Eat...more beans

Beans, beans, the musical fruit....yes, you know the rest! My clients get pretty sick of me talking about the health benefits of beans but they are on a very important list of the healthiest foods that you are not eating! As a vegetarian, beans are a huge part of my diet but most of us tend only to eat beans in chili, hummus or refried form. So I've come up with 5 good reasons to get to know the lowly bean...


1. Fibre: No plant food has more fibre and since the average Canadian only gets 14 grams of fibre a day - it is time to reach for beans! Depending on the bean, the average is 5 grams of fibre per half cup. Not too shabby indeed.


2. Protein: we all need to eat more plant based protein for our health, the health of the environment and the health of our wallets. Beans are a great source of protein and are easy to add to salads, soups, casseroles and more to beef up (no pun intended!) the protein. Just rinse canned beans and add them to your favourite foods.


3. Slow Carbs: the ultimate slow carb source, the carbohydrates in beans (and nutrient balance in general) ensure a nice steady rise in blood sugar for sustained energy and hormone balance.


4. Potassium: 3/4 cup of lentils, like other beans, have 540 mg of potassium. Potassium is severely lacking in our processed food world and is vital for healthy blood pressure regulation.


5. Magnesium: another "if only we ate more whole foods" nutrient, most of us don't get enough magnesium...and not because it doesn't exist in foods! Magnesium is vital for muscle contraction and heart health; magnesium also has a calming effect on the body 3/4 cup of most beans have about 50 mg of magnesium...you only need about 350 mg a day.


So here is a little comfort food for the last days of winter....my Beans and Greens Casserole! This recipe will easily serve 4-6 hungry people -


1 cup quinoa
2 cups water


Bring quinoa and water to a boil and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Turn off heat, fluff and re-cover for later.


1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-3 cloves garlic
1/2 large sweet onion
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
2 19oz cans of your favourite beans, such as white cannellini beans or chickpeas


1 lb of your favourite greens, such as broccoli, kale or spinach
2 tbsp soy sauce
chili flakes to taste


1 cup 1% cottage cheese
2 cups light (not low fat) aged cheddar, grated


Chop onion, garlic and greens. Drain and rinse one can of beans. Leave the other can with liquid intact.
Heat oil over medium heat, add onions and saute until glossy. Add garlic, oregano and rosemary and saute for a minute more - don't let the garlic brown.


Add both cans of beans and simmer for 10 minutes then add greens and simmer until tender. Add soy sauce and chili flakes.


Place quinoa, cottage cheese and beans mixture into a 9 x 12 baking dish and mix until thoroughly combined. Top with cheddar and bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.


To lower the sodium, use salt free beans and reduced sodium soy sauce.


Enjoy!
Desiree

Eat...smart by being label savvy

Dietitians tend to dish out a lot of lessons to help you label read like a pro...but do we ever stop and ask ourselves whether or not we should care sometimes? Reading labels can help with a lot of things...help you separate the high fibre cereal from the fluffy versions, help you avoid the foods that have 5 pounds of salt poured into them and even to help you get the most calcium for your bones. However, now that nutrition messages on the front of the pack have exploded to almost laughable proportions we have to ask ourselves...why?

First things first...nine times out of ten, if a food comes in a fancy package, it is less healthy than one that doesn't. Example? Lucky Charms versus brown rice or granola bars versus broccoli. So why are those packages screaming at you with health claims? Because they know you want to eat healthier and they are doing their best to convince you that their product has the nutritional advantage over their competitor and they also know that they have the platform to tell you about their apparent benefits while the bulk quinoa silently looks on. However, unlike the cold hard nutrition facts and ingredients listings...front of the pack claims, while technically truthful, are usually pretty misleading. Here are five from my hall of shame...next time you see them, laugh, move on and buy the broccoli instead.

1. Whole Grain....ah yes! Made with 100% whole grain, that must be healthy right? Wrong! Next time you see this claim, compare the food to a grain of brown rice or quinoa. How different do they look? The health benefits of whole grains get distorted the further away you get from its raw, natural state. Brown rice or wheat kernels? Healthy! 100% whole wheat spaghetti? Still pretty healthy! 100% whole grain lucky charms? Not a chance. Milled flour, turned into paste and exploded into airy shapes and packaged with sugary marshmallows? Think about it. And don't even get me started on "white" 100% whole wheat...Best whole grain cereal choice? Steel cut oats. Next best? Anything with more than 5 grams of fibre per serving...like Nature's Path Optimum or Smart Bran.

2. Sweetened with fruit juice...usually found on kid's fruit snack packages. Sorry moms but this one is out there to stump you. Fruit juice concentrate is sugar...pure and simple. All fruit juice is nothing more than sugar and water and a few vitamins (if it is less processed) and when it is concentrated to the level of syrup, what's left? Just sugar folks! Candy is candy, even if it goes by the name of fruit snacks.

3. Cholesterol Free...this one is fun, because it is usually on potato chips. To find the humor in this claim, you have to know that all plant foods do not have cholesterol.  Avocados? No cholesterol! Coconut? No cholesterol! Potatoes? No cholesterol! Vegetable oil? No cholesterol! So potato chips are naturally cholesterol free...still loaded with deep fried fat but yes - no cholesterol! Unless you already have heart disease, food cholesterol is not as important to your heart health as saturated fat...so don't think of cholesterol free goodies as health food, deal?

4. Trans Fat Free...trans fats are horrible, it's true. So as we were learning how widespread they are in our food supply, this claim helped us support companies that refused to use them and send a message to food manufacturers to clean up their ways. However, just because a food is trans fat free doesn't mean its healthy. Trans fat free Doritos are still loaded with MSG and saturated fat and artificial colours and flavours. A treat is a treat...enjoy a little bit and move on!

5. 100% Juice...this one can be terrible because most of us think of juice as a really healthy food and drink it with abandon. Remember my comment above? That juice is just sugar and water? Well, they can take a lot of the water out of the fruit juice and technically it is still 100% juice - with a sugar content not found in nature. Looking for a fun experiment to test this one out? Buy a 100% cranberry juice from a big name brand and then find a 100% cranberry juice NOT from concentrate (notice the price difference too...how are foods that require more intensive processing cheaper??). In the US and Canada, you have Lakewood brand and in Canada, you also have Bremner's (my personal fave). Pour an ounce of each into separate shot glasses. Taste the big brand...now taste the not from concentrate. In all likelihood, you could barely drink the not from concentrate stuff. The difference? A lot of sugar...and because we have been so weaned on heavily sweetened foods, most of us have lost our taste for the bitter, astringent and sour foods found in nature.


The take home message? We don't really need juice in our diets but if you are going to do it, drink NOT from concentrate every single time and keep it to a 1/2 cup a day.

Healthy, savvy you...1...Sneaky food manufacturers...0!
Desiree

Eat...at Ping's Cafe

I am a big fan of supporting my neighbourhood businesses...lucky for me, I live on Main St! We have walked by Ping's Cafe quite a few times but it always seems so busy that we haven't ventured in. However, wanting to show off some uniquely West Coast cuisine, my husband and I I brought our friend (and recent Montreal transplant) to Ping's.

Ping's Cafe website http://www.pingscafe.ca/ states that the cuisine is Western Influenced Japanese. However, having lived in Japan as a teenager...I might reverse this statement. We tend to think of Japanese food as sushi, ramen and other traditional specialties - but Japan has always put their special mark on western dishes. As a foreigner, it can be a little disorienting to buy mayonnaise and find it tasting sweet...or potato salad that just doesn't quite taste like home. And that is the food that Ping's Cafe does well...to put you in that headspace of ordering familiar foods that manage to not feel familiar!

The restaurant is beautiful and the website states that everything except for the chairs was made by hand...which when I saw their beautiful light fixtures I was pretty amazed by:

Another reason I chose this restaurant is because it is definitely budget friendly...nothing over $18 and most of the small plates $6-8. The gomae (sesame spinach) was super yummy...too yummy! Gomae is always served in a small bowl but you could double the portion and I would be in heaven. We also had to try the potato salad...which was just like I remember in Japan!

I had very yummy panko breaded Tofu Furai (Tofu Fry in Japanisized English...clever!). The tofu inside was firm yet perfectly smooth textured and the mayo dip was super yummy.

As I had two carnivores with me, they approved of the pork gyoza and the bratwurst - served with pickled beets and sauerkraut:

We also had the veggie poutine...a Japanese style veggie curry gravy and paneer. The fries were great and the gravy was tasty - but the paneer was really small (I would have liked more):

For dessert, we tried the black sesame ice cream...having forgone the red bean as it brought back too many memories of "red bean surprises" having lived in Asia. The first bite was very sesame and then after your nose gets used to it, it becomes the richest, most wonderful flavour. Watch out if you are on a date here, the teeth look pretty black as you munch away :)

All in all, I really liked Ping's...we will definitely be back!

In good health,

Desiree

Eat...local food

Last weekend I attended my first Winter Farmer' Market. I organized a tour of the market for fellow dietitians to learn more about local food systems and we had the good fortune of having the Markets' Executive Director, Tara McDonald, give us a tour and a history of the market. The winter market takes place at the WISE Hall, which is just one block east of Commercial on Adanac and we were treated to the first sunny clear day that week on which to explore the surprising display of abundance. I continue to try and convince myself to carry my camera so I can put some fun photos up on the blog. After market day, I actually charged the battery and promise to get snapping.

Vendors spill out of the hall (next year the market will move to a larger venue) and down the street.  2009 marked the first year that demand overwhelmed capacity for the farmer's market society. Vancouverites are walking the walk when it comes to eating local and the market was packed all morning and food was getting bought up quickly. From low mercury, line caught tuna and biodynamic squash to grass fed meat and beautiful organic spelt bread from Rise (which I devoured almost immediately), the market shuts down any dispute that you can't eat local in January. Almost everything you need is here: gorgeous greens from Forstbauer biodynamic, legendary potatoes (I loved the banana fingerlings) from Helmer's in Pemberton, succulent olives from Dundarave olives ( I could write pages about picholines...which take me immediately back to Provence) and even some locally made kombucha - which I didn't try but will pick up next time for sure.

So often I feel like most of our problems with food and eating stem from a true disconnection from what food is and where it comes from. Food raised for export favours woody, tasteless varieties picked early to survive a long journey to our tables. Commodities such as corn become more food type substances than you could ever imagine: various shapes, sizes and artificial flavours in brightly coloured and agressively marketed packages that leave us wondering what food actually is anymore.

I grew up with a huge vegetable garden, a grandfather that spent his weekends fishing and a kitchen that was constantly turning out real food: bread made from scratch, left to rise on the kitchen table; pies brimming with cherries from the tree outside the window and salads made with vegetables picked just an hour before. Growing up around food connects you in a way that a lifetime eating boxed and bagged fare can't. Like most condo dwellers, I too obtain the vast majority of my food in a supermarket (thank goodness for Choices). While many West  Coast retailers take advantage of local foods, it is visiting a farmer's market that lets you get a bit of that connection back. Don't know what to do with kohlrabi? Ask the person who grew it! Find out what biodynamic agriculture is....or why granny smiths make a better pie. And rediscover what food should taste like - food picked just a day earlier instead of two weeks earlier and shipped across the country. Greens that taste like the earth, not like water and new flavours like sunchokes or kabocha squash. The market is filled with small scale farmers - not those selling the cash crops of cranberries and blueberries but those doing the incredibly noble work of feeding us with a variety of winter crops. Whatever can be grown, is grown and then put on offer at the market. And buying from the market provides the farmer with more money for his crops so that his family might farm another year.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention La Boheme - the crepe truck of my dreams. By noon the line up was at least 10 thick for these amazingly satisfying buckwheat crepes filled with any number of creations. My friend Heather had an apple and ricotta number and I went for the cranberry brie...the crepe perfectly tender crisp and flaky, filled with generous wedges of brie and cranberry preserve, just a touch of bechamel and gorgeous winter greens. I have been dreaming about it ever since....

The next winter market is this Saturday January 30th from 10:00AM. Get there early, get a crepe and laugh at how ridiculously lucky we are to live in Vancouver. More information? http://www.eatlocal.org/

Let them eat crepes,

Desiree

Eating Animals

Full Disclosure: I am a vegetarian and have been, with tiny blips, for 13 years. I choose to be a vegetarian not because of health…I have taken my fair share of Haagen Dazs and Lays as proof of this. I became a vegetarian because I wanted to avoid harming animals. As my own awareness of the impact of eating animals grew, my choice was strengthened knowing that my vegetarian ways also went a long way towards minimizing my impact on the planet. It is estimated that animal agriculture is the number one cause of climate change – not airplane or car travel – it is eating a breakfast of steak and eggs that seals the planet’s fate.



As a dietitian, I read a lot of nutrition books – I consider it both entertainment and a job requirement. So my interest was piqued when I came across Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer. Foer is a novelist (a pretty gifted one at that) and an “on again, off again” vegetarian but his most recent book is one about the current state of our food supply where animal agriculture is concerned. In his own words:


“This story didn’t begin as a book. I simply wanted to know – for myself and my family – what meat is. I wanted to know as concretely as possible. Where does it come from? How is it produced? How are animals treated, and to what extent does that matter? What are the economic, social, and environmental effects of eating animals? My personal quest didn’t stay that way for long. Through my efforts as a parent, I came face-to-face with realities as a citizen I couldn’t ignore, and as a writer I couldn’t keep to myself. But facing those realities and writing responsibly about them are not the same.”


The book is about what it means to eat animals and in today’s industrialized food system that means factory farmed animals. Animals that are “maximized” and “commoditized” as opposed to tended and nurtured. Some who eat animals believe that it is natural for us to do so; however, factory farms, with their crushing conditions and artificial daylight are as far from natural as can be. Even though I am resolute in my own choice to be a vegetarian, as I learn more about our food system I can sincerely appreciate that there is a significant difference between the factory farmed poultry you find at most national supermarket chains and the poultry that you get from Polderside farms (see the article about them in Edible Vancouver here). While the choices to eat animals or not is quite personal and both sides of the argument have merit – I share Foer’s conviction that no one can honestly debate the merits of reducing suffering of our food animals.


I started this book yesterday and already I am a third of the way through – I am drawn to its message and its fairness so far – this is not a book that demands its readers become vegan. You might think, “Isn’t it a convenient position to support since you are already vegetarian”, but I argue that the book is bringing my own dietary inconsistencies to centre stage once more. If our intent is not to harm animals, we must also think about the way the chickens that lay our eggs and the cows that produce our milk have been raised as well. And for many years I have justified buying conventional eggs and milk because they are half the price of organic and humanely raised products. Yet by giving up a couple of lattes a week I can make up the 6 dollar difference pretty quickly and ensure that the animals that supply my food don’t suffer in the process. So here is my promise, placed on the web for all to see, that I will no longer make that compromise. I encourage you to pick up the book and join the conversation….how will you change the way you eat animals?


In good health,


Desiree