice, pasta Sugar-based foods and drinks like cakes, candy bars, cookies and sodas made with sugar Fried snack foods like chips and crisps
WFPB dietary recommendations The dietary recommendations presented here were created by Stephanie Wynn and approved by Dr Michael Klapper. To download the full guide go to www.movinghealthforward.nz
Spirit festival captures the hearts of hundreds I
by Peter Barclay
nitially, it was hard to put my finger on. After parking the car you walk in and see a boat parked up in the trees, and you think - Woah! So you assume, ah yeah, its part of the camping area, must be a tiny house. Of course, why not? For a retiree like me, sights like that have a destabilising effect. And it leads me to wonder - was that what Nikki Rhodes and Franko Heke had in mind when they created the New Zealand Spirit Festival? I was involved in organising a rock
concert once, Absolutely heaps of work involved. How these guys can finish one festival and throw themselves immediately into another is beyond me. These guys don't stop. "We put on three big summer events," Franko explains, "NZ Yoga Day, Resolution NYE Festival and NZ Spirit Festival. Nikki and I also run wellness retreats here in NZ and all over the world as well as online meditations, music and courses." He says Resolution NYE Festival has a lot of the same kaupapa as NZ Spirit
Festival and it is a great way to end the year powerfully and start the new one connected and inspired with community. Resolution tickets are on sale now at www. nzspirit.com. Hmm, 'connected and inspired with community'. That's a different ethos from some festivals I've seen in the past. But I still couldn't put my finger on it. What was it that made the experience of being here so different? Then it dawned on me - NO WASTE and NO ALCOHOL. The grounds were so clean. Absolutely no mess anywhere or bleary-eyed drunks staggering about. Is that what it was all about? Simply a place of peace, good company and finding your family doctor gadding about in a Mohican wig. Now that's destabilising! Then, as we drove back home through the rat race, you realise you had such a great time. Was it that or did it have more to do with the cosmic calm emanating from our new Tibetan singing bowl sitting peacefully on the back seat?
DRIED FRUIT Dates | sultanas | cranberry | apricot and other dried fruit with no added sugar.
LEGUMES: BEANS & LENTILS Dry and/or canned lentils | split peas | dry or canned beans | black beans | chickpeas | kidney beans | green beans) | tofu (soy beans) | tempeh
GRAINS, RICE, PASTAS, NOODLES & FLOURS Quinoa | barley | oats | popcorn | whole wheat pastas | chickpea pasta | wild rice | brown rice | black rice. Whole wheat | Oat Flour. Tapioca flour | Chickpea flour | baking soda | baking powder | udon noodles | Soba Noodles | baker’s yeast | Shredded coconut | Nori (seaweed) Sheets (for veggi sushi) | Rice paper (p. 25)
WFPB Pantry Essentials SAUCES & CONDIMENTS
IN SEASON FRUITS
Tomato sauce | BBQ sauce | mustard | Dijon mustard | vegan Worcestershire | hot sauces (vinegar based) | salsas | nutritional yeast | vanilla extract | vegetable stock | marmite | peanut butter | teriyaki sauce | miso paste | chili paste | Liquid Aminos | Sweet chilli sauce | pasta sauce | tinned tomato | tomato paste | pickles | chutneys (low in sugar)
Bananas | apples | pears | peaches | plums | oranges | grapefruit | grapes | strawberries | nectarines | passion fruit | blueberries | blackberries | raspberries | kiwifruit | mango | pineapple | avocado | tomatoes.
SWEETENERS Fresh dates | applesauce | Maple Syrup (100% not flavoured) | brown rice syrup | Molasses.
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VINEGARS Apple cider vinegar | rice wine vinegar | red wine vinegar | white vinegar | malt vinegar | balsamic vinegar.
be quite plant-based it can y. When you first go ients you should bu ed gr in t ha w ow ith a daunting to kn ok us a long time w to It e. su is e m sa e We had th les that we get a group of stap to r ro er d an l ia tr lot of ays in our pantry. make sure are alw
Labeling ucts labels on new prod e th k ec ch s ay lw A r the used to buy, not fo and products you ant) ough that is import lth (a s ct fa al on iti nutr ven't gredients. If you ha but more for the in w be surprised at ho ill w u yo y, ad re al noticed d ian and New Zealan al tr us A r ou of y ? an m ve gs and Fresh or Frozen lly good, studies ha ain milk, butter, eg ua nt eq co e ts ar uc ey od th pr , e th e We use bo the nutrient valu em. It's all part of th in th ce ed en ne er t ff n' di do no u is Yo oil. en Leach r are found that there aples in our freeze ocess Professor Hel St pr . t' en en oz fr hm d ic an nr h 'e es frozen between fr s, edamame beans, ut ro sp l se refers to on P46. us Br li, stir-fry brocco h, ac in sp s, an be , rn, peas berries, mango, co vegetables
HERBS AND SPICES (DRY OR FRESH) Black pepper | cayenne pepper | cumin | chili powder | oregano | basil | parsley | thyme | sage | rosemary | bay leaf | curry powder | Chinese five spice | smoked paprika | nutmeg | cinnamon | chilli flakes | Mint | dill | Italian parsley | coriander | chives | garlic | ginger | turmeric (root and powder) | garam masala
MILKS & BEVERAGES Almond | oat | rice | soy | green tea | decafe coffee
NUTS AND SEEDS
VEGETABLES
Most are high in fat so are recommended to eat sparingly, however chia and flaxseed are high in Omega 3 and should be added to foods on a daily basis.
Lettuce (several varieties) | beetroot | broccoli | cauliflower | celery | cucumber | kale | silver beet | spinach | leek | parsley | capsicum | carrots | celery | zucchini | cabbage | purple cabbage | bok choy | pak choy | green beans | snow peas | edamame beans | corn | mushrooms | kumara (sweet potatoes) | potatoes | brown and red onion | brussel sprouts | broad beans | canned jackfruit | spring onion
Unsalted raw nuts: (walnuts | almonds | pistachios | cashews | peanuts | Brazilian | chia seeds | hemp seeds | flaxseed (linseed) | pumpkin seeds | sunflower seeds. Poppy seeds | sesame seeds | tahini (paste from sesame seeds)
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Take a break - Colour me in
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Healthy crossword
ACROSS 2. Help/Assist (3) 5. Deficiency of red blood cells (6) 8. The oesophagus (6) 9. Lunch or dinner (4) 12. Nuke oven (9) 14. Fail to make us of (5) 15. Spider's trap (3) 17. Starchy grain (4) 18. Common sweetners (6) 19. Fermented Soy Sauce (6) 20. Type of acid (5) 21. Found in Turmeric (P10) (8) 24. Edible pods (5) 25. Chickpea dip (6) 26. NZ native bird (3) 27. Japanese wheat noodle (4) 28. Human ..... system (9) 29. Coagulated blood (4)
DOWN 1. Stomach process (9) 3. Strong flavoured cloves (6) 4. Cinema feature (4) 6. Indian yellow spice (P10) (8) 7. Curly-leafed cabbage (4) 10. Investigation (8) 11. Uncooked vegetable dish (3,5) 13. Non-meat eater (5) 14. Enclose in paper (4) 16. Snack ..... balls (p. 20) (5) 22. Dr T Colin ........ (Pn8) (8) 23. Pranceas hormone (7)
24. Plants of coral reef (5) 25. Established practice (5) 30. Breakfast grain (3)
Go to link below for solutions Click or scan QR image for references. wholefoodliving.life/ref-autumn2020
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NO D A I R Y MANG O LAS SI
INGREDIENTS 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen mango cubes 4 sml pitted dates 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract 1/2 cup unsweetened plant milk (I used Soy milk) 5 ice cubes (if using fresh mango)
METHOD Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
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WFPB's Four Food Groups Based on the guide developed by PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) in 1991
FRUIT
3 or more servings a day Full of vitamin C and beta carotene, fruit is also rich in fibre. You should include at least one serving of fruit per day. Fruits are full of flavour, make a welcome afternoon filler and are great as a night time desert. They're best eaten whole because your gut benefits from their soft fibre. Serving sizes: 1 medium piece of fruit, 1/2 cup cooked fruit, 4 ounces juice.
WHOLE GRAINS 5 or more servings a day
The wholegrain list is large. Here is a sample: barley, freekeh, whole rye, brown rice, oats, wheat, buckwheat, bulgur, quinoa, whole wheat couscous, corn, millet. Build meals around hearty grain dishes. They’re rich in essential fibre, complex carbohydrates, protein, B Vitamins and zinc. Great for breakfast. Serving sizes: 1/2 cup hot cereal, 1/4 cup dry cereal, 1 slice bread
LEGUMES
2 or more servings a day Beans, peas and lentils are your key source for good fibre, protein, iron, calcium, zinc and B vitamins. In this group you can also include items such as chickpeas, baked and refined beans, soy milk, tempeh and vegetable protein. Serving sizes: 1/2 cups cooked beans, 4 ounces tofu or tempeh, 8 ounces Soy Milk.
VEGETABLES
4 or more servings a day Vegetables are your essential nutrient injection. Dark green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, collards, kale, mustard and turnip greens, chicory or bok choy are all good sources of important nutrients. They provide vitamin C, beta-carotene, riboflavin, iron, calcium, fibre and more. Extra beta-carotene comes from dark yellow and orange vegetables such as carrot, squash, sweet potatoes and pumpkin. Don’t be afraid to eat generous amounts. Load up your plate! Serving sizes: 1 cup raw vegetables, 1/2 cup cooked vegetables
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Your health is Your health is ininyour hands your hands
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