The Doctor Cooks

Nourishing Your Joy (Sabbath Pancakes)

This article originally appeared in the December 2008 issue of the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

The leaves have fallen from the trees.  The animal, plant and mineral worlds are settling down for a well deserved rest.  What about you?  Chances are you are doing the opposite, gearing up for a season packed with shopping, gatherings with family, friends and colleagues and other events.  How much is truly joyful and how much is obligation?  Are you being nourished or run down?

A few years ago my family abandoned its traditional gift exchange.  As we got older most of us didn’t really need or want anything and the children certainly didn’t need more toys. We really just wanted to be together, something that was getting less frequent as we got older, and to share our blessings with others.  So we make a group charitable donation instead of exchanging gifts.  Now we enjoy a good meal together, each other’s company and practicing generosity together.  I feel joyful and nourished.

Sometimes we live our lives in such a fast frenzy that go on auto-pilot, doing what we’ve always done.  Often we are out of touch and cannot acknowledge how draining it is.  We start the new year exhausted and a prime target for the flu, depression and other illnesses.  So how do we slow down, rest and get in touch with what is truly nourishing and joyful?

One way is to practice a Sabbath, a day of rest.  Many religious traditions recommend this.  Now biologists suspect we have a seven day circadian rhythm called a circaseptan. For my husband and me our Sabbath is a day to nourish our joy, recharge our spiritual batteries and rest.  We sleep late, take walks, make love, take naps, and drink tea together.  We meditate, and enjoy a spiritual book, article or DVD.  I like to play my guitar, write music or garden.  It’s almost always a no-car day. 

We take our time to mindfully prepare a special breakfast together--pancakes with real maple syrup, fresh-squeezed juice and tea.  We relax, savor the meal and deepen our connection to each other.  This meal sets the tone for our Sabbath day.  It wouldn’t be the same without it.

Wayne Muller’s book Sabbath is the best book I know on how to create a day of rest.  I also highly recommend Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness.   Here’s the recipe for our Sabbath pancakes to set the tone for your Sabbath day.

Sabbath Pancakes

1 cup plus 2 TBSP whole wheat flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 TBSP turbinado sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup soy or nut milk
2 TBSP ghee, melted
1 TBSP coconut oil, melted
½ cup finely chopped pecans
¼ apple finely chopped (optional)
Ghee to grease the pan

Heat a skillet to medium heat.  Mix flour and baking powder in a large bowl.  Mix the sugar, salt, egg, soy or nut milk and melted oils in a smaller bowl.  Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients.  Stir until the liquid is mixed in.  Do not over mix.  Fold in the pecans and optional apple into the batter.  Apply a thin layer of ghee to the skillet.  Ladle the batter onto the hot skillet with a soup ladle.  Turn the pancake when bubbles appear over the surface.  Remove the pancake when the underside is golden brown.  Serves 2 with one extra pancake for the birds—another one of our Sabbath traditions!

Green Your Thanksgiving Dinner (Carrots, Pecans and Fennel; Kale and Parsnips)

This article originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

My September column led a reader to ask me a question about the raw food diet.  She’s been eating exclusively raw for the past six months.  Now her hair is falling out.

She didn’t provide any details about her diet, but here is my response:  her diet is out of balance.  The bulk of your diet should come from your garden, CSA or produce department, that is, fresh fruits and vegetables.  Leaving out the vegetables is most common mistake people make in their diet.  It’s hard to drop the convenience mindset that causes us to reach for packaged foods that contain too much fat and sugars and too little life force and tissue-repairing phytonutrients.  It’s just as easy to find raw packaged food as any other.  The most used tools in your kitchen should be your knife and cutting board.

I don’t think it matters too much whether you eat raw or cooked, or vegetarian or carnivore.  There are two diets that are clinically proven to reverse diabetes:  the vegan diet, with no animal products, and the Paleo Diet, with pastured meat, poultry, wild game and fish.  What the two diets have in common is the consumption of more vegetables in a month than the average American eats in a year!   You may feel better on one diet or the other, but it’s the vegetables that are curing the diabetes, not whether the food is raw, cooked, vegan or animal.  If a diet can reverse diabetes, I think it can reverse just about any condition.

Now is a good time to examine your Thanksgiving dinner menu with vegetables in mind.  Have you ever noticed how brown thanksgiving dinners are?  Think about it:  turkey, potatoes with brown gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.  Peas were the only vegetable at the last Thanksgiving dinner I spent with my folks.  The abundance of meat and carbohydrates is responsible for the food coma most of us feel after Thanksgiving dinner.  For a healthful and delicious Thanksgiving menu, please go to www.thedoctorcooks.com and click on the left sidebar “Recipes / Holidays and Special Occasions” and scroll down a bit.   It’s well balanced and vegetables play a prominent role.  The only thing you will miss is the food coma.  Here are two of the vegetable side dishes to tempt you:

Carrots, Pecans and Fennel (Friendly Foods by Br. Ron Pickarski. O.F.M., 1991 Ten Speed Press)
I always turn to Br. Ron Pickarski’s Friendly Foods for festive vegetable recipes.

2 cups peeled carrots, sliced into 1/8 inch thick matchsticks
½ cup thinly sliced fennel, or ½ teaspoon ground fennel seeds
1 TBSP grapeseed oil
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup roasted pecans
2 tsp cornstarch
1 TBSP water
1 TBSP chopped parsley

Steam the carrots in a small amount of water, just until tender-crisp, about 1 – 2 minutes.  Be sure not overcook them.
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Sauté the fennel in the oil for 2 minutes.  Add the syrup, pecans and carrots.  Reduce the heat to low.
In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water together, then add to the carrot mixture.  Finally, stir in the chopped parsley and serve hot.  Serves 4
Make this dish raw by replacing the grapeseed oil with extra virgin olive oil, using raw pecans and leaving out the water and cornstarch.  Yum!

Kale and Parsnips (Friendly Foods by Ron Pickarski, O.F.M., 1991 Ten Speed Press)

1 cup halved and sliced onions
1 cup halved and sliced parsnips
1 TBSP grapeseed oil
1 cup water
2 TBSP minced fresh ginger or ½ tsp ground dried ginger
1 quart kale, stems removed

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Sauté the onions and parsnips in oil for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.  Add the water and the ginger.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes.  Add the kale, cover and continue cooking for 4 to 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.  Serve hot.  Serves 4.

Finding Balance (pinto beans)

This article originally appeared in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

Some people are naturally in-touch with themselves.  They “read” their body signals of imbalance and can quickly determine what they need to do move to a better state.  They often have a “healing team” and know just which team member to call on.  Much of the time, they can take care of themselves.  They are excellent patients.

Being in-touch with ourselves is a skill we all need to learn.  Too many of us have been conditioned to ignore these messages that arise within us.  Meditation, loving friends, yoga, tai chi and qi gong can help us tune-in to ourselves.  Your disease type, or physical blueprint, can also be used as a tool to hone your awareness.  Conduct an experiment.  See how you feel when you live in ways that balance your physical blueprint and when you don’t.  Many an “aha!” moment may arise.

Disease type comes from an approach to holistic living and self-awareness called Your Life Blueprint™. It sees life as a web composted of eight fields of living.  They are spiritual, desires, purpose in life/emotions, career, creative play, relationships, vital body and physical.  I’ve been offering consultations in the physical field of living since April of this year.  When you understand and accept the gifts and challenges in each of these eight fields of living, life becomes more balanced, easeful and whole.  With this comes the health we all seek.  I will be offering consultations in other fields of living soon.

The disease type of oiliness is the opposite of dryness, discussed in my June column.  It is characterized by a slow metabolism and intolerance of oils, especially poor quality oils.  When out of balance, they are prone to diabetes.  Poor detoxification through the kidney and bladder make them prone urinary tract problems and skin rashes.  Cancers, tumors and infections of the reproductive system are common.  They are often double-jointed.  They can have thyroid issues and a tendency toward oily stools that float, oily skin and oily hair.

People with the disease type of oiliness balance themselves by avoiding oily foods.  They use small amounts of only the best quality oils such as avocado, nuts and seeds, olive oil, grape seed oil, coconut oil and ghee.  Fried food and hydrogenated oil is poison!  When they eat meat, they eat white meat or flaky non-oily fish such as cod.  They are often natural vegetarians.  Food with the astringent taste is drying and beneficial.  Examples of drying foods include beans and legumes, leafy greens, green tea, asparagus and berries.  Dry sauna, mud baths and vacations to the desert or dry climates can be helpful.

Enjoy this recipe for pinto beans, a drying food.  It goes quick when the beans are cooked in a pressure cooker, an essential tool for anyone wanting to eat a healthy whole foods diet.  Serve them with baked corn tortillas and lettuce greens for more drying effect and avocado for healthy oil.  This recipe comes from the Shoshoni Cookbook by Saks and Stone.

Pinto Beans

2 cups dried pinto beans or 4 cups canned beans with their liquid
8 cups water
2 onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
2 carrots thinly sliced
1 small jalapeno pepper or chipotle pepper
2 teaspoons grape seed oil
1 ½ teaspoons salt or to taste
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons basil
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped.

Soak the beans overnight in enough water to cover.  Drain and rinse beans.  Place in the pressure cooker or heavy bottomed soup pot with the 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and pressure cook on high for 6 minutes or cook on the stove top for 1 ½ - 2 hours.  Use the quick release method to release the pressure.  Drain the beans reserving 4 cups of cooking liquid.

Sauté onions, garlic, carrots and pepper in oil.  Add the beans, salt, cumin and basil, and enough liquid for a gravy-like consistency.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

Before serving, adjust the seasonings and stir in the cilantro.  Mash or blend in a food processor if desired.

Summer in Review

This article originally appeared in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

What great food we had this summer!  I’m so grateful that my husband enjoys preparing as well as eating delicious nourishing food.  Every year gets better and better as we explore and experiment.    This month I share some of the fun we had with raw food when the heat index rose.

One of our simple meals is to slice zucchini with a mandoline into “spaghetti” and top it with Fresh Summer Tomato Sauce—go to www.thedoctorcooks.com and type “summer tomato” in the Blogbar search.

This raw zucchini lasagna looks and tastes spectacular.  When the sun-dried tomato sauce, pine nut “ricotta” and pesto are prepared in advance, it goes together really quickly.  See Raw Food, Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis for the recipe.  I substituted my own raw pesto sauce for theirs, since it was on hand —go to www.thedoctorcooks.com and type “pesto” in the Blogbar search.

Our juicer finally bit the dust.  It was an inexpensive basket juicer that served us for almost 20 years.  Our friend Regina raves about her Omega juicer, so we bought one from www.mercola.com.  It’s a gear juicer instead of a basket juicer.  It produces much more juice from the same vegetables and the juice tastes more vibrant and alive. 

This season our CSA, Kansas City Community Farm, gave us lots of kohlrabi, a root vegetable in the broccoli family.  I tried it place of jicama in my raw Jicama Sushi recipe.   Our new juicer made the process a lot less messy.  With the Omega juicer, we simply peeled the kohlrabi and put it through the juicer.  The kohlrabi pulp was perfect in texture and dry.  No need to press the water out with a towel.  Two kohlrabis yielded about 24 ounces of sweet juice with a slightly astringent taste.  My husband and I split the juice between the two of us, unaware of the cleanse we were about to put ourselves through.  Both of us had watery stools for the next day.  The kohlrabi sushi was delicious all the same.  Bad Seed Farm’s Chinese Red Noodle Beans made them extra special.  For the recipe, go to www.thedoctorcooks.com and type “jicama” in the Blogbar search.

I had some raw coconut in my freezer from a failed attempt to make raw chocolate pudding.  When a cantaloupe arrived in my CSA bag, I knew it was time for cantaloupe soup.  Our friend, Christopher bailed us out with his K-Tec high speed blender.  It quickly emulsified the mixture of raw coconut, cantaloupe, coconut water and a pinch of sea salt into the smoothest, most beautiful soup.  We weren’t so impressed when the blender overheated and shut down a few times while attempting once again to make raw chocolate pudding.  A few weeks later, we stripped the blades on our Waring Commercial Blendor for the second time while making a smoothie.  Any blender should be able to handle that in my opinion.  Impressed with the results of the K-Tec, we surveyed our raw foodie friends about high speed blenders.  We decided to order a Vita-Prep, a commercial version of the Vita-Mix.  Stay tuned for more food fun to come!

Hungry Belly or Hungry Heart?

This article originally appeared in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine. 

I know a woman whose job is total chaos.  Priorities are always changing and everything is due yesterday.  She comes home so worked-up that she delves into a bag of salty chips, her comfort food, to decompress.  By 8:00 pm, her hands and feet swell as she falls asleep in front of the television, exhausted.

This is stress eating.   This is a not a matter of making better food choices.  She is eating to fill a much deeper hunger.  Perhaps the ever changing priorities and rushed nature of her work deny her the satisfaction of a job well done.  Yet she can eat, and eat and eat and never satisfy this need.  Many of us try to eat our way out of emotional hunger.  Then we wonder why we are overweight, sick and tired.

It takes great presence of mind, or mindfulness, to tell the difference between a hungry belly and a hungry heart.  Mindfulness is the capacity to be aware of what is going on in and around us in the present moment.  It’s difficult to stay in the present moment because we are always ruminating about the past or anticipating the future instead of enjoying this moment.  That’s why it’s possible to consume a bag of chips or a quart of ice cream when you are eating to fill a hungry heart.  You are aware of your worries, not your food.

Stress increases the hormones insulin and cortisol.  These hormones occur naturally in our body giving us the burst of energy we need to respond to threats, such as a herd of wooly mammoths stampeding toward us.  The problem with 21st century life is that our day is full on non-life threatening events that we perceive as life threatening.  We respond as if the wooly mammoth herd is stampeding from minute-to-minute.  This leads to constantly elevated insulin and cortisol and can lead to conditions such as diabetes, obesity, dementia, depression, chronic fatigue and lowered immunity.

Sonia Lupien, PhD, from the Centre for Studies on Human Stress at McGill University in Montreal defines stress as “going N.U.T.S.”  We feel stressed when a situation is Novel, Unpredictable, Threatens our sense of self and leaves us with a poor Sense of control.  N.U.T.S. can help bring us back to the present moment.  When you are feeling stressed and are about to reach for that bag of chips or quart of ice cream ask yourself, “am I going N.U.T.S?”  That is, am I in a novel or unpredictable situation, or do I feel threatened or out of control?  If the answer is yes, then eating will not give you relief.

This takes us back to mindfulness.  You have to have some presence of mind to notice how you feel as you are reaching for that candy bar.  Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD offers this exercise for cultivating present moment awareness.  Take a single raisin and eat it. Ordinarily you might pop the raisin in your mouth, chew a few times and swallow, for the most part unconsciously. But mindful raisin eating is much different. Look at the raisin.  Consider its shape, weight, color and texture. Next place the raisin in your mouth, sensing how it feels on the tongue as the mouth welcomes it with salivation. Then chew the raisin slowly and thoroughly, focusing on its taste and texture. Finally, swallow the raisin noticing how it feels as it journeys to your stomach.

When you are present in this way, you can determine what you really need in this moment.  Perhaps a walk, yoga, meditation, journaling or a good cry are better choices.  Or maybe you need to use the raisin method to enjoy your chips.  Perhaps you won’t eat as many or may even realize that you don’t want them.

There a many ways to learn mindfulness, from formal training programs such as Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction to local groups that meet weekly to practice mindfulness together.  Please see www.bethanyklug.com right sidebar for links.  For more information on N.U.T.S. please see www.douglasrecherche.qc.ca/stress/.

Ask the Right Question About Protein (summertime red beans and rice)

This article originally appeared in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

While preparing this article, I realized that my last article stated as fact something that is truly unclear at this time.  We do really don’t know how much protein a human being needs.  Different sources quote different amounts, which have been steadily lowered since Recommended Daily Allowances were established early last century.   A common value these days is 0.23 grams per pound (0.5 grams per kilogram) of body weight for most people and 0.34 grams per pound (0.75 grams per kilogram) of body weight for athletes.  Other sources say more, others less, and many studies are inconclusive.  I hope you learned from my last article that plant foods are valuable protein sources with far more health benefits than animal protein sources.  Also, it’s easy to get too much protein by eating usual amounts of animal foods and miss the protection plant foods offer.

I think the focus on protein is misplaced.  We are asking the wrong question.  Why?  Our body doesn’t use protein to make protein.  It uses amino acids to make protein.  Our body makes amino acids from carbohydrates and other amino acids, except for eight to ten so called “essential” amino acids that we must get from food.  It was once thought that we needed to eat animal foods because they contain all of the essential amino acids in adequate quantity.  We now understand that our essential amino acid needs are well met by eating a variety of plant foods.  This has been the position of the American Dietetics Association since at least 1988.   In one study where the participants ate only corn, all the amino acid needs were met except one, and 91% of its requirement was met.  In another study where the participants ate only rice, amino acid needs not only were met but were 1.5 – 4.5 times the requirement. 

So complicated food combining regimens described by Frances Moore Lappe in her seminal book Diet for a Small Planet are not necessary.  She later stated "In combating the myth that meat is the only way to get high quality protein, I reinforced another myth. I gave the impression that in order to get enough protein without meat, considerable care was needed in choosing foods. Actually it is much easier than I thought."

Even “high quality” protein becomes a myth when we realize that what we really need are amino acids.  “High quality” was once used to describe a food that provided all of the essential amino acids in adequate quantity.  “Low quality” described a food that did not.  These terms are outdated.

So don’t worry about protein.  Instead eat a variety of whole, unprocessed foods, mostly from plants and let your body do the rest.  Make organically grown foods from local sources your first choice. 

Here’s a recipe to add to your repertoire on non-meat main dishes. It’s my take on a well known health food salad and a family favorite come summer.  This recipe calls for aduki or adzuki beans.  You’ll find these small red beans at your local health food store.  They originate in Japan where they valued for their medicinal properties.   Known as a natural diuretic, they are beneficial to those with high blood pressure.  They also fortify the kidneys and bladder, helping those with frequent infections or other problems in these areas.  Rich in fiber, they help lower cholesterol and promote bowel regularity.  Aduki beans do not require soaking.  However, if beans give you gas, soak them first.  Always throw out the soaking water and cook beans with fresh water.

Summertime Red Beans and Rice

Marinade

2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
1 TBSP shoyu or tamari (natural soy sauce, please don’t ruin it with La Choy or other conventional brands!)
3 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil
1 – 3 cloves garlic, minced

Beans and Rice

1 cup cooked or canned aduki beans, drained or a heaping 1/3 cup dried aduki beans
2 cups cooked brown rice
½ cup raw cashews, chopped into large pieces
3 whole scallions, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
¼ cup cilantro, chopped

1. If using dried aduki beans, rinse them first, and add them to 4 cups water.  Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 - 1 ½ hours.  You may also pressure cook unsoaked beans for 14 – 20 minutes, or soaked beans for 5 – 9 minutes.  Then place the pressure cooker in the sink with the release valve pointed away from you.  Run cold water over the pressure cooker until the pressure comes down, then open.  If the beans are not done, return to pressure for 1 – 2 minutes more.  Drain the beans.
2. Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl or screw top jar.  Stir or shake.  Set aside for 30 minutes.
3. Combine the ingredients for the beans and rice.  Whisk or shake the marinade until well blended and pour over the bean and rice mixture.  Toss and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes.  Delicious served cold or at room temperature.  Serves 4 to 6.

Gut Health

This article originally appeared in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

A patient told me the other day that she just couldn’t eat the things she used to and stay healthy, but that was okay.  It was worth it to feel good.  I offered another perspective.  The way she used to eat was simply abuse.  I commended her for no longer mistreating herself and her body commends her with good health.

I tell every patient that diet is the foundation of health.  One reason is that 70% of our immune system is in our gastrointestinal tract, or gut.  From the time we are born, our immune system is “trained” to distinguish friend from foe by the food we eat, healthy bacteria we call normal flora, as well as parasites, viruses and bacteria we think of as pathogenic. 

The normal flora is an amazing part of our immune system.  Dr. Jeffrey Bland, a nutritional biochemist, calls the flora a bioreactor, capable of converting molecules in food to substances that are hard to get any other way.  For instance, soy is converted by the flora into equol.  Equol inactivates dihydrotestosterone, a hormone which stimulates prostate growth and can lead to prostate cancer.   However, one study showed that only 30 – 50% of the participants had the intestinal bacteria to make equol.  Hops, a grain used to make beer, are converted by the flora to make the strongest plant estrogen known, 8-PN.  In one study, only one-third of participants were able to make 8-PN.  8-PN shows promise in preventing estrogen stimulated cancers.  These people aren’t genetically gifted.  They just have healthy gut flora. 

The gut flora is established during the first two years of life.  Patrick Hanaway, MD, a researcher in the area of digestion, immunology and wellness, says that vaccines, antiseptic birth conditions, psychological stress, antibiotics, and even antimicrobial herbs challenge the formation and maintenance of healthy flora.  In the US, lack of breast feeding and introduction of solid food sooner than our gut is able to tolerate from an evolutionary perspective creates imbalances that weaken the immunity of most children. 

The introduction of commonly allergenic foods like wheat, soy and cow’s milk products are particularly problematic.  Processed foods, particularly sugary and salty foods are as well.  He finds naturally fermented foods critical tools for restoring balance.

Many of us think of yoghurt as a good way to restore gut flora.  However it is thought to feed the existing bacteria, not introduce new ones.  Plus most yoghurt today contains little healthy bacteria due to commercial processing methods.

Better options are kombucha and kefir.  Kombucha is a fermented drink made from a Japanese mushroom.  Kefir is traditionally made from goat milk.  When it is made from fruit it is called water-kefir.  Both kombucha and kefir are commercially available in health food stores or can be made at home.  Kombucha mushrooms and kefir starter kits are available on the web.

Power of Food

This article originally appeared in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

Here’s a story about how Leann learned about the power of food.  Leann came to me so fatigued she spent most of the day in bed.  A battle over a family business had sapped her of her health.  I counseled her on the SOUL approach to eating—seasonal, organic, unprocessed and local, advised her to stop all dairy products and wheat, meditate and practice hatha yoga a little every day and prescribed her some bioidentical hormones. 

One year later, Leann was well enough to take a job in France.  She spent a year working in the countryside, where food is still grown on small farms with little use of chemicals.  Leann shopped for food daily, just like the locals.  She ate mostly fresh fruits and vegetables.  When she ate meat it was mostly duck, the traditional food of the area and beef from Argentina on rare occasion.  Argentinean beef is grass fed, instead of grain fed as is U.S. norm.  The meat of grass fed animals is leaner and healthier overall.

Within a few months, Leann’s shoulder pain disappeared completely.  She lost weight without trying.  It wasn’t long before she started to feel overdosed on her bioidentical hormones and began lowering the amounts she took.   Then due to a mistake on her visa renewal application, she suddenly had to return to the U.S.  Before she left France, she was taking only small amounts of the hormones I had originally prescribed to her.

Within 12 hours of her arrival in the U.S., her shoulder pain returned.  One and ½ months later she began to feel depressed.  That’s when she showed up in my office.  She denied feeling stressed, since she was being paid while her visa application was being straightened out and her life was otherwise going well.

“It’s the food,” I surmised, with anger and amazement.  “There is something wrong with our food compared to the food in France!”

“You think so?” asked Leann.

“You bet!”  I exclaimed.  “You need to take additional hormones to offset the load of hormones and hormone-like chemicals in our food and in our environment.  Your body can’t do it on its own.  Our food is too processed overall.”

Leann is already feeling better by increasing her hormone doses.  And she is now committed to eating 100% organic plant foods and pasture-fed, chemical-free animals. 

This story is an amazing illustration of the power of whole clean food to heal us.  But it also makes me angry because whole clean food is a human right we don’t get in this country.  As another patient asked me the other day, “Why is it so hard to eat healthy in this country?   Total junk food is dirt cheap and everywhere!”

Exercise your human right to whole clean food.  March is CSA sign-up time.  CSA stands for community supported agriculture.  The members subscribe for a fee and the farmer in turn delivers just picked fresh produce every week.  Learn more about CSA at www.thedoctorcooks.com.  The Farmers Community Market at Brookside opens mid-April and the KC Organics and Natural Market at Minor Park opens in early May.  Both markets specialize in organic produce.  You’ll feel better for it!

Stressed? What did you eat? (Raw Nut Trail Mix, Stress Buster Smoothie)

This article originally appeared in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine. 

Holidays are here!  Will it be a joyful time of gratitude and affirmed relationships or one of anxiety, overwhelm and distress?  The wrong food can be a stressor in itself making or breaking your ability to handle stress with ease and grace.  The solution, then, is to avoid high stress foods, replacing them with foods that make you more resilient no matter what life hands you.

In a hurry?  Keep healthy options around such as fresh or dried fruit, raw nuts.  The worst thing you can do is to reach for fast foods and packaged snacks.  Most are full of salt, poor quality fats and refined flour and sugar that actually put your body in a state of alarm.  Here’s an easy raw nut trail mix.  Why raw?  Because roasting the nuts denatures the fat and creates advanced glycation end products (AGEs), fierce free radicals that damage your cells.

Raw Nut Trail Mix

¼ cup each of walnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, almonds or other nuts or seeds
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup other dried fruit such as cherries or blueberries
½ tsp salt

Place in bag and shake to mix.  Put in sandwich bags for grab-and-go snacks.  Serves 6.

Watch caffeine and alcohol.  Both cause blood sugar to rise, and then suddenly fall.  Add sugar—yes, alcohol mixers contain sugar, too—and the effect is magnified.  These wild swings in blood sugar keep you in a cycle of adrenaline release that makes you jittery and causes you to crave caffeine, alcohol, fat, salt and sugar.  It also disrupts your sleep, the time your body repairs and restores itself.   Enjoy caffeine and alcohol with a balanced meal and limit your intake to one cup or glass daily.

Eat stress reducing foods.  Whole grains increase the calming brain hormone serotonin, keep blood sugar even and contain adrenal nourishing B vitamins.  Dark green leafy vegetables are high in magnesium—remember it magnesium that makes chlorophyll green.  Magnesium is a natural relaxant that promotes sleep.  It is also necessary to produce the anxiety reducing brain chemical GABA.  Good quality fats such as those from salmon, avocado and raw almond butter are fuel for the adrenal glands and help repair damage caused by stress.  The blood sugar highs that occur under stress reduce your vitamin C level setting you up for colds and flu.  A smoothie with frozen berries and orange juice is a great vitamin C rich snack.  A smoothie is simply frozen fruit and juice mixed in a blender.  Here’s a recipe, but you’ll soon get the knack and start improvising. Frozen wheatgrass shots are rich is vital antioxidants and are found near the frozen fruit at your health food store.  Always stir in flax oil at the end.  Blending it disrupts the omega-3 fatty acids.

Stress Buster Smoothie

½ cup frozen blueberries
½ cup frozen strawberries
1 frozen banana
1 frozen wheat grass shot (optional)
1 TBSP raw almond butter
1 – 1 ½ cups orange juice
1 TBSP flax oil

Add the first 5 ingredients to a blender.  Add ½ cup of the orange juice and blend.  Add more orange juice until desired consistency is reached.  Pour the flax oil in your glass then add the smoothie.  Stir until the flax oil is well mixed and enjoy.  Serves 2.

Eat Slowly and Mindfully.  Mindfulness is a natural stress reducer.  Sit down and be aware of each bite. Chew slowly with awareness of how the food tastes and how you feel about it.  Put your fork down between bites if you need to.  You will eat less and can transform your meals into a moment of peace and joy.  That’s what the holidays are all about, right?

Finding Balance (pinto beans)

This article originally appeared in the August 2008 issue of Kansas City Wellness Magazine.  

Some people are naturally in-touch with themselves.  They “read” their body signals of imbalance and can quickly determine what they need to do move to a better state.  They often have a “healing team” and know just which team member to call on.  Much of the time, they can take care of themselves.  They are excellent patients.

Being in-touch with ourselves is a skill we all need to learn.  Too many of us have been conditioned to ignore these messages that arise within us.  Meditation, loving friends, yoga, tai chi and qi gong can help us tune-in to ourselves.  Your disease type, or physical blueprint, can also be used as a tool to hone your awareness.  Conduct an experiment.  See how you feel when you live in ways that balance your physical blueprint and when you don’t.  Many an “aha!” moment may arise.

Disease type comes from an approach to holistic living and self-awareness called Your Life Blueprint™. It sees life as a web composted of eight fields of living.  They are spiritual, desires, purpose in life/emotions, career, creative play, relationships, vital body and physical.  I’ve been offering consultations in the physical field of living since April of this year.  When you understand and accept the gifts and challenges in each of these eight fields of living, life becomes more balanced, easeful and whole.  With this comes the health we all seek.  I will be offering consultations in other fields of living soon.

The disease type of oiliness is the opposite of dryness, discussed in my June column.  It is characterized by a slow metabolism and intolerance of oils, especially poor quality oils.  When out of balance, they are prone to diabetes.  Poor detoxification through the kidney and bladder make them prone urinary tract problems and skin rashes.  Cancers, tumors and infections of the reproductive system are common.  They are often double-jointed.  They can have thyroid issues and a tendency toward oily stools that float, oily skin and oily hair.

People with the disease type of oiliness balance themselves by avoiding oily foods.  They use small amounts of only the best quality oils such as avocado, nuts and seeds, olive oil, grape seed oil, coconut oil and ghee.  Fried food and hydrogenated oil is poison!  When they eat meat, they eat white meat or flaky non-oily fish such as cod.  They are often natural vegetarians.  Food with the astringent taste is drying and beneficial.  Examples of drying foods include beans and legumes, leafy greens, green tea, asparagus and berries.  Dry sauna, mud baths and vacations to the desert or dry climates can be helpful.

Enjoy this recipe for pinto beans, a drying food.  It goes quick when the beans are cooked in a pressure cooker, an essential tool for anyone wanting to eat a healthy whole foods diet.  Serve them with baked corn tortillas and lettuce greens for more drying effect and avocado for healthy oil.  This recipe comes from the Shoshoni Cookbook by Saks and Stone.

Pinto Beans

2 cups dried pinto beans or 4 cups canned beans with their liquid
8 cups water
2 onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
2 carrots thinly sliced
1 small jalapeno pepper or chipotle pepper
2 teaspoons grape seed oil
1 ½ teaspoons salt or to taste
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons basil
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped.

Soak the beans overnight in enough water to cover.  Drain and rinse beans.  Place in the pressure cooker or heavy bottomed soup pot with the 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and pressure cook on high for 6 minutes or cook on the stove top for 1 ½ - 2 hours.  Use the quick release method to release the pressure.  Drain the beans reserving 4 cups of cooking liquid.

Sauté onions, garlic, carrots and pepper in oil.  Add the beans, salt, cumin and basil, and enough liquid for a gravy-like consistency.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

Before serving, adjust the seasonings and stir in the cilantro.  Mash or blend in a food processor if desired.

Instead of Grains (jicama sushi)

This article originally appeared in the August 2007 issue of the Kansas City Wellness Magazine, www.kcwellnessmagazine.com.

In my July column, I suggested that many people feel better without grains in their diet, especially when they avoid the gluten containing grains, wheat, rye and barley. Many people do not tolerate gluten, a protein in these grains that leads to a wide variety of symptoms or even disease.

So what do you do instead? First, check out websites for people with celiac disease. These folks must eat a gluten-free diet to stay well and are experts. Second, try “grains” that are really seeds, such as quinoa and buckwheat. Quinoa is botanically related to spinach and Swiss chard. Buckwheat is related to rhubarb and sorrel. Third, consider spelt, a distant relative of wheat. Spelt is an ancient predecessor of wheat with greater nutritional value than current wheat hybrids. It tends not to cause symptoms associated with grain intolerance.

Lastly, get creative! I’ve been slicing raw zucchini into long spaghetti-like strips using a new tool in my kitchen, a mandoline. One website describes a mandoline as a manual food processor, but more refined. I agree. I never took to using my food processor for anything but grinding and pureeing. I got better results with a chef knife, until now. A mandoline makes quick work of slicing and dicing and does so beautifully. I enjoy this raw zucchini “spaghetti” as I would any pasta.

Jicama easily replaces rice in sushi, a favorite right now because I can make it without turning on the stove. Jicama is a root, native to Central America. It is also known as taro potato. The flesh looks like a raw potato or pear. Jicama is high in inulin, a fructo-oligosaccharide or FOS. FOS is food for the normal bacteria in our gastrointestinal system and supports bowel health. Always peel the brown skin off the jicama. What remains is the edible part. We put just about any vegetable on hand into sushi at our house. The vegetables in the recipe below are just a starting point. Just slice them into long strips or match sticks. With the popularity of sushi, bamboo mats, nori sheets, pickled ginger slices, wasabi powder and gomasio are available at any grocery store. They can also be found in the macrobiotic section of your health food store. This recipe was inspired by a more complicated sushi recipe from Raw Food Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis.

Jicama Sushi

6 cups jicama, chopped into 1-inch dice (about one 6 inch diameter jicama)
½ cup pine nuts
¼ cup brown rice vinegar
2 TBSP agave nectar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 medium carrot sliced lengthwise into thin strips
1 medium cucumber sliced lengthwise into thin strips
1 avocado sliced lengthwise into thin strips
1 bunch sunflower sprouts or other long-stemmed spouts
6 to 8 nori sheets
1 ½ teaspoons wasabi powder
Pickled ginger slices
Gomasio
Bamboo mat for rolling sushi

Place the diced jicama and pine nuts and chop it into rice size pieces using a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Place the mixture between two tea towels, roll up the towels and squeeze out the water. Do this over a sink or a bowl since there will be lots of water. In a large bowl combine the jicama mixture, rice, agave nectar and sea salt and mix well.

Place a sheet of nori on the bamboo mat with the rough side up. If you look closely at the mat one side is flat and the other is bumpy. Keep the bumpy side up. Place about ½ cup of the mixture on the bottom 1/3 of the sheet and spread it evenly. Place a slice of carrot, cucumber, a few avocado strips and some sunflower sprouts across the mixture. It’s artful to extend the leafy ends of the sprouts past the end of the nori sheet.

Fold the bottom of the bamboo mat up and over the filling, continue to roll, squeezing slightly to make a tight roll. Gently unroll the mat. Using a sharp non-serrated knife, slice the roll crosswise into six pieces. Repeat for each nori sheet.

Add water to the wasabi powder a few drops at a time until a mustard-like consistency is reached. Arrange the sushi on a plate. Sprinkle the sushi with gomasio. Garnish with wasabi powder and pickled ginger slices.

Nourishment from the Sea (applewood smoked dulse sandwich)

This article originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

 

Let’s talk little more about sea vegetables.  I introduced the idea last month with an easily prepared sea vegetable salad.  I always seek to get nutrients from my diet rather than supplements.  That’s the way we’ve got them since the beginning of human time and likely the best way to assimilate them.  Years ago, I came across the idea of eating seaweed.  Eeeeeeeeeeeeew!  But I’ve always had a spirit of fairness that prevents me from dismissing something so easily.  Now, sea vegetables are a regular part of my diet.

 

Any culture located by the sea has a long tradition of consuming sea vegetables, including Native Americans.  The Kashaya of what is now Northern California describe mei bil, or nori, as blood of the Earthsea given by the Great Spirit to the people.  Minerals give our blood its characteristic taste.

 

Sea vegetables are rich in minerals, vitamin K, folic acid and other B-vitamins as well as lignans, cancer inhibiting plant nutrients.  They are especially rich in iodine, essential for thyroid function.  Iodine deficiency is associated with fibrocystic breasts and possibly breast cancer.  Japanese women have the lowest rates of breast cancer in the world and the highest amount of iodine in their diets.  Preliminary research shows adequate iodine may be linked to their lower breast cancer rates.  Interestingly, iodine levels are at an all time low among the US population.

 

The lignans in sea vegetables prevent cancer cells from metastasizing via the blood.  They inhibit estrogen synthesis as effectively as some estrogen blocking drugs.  Other lignans act as weak estrogens, easing menopausal symptoms such as poor sleep and hot flashes.  The mineral magnesium in sea vegetables also promotes relaxation and sleep.

 

Kombu adds minerals, tenderness and flavor to any soup, stew or dish prepared with a lot of liquid.  I add a 4-inch stick to rice or beans as I bring them to a boil.  Kombu is a source of natural glutamates.  MSG was modeled after kombu.

 

I often enjoy seaweed bacon and eggs.  Prepare your eggs in your favorite way.  Instead of frying bacon, try a few pieces of Maine Coast Sea Vegetables applewood smoked dulse.  I prefer it raw, but others enjoy it fried until crisp.  I put this dulse on sandwiches regularly anytime bacon might be used, or not.

 

This is my version of a sandwich sold long ago at the health food store Clearly Nature’s Own.  For picnics, I just pack up the ingredients and make it wherever I’m going.  So easy!

 

2 slices whole grain bread
Mayonnaise
Brown mustard
½ avocado
A few rings of sliced red onion
1 TBSP raw sunflower seeds
1/3 cup of your favorite sprouts
3-4” strips of applewood smoked dulse

 

Spread the mayonnaise and mustard on the bread to your liking.  Spread the avocado on one slice of the bread.  Sprinkle the avocado with sunflower seeds.  Top with red onion to taste, sprouts and applewood smoked dulse.  Top with the remaining slice of bread and enjoy.

 

Big News!  The Merriam ORGANIC Market has opened Tuesdays 4-8 pm, now through September (excluding July 1) at 5740 Merriam Drive just NW of I-35 and Johnson Drive. www.MerriamOrganicMarket.ORG.  Be there!

 

Lose weight, rid yourself of health problems and end your dietary confusion by living according to your disease type.  Bethany Klug, D.O. is now offering disease type consultations in person or by phone.  Make an appointment by calling 913-642-1900.  Learn more about disease type and restoring health with holistic medicine at www.bethanyklug.com and simple healthy cooking at www.thedoctorcooks.com.

 

What Your Refrigerator Says about Your Health

This article originally appeared in the May 2008 issue of Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

If I could, I would look inside every patient’s refrigerator and pantry.  It would speak volumes about their present and future health.  The more packages, bottles and jars and the more brightly colored and busy their labels, the more ominous the prediction.  I whole heartedly agree with Michael Pollan, author of the best-selling books, the Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, “clear your home of any food your great-grandmother would not recognize.” 

But there are a few packages in my fridge and pantry.  I’d like to share with you a few healthful and delicious foods that your great-grandmother would have enjoyed.

This kitchen do-it-yourselfer just can’t bring herself to juice wheat grass--yet.  Last year I discovered Evergreen Wheatgrass Juice.  It is 100% organic, outdoor grown, expeller pressed then immediately frozen.  It comes in an ice cube tray-like plastic package.  The plastic tray is easily separated into individual cubes with scissors.  Simple remove the plastic seal and pop out a cube.  The cubes can be soaked in warm water to melt while still in their packages.  I love these in smoothies and in my morning glass of fresh veggie juice.  Wheat grass is good for every disease type, but especially for the slow metabolism types.

I discovered Lydia’s Organics last fall at D’Lish, a fantastic vegan/raw restaurant in Sedona, AZ.  Three of their grainless, gluten, sugar and oil-free products grace my pantry.

Grainless Apple Cereal is a delicious mix of organic dehydrated apples, sprouted sunflower seeds, sprouted almonds, raisins, soaked walnuts, figs, sprouted flax and cinnamon.  ½ cup with warm rice milk keeps me humming all morning without the energy drain I often feel from wheat.

I recommend people eat their nuts and seeds raw instead of roasted to avoid denaturing the omega-3 fatty acids and the resulting advanced glycation end products.  Known as AGE’s, these fierce oxidizing agents indeed age you.  The biggest complaint I get from patients about raw nuts is that they miss the crunch.  Well you can have health and the crunch, too with Lydia’s Organic Savory Trail Mix.  She dehydrates sprouted sunflower seeds, sprouted pumpkin seeds, sprouted almonds, and seasons it with wheat-free tamari, dulse, cayenne and Himalayan crystal salt.  A palm-full of Savory Trail Mix is a regular afternoon snack for me.

You would never find crackers in my pantry until now.  Lydia’s Organics makes these amazing crackers from dehydrated vegetables, sprouted seeds, soaked nuts and seasonings.  Two is all I need with a bowl of soup or topped with pumpkin seed butter for a quick snack.

Because Lydia’s products are dehydrated they are not the best for disease of lightness and dryness.  They are a more healthful alternative to plain nuts and seeds for disease of oiliness.  I’ll continue my series on the disease types next month.

Whole Foods Market in Overland Park sells Evergreen Wheatgrass Juice.  I buy Lydia’s Organics products at www.naturalzing.com.  This website features a full line of dehydrated nuts and seeds for you crunch-seekers! 

Lose weight, rid yourself of health problems and end your dietary confusion by living according to your disease type.  Bethany Klug, D.O. is now offering disease type consultations in person or by phone.  Make an appointment by calling 913-642-1900.  Learn more about disease type and restoring health with holistic medicine at www.bethanyklug.com and simple healthy cooking at www.thedoctorcooks.com.

The Elixir of Health (toasted sesame dressing)

This article originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Kansas City Wellness Magazine. 

Lately I’ve been inundated with phone calls and information from people selling the latest health elixir. Most are exotic fruits unknown to the Western world until recently.  They offer all sorts of testimonials, from eliminating fatigue to curing cancer to even making your child like his vegetables!  They are rich in antioxidants that detoxify, repair and heal our cells.

These elixirs are a sort of health colonialism.  It takes effort to eat healthy life sustaining food in this country.  It’s not readily available.   Just look at the school lunch program.  So instead of fixing the problem, we economically invade other countries, seeking their wealth.  Perhaps the next wars won’t be over oil, but over antioxidants!

So instead of reaching for the latest potion, increase the antioxidant potential of your diet in other ways.  It’s so easy right now to buy local, organically grown food picked the day before it is sold.  Most food travels 1200 miles to reach your local grocer and loses nutrients with every mile.  It takes a head of local lettuce two weeks to look and taste like grocery store lettuce.  Eat more fresh vegetables.  Drink a glass of fresh vegetable juice every day.  Plant a vegetable garden—it’s not too late!  Plan to grow kale, lettuce and other cold weather greens in a cold frame this winter.  Do your part to achieve antioxidant independence!

Have you seed President Clinton lately?  He looks, well, rather crusty.  He’s had heart problems and I suspect his cardiologists have him on a very low fat diet and cholesterol lowering drugs.  Interestingly, heart disease rates continue to increase in the U.S. despite the popularity of low fat diets and cholesterol lowering drugs.  One reason for this is the disease of dryness.

President Clinton has disease of dryness.  Dry cracked skin and nails, dry hard stools, scanty perspiration, dry dull eyes, neuro-muscular problems like Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis, and heart problems like high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries are signs of imbalance with disease of dryness.

Quality fat is the elixir of health for people with disease of dryness.  President Clinton’s heart problems would improve and his youthful glow would return if he enjoyed more healthy fats such as ghee, coconut, olive, flax and grape seed oil as part of a higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet.  Sautéing in oil is preferred over deep fat frying, where high temperatures decrease the nutritional value of the oil.  President Clinton, always a bit chubby, will lose weight by increasing the fat in his diet.  Fermented foods increase the digestion and absorption of fat in the body.  The President can enjoy naturally made yoghurt and buttermilk, pickles, sauerkraut, vinegar, sour-tasting fruits and other fermented foods.  People with dryness generally lack minerals.  Sea vegetables are an excellent source of minerals.  Warm oil massage can also bring balance to people with disease of dryness.  This advice goes against the conventional cardiology wisdom but it works wonders if you have disease of dryness.

Ohsawa brand Sea Vegetable Salad is a medley of five colorful sea vegetables.  Mild in flavor, it’s an easy way to introduce sea vegetables, and their wealth of life giving minerals and antioxidants, to your diet.  Sea Vegetable Salad is sold dried, as are most sea vegetables.  Properly stored they keep indefinitely.  Ask for Ohsawa brand Sea Vegetable Salad at your local health food store or order at www.goldminenaturalfoods.com or 1-800-475-FOOD (3663). 

Soak a handful of Sea Vegetable Salad in water for 10 minutes, drain and serve topped with a simple vinaigrette or this Toasted Sesame Dressing.  Remember, three parts oil to one part vinegar makes a simple vinaigrette. 

Toasted Sesame Dressing

1 ½ TBSP toasted sesame oil
3 TBSP grape seed oil
3 TBSP umeboshi plum vinegar
2 TBSP brown rice or apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon mellow white miso.

Combine the above ingredients is a jar or bowl.  Shake or stir well to blend.  About 6 servings.

Lose weight, rid yourself of health problems and end your dietary confusion by living in balance according to your disease type.  Bethany Klug, D.O. is now offering disease type consultations in person or by phone.  Make an appointment by calling 913-642-1900.  Learn more about disease type and restoring health with holistic medicine at www.bethanyklug.com and simple healthy cooking at www.thedoctorcooks.com.

The Right Diet and Lifestyle for You -- Part II (roasted beets)

This article originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Kansas City Wellness Magazine.

Last month I introduced disease type, a highly predictive method of determining the best way of eating and self-care for you. There are eight disease types, or ways of going out of balance.  If you think of disease as an expression of imbalance, eating for your disease type brings you into a balanced state where disease is least likely to manifest. 

Disease types are divided by metabolism:  fast, slow or mixed.  The speed of your metabolism tells you how much protein, fat and carbohydrate you should be eating.  Protein includes animal protein, nuts, seeds and beans.  Carbohydrates include nuts, vegetables, fruits and whole grains, not just starches.   Then certain foods are emphasized or de-emphasized due to their ability to bring balance or imbalance to the disease type.

Jill sought a disease type consultation due to frequent migraine headaches. They usually begin at her right temple.  On a bad day, they extend behind her ear and into her neck and shoulders.  She can’t get going in the morning until she jump-starts herself with a cup of coffee and a warm shower.  It also helps her clear the thick mucus that collects in her nose and throat overnight.  Concerned about calcium, she eats plenty of dairy products.  She tried the raw food diet and had the worst migraines of her life.

Jill has disease of coldness.  People with this disease type have a slow metabolic rate and often have symptoms that appear or worsen in the morning and during cold weather.  They often feel cold, even in the summer.  Coldness affects the triple warmer or endocrine acupuncture meridian.  People with coldness often have pain along that meridian as Jill does. 

People with disease of coldness need to speed up their metabolism and create heat.  They do best on a vegetarian, even vegan regime, emphasizing cooked foods flavored with warming herbs and spices.  Dairy products have a cold damp quality that worsens disease of coldness.  Milk, cheese, yoghurt, ice cream and other dairy products must be avoided.  Warming self-care techniques, such as certain breathing practices, sauna and warming oils can be helpful.

Roasting is easy and adds deep heat to food, ideal for people with coldness.  Here’s my favorite way to roast beets.  You’ll find them at your local farmers market now.  Don’t throw away the greens!  They are delicious steamed for about 5 minutes.  Toss them with the sliced roasted beets for a real treat.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Do not peel the beets.  Instead wash them and leave about ½ inch of the stems attached.  Place the beets on a large piece of aluminum foil. Fold the foil to make a sealed pouch.  Bake for 1 ¾ hours or until tender.  Allow to cool in the pouch.  Once cool, open the pouch and slip the skins off.  They will come off easily.  Slice and serve sprinkled with tarragon, a warming herb, raw walnuts and a splash of balsamic vinegar. 

Lose weight, rid yourself of health problems and end your dietary confusion by living according to your disease type.  Bethany Klug, D.O. is now offering disease type consultations in person or by phone.  Make an appointment by calling 913-642-1900.  Learn more about disease type and restoring health with holistic medicine at www.bethanyklug.com and simple healthy cooking at www.thedoctorcooks.com.

The Right Diet and Lifestyle for You!

We’ve all seen it.  A friend tries a new diet.  She loses all sorts of weight, finds renewed energy and zest for life.  At her urging you try it and nothing, or worse yet, you gain weight and feel more tired than ever.  What gives?

I recently found a very good answer to this question after many years of searching.  It’s called your disease type.  Traditional healing systems see disease as an expression of imbalance.  Thus, by eating and caring for yourself in a way that keeps you in balance, you stay healthy. 

There are eight disease types, or ways in which your body can go out of balance.  Everyone has one of them.  Simply put, there are eight ways of eating and taking care of you.  Only one of them is right for you.   This explains why the diet that works for your friend doesn’t work for you.  She just happened to find a diet that keeps her disease type in balance.

HOMO OBESUS? (cream of broccoli and cashew soup)

A new species of man may be evolving, according to medical researcher George Chaldakov, MD, PhD.  This species is missing the factors necessary to balance its metabolism and to regulate inflammatory processes and wound healing.  The result:  a species that is overweight, lives with degenerative diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis or arthritis, and dies of stroke, heart attack or cancer.

The evolutionary trigger for this new species is the calorie-dense, nutrient-deficient diet of Western civilization, the diet that most Americans and Western Europeans eat, says Chaldakov.  The paradox, he notes, is that while this is going on, millions of people suffer and die from starvation in less developed and poor countries.  Thus he is actively involved in popularizing the need for healthy lifestyle.

Lose Weight This Year

Resolving to lose weight is always one of the top ten New Year’s resolutions.  With 2/3 of Americans considered overweight, it’s probably one of the top ten resolutions abandoned by the end of January.  You can succeed this year by adopting a new way of life that includes healthy eating.  Here are a few books to guide you.

If It’s Not Food…Don’t Eat it is my favorite book to recommend to people who can’t seem to break the junk food, fast food life way of life.  Author Kelly Hayford was once a tobacco addicted junk food junkie.  She is now a nutrition and health coach.  I agree with Hayfords conclusion:  the key to health, energy and a natural body weight is to eat real food.  The rub is that most of what we have come to know as food is far from real.  Instead of nourishing us, it depletes our bodies of essential nutrients, making us fat, sick and tired.  Hayford helps you step out of the fast food rat race and eat for health.  Learn more at www.FoodFitnessByPhone.com.

The premise behind The Paleo Diet is that diseases of western civilization such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer, did not exist until humans began to grow their own food.  Backed up with studies, author Loren Cordain, PhD shows how eating like a hunter-gatherer can help you return to an “ideal body weight, optimum health, and peak athletic performance.”  On this diet, you eat grass fed meats, fish, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits.  You won’t find grains, dairy or beans in this diet. The hunter-gatherers couldn’t stop a wooly mammoth long enough to milk it, nor could they gather enough wild grains and beans for a loaf of bread or stew.  This way of eating is naturally low in carbohydrates, yet high in plant nutrients and healthy fats.  Unlike Atkins, who died with severe heart disease, you can follow a low carb approach, lose weight and restore your health.  Learn more at www.thepaleodiet.com.

We’ve all heard of wheat grass juice by now, thanks to Ann Wigmore.  She decided to let food be her medicine and cured herself of colon cancer.  She went on to found the Hippocrates Health Institute, now located in West Palm Beach, Florida.  Her book The Hippocrates Diet and Health Program details the “living foods” or raw foods lifestyle.  Wigmore’s research confirmed that food loses its enzymes and much of its nutrients when heated beyond 115 degrees Fahrenheit, and along with it, its ability to heal.  Raw foods have a special ability to induce detoxification.  As the body detoxifies it repairs itself.  The staff at the Hippocrates Health Institute is accustomed to seeing improvements in a wide variety of conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and chronic fatigue.  Insulin dependent diabetics have normalized their blood sugar and discontinued insulin use within a matter of weeks.  The living foods lifestyle is a big change for most of us, but with 2/3 of Americans overweight, most of us need a big change.  This could be the most significant step you will make in the direction of lasting health, energy and natural body weight.  Learn more at www.hippocratesinst.com.

The Book of Whole Meals by Annemarie Colbin is still one of the best guides to whole foods eating, even though it was written back in 1979.  Colbin, the founder of the Natural Gourmet Cookery School, now the Natural Gourmet Institute of Health and Culinary Arts in New York City, explains how our body seeks balance.  A diet of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, white flour and other processed foods creates wide metabolic swings that are difficult to balance, leading to obesity and disease.  Whole foods on the other hand center our metabolism so we can heal and maintain our health.  Colbin deftly explains the theory and the practice, right down to seasonal menus from which lunch is made from the dinner leftovers. My copy has been rebound and the pages clearly show its use.  Find this book at your local bookstore.

This article originally appeared in the January 2008 issue of the Kansas City Wellness Magazine in my monthly column, The Doctor Cooks.  Look for it in every issue!

Wheat May Not Be the Staff of Life

Bread and grains are one of the most sacrosanct elements of our diet. For most people, including the family I grew up with, a meal is a starch, meat and a vegetable. Dinner just isn’t complete without bread. Yet grains could be the culprit behind your health problems and you might do well to reduce or eliminate them.

Bread and grains appeared on the human scene about 10000 years ago. Humans left their nomadic hunter gatherer lifestyle behind in favor of agriculture. They cultivated grasses which evolved into the grains we know today such as wheat, rye and barley. But not everyone fared well on grains. Children failed to thrive and died due to diarrhea with undigested fat and food in it. The ancient Greeks identified this as celiac disease but did not know that it was caused by gluten. Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye and barley. Today, celiac disease affects 1 in 133 people with a wide variety of symptoms including acid reflux, diabetes, headache, hypothyroidism, skin problems and infertility. Former Baylor University gastroenterologist Kenneth Fine, MD believes the incidence is higher because the standard blood test is not sensitive enough. He has developed a more sensitive test available at www.enterolab.com.

Loren Cordain, PhD of Colorado State University blames heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, cancer and other diseases of western civilization on an overly cultivated diet. In his book, the Paleo Diet and on his website, www.thepaleodiet.com, he recommends a diet of lean grass fed meat, but not pork, wild fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. He avoids grains, beans, milk products and even minimally processed foods like vinegar. People have responded well to this regimen, especially those with insulin resistance and diabetes.

Peter D’Adamo recommends a hunter gatherer diet for people of with blood type O in his book Eat Right 4 Your Type and website www.dadamo.com. The American Red Cross reports that 60 to 70 % of people of Hispanic origin have type O blood and about 45% of other ethnic groups are type O. He goes further to suggest that the blood types evolved in response to changes in the human diet and thus we are healthiest when we eat foods available to us at that time in human history.

Summer, with its bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables, is an excellent time to see if a hunter gatherer type diet could be good for you. This evolving body of research has convinced me that grains and cereals are not needed for human health and may be harmful to many of us.

This article originally appeared in the July 2007 issue of the Kansas City Wellness Magazine, www.kcwellnessmagazine.com.

Coriander Carrots

Coriander Carrots

This recipe is from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna Sass.  I recommend grape seed oil instead of the oils she uses.  I plan to substitute fresh figs instead of currants.  I couldn’t resist!

To reduce the pressure via the quick release method, simply take the pressure cooker over to the sink and run cold water over it.  Tilt the pressure cooker away from the valve to avoid getting water into the cooker.

1 TBSP grape seed oil
½ cup finely sliced leeks (white and light green parts) or coarsely chopped onions
¾ to 1 cup water (use the manufacturer’s recommended liquid minimum)
¼ cup dried currants or raisins
1 TBSP ground coriander seeds
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
1 ½ pounds carrots, cut on the diagonal into ½-inch slices

1 to 2 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional)
1 TBSP minced parsley

Heat the oil in the cooker.  Cook the leaks over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for 1 minute.  Add the water (stand back to avoid sputtering oil), currants, coriander, bay leaf, salt and carrots.

Lock the lid in place.  Over high heat, bring to high pressure.   Lower the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for 2 minutes.  Reduce the pressure with the quick release method.  Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.  If the carrots are not quite tender, replace (but do not lock) the lid and let them continue to cook for another minute or two in the residual heat.

Just before serving, stir in the lemon juice (if using) and parsley.  Serves 4 to 6.