All language subtitles for Foods That Cure Disease.2018.1080p.WEBRip.x264-[YTS.AM]-English

I was 51 years old

and I just wasn't feeling young anymore.

Both my parents had health
problems in their early 60s

and both developed adult-onset diabetes.

My mother suffered from heart disease

and obesity as well in her 60s.

I chalked it up to getting old,

a simple fact of my genetic fate.

After years of intense
research and schooling,

I came to the conclusion

that the American diet was killing me.

Can we take control of our health?

Well, I'm here to tell you that I took

control of my lab results and health.

This is my journey into attaining

a healthy and disease-free life.

Join me while I talk with
experts, discuss the science,

identify what foods are
good and what foods are bad,

and create delicious, fast
whole plant-based meals

in our kitchens.

So, what is the whole
plant-based movement,

and why is it making such a
big impact on people's health?

It's time to get on a
plane and ask the experts.

- And once you can get
patients to understand

that they themselves created this disease

by the foods that they were eating

that destroyed the capacity
of their endothelial cells

to make nitric oxide, they
are literally almost elated.

I mean, I've seen patients
almost with tears in their eyes

suddenly realizing that
we are empowering them

as the locus of control

to halt and begin to reverse this disease.

- Well, this requires an encyclopedia

answer, but yeah, I mean
what we see, basically,

and have for some time,

is that the higher the consumption of meat

in different countries,

we see a positive relationship

with the risk of cancer,
heart disease, for example.

That's a crude of way
of kind of observation.

- According to the Global
Burden of Disease study,

the largest study of risk factors

for human disease in history

funded by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation,

the number one cause of
death in the United States

is our diet.

Number one cause of disability
in our county is diet.

- Historically, cultures
that have consumed

more animal products and more meat

have more chronic disease,

particularly what we call
diseases of affluence.

Those are kind of the diseases

that are more common in rich countries.

These are breast cancer, prostate cancer,

heart disease, diabetes, weight problems.

- First off, I need to
make a qualifying comment.

I don't use the word
vegetarian and vegan, really,

to describe what I'm talking about.

I use the whole food plant-based diets.

So, what is the difference

between vegan and whole plant-based?

- What are the foods that
every time they pass your lips,

you injure the endothelial cells?

They are any drop of
oil, olive oil, corn oil,

soy bean oil, safflower oil,
sunflower oil, coconut oil,

palm oil, oil in a cracker,
oil in a piece of bread,

oil in a salad dressing.

Oil injures endothelial cells,

as does anything with a mother or a face,

meat, fish, chicken, fowl, turkey, eggs.

And anything that is dairy,

milk, cream, butter,
cheese, ice cream, yogurt.

And any excesses of sugary drinks,

excesses of cakes, pies, cookies,

agave, maple syrup, molasses, honey.

And I don't like coffee
with caffeine.

- Things like too much
salt, too much sodium,

and also, too much processed meats.

We're talkin' bacon, ham,
hot dogs, lunch meat,

turkey slices, that kinda thing,

known to be a class one or category one,

group one carcinogen by the IARC,

the official body of the
World Health Organization

that determines what is
and is not cancer-causing.

We are as sure that processed meat

causes cancer in human beings

in we are that plutonium
causes cancer in human beings

and asbestos and cigarette smoke,

so we're like, you know,

puttin' a carton of milk on
peoples' and kids' lunch trays,

carton of cigarettes.

I mean, it's outrageous that we continue

to feed these kinda products to children,

to anyone when we know they cause cancer.

- Vegetarians, about
90% of the vegetarians

are still using dairy,

and that really is a serious compromise

of the change that they
would hope to be making

because dairy is nothing more than,

in many ways, we say liquid meat.

It has a lot of protein,
animal protein, for example.

So, when we look at
vegetarians in general,

we gotta keep in mind
that most of them by far

haven't really improved
their diet that much.

- Really?

- Yeah, because they're
still using the dairy

and oftentimes, they use
some fish, as you just said,

maybe eggs-

And oils.

- That's right, and so, in fact,

we've got some really good data now

to show that the, as I see,
the nutrient composition

of a vegetarian diet is really

almost not different from
the meat-eating diet.

- Really?
- Yeah.

- You would think it would
be a little bit better.

- Well, it is a shade
better in some vegetarians-

- Shade better.
- But not that much,

and the effect of any
food on disease outcome

is best estimated by the kind of nutrients

that are present in the food,

and so when you compare,

and the biggest study I
know of that does this

just came out in 2016,

was the largest number
of vegetarians and vegans

compared to the meat eaters,

it turns out the fat content
of the vegetarian diet,

in terms of percent of calories,

the fat content of vegetarian diets

and vegan diets and meat-eating
diets, it's the same.

It's all just about 30% fat.

- You said vegan, did you say-

- Yes, I said vegan too.

Vegetarians, vegans which don't use dairy,

even for vegans, the average fat content

is just exactly even for all three diets.

- Why would the vegan one be-

- Because the vegans, what they do

is they turn around and
dump a lot of added oil.

- The olive oil, Mediterranean-

- No, I said added oil.

By that, I mean they're using fried foods,

you know, there's often
using oils from corn oil

or some of the other kinds of oils,

plus olive oil maybe,
obviously in some cases.

- The more meat, the more
of those types of diseases,

and when you actually look
at then animal experiments,

you see that sometime you
can see animal protein,

for example, which is a key part of meat,

can actually progress heart disease,

atherosclerosis the buildup
of plaque in the artery.

You know, there are
other components of meat,

other than the protein,
you know, saturated fat,

that's been linked to heart disease,

so we know that more meat

tends to come with more Western disease.

- I think we like people to
have whole grains, W-H-O-L-E,

whole grains for their
cereal, bread, and pasta.

If the patients have
anything that's overweight,

I would rather they omitted flour,

so the pasta, the bread, the
rolls, the bagels, right?

Because once you take a grain
and you enrich it into flour,

you got something a little
bit closer to sugar.

So, if they have a weight issue,

we'd like 'em to hold off on the flour.

And we want 'em to have

all those 101 different types of legumes,

beans, metals, white potatoes,

especially sweet potatoes,
very nutrient-dense,

and all the wonderful red, yellow,

and green leafy vegetables and some fruit.

Let's see if we can put this

into a different perspective

in terms of grading the food that we eat.

Fried animal products,
now that would be stuff

like fast food, you know, burgers,

french fries, hot dogs, et cetera.

These foods should be
given the grade of an F.

The next is animal products,

and these would be chicken, beef, pork,

turkey, lamb, eggs, and all of the dairy.

We would still have to
give this a grade of an F.

And then there's processed junk.

That would be chips, cookies,

cakes, ice cream, candy, chocolates.

We would give that a grade of D.

The next would be oils, sodas, and coffee,

and that would be olive oil,
canola oil, palm, peanut, flax,

vegetable, coconut, and all
your sodas that are sweetened.

We would also give this a grade of D.

And then there is plant-based junk,

soy dogs, soy powder,
trail bars, veggie burgers,

soy rice ice cream, veggie cheese,

and we would give this a C minus.

And then there's plant-based processed.

What do they mean by processed?

They mean refined grains, white
bread, oat milk, soy milk,

rice milk, sorbet, no-oil
sauces and dressings,

and we would give this the grade of B.

And then, last but not
least, whole plant foods,

and those are grains, rice,
quinoa, oats, wheat, berries,

barley, root vegetables, all your grains,

your kale, your collards,
your chards, your legumes,

you know, all your beans,

and we would give this an A plus.

So, what do they mean by
whole plant-based food?

In front of me, I have apple juice,

applesauce, and an apple.

Apple juice is mostly
sugar and very processed.

When consumed, our body is forced to deal

with this surge of sugar in
an almost-state of shock.

To put it simply, it's hard on our system.

Applesauce is slightly better

in terms of the sugar rush into our body.

Now, there is some fiber,

but most of that fiber has been processed

and has very little benefit.

Then there is the apple in its whole form.

When consumed, out teeth
benefit front the skin

in terms of cleaning.

The time it takes for us to
chew and swallow the apple

gives ample time for our body
to prepare and break down

over a longer period of time.

The sugar is released slowly as well,

and our body has time to
absorb all the nutrients

much more efficiently.

This is also a great example

of what they mean by processing foods.

- Actually, you've picked on,

I used that specific example
with the apple sometimes

to make a point about what
we're talkin' about namely,

and this is some research

that a friend of mine did here at Cornell,

these numbers I'm going to tell you about.

If you, and this was done, if you use it,

take 100 grams of an
apple and you analyze it,

you find out there are 5.9 milligrams

of vitamin C in that 100 grams.

- Okay.

- So milligrams, there's only
1/1,000 of a gram, you see.

So, you got this 100 grams,

you see there's 5.9 milligrams of-

- Vitamin C.

- Vitamin C in it, chemically speakin'.

That, in turn, gives so
much biological activity.

If you take the vitamin C
out and you put it in a pill

and then you see how much
activity there is, right?

Right.

- On the other hand, if
you just take the apple,

that 100 grams and eat it
with all that vitamin C in it

and you test it again
for a vitamin C activity,

it's not 5.9 milligrams, it's 1,500.

1,500, that's a huge increase

over what you thought was there.

Wow.

- And so, when you take the nutrient out,

you put it in a pill, it's
just really quite misleading

to even know how much is really
there because in the apple,

there's two things that
make the vitamin C activity

so much higher in a case like this.

One is that there probably
are other compounds in there

acting like vitamin C
contributing to this effect.

The second thing is that
the vitamin C in there,

the 5.9 milligrams in there-

Yeah.

- Is behaving in a much more efficient way

in the presence of all the other stuff.

So, there's a huge discordance

between the actual number of the content

of some particular nutrient
in there when tested alone

compared to what it is when
you eat the whole food.

An obvious question would be,

how much does your family
history play in all this?

- Yeah so, let's take
breast cancer, for example.

Breast cancer is something

that's widely known to
be affected by genes.

In particular, there's a
genetic variation BRCA genes

that increase risk of
breast cancer dramatically,

and there's kind of an
aura in cancer in general

that it's chance or genes plus chance,

and then breast cancer in particular,

I think people have this
sense that it's all genes.

So, let's talk about that.

In the U.S., women have
about a one in eight chance

of getting breast cancer in their life.

So, one out of every eight
women will get breast cancer.

You know, back in China,
and people kinda think,

oh that's a human thing, that's
just sort of natural aging.

Back in China, in the mid-1970s

when they surveyed the mortality

in a very comprehensive
way, comprehensive study,

they found that breast cancer,

they had about 80% less breast cancer

than we do here in the U.S.

So, there's massive variation
between different populations

in the rates of breast cancer,

and then you start looking
at when people move

from this location to another,

you know, to the U.S., for example,

rates of some of these
diseases begin to go up.

They go up and they start,
their risk becomes similar

to the country to which people move to.

And so, clearly there's
something environmental,

and you can go through
that exercise with cancers,

you can go through that
exercise with heart disease,

you know, our biggies, our big killers,

and you recognize that not
many, genes effect a lot of us.

They give us a slightly higher risk

for this or that disease,
diseases start with genes,

but environment has a more major role

than most people realize,

and very few diseases are
actually caused purely by genes.

- The foods that the family's been eating

over the generation causes,

it needs that one family
member to break off

to get better nutrition to actually see

that it wasn't necessarily hereditary,

it was just the food patterns

that we were eating
generation to generation.

- But it's not the question

we have or don't have those genes really.

It's the ability of the body

to control the expression of these genes.

What that means is we have
all or DNA right there,

that's genes, and some will
be selected out of that bunch

to produce a good effect.

When I say genes being expressed,

I'm talking about the DNA

being converted into products
that are protein in nature.

The proteins are enzymes.

They, in turn, control the
reactions that's going on.

So, it's the expression
of the genes that matter.

Bad genes, they can remain
latent, they don't do anything

unless we are eating the
wrong food, for example,

that cause them to come up like weeds.

That, incidentally, in
a fairly simply way,

was some of my own personal analysis

when I was getting involved in research.

My dad, a farmer, always been outside,

otherwise quite good, wasn't
eating the right food,

but he had a heart attack when he was 62.

- I mean, bad diets travel in families.

I mean, that's what people, I mean,

they get the recipes from their grandma

in addition to their genes.

Genes can load the gun, but
environment pulls the trigger,

meaning no matter what kinda
bad cards we've been dealt,

kinda bad genetic curse,

we can kinda reshuffle the deck with diet,

and we know that from
migration studies, for example.

So, if you look at prostate cancer,

breast cancer rates in Japan, for example,

some of the lowest in the world,

and then you look at
first-generation immigrants

that come to Hawaii, then
when they come to California,

and you can see that when a
Japanese man moves to California

and starts eating and
living like a Californian,

their prostate cancer rate skyrocket,

and the same thing, if you
actually move to Japan,

start eating and living like the Japanese,

your prostate cancer
rates drop like a rock.

- Like, let's say, for example, cancer.

- Yeah, cancer.

- There could be a cancer laying dormant.

- Exactly.

- If we eat all the wrong foods,

we fertilize 'em and
enrich 'em and let it grow.

Right.

- If we eat the right foods-

- That keeps 'em under control.

So, we can have these
nasty genes, if you will,

that otherwise might be nasty.

If you just eat the right thing,

and that's the same principle
for other diseases as well.

- So, it would be, it
would be okay for me to say

that genes doesn't play as
big a role as we think-

- No, they don't.

It's more of the nutrition.

- Exactly.

That causes these things.

- Exactly.

- The lack of nutrition.

- It has to be the right kind of nutrition

'cause the right kind of
nutrition upregulates, we say,

that is Carl's expression,
they upregulate the good genes

and controls, or downregulate,
if you will, the bad genes.

That's what good nutrition does.

And that whole question incidentally,

this question is a really
important consideration

for the public to know
because a lotta people,

they, oh, I'm gonna get
cancer or not get cancer

because of my genes.

No, well, here's the,

might be sort of the
scientific explanation

for genes versus nutrition, if you will.

I mean, all biological events

essentially have a genetic root.

In other words, we have,
in all of our cells,

except for red blood cells,
we have, in all of our cells,

we have a nucleus in the cell

and in the nucleus is where the genes are,

and so, all of us have
this genetic template,

20 some thousand genes
that can work wonders

and combinations and
stuff to great a response.

Everything starts with genes

because the genes that produce proteins

that are usually enzymes
that, in turn then,

actually control the reactions
that subsequently occur,

the metabolism, nutrients, for example.

So, we all have the same,

we're workin' from the same
DNA base sorting complex

and cancer comes from those too,

so cancer will come
from a cluster of genes

that have been corrupted, in
a sense, or damaged, mutated.

So, everything starts from
genes, and so the thought is,

if we can just understand

which genes we have
and which ones we don't

that we'll be able to
predict future disease.

No, it's helpful maybe in some cases,

but that's not the answer.

- I realized that I had a problem.

I hated the taste of vegetables.

Could we change our taste buds?

I was a Western diet person,
and I was like, yeah,

I can handle broccoli.

Kale, are you kidding?

Every time I put it in my
mouth, I was like, wow.

So, what I did was I juiced

to give my taste buds time
to recalibrate and it worked.

Is there any advice that
you give to your patients

that says, in time, repetition,

you will start to acquire a
taste for something you despise?

Is that?

- Yeah, I don't know that
there is a shortcut around it.

I mean, there's not a
hard and fast shortcut

around that process, which is unfortunate

'cause that's a huge barrier
to people changing their diet,

but you just have to trust the process

that you will end up in a better place

in terms of your tastes.

Kids, for example, we
all know that you can

give a little kid repeated
exposures to certain foods,

and at some point, the kid is
gonna start to like it more.

I mean, like everybody says that.

The same is true with an adult.

You know, the same is true with an adult.

So, it's just a matter of stickin' to it

and keep trying new recipes

that have those food that
you want to start liking.

You will find some recipes,
you know, I tell people,

at the beginning, as
you're trying to taste,

trying to change your tastes,

you don't need to find a
home-run recipe that you love.

Find something that's acceptable, okay?

The bar is low, find
something that is acceptable

that you can eat again without hating it,

and just try to find
a few dishes like that

and keep getting some exposure,

keep giving yourself these tastes,

and eventually, your tastes will change.

They absolutely will change.

- And on the flip side,
the next question was,

how long does it take
before the cheeseburger

isn't hittin' us on the
head every Tuesday night.

- So, that's individual, you know,

there's a lotta individual variability.

In terms of losing our
taste for cheeseburgers

and that type of thing, it
depends on how strict you are

and how much you change your diet.

So, research shows that
in terms of fat tastes,

for example, fat preference,
or salt preference,

I mean, that can take a
small number of months,

two to three months or so,

but the more that you
indulge during that process,

so if you wanna lose your
taste for cheeseburgers,

but you have a little bit of
cheeseburger taste

a couple times a week, even
though you're eating far fewer,

the frequency with which
you indulge the foods,

the more it hampers your taste adaptation.

- It's a little bit like-

- So, you
kinda have to be strict.

It's kinda like smoking, you know?

You gotta be strict for a while.

- When I first started doin' this change,

I'll be honest, I did not like vegetables.

I remember, I
ordered a kale salad,

like the first day I started,
and I couldn't do it.

It was terrible.

So, I figured how in the
world am I gonna start,

so I juiced so I could start
to adjust my taste buds,

and it worked.

So, I had to adjust my taste buds.

Any advice on how long it takes for us

to start to acquire?

- Yeah, I think everybody's different,

but it probably, in some
patient, it may be a week or two,

in others, it may be eight or 10 weeks.

The key to having somebody
who is transitioning

into vegetables at a significant amount

would be to find some delicious sauce.

When you anoint these raw vegetables

with just the right texture of sauce,

I mean, it can be that terrific, yeah.

- I hated kale, like
there's somethin' about it.

I couldn't stand it.

Now, I love it.

I mean, I'm putting it

on my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

- Ha!

- I mean, I just-

- PB and K.

- What, it's a thing?

- Well no, now it is.

- Well, there's a little bit, you know,

just that little bit of sweetness

and it's like it's perfect.

- That's great.

- But anyway, 'cause what I noticed was,

I just had to continue to
eat it every single day

for a period of time,

and then all of a sudden,
I started like carrots.

I started liking the taste of broccoli.

I started liking the, is there

some kind of thing?
- Oh yeah,

your palate changes-
- How long did

it take?
- Absolutely.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Much of the seminal work originally

was done on low-salt diets.

So, you take people and
you give 'em bowl of soup

and have 'em salt it to taste,

so whatever, how much the salt,

don't even measure how
much salt they added.

And then you put people
on a low-salt diet,

and when you do, first few days

are gonna taste like cardboard, right?

'Cause our palate has been so hijacked

by the processed food industry
to get these hyper salty,

hyper sweet, hyper oily, hyper
fatty foods into our diet,

but then you give 'em few weeks,

and you give 'em that same bowl of soup

with the amount of salt they
added before that they liked

and it's too salty.

They actually prefer
less salt in their soup.

And same thing happens

when people switch
whole milk to skim milk.

Sugar, it's even quicker.

We have data that seven days,

seven days cutting down industrial sugars,

you know, table sugar,
high fructose corn syrup,

you can kinda reawaken your taste buds.

I mean, you know the
ripest peach in the world's

gonna taste sour after
eating a bowl of Froot Loops

'cause we just so dulled
our taste buds, right?

So, people come see me eating

like a sweet potato with
a little cinnamon on top.

They're like, aw, I could never eat that,

but they don't, and so they think

I'm living some aesthetic
monk lifestyle or something,

maybe you can do it, but
no, but they don't realize,

no, no, no, it actually tastes good to me.

I mean, it really tastes good to me.

Then you get the best of both worlds.

Wait a second, it tastes good
and you get to live longer?

I mean, that's what plant-based
eating is all about.

- All right, now I think is a good time

for us to get into the
kitchen and start cooking.

Well, maybe not with
eggs, of course, but um,

let's get started on some recipes
that I've been working on,

and then we'll come back to
the experts as we go along.

Today, I'm gonna be making
a crispy tofu vegetable

with a peanut sauce.

I'm gonna be makin' it with some broccoli,

some bell pepper, little
bit of green onions,

some cilantro, some extra firm tofu,

but the first thing I need to do

is to get started on my rice

because it always takes some time.

I'm gonna be using some brown rice today,

so I've got one cup of brown rice,

and then I've got two cups of water.

We'll give that a little bit of a stir.

Okay.

And we'll go ahead and get this goin',

probably be about 45 minutes.

Okay, so I've cut up the
broccoli and the red peppers.

I'm gonna go ahead

and arrange it on my
baking rack once again.

Okay, so I've been replacing
the paper towel all along

just to kinda dry out some of this tofu,

but I'm gonna go ahead
and cut it up right now.

So, I like to cut it up
into bite-sized pieces.

Okay, so we'll go ahead and
put the tofu in this bowl.

All right, so I gotta a couple
tablespoons of tamari sauce.

I'm gonna go ahead and
just drizzle this over

the tofu, and then just kinda work 'em in.

Try not to break 'em too much.

Then I've got about four
tablespoons of cornstarch.

Go ahead and put that in there.

And then, we're just gonna kinda,

just kinda lightly coat 'em

and start arranging
'em on my backing rack.

Okay, I'll add a little bit more.

I've got another couple
table spoons of cornstarch

and just keep goin'.

So, I've coated my tofu with
a little bit of cornstarch

and as you can see,

the white is now absorbed into the tamari.

So, I've preheated my oven at 400 degrees,

so I'm gonna go ahead

and put it in there for about 25 minutes.

Okay, so the veggies and
the tofu are in the oven.

I'm gonna go ahead and cut
up some of the garnish.

So, this is my cilantro.

That should be about good.

I'm gonna go ahead and put this in a bowl.

And then some green onions.

I'm gonna use the other half

of the green onions for another meal.

Okay, so now it's time
to make my peanut sauce,

and it's really quite simple.

I've got three tablespoons
of reduced peanut butter,

couple tablespoons of tamari,

but you can also use soy, whatever,

one tablespoon of rice vinegar,

1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder,

and one cup of vegetable broth.

So, let's go ahead and
mix these all together.

1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder,

one table spoon of rice vinegar,
two tablespoons of tamari,

and then, of course, the peanut butter.

You have to be a little patient.

You just gotta break
down that peanut butter,

but eventually, it starts to
turn into a nice peanut sauce.

Okay, so I've got it partially
mixed up a little bit.

We'll go ahead and transfer
it into a saucepan.

And we'll put this on low.

Let's just keep warmin'
it up and stirring it.

Okay, so the peanut butter
is starting to break down,

so I'm just gonna go ahead

and keep stirrin' it with the heat.

Yeah, this is comin' along real nice.

Now, if you're short on time,

you can always use 1/2 a cup of broth

instead of a full cup,

but I like to use a
little bit of that heat

and just reduce it down.

It just has a nice rich taste to it.

All right, so I've just taken my veggies

and my tofu out of the
oven, and it looks nice.

We got a little bit of
the crispness on the tofu.

So, let's go ahead and
put some on my plate here.

Get some broccoli on there.

Mm.

And then some of these
roasted bell peppers.

And of course, we'll get
some peanut sauce in there.

Little bit of garnish on there, mm.

Can't wait to check this out.

Let's get a little bit of the pepper.

Mm.

Get some rice in there.

Mm!

That is so good.

It's got a little bit of crunch, mm.

So good.

- My friend who was a medical advisor

to this organization at the time

and advisor to the president
of the Philippines, actually,

we were playing golf one day,

and he told me, he said that
he and some of his colleagues

had been operating on
children with liver cancer,

children aged four and under.

And I thought immediately, this is crazy.

I mean, I was already getting
into the cancer field too,

mostly from the, NIH side
to some extent, or MIT side,

and so I was setting up a laboratory

to deal with a chemical that
was found in peanuts and corn

that gave rise to liver cancer.

- Colin later told
me that peanuts and corn

are not dangerous for us to eat.

These children in the Philippines

were eating rotten peanuts and corn

that had actually developed
a fungi known as aflatoxin,

but here in the States,
the FDA tests these foods.

But if you wanna learn
more about aflatoxins,

you can go to cancer. gov.

- So, I was setting up the laboratory,

trying to figure out, how does
this chemical cause cancer,

to cause liver cancer, and
then this friend is telling me

they're operating on some
children with liver cancer.

I said to myself, this doesn't make sense.

And so, I kind of dismissed it

until I then found a experimental paper

that when the literature just came out

on experimental animals from India,

they were showing that when animals

are fed aflatoxin to start the cancer,

but then fed two different
levels of protein

to see what effect a
protein might have on that,

their idea was if they
gave 'em more protein,

they would be less
likely to get the cancer.

And they got exactly the reverse.

That is, the animals given
more protein got more cancer,

and it was striking, it was amazing.

And then that little experiment,
in that little experiment,

100% of the animals given
higher levels of protein,

but come back, both animals

exposed to the same level of carcinogen.

So, this is really odd.

Both of 'em gettin' the carcinogen,

both gonna get liver cancer,

but the ones that get the
higher levels of protein,

they got the cancer.

The lower protein, no cancer.

It was at like 100 and nothing, 100%, 0%.

So, seein' that and then thinkin' about

what my friend told me on the
golf course, of all things,

that these children, I'm thinkin',

and then I'm wearin' two
hats in the Philippines.

One is to organize this laboratory

to analyze for that
chemical carcinogen, right?

- Right.

- And the other, my other position

was workin' with my senior colleague

overseeing the whole program

and making sure the kids got more protein.

- Ironic.

- I mean, it's, yeah.

So, it was staring me in the face.

More protein gives more
cancer, this is crazy.

Let me tell you something else, Craig,

before we get to that 'cause
that's another whole story.

That's why I came to eventually
ask him the same question.

So, we found that high
protein turns on the cancer,

low protein doesn't.

Then we did another study

to see, fairly early on, what happens,

the cancer's starting to
grow, right, like this

on a high protein diet,

what happens if we switch
the diet to low protein?

We turned it off.

We put the high protein
back in again, turns it on.

That was probably the most
significant thing of all,

that we could turn and turn off cancer

by simply changing the
level of nutrient intake.

- So, you're lookin' at the cells, grow.

Yeah.

- Turning into possible,
or tumors, or whatever.

Then you switch the diet.

Right.

- And you can see it
stay the same or reduce?

- That's right, it either was
progressing, still growing

in the presence of high protein

or in the presence of low
protein, no, it cut it off.

It reversed it.

No question about that.

- When we're speaking of proteins,

we're talking about animal protein?

- Yes, but in that case,
I wasn't distinguishing

between animal and plant all that much.

- You just assumed-

I was just usin' a protein.

- Yeah, it was just protein.

- Yeah, and it was a protein
that was on the market

that we could get.

That's what I did

and I didn't pay a whole
lot of attention to that.

I just got the protein.

- Okay.

- But it turned out the protein
we were usin' was casein,

the main protein in cow's milk.

- So in 1968, Colin sets
up a lab in the Philippines

to find out why the aflatoxin

causes cancer in these children,

but inadvertently finds out

that it wasn't actually the aflatoxin,

but the animal protein found in milk

that actually turned the cancer on.

Without the casein, the
aflatoxin that causes cancer

would have stayed dormant.

So, you're using the protein
that's derived from cow's milk.

That's right.

- It's not an additive,
it's just a thing-

- No, this is part of the milk.

- It's just part of-

- In fact, it's considered

to be the valuable part of the milk.

- So, it's the protein, it's not the fat.

That's right.

- So, if it's skim, whole
milk, it's the casein.

- That's right.

- Casein?

- Casein, yeah.

- Casein.

- It represents, technically,

87% of the total protein in cow's milk,

there's some other proteins,

but in any case, casein is the big one.

- Give us a basic idea of
what was the study that you?

- Well, I think I should
give you a little background

because it's a little unusual
for a general surgeon-

Yeah, exactly.

- To be somebody who gets
passionate about nutrition.

When things started for me
was the late 1970s, early '80s

when I was chairman of
breast cancer task force

at the Cleveland Clinic.

I became increasingly
disillusioned with the fact

that for no matter how many women

I was doing breast surgery,

I was doing absolutely nothing

for the next unsuspecting victim.

So, this led me to do a
bit of global research,

and it was really quite striking

to see that there were cultures
where breast cancer rates

were 30 and 40 times less frequent

than the United States, like Kenya.

And breast cancer was
very infrequently seen

in rural Japan in the 1950s,

but when the Japanese women

would migrate to the United States,

for the second and third generation,

still pure Japanese-American,

they now had the same
rate of breast cancer

as their Caucasian counterpart.

Now even more compelling, perhaps,

was cancer of the prostate.

In the entire nation of Japan in 1958,

how many autopsy-proven deaths were there

from cancer of the prostate?

18 in the entire nation.

Perhaps the most mind-boggling

public health figure I've ever heard,

but by 1978, 20 years
later, they were up to 137,

which still pales in
comparison to the 28,000

who will die from cancer of the prostate

in this country this year.

Well, around this time,
recognizing in this global review

that there were so many cultures

where cardiovascular disease
was virtually nonexistent,

these were cultures that were thriving

on whole food plant-based nutrition,

it seemed to me that there
might be more bang for the buck

if I looked at cardiovascular disease

because if we could get
people to start eating

to save their heart, they
would also markedly diminish

or save themselves from
the common Western cancers

of breast, prostate, colon,
and perhaps, pancreatic.

So, that was the background, and after,

my wife and I did this
ourselves for a year.

We started in April of '84.

And then in August of 1985,

I went to our department of cardiology

and asked if I could
have about 24 patients

who had significant
cardiovascular disease,

and I wanted to try to see

if they would respond to whole
food plant-based nutrition

because of this information

that I learned in this global review.

And now, I was not a trained psychologist,

and my greatest concern

would be the lack of patient compliance.

I was interesting in trying, therefore,

the same mantra that I use
for my breast cancer patients,

and this was something I
had learned many years ago

from a wonderful West Coast surgeon

by the name of Bert Dunphy,

and Bert used to say
that patients with cancer

are not afraid to die.

Patients with cancer are
not afraid to suffer.

But patients with cancer are afraid

of being abandoned by their-

Physician.

- By their physician or by their family.

- Yeah, oh, family.

- So, the first, for the
first five years of the study,

I saw everybody every
two weeks in my office,

went over every morsel they ate.

We checked their cholesterol,

their blood pressure, and their weight.

At the second five years, I
got a little more courageous

and stretched it out to once a month.

At the end of a decade, I was able to,

they were on autopilot by now.

I was able to stretch it out to quarterly,

and then at the end of
12 years, which made it,

by then, the longest study,
I think, of its type,

ever in the medical literature,
12 years, we published it.

- And so, the results-

- Well, what was so exciting

was that we suddenly began
to see that these patients,

and I should mention that these
are patients who were sick.

They had failed their
first or second bypass.

They had failed their first
or second angioplasty.

They were too sick for these
procedures or they had refused.

Five were told by their
expert cardiologist

they wouldn't live out the year.

Those five all made it beyond 20 years.

And it got to be pretty
darn exciting to see,

not only could be get
rid of their symptoms,

but we often would see

striking examples of disease reversal.

- So, these are people that are

probably not able to
exercise, it sounds like.

- No, they could certainly walk,

and walking is a wonderful exercise.

- So, nutrition and then you advised them

to do some walking or?

- Oh, sure.

- And they were able to slowly
but surely start doing stairs

and start doing running?

- Well, I'm not sure, I
wasn't asking them to run.

I was, first of all, my goal
was to get them to survive.

Remember, there were a
number that were told

they wouldn't live out the year.

This is by expert cardiologists.

But as you begin to see them lose weight,

their symptoms began to disappear.

Then when we carefully studied them,

they were reversing their disease.

Pretty exciting stuff.

- The men and women

that participated in Dr. Esselstyn's study

all had very advanced coronary disease.

Now, most of them were told

there wasn't much else that could be done.

The patients were put on a
strict plant-based oil-free diet.

Within months, their
cholesterol levels dropped

and increased blood flow to their hearts

and lived much longer
than anyone expected.

If a plant-based diet can do that much

for those terminal patients,

what could it do for the rest of us?

Today, I'm gonna be making
a healthy Parmesan sprinkle,

you know, for salads, pastas, or pizzas.

It uses one cup of raw
cashews, one teaspoon of salt,

a teaspoon of garlic powder,

and four tablespoons of nutritional yeast.

Now, I'm gonna be using my hand processor,

but you can go ahead

and mince these cashews
up by hand if you want.

So, let's go ahead and get started.

So, the first thing I
add is the raw cashews.

Now, go ahead and mince 'em up.

Okay, that's the
consistency I like to see.

It's kinda like granules.

Okay, so the second thing I
had is the nutritional yeast.

We'll go ahead and put the salt in there

and the garlic powder.

And that's pretty much it.

So, let's go ahead and mix this up.

And there you go, that's pretty much it.

The next thing you do

is just transfer it into a jar of sort.

And there you go, Parmesan cheese.

Mm, very good.

Now, I can go ahead and put
this in the refrigerator.

It keeps for a pretty good long time.

Lasagna has always been
a favorite dish of mine,

and when I came up with a delicious

whole plant-based version
of it, I was really excited,

and today, I'm gonna
be using some spinach,

some zucchini, some fresh basil,

some mushrooms, some chickpeas, some tofu,

but first, let's get
started on those noodles

'cause they always take so much time,

and then I can get started
on some of the other stuff.

Okay, so now I'm gonna go
ahead with my ricotta mix.

I usually start with about
1/2 a cup of fresh basil.

I go with about 1/4 cup of raw cashews,

a teaspoon of garlic powder,

teaspoon of dry parsley,

little bit of pepper,

some salt,

and we'll go ahead and chop this up.

Okay, that's lookin' pretty good.

Now, we'll go ahead

with a teaspoon and 1/2 of Dijon mustard,

a teaspoon and 1/2 of balsamic vinegar,

one teaspoon of tamari,

1/2 a cup of nutritional yeast,

one can of chickpeas,

and of course, some lemon juice.

Let's go ahead and get that goin'.

Okay.

A little bit of vegetable broth.

Let's scoop it off the sides
a little bit with my scraper.

Mix it up again.

Okay, that's lookin' really good.

And as you can see, I've
got these paper towels

underneath each layer of the tofu.

The whole idea of this is to
draw out some of the moisture.

Now, I've been replacing these

throughout the whole time
I've been making the lasagna.

Now, as you can see, there's
not much moisture left,

so I think these about good and
ready to start crumbling up.

And I just use my hands

and I just kinda break it
up into little tiny pieces,

similar to like ricotta cheese.

Okay, so I've crumbled up all the tofu,

but I got one more chance to go ahead

and towel blot it one more time

just to get that extra
moisture outta the tofu.

Okay, so I put my crumble tofu in a bowl.

So, let's go ahead and put
my basil and chickpea mix.

Let's mix this up.

Now, you can always taste it

just to see how things are goin'.

Mm.

Just a tad bit more salt, just a tad.

There we go.

And we'll mix this in.

All right, this is mixed in pretty good,

so now we're gonna go ahead

and start choppin' up the
rest of the vegetables

and start sauteing 'em in my frying pan.

Now, as you can see, I've cut
my vegetables kinda small.

I wanna keep 'em less bulky
in between each noodle.

So, let's go ahead and get these sauteing.

Okay, so I'll go ahead

and add a little bit of vegetable broth,

so I can start sauteing these vegetables.

Okay, so these are comin' along great.

See, the moisture's just startin'
to evaporate a little bit.

This is totally optional.

I like to put in just a little bit of salt

and a little bit of pepper,

but this is just for your
own taste, whatever you like.

These are comin' along real good.

Okay, I just preheated my oven at 350,

so now it's time to go ahead

and start assembling the lasagna.

The first thing I usually like to do

is to start with my marinara sauce

at the bottom of the pan.

Yeah, I just like to get a
thin layer at the bottom.

Maybe a little more.

Okay.

Then I'll go ahead and put
a layer of noodles on there.

Kinda pat it down a little bit
to make sure there's no air.

Then I'll put my ricotta mix on there.

Okay, now this is the tricky part.

You wanna kinda just spread it out evenly

on top of the noodles like this.

Okay.

Then I put a layer of spinach.

Just kinda lay 'em on there.

There.

Then I put a little bit of
the vegetables in there.

And just kinda distribute
them evenly as best I can.

Put a little bit more sauce in there.

Kinda spread this around.

Another layer of noodles on top of this.

Make sure you get out all the air.

So, I've pre-cut these noodles
for this particular pan.

I'm gonna go ahead and put
some more of my ricotta mix,

another layer of spinach,

a little bit more vegetables,

okay, a little bit more sauce.

I've got room for one more layer.

Put that on there.

A little more of my ricotta mix.

And I wanna kinda pat
it down a little bit.

Then I go ahead and finish
it off with a layer of sauce.

So, as you can see, I'm not
quite all the way up to the top.

I don't want it drippin'
over into the over

and get all messy.

So, it's just short of the top.

So, go ahead and spread
this around nice and even.

So, I'm gonna go ahead
and put this in the oven.

Oh, does that smell great.

So, I ended up leaving it in
the over for about 35 minutes,

but again, that depends on where you live.

And there ya have it, lasagna.

Now, this is one of those meals

that you might wanna make
on a Saturday or Sunday

when you have a little bit more time,

maybe you have some special
guests that are comin' over,

but I'm sure they're gonna love it.

Let's go ahead and check this out.

Mm.

It's so good.

I wanna talk about the internet.

You know, when I was researching
information for the show,

I was amazed at all the different

conflicting information out there.

You could pick a subject

and there would be this
group and then that group,

and then all of a
sudden, you're just like,

I can see this confusion.

Is there anything you can say
to us that could help us say,

the best way to get through the internet

or get your information,
what's your advice on that?

- oh, well, I mean, because of
that conflicting information,

because of the corrupting
influence of commercial interests

in the field of nutrition
and broader, in medicine,

you need to stick to the science.

- You have to realize

there are a lot of
powerful vested interests

that are trying to keep you confused.

You know, if you, you don't need to,

they don't even need to make
a case for their product

or their type of product,

they just need to keep you confused enough

to say, ah, the heck with it,
I'll eat whatever I want to.

And that's a win.

- Right.

- And when you look
online or in social media,

you can find information
about, for example,

the ketogenic diet, low carb, high fat.

There's the low carb, high fat camp

that is like all meat all the time,

and then there's the vegan group

or the no added fat sort
of plant-based group,

which I'm a part of,

and they could not be more opposite,

and then you go on there, and
there's doctors on both sides.

There is, you know, there's
people citing studies, it seems,

you know, there's little numbers
next to their statements,

at least for the average person-

- But who reads that stuff?

- Right, yeah.
- Who follows up?

- You know, it's hard to follow up.

So, it seems it's impossible
to figure that out.

And I think if you have,
you can have five PhDs,

and you could stand in front of that shelf

at that bookstore, that
nutrition bookshelf,

and have no clue what to buy
or what's actually healthy,

and so, it's not really people's fault

we have this disaster of,

you know, of a public
media around nutrition.

There's a lotta reasons for that.

But I think the fundamental aspect

I would encourage people to do

is do a little bit of extra homework

to see if there's some science behind it.

That can be hard to do,

and I appreciate it
can be very hard to do,

but for example, with heart disease,

you know, there's only one diet

that's been shown to
reverse atherosclerosis,

shown to actually shrink
blockages in the heart.

There's only one diet and lifestyle

that's been shown to do that.

When you start looking at the
second level of information

behind the headlines, you see, okay,

this is actually published
in real scientific journals.

It's not some tangential
information, it's, you know.

So, just pay attention to the science

and who's doing the science.

- Go for the science.

In other words, if you're
gonna take your instruction

and your learning from the media, right,

from television, from the
internet, why not do this,

go to the peer-reviewed
scientific literature.

See right now, there have
been a plethora of books

that have come out, books where the author

has ever taken a responsibility

for research and then done the book.

I've written multiple
papers on this subject

that have been published in
the peer-reviewed literature.

That has to be the, we have
to have the bar be high enough

so that it is not hyper snake oil.

This is only gonna sell itself

on absolutely rock solid science.

- I have to say, I've concerned myself,

you know, as a scientist in a sense,

with that question for 30, 40 years.

How can a consumer, and
having been a member

of these expert panels
that translates science

into public information, that's their job,

and so, I've had to think a
lot about that, a lot of us do.

You know, how do you make this palatable,

the scientific information
palatable to the public,

and when the public is
lookin' for information,

how can they, in turn,

discern what is reliable and what's not?

I think that's really the question.

And unfortunately, it's very difficult.

It's really difficult.

We could say things like, I mean,

you can look up the, if
you're inclined to do so,

you can look up, say,
what did that come from,

and then you look at the paper.

You might see some name,
author that's in there,

and then you can look at
the bottom of the paper,

and you see if certain
industries may have supported it.

That may give you a hint.

But even if there's no industry support

for a particular paper,

some of the authors
sometimes are still prisoners

of the other corporate
interests for whatever reason.

They may, you know,
that's just their mindset.

Sometimes, they're not even aware of it,

but you know, these
pressures creep in there.

So, it's difficult for
the public to really know,

to be honest about it,

and for me, sorta bein' in science,

that's why I like to go back
and see if I can't craft,

you know, a story that's
based as much as possible

on science, you know make
it scientifically credible,

but at the same time, one
of the reason for confusion,

which is related to this,

and the internet has all kinds of things.

You got, read it here, you read it there,

you got different ideas.

That's a really big
problem in our society.

And one of the problems
or reasons for that

is because of the way we
think about nutrition,

the way we think about food.

Someone can look at a food and say,

uh, this is better than that

because it has so much of
this particular nutrient

or this has more than
that one kinda thing.

It's all focused on one thing,

and that's what we call,
I call reductionism.

And when we get into that business,

and because foods have almost

infinite variety of nutrients in them

and other chemicals and
stuff like that, everybody,

it's like going to a circus.

I mean, everybody can pick
out their favorite thing.

Aw, this has got more of this vitamin.

Well no, that's got this one.

It ends up bein' just an absolute zoo.

- Today, I'm gonna be
making classic tomato soup.

I'm gonna be making it with
two cups of vegetable broth.

I've got 1/2 a can of white beans.

I've drained and rinsed those.

I've got some basil, an onion,

and a 28-ounce can of
peeled whole tomatoes.

So, let's go ahead

and get started on choppin' up that onion.

These are comin' along good.

Now, I'll go ahead and add
1/4 teaspoon of rosemary.

I got a little bit of salt and pepper.

And we'll give these a
little bit of a stir.

Okay, so they're startin'
to just scorch a little,

can always put a little bit
of vegetable broth in there.

Okay, those are comin' along nicely.

Now, we'll put two
tablespoons of tomato paste.

Go ahead and stir this in.

Put a little bit more
vegetable broth in there.

At this point, I'll lower
the heat a little bit.

Add a little bit more broth,

and we'll go ahead and turn this off.

This is lookin' pretty good.

I'm gonna go ahead and
transfer these into my pot.

Okay.

And then I am going to put
one teaspoon of brown sugar,

one teaspoon of brown sugar,

one tablespoon of nutritional yeast.

Got my two cups of vegetable broth.

Go ahead and put that in there.

Got my 1/2 a can of white beans.

Put them in there.

28-ounce can of peeled tomatoes.

Get them in there.

Now, I'll get some basil.

I'm gonna go ahead and just
cut this up just a little bit.

Just a little bit there.

Put some basil in there.

Okay, I'm gonna put a lid on this,

and we're gonna let this
simmer for about 30 minutes.

Right now, I'm gonna go ahead
and preheat my oven at 425.

Okay, so I've preheated my over at 425.

I'm gonna go ahead

and start cuttin' up this
bread for the topping.

Now, I'll get my baking
rack with my cookie sheet.

Just kinda arrange 'em out a little bit,

so they can breathe.

Okay, so I've arranged
these out on my baking rack.

I'm gonna go ahead

and put 'em in the oven for
about seven to 10 minutes.

Okay, the soup's been
simmering for about 30 minutes.

Let's check it out.

Mm, this looks really good.

All right, now I'm gonna go ahead

and transfer it into my food processor.

And I put a little tin foil over it

just so I can catch that hole
and just put it in there.

Okay, so I put the whole
thing into the food processor,

and it was a little too full,

so I had to put some back.

So, let's go ahead and puree this.

Okay, so I've pureed half of the batch,

and let's go ahead and check it out.

Remember the croutons that I made earlier,

put a couple of those in there,

then maybe some basil.

This is gonna be great.

Let me get one of these croutons in there.

Mm.

That is so good, oh my
gosh, you're gonna love it.

Mm.

You know, living in the Southwest,

we have a lot of wonderful Mexican food,

and it tastes delicious, but
there's only one problem.

It's not exactly that healthy.

Mexican food uses a lot
of oil, a lotta lard,

and a lot of animal
products, but who's to say

you can't make a
healthy-conscious Mexican dish?

With this particular recipe,

I'm gonna be using portobello
mushrooms and mango.

So, I start off with
the portobello mushroom.

The first thing I usually
do is cut off that stem,

so I can half my flat surface

to cut 'em up into nice slices.

So, the general rule is
one mushroom per person,

but as you can see, that's a lot.

It all depends on actually how
hungry your family really is.

Now that I got my sliced up
mushrooms in a resealable bag,

it's time to make the marinade.

Now, I usually like to start
with equal parts of soy sauce,

balsamic vinegar, and
Worcestershire sauce,

but here's the thing about
Worcestershire sauce.

Sometimes, it's made with fish.

So, you might wanna check
your local grocery store

just to make sure that
they have a vegan version,

which is one I found right here.

So, put a little bit
of steak rub in there,

a little bit of chili powder in there,

and some cumin.

Some salt and pepper.

Again, the salt's always optional.

There.

So, now I go ahead and mix
this marinade all together.

Open my bag and put the marinade inside.

Then I close up the bag

and just kinda roll
'em around a little bit

so they get to coat all
the sides of the mushrooms.

Now that I let that marinade for a while,

let's go ahead and cut up all
the rest of the vegetables.

So, normally when I cut up the onions,

I like to save a little
bit for the pico garnish.

Now, normally I don't use
both of the bell peppers

for this particular recipe,

but instead I'll save some
of it for another meal.

So now I've cut up all my vegetables,

it's time to put 'em in a
skillet and start fryin' 'em up.

Now, usually what I do

is I start with a little
bit of vegetable broth

that I've made before, just a little bit,

and then I get into my spices.

Put little bit of my steak rub
in there, sprinkle that in.

Again, a little bit of cumin.

A little bit of kick,

put a little bit of chili powder in there,

but it all depends on your tastes.

Of course, a little
bit of salt and pepper.

And let's start fryin' this up.

Okay, these are cookin' up real nice.

So, the next thing I usually like to do

is add a little bit of dried tomatoes.

And just for a little
bit of nice sweetness,

a little bit of brown
sugar, just a little bit.

That all depends on you.

Mm, it's already startin' to smell great.

So, now I take my mushrooms

that have been marinading
in the balsamic vinegar,

soy sauce, and Worcestershire,
and add them in.

Oh, these are cookin' up real nice.

Now, the trick is, you don't wanna have

too much liquid down on
the bottom of your pan.

You want the onions and the green peppers

to kinda caramelize a bit.

So while these are cookin', let's go ahead

and start cuttin' up my
mango and my cilantro.

So, you remember the onions from before?

Well, I'm gonna save

a little bit of the cilantro for the pico.

Mm, these are comin' along just great.

Now as you can see, some of the liquid

is startin' to disappear
down on the bottom,

which gives it that nice caramel flavor.

Little bit of that brown
sugar and all those spices,

mm, it's gonna be awesome.

So, now it's time to finish up
the pico with some tomatoes.

So, now I got the basic
elements of my pico,

it's time to add a little bit of spice.

So, I usually use a little bit of salt.

That's optional, again.

A little bit of pepper.

And a little bit of chili powder.

And really, that's about it for pico.

So, I'll go ahead and put
this in the frigerator

and let that start to chill a bit.

So, now this is comin' along just great,

and as you can see, a lotta liquid

is now missing from the pan,

which is where you want it to be.

So, let's go ahead and put in the mango.

Let's go ahead and continue
to fry this up a little bit.

Now, this particular mango
wasn't exactly that ripe,

so I'm gonna go ahead

and cook it for just a little bit longer,

but normally, if it is a ripe mango,

it doesn't need a lot of frying.

So, now this is pretty much ready to go

and lookin' really good.

I like to add a little bit of lime.

Let's go ahead and put a
little bit of lime in there.

Mm.

This is gonna be amazing.

Now, I'll just add my finishing touch,

which is a little bit of cilantro.

Aw, this is lookin' really, really nice.

So as you can see, most of
the moisture is now gone.

The onions have caramelized
just a little bit.

The mango has sweetened up everything.

Now, it's time to put it in a tortilla.

Mm.

It's gonna be so awesome.

So, the trick is, with a tortilla,

is you don't wanna put too much in there,

otherwise you can't fold 'em up too good.

Then the next thing I like to do

is serve 'em with a little bit of beans

and my pico de gallo.

This is gonna be good, I can tell.

Mm, it's so good.

So, if you're lookin' for
a healthy Mexican dish,

this is sure to please your family.

So, I've been getting some
a little bit of resistance

with some of my friends
adapting this lifestyle,

the Mediterranean diet is just the one

that they seem to be
happy with, and of course,

I read a lot of the studies
on the Mediterranean.

What's happening, to me, it
seems like they're saying

that you can just use a lot of olive oil,

and can you explain the Mediterranean diet

and why it's not quite where
we need to be or whatever?

- So, the Mediterranean diet
has been marketed heavily

by this idea that a diet high in oil

and sometimes, it's red
wine, you know,

is very healthy,

and the reality of it is
that the Mediterranean diet

is a more plant-based diet,

so there's more fruits and vegetables,

there's more grains, there's more,

there's less processed
meat, there's less red meat,

and there's less liquid dairy,

and those things all taken together

in the overall dietary pattern,

there's no doubt that
Mediterranean diet is healthier.

There's a lot of evidence to
suggest Mediterranean diet

is good for heart disease.

It's good for other diseases,
you know, chronic diseases,

but I think that, you know,
including all the added oil,

in my opinion, I think is
stopping the Mediterranean diet

from being as powerful
as good nutrition can be.

- Exactly.

- It's healthier in spite
of all that added oil,

not because of it.

And you have to remember,

oil is not a food.

If you go back to 1915, just
a little side note here,

if you go back to early 1900s,

the very traditional
Mediterranean diet in Italy

with manual laborers was about 15% fat,

16% of all calories from fat.

That's very low fat by today's standards.

I mean, if they were using olive oil,

it was small, small amounts.

You have to realize,

you don't get a liter
of olive oil every week

without major industrialization,

commercialization, and trade,

and it's a very processed
product to get that much oil.

It takes somewhere between 15 to 40 olives

to make a tablespoon of olive oil.

I'd rather you eat olives

'cause you make the oil, you're
throwing away the protein,

you're throwing away the fiber,

you're throwing away minerals,

you're throwing away
all sorts of good stuff.

So, stick to whole foods rather
than just food fragments.

- Yeah, I've followed that question

concerning the Mediterranean
diet for some time.

In fact, that almost is orchestrated

by the industry in early 1990s.

They sponsored, for example,

a really, very significant conference

at Harvard at that time,

and I was one of the keynote
speakers at that conference,

and I could tell you,

I had lunch with a person
who brought the money

to get the conference going,
a graduate of Cornell,

she was representin'
the olive oil industry.

That was a big-

- It's always, yeah-
- Big push

in olive oil industry-
- It's always

some kind of, yeah.

- Into this country,
and it was successful.

- Sure.

- Because once they got
that going and it had the,

sorta the reputation, essentially,

of, you know, having this conference

sort of back what they were doing.

As I say, I was one of
the keynote speakers.

There was about four or five of us,

and I actually, at that conference.

Here's my argument based on the data.

The Mediterranean countries,
Italy, Greece, Crete,

you know, the island of
Crete, Southern France, Spain,

those countries had
been known for some time

to have a little less breast cancer,

a little less colon cancer, and
a little less heart disease.

That was pretty well established.

Not a lot less, but it
was significantly lower

than, let's say, the UK,
England, or the United States.

Those are the main
countries being compared.

And so, we also had this impression,

so the olive oil industry
liked to tell us,

that they consume a lot more
olive oil in those countries,

and that's why they have
lower rates of those diseases.

- Damn.

- And so, they made this

rather superficial sort of
conclusion, if you will.

Oh, the reason they have
less of those diseases

is because they consume the olive oil.

And they do consume more olive oil,

but in those countries,

they're consuming the fresh
olive juice, I like to call it.

It's really high in oil, and
if you go back to the villages

where they first were
observing this phenomenon,

it was mostly the raw juice

and some oil and prepared
fresh as it were,

and so they see a bit of a decrease

in these high rates of heart disease

and cancer comes down a bit like this.

In rural China, and that's
one of the reasons I was there

is because in rural China,

we had evidence on heart disease too,

and there in China, they
really were consuming low oil.

In the Mediterranean countries,
the oil dropped a bit.

Our level of fat consumption,

oil consumption is
fairly high in the West,

Mediterranean countries,
down a little bit,

and that helps to, apparently,

reduce, so they thought, these diseases.

In China, heart disease
rate was almost nil,

and there, they're
consuming much less oil.

So, that's the story that emerged.

In reality though, in those
Mediterranean countries,

they're consuming more plants.

- Yeah, of course.

- And in China, they're
consuming more plants.

So, in fact, they consume even more plants

than they might in the
Mediterranean countries,

but the Mediterranean countries, actually,

it was the plants that they were consuming

that was decreasing the
heart disease rates.

It wasn't the oil.

- No.
- All that much.

As I say, it may have
contributed a little bit,

and in fact, the man who actually,

the scientist who actually was the first

to make quite a lot of
news about this question

concerning the Mediterranean diet was,

his name was Ancel Keys.

Ancel Keys was sittin' in the front row

when was I lecturing.

I heard Ancel Keys speak at Cornell

when I was a graduate student.

Later, Ancel Keys, yeah,

I think he was about 95 at the time,

and so, I have become quite
familiar with his work

over the years, and he actually,
from my reading of this,

I didn't talk to him
personally about this,

but after that conference,
he was a little bit bothered

by the how the Mediterranean
diet story was being distorted,

and he wrote an article, and he said,

what he saw in the Mediterranean
countries at that time

was the fact that a lot of them

tended to be close to being vegetarians.

That's really what was,

had a lot to do with the
lower rates of disease.

- Right, right.

- So, the Mediterranean
diet in this country,

it has been more studies.

There was more recently, it was
a big study, well-organized,

published out of Spain

by a number of different investigators,

and they saw the same thing.

There was a group that consumed
more nuts also of interest,

and they consumed more olive oil.

That was almost designed that way.

And then they followed to see

what effect it had on
heart disease, for example,

and sure enough, people
consumed the Mediterranean diet,

more vegetables and stuff
like that, they had,

what I just said before,
just down a little bit,

actually, most of those disease rate,

they weren't even statistically
significantly lower.

- Wow.

- It was a couple, so the
industry's had their day.

It's been a field day.

And so, everybody in this
country talking about

Mediterranean diet is really great.

Well, you know, yes, sort of.

It's going in that direction.

- Sort of.
- More fruits and vegetables

and so forth like that.

But that's right, this
whole food plant-based diet

is not the Mediterranean diet.

I must tell you that.

- Well, I know, interesting thing is

the Mediterranean diet just became,

oh, that means for us to,

we're gonna get better omega,

omega-
- Three.

- Omega-3, so we drink,
I said drink,

you know, we guzzle this olive oil

because we're getting all this-

- Yeah, it's crazy.

- It's just, you know.

- It's a bizarre, that'd
be a bizarre thing to do.

- I mean, it's saturated-

- Unhealthy.

- It's saturated fat, right?

- No, the olive oil primarily,

it tends to have a little
better fat composition,

if you will, then let's say,
corn oil or other kinds of oil,

a little better because it
has more monounsaturated fat,

oleic acid is the name
of the fat in olive oils.

It's monounsaturated, and that's
a little less problematic,

presumably, in terms of
its effect on the body,

so it sounds a little bit better,

but there's other evidence to show,

and I think Dr. Esselstyn
will tell ya about that too,

that the olive oil, fatty
acid in the olive oil

is also problematic, it's pretty serious.

So, he says no oil.

What he means by that is no added oil,

but he goes a little
bit further than I do.

He talks about also not using

even plant foods that are high in oil.

He's not very much in favor

of nuts or avocados and
things like that, but-

- Well, I mean, he's
talking about heart disease.

He's talking about people-
- He's talking about heart

disease.
- With heart disease.

You don't have a lot of
cards to deal with right now.

You're just trying to, you know,

let's be very careful
about everything we eat.

So, he probably just trying
to say, you know, no oils-

- That's right, he is,
and he got good results,

and so, that's his story.

But in reality, the hidden
message here in all of this,

not very well told,
especially to the public,

is that the closer you
get to a plant-based diet,

the diseases start comin' down.

The closer you get to a plant-based diet

and don't add back a lotta oil,

and in this country, yes,
we use some olive oil

to do that thing,

but use mostly corn oil
and stuff like that.

That's very high in omega-6
fats, which are pro-inflammatory

and that is not good.

So, that's why I say no added oil.

Gotcha.

- Yeah, but as far as eating the foods,

you got some plant foods
that's got more oil in them,

like peanuts and some nuts.

And there's some benefits
there, they're helpful.

- Well, no, I think it's
been marketed, no question,

but I did a recent paper for a VuMedi

for the American College of Cardiology,

which I was asked to join

their nutrition committee two years ago,

a little unusual for a
retired general surgeon

to be a part of the American
College of Cardiology

nutrition committee, but in
the VuMedi that I did there,

my assignment was oil.

And they looked up, and
there were multiple,

multiple peer reviews, scientific articles

clearly showing both monounsaturated

and polyunsaturated fats really
will injure the endothelium.

I mean, where has there ever,
ever been a group of patients

seriously ill with cardiovascular disease

where you give them a Mediterranean diet

and the disease is halted or reversed.

It doesn't exist, and so,
olive oil can't do that

because it's injuring the endothelium.

See, the whole thing, what
we're really, I think,

those of us who are involved with this,

try to steer patients
away from processed food.

See, if you go into a grocery supermarket,

and if you're gonna live out
of a box, a bag, or a can,

you gotta just so carefully
read those ingredients

to be sure there's not oil
and sugar and too much salt,

but if you go into those
supermarket grocery stores

and you go to the produce section,

if you're gonna buy bok choy,
Swiss chard, kale, collards,

hey, there's no label on it.

Just like it came off the soil.

This is right off the field.

Exactly.

- And you're getting something there

that has not been processed,

and therefore, it's unlikely
to injure you, yeah.

Although, with patients
with heart disease,

I'm a little stingy on
anything like avocado

'cause it's just, again, too much,

avocado and nuts, too much
saturated fat for my patients.

If they don't have heart
disease, I'm not restrictive.

- Well, the benefits
of a Mediterranean diet

are primarily because of the
high vegetable consumption,

vegetable and nuts, two most
health-promoting components

of the Mediterranean diet.

It's not the wine, it's not the oil.

It's the healthy whole plant foods,

but note, one of those whole plant foods,

low fat, you know, like
dark green leafy vegetables,

but another, nuts, that's a high-fat food,

but yet, extraordinarily health-promoting,

may actually add years to your life

to add a palm full or
an ounce of nuts a day.

In fact, there was a
randomized controlled trial,

the PREDIMED study, thousands of people

randomized into multiple groups,

and one group got sent a package of nuts

in the mail every week
for a period of years,

and the other half didn't,

and those that received the
nuts, encouraged to eat the nuts

had half the stroke rate
than those that didn't.

So, not eating nuts may double
your risk of having a stroke.

So, high-fat, low-fat,

as long as we're talking
about whole plant foods,

not oil, that's processed,

oil's like the table
sugar of the fat kingdom.

Right.

- Right?

I mean, so you think
of carbohydrates, well,

so you take all your sugar
beat, right, healthy food,

you remove all the nutrition,
you're left with sugar,

that's the primary source

of table sugar in this country, right?

Same thing, you take something
like a walnut, super healthy,

remove all the nutrition,
almost all the nutrition,

you're left with a walnut oil, all right.

It's a little vitamin E,
some fat soluble nutrients,

but all the fiber's been removed,

all the healthy plant protein,

and so, I encourage high-fat, low-fat,

the important thing is
to get your nutrition

from whole plant foods.

- So, eating the whole walnut.

- Eating the whole walnut.

In fact, walnuts-
- Not processing-

- Are probably the healthiest nut.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Today, I'm gonna be
making black bean burgers.

I'm gonna be using an
onion, some green peppers,

some garlic, and the
black beans, of course.

I'm gonna be using a food processor today,

but you can go ahead and mince
up your vegetables by hand.

But the first thing I like to do

is to get my oven preheated at 350.

So, let's go ahead and get started.

Now, I'm only gonna be using

half of the onion for the bean mix.

The other half, I'm gonna
use for the garnish.

As for the green pepper,

I'm only gonna use half of
the green pepper as well,

and the other half, I'll
just use it for another meal.

I'll go ahead and put this green pepper

into my food processor,

and let's go ahead and
slice up some of the onions

for the garnish.

Okay, I'll go ahead

and save these for later, for the garnish.

Gotta put my half an onion,
cut up my garlic gloves,

halve the halves.

Okay, so now I'm gonna go
ahead and add two baby carrots.

Might as well cut this up a little bit.

A teaspoon and 1/2 of cumin.

Teaspoon and 1/2 of chili powder.

Now, teaspoon and 1/2 of steak rub.

That's usually found in the
barbecuing aisles of your store.

So, a teaspoon and 1/2 of steak rub.

A tablespoon of Dijon mustard.

A teaspoon or a tablespoon,

that's all up to you, of sriracha.

I like to put in just
a little bit of salt.

And of course, some pepper.

A tablespoon of cornstarch.

And we'll go ahead and give this a stir.

Okay.

Let's go ahead and get it off the sides.

I like to use one of
those rubber scrapers.

It works so nice.

And it's really safe for
my food processor as well.

All right, let's go ahead
and give this another run.

All right, now let's go ahead
and get started on our beans.

So, I get a bowl,

and I go ahead and put my two cans

of drained and rinsed black beans.

I go ahead and mash 'em with a fork.

This takes a little bit of time to do.

Just go ahead and just keep mashin' 'em.

All right, so my beans
are mashed up pretty good.

The next thing I usually like to do

is to tear little pieces
of whole wheat bread,

little tiny pieces.

Okay, so now I'm gonna go ahead

and add all my vegetables and
spices into the mashed beans.

So, now I add about 1/2 a cup

of whole wheat flour into this mix.

Leave a little bit there
just so I can get stirring.

Then I put some of my torn-up
whole wheat bread slices.

Maybe a little bit of water.

And start givin' this a stir.

So, as you can see, it's
just a little bit wet,

so I can go ahead and
add a little bit more

of my whole wheat flour,

a little bit more of my couple
slices of whole wheat bread,

and keep mixin' this up.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and add the,

this is 1/2 a cup of
flour I put in here now.

1/2 a cup of whole wheat flour,

and maybe a tablespoon of water.

All right, that's lookin'
pretty darn good, and I can tell

that I can already start
to mold these into balls.

So, I go ahead and make 'em into patties.

Go ahead and put 'em
on some parchment paper

on a baking dish.

Go ahead and grab me another one.

Roll 'em in a ball and then
start flattenin' 'em out.

Okay.

So, now we'll go ahead
and put these in the oven.

Okay, these turned out great.

What I did was I cooked 'em for
about 12 minutes on one side

and then I flipped 'em

and cooked 'em for another
12 minutes on the other side,

and these look fantastic.

So, let's go ahead and give 'em a try.

All right, okay, go ahead and
put some lettuce on there,

maybe a couple little
bit of onion on there,

I got a couple tomatoes, maybe
a couple pickles on there.

Let me go ahead and cut this.

And as you can see, that's
lookin' pretty darn good.

I can't wait to check
it out, oh my goodness.

This is gonna be good.

Mm.

So good.

And so good for ya.

Your family's gonna love this, mm.

Today, I'm gonna be
making a broccoli salad.

It's sweet, it's creamy, it's crunchy.

I'm gonna be making it
with a purple onion,

some broccoli, of course,
some dried cranberries,

maybe some raisins, purple cabbage,

and some Mandarin oranges,

but first, let's go ahead and get started

cutting up these vegetables.

Now, I always like to put
in some type of fruit.

Today, I'm gonna be
using Mandarin oranges.

You could use apples or grapes,

whatever you have in your pantry.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and cut these up

because they're just a little
too big for a bite size.

So, I'm gonna be using about
1/2 a cup of dried cranberries.

I've got some raisins in here,

but whatever you have in your pantry.

I've also got a couple tablespoons
of dried coconut flakes.

Now, it's time to make the dressing.

I usually start out

with about 1/2 a cup of
unsweetened almond milk,

a little bit of pepper,

got a tablespoon of maple syrup,

this is grade A maple syrup.

I've got a teaspoon of miso.

And then I've got a teaspoon
of apple cider vinegar.

We'll go ahead and get this stirred up.

So, it takes a little while
to break down the miso,

but eventually, it begins to blend.

Now, the last thing I like to put in there

is about a teaspoon of sugar.

This is optional, but I just like

a little bit of that sweetness in there.

Go ahead and break this down a little bit.

Okay, this is blendin' up real nice.

I'm gonna go ahead and put into the salad.

Just try to drizzle it all over the place.

And then just start tossing it.

You just wanna get it so it
glazes over all the vegetables.

Okay, so this has been in the
refrigerator for about an hour

and what that does is
it allows the dressing

to marinade into the vegetables
and it tastes awesome.

Let's go ahead and check it out.

I like to re-stir it up
a little bit, mix it up.

There we go.

Mm.

Let's go ahead and check it out.

And there you go, this gonna
be awesome, I can't wait.

Mm.

Mm.

That is so good, mm.

You're gonna love this one.

Today, I'm gonna be making a simple

but delicious sandwich spread.

It uses a 15-ounce can of chickpeas,

I've drained and rinsed those,

1/4 cup of nutritional yeast,
1/4 cup of raw cashews,

I've got a little bit of spinach in here,

and of course, some lemon juice,

and I've got a couple other spices,

but let's go ahead and get started.

You know, you can always
mash up the chickpeas

with a back of a fork in a bowl,

but I'm gonna use my food processor

just to speed things up a little bit.

Got my 1/4 cup of raw cashews,

got just about, eh,
maybe 1/4 cup of spinach.

Process this up.

Okay, we'll get it off
the sides a little bit.

Okay, as you can see,
it's a little bit pasty,

so I wanna kinda get
it a little bit wetter,

so I can always add just
a little bit of water.

Just a little bit.

See how that is and we'll
give it another run here.

And then we'll get it off the sides again

with my rubber spatula.

Okay, I'll put a little
bit more water in there,

so that was about, this is about 1/4 cup.

Okay, we'll go ahead and
scrape it off the sides again.

Okay, it's now startin'
to get really nice.

That's about the consistency we like.

So, now I put in a teaspoon
and 1/2 of apple cider vinegar.

I got a teaspoon of tamari,

a teaspoon of garlic powder.

I like to put in about 1/2
a pickle, 1/2 a dill pickle.

I got 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast.

Then I like to put in just
a little pinch of dill.

Little bit of salt.

Little bit of pepper.

To cup up a lemon, I like
some lemon juice in there.

Okay.

Little lemon juice.

Yeah, there we go.

And then I like to put in
a little bit of sriracha.

This is all up to you though,

but I just like to give it
just a little bit of kick,

but this is totally all
up to your personality.

Go ahead and get it off the sides again.

All right, that looks pretty good.

So, now it's time to go ahead
and transfer it to a bowl.

All right, that looks really good.

So, let's go ahead and make a sandwich.

Okay, I've got a couple
slices of whole wheat bread,

I've got us a couple slices of cucumber,

some kale, and some tomatoes.

So, let's go ahead and check
out this new spread we made.

Okay, let's put a little
bit of kale on there,

maybe a little bit of tomatoes on there,

and them some cucumbers.

That's a nice lookin' sandwich.

Let's go ahead and check it out.

So, there you go.

Mm.

Very nice, very nice.

I love the way the spread
works with all the vegetables.

It's a very, very good sandwich,

and it's extremely healthy for you.

You're gonna love it.

You know, when we make this
change, it's difficult,

and sometimes, we have to buy
something that has a label,

and have any advice on some
of the processed foods,

additives, and preservatives,
is that harmful

or something we should worry about,

or is it more of the other
things in the process?

- You know, I think that this fear

about all preservatives,
for example, or coloring

or those types of
industrial additives to food

is a little bit of a
distraction, to be honest.

I don't think that is
the ultimate determinant

of health or disease in our food.

I think the qualities of food

that make it healthy or
unhealthy is the food itself.

It's the nutrients in the food.

It's the protein, the
carbohydrates, the fat.

It's not those minute amounts
of preservative in there.

And it's a distraction for people

to get over-concerned about those things.

I tell people when they're
in the grocery store,

basically keep it really simple.

There's two questions I want them to ask

when they're lookin' at that food label.

Go through the ingredient
list at the bottom,

and say, is this a plant or an animal,

and is it a whole food
or is it a food fragment,

is it a processed food.

And if you have mostly whole foods

that are plants, you're good,

and if you don't, you know, put it back.

And that's, you don't, forget the numbers,

forget everything else,
keep it kinda simple,

and you can kind of
ignore the preservatives.

I've had a number of
patients, for example,

who they think they're
doing really, really well

by getting all these sort of foods

that are labeled as super
natural, super organic,

you know, it has the aura
of these health companies,

and the second ingredient
is sunflower oil,

and it's a very high-fat food,

and they're trying to lose weight

or they're trying to do xyz,

and yeah, there's no preservatives

in this sort of health thing,
quote unquote health package,

but it's not healthy nutrition.

- Well, you know, we got, our
society evolved in a sense

to rely on food prepared elsewhere.

We don't have gardens.

And so, the moment we start doin' that

and puttin' it in jars
and packages and so forth,

you gotta be concerned about
preserving it, obviously.

Some of those preservatives
are rather important

in terms of preventing oxidation
and that sort of thing.

So, we can't generalize too much

about some of those additives
because they're useful

just because we're using
those kinds of foods,

you know, for the larger population.

As far as if we're using fresh foods,

you know, obviously, as much as we can,

and have gardens and so forth,
we don't need that stuff.

Exactly.

- So, additive business is
the business preserving foods.

It was for the most part,

but now people put other
stuff in there too,

give it some color, yeah, give the diet,

or maybe also puttin' things in it

that enhances taste in
some way, like salt.

Sugars.

- And sugars, that sort of thing.

They're playin' to our addictions.

- Why are you eating food that
needs preservatives, right?

I mean, this is just to make
processed foods shelf stable

to make more profit off of them.

It's good for shelf-life,
not good for human life.

I mean, the best food has no label at all,

no ingredients list, we're
talkin' about the produce aisle.

Fresh fruits and
vegetables, yes they go bad,

but that's because they're fresh.

Right, right.

- And there's not a lot
of money to be made,

but those are the healthiest foods,

the ones that don't need,

so instead of, is this
preservative better,

sodium benzoate better than, you know,

the best foods don't have
nor need preservatives.

- One of my all-time
favorite foods is pizza,

and I love making it at home.

So down at my local grocery store,

I found some pizza dough
that's already made,

but as I can see that it
already has some oil in it

or I could also get those
pre-packaged pizza crusts,

but that has oil and it also
has some dairy products in it.

So, you know, pizza dough

is really not that difficult to make.

It just needs a cup of warm
water, 21/2 cups of flour,

one teaspoon of sugar, and
a package of dry yeast,

and it's really kinda fast and simple.

So, let's go ahead and
get started on the yeast.

So, like I said, making
pizza dough from scratch

is really not that difficult,

as long as you pay attention
to a couple details.

Now, I have one package of dry yeast,

one teaspoon of sugar.

Now, the reason I put the sugar in there

is because I need the yeast
to have something to feed on.

Now, here's the important part of it,

I've got a cup of warm water,

and I picked up one of these
inexpensive thermometers.

I need it to get to about 110 degrees.

All right, that's 110 degrees right there.

So, we'll go ahead and
put this into the mix.

Give it a little bit of a stir.

Now, we're gonna go ahead and
let this sit for 10 minutes.

Okay, so my yeast is doin' its thing.

I'm gonna go ahead and
make up my flour mix.

I've got 21/2 cups of all-purpose flour,

one teaspoon of salt,

on teaspoon of garlic powder,

and then I like to put in
tablespoon of nutritional yeast.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and mix this up.

Okay, that's all mixed up pretty good.

My yeast has been sittin'
for about 10 minutes.

It's time to go ahead
and add it to the flour.

And I'll just go ahead and stir this in.

Mm, it smells good already.

Okay, so this is lookin' really good.

So, I'm just gonna go ahead

and let this sit for about five minutes.

Okay, I've got parchment paper
on top of a cookie sheet,

and then I just sprinkled
a little bit of flour.

This dough has been sitting
for about five minutes.

Let's go ahead and start rollin' it out.

I like to get a little
bit of flour on top of it

just to kinda mist it down a little bit.

Now, you can do this by
hand, but I'm gonna go ahead

and just kinda roll it
out with a rolling pin.

I like to start in the middle
and just kinda work my way out

and just keep workin' it.

Now, I like to roll mine out kinda thin,

but that's all up to you.

So, you can see, I've got it about,

oh, maybe 1/4 inch,
maybe, somewhere in there,

but I like it kinda thin, but
that's completely up to you.

The next thing I like to do

is sometimes when I cook this in the oven,

I get a little bit of bubbling,

and I kinda wanna keep that to a minimum.

So, I'll just go ahead and put
a couple fork marks in there.

There.

Now, usually I like to precook
my crust just a little bit,

so I put 'em in the over at
475 for about five minutes.

Now, pizza sauce is actually
kinda simple to make.

I'm gonna use one 15-ounce
can of tomato sauce,

one six-ounce can of tomato paste.

I got a tablespoon of oregano,
a teaspoon of paprika,

and teaspoon of garlic powder.

So, I'm gonna go ahead
and mix these together.

Get my tomato paste in there.

My oregano,

paprika, and my onion powder.

Now, we'll go ahead and mix this together.

And there you go, that's
a very basic pizza sauce.

Now, you can add any kinda
spices that you like.

I know I've heard some people

like to put in a little bit of
sugar, a little bit of salt,

you know, whatever it is that you like,

but this is a very basic pizza sauce.

You know, the fun part about pizza

is you can put just about any
kinda topping you want on it,

it all depends on your personality,

but today, I'm gonna be putting
a little bit of pineapple,

little bit of basil, some
spinach, some bell pepper,

some mushrooms, and some onions.

So, let's get this chopped up
and get it in this frying pan.

Okay, these are comin' along pretty good.

Now, I personally like to put

just a little bit of water in there,

just so they have a little
bit of a sauteing to 'em.

Okay, we'll let them cook a little bit,

and let's go ahead and start chopping up

some of these other toppings.

Okay, so I had my pizza crust

in the oven at 475 for about 10 minutes.

I tend to like a little bit
more of a crispier crust,

but, you know, it's totally up to you,

but let's go ahead and start
putting the toppings on.

So, remember the sauce
that we made from earlier.

We'll just go ahead and
start puttin' that on.

And I like to use the back of a spoon

because it just seems to
smooth it out pretty good.

All right, now we'll go ahead

and add those sauteed
vegetables that I made earlier.

Just kinda arrange 'em
out a little bit evenly,

so it's all distributed.

Okay, then I'll put a
little bit of my basil.

A little bit of the spinach.

And then a little bit of my pineapple.

Again, this is totally optional.

It's just about your
personality, what you like.

Okay, I'm gonna go ahead

and put this back in the oven at 475.

Okay, so I've just
taken it out of the oven

at 475 for about 20 minutes,
and this looks fantastic.

So, let's go ahead and cut it up.

And let's give it a try.

And remember, the Parmesan
cheese that I made earlier?

Let's put a little bit of that on there.

Mm, it's gonna be great.

And I like a little bit of pepper,

but that's totally up to you.

Okay.

Let's go ahead and give it a try.

Mm, that's so good.

Your family's gonna love this, mm.

Today, I'm gonna be making

vegetable barley soup in the slow cooker.

I'm gonna be usin' some
carrots, some zucchini,

some celery, some great
white beans, diced tomatoes,

an onion, and of course, some barley,

but let's first go ahead

and get started on choppin'
up these vegetables.

Okay, now it's time to put in
the rest of the ingredients.

I usually put in a
tablespoon of ground garlic,

a tablespoon of dried parsley,

a tablespoon of regular sugar,

a couple bay leaves,

and then a tablespoon
of Worcestershire sauce.

Now, this is the Worcestershire sauce

that I found at the local
store that is vegan.

It has no fish in it.

A little bit of salt.

Of course, some pepper.

I have a can of diced tomatoes,

a can of great white Northern beans,

one cup of barley.

So, I've got 32 ounces of vegetable broth

and another 32 ounces of vegetable broth.

And that's pretty much it.

We'll go ahead and give it a stir.

And we'll go ahead and put this on low

for about eight hours.

Aw, this has been cookin'
all day, and let me tell ya,

it is makin' the house smell really nice.

Let's check it out, mm.

Lookin' really good.

Aw, that looks fantastic, mm.

Let's go ahead and check it out.

Mm.

Very good, I love the tomatoes in there.

So good, your family's gonna love it.

Today, I'm gonna be making
hummus from scratch.

Now, you're probably gonna ask,

why would you make hummus from scratch

when you can just go to the
grocery store and buy it?

Well, the thing is about the
hummus at the grocery store

has a lot of olive oil in it,
and we all know edible oils

are not exactly that great for us.

Now, my version lasts

a little bit under a
week in the refrigerator,

but the stuff you buy in the grocery store

can last a lot longer,

so that makes me think
that there's probably

a lot of additives and
preservatives in it.

Now today, I'm gonna be making it

with a 15-ounce can of chickpeas

that I've drained and rinsed.

I've got a couple cloves of garlic,

a little bit of lemon, and of
course, some vegetable broth.

So, let's go ahead and get started.

First thing I do is put my
chickpeas in my food processor

and then get started on
mincing up my garlic.

Okay, so now I like to add all my spices.

I usually like to go with a
teaspoon of Dijon mustard,

and I like to put 1/2
a teaspoon of tamari,

it's totally optional,

but I like a little bit
of that tamari in there.

A little bit of salt and pepper.

I like to put in a little bit of flaxseed,

whenever I can, put a little
bit of ground flaxseed,

just like a teaspoon.

Then I like to put in a
tablespoon of tomato paste.

This is totally optional.

I just like that taste of just
a little bit of that tomato,

a little bit of that garlic in there.

Okay, go ahead and cut up a lemon.

Let's get my lemon juice in there.

Okay, squeeze one half,
of course, the other half.

Then, I've got some vegetable
broth on the side ready to go,

but let's put just a little bit in there

to get it started.

As you can see, it's a little dry,

so I go ahead and put in a
little bit more vegetable broth.

Okay, and that's totally up to you.

It's the consistency that you like.

I don't like it so pasty.

I like it a little bit more smooth.

Let's get it off the sides.

Okay, I'm gonna put a little
bit more broth in there.

All right, this is
lookin' really good now.

Go ahead and put this on a bowl.

Mm.

Okay, so now I'm gonna go
ahead and cut up my pita.

So, I've got one of my pizza cutters,

so I'm just gonna go
ahead and cut this up.

And there ya go, this gonna be great.

I can't wait, mm.

Mm, that's why I love all
those spices in there.

That's so good, but it's homemade.

I know what's in it, that's
the fun part about it.

Mm, I'm gonna enjoy this, mm.

Today, I'm gonna be making
Mexican tomato, beans, and rice.

It's gonna have some
garlic, some jalapeno,

lime, orange, some onion, some cilantro,

fire roasted tomatoes, some lettuce,

and of course, three cans of black beans,

but first, let go ahead and
get started on our rice.

Okay, so first, let's go ahead

and start mincing up the onion,

the jalapeno, and the garlic.

Okay, let's add a little bit of water.

Okay, so I like to put a
couple tablespoons of cumin,

one tablespoon of chili powder.

Okay, while this is sauteing,

I wanna put just a little bit of water.

That buys me some time, so I
can get started on my sauce.

Okay, so now I'm gonna go
ahead on my butter sauce.

I go with about 1/4 of nutritional yeast,

1/2 a cup of unsweetened almond milk.

I've got some salt and
pepper all ready to go.

And I'll give this a little stir.

Okay, that's lookin' pretty good.

We'll save this for later.

Had to add a little bit of water,

give me some time while
I work on my dressing.

Now, the dressing, I
used white wine vinegar,

about three tablespoons,

I got a little bit of salt and pepper,

one tablespoon of sugar,
and of course, the orange.

So, we'll go ahead and
put the vinegar in there,

a little bit of sugar,

some salt and pepper,

and of course, the orange.

All right, and that's pretty
much it with the dressing.

It's a nice sweet but
yet sour, kinda tangy.

I'll put that aside while
I continue on the rest.

Okay, now let's go ahead

and add our fire roasted can of tomatoes

and of course, our three
cans of black beans.

Start warmin' all this up.

Remember, if it gets a little too dry,

go ahead and put a little bit of water in.

Okay, so now that that's simmering,

let's go ahead and cut
up a little bit of lime.

Okay, and we'll cut up some cilantro.

Okay, put a little bit
of cilantro in there.

Save this other half for the garnish.

And let's go ahead and
chop up some lettuce.

Let's get this mixin' in.

All right, that's lookin' pretty good.

Let's go ahead and check on our rice.

Okay, so I've warmed up my
butter sauce that I made earlier,

so it's nice and warm.

So, I'm just gonna drizzle

a little bit of the
butter sauce on my rice.

And I'm gonna go ahead and
get some beans and tomatoes.

A little bit of cilantro.

I like a little bit of lettuce on there.

And then, my dressing.

Give it a little bit of a stir.

And put a little bit even on the lettuce.

There ya go.

All right.

Aw, this is gonna be nice.

Just mix a little bit of the
rice and beans in there, mm.

It's gonna be so good.

Mm.

So good.

The dressing is awesome,
but this is rice and beans,

little bit of tomato, mm, it's so good.

Our daughter's in her
year of medical school,

and I asked her, what's a typical,

what kind of nutrition
course did she take,

and she said, they had us
do 20 hours of nutrition

to become an MD.

Any thoughts on that?

- So several surveys have shown

that about 20 hours in four
years of medical school

is average of nutrition training,

so she actually is not doing badly

by the super terrible
metric across the system.

Doctors are not trained
in nutrition at all,

and if they do get nutrition training,

it's not likely related to disease.

To be honest, it's mostly biochemistry.

It's probably related to the Krebs cycle

or protein metabolism
or this type of stuff

you remember for the
test and then you forget

the biochemical steps
and blah, blah, blah.

And it's a shame because most doctors

will admit that nutrition and lifestyle

has a major role on most
of the diseases they treat,

and yet, there's no training.

And the reason is

is because it's not really
considered real medicine.

Even if a doctor really wants
to spend time doing that,

it's hard to get reimbursed

for doing that type of counseling or work.

So, it's a trade school, right,

medical school is sort of a trade,

and you're training people

to do things that they can get paid for.

So, I mean, that's an oversimplification,

but what we consider to be real medicine

tends to be drugs and
surgery, which is unfortunate

because lifestyle is really at the base

of so many of our common diseases.

- Yeah, it's unfortunate
because we go to a doctor,

let's say, and we have no one
else to really ask, you know?

Is my diet causing some of these things?

And, you know, I would
ask those questions,

even though I really knew
what I was talking about,

just to see, and I was really surprised

at the mixed elements that
they said to introduce,

like fish oils and stuff like that,

triglycerides are a little
high, get some fish oil.

That'll fix it.

- Physicians suffer severe
nutrition deficiency in education

and most doctors are just
never taught about the power

that healthy dietary choices can have,

and so, they graduate
without this powerful tool

in their medical toolbox.

Of course, there's other kind
of institutional constraints,

the time, reimbursement,

many doctors just simply aren't paid

for educating people about
making healthier choices.

Of course, you know, big
pharma, the drug companies

play a role in transforming
medical education and practice.

But yeah, most doctors just
never, just were never taught,

so the average nutrition
education on the order of 20 hours

out of thousands of hours
pre-clinical instruction,

whereas most deaths are
preventable in the United States

and related to nutrition.

So obviously, nutrition
is number one thing

taught in medical school, right?

Obviously, it's the number one thing

your doctor talks to you about

at every single medical visit, right?

How could there be this disconnect

between the science and
the practice of medicine,

and mostly, it's just
ignorance, they never knew,

but you share with doctors how,

I mean, it's very frustrating

to practice primary
care medicine these days

'cause most the patients
come into your office,

you can't help.

I mean, you just kinda
slow down the rate at which

they kinda spiral down to
death with chronic disease,

but here's a tool where your patients

can actually get better and
kind of reignites that spark

of why we all went into
medicine in the first place,

right, to help people.

I mean, if wanted to make money,

we'd go stock broker or something, right?

But no, people go into medicine

because they want to
take care of sick people,

and finally, there's something

we can actually do for these patients

and can really kinda revolutionize
the practice of medicine

for patients and providers a like.

- Doctors don't know nutrition.

I've spoken to a lot of medical schools,

at least 150 or maybe close to
200 now, all over the place,

and so, the message I bring to them,

and I'm gratified that they're
takin' that kind of interest,

that I'm even invited to
come to speak about this

'cause I'm quite, as I did
just yesterday morning,

I say, you know, your whole profession

is focused on the wrong thing.

And furthermore, you're not trained,

so you don't really have the knowledge

to be able to judge
what I'm talking about.

- Yeah.

- Kinda thing, I mean,
it's a tough message,

but you know, I do it, obviously politely,

and I totally understand

because these are people just
like me or everybody else,

they wanted, in fact, they're better,

they're servin' the public,

but they didn't know that
the best solution for health

is the one area of medical
science they don't hear about,

even if nutrition is taught,
and I would argue at ASU,

the nutrition that your
daughter may have had

is largely biochemical in nature

because they take the
biochemical discussion

and they call that nutritional discussion.

And it's not really quite fair.

It's good to have the
biochemistry background,

as I said before, because
she'll be in a better position

to be able to look at the information

in a more informed way this
summer in college by doing that.

- Well, she knows a lot about the science

of how the body works,
how the medication-

- It's very important.

- Works, and everything like that.

She understands all that,
but it's just interesting

when we go out to dinner, you know,

I'm surprised at the amount
of education that doctors get,

and yet, I talk to 'em about this,

they look at me like-

- That's right, that's
part of the problem.

- Today, I'm gonna be
makin' barbecue bean wraps.

I'm gonna be makin' it with rainbow chard,

a half a sweet onion, some bell pepper,

and some pinto beans,

but first, let's go ahead and
get started with the sauce.

Now, it took me a while to
find some barbecue sauce

at my local grocery store that
doesn't have any oil in it.

So, this is one cup of barbecue sauce,

one teaspoon of balsamic vinegar,

one teaspoon of Dijon mustard,

one tablespoon of brown
sugar, now this is optional,

but I like a little bit
of sweetness in there.

Okay, we'll give this a bit of a stir.

Okay, and now I got three
cans of pinto beans.

I've drained and rinsed them already.

Go ahead and put those in there,

and we'll give this a nice gentle stir.

Get this barbecue sauce
all mixed around the beans.

All right, that's lookin' pretty good.

Now, let's go ahead

and get started on choppin'
up some of these vegetables.

I'm gonna be using half of
an onion on this recipe.

I'll just go ahead and save the
other half for another meal.

So, I like to dice these up pretty small.

All right, so I'll go ahead

and use the other half of the
bell pepper for another meal.

But let's get this onion chopped up.

Then we'll go ahead and
put this in with the beans.

So, we'll go ahead and mix this in.

Now, we'll go ahead and
cover this and put it on low.

Okay, so now it's time

to go ahead and cut the
chard into wrap pieces.

Okay, so now you can see

that I have 'em in like
little wrap-size pieces.

Okay, so the beans are done.

I had to cook 'em on low with a lid,

but I had to keep an eye on 'em

to keep stirrin' 'em every so often

so they didn't scorch up.

Okay, so let's go ahead and make one.

Let's grab a little bit of the bean mix.

Wow, this is gonna be good.

And you just kinda wrap it like a taco

and just go ahead and enjoy it.

Mm, that's so good, and
it's so good for you.

Mm, your family's gonna love this.

You know, when I was a kid growin' up,

I used to love mac and cheese.

It was just such a nice comfort food,

but unfortunately, it's
just not that good for us.

So, I came up with a recipe
that requires some carrots,

some gold potatoes,
some nutritional yeast,

some lemon juice, but the
first thing I usually do

is to get the water boiling

for both the noodles and the vegetables.

So, we'll go ahead and
get started on that first.

Okay, so the waters are boiling.

Let's go ahead and put the vegetables

into the boiling water.

Now, go ahead and put our noodles in.

So, this has been about 20 minutes,

and these are lookin' real good.

You wanna make sure that the carrots

are cooked all the way through,

so they can blend real easy.

So, I'll go ahead and put
this in my food processor.

There ya go.

Okay.

Okay, so that's about
the consistency I like,

over mashed potato-y kinda consistency.

So, that's lookin' real good.

Okay, so now we'll go ahead

and add the rest of the ingredients.

I usually go with about 1/2 a cup

of unsweetened almond milk,

1/2 a cup of nutritional yeast,

about a teaspoon of salt,

1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder,

1/2 a teaspoon of onion powder,

1/2 a teaspoon of dry mustard,

and then I have about a
teaspoon of apple cider vinegar,

and then I always like to, ah, the lemon,

I like the lemon in there.

Go ahead, I think I used two lemons, so.

Yeah, this is lookin' really good.

So yeah, that's the
consistency that I like,

just it's kinda creamy,
it's really nice and creamy.

Look at that, that's great.

I don't want it to thin

because you wanna have it
so it's more like a cheese.

I'm gonna go ahead and pulse
this just a little bit more.

Okay, so the noodles are all done.

Let's go ahead and get
them out and drain 'em.

See, that's why I like the
sauce just a little bit thicker

'cause as you can see,

there's gonna be a little bit
of moisture on these noodles.

Go ahead and put these noodles in a bowl.

Now, that was a pound of noodles.

As you can see, I still
got a little bit left over,

but unfortunately, my dish,
wherever it is, over here

is not that big, so I'm gonna
be just kinda goin' with this.

So, it's almost a pound of noodles.

This is the extreme health
version of mac and cheese.

It doesn't require any
cashews and of course,

you understand that cashews
are very high in fat.

Now, if you wanna make this version

taste a little bit more like
traditional mac and cheese,

then go ahead and add some more

nutritional yeast and more salt.

Now, I've preheated my
oven at 400 degrees,

so I'm gonna go ahead
and put this in the oven

once I get done

but let's go ahead and
stir this up real nice.

Mm, this is lookin' really good.

Now, you can go ahead
and eat it just like this

or you can go ahead
and put it in the oven,

like I'm about to do.

I'm gonna put it at 400 degrees for about,

I don't know, 15 minutes,
we'll see how it looks.

I just wanna get that little brown,

little brownness to
happen on the top of it.

Go ahead and smooth this out a little bit.

Okay, this has been in the oven

for about 20 minutes at 400
degrees, and like I said,

if you like your mac and cheese
a little bit more buttery,

go ahead and add more nutritional yeast,

but let's go ahead and check this out.

This is gonna be good.

Mm, so good.

You know, Italian food is
a favorite at my house,

but sometimes, it can be a little daunting

trying to figure out

what the pasta at the
grocery store is made of.

Is it made with oil,
does it have eggs in it,

and what kind of flour
is it they're using?

But don't forget, gnocchi
is a great alternative

to an Italian dish and even some salads,

and it's relatively easy to make

and a lotta times, you can make it

with the stuff that you
have in your pantry,

provided you have a couple potatoes.

Now today, I'm gonna be making my gnocchi

with whole wheat flour,

and the reason why I'm doing that

is because I want a little
bit of that fiber in the meal.

The only thing is with whole wheat,

it does give it a little
bit more of a chewy texture,

and that might not be so
cool with your family,

but you can go ahead and
use whatever flour you want.

The first thing I usually like to do

is to get this water boiling,

so I can get my potatoes cooking.

Ah, water's boiling.

Let's go ahead and put these potatoes in.

Now, this should take about 15 minutes,

give or take a few, but I mean,

it all depends on if it's tender or not,

and I usually like to
just test it with a fork

just to see if it's just right.

Okay, so while my potatoes are boiling,

I'm gonna go ahead and
get my sauce started.

This is a basil marinara sauce

that I made a couple weeks ago.

I put it in some of these glass jars

and I actually put it in the freezer

as long as I have some space
in the glass for it to expand.

The thing I like about the glass jar,

if it's frozen, and I'm in a bind,

and I gotta, you know, no time,

I can always set this
in some boiling water

just to get that defrost process going

before I go ahead and start
warming it up for sauce,

but you can always get these
plastic commercial containers

that they sell, like on
Amazon or something like that,

and the thing that's nice about 'em

is the lid is really secure,

and as you can see, they
have that perforated edge,

and they work really nice.

But the only problem
is, once this is frozen,

I don't think I would
stick this in boiling water

to defrost them because
I'm not really sure

what kinda chemicals come off of plastic,

so I don't even go there.

So, the choice is yours.

So, let's go ahead and get
a sauce warmed up a bit.

Put my lid on and put this on low.

Okay, so it's been about 15 minutes.

Let's check to see how
these potatoes are doing.

Okay, let's check this out.

So as you can see, it's
still a little bit hard,

so I'm gonna go ahead and put these in

for just a little bit longer.

Okay, so the potatoes are done now.

Let's go ahead and get 'em outta there.

Now, what I usually like
to use is a potato ricer,

and what it does is if you use a masher,

it tends make a different
type of consistency,

but as you can see, the
ricer has a different,

you know, small holes, this
other one has different dies,

but as you can see, this is
the size that like to do.

So, it's pretty simple to operate.

All you do is put your
potatoes down in there,

and then go ahead and just rice 'em out.

Okay, let's grab another
potato, couple more maybe.

There ya go.

And here we go some more.

Okay, now I've got my potatoes boiled

and pushed through a potato ricer,

so now it's time to go ahead
and put some salt in there.

And then, the wheat
flour or whatever flour.

Now, here's the thing about gnocchi.

It's basically two parts
potato to one part flour,

but it all depends on
how wet everything is,

but you wanna turn it
into that gnocchi dough.

Okay, so now I've got my
dough all ready to go,

it's time to start makin' the gnocchi.

Now as you can see, it's
got that consistency

that's not exactly sticky,

but it's just enough where
I can mold it up into a roll

and start cutting it up.

So, the first thing I usually like to do

is to just divide it up into quarters.

Then I'll go ahead and make out a roll.

Okay, so now I've rolled
it out into like a tube,

so I'm gonna go ahead and
cut it into one-inch pieces.

Okay, so to make your gnocchi
a little bit more authentic,

you can always put a little bit of design

with the back of your fork,
and the way you do that

is you just kinda press with your fingers

and roll it so it gives
it that perforated design.

Now, you can either go ahead

and freeze these for another time,

and the way you do that
is I would put these

on a cookie dish or something like that,

so they can be separated,
put 'em in the freezer,

and then when they're frozen,

go ahead and put them
in a re-closable bag,

but for now, I'm gonna go ahead
and we're gonna eat these.

So, now my water is boiling,

so I'm gonna go ahead and scoop these up

and start puttin' 'em in.

Okay, now they're all in there,

and usually, gnocchi when it's cooked,

is it basically just comes to the top.

Okay, so now I go ahead and
add just a little bit of salt

and let this cook up.

Okay, all the gnocchi
has risen to the top.

It's time to go ahead and serve it.

I like to get off all that moisture.

We'll put some sauce on there.

Maybe a little bit of basil,

and as you can see, that looks amazing.

This is gonna be good, I can tell.

Mm.

That's so good.

So, if you're looking for a
relatively easy meal to make,

gnocchi is not that difficult,

and usually it can be made

with the stuff you have in your pantry,

provided you got a couple potatoes.

So good, mm.

I still have a lot of people
still on the carb thing.

Can you explain to us

the misconception about the wrong carbs?

- Mm-hmm, there's no single

greater source of confusion
in nutrition right now

than people's perception of carbohydrates.

I can tell you, I have
diabetics, and universally,

they've come in horrified
about carbohydrates.

They've been avoiding rices,
potatoes, sweet corns,

and you know, there are
healthy carbohydrates

and then there's the stuff that
we eat in the U.S.

So, you know, most of the carbohydrates,

something like 90% of all the
grains we eat, for example,

are refined grains, they're white flours.

We have voluminous amounts of sugar,

added sugars in our diet.

So, there's no doubt about it
that most of the carbohydrates

in the typical American
diet are highly processed,

part of highly junky foods, you know,

the stuff wrapped in packages
at the gas station, okay?

Those are terrible.

But the healthiest diet that
I think exists in the world

is actually a high carbohydrate diet,

but it's the high healthy
carbohydrate diet,

so they're whole foods, again.

We keep comin' back to this
idea of using the whole food,

as opposed to food fragments,
you know, fragments of food.

If you eat a potato, that's fine.

Potatoes are healthy, they're good,

brown rice, great, fine.

Sweet corn, great, fine.

You know, I've had diabetic patients

with very advanced severe disease

start eating rice all the
time, potatoes all the time,

sweet potatoes, in
particular, beans, sweet corn,

and their need for insulin plummets,

you know, their illness begins to reverse,

and it's a super high carbohydrate diet.

You know, fruits and
vegetables are carbohydrates,

they are good and healthy carbohydrates,

and anybody who says to avoid
all those healthy things,

they just don't really understand
carbohydrates, I think.

- If you say, carbohydrates are bad,

and you're talking about
a can of Coca-Cola,

well, of course, it's bad,

but if you're talking about carbohydrates

in the form of blueberries, then that's,

I mean, that's one of the
healthiest foods out there.

So, you can't talk about
whether carbs are good or bad,

fat is good or bad, you have
to talk about the source.

I mean, otherwise, it doesn't
really make any sense.

- If they just were more
specific, which almost never are,

if they're more specific,
they're talkin' about

refined carbohydrates,
like sugar and white flour.

If they stayed with
just that message, yes.

I mean, carbohydrates
only come from plants.

See, here's the hidden
message in that story.

When they say, let's have less carb,

what they're saying is
let's not eat plants.

You know, it's an attack on eating plants

because all carbohydrates
come from plants.

- It's a dangerous generalization.

- It's a beautiful story
just for the industry,

the livestock industry, you
know, the dairy industry,

and all the rest, they love that story.

- You know, there's nothing
like coming home from work

to the smell of a home-cooked meal.

Today, we're gonna be making a
whole plant-based potato soup

made with gold potatoes.

So, the first thing I do is
begin peeling the carrots.

And I usually like to
go with a sweet onion.

I usually like to keep
the skins on the potato.

So, that's six gold potatoes.

Now, let's go ahead

and add the rest of the
ingredients and spices.

I usually go ahead and start
with the vegetable broth,

maybe a cup of unsweetened almond milk,

of course, some water.

I like a little bit of garlic powder,

just a little bit of dill,

of course, bay leaf.

I like a little bit of basil in there too,

just a little bit of basil,

and of course, some pepper and some salt.

Now, the thing is with potato soup,

you kinda need some salt,
but again, that's optional.

The nutritional yeast,
I usually like the go

with about 1/2 a cup,
maybe a little bit more.

I'll give that a stir.

Well, there ya go.

This is lookin' pretty good.

So, we'll go ahead

and put this on low for about eight hours.

You know, the really cool
thing about a slow cooker

is that you can cut up all your vegetables

before you go to work or the night before.

You know, sometimes you
need to chop up vegetables

or make cream sauces or puree things,

so I needed to find a hand processor

that was relatively easily
to clean and had some power.

This is Kico hand processor,

and it was about 40 bucks on Amazon.

It also comes with these other items,

which are really helpful.

It comes with this, like, this container

that you can actually go
ahead and puree things

or make your sauces or something like that

and then be able to pour
it back into whatever.

It also comes with a chopper,
which is actually kinda nice.

It's pretty simple to use.

You just go ahead

and pulse the vegetables
in this container.

As you can see, it's
relatively easy to clean.

This comes off, be
careful about the blades,

they're pretty sharp.

It's relatively easy to clean and get out

because it doesn't have quite
a bit of stuff in there,

like your conventional blenders.

It's really fast, it's really simple,

and that's the whole thing
with me in the kitchen.

I like things to be easy to clean,

easy to put away, and get goin'.

Okay, so this has been cooking
on low for about eight hours.

Aw, this is lookin' really
good, really good, really good.

Now, you can eat it just like this

or you can make cream of potato soup,

which is really relatively easy to do

if you have a hand processor or a blender.

Now, some people like it where it has

a little bit of chunk still in there.

Mm, this is lookin' really, really good.

And as you can see,

it's got a little bit
of chunk still in there.

And then I usually like to finish it off

with just a little bit of chives.

And there ya have it,
cream of potato soup.

Now see, the thing is about
this particular recipe,

it's fairly easy to just chop
up a bunch of vegetables,

put 'em in the slow cooker,
and go about your day,

and come home to a nice, warm
comfort food ready to go.

So, let's go ahead and check it out.

Mm.

Today, I'm gonna be making a breakfast.

It's scrambled veggies with hash browns.

I'm gonna be usin' a quarter
onion, a half a bell pepper,

tomato, a little bit
of kale, and some tofu.

Through the whole process,

I've been putting these paper
towels underneath the tofu

to help get some of that moisture out,

but the first thing I usually like to do

is to get started on my hash browns.

These are just frozen hash browns

that I bought in the grocery store,

and I preheated the skillet,

so let's go ahead and get these started

'cause they take a little bit.

Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead

and cut up this half a bell pepper.

Go ahead and put this in my other skillet.

Okay, now I got a quarter onion.

I'll go ahead and dice this up.

Get some onion in there.

Chop up my kale.

And usually what I like to do

is I like to get some of
the seeds out of the tomato.

So, we'll go ahead and do that.

And what I do is I just
kind of take my knife,

my little knife and
just kinda scoop it out,

just kinda cut it a little bit,

and then just kinda pull
some of those seed out.

Just get some of those seeds out

just like that.

Those are lookin' pretty good, okay.

Go ahead and dice these up.

Put some of that in there.

Just kinda stir these up a little bit.

All right, let's check on our hash browns.

I didn't use any oil, so
these are lookin' really good.

These are lookin' pretty good.

Okay, so now it's time to go ahead

and make the dry spice mix.

Get myself a bowl.

I go with 1/4 teaspoon of tumeric,

1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder,

1/2 a teaspoon of chili powder,

1/2 a teaspoon of paprika,

a teaspoon of nutritional yeast,

and then again, some salt and pepper.

The salt's always optional.

I'll go ahead and mix
up our dry spice mix.

Okay.

So, I'll go ahead and move
these over to one side.

We'll go ahead and put those
in there on the other half.

Now, I can put a little bit
of my dry spice in there.

You know, and I can always put
'em in the hash browns too.

Okay, save this for the tofu.

Okay, now it's time to get
the tofu all ready to go.

So, now I go ahead and just crumble it up,

crumble the tofu up by hand.

Now, I go ahead and
towel blot it some more,

try to get some of that moisture out.

Towel blot it again.

I mean, that's the whole idea
is to get this moisture out.

Okay, so that's lookin' pretty good.

Let's check on these veggies.

Aw, these are comin' along real nice.

Yeah, these are comin' along real nice.

Now, you can always add
a little bit of water

if you want to, but I
kinda like to keep it dry,

you know, just kinda stir
fry 'em up a little bit.

I'm not really tryin' to saute 'em,

I'm just tryin' to heat
'em up pretty good.

Now, we'll go ahead and add our tofu.

Spread it out a little bit.

Now, I can add some of the spices again.

Okay, and we'll give this a stir.

Aw, this is lookin' really great now.

Mm, all those spices are workin' together.

It's got a great color to
it, it's nice and colorful.

Let's go ahead and check it out.

Let's get some hash browns in there, mm.

There ya go, I'm sure
this is gonna be amazing

and a very simple breakfast.

Let's go ahead and check it out.

Get a little bit of potato in there.

Aw, this is gonna be so good.

Mm.

Oh man, this is so good.

Nice and wonderful breakfast, mm.

Your family's gonna love it.

Can we actually clean our arteries?

I read about nitric oxide,

as we get older,

not being there as much for us.

- No.

- Dr. Esselstyn said
that something like kale,

so chewing the kale,
mixing with your saliva,

helping that nitric, can
you explain it to me,

what nitric oxide is
and how does it help us?

- Yeah, one of the critical,

the reason I tell everyone to eat

dark green leafy vegetables every day,

it's just one of my daily dozen,

I have this kind of a daily
dozen recommendations,

all the the things I
try to encourage people

to fit into their daily diet,

so berries every day,
the healthiest fruits,

greens every day, the
healthiest vegetables,

tablespoon of ground flaxseeds,
1/4 teaspoon of tumeric,

you know, on down the
list, how much to drink,

how much to exercise, et
cetera, but why greens?

Well, there's lots of
reasons, but one of those

is that is the most concentrated
form of vegetable nitrates,

and that is converted in
our body into nitric oxide,

which is this potent molecule
that opens up our arteries.

It allows our arteries to dilate, open up,

and so, I mean, that's how
nitroglycerin works, actually.

You know, people take 'em

when they have crushing chest pain,

opens up their arteries, but we can eat,

that's why, that's the
whole beet juice phenomenon,

you know, athletes
chuggin' down beet juice

to get that edge in athletic performance,

it's 'cause the nitrates
found in beetroot.

You don't have to drink beet juice.

You can actually, they've studies done

on just like canned beets,

you know 75 minutes before your 5K,

you can shave off a minute, you
can hold your breath longer,

all, you name the sport, I
mean, you can improve cycling,

and most critically, people
who are hypertensive,

brings down blood
pressures, people have COPD,

emphysema, it can improve lung function,

but the most concentrated
form's actually not beets,

dark green leafy vegetables.

So, you can do the same

kind of athletic performance
enhancing benefits with,

frozen spinach study done,

but it's probably the
highest, maybe arugula,

and then on down the list,

basically all dark green leafy vegetables,

and what happens is the nitrates

are converted by bacteria that
actually live on our tongue

to another molecule which
is then used by our body

to create nitric oxide
in our blood vessels,

wherever you want it, to open
up and allow blood to flow

and decreases heart disease
risk by a variety of mechanism

beyond just dilation,

and our body knows this and it's so smart,

it actually pumps the nitrates
back into our salivary glands

to bathe our tongue so
that reaction happens.

So, you don't actually have to,

the first time you eat the kale,

you don't have to mix it,

you could put kale through a tube

through your nose into your stomach

and still get the benefits
because your body's not stupid

and smart enough to recycle the nitrates

back onto your tongue
through your salivary glands,

so you can get the benefits
of nitrate-rich vegetables.

So, it's one of the reasons

I encourage people to
eat greens every day.

- Nitric oxide keeps all
those cellular elements

within our blood stream

flowing smoothly like
Teflon, rather than Velcro,

keeps things from getting sticky.

Number two, nitric oxide

is the strongest blood
vessel dilator in the body.

When you climb stairs, the
arteries to your heart,

the arteries to your legs,
they widen, they dilate.

Nitric oxide.

Number three, nitric oxide

will protect the wall of the artery

from becoming thickened,
stiff, or inflamed,

protects you from getting high
blood pressure, hypertension.

Number four, this is the key,
a safe and adequate amount

of nitric oxide will protect you

from ever developing blockages or plaque.

So, literally, everybody on the planet,

whether they're in Cleveland,
Detroit, or Chicago,

who develops cardiovascular disease

has their disease because, by now,

sufficient decades in their earlier life,

they have succeeded in
so trashing and injuring

and compromising the capacity

of their endothelial cells
to make nitric oxide,

they don't have enough nitric
oxide to protect themselves.

I ask a patient, let's
say, who comes with angina

or they've had a heart attack,

I've tried to imagine getting their head

inside the coronary artery

that has got the blockage in their heart.

They would see that this blockage

is an absolute cauldron
of oxidated inflammation,

therefore, we need antioxidants.

No, do not go down to
the health food store

and buy a jug of pills
that says antioxidant

'cause it won't work and it's
probably gonna be harmful.

Therefore, you're gonna get
your antioxidants from food.

What food?

Food that is high in what
we call ORAC value, O-R-A-C,

oxygen radical absorbance capacity.

So, if you're having
raspberries, blueberries,

strawberries, and blackberries

on your oat cereal in
the morning, terrific,

but nothing can trump
the antioxidant value

of green leafy vegetables.

- You know, when I first started

on a whole plant-based diet,

I was not really a big fan of kale.

I don't know if it was a personal thing.

It just tasted bitter to me.

But it wasn't until I
started experimenting

with different types of vinegars,

some spices, and maybe some
sweetness from some fruit,

but I actually started
to enjoy the taste of it.

But see, that's the thing with this diet,

it takes time for you to recalibrate

and readjust yourself to actually

start to acquire a taste for plants.

So today, I'm gonna be making
a sweet and sour kale salad.

So, let's go ahead and get started

on cuttin' up these vegetables.

Okay, so now I'm gonna add some beans.

I have some white beans here.

I've rinsed and drained
these, but you can use

any type of bean that
you have in your pantry.

So, go ahead and put those in there.

Now, this is ground flaxseed.

I like to put it in whenever I can.

This is great opportunity
to put some ground flaxseed.

This is a teaspoon.

Then I'll go ahead and put my
fruit and vegetables in there.

Now, I'll put a little
bit of my tangy dressing,

give it a little bit of a shake.

Mm.

It's gonna be good.

Go ahead and toss this up a bit.

Gonna give this a try.

Mm.

So, that looks fantastic,
let's give it a try.

Mm.

That is so good.

So, that's a relatively
easy salad to make.

Today, I'm gonna be making
a Spanish black bean soup.

I'm gonna go ahead and
cook it in the slow cooker,

and then thing I like about a slow cooker,

if you one like I do,
you can remove the pot,

you can go ahead and put
all the vegetables in there,

throw it in the refrigerator,

and then fire it up in the morning

when you go about your day.

This particular recipe has a sweet potato,

an onion, a red bell pepper, jalapeno,

lime, garlic, and some cilantro.

So, let's go ahead

and start with cutting
up the vegetables first.

I like to dice the peppers up kinda small.

Now, I saved the other
half of the cilantro

for the garnish on top.

Go ahead and squeeze some lime into this.

Okay, so now it's time to go ahead

and add the rest of this stuff.

I've got a can of fire-roasted tomatoes.

My three cans of black beans, I rinse 'em,

and you know, of course, drain 'em.

Put them in there.

I've got some, a little
bit of frozen corn,

you know, about 1/2 a cup.

Okay, now I add a little bit of salt.

It's optional, always.

Two teaspoons of cumin,

one teaspoon of chili powder,

and then, of course, 32
ounces of vegetable broth.

If you like a little bit
more thick of a soup,

this is good, but if you
want it a little more watery,

you might wanna add a little bit more.

Stir this up.

And the thing that I like about it,

it's really a colorful soup.

It's got the sweet potatoes,
the red bell pepper,

the cilantro, you know, it's just,

and the black beans,

it's just a really, really
pretty lookin' soup.

Now, you could either put
this in your refrigerator

and fire it up the next day,

or let's go ahead and get it started.

I'm gonna put this on low
for about eight hours.

Okay, so this has been cookin'
for about eight hours on low.

Let's go ahead and check it out.

Mm, this looks great.

Mm, can't wait to dig into this.

Put a little bit of that
cilantro that we cut up earlier,

and we usually like to
serve it with a tortilla.

Go ahead and fold that up.

Now, let's check it out.

Ah, that smells awesome.

Mm.

This tastes great.

I'm sure your family's gonna dig this one.

There's a lot of vegan
recipes that call for nuts.

Let's see what the experts say about this.

Let's say, we're not in
that range of heart disease,

you know, plant-based diet,

I like my walnuts, I like my almonds,

and is there a point where
you go, whoa, Craig, watch it?

- Yeah, so my stance on them

is that nuts are sort of maybe foods,

nuts, avocados, the other high-fat plants,

and that's because a lot of people

are working on weight
loss, and clinically,

clinically, I just, there's
something very unique

about people doing a low-fat
whole food plant-based diet.

I'm asking them to give
up their added fats,

I'm asking them to give up

their fatty cheese and their fatty meats,

and they still want that
kinda creamy heaviness

to some of their food.

They gotta change their taste,
but they're not there yet,

and they realize that
a nut is a whole food

and you can blend up a
cashew into a cheese sauce,

you can blend up a
cashew into creamy soups,

you can put walnuts and make
a pesto blah, blah, blah,

you know, every other recipe now,

suddenly, with 1/2 cup of nuts.

Guess what, they're not gonna lose weight.

They're not gonna get the
maximal health benefit.

And that can be a big problem,

so I think for people looking
for maximal weight loss

and people who have that type of goal,

I say, no nuts, you
know, change your tastes,

get rid of the fatty creaminess,

but there's a lot of
research on the flip side,

there's certainly a lot of research

associating nut intake with
improved health outcomes.

So, I think if you go through a period

where you adapt your taste,
you get to the healthy weight,

or you're at your healthy weight goal,

go ahead and add nuts back into your diet,

and that's my take on it,

and include them in your diet.

I think they can be very healthy.

But do it moderate, you
know, do it sparingly.

- There've been a lot of things
written recently about nuts,

many of which have been supported

by the nut companies themselves,

and nuts are loaded with saturated fat.

I suppose there's probably not a problem.

If somebody were to eat three
walnut halves a day, okay?

Okay.

- But if Dr. Esselstyn ever says

that you can have two
or three walnut halves,

that's not what people would remember.

Esselstyn said nuts are okay.

Nuts are highly addicting.

If I ever said that,

there'll be nuts in the glove compartment,

they'll be in the kitchen, the bathroom,

the bedroom, the hallway, the workbench,

and that's a lotta saturated fat.

And I'm very competitive for my patients,

I want them to do well,

and how many people do
you know who eat one nut?

But I have seen a study,
it's called PREDIMED,

done in Spain, they gave three
different types of diets,

Mediterranean diet with oil,
Mediterranean diet with nuts,

and then the fat diet they called low fat,

which was 39 and later 37%.

To qualify for the study,
all the participants

had to have no evidence
of cardiovascular disease.

At the end of five years,

every single one of those categories,

there were scores of patients

who had heart attacks, strokes, and death.

Higher number of strokes in
the group on the low-fat diet,

but in that group with the nuts,

here you start with patients,

no demonstrated cardiovascular disease,

and scores of them
develop, while eating nuts,

develop these cardiac events.

So, I have my reservations
about wanting people

to eat all that saturated fat.

- I see a lot of vegan recipes

that they just
automatically go to coconut,

coconut oils, you know, stuff like that.

- Yeah.

- It's coconut, like,
white lardy lookin' thing.

- Yeah, yeah, bad.
- Is good, bad?

- Yeah, no, coconut oil is bad.

So, coconut oil is one of

the rare plant sources of saturated fat.

So, most saturated fat
comes from meat and dairy,

but palm kernel or palm oil, cocoa butter,

these tropical oils, and coconut oil

will raise your LDL
cholesterol as bad as lard,

as bad as beef tallow.

Not as bad as butter, but yeah, it's bad.

I mean, so it raises your
LDL, your bad cholesterol,

which is a primary risk factor for

number one killer of men and women,

you don't wanna be adding
coconut oil to your daily diet.

- We have this addiction to fat or oil,

fat and oil.
- Of course, yeah.

- We have, addiction has
been part of our system

for generations almost.

So, vegetarians are
limited because, as I say,

90% are still usin' dairy.

That's a serious compromise.

And vegans are not using diary,

they, well, like vegetarians too,

they just add back a lotta oil.

- Today, I'm gonna be making

creamy butternut squash mushroom risotto.

I'm gonna be using one butternut squash,

four cloves of garlic, I've got some kale,

I've got some onion here, I
got eight ounces of mushrooms.

I'm gonna be using one cup of Arborio rice

to three cups of vegetable broth.

The first thing I usually like to do

is to start getting the broth warm.

So, let's go ahead and get that started.

I'm gonna go ahead and put this on low,

and now it's time to start
cuttin' up the vegetables

and gettin' 'em into the frying pan.

There, so I've cut this up.

I'm gonna go ahead and save the other half

of the butternut squash for another meal.

Go ahead and cut up these mushrooms.

Okay, I'm gonna go
ahead and save this kale

for just a little bit later,

but we'll get these
vegetables fryin' up a bit.

I like to get 'em
caramelized a little bit,

so they have that nice flavor.

It's already startin' to
look really beautiful.

You got the butternut squash in there,

the brown of the baby bellas,

a little bit of those onions in there.

Mm, it's startin' to smell really good.

Now, I always have a little
bit of vegetable broth on hand,

so if I need to put just a
little bit of moisture in there,

I can.

Now, I like to put in
a little bit of pepper,

a little bit of salt.

Okay, these are comin' along real nice,

but every so often, I
add a little bit more

of my vegetable broth.

Now, this is not the
broth from the three cups.

This is separate from the broth.

It's just to keep all of
this sauteing happening

and not burning it.

So, just keep adding a
little bit more of the broth.

And the whole trick of it is,

is to try to get those
butternut squash kinda soft,

a little bit more creamy tasting.

But it all kinda depends

on the size of the butternut squash,

the pieces that you make,

but these are still kinda
not quite cooked all the way.

So, I wanna make sure
they get nice and soft.

Of course, one way to check it out

is to just go ahead and grab one.

Mm, yeah, it's almost there, almost there,

so we're comin' along.

Now see, it's startin' to dry up a little,

but you can hear it, so I'll go ahead

and add just a little
bit more vegetable broth.

There.

Mm, I can smell the garlic, the
onions, those mushrooms, ah,

and the butternut squash,
it's comin' along real good.

See, there's just a little
bit of moisture in there.

You can just kinda see it,

it's just at the bottom of the pan.

That means I'm okay, but
once you start to hear it

startin' to scorch a little bit,

go ahead and add a little
bit more vegetable broth.

This is lookin' really good.

Okay, the vegetables are
comin' along really good.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and
push 'em all to one side.

Get my rice in there.

Just put a little bit
of the broth in there.

All I wanna do is just kinda

get the rice to be a little
bit more translucent,

just kinda crisp it up a little bit.

Go ahead and add a little bit more broth.

I'm adding just a little
bit of the broth in there

just to kinda get the rice
to sizzle a little bit.

Okay, I'm gonna put a teaspoon
of thyme over everything.

Then I've got a 1/2 teaspoon
of white wine vinegar,

just kinda put that all around,

just a little bit of salt in this rice,

little bit of the pepper,

get a little bit more broth.

So yeah, it does take
a little bit of time.

Okay, these are lookin' real good.

I usually like to go one cup at a time,

again, this is pretty hot broth.

I go one cup at a time.

Now, I'm gonna start mixin'
the vegetables all together.

You know, risotto always
one of those things,

you just kinda have to take your time,

add a little bit of
water, keep stirring it.

It's a little bit of work,

but you know what, it's so worth it.

I can feel the rice is
already startin' to absorb up.

See, I got a little bit of water there,

see how there's water in there?

So, I just gotta keep stirrin' it.

Just keep stirrin' it.

Okay, see the, it's just
startin' to dry up a little bit,

so I'm just gonna keep stirrin'
it just a little bit longer,

but I know I'm gonna put a
little bit more broth in there.

Okay, it's time to get another,

another cup of broth, add it in there.

So, it might feel a little
bit soupy, but that's okay.

That rice is gonna go ahead
and absorb all that broth

and is it gonna taste great.

Okay, it's startin' to soak up again, see?

See how it's soakin' up,
there's no more water in there?

So then, I'll go ahead and get another cup

of broth and just
reintroduce it back in again

and continue stirrin'.

I know this looks a little soupy,

but you have to be patient with risotto.

All right.

That broth is soaked up again.

I'll go ahead and put a
little bit more in there.

So this, I've actually used

a little bit more broth than I normally do

because I'm using a frying pan,

risotto is all about moisture,

so it tells you when it's done.

Now, I'll go ahead and
add my chopped up kale.

You know, and this is totally up to you.

Go ahead and stir this in.

You know, somebody once asked me,

how much liquid does it really
take to make good risotto.

You know, the rice tells
you how much you need,

but the basic rule of thumb

is one cup to three cup of broth,

but if I'm usin' a fryin' pan like I did,

I ended up using a fourth cup.

So, it all depends on the rice.

You wanna get the rice
so it's nice and tender,

but let's go ahead and give this a taste.

Put a little bit of kale on top of there,

and let's give this a try.

Mm.

Very good.

That is awesome, it takes a little while,

it is a little bit labor-intensive,

but you know, it is well worth it, mm.

Can you explain why we need fiber so much?

- Oh, fiber is critically important.

And when I say fiber, I
mean fiber containing foods,

not fiber supplements.

I know people tend to think of fiber

as just kind of intestinal regularity,

and that's what we used to think,

but now, we realize that
no, it has critical,

it's critically important,
not just for gut health,

but throughout our body, see, so.

- Fiber and, it's called
resistance starch,

both only found in abundance
in whole plant foods,

these are probiotics.

This is what are good bacteria eats

so that hey thrive, and
what to do with it, fiber,

is the produce these
short chain fattty acids

like butyrate and propionate,

then they are absorbed back in our system,

circulate throughout our body

and have all sorts of beneficial effects,

and so, improves our immunity,

may improve mental health,
may improve, I mean,

has these anti-cancer properties,

not just in the gut, but
throughout the body,

and so, as we learn more and more

how important our gut microbiome,

the kind of friendly flora in our gut is,

realize, well how we do best
support our gut bacteria.

It's all about fiber and
resistance starch-packed foods,

and so that's legumes,
beans, split peas, chickpeas,

and lentils, whole grains,
fruits, and vegetables,

you know nuts and seeds, herbs and spices,

real food that grows out of the ground,

these are the healthiest choices
and one of the main reasons

may be because they
feed our good gut flora

and that has all these kinda

knock on benefits throughout our body.

- You know red beans and rice

is always a favorite at my house,

and the thing I like about it

it's really easy to make.

It usually takes a bell
pepper, celery stalk,

some garlic, of course, some
red beans, and some spices,

but usually before I start doing all this,

I get started on my rice

because it takes time to get going

Today I'm gonna be going
with long brown grain

I usually start with one cup of the rice

to a two cups of vegetable broth.

Now, here's the thing, the
vegetable broth with the rice

tends to give it a little bit more flavor.

So again it's one cup
rice, to two cups broth.

We'll give that a little bit of a stir,

get some of that rice down
that's hangin' up on the sides.

And we'll go ahead and get this started.

Like I said. I'm only gonna use

one bell pepper for this recipe,

So, we'll go ahead and save this
other half for another meal.

Let's go ahead put some garlic in there.

So, now I've got all
vegetables all chopped up

I got my celery, I got my bell pepper,

I got my onion all chopped up,
I even minced up some garlic,

so let's go ahead and stir
fry this up a little bit.

First thing I do

Is put a little vegetable broth in there.

I can always add more.

Usually, I like to go
with a couple tablespoons,

Of nutritional yeast.

A couple tablespoons.

a teaspoon of onion powder,

just a pinch of pepper,

a little bit of salt.

You can either go with some chili powder

or you can go with some srirachi.

I like srirachi, so that's
what we're gonna go with today.

Just one tablespoon.

So, we'll go ahead and stir this up a bit.

Now, you can always add
some more broth as needed.

But it's good to get these
onions and everything

to caramelize a little bit, work together,

While that's sauteing a little bit,

I'll go ahead and cut up
a little bit of cilantro.

So, I've been sauteing the vegetables up,

and the thing I like to look for

is just where that the
liquid is just disappeared

you know, the broth that
we put in from earlier.

You want it more of a sauce
and a watery vegetable mix.

So yeah that's lookin' real good.

So, now we'll go ahead and add the beans.

We'll stir these in.

I like to kind of fold 'em.

I don't want to break
up the beans too much.

Okay, so this is cookin' up real nice,

warmin' everything up.

Now, let's go ahead and check on that rice

to see how that's doin'.

Mm, this is smellin' awesome.

And you see, you got

just a little bit of
liquid down at the bottom,

which is okay 'cause the rice,

the starch will start
to absorb some of that.

Let's go check on this
rice to see how it's doin'

Lookin' pretty good.

We'll go ahead and fluff this up.

Lookin' pretty good.

And I usually like to cut up a
little bit of lemon in there.

Mm.

It's lookin' really good, really good.

Then I finish it off with some cilantro.

Again, this is totally up to you,

But I love the taste of cilantro.

Let's get some rice.

Mm.

And then the beans.

And there you have it

That looks amazing.

Let's go ahead and check it out.

Mm, so again, this is really
relatively easy meal to make.

It doesn't take much work.

Mm, so good.

- There's still a lotta people

that believe that dairy
creates strong bones, you know,

it's just like it's embedded
into our brain somehow,

either through school or
milk or, I'm not sure.

Can you please explain?

- Well, it's an advertising campaign.

And so, it's a marketing ploy.

If you look at the science,
if you do meta analysis,

milk does not appear to protect
against hip fracture risk,

whether you're drinking it as an adult,

whether you're drinking it as a teen,

doesn't matter, doesn't work.

In fact, it may actually
increase fracture risk.

A few years ago, Swedish researchers

looked at more 100,000 men
and women, followed for years,

and found that milk
drinking women, for example,

had higher rates of total mortality,

meaning they live
significantly shorter lives,

more cancer, more heart disease,

and more fractures, all right,
more milk, more fractures.

- It's the opposite.

- Milk drinking men also
had higher rates of death,

which may help explain why countries

with the highest milk consumption

also have the highest hip fracture rates.

Could be other things,
but I mean, bottom line,

there's no protection against

osteoporotic fractures
with milk consumption.

There's certainly things we can do,

but that's just
unfortunate marketing ploy.

- If you look at the relationship

between calcium intake across countries

and bone fractures, for
example, the more calcium,

the more bone fractures
in observational studies,

so it's not quite the great health benefit

that we understand it to be

or that we think it,
that we've been taught,

let me put it that way.
- Yeah, we've been-

- Taught.

- Embedded in our schools and-

Yeah.

Can you please explain

this misconception of
the milk, strong bone?

- Yeah, well, that's a total fallacy.

As a matter of fact,
there's a Harvard study

and there's an Australian study

about which clearly
shows that the patients

who are taking a greater
amount of milk are more likely

to have fracture to their
humerus and so forth.

So, if you're gonna talk about milk,

what you really have to say

that is totally truthful about it,

milk was designed as the ideal calf food.

If you're gonna take a calf
and in six or eight months

grow it into a 600-pound
animal, that's milk.

That's what it was designed for.

Cow's milk was never designed for humans.

I mean, there's studies that show

it accelerates cardiovascular disease,

look at the saturated fat in cheese, milk,

look what casein does from
the cancer standpoint.

Yeah, it's definitely a
food that we don't want.

- You know, when you're 54
years old, you see cuts-

- That's right.

- And you go, I know how
long that's gonna take.

- Right, right.

- And you just have it
in your head, it happens,

I heal 50% faster, and I don't
wanna preach 50%, but it.

- I have a word for that, by the way,

I'm also aware that that would happens,

we see it in many different ways.

I say the default position
of the body at all times,

the default position is to create health,

create and restore health,

if, and it's a big if,
if we ate the right food.

The body can't, you know,

even when we're eating the wrong food,

the body struggles to heal.

- Because it's fighting something else.

- Because it's now, but now
it's spent so much energy

fighting this other stuff,
so it's gonna be slower

and less efficient, et cetera, et cetera.

If we give it the right
food, we will heal faster.

I can give you a specific
example of my own.

Just a year ago, the day before Christmas,

I went out to play some
handball with my grandsons.

Okay.

- And I used to play it some,
but they were very good,

they were 21 and 22, something like that,

and my son, very active, very athletic,

outstanding athletes,
always eatin' this stuff-

- And I'm sorry-
- By the way.

- And how old are you?

- 83.

- 83, you're out playin' ball.

- 82, last year.

- So anyhow-

- 82?

- Yeah, so, I'm out to
play some racketball,

and I just wanna get a
point on 'em if I could

'cause they're really good.

- They're quick.

- I'm not as quick as
they are now, obviously.

And I went flippin' through the air

and landed on my hip and broke my hip.

- You did?

- I did.

I broke my hip, and you
know, that's bad news.

Someone my age, they say, oh, you see,

it's over now for you.

That's the cause of very high mortality.

- Yeah.

- And you don't heal very fast.

- So, you broke your hip a year ago?

- Yeah, it was one day before Christmas,

and not even a year.

So, you know, it was gonna take me

supposedly six months
to a year to recover,

you know, that's what the story was.

And so, I went down to the hospital.

There was a hospital
across the lake over there.

And the doctor, he's a bone doctor,

he didn't know what I know, by the way,

but in any case, he did an
operation, put a couple pins,

he was gonna put a couple
pins in my bone, right?

We came out of the operating room,

I'm still, you know,
anesthetized, I guess,

and he saw Karen and he goes like that.

And so, he said, your husband,

I mean, Karen can tell ya,

your husband has really strong
bones for someone his age.

I haven't quite seen that thing before.

And so, she says to him, well
do you know why that's so?

- Yeah.

- Because he doesn't use dairy.

Which is exactly the opposite

of what he tells all his other patients.

I don't use dairy.

He said my bones were so strong

that he put another pin in it.

He put four pins in it.

- He could, he had some
good bone to work with.

- He had good bone to work
with and he was amazed.

I go back then for the checkup,

and I know what, I've lost
track of the time a little bit,

but somehow, the fracture
that you can see on the-

- The x-ray?

- X-ray, stuff like that, it was healed

in just a fraction of the time.

I'm back running against again.

So, now I can run four miles a day.

You know, it's amazing.

- You know, when I was a kid,

I really just did not like
the taste of cauliflower,

and I'm not sure maybe if it
was the way my mom prepared it.

She either steamed it or
drizzled cheese all over it.

But we all know cheese

isn't exactly that good for us anymore.

But while I was visiting
my friend Colin Campbell,

his wife Karen came up with
a really interesting way

of making cauliflower, the main
dish, and it was fantastic.

So I thought to myself,

what if bring in just a
couple more vegetables.

So I thought, let's try a gold potato

and maybe some broccoli.

Let's see how that turns out.

Just get rid of that green
stuff that's all over.

And then I like to take
my other smaller knife

and just kinda cut into a circle.

And just pop this out.

Now that I've gotten
myself a little cutout,

I'm able to kinda see where

I can start cutting into this cauliflower.

See how it's breakin' apart?

It's not too hard.

But the whole idea is to figure out a way

to make it into a bite-size piece,

not too small, not too big.

So then, I go ahead and
I put it into my steamer.

So, I go ahead and take
off some of the leaves.

Take off the flour and I'll
use that for another meal.

Get the tough part of the broccoli,

get rid of that 'cause it
just doesn't steam up into,

it kinda gets a little bit chewy,

but if you like it, hey, go for it.

Put it into quarters,
slice it half lengthwise

and then again, slice it half lengthwise,

which'll give me four pieces each cut.

Now, a lotta people like to
take off the skin of the potato.

Me, I like the potato skin.

Again, I'm just making
'em into bite-size pieces.

Now, I need to wash all these vegetables.

So, let's go ahead and wash 'em.

So, you can see I've added cauliflower,

broccoli stalks, and a potato,

but what if we added an onion?

So, now that I've clean

and cut up the vegetables
into bite-size pieces,

I'm gonna go ahead and steam
it for about 20 minutes

until they're nice and tender.

Now, the sauce is actually kinda simple.

It's three tablespoons
of nutritional yeast,

three tablespoons of miso, and
some unsweetened almond milk.

Now, when adding the
unsweetened almond milk,

I usually just mix it in

until it gets that
consistency like a sauce.

And as you can see, it's already startin'

to get to that consistency
that's pretty good.

So, sometimes I like to put
in just a little bit more

just so it's a little bit more liquid-y,

so it can get all around
all of those vegetables.

Now keep in mind, I'm gonna
be puttin' this in the oven,

so we wanna be able to
have it mix in quite well.

Well, there you go, there was two ounces.

Now, so what I'll do is I'll go ahead

and add a little bit of lemon pepper.

I seem to like, I like lemon pepper,

just get a couple pinches of lemon pepper,

some paprika, a little
bit of paprika in there

just to kinda give it that color.

If you wanna spice things up,

I use a little bit of chili, chili powder.

It's all up to you.

Some garlic powder.

Remember, garlic powder
is a little bit stronger

because it's so fine.

And then I like to put in a
little bit of salt and pepper.

But this is all up to you,

and always, salt is always optional,

but I like to put a
little bit of salt in it.

Now, continue to mix this up,
so it's a nice consistency.

Let's check on our vegetables.

Oh, they're lookin' really, really good.

Now, the thing is, you
probably wanna check

to see if the potatoes are done,

and just kinda make
sure that they're soft.

Yup, those are pretty good, ready to go.

Let me get my casserole dish.

You can just go ahead and put them in.

That looks about good.

If you wanna put more, that's fine,

but as you can see, it's
lookin' pretty good right now.

So, now what I'm gonna do

is I'm gonna go ahead and
pour this over the vegetables.

Stir it up just a little bit,

so all of the sauce gets kinda

evenly distributed around
all those vegetables.

Just gotta be careful not
to break up the potatoes

or, you know, mush 'em up, there ya go.

Now, the last thing I like to do

is put a little breadcrumbs on here.

So, now let's go ahead

and put this in the oven at
350 for about 20 minutes.

Well, I've just taken it out of the oven.

It took a little bit
longer than I thought,

maybe 25 minutes at 350, but
boy, this smells fabulous.

Mm.

Vegetables like this is just amazing.

So, creating a casserole as
cauliflower as your main dish

can prove to be an amazing taste.

Mm, I love the way the miso

mixes with the nutritional yeast.

This is sure to please your family.

How much protein do you
think we need per day then?

- That's a good question.

I give lectures on this
'cause I spent my whole career

working on the protein question,

but the amount of protein,

if we consider it in terms
of percent of total calories,

best way to do it,

the amount of protein we absolutely need

is somewhere around four,
5% of total calories,

it's quite low, that's a minimum.

What that, when you do the experiments,

that's the amount of protein you need

to compensate for the protein
lost on a daily basis.

So, if you consume a diet
around four, 5%, that's minimum,

experimentally, but then, at the time,

they first did that in the early '40s,

they wanted increase a little more

to make sure everybody got enough protein

'cause everybody's
concerned about protein.

So, they increased it

by two standard deviations, statistically.

That brings it up to about
eight or 9% total protein

from four or five up to eight or nine,

and that became what we called

the recommended dietary allowance

or recommended daily allowance, the RDA.

- Yeah, right, right.

- So, they RDA was born that
way, that's where it came from.

Starting at four or five,
increase up eight or nine,

two standard deviations in theory

covers 98% of the population
who need protein, okay,

totally theoretical at this point.

So, up around eight, 9%,

so eight or 9% protein is the ideal level.

All of that can be easily
supplied by just plants.

- Yeah.

- But what we actually do

because of a reverence
for this protein thing,

and we usually mean animal protein

'cause that's what most people think,

we start eatin' animal foods

and justify it on the grounds
that, oh, I need this protein.

Been that way for, you know, 150 years.

I need this protein, so
eat meat, get the protein,

and then all of a sudden, a
higher and higher percentage

of our total protein
consumed is animal-based,

and the average in this country

is about 70 to 75% of our
total protein is coming from,

average, it's coming from animal foods.

That's where, once you start
puttin' in animal food and diet

and you know, things are goin'
to hell in a hand basket.

You know, the protein is gettin' up there

and more higher percentage
is animal protein,

an animal protein, unlike plant protein,

has a higher degree of
efficient utilization.

So, it can cause more damage.

Plant proteins don't do that.

- Yeah, I think increasingly,
there is data to suggest that

when you increase protein,

you do create some medical disasters.

I mean, if you want red meat,

then you're gonna promote cancer.

- You know, we focus a lot on protein.

We have for, gosh, hundreds of years,

since it was discovered,

but I think we overdo it in this country.

There's a lot of emphasis on
protein for appetite control,

weight loss, muscle gain, muscle building,

I mean, just about everything,

if you wanna manipulate your body,

protein seems to be at the first
part of the recommendation.

It's always eat more.

And it's a real shame

because we already eat way more

than the sort of recommended amount

what we need to grow and maintain
our body in this country,

and most of it's from animal-based foods.

The majority of the protein we
eat is animal-based protein,

meat, dairy, and eggs.

There's evidence that that
can promote high cholesterol,

atherosclerosis and heart disease.

There's animal experiments
showing that that type of protein

can actually affect cancer promotion

and increase cancer promotion.

These are the big diseases
that we struggle with, right?

And then you also mentioned kidneys.

There's over 100 years of data

showing that a high-protein diet,

particularly when kidneys
are already damaged,

if you have an already-damaged kidney,

and it's not functioning at full capacity,

I think, eating a very high-protein diet

is about the worst thing
you probably can do,

and some degree of chronic kidney disease

is actually pretty common in our country,

especially at older ages.

So, I think we're way overdoing protein,

and it's shame that
it's used to frequently.

- So, it's pretty safe
to say that we could get

the protein that we need from
a whole plant-based diet.

- Absolutely, we can get
all the protein we need

from all natural plant foods.

You know, tomatoes have protein.

Oats have protein.

People think that it has
to be tofu and beans,

and you've gotta eat tofu and
bean at every meal,

but that's not true, just eat whole foods.

The only things we eat
in abundance in America

that have no protein are
added sugars and oils,

fats and oils, 'cause those
things have been processed,

they're fragments of food where
you take the original food,

you throw away the protein,

and then you eat the sugar or the oil,

and those, we eat a lotta sugar and oil,

but otherwise, if you eat a whole food,

I mean, all these plants
that are growing around you,

they need proteins to function,

so you're gonna get enough protein.

- Friend of mine recently
started a whole plant-based diet,

and I asked her, I said,
what kind of breakfast

do you normally have,
and she said oatmeal.

And I said, great, what
kinda oatmeal do you have,

and she said, you know,
the stuff from a pouch,

and you just put it in the
microwave with some water.

Well, old-fashioned oatmeal

is really not that difficult to make,

but here's the difference between the two.

As you can see, one is really processed.

It's been ground up

and there's really not
a lot of fiber left.

Of course, it's much better

than scrambled eggs, butter,
bacon, sausage, whatever,

but old-fashioned oatmeal is
not that difficult to make

but so much more benefits from it,

and not only is it good
for your digestive system,

it's good for your entire body.

So, today I wanna go over
some of the easy ways

and fun things you can do
with oatmeal for breakfast.

Okay, so let's get started
makin' the oatmeal.

I usually go with about
a cup and 1/4 of water.

I'm makin' it for one.

And then to about 1/2 a cup
of old-fashioned oatmeal.

Turn it up.

Now, here's the thing,

I've got a bunch of stuff here
for you to kinda consider.

It's all up to you and personality.

These are just ideas.

But I usually like some cut up bananas,

some apples, some strawberries,

and then if it's in the winter months,

maybe some canned pineapples,
maybe some canned peaches,

or maybe some canned Mandarin oranges,

but it's all up to you.

And in the pantry, you can also have

maybe some dried
cranberries, some raisins,

maybe some coconut, I got
some blueberries here,

and I always like to put in
a little bit of flaxseed,

that's always good,
walnuts once in a while,

but sometimes, I like to
sweeten it up a little bit,

and this is totally up to you,

if I do use maple syrup, I
like to use the grade A syrup,

not the fructose stuff, the bad staff,

or maybe just a little bit of brown sugar.

The thing is about dates

is you can't just throw 'em in there.

You gotta cut 'em up and mince
'em up into little pieces.

So, I'm gonna go ahead
and do that right now.

Go ahead and put those in.

And the thing about dates,

it's a natural way to
sweeten up your oatmeal

and also, dates are really good for ya.

Okay, so we'll go ahead
and cup some strawberries.

Okay, put some bananas
in there, some apples,

maybe some blueberries in there,

not much, but I like a little
bit of coconut in there,

just a couple chopped walnuts,
get my flaxseed in there,

maybe some raisins, I like raisins,

just a little bit of maple syrup.

And that's pretty much it.

Let's go ahead and check this out.

And there ya go.

So, it's relatively easy to do.

It's just about the time that it takes you

to cup some fruit, maybe grab
some stuff from the pantry,

but this is so much better for you

than that instant stuff.

Mm, and it's so good.

Today, I'm gonna be making

creamy penne with sun-dried tomatoes.

I'm gonna be using some
basil, some garlic,

some sun-dried tomatoes, a
little bit of lemon juice,

some raw cashews, some
unsweetened almond milk,

and as you can see, I always try to use

some type of whole wheat pasta.

It's very important for us

to have some type of
fiber every single day.

You can go ahead and use a
knife to mince everything up,

but I'm gonna go ahead
and use a food processor

just to speed things up.

First thing I usually like to put in there

is about 1/4 cup of raw cashews.

I've got five fresh leaves of basil.

I've got a 1/2 a cup of nutritional yeast.

I got about four cloves of
garlic, I've halved them.

One teaspoon of dried mustard,

1/2 a teaspoon of dried
onion, a little bit of salt,

and of course, some pepper,

and then we'll go ahead
and give this a pulse.

Okay, that's about the consistency I like.

It's a little bit like a
Parmesan cheese kinda mixture.

Now, it's time to go ahead and
put in the wet ingredients.

Some lemon juice.

Now, here I've got a tablespoon

of red wine vinegar, tablespoon.

I've got my full cup of
unsweetened almond milk.

And then I've got on standby,
some whole wheat flour.

Now, let's go ahead and pulse this up.

All right.

Okay, so as you can see, its sorta thin,

so I'm gonna go ahead and add
some of the whole wheat flour.

So, this is about 1/4 cup.

I got a little bit left there,

just to kinda see how things go.

Give it a pulse.

Let's go ahead and check this out.

Okay, it's still a little bit thin,

so I'm gonna go ahead

and put the whole 1/4
cup of whole wheat flour.

Now, it's time to put in
the sun-dried tomatoes.

These are not the jar can
that has the oil in it.

These are the packages
that usually are found

in your produce section of
your local grocery store.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and put these in.

Okay, that's lookin' pretty creamy,

so I'm gonna go ahead and
it a small pot that I have.

You can always microwave this if you want,

but I'm gonna go ahead and put it in here.

Okay, so my noodles are about done.

Let's go ahead and get 'em drained.

Go ahead and put these in the bowl.

Let's go ahead and add my sauce.

Let's go ahead and stir this up.

Now, you can always add a
little bit of hot water to this

if it gets a little too thick.

I usually to just grab some
of the water from the pasta

and just kinda reintroduce
it back in there

until I get that consistency
that my family likes.

But this is lookin' really, really good.

So, let's go ahead and give it a try.

Mm, that is so good.

So, it's relatively easy to make,

and I'm sure your family
is gonna enjoy it.

Mm, so good.

If we're eliminating the milk,

what's the best way to
get the vitamin D then?

- Sunshine, just sit outdoors and even,

you're gonna get considerable radiation

even if it's a bit cloudy,
you know, at times.

I mean, just bein' outdoors

and having the experience
of the sunshine will,

in most cases, present
you with enough vitamin D,

and actually, it shouldn't
even be called a vitamin.

Vitamin D is not a
vitamin, it's a hormone.

Vitamins by classical
definition are those things

we have to consume
because we can make them.

In the case of vitamin D, we can make it.

All it needs to do is shine the sunshine

on some precursor compounds in our skin

and it converts it over to vitamin D.

- And so, the supercharged?

- Yeah, the supercharged
is the metabolite, exactly.

You can form on your skin,
it goes to the liver,

that form is called 25 hydroxy vitamin D,

it's a storage form.

So, we store it, we store
it in our liver largely.

And then, when the body wants
some vitamin D activity,

it actually pulls out some of that

and converts it to a product,

that was our word, called
supercharged vitamin D,

and I'm not sure anyone else used that,

but chemically, it's the 25 hydroxy

is converted into a dihydroxy form,

oftentimes in the kidney and elsewhere,

and it's that form that's like

a thousand times more
potent in the storage form,

and so, the body's working with a system.

It's converting some of that

to something that's far me potent,

and that has to be metered, monitored,

and the body does a
beautiful job of doing that.

It decides on how much to take this

and how much to make here,

and the amount it makes here
is what the body decides

needs to be made for that purpose.

- There are some northern climates,

like where I am in Rochester, New York,

where a vitamin D supplement
in the winter time

when I'm hardly getting outside

and even if I did, with our latitude,

where I'm not gonna make much vitamin D,

a vitamin D supplement,
I think is a good idea,

a small one, you know, 1,000 units.

Generally, vitamin D is a sunshine thing.

It's not really a food thing.

- So, I read this really interesting thing

about the 1990s in China

had a extremely dramatic
shift in their diet,

and there was also an increase
in diabetes in this region,

and I attribute it to, I think,

the change in their Western
introduction of foods.

Do you have any thoughts on?

- Yeah, if you ask a lotta people,

you tell them, okay, diabetes
is now rampant in China,

what do you think that's due to?

A lotta people will say, oh,
so the white rice.

But if you look-

- 1,000 years, right?

- Right.
- Yeah, all of a sudden.

- Right, right, if you look
back through the past 50 years,

China has had this remarkable
economic transition very fast

and very comprehensive and
what happened in the late 18,

no, I'm sorry, the late 1980s

was the fast food started coming in.

In the 1990s, it was
some of the supermarkets

and convenience kinda businesses,

and what you see is that the diet of China

changed rapidly and dramatically
from about 1970s, 1980

all the way up to 2010,
probably still changing,

and researchers have found
that the dietary transition

was characterized by basically
two, three big shifts.

One was the introduction
of cheap, edible oils.

So, they started having oil
available cheaply and using it.

So, much higher fat intake.

The other was increase
in meat consumption.

So, poultry, pork, for example.

And the other, of course,

when you're increasing those things,

you have less beans and less whole grains

and some of the less good stuff.

So, it's a typical transition

that's happened around the world

from a traditional diet
full of carbohydrates,

healthy carbohydrates
to a poor Western diet,

and just about every 10 years,
from 1990 to 2000 to 2010,

diabetes rates doubled in China.

They actually now have as much diabetes

as we have in this country,
it's a half a billion people

or whatever 50% of the
population is in China.

It has prediabetes or diabetes.

It's a disaster.

It's absolutely a disaster for China,

and it's very clear what led to it.

It wasn't the white rice, not
that I'm a fan of white rice.

The white rice probably
made the oil a little worse

and the meat a little worse,

but clearly, the thing that changed

was increase in edible oils
and increased meat consumption.

- As we eat the Western
diet and we accumulate,

especially in our muscle
cells, we accumulate fat,

see, ordinarily, the way
the glucose metabolism works

is your body's insulin
will escort the glucose

into the muscle cell, turns
the key, insulin turns the key,

in comes the glucose into the muscle cell

where it will be metabolized.

But when you're eating the Western diet,

you increase fat in your muscle cell.

The fat is like glue in the lock.

So, the insulin puts the key
and it can't turn the lock.

So, now the glucose
accumulates in the bloodstream

and there's your diabetes.

But what happens with these patients,

what is so remarkable,
time after time after time,

we see these patients with
heart disease who are diabetic,

and as they start eating whole
food plant-based nutrition,

they metabolize the fat
out of their muscle cell,

and suddenly now, insulin can once again

turn the key in the lock
to escort the glucose

into the muscle cell to be metabolized.

- Today, I'm gonna be making

crusted eggplant meatballs over spaghetti.

I'm gonna be making it with some basil,

some garlic, some sun-dried tomatoes,

I've got one can of chickpeas.

I've drained and rinsed those.

I got my eggplant, of course,
28 ounces of marinara sauce,

and 16 ounces of whole wheat pasta.

The first thing I usually like to do

is to get this water boiling

so I can get started on my noodles.

So, as you can see,

I like to cut the eggplant
into 1/4-inch pieces.

Okay, I've got a little
bit of vegetable broth.

I'll go ahead and put that in there

and start sauteing these up.

Okay, I like to put a little bit

of salt and pepper in there.

Now, let's check on this water.

Okay, it looks like it's boiling.

I'll go ahead and put my noodles in.

Also, gonna cut up my basil a little bit.

I'm gonna cut up my sun-dried
tomatoes a little bit.

Okay, and we'll save these
for a little bit later.

All right, these are
comin' along real nice.

So, they're startin'
to dry up a little bit,

so I'm gonna go ahead and
put just a little bit more

of my vegetable broth in there.

And just keep sauteing them.

Okay, so my eggplant and garlic
is sauteing up real nice.

I'm gonna go ahead and
make my coating mix.

I got with 1/4 cup of raw cashews,

1/2 a cup of panko breading,
1/4 cup of rolled oats,

I got a teaspoon of salt,

and the salt is, again, always optional,

two tablespoons of nutritional yeast.

I'm gonna go ahead and use
my food processor today.

So, let's go ahead and get this mixed up.

My rolled oats, my panko,

my raw cashews, and some salt.

So, that's my coating mix.

Okay, so I just preheated my oven at 375.

It's time to make the meatball mix.

I've got my one can of
drained and rinsed chickpeas.

I've got my sun-dried tomatoes.

These are not the ones

that you get in the
jar with the olive oil.

These are in the package,
the plastic package

that you find in your produce department.

So, I've got some sun-dried tomatoes.

I don't know, it's probably
about three tablespoons.

Then I've got my basil.

And we're gonna go ahead
and pulse this up a bit.

Go ahead and get it off the sides.

And now, I've got 1/2 a
cup of vegetable broth.

We'll go ahead and put that in there.

Mix this up.

All right, that's lookin' pretty good.

So, I've got a teaspoon of
oregano, I put that in there.

One teaspoon oregano,
one teaspoon of parsley.

I'll go ahead and mix this up.

Let's get it off the sides.

So, as you can see, it's
kind of a pasty mix.

Don't wanna get it too wet.

And I'll put my
nutritional yeast in there.

And this is optional,

but I like to put just a
little bit of salt in there.

Little bit of pepper.

Just kinda mix this up a little bit.

Now, it's time to add the eggplant

that's been sauteing with the garlic.

All right, start mixin' this all together.

Now as you can see, it's
still, it's still kinda loose.

See how it's just a little bit loose?

It's not really ready to make a meatball.

That's why I have on hand

about 1/2 a cup of Italian breadcrumbs,

and I just kinda mix it
in there a little bit

just to kinda get that right consistency,

so I can start rollin' it up into a ball.

I'm gonna go ahead and add
the rest of the breadcrumbs.

So, that right there is 1/2
a cup of Italian breadcrumbs.

Okay, so now it's time to go
ahead and make the meatballs.

I've lined a cookie sheet
with some parchment paper.

I've got my coating mix all ready to go.

So, it's like an assembly line.

Now, here's the thing about meatballs,

it all depends on your family,

your personality, what size meatball.

My family tends to like
'em a little bit smaller.

It takes a little bit longer,
but it is well worth it.

So, let's go ahead and
start makin' some meatballs.

So, it's basically just
like normal meatballs.

Just go ahead and roll 'em in a ball,

and then I just like to
roll 'em in my coating mix,

and just go ahead and start
puttin' 'em on the cookie sheet.

Okay, so my meatballs are all done.

I'm gonna go ahead and
put 'em in the oven at 375

for about 30 minutes.

Okay, so my meatballs are in the oven.

So now, I'm gonna go ahead

and start warmin' up my marinara sauce.

Oh, these meatballs turned out fantastic.

I just can't wait to taste them.

So, let's go ahead and get
ourselves a little bit of pasta.

Let's put some sauce on there.

Give me a couple meatballs.

A little bit of sauce on
top of the meatballs, aw.

This is gonna be good,
I can just tell, mm.

Let's go ahead and cut one.

Oh, they look fantastic.

Let's go ahead and get a little bit

of the spaghetti in there.

Mm, that is so good, aw, fabulous meal.

Today, I'm gonna be making
an Asian-inspired dish.

It's Mandarin orange
cauliflower over a bed of rice.

It's a little bit like
sweet and sour chicken,

except its whole plant-based.

I'll be using a head of cauliflower,

an onion, of course, some
green onions, some garlic,

two cups of tomato sauce, and
a can of Mandarin oranges.

I usually use the 11-ounce,
which is the smaller can,

not the real tall one.

But before I begin, I usually
get started on my rice

because it always takes
so much time to do.

So today, I'm gonna be
doing a long-grain brown.

One cup of rice to two cups of water.

Go ahead and give this
a little bit of a stir,

and this usually takes about an hour.

So, I'll go ahead and get this started.

Okay, so the rice is cooking.

Now, it's time to cut up the cauliflower

into bite-size pieces.

I'm gonna go ahead and coat these

with unsweetened almond milk

and then coat 'em again in some
breadcrumbs and some spices

and just go ahead and put
the cauliflower in the bag.

Okay, so I've got the cauliflower
in the re-closable bag.

I'm gonna go ahead

and put some unsweetened
almond milk in the bag.

Now, all these is gonna do is
just coat all the cauliflower,

so it just has a little bit of moisture

for the breadcrumbs to coat to.

Just gotta make sure it's nice and closed.

Just keep working in that
unsweetened almond milk,

so the cauliflower is now coated.

Okay, that's good and coated.

So, now I'm gonna go ahead and
get my second re-closable bag

and put my breadcrumbs in,

but first, let's put
a little bit of pepper

and some salt, again, that's optional.

Give this a shake around.

There we go, so now I got
some spices I the breadcrumbs.

Go ahead and put that
into the re-closable bag,

and I'm gonna take my
cauliflower and start coating it.

And as you can see,

there's really not much
unsweetened almond milk left.

I think I used maybe, I
think these are 1/2 a cup.

So, I'll just go ahead
and transfer that in.

Okay, get rid of that bag.

And again, make sure it's closed

and then just begin coating
all the cauliflower,

and the breadcrumbs are gonna go ahead

and stick now to the
unsweetened almond milk.

So, what I have here is a baking rack.

It's similar to a cooling rack,
like, you know, for cookies,

except this can go in the oven.

The reason why I like this

is because it has a
little bit of a dry fryer,

the air can ventilate around the vegetable

and make it crispy on all sides

instead of just sittin' 'em
on a baking dish like this.

So, before go ahead and
start arranging 'em,

I like to put a little bit of tin foil,

so I don't have to clean up all the mess.

Okay.

So, now the air can circulate
around all the vegetables,

so now, I'm just gonna go ahead

and arrange all the vegetables
on this baking rack.

So, there you have it.

Now, I have my vegetables
laid out on this baking rack,

and you can see how the air

will be able to ventilate around it,

which will give it a crispier edge

around the entire surface
of the vegetable itself.

Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead

and put this in the oven at
about 400 for about 20 minutes.

Okay, so now it's time to make the sauce.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and
start mincin' up the garlic.

We'll go ahead and put these in the pan.

Okay, so now I'm gonna go ahead

and add just a little bit
of water to the garlic.

Mm, it's smellin' really good already.

You can always add a
little bit more water.

Okay, that's just starting to
get a little bit translucent,

so I'm gonna go ahead and
start cuttin' up my onion.

Then I like to put just a
little bit of pepper in there.

And a little bit of salt,
and that's optional.

The garlic is just startin'
to caramelize a little bit.

Don't forget, you can always
add a little more water.

All right, so I got a little
bit of water in there,

you can see in the bottom,

just so it doesn't burn
things a little bit,

but I've caramelized the onions,

I've caramelized the garlic a little bit.

Now, it's time to go ahead

and start cuttin' up the green onion.

I usually break up the
green onion into two parts.

Half of it goes into the sauce

and the other half, the green part

actually goes as a garnish
on top of the main dish.

So, let's go ahead and
start cuttin' this up.

There, I will save that
for the garnish on top.

Let's go ahead and check on the onions

and make sure the
water's not disappearing,

and as you can see,

it's just starting to
disappear a little bit.

So again, I just add a
little bit more water as I go

and continue to stir 'em up.

They're getting nice and yellow,

so that means they're
caramelizing up pretty good.

So, now it's time to go ahead

and cut up the rest of the green onions.

And we'll go ahead and put
these into this mix right here.

We'll go ahead and give this a stir in.

So, I keep checkin' the water
to see if it's still there.

It's got a little bit
of moisture in there,

so I'm good to go,

but I can always add a
little bit more as I go.

There, that's lookin' really good.

So, now I go ahead

and just start throwin'
in the rest of the stuff.

I usually like to go with

a couple tablespoons of brown sugar.

Just put a little bit more water in there.

Then 1/4 cup of white sugar.

I got a tablespoon of tamari sauce.

And a little bit of srirachi, or sriracha,

you know, like a tablespoon
maybe, that's all up to you.

Get this goin'.

And then I go ahead and add
my two cups of tomato sauce.

And we'll let that start to stew up a bit.

Okay, so I like to let this
cook for about 10 or 15 minutes,

just to kinda get rid of some
of the moisture in the sauce,

and I'll go ahead and
add the Mandarin oranges.

Again, that's about 11
ounces, I think it was,

and then go ahead and
put in my green onions.

Mm, you got a little bit
of the Mandarin oranges

with some of that garlic, mm.

It's gonna be really good.

Now, I'm gonna go grab the cauliflower

that's been baking in the oven.

Okay, so as you can see,

it's kind of a little
bit crunch, you know,

it's nice bite-size pieces.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and
dump this into the sauce.

Now the thing is, you wanna do this

just before you're about to serve it

because it does keep some of the moisture.

Let's get some rice.

Let's see how this is doin'.

Oh, this is lookin' good.

We'll go ahead and fluff this up.

Woo, it's a little hot.

Put some rice on a plate.

Put that away.

And we'll go ahead and get some of this.

And there you go.

It's like a sweet and sour chicken,

but it is whole
plant-based, it is awesome,

and I can't wait to taste this.

Mm, the cauliflower's got

a little bit of that breaded crunch.

Mm, I love the garlic, mm.

You know, I just, I just can't believe

this is whole plant-based,
this is awesome.

You're family's gonna dig this one.

How did we get to this point of ignoring

or even buying into this Western diet?

Is that what you're saying?

- Yeah, how did we get
into the Western diet?

Why did we go there?

And furthermore, at this point in time,

why is that being
defined as the best diet?

- Yeah.

- 'Cause that's where I started.

We already had the animal, the
study, the data from China.

Then we had all this background
stuff from the laboratory,

you know, lookin' at mechanisms
and all that kinda stuff.

Put 'em together, what do you see?

That kinda information all of the sudden

comes together like this.

- Making a change
from a Western diet

to a whole plant-based
lifestyle is not easy.

I was able to lower my cholesterol levels

to when I was in my 20's.

I'm also no longer pre diabetic.