BIG Plate of Raw Veggies Please!!

Hey all , it's been a few days!!! I am still not eating any chicken, beef, or dairy and can honestly say I feel great. I have been eating more vegetables than I EVER have in my life and love my new found plant based diet. I am reading/skimming through "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins as well as "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman, and "The China Study" by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas Campbell and they all tout the plant based diet as the main way to fight cancers and other diseases. Think of raw vegetables as being the "main dish" and everything else as the side dish.

I was with my family at the beach this weekend and I was curious how my plant based/whole grain diet was going stand up to the "party" and if I was going to feel left out or feeling somewhat deprived, but surprisingly I didn't. We had a big pizza party the first night and my brother bought a bunch of "fresh dough" from Wegman's as well as a HUGE bag of mozzarella cheese. I brought organic tomato sauce, "brown rice" pizza shells as well as Ezekiel 4:9 Organic Sprouted Whole Grain Tortillas, which make great pizza shells as well. These wraps (which you can obviously use from sandwich wraps) have 5 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein per wrap as well as potassium, magnesium, copper, thiamine, iron.....and are made of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt. I piled my pizzas high with spinach, fresh oregano, thyme, mushrooms. I read the ingredients on the Wegmans Pizza Dough and it has Enriched Flour (all the good ingredients stripped out and then put back in in trace amounts) Partially hydrogenated soy bean oil (which not only makes you fat but also causes diseases like multiple sclerosis and allergies that lead to arthritis). I talked about the process of hydrogenation in my previous blogs, but basically trans fats are like poisons, they interfere with our metabolic process. I used Vegetable Cheese, ( I just ordered a dairy and soy free vegan cheese from a company called "Daiya" on www.cosmosveganshoppe.com) again because I am staying away from dairy products. Calcium is better absorbed from vegetables than from milk. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition - here are the absorption rates (% of calcium our body absorbs from the following veggies vs. milk:

• Brussels sprouts: 63.8 %
• Mustard greens: 57.8%
• Broccoli: 52.6%
• Turnip greens: 51.6 %
• Kale: 50%
• Cow's Milk: 32 %

Remember, it's not what we eat, but what we can absorb!

The 2nd night at our family gathering my brother made sausage, peppers and onions in a tomato sauce (we are 100% Italian), my sister (knowing my path) kindly made Cous Cous with green beans and potatoes with lots of fresh rosemary, and I made two HUGE raw salads. One with kale, spinach, broccoli, collard greens with onions and tomatoes, drenched with lemon and lime juice and a little Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar and another shredded cabbage salad (which I talked about before) with slivered almonds, orange slices, shredded carrots and a little Rice Wine Vinegar and a bit of olive oil.

My plate was piled high with the Raw Salad being my main dish, with the cous cous and potatoes on the side - while (almost) everyone else had their big white rolls filled with sausage, with a little salad on the side.

TAKE AWAY:

Nutrient Dense food is the key to health and a long, healthy disease free life! Good thing is you can really can eat nice big portions of these foods - forget portion control!

Joel Fuhrman's book listed the most nutrient dense foods to the lowest: 100 being the highest score for the most nutrient dense foods and 0 being the lowest score. The scores are based on "identified phytochemicals (plant chemicals that have protective and disease preventative properties), antioxidant activity, and total vitamin and mineral content:

• 100 points - Raw Leafy Green Vegetables (Romain lettuce, Kale, Collards, Spinach, Swiss Chard Parsley, Daikon)
• 97 points - Solid Green Veggies (Artichokes, Asparagus, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Celery, Cucumbers, Kohlrabi, Okra, Peas, Peppers, Snow Peas, String Beans, Zucchini
• 50 points - Non Green, Non Starchy Vegetables (Beets, Eggplant, Mushrooms, Onions, Tomatoes, Yellow and Red Peppers, Bamboo Shoots, Water Chestnuts, Cauliflower)
• 48 points - Beans and Legumes (Red Kidney Beans, Chick Peas, Pinto Beans, Cowpeas, Navy Beans, Cannellini Beans, Soy Beans, Lentils, White Beans, Lima Beans, Pigeon Peas, Black Eyed Peas)
• 45 points - Fresh Fruits (Apples, Apricots, Bananas,Blackberries, Blueberries, Cantaloupes, Grapefruits, Grapes, Kiwis, Mangoes, Nectarines, all Melons, Oranges, Peaches, Pears, Persimmons, Pineapples, Plums, Raspberries, Strawberries, Tangerines, Watermelons
• 35 points - Starchy Vegetables (White Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Butternut Squash, Acorn Squash, Winter Squash, Parsnips, Pumpkins, Turnips, Corn, Carrots, Chestnuts
• 22 points - Whole Grains (Barley, Buckwheat, Millet, Oats, Brown Rice, Wild Rice, Quinoa)
• 20 Points - Raw Nuts and Seeds ( Almonds, Cashews, Filberts, Macadamias, Pecans, Pine Nuts, Pistachios, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds)
• 15 Points - Fish
• 13 Points - Fat-Free Dairy
• 11 Points - Wild Meats and Fowl
• 11 Points - Eggs
• 8 Points - Red Meat
• 4 Points - Full-Fat dairy
• 3 Points - Cheese
• 2 Points - Refined Grains (white flour)
• 1 Points - Refined Oils
• 0 Points - Refined Sweets

My homework and yours if you want: To find and try kohlrabi, pigeon peas and cowpeas (no relation to the animal I'm sure)