SoulVeggie

Paula Deen's: "Perfect" After School Snack, Y'all

I  hadn't watched the "Food Network" for years and have been able to the past several days (indeed, one of my first posts on this blog was about Emeril, and of course, he's not getting any better... disturbing to see people cheering when he now puts a 1 cup or so of olive oil on highly nutritional microgreens).

Anyway, it's been a mixed blessing.  Some neat ideas, but mostly an amazing array of unhealthy meat, dairy, and fatty food being touted as 'good cooking.'  Tonight I happened to catch the tail-end of an episode of "Paula's Home Cooking."  Paula Deen is a rotund fat/sugar/salt aficionado "chef" who specializes in "southern cooking" (y'know, from where the highest percentage of very obese Americans live, the South), as well as saying "y'all" as often as she can.

Normally I wouldn't bother blogging about Ms. Deen (too easy, obvious that her meals are nutritional roadkill), but I'll make an exception tonight.  She was making "healthy and perfect after school snacks" for children.  I caught the last one.  The Pretzel Peanut Bark.  She called it the "perfect snack" twice.   It's white chocolate, salted pretzel sticks, and salted roasted peanuts.  I did a quick ballpark estimate of the nutritional profile PER ONE SERVING:

• 1733 mg of sodium (two-thirds of what the American Heart Association says an ADULT should have per day)
• 46. g of fat (two-thirds the American Heart Association says an ADULT should have per day)
• 50.2 g of sugar (the American Heart Association recommends no more than 37.5 grams for an ADULT per day)

Unbelievable.  It's a dietary disaster for an adult, how much more for a child?  And she called this the perfect after school snack.  Ironic too, is that all the snacks she demonstrated making in this episode were spread out on a table in front of TOWERING LARGE PLATE OF FRESH BEAUTIFUL FRUITS.  In reality, the PERFECT snacks were the fruits put there as eye candy.

"Paula's Home Cooking" indeed.  Perfect for getting you later put into a home for any number of diet-related disorders, and a "perfect" way to get kids even more addicted to fat, sugar, and salt, than they already are (where by genetics or environment).  Forget taxing sodas.  Take a percentage of her profits from her various interests and give it to children's nutritional awareness programs.  They'll need all the help they can get if their parents buy into Paula's nonsense... y'all.

Vegan Heart-healthy Spiced Potatoes Au Gratin Recipe

Check it out:  another great no-added fat recipe from Susan that shows it's really easy to make a heart-healthy happy vegan potatoes au gratin without adding needless fat in the form of tofu sour cream, earth balance, "cheese" slices, veganaise, and a vegan buttery spread as the recipe after her's below does:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/03/creamy-scalloped-potatoes.html

Ironic that some think a highly fat-ladden multi-potato layered gratin with a ton of added fat is "elegant" or "is a home style comfort-food recipe with some serious snob appeal. Potatoes gone chic." (from:

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/11/triple-spiced-creamy-potatoes-au-gratin.html

What a myopic view of nutrition, health, heart-safety, and food in general!  Heart disease, when I last checked, has little "chic" or "serious snob appeal."  The added fat in this recipe would make even the conservative the American Heart Association collectively squirm.  That a blogger claims his/her recipes are a "must read" and are "healthy" and are "chic" is indicative of the blogger's ego --- a good sign of a narcistic attitude that is often mistaken as enthusiam to be trusted.  Certainly isn't a sign of nutritional savvy and informed advice.

But, in this case, it must be nice to be so indulgent as to purchase three types of potatoes from non-local sources, highly processed fake cheese (which is really just added fat), tofu sour cream, a buttery spread, veganaise, and create a high-fat meal around them.

Ain't real food ('cept for the potatoes), ain't happy, ain't sustainable.  Let the "serious snobs" go with the cardiovascular disease.  Me?  I'll go with the certain, peer-reviewed science of "no-added fat" vegan diet and a longer healthier happier life.  I'd rather avoid all the problems shown to be associated with added fat than be "chic."

After all, isn't life worth living well?  That's REAL elegance.

A Library in One Book: "1,000 Vegan Recipes"

What drives a person to write 20 veg'n cookbooks?  What compels and inspires a chef to work countless hours in the kitchen developing, rejecting, re-trying and finding new or innovative ways to bring foodstuffs together?  Behind in my own efforts, I know how easy it is to underestimate the time, resources, trials, and tribulations involved. Tough job, and although one might do a few books just for the money, it takes real inspiration, dedication, and a spiritual will to help the animals and promote veg'nism by being willing to go through that process over 20 times.

Robin sent me a copy of her latest effort, "1,000 Vegan Recipes" a few weeks ago, and since then I've been marveling at, among other things, the sheer magnitude (and physical weight!) of what's she's just accomplished (disclaimer:  I did the website work/design for her "Global Vegan Kitchen" website).  We interacted soon after and I asked her about how the hell she pulled it off.  So many testers (over 30), so many recipes, so many ingredients.  Most notable about her response was this amazing bit of information:

"Three years."

...it took her over three years get this book in public hands!  Three years of labor giving birth to an amazing collection of recipes, resources, advice, and menus.  An encyclopedic recipe set of creativity, practicality, and efficiency, all in a single 612 page book.   And here are the numbers:  80 appetizers and snacks, 253 salads, sandwiches, and soups, 170 main dishes, 46 breads and muffins, 138 cookies, cakes, and other desserts... and that's not all.  Pages of menus groups by such topics as "Family-Style Dinner," "Casual Company Dinner" and the "Seasons."  Several pages for types of ingredients explanations, online resources, and a comprehensive "vegan pantry" checklist!

And the recipes --- they shine as well-tested and glow with simplicity of effort as well as ingredients.  Enthralling.  A breadth and depth to a vegan cookbook like none ever done before (and not likely again).  Check out the following:  "Pomegranate-Infused Lentil and Chickpea Stew," "Tempeh and Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie," "Rotini and Almond-Mint Pesto with Orange Zest," "Pistacio-Pear Couscous Salad," "Chai Spice Cookies," "Vegan Pound Cake(!)," "Strawberry Parfaits with Cashew Creme," and "Pumpkin Waffles with Cranberry Syrup."  Of course, those are just the tip of a "Titanic-sized" iceberg.

Back when I reviewed her "Quick-Fix Vegetarian," I likened that effort to a series of minuets.  In contrast, her latest book is a gourmet library of music to be played in the kitchen, enjoyed, and treasured countless times for years to come.  I highly recommend "1,000 Vegan Recipes."  It's several books in one, and those with special dietary preferences (no added fat, etc.) will find most recipes easily adaptable.  Be sure to check out Robin's Vegan Planet blog, and website, where you can sample recipes from most of her books.  And here's the link to the "1,000 Vegan Recipes" sampler.  Surf over and sample the music!  It's beautiful.

"Going Rogue" On Vegans

"Besides addressing her views on the McCain campaign and the media, Palin, a passionate Alaskan hunter, takes aim at vegetarians. Palin states, “If any vegans came over for dinner, I could whip them up a salad, then explain my philosophy on being a carnivore: If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?”

The accommodating host went on to explain, “I love meat. I eat pork chops, thick bacon burgers, and the seared fatty edges of a medium-well-done steak. But I especially love moose and caribou. I always remind people from outside our state that there's plenty of room for all Alaska's animals -- right next to the mashed potatoes.”"

[Full article edited from here and below.]

50 Ways to Lose Your Ticker

Wow... here's a "vegan" blogger going "whole hog" on promoting added fat  (a nutritionally useless non-food, Vegenaise) in your diet, by having the dietary callousness to list 50 ways to add fat to what you eat, labeling this effort "creative and yummy, " and in effect, demonstrating a stunning complete obliviousness to the many heath issues that have been shown to be problematic with all that added fat:

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/11/fifty-yummy-uses-for-vegenaise-spread.html

Sure, let's ignore 20 years of peer-reviewed research regarding added fat & heart disease, as well as the American Heart Association's recommendations regarding added fat.  After all, you're being "creative" and this is all "yummy."  Right?

How bad is this?  Vegenaise is 9 grams of canola oil fat per tablespoon (about a half a day's worth of fat from the guy's who've reversed heart disease, Ornish and Esselstyn) and one sixth a day's worth of fat as advised by the American Heart Association.  Kat lists fifty ways to ADD FAT (Vegenaise) to your food...  Obesity, heart disease, and a host of physical disorders plague society, and she's is advocating adding more fat to your diet 'cause it tastes good.

My favorite is:  "50. Eat it with a Spoon..."

That's not funny.  It's sad.  To Kathy, all that matters is that it "tastes good," regardless of the impact that added fat can have on your cardiovascular system, brain (Altzheimer's,), pancreas (diabetes), and overall health (obesity).  Added fat-related disorders are bankrupting health care and destroying the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of people, and she gleefully advocates adding "vegan mayo" to oatmeal cereal for breakfast (#46), yogurt (#14),  as a dip for tempeh (#21), with pancakes, (#36), and in sorbet (#37).

Check it out.  It doesn't get more ignorant than this.  Another "must see" post by probably the most nutritionally misleading and myopic "vegan" blogger on the Internet.  And she has the audacity to egotistically self-proclaim her ideas on adding fat to everything but drinking water as "uber-creative."  Yeah, right.

I suggest that "uber-oblivious" might be a more accurate description.  "Uber-deluded" a close second.

Anyway, have a "healthy happy life."  Ignore Kathy's advice at "Healthy Happy Life."  You'll live longer, happier, and with greater chanes of avoiding Heart Disease, Altzheimer's, Obesity, and Diabetes.  After all, can someone really take the advice of a fat addicted blogger who recommends putting vegan mayo in sorbet seriously?

Ruining Broccoli: Making the "Best" the "Worst"

Broccoli is, indeed, a super vegetable.  What a nutritional profile!:  Antioxidents, calcium, protein, vitamin A, C & K, fiber --- the whole biochemical kit'n'kaboodle is fantastic.  Imagine my surprise when a vegan cook manages to take a superb no-fat mega-vegetable and transmute it into deadly pieces of cardiovascular killing shrapnel.

Over at "Super Vegan" (here), our cook dips each broccoli flowerette into Veganaise, sprinkles on some Nutritional Yeast, and then broils 'em all.  We're talking around a tablespoon of Veganaise per broccoli flowerette.  The photo of the "dish" shows 8 flowerettes.  Why is this a problem?  At 9 grams of pure fat per tablespoon/per flowerette (1 gram of saturated fat), that broccoli has been magically transformed from an incredible, essentially no-fat, and totally healthy product of nature into a total of 72 grams of artery-clogging added fat for the one serving (even at 1 teaspoon of Veganaise per flowerette (not likely), it's still a total of over 26 grams of fat per serving).

To put this into perspective:  the ENTIRE Denny's Grand Slam Breakfast (no vegetables in sight!) is around 50 grams of fat.  The guys who've, independently, reversed heart disease (Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn) recommend 14 to 24 or so grams of fat PER DAY, and even the stodgy American Heart Association recommends no more than 60 grams of fat TOTAL per day (2,000 calorie diet). That broccoli now contains around  8 grams of saturated fat which is about half what is recommended by the American Heart Association for women per day.

Wonder full, healthy, tasty, nutritionally dense, broccoli... slathered in pure non-food fat, saturated fat, and broiled.  Well over a whole day's worth of fat in a side dish.  Hardly "the best" broccoli recipe as claimed, and pretty high in the running, imho, for the absolute worst.  No longer a "super food" by any stretch of the imagination and a pretty sad example of how something so healthy (and vegan) can quickly be turned into quite the opposite.

Bleech...

Dirt Candy & Rip Esselstyn on "Protein Myth, Moderation"

I'm still amazed at vegan bloggers who focus on protein issues and/or promote excessively high added fat/oil recipes (most recently, "Chef Amanda Cohen's Veggie Power Girl's Dirt Candy Greek Salad Recipe" that clocks in at over 60 grams of FAT per serving (a whole day's worth of fat according to the Feds, 3 to 4 times what Dr. Esselstyn would recommend per day):

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/10/chef-amanda-cohens-veggie-girl-power.html

... Amanda's the founder of the "Dirt Candy" Restaurant.  Hell, I'd rather eat dirt candy than her "powerful" heart attack special salad.  I didn't even factor in the "8 cups of canola oil" to fry the "2 Trumpet Royal Mushrooms" in (I'm not joking, 8 cups... that's a half gallon of oil).  IMHO, she deserves recognition only as a vegan chef who's apparently oblivious to the well-documented incredible negative impact of fat and saturated fat on the human biosystem.  Is she serious?  A half-gallon of oil for frying two mushrooms?  That's insane.

Anyway, in related repose, I've been thinking about some things Rip (author of, "The Engine 2 Diet" and son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn) had to say in my Mad Cowboy Interview with him (posted yesterday).  Rip's a solid believer of his father's research that reversed heart disease and advocates no added fat in your vegan diet.  Of note:

On the Issue of Protein:

M:  "In your book ["Engine 2 Diet"], you also list a bunch of the myths of a plant strong diet.  What would you say is the biggest one amongst these myths?"

R:  "I'd have to say the biggest one is protein. I get asked about that at least twice a day.  I just say that if your consuming enough calories you never have to worry about getting enough protein."

On the Issue of Moderation:

R:  "With my Dad, that message is perfect.  Depending upon whom I'm speaking to, I'll hit the moderation.  I was speaking to a group of firefighters the other day, and a guy asked me: "How much red meat can I have a week?  Isn't everything in moderation fine?"  I'm like, no, you know what? The whole phrase "everything in moderation" is why we're in such dire straits right now in this country.

One of the things about "Engine 2 Diet" is that what Howard is doing, my father's doing, and McDougall, Ornish and Fuhrman are doing, is we're trying to create a whole new paradigm in health and weight loss.  To me, every other diet program out there concentrates solely on the outside of your body instead of what's inside your body.  To me, we're creating beauty from the inside out."

To further quote Rip, vegetable oil is "synthetic goo."  It's not real food.

Now keep in mind, those are the words of a Professional Vegan Firefighter and award-winning Triathlete.  His father's 20+ years of peer-reviewed research has shown how to reverse heart disease with a no-added fat vegan diet.  One of the only two documented researchers to do this (Dean Ornish is the other). 

Who are you going to trust and believe in, a nutritionally ignorant blogger and/or vegan chef, or the guys out there doing it and proving it in real life?  Heart disease is the biggest killer of people, vegan and non-vegan, male or female, in this country.  And it's not the only chronic disease associated with too much added fat in your diet.

Go vegan, and go no-added fat vegan.  Your body will be healthier, happier, and the odds are that you'll live longer.  That's real power, and it's independent of gender.

Full Interview with Rip here.  Interview with Rip's father here.

Video: "Don't Have a Cow, Mankind."

Amusing sub-60 second clip from The Simpsons about Krusty's new "Burger Squared," admittedly a crime against nature.  Ironically, it's what people who eat hamburgers from fast food restaurants are currently consuming. The "Mad Cow" Special...  Enjoy!  (Note:  what's Howard Lyman's relationship to the Simpsons?  He was invited to speak to the writers and as a result, Lisa became vegetarian! Here's what he had to say about it all (from a previous post))

Latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter - Rip Essy Interview/Recipes

Here's the Intro, Table of Contents, and a Direct Link to the latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter:

LINK:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/88

"10_19_09:  Engine 2 Interview, Mutant Milk, & SpiderVeg"

Howdy! Welcome to the 67th issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

In this issue we're proud to present a Mad Cowboy Interview with the amazing vegan firefighter/author, Rip Esselstyn. Rip's the son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and has built upon his father's remarkable research via some very practical and easy-to-do ways in his diet/exercise/lifestyle book, "The Engine 2 Diet."  There's also three of his recipes for you to try!

Moving on further, there's articles about Mutant Milk, how saturated fat enables Altzheimer's, some surprising statistics on what we eat, Brainfood at the White House, a great new position paper by the ADA on the Vegetarian Diet, and more about that same diet reducing cancer risk.

Continuing in this edition, there's the intriguing proposal for a 50 year Farm Bill, 70 pages of solutions to our agricultural woes, the real cost of food, the new composting mandate in San Francisco, how animal abusers are losing, AETA is winning, new math contrasting a vegan diet with a carnivore's, and the Amazing SpiderVeg!

... as always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers: y'all can browse past issues at the Mad Cowboy Newsletter Archives:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/

Here's hoping everyone is warm, and to quote Rip: "plant strong" this Winter!

Mark, MC editor/webmaster

***********************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: A Mad Cowboy Interview with Rip Esselstyn
02: Three Recipes from "The Engine 2 Diet"
03: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
04: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
05: Mutant Milk, Fat & Altzheimer's, US Fatter, What We're Eating
06: Brainfood, Veg Diet Reduces Cancer & Chronic Disease Risks
07: The Digital Vegan
08: 50 yr Farm Bill, Ag Solutions, Real Food Cost, Composting SF
09: Animal Abusers Lose, AETA Wins, Veg Math, Spider Veg!
10: Howard's Schedule
11: Quick Bytes
12: Closing Thoughts

Top 10 Items Sold At Grocery Stores 06/2008 to 06/2009

[Cited data from an article (with graphical chart) by Mark Bittman, "What We’re Eating."  Sales are ranked by dollars (in the billions).  A very sobering view of the Standard American Diet and how shortsighted it is that this and related preventative issues aren't part of the current "Health Insurance" debate debaucle: 

              ITEM                                         SALES ($B)                             % CHANGE
1.)  Carbonated Beverages                      $12.00                                         1.86
2.)  Milk                                                     $11.20                                        -8.44
3.)  Fresh Bread & Rolls                             $9.57                                         4.77
4.)  Beer/Ale/Hard Cider                             $8.17                                         5.42
5.)  Salty Snacks                                        $8.09                                         9.75
6.)  Natural Cheese                                    $7.64                                         7.75
7.)  Frozen Dinners/Entrees                       $6.13                                         0.18
8.)  Cold Cereal                                          $6.11                                         2.12
9.)  Wine                                                     $5.49                                         3.72
10.) Cigarettes                                            $4.63                                        -2.18

SOURCE: INFORMATION RESOURCES INC. (IRI)