Favorite Indulgences: Artisana Raw Tahini

I'm all about eating low fat, but I really do love nuts and nut butters!  I especially love this Raw Tahini by Artisana.  It is AMAZING!  It adds a wonderful creaminess to any sauce, salad dressing, dip or hummus.

You can also make some really tasty simple raw desserts- like stuffing a date with it or mixing it with oats and agave nectar and rolling it into balls.  My kids like to spread it on a Seaweed Rice Cake for an afternoon snack. I plan to experiment with it to make a raw icing for my youngest daughter's birthday in May.

Artisana Raw Tahini is high in Calcium and Iron and contains 3 grams of dietary fiber and 6 grams of protein!  And now for the fat grams...18 grams of fat per 2 tbsp serving!  So be conservative when using it, a little goes a long way:)  Of course this is definitely better than using oil.  When you consume fat that is in it's natural package with fiber and other nutrients, it is a much healthier source than oils which have been extracted and concentrated. 

On the Eat for Health program we get our fats from whole food sources like nuts, nut butters, grains, avocado, and nut milks.  We don't cook with oils, we use vegan broth, coconut water, carrot juice or pineapple juice to start meals on a non-stick pan.

I'll talk more about oil free cooking and baking in an upcoming post!

In the meantime, please leave a comment and let me know what your favorite (somewhat healthy) indulgence is!

Eat for Health Lectures in Clearwater, FL and Online

Arnell Burghorn is a Nutritional Education Trainer certified by Dr. Fuhrman's Nutritional Education Institute.

She has been educating people about the benefits of a nutrient dense diet for more than a decade! She has some wonderful educational offerings I wanted to let everyone know about...
Free Introductory Lecture: On Thursday, February 10 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, a free introductory lecture about the Eat For Health Program at the Family Life Health Center, 129 Garden Avenue North, Clearwater, Florida, 33755. Join the hundreds of people who have completed this program and achieved their goals to lose weight, reverse disease and gain youthful vitality! Call 727-595-7597 to reserve your seat.

Free Lecture at Nature’s Food Patch: On Thursday, February 17 at 6:30pm, a lecture on "Conquering Food Addictions and Overeating". There will also be cooking classes beginning in April!

Eat For Health Program: Every Wednesday evening from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, Arnell gives an Eat For Health Program PowerPoint presentation at the Family Life Health Center, 129 Garden Avenue North, Clearwater, Florida, 33755. Upcoming presentations:

• February 2: Nobody Needs to Have Heart Disease

• February 9: Exercising, Fitness, Osteoporosis

• February 16: The Skinny About Fats

• February 23: Protecting Our Children from Cradle to Grave

Eat For Health Online Program: If you can’t make it to the Family Life Health Center on Wednesday evenings, you can do the Eat For Health Program online. There is a live PowerPoint webinar every Tuesday evening from 8:30 to 10:30 pm Eastern time (5:30 to 7:30 pm Pacific time). Upcoming presentations:

• February 1: Dr. Fuhrman’s Weight Loss Program

• February 8: Stopping the Epidemic of Diabetes

• February 15: Preventing Cancer with Diet

• February 22: Nutritarian Cooking Secrets

You are welcome to join one of the online webinars for no charge. Call Arnell at 727-595-7597 or email her at Arnell@TheNutrientDensityDiet.com.

How to manage diabetes without going on a high protein diet

Today's question comes from Tara in Altamonte Springs, FL.  Her question is

"How can I manage my diabetes without going on a high protein diet?"

Since I don't know if she was asking about Type I or Type II diabetes, I will assume it is Type II.  Either way, plant based diets are the best diet for both.

I have good news Tara, you and others with Type II Diabetes can stop managing your diabetes with medications and start managing it with nutrient dense plant foods by adopting a Plant Based Diet!  The medications you currently take may give you normal numbers on your blood tests but that doesn't equate to health when you are manipulating the numbers with pills.

Medications put a band-aid on the problem, they don't get to the root cause!  Eating the right foods, exercising daily for 30 minutes or more in your target heart rate, getting restful sleep and practicing stress relief are habits that will address the root cause.

In Dr. John McDougall's newsletter dated December 2009 he writes,  "Drug therapy has consistently failed patients with type-2 diabetes, and their well-intended doctors, making the search for an alternative treatment imperative. Since the rich Western diet is agreed to be the cause of this epidemic, should diet not be the first place to look for the prevention and the cure?  Written reports on the benefits of a low-fat, high-carbohydrate, plant-food-based diet on type-2 diabetes date back to at least 1930. Several published studies demonstrate how type-2 diabetics can stop insulin and get off diabetic oral medications with a change in diet. One goalpost is weight loss to the point of normal body weight, at this time the blood sugars of most patients diagnosed with type-2 diabetes will normal, and then everyone will agree that no further treatment with medications is needed.


By great good fortune, this same low-fat, no-cholesterol diet successfully used for diet-therapy for diabetes has been shown to prevent and treat heart and kidney disease, and prevent many common forms of cancer. Heart disease accounts for 70% of the deaths in diabetics, diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure, and cancer is more common in diabetics."


As far as high protein diets go, the only thing healthy about them is most of them ask you to stay away from processed carbohydrates.  Which I'm sure you know as a diabetic you must be careful with refined foods. However, animal products are not exactly health foods!  Like processed foods, they are devoid of vitamins, minerals, fiber, water and phytochemicals. 

The protein in plant foods is equivalent to the protein in animal foods. You do not have to focus on eating more protein on a plant based diet or combining beans and rice to get essential amino acids.  As long as you get enough calories from eating nutrient dense foods you will get more than enough protein and essential aminos.   Protein requirements are overstated in this country- the main reason is because the USDA Food Pyramid is manipulated by Agribusiness lobbyists.  It has not been designed with optimal health in mind.

Dr. Fuhrman has had great success with diabetics on his "Eat for Health" Plan.  My advice is, first read the book.  Then, talk to your doctor about it (bring the book to your visit) so that you can work with him/her to gradually adjust your meds to the point of weaning off them entirely as you lose weight.

Kale Recipe #1: Curried Chickpeas and Greens

The Kale dish I prepared on New Year's Day was from the new book Appetite for Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes
by Isa Moscowitz. It's called Curried Chickpeas and Greens. This is actually a popular indian dish made much healthier than what you can get in a restaurant.  I made some modifications including halfing the ingredients to make a smaller amount.  This recipe, when served with rice, makes 4-6 servings.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbspns minced fresh ginger
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 12 oz can Muir Glen diced tomatoes (no salt added)
2 bunches of Organic Green Kale (1 pound) stems removed
1 12 oz can Eden Organic chickpeas

Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium heat.  Add the mustard seeds and cover.  Let the seeds pop for one minute, or until poping slows down, stirring once. 

Quarter the onion and place in a blender with garlic, ginger and half of canned tomatoes.  Blend until well shredded but not pureed!  Pour into the pot. Sautee until the onions look translucent.  Add the curry, cumin, coriander, garam masala and salt.  Mix well.

Add the remaining tomatoes and torn pieces of kale into the blender.  Blend until well chopped (you should be able to see stems) but again, not pureed.  If you have a Vitamix you will need to use the tamper to push the kale down toward the blade.  Add to the pot and stir until kale looks completely cooked.  It should take around 7 minutes.

Add chickpeas and cook for another 5 minutes.  I served it with Organic Sushi Rice.  Sushi Rice has 1 gram of fiber per serving, which is better than no fiber in normal white rice. You could also serve this with brown rice.

Eat for Health Friendly?
Absolutely! This is a great Phase II meal. It definitely helps meet performance goals of getting 1 pound of nutrient dense veggies and 1 cup of beans daily. Of course when you break it down per serving you are getting closer to 1/4 pound of veggies and 1/4 cup beans, but still a good amount. If you add a large salad of mixed greens and raw veggies you are really boosting the MANDI score for this meal.

Affordable?  You bet!  $6.00 for the meal or $1 per serving!
Kale was BOGO at Publix (using the Greenwise ad from the internet and getting my store manager's approval), so I got two bundles for $2.99. The beans were Eden Organic and I got them for $1.90 with a coupon. I used Lundberg Organic White Sushi Rice to go with it. The Sushi Rice was on sale at Whole Foods 2 bages for $6. I had $1 off coupons for each bag plus I ordered a case so I got an additional 10% off. This made the per bag cost about $1.75 per bag.

Renegade Health Show features Joel Fuhrman on Vegan Diets

Joel Fuhrman has recently been featured on Raw Foodist, Kevin Gianni's "Renegade Health Show" in a series of interview questions about Vegan Diets.  Fuhrman does not promote a 100% raw foods diet, but one that is high in raw food (75%) and green vegetables.  I'm a follower of his Eat for Health plan and I also coach individuals and families who want to transition to his way of eating a Plant Based Diet.

Check out his interviews on RenegadeHealth.com

Raw Vegan food...is it always "healthy"?

I love the creativity of raw food chefs.  They can take a typical Standard American Diet dish and totally raw it up.  Pictured above is a raw meal called "I am Fabulous" that I ordered from Cafe Gratitude on a recent vacation in Healdsburg, CA.  You might be able to guess from looking at it that it is a raw lasagna.  The "pasta sheets" are cucumbers sliced thin lengthwise.  The "cheese" is a ricotta made from cashews and walnuts and the inside layers are filled with mashed olives, basil and olive oil.  The dressing on the salad with beautiful sprouts is made from figs, walnuts and oil. 

As most of you know from my posts on this blog, I am an advocate of a high raw, low fat diet.  However, I am not a 100% raw foodist.  I believe that certain foods provide more nutrients and are better digested lightly steamed or cooked than raw.  Foods like broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, collards and kale. Collards and kale work well in green smoothies, but we do need to chew our food more often than drinking it from a blender.  I believe we have teeth for a reason!

While the lasagna was beautiful in presentation and appeared to be made of the freshest organic ingredients, I have a hard time calling it "healthy" when it was obviously very high in fat.  I do not know the exact fat grams but I would guess it was at least 30 grams.  That is a lot of fat for a person to digest in one meal.  I split this meal between my kids and I still had a hard time finishing it because I could feel the oil having an effect on my body.  

Oils are low nutrient, high calorie foods. They do not contain nutrients, fiber or phytochemicals that were in the original seed or fruit.  Oils contain minimal amounts of Vitamin E, making it of very little value in the diet.  One thing I do want to make sure everyone knows is to not cook with oils, or least try to avoid cooking foods at high temps with oil.  See my article on my website about oils for more details.

At home I eat a very low fat diet and use almost no oil.  My main sources of fat are avocado, nuts and seeds and I use those sparingly. There are traces of fat in grains, fruits and vegetables, so I don't obsess about whether I'm getting enough fat.  I can just tell by how I feel when I've had too much fat...tired and sluggish, with upset digestion.

I have been following Eat For Health for several years and have coached dozens of individuals on Eat for Health who have lost weight and regained health.  It is also much easier to follow and maintain than the popular raw food diets currently circulating.

If you are looking for a 100% raw food plan that is also low fat, I recommend the 80/10/10 Diet by Douglas Graham and Frederic Patenaude's The Raw Secrets.

Dr. Fuhrman's Books have arrived at Whole Foods

I was in Whole Foods over the weekend and noticed the bookcase in the Whole Body section has been completely restocked with mostly Dr. Fuhrman's Eat for Health book set and DVDs!  This welcomed change is due to the company's new "Health Starts Here" program.

Other books on the shelf include vegan diet plans by Neal Barnard, John McDougall, Caldwell Esselstyn, and Rip Esselstyn. 

I also noticed the "Food Revolution" by John Robbins which was one of the books I first read that jump started my own journey to Veganism.

I'm ecstatic that Whole Foods is taking a stand on what they believe is the right nutrition for optimal health and the health of our planet...now if they'd just get rid of that organic meat section!  I mean really, if they're going to put the message out there that we don't need animal protein, then don't sell it!!

Whole Foods takes a stand on Nutrition, promoting Plant Based and Vegan Diets

Whole Foods has finally taken a stand on defining what Whole Food nutrition should be.  They have adopted Dr. Fuhrman's Eat for Health plan and the Engine 2 Diet!  Two of the best plans for Nutrient Dense Vegan diets.

I am encouraged that they will be making the following changes in their stores:

-Educating employees about Dr. Fuhrman's plan
-Using Dr. Fuhrman's ANDI scores in the produce section of the stores so that people can see what foods have the highest nutrient levels.
-Providing menu plans and recipes on the Whole Foods website

For more information go to the Whole Foods website.

Eat for Health compatible foods on sale at Publix this week

I checked iheartpublix.com and here's what I found on sale this week at Publix that would work with the Eat for Health plan. There's not much you can stock up on except the EdenSoy and Kashi 7 Whole Grain Cereals. These include coupon matchups. The rest is produce of course!

EdenSoy Organic Soymilk, 32 oz box, 2/$4
-$.55/1 Eden Organic Manf Coupon (email Eden Organic to get them)

Kashi Cereal (Any of the four varieties of "7 Whole Grain Cereals" excluding the Honey Flakes), 2/$5
-$1/1 Kashi Organic Promise cereal, any (Whole Foods coupon) – Whole Deal
-$1/1 Peel off coupon (on boxes of Kashi cereals)

Southern Grown Sweet Corn, 8/$2
Florida Premium or Plum Tomatoes, $.99/lb
California Seedless Grapes, $1.69/lb
Chiquita Bananas$.59/lb
Florida Athena Cantaloupes, $1.99
Southern Blueberries or California Strawberries, 16 oz or 1 pt pkg, 2/$5
California Cherries, $2.99/lb
Florida Red Seedless Whole Watermelon, $4.99 (half, quarter, or eighth, $.45/lb)
Georgia Grown Peaches $1.29/lb
Publix GreenWise Organic Salad Blends, 4 to 10 oz bag, 2/$5