Whole Food Living - Winter 2021

WINTER 2021 VOL 2 • ISSUE 6

Food addiction: Tougher than cocaine

The key to brain health

PLANT BASED

RECIPES Recovery Stories

Students issue warning

LEARN ABOUT FOOD! p.28

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Where we stand THE WHOLE FOOD CONNECTION

Food

Health

Environment

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.

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.

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.

WFL Optimal Health Guide

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.

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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

The gig is up, it's time to get healthy

T

he slam dunk on the problem with ultrarecovery from food and addiction issues and once processed foods surely belongs to again warns about the critical need for us all to Canterbury University’s Professor Julia improve the quality of what we’re eating. She, too, is Rucklidge, who, in this issue (p.42), paints a very the archenemy of refined foods and hates sugar with concerning picture about their impact on our a passion. With everything else that’s happening in mental wellbeing. the world today, she says, “the gig is up, it’s time to As she points out, we’re so heavily focussed on get healthy.” issues relating to the heart, obesity, cholesterol Another brain focused piece in this issue (p.16) and other matters below the neck that we’re comes from Dr Ayesha Sherzai who says diet can overlooking the plight of our hungriest organ – the make a “profound amount of difference” to the brain. Apparently, our brains consume up to 40 per health of your brain. There’s no small change here. cent of all the nutrients that come from our food.

Upgrading to whole food plant-based eating brings Although our knowledge of its functions has major rewards. expanded, our brains still remain one of the biggest Peter Barclay, Editor The kind of rewards we’re talking about is shown mysteries of the human body. Certainly, we can now in Gladys’s article on page 25. Personally, I find her be reasonably sure about some of its characteristics. However, story one of the most moving recovery accounts we’ve published we still struggle to comprehend areas like our emotions, why our to date. There are lots of reasons why I like her story but, I think, brains sleep and dream, how our memories are coded, how time is it’s the fact that she took about the same amount of time to represented and how memories are stored and retrieved. transition as I did that makes me warm to it.

It’s in the area of mental stress and how we react to it that The topic of transition is something I’m making a mental note Rucklidge focuses much of her efforts. Her studies have led her of for future issues. Unless you are seriously unhealthy. no one is to conclude that a good healthy diet that avoids ultra-processed foods can make a world of difference when it comes to dealing saying you have to do this instantly. In fact, we’re saying you don’t even have to do it at all if you aren’t interested. Why bother? with stress.

For me, one TIA was enough and if Dr Sherzai is right, it may not She says around one-fifth of New Zealanders are struggling with have been the first. It all comes down to whether you give a damn a mental health issue in any given year, and the numbers are rising. about your health. Personally, it really bugs me to think that the The number of people that would qualify for a mood disorder rose meal choice I make could mean the difference between being here 47 per cent between 2006 and 2007 while anxiety disorders rose today and gone on some tomorrow. Why leave that choice in the by a whopping 160 per cent between 2018 and 2019. On top of hands of a profit centred corporate giant? this, Rucklidge believes there is “a whole host of people” who are Finally, the last word in this issue goes to my mum. Funny that, struggling subclinically with psychological symptoms, leading to a mums always seem to have the final say. In this case, she gets her near 50 per cent increase in the prescription of antidepressants moment on the back cover. RMB, Rawea Molly Barclay with a piece and antipsychotic drugs.

The state of our mental wellbeing and our relationship with food she penned in the late 60s, I think. Sorry, mum, as new townhouses keep emerging everywhere, open-hearth fires at home are nearly is a theme that runs through two other articles in this issue.

Dr Susan Pierce Thompson (p.10) tells a compelling tale of her a thing of the past. Somehow though, the memory still lingers.

Cover Design

Viewpoints

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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.

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Contact us 67 Kayes Road, Pukekohe, Auckland, New Zealand 2120 p. (Peter) +64 27 218 5948 e. editor@wholefoodliving.life w. www.wholefoodliving.life

Producers Editor: Peter Barclay e. peter@wholefoodliving.life

Food Editor & Researcher: Catherine Barclay e. catherine@wholefoodliving.life

Printer: Inkwise, Christchurch Distributors: Ovato, NZ Post, Iclay Media Contributions & Assistance Contributions & assistance is gratefully acknowledged from the following people: Karen Crowley & Padhu, Dr Mark Craig, Dr Martyn Williamson, Dr Malcolm MacKay, Jenny Cameron, Janice Carter, Radha Sahar, Charles Bagnall, James Wilson, Katherine Matthews, Peter Bestwick, Dr Helen Voronina, Ratna Dyer.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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CONTENTS 38 41 20

General Features 11. Food addictions Prof Thompson explains the background and how tough it is to change.

16. Good brain health Dr Sherzai explains how the brain needs whole food nourishments for health.

20. James Wilson: Vegan.

Peter Barclay interviews the author of Plant Paradigm.

24. Vitamin C explained Katherine Matthews explains how Vitamin C benefits you.

25. Back to health Gladys explains her plantbased world.

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28. Students issue warning 52. Preventing pandemics SBH Students issue a warning over problems with food.

Adults need to know more.

34. Plant-based kids Janice Carter urges parents to stick to their guns on plantbased eating.

38. Dental care Dr Veronina delves into the myths around calcium & dairy.

42. EBE public lectures EBE NZ delivers the first in a series of four public lectures.

44. Cooking under pressure Ratna Dyer explains the value of using a pressure cooker.

Kurtis Boyer: Government policies must change to support plant-based eating.

56. 1.5 degree target Target is still possible but academics say Govts need to face up to urgent action.

References Many of the articles published in this magazine refer to scientific studies. To view these studies use the QR code or go to the url below.

Click or scan QR image for references.

wholefoodliving.life/references-winter-2021/

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The inside goss

61

If you look at those ways that scientists measure addictive strength, sugar is more addictive than nicotine by a fair bit. - Dr Susan Pierce Thompson.

25

It's not about perfection.

Every increase in plant intake reduces the risk of stroke. - Dr Ayesha Sherzai.

Recipes 14. Slow cooker chilli This potato and bean chili is a healthy, hearty, delicious winter warmer.

15. Slow cooker surprise Another hearty slow cooker recipe this time with peanut, potato, curry and rice

23. Tzatziki dressing My take on this delicious Middle Eastern sauce.

32. Smokey caserole Smokey portebello casserole uses a touch of liquid smoke.

36. Lentil soup Easy to make super delicious, a soup with a nice kick.

The near-term benefits of stringent emissions reduction are becoming ever clearer. - Bill Hare & others.

40. Persimmon blondies A fabulous wholefood oil substitute, mild in flavour & keeps slices and cakes moist.

50. Bunker burgers Hunker down with this great ‘budget-basic’ burger! Easy to make and yummy.

54. Matariki star bread Indulge in seven days of Matariki star-fried bread.

55. Date caramel A delicious topping on top of your favourite desert.

58. Soy Yogurt Sugar, gluten & dairy free, thick, mild & delicious!

My family and friends regarded me as something of a freak for my decision.

Initially, I was shy to speak out. - Dr Helen Voronina I listened to Esselstyn, and I knew the answer - give up meat and milk and go whole food plant-based. James Wilson.

Consider all this in reverse: not a single pandemic in human history has been traced to plants. - Kurtis Boyer. wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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WFPB ADVOCATES International

Dr Scott Stoll

Dr Michael Klapper

Dr Kim A. Williams

Dr Shireen Kassam

Dr Joel Khan

Dr Renae Thomas

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 plant-based 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 plantbased 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.

An American cardiologist who believes plant-based nutrition is the most powerful source of preventative medicine on the plant: creator or many books and podcasts.

An Australian doctor based at Loma Linda California. Passionate in empowering people to optimize their health through improving their lifestyle choices with evidence based eating

Dr Michael Greger

Dr T Colin Campbell

Dr Alan Goldhamer

Dr Saray Stancic

Dr Nandita Shah

Founder of NutritionalFacts.org a significant resource in both videos and researched writings on the benefits of eating Whole Food Plant-based.

A biochemist and author of The China Study. He coined the term Whole Food Plant-Based, at age 86 he is still regularly speaking at plant based events.

Dr Caldwell Esselstyn

A chiropractor and founder of the TrueNorth Health Centre based in California. Co-author of best selling book, The Pleasure Trap. An expert in fasting for health.

Author of Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease. Former Olympic athlete now directs the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute.

Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis Dr Saray created a movie called Cold Blue showing her wellness journey through adoption of lifestyle medicine.

A registered medical doctor and author based in India, Founder of SHARAN and recipient of Nari Shakti Award for her pioneering work in the field of health and nutrition.

Dr Neal Barnard

Dr John McDougall

Dr Alan Desmond

Dr Dean Ornish

Drs Dean and Ayesha Sherzai

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 plantbased 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.

Founders of Team Sherzai, this couple are dedicated to educating people on simple steps to long-term health and wellbeing through their work as co-directors of the Alzheimer's Prevention Program at Loma Linda University in America. They work to demystify the steps to achieving long-term brain health and the prevention of devastating diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia.

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WFPB ADVOCATES Australasia

Dr Mark Craig

Dr Heleen RoexHaitjema

Dr Luke Wilson

Dr Coral Dixon

Drew Harrisberg

Stephanie Wynn

A Paediatrician and Co-.Founder and chairman of Doctors for Nutrition. Based in Teringie, South Australia

A GP in Wellington NZ. Co-Founder of Two Zesty Bananas, Board Director of Doctors for Nutrition and co-author of the BROAD study.

A GP in Mt Maunganui, NZ. An advocate of preventative medicine and lives a plant-based lifestyle with her physio husband Brad and their two daughters.

An exercise physiologist, sports scientist, diabetes educator based in Australia who is healthy and thriving with type 1 diabetes.

Qualified in therapeutic massage, WFPB nutrition and life development coaching. Founder of Moving Health Forward and committee member of EBE.NZ

Robyn Chuter

Dr Adrian Griscti

Dr Libby Forsyth

Gerald Haslinger

A GP 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.

A practising medical doctor. Focused on advocating the benefits of WFPB nutrition for managing and preventing chronic diseases. Member of Doctors for Nutrition.

Is the principal psychologist in the Highlands Recovery Support Centre based in Bowral NSW, he is focused on helping people adopt a healthier food lifestyle.

Emma Strutt

Dr Nick Wright

Dr Caitlin Randles

Dr Malcolm MacKay

Dr Taisia Cech

Dr Wayne Hurlow

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 British General Practitioner based in Auckland. NZ. Passionate about educating on Whole Food Plant-based living.

A General Practitioner based in Nelson. She continues to explore the evidence-based effect of a diet on health and healing through food.

A General Practitioner based Tasman. Is passionate about preventative medicine, promoting wellness by addressing the common underlying causes.

A lifestyle medicine and General Practitioner in Ponsonby, Auckland, NZ. Founder of TrueSouth Medical and founding member and deputy chair of EBE.NZ

Hannah O'Malley A clinical Pharmacist and founder of The Better Base in Nelson NZ. She has an eCornell Cert. in Plant-Based Nutrition.

Dr Martyn Williamson

A General Practitioner based in Melbourne Australia.

Co-Founder of Plant Based Health Australia. He is Resources Advisor for Doctors for Nutrition.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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And here lies the problem!

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Dr Susan Peirce Thompson

Food addiction: It's tougher than cocaine and heroin “The brains of people who have been hooked on food look just like the brains of people who are hooked on heroin and cocaine.”

S

usan Peirce Thompson started doing drugs when she was 14. As she explains it, “I had a weight problem in my head” at that point, but it wasn’t huge. She gravitated toward drugs because it helped her manage her eating habits.

“And also, I liked the stimulation,” she says. “They made me feel really good. I was a rule-breaker, but they escalated out of control very quickly. Even though I was a good student early in grade school, I ended up going to three different high schools and ultimately dropping out.

“By the time I was 19, I was a high school dropout, a crack addict and a prostitute and didn’t have a key to a place that I lived. I was just crashing here and there in San Francisco where I was.

“Then I got clean and sober. Really, struck clean and sober out of the blue. I got taken to a 12-step meeting on a first date with some random guy that I’d met at a gas station at three in the morning.

It was quite a coincidence because I’d hit bottom spiritually and emotionally that very morning in the crack house. I walked out the door and didn’t know where to go.

“I happened to have a date that night, and this guy took me to a meeting (Alcoholics Anonymous), and I haven’t had a drink or a drug since. That was August 9th of 1994. It’s been well over two decades. I’m 46 now; I was 20 then.

“After that, I knocked on weight, and it’s interesting because food addiction is something that you can kind of function with. I was able to use food addictively and graduate from U.C. Berkley with highest honours and speak at the graduation. Then I dove into studying the brain. I got fascinated with, like, how does a brain like mine just go so far off the rails?

“I never intended to get that bad; it just felt like a creeping non-choice. It was just this thing that happened, and suddenly I was where I was. So, my education continued, and I ended up ultimately as a psychology professor with a PhD in brain and cognitive sciences. Then I taught for many years until this Bright Line Eating thing took over my life a few years ago.”

In spite of her past, or perhaps because of it, Dr Peirce Thompson

says food is the hardest addiction to overcome.

“There’s a lot of reasons why food is the hardest. Assuming that food addiction is real (it’s something that is controversial to a lot of folks which blows my mind a little bit) but assuming we can agree that food addiction is real, it’s harder than heroin and crack cocaine and crystal meth to beat because, on the one hand, it’s up there in the strength of addiction itself. We have good data on that in humans and rodents. They have different ways in the addiction sciences to measure the strength of an addiction.

“Sugar, for example, is an extremely strong addiction. Rats that are pre-addicted to intravenous shots of cocaine and become hooked (like they’ve been shooting them up with cocaine over and over again until they’re quivering cocaine addicts), if you take their cocaine away but give them a choice of cocaine or sugar, then, in that context, they’ll prefer sugar, even though they’re hooked on cocaine and need a hit physiologically.”

No place to eat She says there is no place you can eat and not be exposed to the problem.

“What happens is that ques in the environment trigger you to want it again. That’s how the craving system works. One thing that’s different to addicts compared to non-addicts is that addicts have brains that are extra sensitive to the cues.

“The problems with food cues are that they’re everywhere. You can’t get home from work without being barraged by logos and billboards with dripping, melting cheese coming at your face. You are not cued to smoke crack on the way home from work, and you are not cued to shoot heroin in a business meeting at 10 am, but the plate of pastry goes around, and there’s a coffee with cream and sugar; right there, right?

“When you overeat, you get a weight problem, right? But the weight problem is ancillary. It’s got nothing to do with the food addiction; it’s like a side effect.

“Imagine if you drank alcohol, and it gave you really bad acne.

That’s something you don’t want sticking around, it doesn’t look

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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good from your perspective, and you want it gone. But it’s a separate thing. But when you stop eating addictively, you’ve still got the weight, you’ve still got the acne, let’s say. And let’s say it’s deadly acne; it’s going to kill you years before your time.

“But then, imagine that treating the acne created cravings to drink – overpowering, evolutionary, wired-in cravings to go back to the alcohol which is going to make more acne.

“That’s the situation we’re in with food. It creates this weight problem, and the trouble is your brain adapts to whatever your higher weight is. It doesn’t want you to lose that weight. It has built-in mechanisms to cue you to eat more as soon as you start to pull off that weight.

“It does things like increase ghrelin, the hunger hormone.

It decreases leptin, the satiety hormone. It slows down your thyroid, so your metabolism stops functioning as well. It cues you hormonally to be driven to go back to eating excessively to drive your weight back to where it was. So, now you’re trying to treat the weight problem that you got from the food problem. It’s a maddening, confounding trap to be stuck in.

The problem with sugar Returning to the problem with sugar, Dr Peirce Thompson says sugar is more addictive than cigarettes.

“If you look at those ways that scientists measure addictive strength, sugar is more addictive than nicotine by a fair bit.”

She says sugar hijacks the brain’s dopamine system in the same way as addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin.

“It doesn’t just release the dopamine and activate those centres like in the nucleus accumbens and the other reward/pleasure centres of the brain, but it blows them out. It causes them to downregulate, which means the receptors become less numerous, less responsive, thinner. What that means is that you are left in a depleted, kind of itchy, uncomfortable, dis-eased, disquieted state in-between times. Now you don’t have enough baseline dopamine on board to just feel ok anymore unless you go get some sugar or flour. Flour does it too.

“The brains of people who have been hooked on food look just like the brains of people who are hooked on heroin and cocaine.”

Science has found that the tongue and our taste buds have a direct connection to the addiction centres in the human brain and our taste buds regenerate every two weeks. Because of this, our sense of taste can be recalibrated if we stop eating foods that are addictive.

“This is why I recommend that people don’t eat stevia if they are trying to quit sugar because its just that sweet taste, in itself, that can be problematic.”

On a wider, societal basis, she says the social impact and people’s attitudes to obese people was shocking and unacceptable.

Sometimes she even wonders if we’ve lost our ability to empathise.

“In an anonymous survey, over 90 per cent of healthcare providers agreed to statements like obese people are lazy, obese people are stupid. And formerly obese people who have now lost a bunch of weight on surveys will say they’d rather accept blindness, deafness, leg amputation than go back to being obese. Research like this makes it clear how incredibly difficult it is to carry excess weight in this society.

“I have three daughters, so this stuff is super present for me. My daughters are pre-teens, and my hunch is that there are positive changes happening in our societal perception of body size, and I also think some of those changes are problematic and worry me.

But the parts that go along with reduced stigma, more compassion and acceptance, less discrimination, less prejudice, I’m so relieved about because being overweight in our society has been so hard for so long. I think it’s disproportionate for women. I think the societal standard has been for a long time that a woman isn’t successful, shouldn’t feel good about herself if she is carrying excess weight, and I think that is horrible. It’s gotta change.

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When asked how she relates to the idea of health at any size, she says the subject of weight has become such a nuanced topic, “and if I’m honest in terms of feelings, I have some feelings of anger. I think the data are very strong that every excess pound we carry confers health risk.”

Referring to a study that looked at over 500,000 people who reviewed the relationship between body size, activity level and cardiovascular health, she said the results were surprising.

“They showed that no matter how much someone exercises if they are obese, they have a higher risk of poor heart health than someone who is not overweight, even if that person is completely sedentary.

“The study author was quite blunt. He said one could not be fat but healthy. Full stop. I’m reminded of the notion called the obesity paradox. It’s a term that was thrown around several years ago, it’s been debunked, but I think it was the wind in the sales of the health at any size movement and I don’t know that they’ve updated their scientific schemas and the information that they disseminated to people.

“Very briefly, the obesity paradox was that a set of studies showed that, mysteriously, people that carried a little bit of extra weight tended to live longer. It looked like having some fat on you could be a really good thing. Similarly, there were data that losing weight were correlated with increased odds of death.

“The said, don’t try to lose weight, carry your extra weight, be proud, exercise, you’re fine. But someone ran the numbers again and took out all the people who were fatally ill. If you remove the data because people are losing weight unintentionally because they’re ill, what emerges is the true pattern which is that, if you don’t have a fatal diagnosis, every pound of weight you carry that is excess, confers additional risk of all-cause mortality. Trying to lose weight intentionally is a very good thing. You want to get that excess weight off.

“Turning to the pandemic and its connection to weight and allcause mortality (see study page 60) Dr Peirce Thompson says it’s the first connection she’s seen to a direct link with obesity.

“Obesity is a direct risk factor for death from Covid-19 – not obesity is problematic because then your lungs are likely to be this, that or the other or you’re likely to have a high this marker or that marker or something else. Even if you are not suffering from anything else, just that, at this moment, you are obese, then that is enough to be more likely to die from Covid.

No rally cry “But for the last year there’s been no rallying cry. Now the writing is on the wall. The gig is up. It’s really time to get healthy. Let’s band together and do what we can for each other and our own health and support each other in finally making the dietary changes we know that we have needed to make for a long time.

“Why aren’t we saying it’s time to put major taxes on candy bars and soda. It’s time to not allow advertising of sugar serials to kids in the same way we don’t allow advertising of cigarettes to kids. It’s time to change what is allowed in vending machines in schools. So, are we highlighting what is going on with our obesity pandemic? I don’t see evidence of that.”

For those trying to deal with weight issues, Dr Peirce Thompson has every ounce of empathy, however. She struggled with weight issues for many years.

“It is the hardest thing to be addicted to foods or to feel cravings or compulsion. There is hope, but you have to be rigorous about it.

The research that showed that diets don’t work was not done in any way, shape or form using the approaches that I use - approaches that work with the brain in a whole different way. There is a way to lose your excess weight and keep it off.”

In reference to her own Bright Line programme, she says they have seen remarkable change when it comes to dealing with craving.

“What we see is that at the end of just eight weeks, people in our Bright Line Eating boot camp are experiencing little to no cravings, ever. That’s data clocked on thousands of people. We see it on the clinical side, but I don’t have the brain imaging smoking gun for you yet.”

For those that use food to suppress feelings, there is an answer too.

“The amazing thing is when you stop using food to suppress your feelings, the feelings still come up and need to be dealt with, but not all at once. The magical thing is called one day at a time, one feeling at a time. What happens is people who really commit to a Bright Line approach typically are afraid that they are going to be overwhelmed with the enormity of not using food as a crutch.

“But one challenging situation at a time, one craving at a time, one urge, one fit of anger at a time, little by little they are able to find a different way of coping with their feelings. We focus on that a lot in my programme. I recommend that anyone who decides to change the way they eat put a lot of thought and attention into that.

“What are my substitutions, where is my support coming from, what am I going to do differently? What am I going to do? I help people to craft an emergency action plan for coping when an emergency rises up.

“We teach people the acronym BFF, which doesn’t stand for best friends forever. It stands for breathe, feel your body, find your feet.

It can be that simple, and you realise that you have a lot of skills for handling emotions. You don’t have to eat over that, and you build more and more capacity over time. It becomes a beautiful, upward spiral.”

Stepping over the line But what happens if you break the rules and you step over the line?

“First of all, not everyone breaks their Bright Lines, most people do at some point but we have a lot of people in our community that really just commit; they have a full identity shift just like I’ve been clean and sober for 26 years. People actually do stick with their bright lines.

“But, at that moment when you know, you have broken a bright line, to have support. In psychology, there’s a term called co-

Susan Peirce Thompson, PhD, is an accomplished neuroscientist who spent part of her earlier career teaching in Australia. She is a former Adjunct Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester, a business entrepreneur and author. She founded Bright Line Eating Solutions, a weight loss and weight sustainability company. regulation, and the idea is that we’re not all in a mess on the same day. So, if you have someone else to lean into, that can be really helpful, and they can remind you of some good adaptive strategies.”

Falling from grace Falling ‘off the wagon’ has various meanings for different people.

“There are people who want to adopt some bright lines but start off without really a weight problem. For example, someone who wants to give up meat and dairy and they have a piece of cheese or whatever; it’s not life-shattering. Then you have the person who just lost 250lbs and has been immaculate with their food plan; now they’ve just eaten a piece of pie. Those are different situations. It’s important to recognise that difference.

In my experience, the people that drift from whatever programme they’re trying to follow will gain back their weight.

They need to be part of a community because the outside world doesn’t get it.

“There’s no respect for the kind of deference someone gives me when I say I don’t drink champaign because I’m a recovering alcoholic. On New Year’s Eve, they don’t say, oh right, well, I’ll get you some sparkling water.

“People out there don’t get it. So, if you’re not surrounding yourself with people who are not reinforcing your highest best good, then maybe it’s time to make a change.”

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Slow Cooker Chilli This potato and beans chili is a healthy, hearty delicious recipe that will warm you up in the colder months. Serves: 6 INGREDIENTS 6 med 1 large 1 large 1 med 1 1 5 2 cans 2 tbsp 1 can 1 can 1 can 1 1/2 cups 1 tbsp 1 tsp 2 tbsp 1/2 cup

potatoes,cubed kumara (sweet potato), cubed carrot, diced turnip, diced brown onion, diced red capsicum, diced garlic cloves, minced diced tomatoes tomato paste black beans, drained cannellini beans, drained brown lentils, drained vegetable stock chili powder cinnamon powder lemon juice raisins or cranberry

14 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

METHOD 1. In your slow cooker, add all ingredients, cover and place on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

2. Serve with brown rice or with your choice of dark leafy greens.

TIP If the chilli is too strong for you add more lemon juice or eat with sliced banana.

Slow Cooker Peanut and Potato Curry This hearty slow cooker recipe served with brown rice Is a great winter warmer. Serves: 6 INGREDIENTS 4 1 lrg 4 sml 1 1/3 1 1 tsp 1/2 tsp 1/2 tsp 2 cups 1/3 cup 1 can 1can 1 can 1 1 cup

cloves of garlic, minced kumara (sweet potato), cubed potatoes, cubed brown onion, diced cabbage, shredded carrot. diced curry powder cumin powder chili powder vegetable stock peanut butter crushed tomatoes in juice cannellini beans, drained brown lentils, drained red capsicum, diced silver beet, shredded

METHOD 1. In your slow cooker, add all ingredients, cover and place on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.

2. Serve with brown rice or with your choice of dark leafy greens.

For instant pot 1. Add all ingredients, cook on high pressure for 2 mins and then do a quick release of the pressure.

2. Serve with brown rice or with your choice of dark leafy greens.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

15

Dr Ayesha Sherzai

Plant-based diet key to good brain health F

or a long time, says Ayesha Sherzai, the brain was this elusive organ that nobody had a better understanding of but thanks to neuro imaging and technology we now have a better view of what our brain looks like and how it functions.

“When we look at imaging like angiograms and MRI we have found that the brain is one of the most vascular organs in the body.”

Referring to a graphic representation (image opposite) presented as part of the Holistic Holiday webinars, she said you can tell there are more blood vessels than brain tissue.

“There are millions of tributaries traversing inside and outside of the brain carrying oxygen and vital nutrients to different parts of the brain. This amazing organ is responsible for so many things.

It’s our personality, its our feelings, our emotions it’s how we see things. It’s how we process information, it’s our memories. So, imagine when a highway is blocked - that is what stroke is all about.

“Stroke essentially means when there is damage to these arteries, whether it is not getting blood to part of the brain or the blood vessels are damaged and blood is not reaching a particular part of the brain. You can see from different neuro imaging how plaque forms inside the arteries and blocks these pathways.

“There are two main types of stroke. With an Ischemic stroke, plaque forms inside the arteries and that plaque causes the formation of clots and there is an impediment to the flow of blood.

Then there is Haemorrhagic stroke which means that the walls of the arteries get very weak and damaged, and they break so there’s bleeding into the substance of the brain.

“Both types are incredibly dangerous but 80 to 85% are Ischemic stroke, the clot type. For Haemorrhagic stroke the mortality is

16 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Dr Ayesha Sherzai MD is a stroke neurologist and with her husband, Dean, is part of teamsherzai.com. Dean is a medical doctor and behavioral neurologist. Both have devoted their careers to exploring the prevention of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. In this article, Ayesha discuses the role of lifestyle in preventing the most debilitating disease: stroke. very high. There are other types of stroke. When we talk about stroke, people are used to talking about having a paralysed arm or leg or not being able to see or speak – something really profound.

Silent strokes occur often “But there are silent strokes that occur all our lives. These are tiny and occur in different parts of the brain because the smaller arteries, the capillaries, they get either blocked or damaged because of multiple factors.

“People may not notice this. They may carry on with their lives and have minimal symptoms like a mild headache or some mild memory problems or some mild symptoms like numbing or tingling in one part of the arm or leg.

“It’s a very important fact because when you accumulate a lot of silent strokes people tend to have cognitive disorders. It’s called a vascular cognitive impairment. So, essentially, over many years people lose their speed in processing information. They take their time to remember things, they take their time to understand things. Their walking gets slower, their speech gets slower. They kind of feel a little disconnected from everyone else.

“That’s silent stroke and it’s usually not evaluated in an emergency setting or in a doctor’s clinical setting. People may think, well, that’s how you grow old. You kinda get slower but it is actually an accumulation of these silent strokes that result in these kinds of symptoms.”

Lifestyle related causes Referring to The Lancet study on the Global Burden of Disease, she said it was found that of 188 countries reviewed, what contributed to stroke were multiple factors mostly related to lifestyle. Lifestyle factors are generally considered to be matters that an individual has personal control over.

“These factors include: high blood pressure, diets low in fruits, high body mass index (BMI), low physical activity, alcohol use, high cholesterol, diets high in sodium and low in vegetables and whole grains, air pollution, high plasma glucose, second-hand smoke, and diets high in sugar-sweetened beverages.

“A lot of people ask me, when they first come into my clinic, what can I do to reduce my risk for stroke. A lot of people who come in with minor stroke or TIA’S (Trans Ischemic Attack). These are strokes that happen within a few minutes and they go away. So, the clot that clogged an artery didn’t stay there, it just dissolved and it didn’t cause any particular damage, but these individuals have a very high risk of having strokes later on as well.

“The first and foremost thing I say is change your diet. Everything else follows next. About 70 to 80 per cent is your diet and then the rest of it is exercise, smoking cessation etcetera, etcetera. When you look at it, most deaths and disabilities in the United States are preventable and related to nutrition.

Dr Sherzai says stroke risk factors split into two categories: modifiable and non-modifiable. In both cases, whether for Ischemic stroke or Haemorrhagic stroke, non-modifiable risk factors include age, sex, race and ethnicity. For Ischemic stroke, modifiable risk factors include, hypertension, smoking, waistto-hip-ratio, diet, physical inactivity, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, alcohol, cardiac causes, apolipoprotein B to A1.

Stroke risk factors For Haemorrhagic stroke, modifiable risk factors include, hypertension, smoking, waist-to-hip ratio, alcohol and diet.

Genetics can play a part in both types of stroke with Apolipoprotein B to A1 mostly occurring in young people.

But, she says, there is a profound amount of evidence showing that diet makes a difference. Adherence to a whole food, plantbased diet reduces the risk of stroke. The DASH, Mediterranean, and prudent eating patterns reduced the risk of stroke but the standard western diet was associated with increased stroke risk.

“The harmful foods are added salt, added sugar, meat and high saturated fatty foods like cheese. If you eat plants, you reduce your inflammation, you reduce your oxidative stress at the cellular level and it also regulates your glucose metabolism and your lipid metabolism which can lead to damage to the inner linings of your

arteries.

“Our arteries need to be nice and elastic and allow blood to flow.

It’s so important for the brain, the energy hungry brain, to keep on getting oxygen and nutrients on a regular basis. Imagine these arteries getting hardened and damaged. It’s obviously going to cause stroke.

“The Mediterranean diet comes back over and over again and there’s been a lot of studies that have looked at Mediterranean dietary patterns, it’s impact on stroke and how it can prevent stroke.

“I did a lot of study at Cornell as a resident and a fellow, on the Mediterranean dietary patterns. What I found was yes, it is important to look at dietary patterns but what is it in these diets that stands out? Is it the fat, is it the nuts? What is it?

Plants are the key “What I found is that when you look at the elements of these diets, whether its DASH or Mediterranean - it’s essentially plants.

She says the ideal diet for stroke prevention: 1. Emphasizes whole food, plant-based eating 2. Eliminates meat, poultry and dairy and 3. Specifies consumption of berries, green leafy vegetables and beans.

“The other great news is that it’s not about perfection. Every increase in plant intake reduces the risk of stroke.”

She recommends working towards eliminating sugar, meats, pastries and sweets, cheese and dairy and extracted tropical oils.

“I know there has been a lot of confusion about coconut oil but coconut oil is more than 90 per cent saturated fat. It damages the arteries the same way that meat and cheese and dairy do.”

Exercise is also important.

“There is a lifelong inverse relationship between physical exercise and stroke. Compared with physically inactive individuals, those who are highly active (2 hours of daily vigorous activity) are estimated to have a 25 to 30 per cent lower risk of stroke. There is no medication that equals that.

“If people exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet they will avoid silent stroke. The exercise needs to be moderate to strenuous, it can’t be just walking from your living room to your kitchen. You need to make exercise as important as the air you breathe or as you sleep or any other meaningful activity that you do.

In summary, Dr Sherzai concludes, 1. Diet is profoundly important for stroke prevention.

2. A whole food (unprocessed), plant-based diet is associated with the lowest risk of stroke.

3. Progress over perfection is what counts. You don’t have to be perfect.

4. Living a physically active lifestyle compounds the salutary effect of diet on brain vessels.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

17

Socca Bread (Chickpea Flatbread) This is so easy to make and is a workable pizza base.

Other ideas are pancakes, pita bread or wedges for dipping. Serves: 2 INGREDIENTS 1 cup 1 cup 1/4 tsp 1/4 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp

chickpea flour water onion powder garlic powder thyme (dried) rosemary (dried)

Pizza topping idea: pizza tomato paste cherry tomatoes olives baby spinach leaves red onion

18 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

METHOD 1. Add the chickpea flour, powders and herbs to a mixing bowl.

2. Add water gradually and whisk well.

3. Let the batter sit for 10 minutes while heat the non stick frying pan.

4. Once frying pan is hot, pour in half the batter, use a spatula to spread mix to your desired thickness.

5. Just like a pancake flip when the edge looks cooked and a few bubbles appear on the service.

Test by carefully lifting one the edges, the batter should lift easily.

6. Flip and cook other side for another three to four minutes.

7. Remove from heat to a bread board and add your desired toppings before heating for around 8 minutes in a pizza cooker or kitchen oven.

Pickled Red Onions A Mexican quick pickled red onion recipe.

Perfect for burgers, sandwiches, salads or pizza. Serves: 2 cups

INGREDIENTS 2 tsp 1 1 tsp 1 cup 2 Tbsp 2 Tbsp 2

dried marjoram or oregano bay leaf black peppercorns water white vinegar apple cider vinegar garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in half 2 red onions 1 lime (optional)

Tip To get the closest, most authentic flavour of Mexican pickle, use marjoram. Mexican oregano, traditionally used, is not the same as the regular oregano. Mexican oregano has a more citrus taste where regular oregano is more sweet.

METHOD 1. Add all ingredients except the onion to a pot and bring to boil.

2. When boiling vigorously, turn off the element and add the onion.

3. Allow to completely cool before straining, remove the bay leaf 4. Add the onion mix into a jar and finish with the juice of one lime (optional).

5. Pour the strained liquid into the jar until full.

6. Seal and place in the fridge.

The pickle will be ready to use after one hour of sitting in the brine, and will last in the fridge for around a month

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

19

James Wilson (resplendent in trademark kilt) and friends at The Old Ghost Road.

He went plant-based for health, but now he's fully vegan From both an environmental and health perspective, James Wilson has a deepening belief that New Zealand is facing disaster. Unless we change our way of eating, he says, there is no way we can avoid it.

by Peter Barclay

F

ormer farmer, whole food advocate and avid conservationist, James Wilson, is very clear about when and why he gave up eating animal products. It happened nearly 11 years ago when he heard Kim Hill interview Dr Caldwell Esselstyn on Radio New Zealand. The next day, he changed his life for good.

“I’d had a couple of pulmonary embolisms. The first was a long time ago, maybe 25 to 30 years ago. That nearly killed me, and I kept thinking something wonderful is going to happen after my near-death experience, but nothing did.

“Then I had a second one. It was a minor, relatively speaking, but when they diagnosed it as a pulmonary embolism, they declared I would be on Warfarin for life. I kill rats when I’m not doing other things, and I use Warfarin to kill them. I was getting dosed with the same stuff I killed rats with.

“And, I was feeling really crook with Warfarin, really unwell.

I was working in the bush a lot, so whenever I touched a branch, I’d bleed. Two doctors told me independently that I should get off Warfarin because they had friends that had died of internal bleeding.

Giving up Warfarin “Actually, shortly before I listened to Esselstyn, I said to my wife I was going to get off Warfarin. I was just thinking, to hell with it.

I took advice from all sorts of experts, and they said you will die if you give that up, but I’d already given it up.

"Then I listened to Esselstyn, and I knew the answer – give up meat and milk and go whole food plant-based. That was when I did it—the day after the interview. We tipped everything out of the house that wasn't kosha and learned to cook and eat appropriately.

That was about 11 years ago now.”

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But how did he handle the transition?

“In my youth, I was a terrible smoker, and there’s only way to give up smoking, and that’s to go cold turkey. And, I so believed in what Esselstyn said that I said to myself, if I’m not going to take Warfarin for an answer, then I’ve just got to do it. So I went cold turkey. I suppose I had three or four months of anguish. First of all, worrying if I would die or not and secondly whether I should keep going the way I was.

Eating out was tough “I could cook what I needed at home, and it didn’t take long to cook appropriately but going out was a nightmare. It was tough to get plant-based food in those days and impossible to get friends and acquaintances to accept that I was going plant-based. Those were the battles.”

Over the last ten year’s he’s seen a massive turnaround in acceptance of plant-based eating.

“If we talk about my own area, well, a large number of people around Picton are now eating plant-based to a greater or lesser extent, and I think that reflects a general national view. But what is amazing to me is how many of them are closet plant-based eaters.

They don’t come out. You discover that they’ve been eating plantbased for months or even years, but they haven’t told anyone.

They’re the ones that make me laugh. They don’t help the cause a lot.

“Now that I’ve been going for 11 years, and I’m not dead, and I’m pretty fit and well, and just about to hit 80, I think I’m now starting to make my point. I’m better off than most of my friends.

And on the restaurant / commercial side, well, we’ve made some big changes there too.

“About three years ago, we were travelling down the West Coast of the South Island, and even fish and chip shops were doing vegan dishes. We worked it out that because many backpackers from around the world go down that way, they demand that sort of food in those areas. Coasters were more aware than anyone else that they had to provide vegan options. Now, most restaurants, if you ask for vegan, you will get vegan, but they don’t understand plant-based very well.”

In his book, James uses the term vegan and plant-based interchangeably, but he found, not all restaurant owners are up with the play, as one of his dining experiences confirmed.

“We were going to the pub for a quiz night. I was late and thought I’d just check and see if they can do vegan, so I rang them up and said can you give me plant-based food? He said, what’s that? I said no meat, just veg and his response was, we don’t sell that shit around here. That was the attitude then. Now I think even vegans are becoming more and more aware that they’re not really vegans unless they’re eating plant-based, so in my view, the two words are melding now.”

WFPB a tough challenge Even for traditional vegans, because of its absence of oil, sugar and salt, upgrading to full WFPB cuisine can still be challenging.

“Oil is the hardest one. Nobody believes you can cook without oil. I don’t cook with oil at all, but if I go out, you find that some have cooked with very little oil, but they still can’t stop using it - quite extraordinary that.”

As far as his personal WFPB journey is concerned, James likes to focus on information from Dr Michael Greger. He has reduced much of his incoming email because, after a while, the information tends to repeat.

“I still get stuff from Collin Campbell, but everything else I’ve quietly moved away from because I’m hearing the same stories over and over again now. But Greger is bringing out new stuff all the time, which fascinates me.”

In moving over to a WFPB diet, James says it’s one thing to make the change, but the absolute conviction doesn’t come until you can prove, and realise for yourself, that it’s been worthwhile. For James, that moment happened when he was on his boat.

“I’ve got a little yacht, and about 10 or 11 years ago I was getting to the point of putting a capstan on to pull the anchor up because I was starting to lose strength. But, after I went vegan, and still to this day, I can pull the anchor up very easily. There’s no question that my strength increased.”

But it wasn’t his declining body strength that motivated him to give up meat and dairy.

“I went vegan because I was scared of dying. There’s no question about that; I think I was very lucky. But because I was a farmer, I was heard to say on the odd occasion that the only good vegan was a dead one. I was so anti-vegan.

“Then I crossed over and followed a plant-based diet. I point this out in my book. There are three reasons for becoming vegan.

All three are indisputable, but you only need to believe one to go vegan. One reason is for our health, the second is for animal welfare, and having been a farmer I know exactly how badly we treat animals. The third reason is the environment because of the vast amount of waste emitted by the meat and dairy industries. It’s just phenomenal.

“So today, I’ve got three reasons for being vegan, and depending on who I am talking to, I know that I am on track. I’m now truly vegan.”

Old Ghost Road trek For James, the health change has been substantial.

“I’ve just come back from walking Old Ghost Road, 85km I walked. I don’t hold the record for that - there are people older than me who have done it, but I certainly did it reasonably easy. I’m just chuffed with the fact that I’m vegan.

A convincing case James Wilson's, Plant Paradigm, is a handy, easy to read, fact-filled dissertation on all the key aspects that connect plants to good health and the future of our planet.

It not only pleads the case for change but makes it crystal clear why change is necessary if we are preserve anything like the life we know today.

“What bugs me, though, is when people get to my age and start falling apart. They then join the industrial, medical movement, and they, their families and the government spend fortunes trying to keep them alive another year or so. All the energy that goes into staying alive at the end of your life is so heavily weighted towards our physical health. If only we could regard eating the right foods earlier in our life, we would reach this time when everyone else runs around trying to get well.

“I’ve got a couple of mates that have had strokes and lots of other friends that are dead and dying. The tragedy is, if only they’d gone vegan, they wouldn’t be in the situation they are. The energy and cost that people exert at the end is so wrongly spent, compared to making kids and young adults eat better food.”

On the one hand, James agrees that while meat and dairy have brought considerable benefits to New Zealand, the negative impacts have been “just enormous, especially to the environment.”

His book points out that if you go vegan around mid-life, the chances are you will outlive your friends by 16 years.

“Certainly, one day, I’m going to die, and I’m not worried about that, but I’m going to be bloody healthy until I do die.”

On the other hand, he says, selling the message that there’s a better life out there for everyone doesn’t always go down well.

“It’s hard to sell because the meat industry is just like the tobacco industry; the pharmaceutical industry is like the tobacco industry. They’re all using ex-journos to sell their product. They do it with such skill and with so much money that our voices hardly get heard. It’s staggering how much information is on the web about eating plant-based, but no one wants to listen to because, even though change is happening, it’s still too unfashionable to go plant-based, sadly.”

Returning to matters environmental, James has a deepening belief that New Zealand is facing disaster.

Stopping livestock farming “We have all this grassland because we chopped down most of our forests, all of our lowland forests, and covered it in dairy, sheep and beef farms, and we think that’s good! The sooner we close those farms and let the bush come back, the sooner we’ll start surviving because, at the moment, we’re not going to survive.

“We’re running out of biodiversity. We’ve slaughtered the birds.

It’s so sad, and it’s all because we’re determined to carry on milking cows, shearing sheep and fattening beef. I think the world will turn against it sooner or later. The sooner we stop livestock farming, the better.”

James Wilson has been an outspoken advocate for the environment and on these matters, he pulls no punches. He recognises that the problems we’re facing rest with the choices we make but the outcome is also dependent on the attitudes we adopt. Perhaps this passage from his book best sums it up: “With the realisation that global change is upon us, and the balance between finite resources and mass consumption being recognised, the time has come to reverse the great wave of arrogance that is taking us further and further from a point of sustainability.”

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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22 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Rice Stuffed Dolmades A Mediterranean classic, rich in flavours and texture, a fantastic party dish or mains with falafel. Serves: 25 METHOD

INGREDIENTS 1 Jar 1 1/2 cups 1 lrg 1/2 tsp 1/2 cup 1/4 tsp 1/4 cup 1 cup 2 Tbsp 2 Tbsp 2 Tbsp 1 Tbsp 2 cups

grape leaves, rinsed well brown rice (uncooked) brown onion, finely diced garlic powder pine nuts smoked paprika lemon juice mushrooms, finely chopped tomato paste fresh mint, finely chopped fresh parsley, finely chopped dill vegetable stock

Tzatziki Dressing Tzatiki dressing is a middle eastern sauce,traditional made with cucumber.

Here is my version with a twist INGREDIENTS 1 cup non-dairy yoghurt (see pg.58 ) 1/2 cup gherkin, diced small 2 garlic cloves, diced 1/4 cup lemon juice 1 tsp whole grain mustard 1 Tbsp dijon mustard

1. Drain the grape leaves, separate them and cut off the stems.

2. In a large stock pot, add a little stock and saute the onion and garlic powder, when translucent add in the mushrooms cook for a further 2 mins.

3. Add in the brown rice and toss to mix.

4. Add in the tomato paste and stock and mix.

5. Cover and cook until the liquid evaporates.

6. Add in the herbs, pine nuts and lemon juice, and mix through. Allow to cool.

7. Lay a grape leaf flat, with the vein side up and add one tablespoon of the mix into the centre. Fold in the sides first then tightly roll from the bottom to the point.

8. Add the stuffed leaves into a large pot so that they are tightly together. Place a plate on top to weigh them down then cover with water. Cook with a lid on for 45 minutes until rice is tender.

9. Remove plate and allow wraps to cool before serving.

METHOD 1. Mix all ingredients throughly and chill before serving.

Air Fried Falafel Another Mediterranean classic, healthily air fried rather than using oil.

Best made with dried chickpeas rather than canned. Serves: 15 INGREDIENTS 2 cups 3 1 1 cup 1/2 cup 2 tsp 2 tsp 1 tsp

dried chickpeas cloves garlic, peeled small brown onion, quartered fresh parsley fresh coriander cumin powder coriander flakes chili powder or paprika

METHOD 1. Soak chickpeas in plenty of water (chickpeas expand to double their size) for 8 -12 hours.

2. Drain chickpeas thoroughly 3. Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix through.

4. Add the mixture, in batches, into a blender.

5. Blend each batch, stopping occasionally to scrape mix from the sides, until the mixture is well combined.

6. Place in fridge to set for around one hour.

7. Spoon the mix into small golf balls using your hands anding them to the air fryer basket.

8. Air Fry for 15 mins at 200 °C (375°F). wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

23

Examining the immune system benefits of vitamin C

by Katherine Matthews BcHS Nat & Med Herb, Dip Nut www.katherinematthews.co.nz

I

t's that time of year when mandarins are plentiful and the vitamin C rich fruit are everywhere.

Mother nature is subtly reminding us of an important ally during winter.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is widely recognised as a potent antioxidant that enhances our immune system. It is found in many areas of the body. but the largest amount is actually found in the brain1. Specifically in the hippocampus and the frontal cortex regions. Areas that are responsible for memory consolidation, decision making, and executive function such as planning.

Vitamin C is retained in the brain at the expense of other tissues during times of deficiency, evidence suggests that this is important as vitamin C helps to preserve cognitive function. It also has many other physiological functions including synthesis of collagen, neurotransmitters and much more. Here I focus on its immune system benefits.

The vitamin C we consume is crucial to immune function. It supports the production of white blood cells in particular, neutrophils. Neutrophils scan the body for infection and are first to the scene of invasion. They infiltrate the infected tissue and engulf pathogens2. In doing this they produce a large amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Vitamin C increases the antioxidant defences of neutrophils and other immune cells such as lymphocytes and phagocytes2. Vitamin C also plays a role in interferon production. Immune cells release interferon. Interferons are a group of proteins released as a defensive response to viruses. Some evidence shows Vitamin C may promote the production of interferon3.

So how much vitamin C is important for optimal health?

Currently the recomended daily intake {RDI) for vitamin C is 45mg per day for adult men and women5. This changes in pregnancy where needs are higher increasing to 60mg and in lactation it increases to 85mg. The RDI varies for children slightly. 45mg is equivalent to about one orange. Many leading researchers argue that the optimal daily dose is much higher.

Researchers have questioned how much the body can absorb on a daily basis. They found that the bioavailability of vitamin C is 100% of a 200mg dose6. Above this amount the absorption declines. This indicates that the intestinal vitamin C transport mechanism has fully evolved to absorb up to about 200mg at one time6. So, if you are someone that thinks more is better and is taking 1000mg oral vitamin C or more a day in a single dose, your body is most likely excreting a large amount of this. Can we get 200mg from our food? Yes, quite easily this is about five servings of fresh fruit and vegetables per day.

The common cold is a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. Vitamin C has been studied extensively in this area and shows the dosage and duration of supplementation can affect the effectiveness of vitamin C in cold duration and prevention.

The evidence suggests that for the common cold vitamin C is most effective when taken for prevention combined with a higher dose at symptom onset7.

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The higher dose at symptom onset can decrease the duration by 26%. Moreover some studies show that if vitamin C was taken only at the onset of symptoms there was no shortening of cold symptoms7. Due to the half-life of vitamin C being 5 hours it's important to be taking vitamin C across the day as there is limited bioavailability in one large dose6.

Taking vitamin C for prevention has inconsistent evidence. A meta-analysis showed that people supplementing prophylactically with vitamin C were only 4% less likely to develop a cold8. However when those people do get sick the severity and duration seems to be less than those who were not supplementing prior to the cold. Those people under extreme stress such as endurance athletes may reduce their cold risk by half8. Due to the dosage variation in the studies some being very low, perhaps a higher dose could be more effective in cold prevention.

If you want to harness the power of vitamin C for cold prevention and to reduce the severity of the cold the dosages I recommend are as follows.

Dosage: Prevention (prophylactic): 200mg of Vitamin C taken twice daily. Place in a water bottle and sip across the day to maintain higher levels of vitamin C. Symptom onset: 2g per day of vitamin C taken across a day. Take 150-200mg every 2hours to maintain plasma concentration (4-6 times a day). If loose stools occur then reduce dosage by 50mg until symptoms reside.

Oral vs Liposomal Vitamin C Just walking into a health shop you can become overwhelmed with the variety of kinds of vitamin C. In terms of oral bioavailability some studies suggest that liposomal vitamin C is superior. A liposome is a particle that is used to encapsulate the water-soluble vitamin C particle. Liposomal forms have shown to produce on average higher concentrations in the blood of vitamin C and take a longer time to be broken down and excreted from the body in comparison to powder forms of vitamin C9.

The dosage is important here, 5g of liposomal vitamin C is required to achieve higher levels of vitamin C in the plasma than non liposomal vitamin C. In the context of oral administration and absorption Liposomal forms of vitamin C seem to be superior.

Now that we have discussed the immune system benefits of vitamin C, I hope you are looking at your vegetables and fruit with newfound appreciation for what they do for you. I hope this supports your optimal health this winter.

Katherine is a nutritionist and naturopathic clinician practicing in Auckland. She has recently returned from True North Health Center where she trained in their leading health promotion program.

Go to: wholefoodliving.life/ref-winter2021 to review references cited in this article.

A move to WFPB eating totally changed her life Gladys made a remarkable recovery. She no longer had arthritis pain or suffered from hiatus hernia. No pain in her legs at night and she lost many of her allergies to food.

I

had suffered with asthma, hives, and claustrophobia from the time I was a young child, but by my seventies I also suffered from hiatus hernia, high blood pressure, tinnitus, osteoarthritis, pain in my legs at night and cold feet.

In my mid-seventies I had both my hips replaced and was unable to walk without a walking frame or a stick. I had great trouble getting out of a chair and could no longer peel vegetables as the arthritis pain was too great.

Then my youngest daughter Jenny met Malcolm Mackay on a chairlift at Falls Creek, our favourite Ski Resort in Australia, where our family has belonged to a ski club for over 50 years. Malcolm is a doctor from South Australia and has skied at Falls Creek most of his life.

When he was doing his medical degree at South Australia’s Flinders University, soon after a lecture on heart disease, another Professor gave a lecture and mentioned that the native population of Papua New Guinea didn’t suffer from heart disease. Malcolm was curious and checked it out further and discovered that their diet consisted mainly of sweet potatoes. He decided to change to a plant-based diet, and after he learned about Pritikin he became an active member of the Pritikin Association in South Australia.

Our farm was just less than an hour from Falls Creek, and Jenny and Malcolm called in frequently. My husband and I killed and ate our own meat, our freezers were full of beef, so, to help me produce food that Malcolm could eat, Jenny gave me some books.

The first was T Colin Campbell’s The China Study so I could understand why Malcolm ate this way. I think the next books were Esselstyn’s Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook. And slowly, over two and a half years, I became whole food plant-based (WFPB), and without trying, lost 25kg. The last thing I gave up was oil, although I used so little oil anyway.

We sold the farm and retired to the large Victorian town of Ballarat. The carriers who moved our furniture refused to take

an open bottle of oil, and I kept forgetting to buy a bottle when we arrived. In preparing lunch for some friends a few weeks after arriving, without thinking I picked up and opened a jar, I looked at the lid in my hand and thought “I can’t open jars”.

Then I realized I no longer had arthritis pain. I no longer suffered from hiatus hernia or had pain in my legs at night, my blood pressure was down but still a little high, I discovered I no longer suffered from claustrophobia, and I had lost many of my allergies to food.

My husband, who had continued to eat meat, sadly died 18 months after we arrived in Ballarat. To give me something to look forward to Jenny decided she and I would attend a McDougall Adventure Holiday in Hawaii, a wonderful experience where I met Mary and John McDougall along with many other fascinating people. I also enjoyed a trip in a submarine without experiencing claustrophobia!

About a year later I asked Jenny if she would go to TrueNorth Health Center with me so I could see if I could get my blood pressure lower. Off we went to Santa Rosa, fitting in a McDougall Advanced Study Weekend and then going to True North.

On the fifth morning of my water fast, I woke up and couldn’t believe how easy it was to breathe, and yes, my asthma had disappeared! Wow! Next thing I realized I had ‘warm feet’ and my blood pressure did come down!

Pain is a good motivator, if I have a trace of oil, my joints ache for about 12 hours, so I have no trouble keeping to a WFPB SOS-free (salt/oil/sugar) way of eating. I can now walk freely, get up out of chairs easily, and if they are not too low to the floor, without using my hands.

My tinnitus has disappeared. I’m 85 and live alone, I can look after myself and hope to do so for years to come. I feel fantastic and wake up with joy every morning. I am just so very glad Jenny met Malcolm and I found out about a Whole Food Plant Based way of eating. What a difference it has made to my life.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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SHOPPING LIST

T

hese days, few of us doubt the long-term dangers of cigarette smoking. We understand the damage it causes isn't immediately apparent but accumulates over time. Something similar happens with food, but why don't we think that way when we go shopping? Science has now proven that today's lifestyle illnesses are clearly linked to the food we eat. Think about it the next time you go shopping. All the diseases listed below are on offer; it's just a question of what you put in your trolley.

Heart Disease

Breast Cancer

Bowel Cancer

Ulcerative Colitis

Crohn's Disease

Prostate Cancer

Asthma

Osteoporosis

Multiple Sclerosis

Inflammatory Arthritis

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Constipation

Type 2 Diabetes

Menstral Pain

Alzhiemers

Ovarian Syndrome

Acne

Hypertension

26 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Looking at

Prostate Cancer Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

Dr Caldwell Esselstyn Australia

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in men in Australia and the third most common cause of cancer death.

One in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer by the age of 85. It is more common in older men, with over 63 per cent of cases diagnosed in men over 65 years of age.

In 2016, 19,305 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in Australia. In 2018, there were 3264 deaths caused by prostate cancer. The five-year survival rate for prostate cancer is 95 per cent.

From 1982 to 2015, cancer incidence in Australia increased from 47,462 cases to 131,452 cases. Statistically, the most significant risk factor in prostate cancer is increasing age.

New Zealand According to statistics released by the Ministry of Health in 2018, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in New Zealand men with over 3,500 registrations and more than 650 deaths each year The number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer in New Zealand is increasing but the number of men dying from it is decreasing. The increase and decrease is attributed to more men being tested and successfully treated.

Maori men are more likely than non-Maori men to die of prostate cancer because it is often found too late to cure.

Also, men who live in rural areas are at greater risk than those who live in urban areas because of generally poorer access to health services.

Plant protect your prostate to lower cancer risk or slow its progress According to the US based, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, you can plant protect your prostate.

Research shows that a plant-based diet that avoids dairy, eggs, and processed meat may: • Lower prostate cancer risk • Create a protective effect for the prostate • Slow the progression of prostate cancer if diagnosed Researchers compared several dietary patterns and cancer incidence rates for 26,346 participants. Those who followed a vegan diet were less likely to be obese and experienced a 35 percent lower prostate cancer risk than those following a nonvegetarian, lacto-ovo-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian, or semi-vegetarian diet.

Recently, the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association published a review of about 50 publications that assessed diet and cancer risk. The reviewers observed a

protective effect against cancer from vegan diets, especially those with increased consumption of vegetables, legumes, and tomato products.

The bright red pigment found in tomatoes, watermelon, red bell peppers, and pink grapefruit may be especially beneficial to protect against prostate cancer. Lycopene is the carotenoid antioxidant that imparts the red colour to tomatoes and other fruit.

Men who consume two or more servings of tomato sauce per week have a 23 percent less risk of prostate cancer, compared to those having tomato sauce less than once per month.

Processed meats are associated with an increased risk for prostate cancer. A National Institutes of Health-funded study found that in men who already have prostate cancer, eating poultry and processed red meat increased their risk for death.

Kururangi Wetini

Joseph Bayliss

Dinh Huy Bui

Students call for greater awareness on the problems we face with food W

hen it comes to evaluating a whole food plant-based diet, Shirley Boys High School student Kuru Wetini has a close family connection who can prove the benefit of what it can do.

Kururangi is a rower and trains six days a week for hours on end, both mornings and afternoon.

"And also, being cyclist, food for me is very important. I do have a big diet which mostly consists of protein and carbs. So, outside of my household, that's all I'm eating.

"Coming back to home, my diet is more vegetables and plants.

The reason is that my father, years before I was born, had diabetes and the way they reversed it was by going straight to a plant-based diet. He attacked it early, and now he does not have diabetes anymore. We still regard our vegetables highly, but we do eat minimal amounts of protein from meat as well. Our diet is high in vegetables.

Joseph Bayliss sees food as important to almost everything especially health issues and the environment. He also understands that eating plant-based meals can be a help economically. Doing food studies has changed his approach to food.

"I have changed some of what I eat and how I live around food. I wasn't the healthiest, and now I've learned from school that food really has a big impact on your future."

Dinh Hui, commonly known as Bi at school, is an international student from Vietnam. He carries a strong awareness of the influence the big food giants have had on his life.

"When I was young, all the parties were at McDonald's and KFC. I didn't realise that was bad because we didn't have food studies back there. I kind of like to eat sweet stuff, and I didn't really care that it had any effect on me because I enjoyed it.

"But then I came to New Zealand, and food studies was something I was interested in firstly because they have cooking in the curriculum. I've studied it for three years now, and I realise it's really important to keep a balanced diet and that sugar and fat are really bad for you.

"It's something I need to pay a lot of attention to. I've changed.

I've reduced my sugar intake and all that fast food; I'm not taking it anymore. There's been a big change in my diet."

Turning to the wider picture, Dinh sees a serious problem between food and the environment.

"I think there's a big issue with the environment. A lot of people are eating meat these days, and even though there's a change to vegan and vegetarian eating, a lot of people going to the gym still think you need that protein from animals.

"Raising all beef cattle, chickens etc., damages the environment, but no one actually thinks about it. Until now, the cry is to do

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something about it, but the problem is still expanding."

Looking at the future from a career perspective, all three students are starting to develop some firm ideas.

Kururangi's family moved to Christchurch at the end of 2013, and around the same time, he started having different career thoughts; until then, accountancy was a consideration, but a trip to Thailand expanded his views.

He and another student got homesick while travelling but "the one thing that helped me stay more connected with everyone else was the food. I enjoyed another culture's food." Now he's contemplating becoming a chef in the defence force not only to gain a career but to do some international travel as well.

Joseph has also thought about food as a possible career.

"I personally really like food studies, especially learning about nutrition and health. I would love to be able to educate other people on the stuff that I've learnt through food studies."

Dinh agrees with Joseph about the need for young people to look at food as a subject.

"I don't think it's a boring subject. I really like it. It's really interesting and shows you how you can change your diet in a good way. Not a lot of people have a good diet nowadays. If they take this subject, they can use it in their lives and use it immediately in their diet right away."

Dinh plans to study food technology at university and eventually expects to work in food product development.

"I understand that a lot of people are buying processed food at the supermarket and the supermarket is full of them. It's cheap and quite easy for people to buy those but processed food is full of fat, sugar and salt as well.

"I have a goal to make it healthy so that even people with low income can have access to healthy food through canned food or processed food in the supermarket. People should research about the food they eat."

Kururangi: "With teenagers, in particular, it's the talk between each other; that's where they decide to get more processed foods.

It's when they go out in town. With the older generation, they simply just don't know. A lot of people just don't know.

"Teenagers with parents in their 50s or 60s aren't aware of the negative impacts that food can have on their child. The younger generation needs to step up because one day that knowledge might save their parents or grandparents.

"Younger people need to realise that the food industry is connected with health, environment and a lot of other stuff like nutrition in sport, general nutrition, diet planning and knowledge of that can quite possibly save not only other people but yourself and your family."

Shirley Boys High School students Kuru Wetini, Joseph Bayliss, Dinh Hui and teacher Peter Beswick talk food and the future. Pictures: Welton Tong.

Whole food under review at SBHS "I always ask for a show of hands if students know someone with type 2 diabetes, or heart disease, or has been affected by cancer, and nearly every hand goes up for each NCD. It’s scary."

S

tudents at Christchurch's Shirley Boys High School are being given the opportunity to evaluate the benefits of whole food plant-based eating. Their teacher, Peter Beswick, is almost fully plant based so we put some questions to him on how he deals with the subject at class level but first we asked about his own background.

WFL: Peter, can you tell us something about yourself and how you came down the WFPB path?

I have been teaching for nearly ten years after spending 14 years in the hospitality industry. I felt that I wanted to, and could have, a greater calling in life, so went to Lincoln University to get a Science Degree, with a major in Food Science. Being a mature student, it was challenging to say the least. However, I had enough motivation to get through.

Teaching in the Home Economics curriculum (we call it Food Studies at SBHS), introduced me to the concept of health and wellbeing, which I quickly became passionate about. I started looking more deeply into wellbeing and positive psychology in 2017. Since then I have completed a diploma as well as other courses. I’ve had the roll of wellbeing coordinator at SBHS for

three years now, and it’s one of my favourite parts of my work.

It was really running that brought me to a WFPB diet. I had been running for about a year (mostly on the trails on the Port Hills of Christchurch), and started reading about various runners who inspired me. One of my favourites was Scott Jurek. Turns out he followed a WFPB diet himself, and with this competed (and won) many an Ultra Marathon - beyond 41km, but often up to and over 100 miles.

I found this very interesting, and also very different to what I believed, and had been teaching, for many years.

Then I watched the documentary The Game Changers. This really sealed the deal for me. I had already cut red meat out of my diet, but now it was time to take this seriously. I read articles and watched more documentaries (Dr Michael Greger, Dr Klaper etc.

Forks over Knives, What the Health) and these confirmed that I was doing the right thing – not just for my running, but also for my long-term health, the environment and for the animals.

That was just was about a year ago, and although there is the very odd occasion where I may have a little cheese, or some fish I would say my diet is 99.99% WFPB.

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WFL: What is covered in the curriculum you teach?

The main topics we cover in the junior curriculum are food safety, nutrition, local and international foods (particularly street food), then in NCEA the year 11’s study food safety and knife skills, the various influences on food choices, individual nutrition.

Year 12 is more about food sustainability, various nutritional/ dietary needs and the determinants of health.

At year 13 it’s nutritional issues affecting the wellbeing of New Zealand society (we tend to focus on the over-consumption of sugar), how multinational corporations have changed eating patterns in New Zealand, and how food advertising influences food choice and wellbeing.

As you can see, the focus is strongly on the role of food in society.

As well as these, we teach critical thinking skills, identifying qualitative and quantitative data, and the differences between equality and equity.

WFL: Does it cover things like food allergies and food addictions?

Not so much. A little bit comes up with nutritional needs, and there are some learnings about the addictive nature of some foods (sugar and ultra-processed foods), but that is about it.

WFL: Do you think there is more interest in food as a career path these days – both in chefing and food sciences etc. ?

It is certainly growing. When I first started teaching, most students who were interested in turning food into their career were considering training in the culinary arts. But with the growth of knowledge around food, nutrition and health (and it being in the public arena so much more), we are seeing much more engagement in the study of food in culture, health and wellbeing.

It’s really exciting.

One year 13 student this year is planning on studying Food Technology after he leaves school.

WFL: How open are students to thinking outside of the norm, e.g. that meals can include substances other than meat?

Initially, most are quite apprehensive. Getting past the mindset of meals needing to have meat (which has been ingrained over a long time), is a challenge.

I have, however, learned a couple of techniques to help shift that mindset. One is challenging knowledge about what protein actually is, where we can get it, and how the body uses it, using amino acids from all parts of the diet to make whatever protein is needed. It doesn’t take too long for students to learn about my own dietary preferences, so they have lots of questions about this choice that I have made.

WFL: How do you introduce WFPB to your students, is it part of, say, reviewing different types of eating?

Apart from the above, we also watch a couple of documentaries.

The Game Changers is particularly engaging at a boys’ school.

I think that often students just need to start to understand that there are different ways to approaching a diet - the food we eat rather than something prescribed, and with the seniors having learned some critical thinking skills and not just taking something on face value, helps them to be more open to different ways of eating.

One thing that I do with the year 13 class is a sugar free month together. In reality, we don’t eat anything over 5% sugar, just to make it a bit easier for them to achieve, but this gets them reading the ingredients list and nutritional information panel a bit more closely.

During this period we cook a lentil dal, which is of course 100% plant based. Nearly the whole class really enjoy the dish, and any others still thinks its “alright”, which is good enough for me. They look at the nutritional panel and see that there is pretty much as much protein in lentils as there is in steak, and it is way cheaper.

We can then talk about how the dal has no saturated fats, is high in fibre and many micronutrients, and is really filling. This really is the beginning of the class being much more open to preparing dishes with no animal products.

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After watching some of The Game Changers, we make bean burritos, vegan nachos, and other vegan friendly/WFPB recipes.

WFL: Are things like non-communicable diseases considered in relation to diet?

Yes, absolutely. Heart disease, type two diabetes, and generally cancer, are introduced early on as potential results of a poor diet.

At more senior levels we are studying the various ways that the risk of these is increased through lifestyle choices. It’s eye opening for many students.

I always ask for a show of hands if students know someone with type 2 diabetes, or heart disease, or has been affected by cancer, and nearly every hand goes up for each NCD. It’s scary. When we start diving into the more serious symptoms, and what these can lead to - amputations, blindness, stroke or heart attacks - they start to piece together how important diet really is.

WFL: Are students aware of their own conditioning towards food and their response to food triggers/cues like billboards, bus stop signs, television etc.?

At year 13, a lot of the work revolves around the links between food and wellbeing, and how large corporations are more interested in wealth rather than health (I call it “wealth over health”) which is the opposite to what people actually need.

We look at aggressive advertising techniques, how food is manufactured to have cravability and addictive levels of sugar and other ingredients, how fast food shops are located in lower socioeconomic communities etc., and the effect that this has on all of us.

Once they understand that these corporations use our own biology and psychology against us, they are more able to resist the urge to purchase and eat something just because they are exposed to it so much through advertising, convenience etc.

I think there are a couple of other important things worth mentioning.

We still have to teach to the curriculum and to the dietary recommendations of the Ministry of Health, even when I disagree with much of it. It is encouraging that there are changes happening at the ministry level (limiting red meat and processed meats, like they did for sugar in the past), and including milk alternatives, but I believe this still is not enough.

Of course, I can’t just mandate that we only make vegan friendly or WFPB recipes. My first priority is getting students feeling more confident in the kitchen and engaged with the food they are preparing and consuming. Then, helping them develop a bit of passion for good food.

Yes, we do need to make a variety of dishes, but my hope is that through experiencing a range of options alongside the theory, that they are more enabled to make better choices when it comes to food.

It can also be very challenging to get through to many a teenage male, I’m sure many of your readers who have their own can testify. And, I can only do so much with the time and resources I have. But, again, it is really about helping students to be more open to the opinions and beliefs of others, and understanding the close links between food and health for themselves, their whanau, their communities, wider society, and of course the environment as well.

Many students are becoming much more aware of the plight of our environment, which is another good way in with sustainable agricultural practices. Unfortunately, animal rights is a more difficult topic to dig into, as most of our population has been conditioned away from the links between animal suffering and our thirst for animal based products.

With my year 13 class, I introduce mindfulness meditation, both as a tool to help students to stay a bit more focused on themselves and their learning, but also so they can understand that feelings (like craving food) are temporary, and they don’t have to act on them.

Cheesy Dogs Breakfast A conversion of a family classic as I was growing up. Mainly created with what ever left overs are still available at the end of the week. Serves: 4 INGREDIENTS 1 lrg 2 cups 3 2 cups 1 1/2 cup 1 2 tbsp 1/4 cup 3-4 tbsp 1/4 cup 1/4 tsp 1/4 tsp 1/2 tsp

brown onion, diced broccoli florets, chopped small potatoes, cooked / diced baby spinach apple diced cashew nuts yellow capsicum, diced tahini sunflower seeds tamari / low salt soy sauce nutritional yeast garlic powder turmeric powder / grated root ground cumin black pepper

METHOD 1. Saute the onion in a little water or stock for 5 mins to brown in a large pan 2. Add all other stirring over medium heat until the broccoli florets and capsicum is soft.

3. Add water in small amounts when needed.

4. Serve immediately.

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Smokey Portobello Casserole Incredible tasty dish, using liquid smoke to add that unique smoky flavour to the casserole. Serves: 4 INGREDIENTS 450 g portobello mushroom (cleaned and roughly chopped) 1 lrge brown onion 2 celery sticks, diced 2 carrots, diced 3 garlic cloves, minced 4 Tbsp cornflour 4 cups vegetable stock 800 g potatoes, cut into chunks 100 g kumara (sweet potato), cut into chunks 1 can kidney beans 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped 2 Tbsp tomato paste 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast 2 tsp Marmite 2 tsp liquid smoke pepper

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METHOD 1. In a large pot add a small amount of vegetable stock and saute the onion and garlic 2. Add the mushroom and cook for 5 mins browning and softening the mushroom 3. Add a little more stock if needed and then add in the celery and carrot and cook until tender.

4. Now add in the rest of the stock and the potatoes, thyme and rosemary. Bring to the bowl then simmer until the potatoes are getting soft but still uncooked.

5. Stir in the tomato paste and nutritional yeast, Marmite and kidney beans.

6. Take a 1/4 of cold water and stir in the cornflour, when dissolved slowly add it to the casserole stirring it through to thicken. Simmer for 20 mins until all vegetables are tender.

7. Remove from heat and add the liquid smoke and pepper for taste.

8. Enjoy.

Delicious Vegetable Pot Pie Great winter warmer for the whole family.

Serves: 6 INGREDIENTS 1 1/3 cup 1 cup 3 cup 2 tsp 1 tsp 2 cups 4 3 lrg 2 1 cup 1 cup 1/4 cup 3 1 can 1 tbsp 1 tsp 1 tbsp

brown onion, diced cornflour vegetable stock plant-based milk dijon mustard whole grain mustard potatoes, chopped garlic cloves, minced carrots, diced celery sticks, sliced peas frozen spinach parsley sprigs of thyme brown lentils white vinegar ground flax seed (Linseed) nutritional yeast phyllo pastry

METHOD 1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).

2. In a large stock pot add a little amount of water or stock and fry the onions and garlic for 2 mins until onions are translucent.

3. Add carrot and celery and cook for another 3 mins.

4. Reduce the heat and add in the mixed cornflour and plant based milk, mixing until everything is combined.

5. Add the all other ingredients except the pastry and simmer for 15 mins, or until potatoes have softened.

6. Place mixture evenly into ramekins and take a sheet of Phyllo pastry for each, crunching the pastry up and placing on top of the mix.

7. Baste pastry with a little plant-based milk to help brown.

8. Bake for 30-35 mins. wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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by Janice Carter

Raising healthy plant-based children I t is a well-known fact that smoking and drinking before, during and after pregnancy is not wise and will result in long-lasting detrimental effects on you and your child. A growing body of scientific data proves that what you eat greatly affects you and your child before, during and after pregnancy.

A new buzzword – epigenetics: Scientific research into epigenetics is revealing astounding information on how the quality and quantity of the food we consume can change how our genes respond. According to Dr Luigi Fontana (PhD, FRACP), genes can be switched off – becoming dormant – or switched on – becoming active – by adjusting chemical tags on specific areas of our DNA. Every single cell in our body contains the same information required to direct its functions. What we eat and drink, how and when we exercise or sleep, stress, and many other factors influence our future health and our genetic heritage.

Dr Luigi says most people are not nutritionally ready to procreate, which is why it is so important to have good holistic health as early as possible in life.

Unhealthy diets high in processed foods, animal foods, and sugar produce an imbalance in the gut flora, contributing to an increased risk of multiple chronic diseases. Diets high in vegetable dietary fibre result in healthier gut flora. This helps specific immune cells, essential in the prevention of many allergic reactions and autoimmune diseases.

By looking at the science, we can see how important it is for both parents to be in optimal health before conception, during and after the pregnancy, and start life in a high health state. A whole food plant-based lifestyle is optimal to achieve this along with no alcohol, no recreational drugs, no smoking, none or a very low

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"He who learns but does not think is lost!

He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger." - Confucius sugar intake and at least two litres of water a day which ensures we are well hydrated and able to flush out toxins.

Following on from this, if possible, breastfeeding is optimal for a child's start in life and brain development. But once the child is weaned from breast or bottle, most children are faced with a lifestyle of being overfed with ultra-processed, energy-dense food, excessive amounts of animal products and sugar. All of this results in detrimental, life-changing consequences with many adverse health outcomes.

Children fed like this start life with compromised gut flora.

When we consider that most of our immune system is formed in the gut, and most of our serotonin is also formed in the gut, it's not hard to see how children's physical and mental health can be adversely affected. The other marker for children raised with junk food is rapid and excessive growth leading to high stature and early puberty.

The art of feeding children healthily has almost become lost.

Much of what is now deemed to be healthy is often not healthy at all. Children are being raised to be snackers and grazers all day long. Because of this, they are often not hungry at mealtime and become fussy and picky eaters who are undernourished and sick.

What should be occasional treats have turned into everyday

food. Most children today are on a permanent overload of bad fats, sugar and too much salt. It amazes me that when you remove the bad fat, sugar and high salt load, the authentic taste of fresh fruit and vegetables shines through. Whole foods become delicious and highly enjoyable.

2.

Diet quality in children matters

3.

It begins in the womb. What a mother consumes is passed through to the growing baby. Eating habits are set in early childhood. To raise children on a plant-based lifestyle with none or very little sugar is entirely possible but to do it sensibly and adequately with balanced nutrition requires parents to make a conscious decision to get educated on how. It is not something you can do on the fly. You owe it to your child to be well informed about the key nutrients required for growth and development.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), children raised on a healthful plant-based lifestyle have reduced risk for heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, asthma, and other conditions. Adolescents raised on a plant-based diet often find they have an easy time maintaining a healthy weight. They also have fewer problems with acne, allergies, and gastrointestinal problems than their peers who eat animal products.

Children often have fatty streaks in their arteries before they finish high school. Children who eat a plant-based diet limit foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol, which contributes to heart disease and a big range of western lifestyle-related illnesses.

When it comes to milk, research shows that dairy products have little or no benefit for bones. A 2005 review published in Pediatrics showed that milk consumption does not improve bone integrity in children. Another study tracked the diets, physical activity, and stress fracture incidences of adolescents for seven years, and concluded that dairy products and calcium do not prevent stress fractures in adolescents (PCRM).

Children who are plant-based and sugar-free have much better health, fewer doctors' visits, fewer allergies, generally maintain a good height to weight ratio, and are better learners. They also have better mental health, which, in turn, helps them to develop into healthier adults that can face life stressors more confidently.

The question I am most asked when presenting seminars on this topic is, where do I start?

The first thing to do is to decide if you are ready to commit. If this is not something you see as long term or can commit to, it will not be sustainable.

Secondly, remember you are the one in control of the budget, the meal planning, the shopping list and the food going into the mouths of your children. The child is not in control of this and needs your loving guidance and kind teaching on why certain foods are not going in your shopping cart.

In the supermarket, we have all seen children just putting whatever they want in the shopping cart. If a parent says no, a major tantrum erupts and concludes with the parent giving in for the sake of peace. This is very unhealthy behaviour from the parent and is modelling unhealthy actions in front of the child. It is where poor food choices start for children.

Modelling healthy food choices 1.

Involve your child in budgeting. Sit down with them and patiently show them how much money is budgeted for food after other expenses have been accounted for. You will be surprised by how much they understand and will then be inclined to want to help you be accountable for that food budget. You can teach maths skills in the weekly food shop.

Teach them about the price per 100gm, tags on the shop shelves. Children who are taught these skills from a young age tend to be less demanding of junk food and more aware of the value of a dollar – that it must be worked for, and how many hours must be worked to earn the budgeted money.

4.

5.

Involve your child in learning to read labels. Show them the amount of saturated fat, salt and sugar per 100 grams on the nutritional label. The general rule of thumb in regards whole food plant-based eating is if a packet has more than five ingredients, then it is too processed and is dead food.

Give your children whole food plant-based recipe books.

Sit down and look at what inspires them. If a particular recipe looks appealing to them, then get cooking! Have fun in the kitchen with them. Show them how to prepare the ingredients and how to cook them. Children who learn to prepare and cook healthy food and stand beside you in the kitchen helping are gaining a great skill and are spending quality time with their parents. It is also another amazing area to teach maths and science.

Grow a simple vegetable garden that your children can work alongside you in. Show them how vegetables grow and that they don't just morph into vegetables on a supermarket shelf all on their own. Let your children grow simple, easy vegetables such as broccoli, lettuce, spring onions, tomatoes, carrots, Lebanese cucumbers. Again, another opportunity for teaching maths and science and organic gardening principles. These moments teach your child solid life skills.

Find a whole food plant-based recipe book containing recipes for healthy treats that children can help you make.

Revive Cafe cookbooks by Jeremy Dixon, O She Glows by Angela Liddon and Raw and Free by Sophie Steevens, are a good start. Many wonderful healthful treats can be made.

They won't feel deprived and will learn to understand how to choose healthy treats by themselves.

Homework for parents For a positive, fun time that will be successful for you and your children, consider the parental checklist below before starting to cook with your children. Being prepared will give you the best start and the best outcome.

1. Have I spent enough time on steps 1-5 above?

2. Have I scheduled enough unhurried time for this?

3. Am I in a patient mood?

4. Am I feeling positive?

5. Am I prepared to put up with mess and spills?

If you can answer yes to all five of the "Homework for Parents" steps, then get in there, go for it, laugh and have fun – then enjoy what your eager beavers have created and give them positive reinforcement and praise. Then, don't forget to get them involved in the cleaning up in a fun, positive manner. Each time they help clean up, it will help them to be more aware of their surroundings, and they will be inclined to be more aware of the effort that goes into healthful food preparation.

There can be challenges to raising children this way, but I chose to ignore people's ignorant comments. I was told that I was controlling and not allowing the children to choose by raising them vegetarian and plant-based. Some people were downright nasty about it and had no qualms in telling me what a "bad mother" I was.

After all the scientific evidence and the fact that our children were thriving, we stuck to our chosen way of life. Our son is 6'3" and doesn't look at all like he is malnourished. All three of our children have clear skin and bright eyes and are continuing to thrive. My point is this – your children are not going to come to any harm if you choose to be a whole food plant-based family.

They will thrive if you, as the parent, approach a whole food plant-based lifestyle with an educated mind and in a sensible manner. Don't worry about what others say who have not educated themselves on the matter. I strongly suggest you do what is right for your family and embrace this incredible journey.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

35

Lentil Soup Very easy to put together and super delicious. This soup has a nice kick.

by Louise Barclay. Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS 1 lrg 3 med 4 3 2 cans 1 can 1 tsp 1 tsp 1 1/2 tsp 1 cup 3 1/2 tsp

brown onion, diced carrots, chopped celery sticks, chopped garlic cloves, crushed/diced brown lentils, undrained crushed tomatoes cumin powder coriander powder smoked paprika vege stock extra vege stock cubes cayenne pepper (optional)

36 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

METHOD 1. Saute the onion, carrot, celery and garlic in a litlle water or stock for 10 mins 2. Add all other ingredients except for the cayenne pepper, bring to a boil then simmer for around 45 mins.

3. Turn off the element and use a stick blender to make a smooth thick soup.

4. Add cayenne pepper and stir through 5. Server with a squeeze of lemon (optonal)

Creamy Potato and Cauliflower Soup Pureed Cauliflower and Potato soup, super easy to prepare and super yummy Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS 4 cups 4 cups 1 lrg 3 4 cups 1 tbsp 3

potato, peeled and chopped cauliflower, chopped brown onion, diced garlic cloves, minced vege stock miso paste sprigs of thyme ground pepper for taste

METHOD 1. In a stock pot, saute onion and garlic in a little water or vege stock until onions are translucent.

2. Add stock, then add the potato and cauliflower and thyme.

3. Bring to the boil then simmer for 20 mins or until the potato and cauliflower are soft.

4. Turn off the element and use an immersion blender to puree the soup.

5. Don't blend totally just enough for a creamy soup but still with small chunks of potato remaining.

6. Serve with a little ground pepper and chopped parsley

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

37

Dr Helen Voronina and her feathered friend, Rocky

Good dental care is a whole story "I don't only look at patients' diet from the dental point of view, but also for their overall health and well-being."

M

elbourne surgical and cosmetic dentist, Dr Helen Voronina, was born into a meat-eating family, but, over time, she had a big change of heart. Today she runs a busy dental practice in Prahran but she also enjoys a little ballroom and latin dancing or hiking when she can.

A firm believer in ethical and sustainable dentistry she says life for her now is very different from the way things once were.

"We ate meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For a long time, animal cruelty played on my mind, and eventually, I put my foot down. I announced to my family that I didn't want to be a part of it anymore.

"My parents were worried I had an eating disorder, but this was only coming from a place of concern. Nevertheless, my family and friends regarded me as something of a freak for my decision, so initially, I was shy to speak out about it."

That changed a lot in the following years, however, and now she is much more outspoken.

"Of course, these days, being vegan is no longer considered a taboo. The vegan lifestyle attracts educated and thoughtful people from all walks of life. You could say it has become somewhat of a bit of a novelty these days. People are fascinated by it and want to

38 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

know more."

When it comes to dining out, Dr Helen admits she doesn't tend to eat out at restaurants all that often. However, she appreciates that the rise in the number of vegan restaurants has made it easier for many people to transition to veganism without seriously affecting their lifestyle. However, and because she takes such a particular interest in the health benefits of a plant-based lifestyle, she has one burning desire.

"I wish more restaurants would offer whole-food options, without added oil and sugar. I would be a regular visitor to vegan restaurants then."

Wider issues at stake But, she adds, there are wider issues that are much more important, one of them being climate change.

"Climate change should be a concern for everyone. It's easy to live our lives with our eyes shut, but what are we doing to ourselves? We are destroying the very home that we rely on for shelter and resources. We are sabotaging our future!

"I've read a paper on how as animals, we are very good at detecting fast approaching threats but not so good at recognizing

slow ones. So, this explains how the climate crisis is not concerning us much because the threat is too distant to grasp.

"We worry about our social life, our work, our retirement without realizing that those 'worries' would be utterly irrelevant if the earth can no longer sustain us. Even if you're not concerned about the welfare of animals, going vegan is the single most significant thing any individual can do to change the future direction of humanity immediately."

As a dentist, Dr Helen is in a unique position to counsel people on their nutrition.

Reviewing the whole picture "I don't only look at patients' diet from the dental point of view, but also for their overall health and well-being. I perform many implant surgeries at the practice, and to have long term success with implants, the person undergoing this procedure needs to be in good general health.

"This includes good cardiac health and no diabetes or smoking.

Evidence repeatedly points to a plant-based diet as the only lifestyle that can prevent and reverse coronary heart disease and diabetes. So, when is a better time to revisit your lifestyle than when your health is directly affected?

"Many of my patients know that I am vegan, and this inspires many conversations. Over the years, I've been surprised by how many people have considered veganism but have been too scared to transition. With enough support and encouragement from our health practitioners, we can all make a tremendous change to our health, our one and only planet, and its inhabitants."

But, when it comes down to good dental health, Dr Helen says vegans face the same problem as almost everyone else.

"Studies have shown high consumption of fruit can increase the incidence of dental caries (decay) and erosion (acid wear).

This doesn't mean that you should reduce your fruit intake as it's incredibly nutritious. The same thing that leads to decay in omnivores is what leads to decay in vegans - sugar!

"It's always the sugar! So, my advice applies to both vegans and non-vegans. We need to watch the frequency of our sugar intake. In other words, if you consume sugar (including fruit, juice, fruit smoothies, or any sugary syrups even if naturally derived) frequently throughout the day, you will inevitably develop tooth decay. Therefore, to keep our pearly whites healthy, we must limit sugary foods to once or twice a day, rather than snacking on them throughout the day. Also, stay away from lemon water - it will ruin your teeth!"

Calcium and dairy Sugar is bad enough, but one of her biggest concerns centres around calcium and dairy.

"From childhood, we are told that the calcium in dairy is essential for growing strong bones and teeth. It's as if our teeth will become chalky and brittle if we don't drink milk. What is lacking from this message, however, is whether dairy is the best source of calcium.

"Packed with bovine oestrogens, antibiotics, lipids, protein, growth factors (IGF-I) sodium and growth factors, dairy milk is the perfect liquid to rapidly turn a baby calf into a big cow. However, it is not designed for nourishing humans.

"The calcium contained in dairy is one of the health benefits associated with dairy. So, before we consider whether it is necessary to consume dairy to obtain calcium, let's consider why calcium is so important.

"Although teeth and bones are quite similar in that they are both composed of calcium, phosphate and water, there are some significant differences with regards to how they function."

She says bones are a dynamic tissue that renews continuously throughout our lives, and calcium is essential for this process.

"This makes it important to maintain an adequate daily intake of calcium for optimal bone health. Teeth, on the other hand, develop during our early years, when it is crucial children consume enough

calcium in order to form strong, healthy teeth. Once they erupt through the gum, enamel (the surface hard tissue of teeth) become avascular, meaning there is no blood supply to the enamel.

"Dentine (the underlying hard tissue of the teeth) has dentinal tubules, which in a way serve as capillaries to supply nutrients to the teeth. Although teeth continue to heal and remodel through apposition on new hard tissue on the inside of the tooth, most calcium and phosphate is dynamically dissolved and deposited into hard tooth structure through the surface enamel.

"In other words, the oral environment is even more important than how much calcium you consume. Frequent sugar consumption with tip the balance and cause calcium to be drawn out of the enamel. Conversely, a healthy diet, low in simple sugars, will favour calcium deposition.

"Whilst these processes are at play, you do not need a great deal of calcium to maintain healthy teeth in adulthood; the role of calcium in maintaining healthy bones should not be underestimated, though. A lack of calcium can affect bones throughout the body, resulting in low bone density and osteoporosis.

Common misconception "Despite a common misconception, osteoporosis doesn't only affect women. Interestingly, populations in countries where little dairy is consumed have a lower incidence of osteoporosis and hip fractures in contrast to Western countries, where dairy consumption is encouraged. Although osteoporosis can affect jawbones, the rest of the skeleton is more susceptible to this condition."

So how much calcium does a healthy adult need?

"The recommended daily intake of calcium varies depending on several factors such as age, gender, or whether you are pregnant or breastfeeding. It can even be influenced by your location. For instance, in some Asian countries, the recommended daily intake is only 600mg per day, half the 1200mg recommended in Western countries."

She says it should also be noted that calcium is not the only nutrient you should be worried about for healthy bones. It is also essential to make sure you get enough phosphate (from phosphorus) and vitamin D. “Phosphorus can be obtained from protein-rich foods such as nuts, legumes, seeds and grains but is not generally recommended to be taken as a supplement.

“Vitamin D increases the efficiency of calcium absorption in the body. One of the easiest sources of vitamin D is sunlight, as it synthesized in the skin upon exposure to UV radiation. Of course, the benefits must be balanced against the risks, so avoid spending prolonged periods in the sun, particularly when the sun is strongest between 10 am and 4 pm, and make sure you apply sunscreen. If you are unable to boost your vitamin D through sun exposure, you can take a supplement instead.

“Another important factor in keeping our bones healthy is preventing calcium loss. One of the best ways to do this is through daily weight-bearing exercise and, importantly, reducing coffee intake and stopping smoking.

“Overall, it should be emphasized is that calcium is most certainly important for our health. You sometimes hear that vegans do not need as much calcium due to their overall high nutrition intake.

This is not supported by scientific evidence, and it is important that vegans put as much thought as non-vegans into their daily calcium intake. Nuts, legumes and green leafy vegetables are excellent sources of dietary calcium, without the nasties of dairy.”

For full details on the professional services Dr Voronina provides go to her website at www.drhelen.com.au wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

39

Orange & Persimmon Blondies

by Innes Hope

Baking without butter, margarine or oil can be a challenge. Mashed banana and apple puree are usually used instead. But there’s a new kid on the block - the persimmon! This fabulous wholefood oil substitute is mild in flavour and it keeps your slices and cakes moist and nourishing. Today we’re making Blondies – the famous cousin of Brownies. Alternatively, you could cook the mixture in a round 8” springform pan to make a delicious cake.

INGREDIENTS 3/4 cup 1/2 cup 3 tbsp 1 1/2 tsp 1/2 tsp 1 cup 3/4 or 1 cup 1/2 tsp

fine brown rice flour fine yellow corn flour 'no egg' egg-replacer raising powder baking soda ground almond raw sugar (or 1/2 cup of sweetener)* ground nutmeg a pinch of ground cloves

TOPPING Marmalade, and some more fresh, firm persimmon, grated or finely chopped METHOD 1. Set the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare a brownie pan.

2. Sift the flours, no egg and raising agents into in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly.

3. Mix the ground almond, sugar or sweetener and spices into the dry ingredients.

4. Using a fine micro-plane, grate the zest from a couple of lemons, then juice them.

40 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

5. Pour the lemon juice into a blender, then zest an orange or two. Squeeze the oranges until you have half a cup of juice then add it to the blender.

6. Scrape the persimmon pulp into the measuring cups, then into the blender. Blend.

7. When the oven is hot, mix the chopped persimmon into the dry ingredients, then fold the blended persimmon mix into the dry ingredients, working quickly, stirring just enough to ensure the mixture is even. Bake 30 mins.

8. Cool at least 15 mins before taking it out of the pan. Cover with topping, then cut when cold.

Store chilled, and warm slightly before serving.

Makes 12 -14 blondies. * Dark sweeteners like coconut sugar spoil the flavour and appearance. Sugar substitutes are usually white, but highly refined. The best of these is a stevia & erythritol blend. It tends to not give people gas like many sugar substitutes do. Your call, but I prefer to use raw sugar for light-coloured cakes and squares.

Blackbean Wholefood Brownies Low gluten, no added oil or sugar | by Innes Hope

Brownie points abound in these brownies. Enjoy the relaxing pace of the recipe, with no raising agents pushing you to rush.

Take time out to have a coffee or sort the kids – (they’ll be eating healthier too, despite the chocolate chips). The flavour is mild but keeps developing – tastes even better the next day.

Use canned or pressure-cooked beans of any colour – the darkness of cocoa will dominate. We sometimes use home-grown, dried scarlet runner beans which turn a chocolate colour when cooked. Home grown brownies anyone?

WET INGREDIENTS 2 lrg 1 cup 2 tsp 3/4 cup 1 can

ripe bananas (1 cup) apple puree natural vanilla essence regular dried dates cooked black beans (1 1/2 cups) Some water or cold coffee

DRY INGREDIENTS 1 cup 3/4 cup 1/4 tsp 1/2 cup 1/3 cup 1-2 tbsp

rolled oats (packed) each of cocoa & carob powder chilli powder chopped walnuts dairy & sugar free choc. chips ground almond to decorate

METHOD 1. Break the bananas into a blender, add the apple puree & vanilla. Blend. Loosely chop the dates to ensure no pits. Blend until the mix is smooth.

2. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a brownie

pan with non-stick baking paper.

3. Drain & rinse the beans, then stir them in batches into the wet ingredients still in the blender. Blend, adding just enough cold coffee to stop the blender gagging.

4. Put the oats, cocoa, carob & chilli in a food processor. Whizz to course flour stage.

5. Transfer the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir in the walnuts & chocolate chips.

6. When the oven’s hot, mix the wet ingredients into the dry.

7. Pour into the baking pan, smoothing it out to 1½ - 2cm thick.

8. Bake approx 30 mins until they’re a little crusty on the outside but moist inside.

9. Cool a little then rub ground almond across the top, dusting it into the cracks. Cut when cold. Store in the fridge and serve slightly warmed or at room temperature. * Tips for both recipes on page 51 wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

41

EBE launches the first in a series of

E

vidence Based Eating New Zealand opened the first of its 2021 lecture series in Christchurch on May 22 to an almost packed house containing medical, general health professionals and members of the public. Many of those present were confirmed plant-based eaters but a small smattering of curious carnivores also attended.

Opening speaker, Professor Julia Rucklidge, was unable to present personally because of a family emergency but Zoomed in from England to explain her work on the value of nutrition to the brain. She uses a range of minerals and vitamins in capsule form to isolate the effects these have on our mental behaviour and studied some of their results on survivors of the Christchurch earthquake and Al-Noor Mosque attack.

"Our brain, although it's only two per cent of our body weight, it consumes between 20 and 40 per cent of the glucose and nutrients that come from our food," she told the audience. "I like to call it our hungriest organ. Our education around food is often about muscles or heart or bones, but we very very rarely do we talk about the brain or the nutritional requirements of the brain."

As she displayed an image of highly processed foods, Rucklidge explained that we have been eating such foods for about 100 years, and the outcome had seriously impacted our lives.

"We have a problem of epidemic proportions. An increasing number of people are being identified with mental health problems. Conventional treatments are not helping or reaching enough people, if they were, the rates would be going down.

"We've seen an increase in chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, obesity and mental health issues. This is not a coincidence.

There's some really robust data that shows that this type of eating has been detrimental to our health."

The biggest problem we face, she says, comes from our love of ultra-processed foods.

Christchurch - May 22 ..................................

Looking at the data

"You only need to look at the data to see that 48 per cent of the caloric intake of Canadians (in 2004)1. was ultra-processed foods, 61 per cent of Americans (in 2012)2, and 69 per cent of packaged foods in New Zealand supermarkets are considered ultraprocessed. It's rampant; it's coming from everywhere. Most of the calories people are consuming are coming from ultra-processed foods. We really need to pay attention to this at population level because it's killing us."

Such nutrient deprivation resulted in depression, hysteria, irritability, self-mutilation, apathy, lethargy, social withdrawal and inability to concentrate.3 "It's not a mystery that food can have serious impact on our mental health. The more we consume a western type diet, the greater our mental health issues."

Dr Wayne Hurlow, the second speaker of the evening, took up a theme raised by Professor Rucklidge - how do we encourage people to eat better?

He came to explain the CHIP programme. Originally known as the Coronary Health Improvement Pro-gramme, it has morphed into the Complete Health Improvement Programme after evidence showed that the results achieved affected both physical and mental wellbeing.

"CHIP is a lifestyle improvement programme that was started in the 1980s by Dr Hans Diehl in America, and more than 50,000 people have been through this programme since 2000. It's really well researched. There are over 42 research articles in respected journals like the BMJ and LANCET that talk about the evidence behind it," Dr Hurlow said.

"One of my core values is wellness and this is something I have

42 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Prof Julia Rucklidge University of Canterbury

Dr Rob Wilks Motueka GP

Dr Wayne Hurlow Nelson GP

Auckland - September 4 ...............................

Fuchsia Goldsmith Dietitian

Prof Boyd Swinburn University of Auckland

Dr Mark Craig Auckland GP

had for a long time. Because wellness is such an important value of mine, I don't just think about what I eat, I think of whole person wellness. That's really important to me. It's thinking of the physical, the emotional, the spiritual and the social. All of those things together. When we have those things in balance, our experience of life is so much better.

Dr Hurlow is a member of the Adventist community, which, he says, "takes care of my spiritual wellness, and for those of you who have dived into a bit of plant-based eating you have probably come

f lectures on food and environment loaded on me and what they don't understand is that it's complex.

"It's complex because the way we fund health care in New Zealand is upside down. The way we run general practice is upside down. The model that we use is a treatment based model; it is not a preventative model.

"In the 15 minutes that someone comes to see me is because they have become unwell. They haven't come to see me because they want to stay well. So, that question becomes quite difficult."

To explain the issue more simply, Dr Hurlow defers to the wisdom of Dr Seuss: 'Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.'

"So, maybe it's up to the Government, but that's a complex thing as well. But, at the end of the day, the person that's in charge of your health is you and that's what we try to motivate people with."

Dr Rob Wilks says he started his plant-based journey many years ago when his daughters became vegan. Gradually he became aware of all the research and science involved in evaluating plantbased eating and he ran into a disturbing question: "Why didn't I know about all this?"

Become well informed

A section of the audience at the Christchurch lecture on May 22

Dunedin - August 1 .......................................

Dr Martyn Williamson Alexandra GP

Yvette Hall Medical student

Prof Jim Mann University of Otago

Wellington - October 30 ..............................

Wilks strongly advocates becoming well informed on everything related to plant-based health care.

"We must be aware of the influence of industry on public opinion. Last week in the GP magazine there was a whole thing about cholesterol and eggs and saying that eggs were a normal part of a healthy diet and it had a little thing; sponsored by the egg lobby on the bottom. We've just got to be aware of where it comes from."

Dr Wilks strongly advocates changing the current model of primary health care.

"There needs to be more funding for preventative health care.

We need to have access to dietitians and lifestyle coaches. We need to have flexible consultation times with our patients because, as we know, what a doctor says, sometimes matters.

"There needs to be incentives to live a healthier lifestyle. I think there should be a sugar tax and no GST on fresh fruit and vegetables. We need to change our position from managing chronic health to preventative health care."

The Whole Food Solution Saving health. Saving the planet

Evidence Based Eating New Zealand invites you to a series of health focused public lectures highlighting the power of plant-based whole foods to restore health to all New Zealanders.

Dr Luke Wilson Wellington GP

Dr Mike Joy Victoria University

Dr Christina Cleghorn University

across the well-known Adventist health studies.

"Part of being part of that community is that we value wellness and we try to incorporate it in every part of our lives. Not for any benefit beyond this life but because life is here to be enjoyed."

One of the early questions Hurlow asks of CHIP participants is, who is in charge of your health? It might sound like a very obvious question, but, he says, the answer is actually quite complex.

"So many times in my practice, I have patients come up to me and they say, 'doctor, you have to fix me.' Suddenly all that pressure is

For booking & full details on upcoming lectures go to www.ebe.nz/thewholefoodsolution

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

43

Healthier cooking under pressure "Most things take only about five or six minutes under pressure.

Even though it’s so fast, the food comes out much softer." - Ratna Dyer

P

ressure cooking not only reduces your energy bill and saves hours of time. Turns out foods like chickpeas, brown lentils, beans, and some vegetables, are better for our health when they’re cooked under pressure – something India’s vegetarian cooks have known for thousands of years. Having picked up a few tips from former Indian flatmates, Ratna Dyer purchased a pressure cooker and hasn’t looked back. Whole Food Living interviewed her in her kitchen in Whanganui.

WFL: How often do you use your pressure cooker?

Every second day or thereabouts. In winter I go thorough stages of using it every day, because I eat more dahls and soups.

WFL: What do you mainly cook?

Beans, lentils, legumes and stuff. And sometimes I cook rice – it just makes it so yum – a little bit softer. I do lots of dal - the inside of a bean when it’s been broken open and there’s no skin on it, is called a dal.

WFL: Seems like pressure cooking is the ultimate way to cook beans and lentils, which is great news for wholefood plant-based eaters. So do you soak everything first?

Yes. 100 per cent. I soak rice too, because there’s arsenic in rice, so in soaking it you’re helping your health. Before I put soaked things on to cook, I drain and rinse them thoroughly. You want to get rid of the stuff that protects them from being eaten by birds.

It’s better for your digestion.

WFL: How long does it take you to pressure-cook, say, chickpeas?

From start to finish, maximum fifteen minutes. But I usually time things from the first hiss. Most things take only about five or six minutes under pressure. Even though it’s so fast, the food comes out much softer.

WFL: You have two pressure cookers. Why is that and what’s the difference between them?

The difference is the capacity. You fill them to only half or two thirds of the pot, as they need space for the steam to do its work above the water line. I use the small, three litre one all the time – cooking for one or two people. The larger one I can make more quantity if I have guests. And often I use them both – one for beans or dal and the other for rice so they’re ready at the same time.

WFL: Can you cook anything in them? Or do some foods misbehave?

Mung dal and red lentils froth if they’re being cooked too long.

They’re soft and cook quickly. Whole mung beans don’t froth as much - like other beans, the soft part is contained inside the husk.

WFL: Your cooker releases steam in a very loud hiss. Doesn’t that

44 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

freak you out? We’ve heard a few stories from Grandma’s day about cookers exploding. That must put people off. Are you sure these things are safe?

I’m really confident with my cookers – they’ve got good safety valves. Usually pressure releases through the steam, but if I left food cooking until there’s no water left, the safety valve would pop, so it’s not dangerous in any way. My small cooker makes those loud, short bursts, but I’m used to the noise. I do warn visitors though, as it can be quite full on! My tall cooker makes a more consistent, quiet hissing sound. Different cookers vary with their sounds. I time the length of the cooking from the first hiss or whistle, and I’ve only got to wait about five minutes until I turn it off. So that’s tolerable.

WFL: Evidently there are now electric pressure cookers that are also multi-cookers. Seems you can even make yogurt in them and bake cakes. Can you tell us anything about those?

I stayed with a friend once and she had one of those. She was a busy mum, so I offered to cook. It took two or three times longer than my cooker and I found it too complex – so many functions and options. I just want a pot that you put the lid on and that’s it. I guess you’d get used to all the buttons, and some people love their multicookers.

WFL: What kind of cooker would you recommend?

I always swear by the Hawkins pressure cookers. They’re faster and much easier than most. Hawkins is an Indian brand with a range of sizes. They do aluminium cookers and stainless-steel ones - I like stainless-steel. Some other brands have a big heavy lid, or they feel too cumbersome for me. I never felt completely confident with a pressure cooker before I used a Hawkins. In future if I bought a larger one, I’d get one with two handles so I could lift it with less effort and tip the food out easily.

WFL: We see in the booklet that came with the cooker that much of the info is about meat. But it also mentions different foods, like puddings. Do you make anything else in it?

I’ve cooked artichokes and whole beetroots - they cook a lot quicker. When I’m cooking dal and stuff, I brown the spices in the pot, chop in some tomato, and often add veges like potatoes, carrots and peas so it comes out as a meal ready to eat. I also make an Indian rice dish called Pilau – a combo of rice, spices and veges.

I’m not really a pudding person. Sweet rice might be nice – I could easily pull that off.

WFL: Sounds delicious! Well, thanks for sharing your knowledge and a recipe – Mexican Chilli Beans – We’re in!

Ratna Dyer loads up her favourite cooker.

Image: Charles Bagnall

The health benefits Research on food and the science of cooking is revealing more about why certain pressurecooked foods are healthier than when they are cooked in other ways.

Note: Go to wholefoodliving.life/ref-winter2021 to review references cited in this article.

We absorb more protein Normal cooking starts breaking down the proteins in food, making it easier to digest.

But cooking under high pressure steam takes this denaturisation process one step further, increasing the breakdown.¹ This makes the protein in beans of every shape and colour, dried peas of various sorts, lentils in shades of green, brown, red, and black, and even the protein in grains like rice,² easier for our bodies to absorb.

Phytate & lectin levels reduce Imagine dividing a jar of dried peas in two, then soaking each half overnight in equal amounts of water. Next day you drain and rinse them, then boil one batch on the stove top and cook the other under pressure.

You pop across to the lab to measure the phytic acid content of each batch. The tests show it is reduced by 29% in the topcooked batch. But in the pressure-cooked batch it goes down by 54%.¹ On top of that, you discover the lectin content in the pressure-cooked peas is reduced as much as it is when they are fermented.² Pressure cooking reduces the level of natural antinutrients in legumes, (phytate and lectins), increasing the nutrient-availability. This also makes them easier to digest.

No carcinogenic acrylamides When foods like crackers and potatoes are fried, grilled or baked at very high temperatures, acrylamides are formed, not in deadly amounts, but when you’re working on your health you don’t want nasties piling up in your system. Pressurecooking saves the day. Acrylamides do not form in a pressure cooker. This is thanks to all the trapped steam.

Lower fodmap levels Beans, lentils and many other foods contain ‘Fodmaps,’ (short-chain carbs/ sugars such as oligosaccarides, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides). According to scientists at Monash University, these cause gas in approximately one person in seven. But there are slightly lower levels in canned legumes. Canned beans and lentils are cooked under pressure. It is logical to conclude that these benefits also occur when they’re cooked under pressure at home.

More vitamins & minerals retained Pressure cooking cuts the cooking time by up to 70%, retaining the colour and flavour of the food. Minerals are preserved and the short cooking time also minimises the loss of vitamins.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

45

Ratna’s Mexican Bean Recipe

by Ratna Dyer Nothing beats the umami and bite of Mexican style chilli beans. This garlic and onion-free version lets the pungent burst of oregano add an aromatic flavour to the rich, sweet tomato and capsicum sauce | Serves 2 - 3 INGREDIENTS fresh red chilli ground coriander fresh oregano (or 1 tbsp if dried) red capsicum courgette (optional) chopped tomato water tomato paste pressure-cooked kidney beans (or 1x 420g can, drained and rinsed 1 tsp salt (optional) a splash of balsamic vinegar

1 2 tsp 3 tbsp 1 lrg 1 sml 1 can 1/2 cup 1 tbsp 1 1/2 cups

METHOD 1. Finely chop the chilli and capsicum. Then dry-roast the ground coriander on a low to medium heat, stirring in the chilli, capsicum and oregano to enhance and blend the flavours, (see tips).

2. Tip in the canned tomatoes, stir. Swirl the water around the can to include the remaining tomato and stirring in the tomato paste. Pour the liquid into the pan, and stir.

3. Cut the courgette into approx. 3-5ml slices, then stir them in.

4. After few mins, add the beans and stir regularly, (with the lid on between stirrings), for 15 - 20 mins or so until it forms a thick mushiness.

5. Serve with warmed tacos or nachos, tortillas, or burrito-style, or with rice and corn.

TIPS Dry roasting enhances the scent and taste of some spices and herbs as well as nuts and seeds - think coffee, cocoa beans, peanuts, and dry-roasted tea. When preparing meals, the dry-roasting is usually done first, the spices herbs or seeds stirred, or shaken to spread them out, in a clean pan on medium heat. Watch closely – you want them roasted, not burnt.

46 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Use more fresh oregano if you wish People have different heat preferences when it comes to chilli. You can’t take heat out after it’s cooked! So it is good to make it mild and have a good tabasco sauce handy for those who like it hot-as. Kaitaia Fire is an excellent brand - made in New Zealand too.

The YouTube selections below cover food and health issues and provide quick access to a deeper understanding of what whole food eating can achieve. There's also a quick tip on how to grow turmeric and some good advice on how change your brain from Dr Neal Nedley.

Turn-around success through CHIP

Interview: Dr. John McDougall

Nelson GP, Dr Wayne Hurlow, speaking at The Whole Food Solution in Christchurch. See p.42 for more details. http://tiny.cc/pvkytz

Dr T Colin Campbell interviews Dr McDougall, founder of drmcdougall.com amd author of The Starch Solution. http://tiny.cc/2wkytz

Nutrition, a forgotten Science.

Protein and preventing diseases

Dr T Colin Campbell's shows how we have lost connection with nutrition, the flagship science of medicine. http://tiny.cc/oxkytz

Dr Gareth Davis was frustrated by the ever-increasing number of sick and overweight patients . http://tiny.cc/zxkytz

How can you change your brain

A plant-based diet changed my life

Dr Neil Nedley founder & medical director of the Nedley recovery programs talks about changing the brain. http://tiny.cc/cykytz

Pat McAuley, a health advocate for plant-based eating and founder of PlantPub talks about how it changed his life. http://tiny.cc/pykytz

Power foods for the brain

How to grow turmeric roots

Dr Neil Barnard founder of PCRM discusses the food fire extinguisher to fight Alzheimers & other brain disorders http://tiny.cc/2zkytz

Turmeic is simple to grow in a pot. This video has great tips on how to plant and grow the root. http://tiny.cc/7zkytz

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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Climate action in the kitchen

by Innes Hope Media

We do our best to source reliable information. New data are being released all the time. Most ‘numbers’ fall within a range . A big shout out for climate scientists We and our children may well owe you our lives.

48 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Plant Burgers? Naturally I

’ve a lot of respect for young climate activists. Many are naturelovers and even at a tender age they want to save this beautiful planet. By the time they reach their teens some are well informed. I’m glad more adults are listening to them.

‘Livestock farming has unbalanced the natural world,’ they say.

I look it up: It’s not nature’s fault 60% of all mammals on Earth today are livestock.¹ Or that 60% of all biodiversity loss across the planet can be traced back to livestock production.² Or that we in Western countries have around 60% more protein on our plates than in Africa. ³ I’d not heard of Earth Overshoot Day.4 Evidently, it’s falling closer to the start of each year, revealing we’re not doing enough. Learning about such things is sad and worrying.

I nod in support of the student rallies as I look at a media photo.

‘Exams Won’t Matter if there’s No Future,’ says one banner. I agree. Another one reads, ‘NZ Emissions: Agriculture 49%, All Transport 17% - Go VEGAN.’ Yes indeed! Eating plants is one way I enjoy lowering my emissions.

Plant-based burgers come to mind – naturally. Vege-burgers and traditional plant-protein foods like tofu, tempe, chickpeas, falafel, Dahl, beans, nutmeat, etc, have been mainstream vegetarian and vegan protein for decades. ‘Burgers’ usually means the patty, and long-term plant-based eaters like me forget what meat patties even taste like. Mock meats seem irrelevant.

But processed plant protein foods will have a new, star role to play. Having the familiar meaty taste the wider public want, they will be the key players in speeding up our society’s transition to plant-based eating. On a wider scale, that transition is crucial for the health of the planet. Being ready-made, commercial alternative-meat products suit busy lifestyles too.

Health wise, like other manufactured foods, they vary in nutritional value. Some can be called junk food. But others are high in protein and rich in micronutrients. Plus all have fibre that is lacking in meat. B12 is the only essential vitamin missing in plant

I Am Mother Nature

foods, and some manufacturers are adding it. Another health plus for plant-burgers is that cancer warnings won’t apply like they do for processed animal-meats.5 Taste wise, what do you think? I’ve tried heaps of packaged burger patties, chicken-less chicken, baconless bacon, etc, and I liked some. But the novelty is rapidly wearing off. I’m surprised to find I prefer my own cooking, since, as you can see from my recipes, what I make is not exactly gourmet vegan.

Luckily, ordinary cooks like me are rescued by whole plant foods and ingredients; being natural, simple and nourishing, they taste good in themselves.

I’m looking forward to helping my grandchildren make Bunker Burgers using canned baked beans. The tomato sauce gives a nice flavour, and kids always reach for more. Basic and cheap, they’re good student-flat food too.

Most people are busy these days so canned beans are a godsend.

Another plus is, not being packaged in plastic, you can wash out the empty can, rip off the label and recycle so the metal can be reused.

When I’m not under pressure I cook homegrown beans – under pressure! I’m grateful to have space for a vege garden, and through summer my husband and I grow several varieties of climbing beans.

Come autumn when the pods are brown and crackly, we shell them out, air them in a warm room until fully dry, then store them.

I started calling them ‘bunker’ beans as we have enough stored for a year. So our burgers became ‘bunker’ burgers. I soak the dried beans overnight and cook them in the pressure cooker for 6 mins.

Squishy and soft, they make deliciously healthy burgers.

Young people are urging my generation not only to march with them, but to live more simply, in tune with nature. Not everyone can grow food or cook, so let’s hope our recipes help. Meanwhile, whether they’re homemade or from Big Food, plant burgers are out to save the world.

Note: Go to wholefoodliving.life/ref-winter2021 to review references cited in this article

by Tane Anderson Age 8

I am Mother Nature. I don’t really need people but people need me. I’ve been here for more than 5 billion years now.

More than you.

There are mountains, caves, rocks and trees. I’ve had living beings greater than you and starved greater things than you. I protect my plants, trees, people and earth.

You should protect my tigers, lions, coyotes, jackals and endangered species.

I don’t need rubbish in my seas, lakes, rivers, streams and land. Some things will eat it and die. I build trees but kids can snap my branches and to me it’s like breaking a leg. Storms have made disasters happen like boats sinking, volcanoes erupting and sinkholes. When I sink you sink. I cry and rain falls.

People need to look after me but some don’t. Some kill animals and make me sad. But others use me wisely like thinking I’m their best friend. My flowers need my water and sunlight. I’m sad when I see dead baby boy calves going to be made into meat.

Some islands need me most.

I don’t need you but you need me.

Tane in action in the kitchen wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

49

Bunker Burgers Hunker down with the best ‘budget-basic’ burger around!

by Innes Hope Whether it’s a few extra items in the pantry, or a bunker full of supplies for the apocalypse, most of us like the idea of having some spare food on hand for emergencies. Most popular together with pasta, is baked beans, rice, and flour … just what you need to make a batch of Bunker Burgers.

INGREDIENTS 420g 2 cups 1/4 cup 1 Tbsp 2 tsp 3/4 tsp 1/3 cup

can baked beans cooked whole grain (half and half brown rice & Quinoa is a winner) sunflower seeds (fresh or roasted) each, dried thyme & oregano (or x2 Tbsp fresh) regular vinegar salt wholegrain flour

Coating: approx. x1 cup ground linseed – or dried breadcrumbs

METHOD 1. Open the beans & press the lid down firmly to squeeze out the excess sauce off the top. Leave the rest of the sauce surrounding the beans.

2. Put the grain, seeds, herbs, vinegar & salt in a bowl and mix together.

3. Add the baked beans, and mix.

4. Stir in the flour, and form 1/3 cup into a burger – (or ½ cup for a wide patty to sandwich in a bun). The mix should hold reasonably well but still be moist.

5. Coat that ‘test’ patty in linseed or crumbs and cook on a low to medium heat for approx. 3-4 mins a side until golden,* (see tips). If it’s not holding together well when cooked, add a little more flour to the mix before you make up the rest of the batch.

6. Serve with tomato salsa or sauce as soon as the batch is cooked. * Inspired by Diana Noonan¹, I cook both sides at once in the sandwich maker, no oil needed. Same with a non-stick pan. Visitors prefer the familiar taste of them lightly fried, but we prefer oil-free.

50 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Bunker Burgers tips (pg. 50) TIPS Delicious eaten cold the next day! (Avoid reheating oil-free ones, as they dry out too much).

Any well-cooked beans, black, white, pink, spotty or purple, can be used instead of baked beans. Add tomato paste to flavour them. Keep a tube in the fridge = no need to open a jar.

Garlic-free suits folks with IBS. But add minced garlic or chopped onion to any version if you wish.

Avoid ultra-cheap budget brands of beans - they have lots of highly refined sauce and fewer beans.

Experiment with different mix of cooked grains: quinoa, sorghum, barley, etc. Whole grains give the chewy texture, together with either sunflower seeds or finely chopped nuts, (other than cashews which are too soft).

Organic beans don’t have the flavouring the major brands have. Add a thick tomato puree or paste if needed.

Thinking ahead, maybe the day before when you cook your generous batch of rice, mix a little black rice in with the brown.

(Black rice = cargo or purple rice, not wild rice). It colours the rice, giving your patties a delicious-looking real-burger appeal.

Fine yellow cornmeal is a good flour to use if you want to keep them gluten free.

Matariki Star-Fried Bread tips (pg. 54) TIPS Solid breads work best, as the cookie cutter can slice a nice clean edge. This is also the case with some of the Gluten free breads with a well-bound texture. Softer wholegrain breads, like Vogels, can work but the cut isn’t as clean and the stars are floppy - handle those more carefully.

For an everyday recipe use the whole slice of bread, adjusting the amount of mixture to suit.

If your kete kumera is empty, pumpkin can be used instead.

Brown sugar or raw sugar can be used instead of coconut sugar, and rice, date or agave syrup can serve instead of maple.

For a fabulous cinnamon scatter grind some cinnamon sticks in a nut or seed grinder. The freshly-ground flavour and gourmet look are sure to delight the appetite.

Blackbean Wholefood Brownies tips (pg. 41) TIPS Cooking is only needed to firm up the oats to hold them together. So there’s no need to worry about under-cooking – so long as they hold, they’re better moist than too dry.

If you need them sweeter for kids, add a little brown sugar.

Maybe leave out the chilli.

If you’re a chilli fan, you can add up to half a teaspoon of chilli powder.

For people cutting out sugar, these are just the ticket!

They’re diabetic-friendly too.

Gluten-intolerant guests are not likely to have problems with these. But celiacs might. Use certified gluten-free oats for those with celiac disease.

Dark chocolate chips may still contain milk. Check the

ingredients label. If no dairy is listed, they’re probably dairyfree. (‘May contain milk’ type warnings cover the manufacturer if someone highly allergic to dairy reacts to trace-amounts left on the machinery during product-line changeovers. For most people there’s nothing to worry about).

If you want a stimulant-free brownie, replace the cocoa with more carob, and the coffee with decaf or cereal coffee. Carob is milder than cocoa, and coffee helps add depth to the flavour.

For people with IBS, cut some of the brownies minisize – (carob, beans & apples are high in Fodmap’ sugars).

Alternatively, omit the carob and use x1 cup of cocoa all up, and raw or brown sugar instead of apple puree.

These brownies freeze well, so maybe make a double batch and freeze half. Thaw a few hours ahead of time, then warm them slightly to bring out the flavour. Yum!

Orange & Persimmon Blondies tips (pg. 40) TIPS If you’ve no fine yellow cornmeal flour, rice flour is fine on its own, (1¼ cups in total). If you don’t need them gluten free, whole wheat flour works well, though it makes them a little darker in colour.

Tapioca flour can be used instead of ‘No Egg.’ But ‘No Egg’ gives superior results.

Use Fuyu persimmons – (the most common variety in shops).

To prevent birds eating the whole crop, they are picked before they’re ripe. Leave them in a warm spot to ripen - some to a warm orange stage but still firm, and others until they’re dark orange, soft, and squishy.

With firm persimmons, peel the skins off with a potato peeler and remove any seeds before putting the fruit in the blender.

For persimmon mush, just scoop it out of the skin with a spoon.

Use grapefruit-free marmalade if any of your guests are on medication. Finely chop or grate some firm ripe persimmon and mix it into the marmalade before you spread it on top.

If you’re not ready to use all your persimmons and don’t want them to ripen, they can be stored in the refrigerator for over a month.

Spare persimmons can be frozen to use later in the year.

Freezing softens the cell walls of the fruit such that when it is thawed it is mushier and ready to use straight away.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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The following article was written by Kurtis Boyer, Faculty Lecuture, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan. It is republished from theconversation.com under the Creative Commons license.

How plant-based diets could help prevent the next COVID-19 Consider all this in reverse: not a single pandemic in human history has been traced to plants.

V

iruses like COVID-19, SARS, bovine spongiform, swine flu and avian flu all have something in common: They all come from animals, described by scientists as zoonotic diseases.

Yet, these diseases do not really “come from animals.” After all, it is not like animals conspire against humans, throwing COVID-19 over the backyard fence. When we say this pandemic “comes from animals,” it means that these diseases come from the way society raises, harvests and eats animals.

A well-rounded policy strategy for avoiding the next pandemic should include reducing the demand for animal products.

Fortunately, an effective approach need not imply government telling people what they should or should not eat.

Many Canadians are already aware of the benefits of a plantbased diet. Doing a better job at supporting those already trying to make a dietary change could be an effective approach for government policy.

The fact that a growing list of pandemics originate exclusively within the animal and agricultural sectors is nothing new to a small but growing group of independent scientists. The United Nations recently voiced a similar concern.

In its report, Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission, the UN laid out some of the things needed for improving health governance in relation to food production.

Some of the policy options include expanding scientific inquiry into the environmental dimensions of zoonotic diseases and developing and implementing stronger biosecurity measures.

It calls for policies that strengthen animal health (including wildlife health services) and increased capacity in monitoring and regulating food production.

The report also recommends that states find ways to reduce demand for animal protein. Reducing the demand for meat is not something we often hear as a possible policy option — partly because people may not link our current pandemic to the western diet or agricultural sector.

Origins of a pandemic

Early cases of COVID-19 were linked to markets in China where wild animals were sold. Pangolins and bats have been identified as possible sources of infection, neither of which is on the shopping lists of the average global consumer. The deeper roots of this pandemic, however, are more complicated.

Many earlier viruses have originated in the animal husbandry

52 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Kurtis Boyer "Given that there is a clear link between the consumption of animal products and zoonotic diseases, there is further reason for policy makers to support people who want to shift to a plant-based diet." industrial production chain.

In the 1980s the United Kingdom’s cattle production began to see outbreaks of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), and its human equivalent variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.

In 1997, the bird flu (H5N1) was traced to chicken factories in China. In 2009, the swine flu (H1N1) originated in pig farms in Mexico and North Carolina in the United States.

More recently, a possible new strain of COVID-19 has been found in farms in Denmark, where mink are raised for fur coats.

It is clear that the origins of these pandemics are not restricted to certain countries or certain practices, such as “wet-markets.”

For some researchers, including Swedish chief physician and infectious diseases professor Björn Olsen, stemming rising demand for meat and dairy is a necessary part of reducing our risk for pandemics.

Olsen, who is well known for being an early critic of his government’s COVID-19 response, is now becoming known for another early warning — one he has been making in books and articles for nearly 10 years now. In a recent interview in Swedish,

Olsen notes that pandemic viruses have all arisen where animals and humans meet, and raising billions of animals as food will have effects.

Consider all this in reverse: not a single pandemic in human history has been traced to plants.

While strengthening regulatory and monitoring capacity is an important part of an effective policy strategy, when societies replace animal sources of food with plant-based foods, they also reduce the risk of future pandemics. Olsen worries the link between the rising demand for animal protein and pandemics is not getting enough attention from politicians.

Plant-based diet as policy

A reason why politicians might not see a move towards a plantbased diet as a viable policy option could be because it relies on changing peoples’ behaviour, and some would argue that governments should not be in the business of trying to impose dietary choices. Yet there is good reason to think that people are already open to transitioning to a plant-based diet.

According to a recent UN survey, 30 per cent of the world supports a plant-based diet as a climate policy. Canadians are not an exception. In fact, nearly 10 per cent of Canada’s total population is already vegan or vegetarian, according to a 2018 study led by Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. The number of people attempting to eat plant-based diets is growing fast. In an interview, Charlebois noted: “In 2018 we estimated that 6.4 million Canadians already follow a diet that restricts meat partially or completely … But now we’ve already revised this number to 10.2 million. Things are changing really fast, faster than ever really.”

With these changes in dietary preferences already occurring, the Canadian government need look no further than removing barriers for people to continue to make up their own minds. To support their transition and reduce the demand in animal products, the Canadian government should do its best to reduce what many could perceive as the inconvenience of a plant-based diet.

This could begin by reviewing food procurement and nutrition standards to ensure that public facilities such as schools, hospitals, prisons and care homes offer a plant-based meal as standard on menus every day.

Food guide focus

Government should also look to put its own food guide in practice and make plant-based foods more accessible, including for low-income, rural and northern residents. When the Canadian government revised Canada’s food guide in 2019, it consulted extensively with nutritionists and scientists. The result was an increased focus on plants as sources of protein, and a reduction of emphasis on meat and dairy.

Canada’s food guide tells us to “choose protein foods that come from plants more often.” Yet, despite this and the fact that consumption has been in steady decline in Canada since 2009, fresh milk still receives the highest level of subsidies within the Nutrition North Canada subsidy — a federal program that aims to ensure adequate nutrition in the North. A move is needed to subsidize foods that are good for people and the planet.

We know that dietary habits have environmental impact as well as health impact. Given that there is also a clear link between the consumption of animal products and zoonotic diseases, there is further reason for policy makers to support people who want to shift to a plant-based diet.

It’s not too soon to start trying to prevent the next pandemic; experts warn it could arrive at any time. Since the 2003 SARS epidemic, the time between outbreaks of zoonotic viruses has been getting shorter. It’s not a question of if there will be another pandemic, but when.

Reader questions on stroke risk factors reviewed D

r Rita Krishnamurthi has responded to points raised in a letter from a WFL reader regarding stroke risk factors mentioned in an article she wrote for The Conversation. The article was republished under the Creative Commons license in our Spring issue last year.

Barbara, from New Plymouth, said Dr Krishnamurthi talked about "potentially modifiable risk factors" but did not identify how to modify those risks.

In her response Dr Krishnamurthi says: "The way to address modifiable risks is up to each individual, but mostly comes down to simple common sense – healthy diet, moderate regular physical activity, not smoking and limiting alcohol.

"Of course, there are risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, or heart conditions that need to be addressed medically by their GP. The app provides this information based on the individual person's risk factors."

She also provides an electronic link to The Lancet, which is available in the references section on the WFL website.

Our correspondent also found some of the statistics vague and amounted to numbers without 'meat', so to speak. She wanted to know more about what people don't know rather than a suggestion just to download the app to find out what they could do.

Once again, Dr Krishnamurthi has referred readers to an online source. This time to Pubmed, where the research paper is located. This, too, is available on our online reference page.

"This gives the full figures for the rates of stroke by ethnic group. For e.g. stroke incidence rates in NZ (2011) European is 122, Maori, 157 and Pacific, 205 per 100,000 person-years," she says.

The value of the downloadable app referred to in the original article is that it enables people to assesses their own personal stroke risk factors.

Destressing on vegetables R

ecently published research from Australia's Edith Cowan University has shown that people who eat at least 470g of vegetables and fruit per day, have 10% less stress than those who consume less than 230 grams.

While they did not determine the exact reason for this, it was suggested that maybe nutrients were having an affect. Vegetables and fruit contain important nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, flavonoids and carotenoids that can reduce inflammation and oxidative stress and which, potentially, can improve mental wellbeing.

Meanwhile a survey of New Zealanders in 2018/2019 showed that only half of Kiwi adults ate the recommended 3 servings of vegetables per day. Only 33% ate 3 servings of vegetables and the recommended 2 servings of fruit, according to statistics released by vegetables.co.nz And the recommended number of servings has since gone up!

At the end of last year, New Zealand's Ministry of Health reviewed and updated it’s serving sizes and amounts. The recommendation for adults is now to eat at least 5 servings of vegetables per day. A serving of vegetables is about 75g.

If our sums are correct, could this mean Kiwis need 95g less than the research says to reach the 10% threshold, or is it a reflection of the 'fact' that Kiwis are just more chillaxed?

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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Matariki Star-Fried Bread

by Innes Hope & Catherine Barclay Matariki, (the Seven Sisters or Pleiades), has inspired a new generation of home cooks to make star-shaped treats. In winter this traditional Maori festival marks the coming of light in Aotearoa New Zealand. Celebrating begins when the Matariki constellation first appears, and it continues for a week - a great excuse to indulge in seven days of Matariki Star-Fried Bread. And yey! It’s oil-free.

INGREDIENTS 12 1/2 cup 1/4 cup 1 tbsp 1 tbsp 4 tsp

slices of firm wholegrain bread plant milk mashed golden-orange kumara coconut sugar (heaped) ground linseed cinnamon

METHOD 1. Using a large, star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out a star from each slice of bread. (The left-over bread can be used to make bread pudding or breadcrumbs).

2. Pour the milk into a blender and add the kumara, coconut sugar, linseed and cinnamon.

Blend thoroughly.

3. Pour the mixture into a bowl or container wide enough to move one of your stars around a bit.

Lightly dredge half the stars in the mixture, placing each one in an unheated non-stick pan as you go.

4. Turn on the stove to a low to medium heat and put the pan on. Cook the first side for two or three minutes – timing differs as every stove is different. Watch the cooking process attentively to catch them before the bottom of the stars burn. A little burning is inevitable, but don’t let them burn too much.

5. Flip each one over and cook the other side, (takes less time than the first side).

6. Arrange them on a plate in a warm oven while you prepare the other half of the batch. Take your pan off the heat too, letting it cool down a bit before you place the second batch in. This saves them browning too unevenly.

7. Cook just enough to set the liquid, then take the first half-batch out of the oven and add the stars you’ve just cooked.

8. Serve warm, spreading maple syrup on top of each one, and decorating with a final sprinkle of cinnamon and a few small slithers of mandarin.

See tips on page 51 54 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

Date Caramel This is a delicious topping for your favourite desert. Use as a dip with fruit or spread on a whole food cake. Serves: 1 cup

INGREDIENTS 1 cup 1/3 cup 1/3 cup 1/2 tsp

medjool dates, halved unsweetened almond milk maple syrup (optional) pure vanilla extract

METHOD 1. Place dates into a bowl and cover with hot water, allow to sit for 10 mins to soften.

2. Drain the dates and place into a blender with all other ingredients. Blend until smooth.

3. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks.

wholefoodliving.life | Winter, 2021

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Bill Hare Director, Climate Analytics, Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University (Perth), Visiting scientist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Facing up to climate change:

1.5°C target still looms within striking distance but outcomes depend on government action Heat related deaths blamed on climate change Human-caused global warming was responsible for thousands of heat-related deaths in recent decades, a fraction of the numbers expected in the future even if nations adopt ambitious emissions-cutting efforts.

Research of 30 million deaths, spanning almost three decades in 732 locations in 42 countries, found 37 per cent of heat-related mortality could be attributed to climate change.

For Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, there were almost 3000 extra deaths, the international study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, found.

For a link to this study go to: wholefoodliving.life/ref-winter2021

Note: The feature article published here was written by the academics listed above. It is republished from theconversation.com under the Creative Commons license.

56 wholefoodliving.life | Winter 2021

L

imiting global warming to 1.5°C this century is a central goal of the Paris Agreement. In recent months, climate experts and others, including in Australia, have suggested the target is now impossible.

Whether Earth can stay within 1.5°C warming involves two distinct questions. First, is it physically, technically and economically feasible, considering the physics of the Earth system and possible rates of societal change? Science indicates the answer is “yes” – although it will be very difficult and the best opportunities for success lie in the past.

The second question is whether governments will take sufficient action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This answer depends on the ambition of governments and the effectiveness of campaigning by non-government organisations and others.

So scientifically speaking, humanity can still limit global warming to 1.5°C this century. But political action will determine whether it actually does. Conflating the two questions amounts to misplaced punditry and is dangerous.

1.5°C wasn’t plucked from thin air The Paris Agreement was adopted by 195 countries in 2015.

The inclusion of the 1.5°C warming limit came after a long push by vulnerable, small-island and least developed countries for whom reaching that goal is their best chance for survival. They were backed by other climate-vulnerable nations and a coalition of high-ambition countries.

The 1.5°C limit wasn’t plucked from thin air – it was informed by the best available science. Between 2013 and 2015, an extensive United Nations review process determined that limiting warming to 2°C this century cannot avoid dangerous climate change.

Since Paris, the science on 1.5°C has expanded rapidly. An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2018 synthesised hundreds of studies and found rapidly escalating risks in global warming between 1.5°C and 2°C. The landmark report also changed the climate risk narrative away from a somewhat unimaginable hothouse world in 2100, to a very real threat within most of our lifetimes – one which climate

Dr Carl-Friedrich Schleussner Head of Climate Science at Climate Analytics and Research Group Leader at Humboldt University Berlin.

action now could help avoid.

The message was not lost on a world experiencing ever more climate impacts firsthand. It galvanised an unprecedented global youth and activist movement demanding action compatible with the 1.5°C limit.

The near-term benefits of stringent emissions reduction are becoming ever clearer. It can significantly reduce near-term warming rates and increase the prospects for climate resilient development.

A matter of probabilities The IPCC looked extensively at emission reductions required to pursue the 1.5°C limit. It found getting on a 1.5°C track is feasible but would require halving global emissions by 2030 compared to 2010 and reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century.

It found no published emission reduction pathways giving the world a likely (more than 66%) chance of limiting peak warming this century to 1.5°C. But it identified a range of pathways with about a one-in-two chance of achieving this, with no or limited overshoot.

Having about a one-in-two chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C is not ideal. But these pathways typically have a greater than 90% chance of limiting warming to well below 2°C, and so are fully compatible with the overall Paris goal.

Don’t rely on carbon budgets Carbon budgets show the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted for a given level of global warming. Some point to carbon budgets to argue the 1.5°C goal is now impossible.

But carbon budget estimates are nuanced, and not a suitable way to conclude a temperature level is no longer possible.

The carbon budget for 1.5°C depends on several factors, including: • The likelihood with which warming will be halted at 1.5°C • The extent to which non-CO² greenhouse emissions such as methane are reduced • Uncertainties in how the climate responds to these emissions.

Joeri Rogelj Director of Research and Lecturer - Grantham Institute Climate Change & the Environment, Imperial College London

Piers Forster Professor of Physical Climate Change; Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds

These uncertainties mean strong conclusions cannot be drawn based on single carbon budget estimate. And, at present, carbon budgets and other estimates do not support any argument that limiting warming to 1.5°C is impossible.

Keeping temperature rises below 1.5°C cannot be guaranteed, given the history of action to date, but the goal is certainly not impossible. As any doctor embarking on a critical surgery would say about a one-in-two survival chance is certainly no reason not to do their utmost.

Closer than we’ve ever been It’s important to remember the special role the 1.5°C goal plays in how governments respond to climate change. Five years on from Paris, and the gains of including that upper ambition in the agreement are showing.

Some 127 countries aim to achieve net-zero emissions by midcentury at the latest – something considered unrealistic just a few years ago. If achieved globally and accompanied by stringent nearterm reductions, the actions could be in line with 1.5°C. If all these countries were to deliver on these targets in line with the best-available science on net zero, we may have a one-in-two chance of limiting warming this century to 2.1°C (but a meagre one-in-ten that it is kept to 1.5°C). Much more work is needed and more countries need to step up. But for the first time, current ambition brings the 1.5°C limit within striking distance.

The next ten years are crucial, and the focus now must be on governments’ 2030 targets for emissions reduction. If these are not set close enough to a 1.5°C-compatible emissions pathway, it will be increasingly difficult to reach net-zero by 2050.

The United Kingdom and European Union are getting close to this pathway. The United States’ new climate targets are a major step forward, and China is moving in the right direction. Australia is now under heavy scrutiny as it prepares to update its inadequate 2030 target.

The UN wants a 1.5°C pathway to be the focus at this year’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. The stakes could not be higher.

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Soy Yogurt Sugar, gluten & dairy free, thick, mild & delicious!

by Innes Hope Media

In the time it takes to make a cup of tea, a batch of yogurt can be on the go. Soy yogurt needs an ever so slightly higher temperature than dairy, and it takes longer to set, but it’s really worth mastering. Every day you can enjoy the tang with breakfast, on desserts, and as ‘sour cream’ on potatoes and tacos. Enjoy nurturing your health and the planet, consuming no dairy, no electricity, and lowering your carbon footprint.

INGREDIENTS & GEAR 1 litre soy milk off the shelf, not chilled (Vitasoy 'Protein Plus' works well) 1 dairy-free probiotic capsule (or ¼ cup of previous batch of plain soy yogurt).

I recommend a ‘Thermosstyle’ yogurt maker. They’re inexpensive and easy to use.

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METHOD 1. Pour some soy milk into a yogurt-maker container. Hold the probiotic capsule over the milk, pull it apart and release the powder. Or, if using starter yogurt, stir it in.

2. Mix well. I use a whisk, not to froth it, but to disperse the starter thoroughly.

3. Pour in the rest of the milk, stir again, close the lid and pour boiling water into the thermos to the recommended height – maybe a tich above. Place the container in the thermos, close and leave to incubate – better a longer time than short, as it develops more flavour and thickness the longer is sits.

4. Incubation behaviour is variable. It takes longer to set in cold weather. Making it during the day, you can easily check it after 6 -8 hours without disturbing the yogurt, to see if it’s behaving itself.

If it looks OK, leave it undisturbed as long as you like. When you like the taste and texture, chill and enjoy! Makes x1 litre of delicious yogurt that is much cheaper and healthier than store-bought. No going back!

Soy Yogurt tips TIPS Choose quality, dairy-free probiotic capsules and store them in the fridge. I use the brand ‘Inner Health.’ Health food shops often store them in a refrigerator, which I prefer to shelfstorage.

If it’s starting to bubble, a few tiny bubbles are OK. But if they’re increasing in size and number, the batch is too hot – it starts separating, looking ‘elastic.’ It’s still safe to eat in baking, smoothies etc.

If nothing’s happening, it’s not hot enough. Replace the water with a slightly higher level of boiling water, leave it a few hours and check it again.

Don’t give up! Your first few batches are just a natural learning curve. Bacteria are sensitive little guys, but you’ll soon tune into them and achieve consistent results every time.

If you have IBS, milk made from soy protein is Fodmap-free.

However, milk made from whole organic beans is usually fine because fermentation switches its chemistry to a friendlier mode.

WHY SOY? Soy milk has the same amount of protein as dairy milk – much higher than other plant milks and yogurts. And soy is a complete protein.

Scientists have calculated that, of all commercial plant milks, oat & soy have the lowest CO2 impact. Rainforest is being cut down to grow soy to feed beef cattle rather than humans.

Research shows that traditional, organic, un-refined soy foods are good for health. While a small number of people have a soy allergy or intolerance, that is also the case with many healthy foods.

Soy makes a thicker, creamier yogurt than nut milk. It is ideal for people with a nut or dairy allergy.

Unlike coconut yogurt, soy has no cholesterol and almost no saturated fat – a big health advantage.

Homemade soy yogurt is more nourishing and tastier than commercially made soy, oat or almond yogurts that contain various thickeners that ‘water them down’ and make them taste bland.

The flavour of soy compliments many foods, not overriding other flavours like coconut yogurt does.

It tastes great in baking, cooked and raw sauces, salad dressings and plantbased ‘cheese’ dishes.

Australian grown soy is a good foodmile choice in the Southern hemisphere.

Though organic or spray-free soy is not yet grown on a commercial scale in New Zealand, it is easy to grow here. We grow our own soy in our home vege garden in the Horowhenua. Make yogurt from your own soymilk! Grow your edamame!

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Newsbites

See wholefoodliving.life/ref-winter2021 to review references cited below

Body weight and age affect covid symptoms P

Contractors recently resurfaced a street in Los Angeles with a special cool pavement treatment that reportedly lowers ambient temperatures by as much as 100 according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. The agency sees solutions like this as an important step in developing 'heat island' mitigation strategies(1) in cities of the future.

However, although the treatment seems practical, it was criticised on Twitter as racist.

It might take a while to catch on in some communities.

Soaking up the heat A

s concerns increase over steadily rising temperatures in cities around the world, some local authorities are responding to the threat by hiring "heat officers" to address the problem.

Miami-Dade County, a densely populated coastal region of Florida, has named Jane Gilbert as the world's first chief heat officer.

Athens, the Greek capital that recorded the highest temperature ever in Europe, and Freetown in Sierra Leone plan similar appointments. Other vulnerable cities are set to follow suit but have been held up by the pandemic.

"We're known internationally for our risks from sea-level rise and flooding.

What we're not known for is this heat risk," Gilbert told the Financial Times. "I've been in Miami for 26 years [and] I feel the change" in the temperature, she added.

"How many more high-heat days we have."

Meanwhile, a report released by New Zealand's Ministry of the Environment and the Department of Statistics titled, 'Our atmosphere and climate 2020'(2) shows that things are heating up down under too.

Of 30 sites analysed around NZ, since 1972, the annual average temperature has climbed at 28 of them over summer - and across all in winter.

In Nelson, that average has climbed by about 0.29C per decade - and similarly, big

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increases have been recorded at Reefton and Tara Hills in inland Canterbury.

Eighteen of the 30 sites have also seen a very likely increasing trend in the number of "heatwave days", which come in stretches when maximum temperatures reach more than 5C above the monthly average.

Australia has warmed on average by 1.44 ± 0.24 °C since national records began in 1910, says the Bureau of Meteorology's 'State of the Climate 2020' (3) report.

Most of the warming has occurred since 1950. Every decade since has been warmer than the ones before.

Australia's warmest year on record was 2019, and the seven years from 2013 to 2019 all rank in the nine warmest years.

"This long-term warming trend means that most years are now warmer than almost any observed during the 20th century, the report says.

"When relatively cooler years do occur, it is because natural drivers that typically cool Australia's climate, such as La Niña, act to partially offset the background warming trend."

While Australian and New Zealand local body administrators have, so far, stopped short of appointing their own heat control officers, it seems a likely occurrence given current worldwide trends. Health and Safety officers on both sides of the Tasman see such steps as inevitable.

eople considered to be in the upper regions of the 'healthy' BMI range are still at increased risk of developing severe Covid-19, an Oxford study(4) has found.

A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 25 but the new study shows that for every point over 23, a person's risk of hospitalisation from Covid increases by five per cent.

They are also ten per cent more likely than their slimmer peers to need intensive care treatment.

But the risk is more significant in younger adults. Someone aged between 20 and 39 is nine per cent more at-risk of hospitalisation for every BMI point over 23.

They are also 13 per cent more likely to be admitted to ICU and 17 per cent more likely to die than if they had a BMI of 23 or lower.

As a result, the study authors suggest obese and overweight people should be prioritised for inoculation instead of using age to distinguish priority when it comes to handing out vaccines.

Analysis of almost seven million anonymised health records of people living in England revealed 13,503 Covid-19 patients who needed hospital care between 24 January and 30 April 2020.

University of Oxford scientists compared a patient's BMI with their Covid battle and found risk of severe disease increased with bodyweight.

Previous studies have found obese people are more at-risk of severe disease and death from Covid-19 but this is the first study to look at the entire BMI range.

It revealed that bodyweight and age are correlated to disease risk.

The relationship was shown to be more pronounced in younger adults despite lower case numbers overall.

For example, people between 20 and 39 are nine per cent more likely to be hospitalised for every BMI point over 23, but for someone over 80 the risk increase is just one per cent.

As a result, a 25-year-old person with a BMI of 25, the upper limit of the 'healthy' range, according to the British NHS, is two BMI points above the 23 threshold.

This means that if they were to catch coronavirus, they are 18 per cent more likely to be hospitalised than someone who has a BMI of 23.

Newsbites

Bringing home the Hepatitus E C

onsumption of bacon, cured pork, and other pork products increase the risk for hepatitis E, according to data published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Researchers compared hepatitis E virus (HEV) RNA-positive blood samples with negative blood samples for risk factors for HEV infections. Results associated consumption of bacon, cured pork meats, and pigs’ livers with hepatitis infection.

In those with positive results, 97.4%

reported pork consumption. Donors who do not eat meat had no positive results.

The authors note viral transmission can occur in both cooked and uncooked cured pork products with no known time or temperature of cooking these products to make them safe from the virus.

Reference : Smith I, Said B, Vaughan A, et al. Case–control study of risk factors for acquired hepatitis E virus infections in blood donors, United Kingdom, 2018–2019.

Emerg Infect Dis. Published online May 6, 2021. doi: 10.3201/eid2706.203964

Youth win big in climate court decision Y

Antarctic on watch as scientists review studies A

s global temperatures warm, scientists are keeping an eye on Antarctica, the world's largest land ice reservoir.

They believe the Antarctic ice sheet is what stands between coastlines that resemble what we see today, and -- if it collapses -- a world map unrecognizable from the one we've known.

Two new studies published in May agree that ice melt globally from human-caused warming is a threat to coastlines around the world, and that planning needs to begin now for a future with higher sea levels.

The Antarctic ice mass is home to the world's largest land ice reservoir. If it melts, it could raise sea levels by nearly 190 feet, more than 9 times as much as Greenland could contribute. The world's other glaciers and ice sheets also contain more than enough water to cause major problems for coastal cities.

The question of how much Antarctica will melt if humans keep heating up the planet, and how fast, is a major source of

uncertainty when it comes to predicting sea level rise and the threat facing roughly 600 million people currently living in coastal areas.

But the reports come to different conclusions about how Antarctica's ice sheet might fare in a warming world.

One finds that there is no clear signal that Antarctica's melting would necessarily increase or decrease under different global warming scenarios.

The other shows that Antarctica's melt could accelerate drastically if the planet warms by 3 degrees Celsius, as it is currently on track to do later this century based on our current greenhouse gas emissions trajectory.

However, there is agreement that limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is vital to reducing the amount of sea level rise to which the world will have to adapt.

oung German climate activist, Luisa Neubauer, received some "hard to digest" news when her lawyer phoned on April 29. It took a while for it all to sink in, she told the media.

The 25-year-old climate activist took the German government to court last year and won.

On April 29, the country's Supreme Court announced that some provisions of the 2019 climate change act were unconstitutional and "incompatible with fundamental rights" because they lacked a detailed plan for reducing emissions and placed the burden for future climate action on young people.

The court ordered the government to develop new provisions to "specify in greater detail" the reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions by the end of next year.

"It was hard to digest because it was so, so unexpected," Neubauer told CNN, stressing that while it was her name on the case -- Neubauer et al. versus Germany -she was just one of many people involved.

"This case changes everything," she said.

"It's not nice to have climate action; it's our fundamental right that the government protects us from the climate crisis."

Peter Altmaier, the German minister for energy and the economy, called the court's finding "significant" and a "historic decision for climate and the rights of young people."

In January a UN report(5) found the number of climate litigation cases nearly doubled worldwide between 2017 and 2020.

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Books to Consider

From the groundbreaking results of his twenty-year nutritional study, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease

by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn illustrates that a plantbased, oil-free diet not only prevents the progression of heart disease but can also reverse its effects.

Lisle and Goldhamer offer unique insights into the factors that make us susceptible to dietary and lifestyle excesses and present ways to restore the biological processes designed by nature to keep us running at maximum efficiency and vitality.

T. Colin Campbell and his team at Cornell University, in partnership with teams in China and England, embarked upon the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.

Their results still astound.

Why rely on drugs and surgery to cure you of lifethreatening disease when the right decisions prevent you from falling ill to begin with? How Not to Die gives effective, scientifically proven nutritional advice to prevent our biggest killers.

Suzy Amis Cameron environmental advocate, former actor, and mom of five, presents an easy guide for you to improve your health and shrink your personal carbon footprint.

Just swap one meat- and dairy-based meal for a plant-based one every day.

John A. McDougall, MD, and kitchen savvy wife, Mary, prove that a starchrich diet can help us lose weight, prevent a variety of ills, and even cure common diseases by fueling the body primarily with carbohydrates rather than proteins and fats.

The film's companion cookbook, The PlantPure Nation Cookbook brings a powerful, science-based approach to nutrition from the big screen to your kitchen with some of the same mouthwatering recipes that kick-started a revolution.

Dr Dean Ornish's research has proven that lifestyle changes can reverse undo! The progression of many of the most common and costly chronic diseases and even begin reversing ageing at a cellular level.

Several insurance companies cover his programme.

Neal Barnard, MD, a leading authority on nutrition and health, offers insight into how dietary changes can alleviate years of stress, pain, and illness.

What's more, he also includes delicious and easyto-make hormone-balancing recipes.

Sophie Steven's stunning cookbook is packed with over 100 delicious, vibrant plant-based, gluten-free and refined-sugar-free recipes. Some great recipes and taste sensations to try.

A book that will benefit the whole family.

This is a book that will let you live longer, reduce your need for medications, and improve your health dramatically. It is a book that will change the way you want to eat. Follow the Eat to Live diet, and you will lose weight faster than you ever thought possible

Colin T Campell's Whole is an absolutely eye-opening, paradigm-changing journey through some cutting-edge thinking on nutrition. It is a scientific tour de force, that has powerful implications for our health and for the future of our world.

Want to eat healthily, but worried it will cost too much? Looking to save on grocery bills, without compromising on nutrition value or flavour? This book will answer all your questions. Great if you need to keep the food bill tight.

Great inspiration here.

Before Dr Barnard's scientific breakthrough, most health professionals believed that once you developed diabetes, you were stuck with it. We know now that this is simply not true. Barnard has shown it is possible to tackle type 2 diabetes.

Rip Esselstyn arms readers with the knowledge they need to win any argument with those who doubt the health benefits of a plantbased diet and to convince any number of curious carnivores to change their diets once and for all.

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Movies to Watch The Big FAT Lie Produced by Kiwi documentary filmmaker, Grant Dixon, this movie traces his efforts to discover why he wasn't told about problems with meat and dairy. If he'd known he could have saved himself a heart attack. He asks why he wasn't told about WFPB. On iTunes

What The Health A 2017 documentary film which critiques the health impact of meat, fish, eggs and dairy product consumption, and questions the practices of leading health and pharmaceutical organisations. Is there a conspiracy here? Check it out on Netflix.

The Game Changers A documentary film that follows several elite vegan athletes. It gives a broad overview of the benefits of plant-based eating and contains great personality interviews with people that have made the change. A must for all sports coaches. Available on Netflix

Forks over Knives The seminal film of the WFPB movement that has impacted millions the world over. Forks over Knives examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the chronic diseases that afflict us, can be controlled or even reversed by rejecting animal-based and processed foods. Available on Amazon & iTunes.

TakeOut This movie highlights how corporate greed, global food consumption, and political corruption create conditions that are irreparably harming earth's ecosystem. Created by Emmy nominated filmmaker, Michal Siewieski, TakeOut is available on Amazon and from iTunes.

Diet Fiction This film calls to attention the most popular diets on the planet and draws together several misconceptions about weight loss and nutrition.

Filmmaker Michal Siewierski presents a punchy case and followed it up TakeOut. Bottom line message, go WFPB. View on Amazon.

Code Blue Code Blue reveals lapses in the current state of medicine and provides a common sense solution by featuring the practise of lifestyle medicine to prevent, manage and reverse chronic diseases. It covers hurdles to such a change and looks at the barriers. View on Amazon.

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Take a break

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Healthy crossword

Across 1. Speaker Rob ... (p. 42) (5) 6. ... cooker p.44 (8) 8. Type of mushroom (10) 12. Mischievous child (3) 14. Cerebral matter (5) 16. Essential elements p.49 (14) 18. Mineral springs (3) 19. Complex brain structure p.24 (11) 23. Molar (5) 24. Speaker Wayne ... p.42 (6) 26. Gland in men p.27 (8) 27. Muscle tear p.25 (6) 28. Irritates (4) 30. Confirmed habit p.11 (9) 31. Not very spicy (4) 32. Chickpea flatbread p.18 (5) 33. Tropical fruit (5)

Down 1. Scientist warning about global ... (7) 2. Take a peek (4) 3. Vapour from hot water (5) 4. Apples and pears are this (5) 5. Spice seed (5) 7. Exhaust pipe discharge (9) 9. Sugar-binding proteins p.45 (6) 10. Underwater missile (7) 11. Unsteady gait (4) 13. Stone fruit (5) 15. Dr Helen's feathered friend p.38 (5) 17. ... Boys High School p.28 (7) 20. Southern polar region p.61 (9) 21. Medical emergency p.16 (6) 22. Infectious disease p.52 (8) 25. Green fruit (6) 26. Book, Plant ... p.21 (8) 29. Chinese Meditation (6)

Go to the link below for solutions

Click or scan QR image for references. wholefoodliving.life/references-winter-2021/

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Recipe index

LIGHT MEALS / SNACKS

MAINS

SAUCES | CONDIMENTS

Socca Bread (Chickpea Flatbread)............18 Rice Stuffed Dolmades ..................................23 Air Fried Falafel.................................................23

Slow Cooker Chilli............................................14 Slow Cooker Peanut and Potato Curry....15 Cheesy Dogs Breakfast..................................31 Hearty Portobello Casserole.......................32 Delicious Vegetable Pot Pie.........................33 Ratna’s Mexican Bean Recipe......................46 Bunker Burgers.................................................50

Pickled Red Onions..........................................19 Tzatziki Dressing...............................................23

Soups Lentil soup...........................................................36 Creamy Potato and Cauliflower Soup......37



SWEETS Orange & Persimmon Blondies...................40 Blackbean Wholefood Brownies................41 Matariki Star Toast...........................................54 Date Caramel.....................................................55 Soy Yogurt...........................................................58

Tried our Recipes? Show us your creation!

Mention @wholefoodliving.life and tag #wholefoodliving.life

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WFPB's Food Groups Based on the guide developed by PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) in 1991

LEGUMES

FRUIT

2 or more servings a day

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.

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.

NUTS AND SEEDS 1

or more servings

Serving: 1/4 cup nuts or seeds

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

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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A Winter's Day As evening draws nigh in the early close of a winter's day And the welcome scent of glowing cones invade the room I rest my mind and body for a brief moment from this uncertain world.

In peace, in quiet and grateful thanks.

RMB

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