Bloomberg News published a piece today that discusses the movement of doctors learning about healthy cooking and adding this skill to their healthcare toolkit. This is important, because as the obesity and metabolic disease epidemics continue, we realize that relying only on pharmaceuticals is not good medicine. We as physicians, and the broader medical community, owe it to our patients to have the best tools in our toolkits to help prevent and treat disease--including cooking and eating delicious, healthy food.
Delicious, Healthy Meals--Courtesy of @ChefInResidency on Instagram
Also,
be sure to check back for the following upcoming posts (by popular demand) on
common GI issues: GERD (acid reflux), lactose intolerance and IBS…and more
recipes, of course!
I was reflecting on this blog/website's content the other day and realized that I wanted to add a parallel project that has a similar flavor, but a slightly different focus.
The Vegan Breakfast Sandwich - want some bagel with those veggies?
ChefinResidency.com's content is meant to teach, in a detailed and easy-to-understand way, about how to cook and eat delicious, healthy food that won't take forever or break the bank and doesn't require a lot of special skills. Another goal is to help people to better understand what a healthy diet is and to dispel nutrition myths. The time that it takes to create each post - cooking, documenting, photographing and/or recording video, writing and editing - is substantial. Best case scenario, I get a post published every week or two.
When it comes to mealtimes, my husband always asks, "are you going to put this on your website?" Generally, because of the time limitation, the answer is no. We both agree that it is a shame that people can't see the delicious plant-based dishes that we eat on a regular basis!
Vietnamese Rice Noodles, Herbs & Vegetables with Spicy Lime Dressing
You see, people frequently ask us, "what can you eat?" This is because I am vegan and my husband is a flexitarian (vegan most meals, fish thrown in a couple times per week, but won't pass up a delicious steak if it's put in front of him) - and we're from the Midwest, raised on meat, potatoes and more cheese than anyone should ever eat. A vegan diet is one in which someone eats no animal products - no milk/dairy products, eggs, meat, fish or poultry. Most people are confused by my food choices knowing how I grew up, that I went to French culinary school and taught traditional cooking methods for years (including some butchery!). They think that I now deprive myself of all of that deliciousness - something they never could/would do.
While, I do occasionally think about the amazing tastes of some of those French classics, I can honestly say that I don't feel the least bit deprived being vegan. To non-vegans, this sounds unbelievable - I know, I've been in your shoes. This is why, I decided to succumb to Instagram and start sharing some of our weeknight meals.
Follow my everyday meals at: http://instagram.com/chefinresidency
Stir-fried Asian Vegetables with Basil-Lemon Sauce & Fried Cashews
To make sure that I am able to keep this up, I'm just posting the picture and a brief description. No editing, no recipes, no fuss. I am excited to see how it goes! Of course, if you're dying for a recipe, let me know and I'll try to tell you what it is - very little of what I'll post will be from a recipe since I rarely cook by recipes. The recipes that I share on the blog are made by me carefully documenting what I do in the kitchen so I can share with you later (again, lots of time required).
Spicy Yellow Curry with Lemongrass Tofu & Brown Rice
Elephant in the "room": no, I do not expect that everyone will become vegan nor do I proselytize about this to people on the street. I recognize that this is a personal choice that I've made for a variety of reasons - including that vegan is a healthy diet that is very low (compared with most others) in terms of it's stress on the environment and resources required to produce food, it's cholesterol-free and those that eat vegan have the lowest rate of obesity. It has also been shown to be an effective treatment for heart disease and diabetes and lengthens telomeres (aging is associated with shortening of telomeres). When done right, it also provides plenty of all the nutrients you need to stay healthy. If people are interested in learning more about a vegan diet, by all means, let me know and I'll write future posts on the topic!
However, I recognize that these reasons are not important to everyone. What should be important to everyone, though, is being the healthiest, happiest version of yourself you can be. Who doesn't want to add life to their years? Part of this includes eating right. Part of eating right is increasing the number of plant-based foods in your diet - vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes/beans and healthy oils. The goal of this website is to help you do that regardless of your dietary framework. Look for an upcoming post on "What is a healthy diet." This will highlight what a healthy diet is for those with a variety of preferences and restrictions - including omnivore, flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, etc.
Apple pie, apple cider, apple donuts and apple fritters, apple cake...I sense a theme here.
I'm the first to admit that the first slice of apple pie made with freshly picked apples or warm, fresh-pressed cider on a cold day cannot be beat. Unfortunately, we can't - or more likely, shouldn't - live on sugary apple treats alone.
After pecks of apples have been picked, and baked and pressed, what can you make that's a bit more health-conscious? Beside the obvious - eating the apple as nature intended - here's a recipe that fits the bill and celebrates all things fall. Make as is for a delicious side dish or try one of the alternatives below to make it a meal.
See the Knife Skills Series - #2 Apples video to learn some techniques for using apples and to see how I chopped the apple for this recipe.
Knife Skills Series - #2 Apples
Fall Quinoa Apple Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Quinoa:
1-1/2 cups quinoa, uncooked
2-1/2 cups water
Lemon Vinaigrette:
2 medium lemons
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Other salad ingredients:
1 Granny Smith Apple, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (do not peel)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup roasted walnuts, chopped
(see Fig post to learn how to roast nuts)
3/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (about 1/2 bunch)
1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. Bring water to boil in covered pot.
2. Meanwhile, rinse quinoa thoroughly with water by placing in a bowl of water, swishing around and draining with a strainer. Repeat the rinsing process. Shake as much of the water out of the quinoa (now in the strainer) on the final rinse.
3. Stir quinoa into boiling water and turn temperature down to medium-low. Cover pot again. Set timer for 12 minutes. Quinoa is done when the grain is nearly translucent or only a tiny white dot remains in the center.
4. Remove from heat and transfer quinoa to a medium-large mixing bowl. Let sit out until nearly room temperature or speed up cooling by placing the mixing bowl into the freezer. Stir occasionally until it reaches nearly room temperature (~15 minutes).
5. While quinoa is cooling, prepare remainder of the ingredients. Zest one of the lemons using either method shown below.
6. Then juice the lemons over the chopped apples in a small bowl. Do this over a strainer to catch seeds. Toss apples to coat with juice to prevent browning.
7. Holding apples back with your hand, drain lemon juice into a small jar or whatever container you plan to make vinaigrette in. I use a small canning jar so that I can shake the dressing to mix the oil and lemon juice before serving.
Lemon Vinaigrette - made in a canning jar.
8. Vinaigrette: To the lemon juice (about 1/4 cup), add olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Close lid tightly and shake to combine well immediately before each use. Alternatively, you can stir with a spoon but this doesn't work quite as well.
9. Add apples, walnuts, cranberries, parsley, lemon zest and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the mixing bowl of quinoa. After shaking vinaigrette to combine, measure out 1/4 cup of the dressing and drizzle over the quinoa mixture. Season with more pepper, if desired. Stir to combine all ingredients.
Serves 6
Finished Fall Quinoa Apple Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Finished Fall Quinoa Apple Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Alternatives:
1. Make it a meal! Slice and cook vegetarian chicken breast substitute or 2-3 small-medium chicken breasts (see picture) and stir into quinoa salad. Use the extra lemon vinaigrette to dress salad greens. Serve quinoa salad over the salad greens.
I used 3 Gardein (vegetarian) "chicken" breasts in this picture:
Making it a Meal - add vegetarian or regular chicken breast, cutting into strips and browned.
Fall Quinoa Apple Salad with Gardein "Chicken"
Fall Quinoa Apple Salad with Gardein "Chicken" and Salad Greens tossed in remaining Lemon Vinaigrette
2. Substitute almonds, pistachios, cashews or pinenuts for walnuts.
3. Add other fall fruit like pomegranate arils or figs. You can also substitute pears or another other crisp apple for the Granny Smith apples.
4. Make just the vinaigrette for use on any salad, or marinade for vegetables, fish or chicken.
Zesting Lemons 2 Ways 1. With a knife.
Take a paring knife and peel off only the outer, bright yellow, portion of the peel of a lemon (or any citrus fruit). Once you've peeled the lemon, then use a chef's knife to either chop very finely or slice into paper-thin strips.
2. With a microplane.
The tool in this picture looks like a wood rasp with a handle - that's because it is. In the cooking world, this is called a microplane. To get the fine zest pictured at 6 o'clock here, hold the lemon in one hand, microplane in the other, and either grate the microplane on the lemon or vise versa. This will remove only the very outer, flavorful portion of the lemon peel without any of the bitter, with pith.
In this video, I discuss what salt is, how it is related to
blood pressure, why we’re supposed to eat less of it and how that translates to
the food we eat and real-life things we can do to cut down on the salt in our
diets while still eating delicious food!
The text of the video is below. Some items, such as “tips to reduce
salt when eating out” and the equation for figure out how much sodium is in
your salt at home, as well as figures and pictures are not included on the
video.
Salt
What do you think of when you think of salt? In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that
result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. Salts are
responsible for countless essential things that you may not think about
including growing food, sanitizing pools and drinking water, making computers
work, creating nanotechnology, keeping things cold, melting ice, laboratory
tests to diagnose diseases and drugs to treat them.
Salts can give food any of the 5 flavors – salty, sour,
bitter, sweet and savory. They can be
every color of the rainbow.
But that’s probably not why you decided to watch this
video.
Like most people around the world, you’re most concerned
with the health effects of sodium (aka. NaCl or sodium chloride) in your diet. The average American gets almost 3,500mg
sodium per day – way more than 2x the recommended amount and 1,100mg more than
the tolerable upper intake.
Definition: tolerable
upper intake is a term used to caution against excessive intake of
nutrients that can be harmful in large amounts. This is the highest level of
daily consumption that current data have shown to cause no side effects in
humans when used indefinitely without medical supervision.
Don’t get me wrong – we need sodium to survive. How much do you think we need each day for
survival? 180-500mg.
Assuming we need 500mg, the average American gets 7x that.
Because nearly
400,000 deaths each year are attributed to high blood pressure.
As people eat more salt (on average) blood pressure
increases. The opposite is also true –
when populations of people eat less salt, blood pressure decreases on
average. While it is true that many
people will get high blood pressure as they age, it has been shown many times
that populations of people that eat low salt diets do not develop high blood
pressure at the early ages that people in the US (and countries with similar
diets) do.
The people most at
risk of high blood pressure or worsening high blood pressure are:
- 51 year-old or older
- African Americans
- Those with diabetes
- Those with chronic kidney disease
- Those who already have high BP
For these groups of people, it is recommended you consume no
more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day.
For anyone else, the recommendation is no more than 2,300mg
of sodium per day.
But want does this really mean for real people? How much
salt can you have each day? That’s why I’m here. First, a few more numbers.
You’re supposed to have no more than 1,500mg per day if
you’re in one of the groups listed above or 2,300mg if you’re anyone else. How much salt is this?
Amount of sodium
per measure of generic U.S. table salt
1/4 teaspoon salt = 600 mg sodium
1/2 teaspoon salt = 1,200 mg sodium
2/3 teaspoon salt = 1,500 mg
sodium ** Maximum recommended sodium for groups listed above
3/4 teaspoon salt = 1,800 mg sodium
1 teaspoon salt = 2,300 mg
sodium ** Maximum recommended sodium for all others
From top to bottom: 1 teaspoon measuring spoon, 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt,
2/3 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
Are all salts created equal? No.
Generic U.S. table
salt weights 273 g per cup,
Morton’s Kosher Salt
weights 218 g per cup and
Diamond Crystal
Kosher Salt weighs 142 g per
cup.
Wow – that’s a big difference! You can eat twice as much Diamond Kosher Salt
by volume as you can regular table salt.
No, I have no affiliation whatsoever with any salt company! Why is this? I use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt when I cook
because, well, I’m used to it and know how much saltiness a pinch adds to a
dish, but also like it because there’s less tendency to over salt, it is pretty
inexpensive, has no off flavors and has a nice crunch.
How much sodium is in your salt at home?
If you want to find out how much sodium is in the salt that
you use, you’ll need a scale that weighs in grams. Weigh 1 level cup of your salt (making sure
not to include the weight of the container) and then multiply that number by
40% (or 0.4) to give you the grams of sodium per cup since salt is 40%
sodium. Now multiply that number by 1000
to get the number of mg of sodium per cup.
Take this number and divide by 48, which is the number of teaspoons per
cup to get the mg of sodium per teaspoon of your salt.
[(Weight of salt in
grams) x 0.4 x 1000]
_________________________________ = mg sodium per teaspoon salt
48
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as saying “hey, I’ll measure
out my allotted amount of daily salt and use only that.” At least 75% of the salt an average American
eats comes from processed food. Unless
you make all of your processed food at home by opening cans and boxes and
measuring portions and recording sodium per serving, it is almost impossible to
keep track of your daily sodium – unless you minimize high salt processed foods
and eating out.
The absolute best thing you can do to reduce your salt
intake is to prepare more meals at home using fresh, unprocessed or minimally
processed foods.
I give a number of other tips in other blog posts,
particularly the recent on Flavoring Foods with the Farmer’s Market Bounty…Not a lot of Saltand will continue
to address this issue in future posts because it is so important, but again,
the best thing you can do to reduce your salt intake is to cook at home.
This doesn’t mean you have to slave over the stove three
times per day to make wholesome, elaborate meals. The point of my blog is to show people how to
make healthy cooking, delicious, time effective and reasonably priced. If I could eat healthy as a poor kid in
college and now as a time-strapped internal medicine resident, then you can,
too!
Tips to reduce salt at home:
1) Cook at home.
2) Taste before you add salt.
3) Try adding something with a bit of acid – like hot sauce,
lemon juice or a few drops of vinegar – either before adding salt or along with
adding salt since the combination of acid and salt helps to bring out flavor in
foods.
4) Use fresh and dried herbs and spices to add flavor.
5) Add interest to your plate by eating a variety of colors,
flavors and textures – we eat with all of our senses and the less dull your
plate is, the less likely you are to feel the need to add salt.
6) If you do use processed foods, opt for low sodium or
salt-free versions. You can always add
salt or other seasonings or flavorings to taste later and will definitely add
less than the processor would have in the full-salt versions.
Tips to reduce salt when eating out:
1) Opt for sauces and dressings on the side so that you can
add only the amount needed as these items are generally salt heavy.
2) Stay away from soup unless it is made completely from
scratch.
3) Stay away from tomato-based sauces unless they’re made
completely from scratch with fresh tomatoes since the canned tomatoes used in
most restaurant preparations of pasta and pizza sauces are very high in salt.
6) Ask if your dish can be prepared with little or no salt.
7) Avoid chain fast-food or fast-casual (i.e. Applebee’s,
Chili’s) because food is usually just assembled and there is little control
over preparing something with less salt.
However, you can look at these restaurant’s websites for sodium
information and pick a dish ahead of time that’s lower sodium.
8) Any item with a lot of fruit and/or vegetables in it that
is not a casserole or cream and cheese-based dish is likely to be a low-salt
option.
9) Stay away from salty condiments like soy sauce, pickles,
olives, ketchup.
10) The sauces on Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Indian food
generally tend to be very high in salt, again try to get sauces on the side and
add only as much as you need to steamed or lightly stir-fried vegetables and
rice.
11) Choose sorbets and fresh fruit for dessert or a small
piece of dark chocolate or share a dessert with the table.
Potassium
Finally, it is really important to get plenty of potassium
in your diet to maintain a healthy blood pressure as well. The recommendation is 4,700 mg/day of
potassium. All the details of potassium
will have to be another video, but eating a good variety of fruits and
vegetables is the best way to get enough potassium.
Good sources of
potassium:
Green leafy vegetables (spinach, swiss chard, kale, etc.)
Beans (lima, soy, pinto, lentils, kidney, etc.)
Potatoes and sweet potatoes
Bananas
Papaya
Avocado
Herbs
Dried Apricots, prunes, currants, raisins and dates
