Tricks From The Vegans

Every once in awhile I get the opportunity to do some nutrition consulting and I find myself loving every moment of the ordeal, and having a hard time charging the going rate for my services. It just doesn't feel like work to me. It could be because my "consulting services" involve a trip to the grocery store together, followed by a high intensity cooking class where I try to incorporate as much of what I have learned about nutrition and technique into an afternoon as humanly possible. I feel alive to the fingertips and toes during this "consulting" extravaganza.

This week I will be helping a friend alter her diet to incorporate more cholesterol lowering foods (she has recently been diagnosed with high cholesterol). This will be a fun one for me, because cholesterol lowering foods involve foods that are high in soluble fiber, plant sterols, and mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which translates to produce, produce, and more produce, and of course some olive oil, nuts, whole grains and fish.

This morning my friend was telling me about how she tried bringing home some kale from the grocery store and her daughter said that it looked like a scary monster. I thought back to my first experiences with kale, they were not unlike my first experience with seaweed. Totally terrifying. A few tricks that I learned from some vegans on proper seasoning, however, converted this frightening green ruffled mass into one of my favorite foods. I cannot wait to see if these tricks have the same effect on my friend and her daughter.

High cholesterol (I am talking about the LDL cholesterol here) is not always the result of diet or lifestyle factors. We all make our own cholesterol, as well as getting cholesterol from animal foods. Doctors used to recommend that people with high cholesterol remove high cholesterol foods from their diet, and the beef, egg and dairy industry suffered as a result. Don't feel sorry for them, however, they have the USDA on their side (the people who have shaped the way America views food and nutrition by delivering to us the food pyramid, which will always reserve a prominent spot for dairy, soy and beef, no matter what the research reports).

Current research focuses more on which foods to add to the diet, as opposed to which to take away. The psychology of this works much better for me, I am far more likely to indulge in something I am not supposed to have than to resist adding new foods to my diet. Since we can make our own cholesterol, it makes more sense to eat foods that lower cholesterol than to simply remove cholesterol from the diet and hope for the best.

I borrowed some taste sensations from the vegans for today's lunch. Nobody is better at making vegetables taste good than the vegans, to whom eating vegetables is a matter of pure survival. I think that you will find this as baffling as I do. Nutritional yeast (which can be found in co-ops) combined with a tad of soy sauce (I use tamari) and rice vinegar or lemon juice creates a lovely flavor on pasta similar to cheese. It absolutely blows my mind. Seriously, it is delicious.

Boil some water for pasta, only cook what you will eat (unless you plan on saving it, but I find pasta is really easy to overeat and then I am out for the rest of the day). I am cooking with whole grain omega-3 enriched pasta. When the water comes to a mean boil add the pasta, and add about 1/6 head of cauliflower to the water (broken into bite sized pieces).

While the pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil (~1 Tbsp) in a frying pan or wok and add 2 cloves of minced garlic. Do not leave the garlic alone in the oil for too long, because it is sensitive and will get bitter and burn if left isolated. Add 1/4 head chopped kale and a pinch of salt. Pour in a few Tbsp water, to steam/braise the kale. When the pasta/cauliflower are done cooking drain and add to the kale. Add a few sliced cherry tomatoes, and 1-2 more Tbsp olive oil. Dress with ~ 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, a few drops soy sauce, 2 Tbsp

nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and oregano/basil.

By the way, this lunch is perfect recovery food from that half marathon I ran yesterday. The omega 3's in the pasta are anti-inflammatory and the nutritional yeast is high in B-12 which, combined with the folate in the pasta and greens will help with cell damage repair (and of course, it has carbs to help with glycogen replacement).