Dinner and a Movie (Food Matters)

Food Matters touches mostly on vitamins and the smear campaign against our consumption of vitamins. The film links our malnourishment to the lack of crop rotation, our fatty, empty calorie diets and our dependency on prescription medications to fix our ailments.

One reviewer on IMDB.com says “this move is full of lies and cherry picking cases” (actripxl). While the movie does call out doctors on their lack of using vitamins in large doses to cure certain diseases, the main message portrayed is eat healthy, take care of yourself, and you won’t need to see doctors for the dangerous prescriptions they’re giving out. There’s some great information in the film and anything that makes us think about what we eat can’t be all bad. Food Matters pleads for you to take another look at what you’re eating and what your doctors are giving you.

Notably, the film touches on Gerson Therapy, an alternative cancer treatment. “The Gerson Therapy is a state of the art, contemporary, alternative and natural treatment which utilizes the body's own healing mechanism in the treatment and cure of chronic debilitating illness” (gerson.org). Even Charlotte Gerson (Dr. Max Gerson’s daughter and the founder of The Gerson Institute) makes an appearance discussing health with a bit of sarcasm interspersed with real conviction. The great message Gerson gives is to eat healthy and the body will heal itself, this seems to make sense. Unfortunately, the medical community has never taken Dr. Gerson seriously:

In the U.S., Gerson applied his dietary therapy to several cancer patients, claiming good results, but colleagues found his methodology and claims unconvincing. Proponents of the Gerson Therapy assert that a far-ranging conspiracy headed by the medical establishment prevented Gerson from publishing proof that his therapy worked. In 1958, Gerson published a book in which he claimed to have cured 50 terminal cancer patients: A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases. Gerson's medical license in New York was suspended in 1958. (Wikipedia)

If you’re looking to get a start on the recent trend in food documentaries, this film is a good launching pad. Food Matters touches on many issues that need to be addressed, however, the film tends to flow sporadically. Having a raw food specialist chime in between Charlotte Gerson’s commentary tends to make some moments a bit random. Those moments are few however, and generally the film stays on course and presents some really great datasets.

Obviously, with the amount of heart disease and cancer we have in this country we’re doing something wrong. If you get hit by a car, there’s a resounding YES, we need modern western medicine. But if you want to live a long and healthy life without dependence on pharmaceuticals, you don’t need doctors; just don’t treat your body like a dumpster or a drug depository, simple as that.

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On a lighter note, dinner was fantastic!
Lori dug out the Favorite Brand NameTM Vegetarian Cookbook and made Bulgur Pilaf with Tomato and Zucchini. It was a great meal, and it’s definitely something we’ll be having again!

Taste Test: Silk vs. Almond Breeze

Lori and I had been wrestling with the idea of cutting out cow’s milk from our diet so we finally decided to take a leap and purchase Silk (a soy based milk) and Almond Breeze (as you may have guessed, it’s an almond based milk). We opted to try a blind taste-test between Silk’s Unsweetened Organic variety and Blue Diamond’s Unsweetened Almond Breeze. A prior experience with sweetened Silk made our tomato soup a bit too sweet, and we just couldn't talk ourselves into drinking it straight.

There were two main reasons for this test:

1.    To find a tolerable, plant-based substitute for cow’s milk
2.    To give others some idea as to what these products taste like (we have yet to find a local store offering samples)

We don’t profess to be culinary experts, but we hope we can at least give you an idea as to what to expect from dairy alternatives.

LORI: The last time we tried a Silk product, I was unfortunately a bit underwhelmed. Not because the product itself was bad, but rather because I was naively hoping that it would taste exactly like the cow's milk I have been accustomed to drinking for decades (ugh, did I just say that out loud?). Soy milk was not like anything I had ever tasted before and my palate didn't know what to make of it. I just couldn't get past the sweetness.

During the time since that first tasting however, my priorities shifted a bit and my desire to wean myself off dairy products has outweighed my finicky taste buds. So I took a deep breath, and did my best to go into this taste test with an open mind.

To keep any preconceived notions to a minimum we decided to do the test blindly. I left the room while John poured one serving of Organic Unsweetened Silk and one of Unsweetened Original Almond Breeze into identical unmarked glasses. Immediately I noticed a color difference between the two, but I had no idea which was which.

One was a creamy off-white color with a nondescript flavor, while the other had more of a light tawny hue and a nuttier taste (I'll give you three guesses which one that turned out to be). I can't say I liked one more than the other, but I did get the impression that each would be better in different applications:

Silk: Probably best for recipes where you don't want to impart any extra flavor, or wherever you would normally use cow's milk.

Almond Breeze: Good for *coffee, sipping, and "grown-up" cereals that would hold up well to the nuttiness (a.k.a. any cereal that touts its fiber content and doesn’t have a cartoon character on the box).

*UPDATE: Since the taste test we have made the unsavory discovery that Almond Breeze does not work well with iced coffee. It tastes fine in hot coffee, even gives it a flavor reminiscent of those fancy creamers women seem to love so much in those commercials, but for some reason when you add ice it begins to taste less like almonds and reminds you more of the scent of cat urine (sorry for the distasteful imagery).

JOHN: I don’t drink as much milk as Lori, so my opinions varied slightly. For me, both products were head-to-head with dairy milk in terms of being creamy, and both were creamier than skim milk. You can actually smell and taste the nuts in Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze. While it’s not overpowering, if you’re not much of an almond fan it would definitely take some getting used to. I used it with my shredded wheat cereal this morning and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Silk, coming in second place for me, had a unique smell. It reminded me of a cross between a soybean and some Elmer’s school glue. Silk is definitely earthier and has a plant-like taste right off the bat. I don’t dislike Silk, and if it was the only choice I would definitely drink it. Lori made a great point about using Silk to cook with and Almond Breeze for other things, I guess that’s going to take some experimenting. We may even have to make another blog post about when to use Silk and when to use Almond Breeze.

Update: Now that we’ve gone through a half gallon of Almond Breeze and a whole gallon of Silk, I have to change my bid. I always find myself grabbing the Silk for cooking, iced coffee and cereal.

Homemade Hummus Recipe

Lori found a great hummus recipe online not too long ago. She whipped it up and it was fabulous (and much cheaper than store bought). Since then, we've been tweaking it slightly to our own taste. This is a quick and easy recipe, especially if you have a food processor. All you need is a can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), salt, garlic, lemon juice, tahini (sesame paste) and cumin. The good thing about hummus is you can customize it anyway you want. We've added roasted red peppers to give it a different spin, and we've seen olives and hot sauce added in other recipes. Be creative! Although it's not fat-free, it is cholesterol free and provides a decent source of protein, vitamin C, calcium and iron.

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas (save some of the juice from the can)

2 cloves minced garlic

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons tahini

1 teaspoon salt

cumin to taste (we use about a 1/4 teaspoon)

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil (garnish)

1/2 teaspoon paprika (garnish)

1. Combine chickpeas (leave some extra juice for later), tahini, lemon juice, salt, garlic, and cumin into blender. Blend all of it together until it's creamy, if the mix is still too thick add a little juice from the chickpea can and blend until it has the consistency of dip.

2. Place mix in serving dish, drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle with paprika. Voila!

Vegan Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

These little babies were super tasty.  Stuffed with Daiya Cheddar Cheese, Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips, topped off with breadcrumbs and parsley. This dish was not completely vegan, unfortunately, due to the veggie bacon strips containing egg and dairy. Most of MorningStar Farms products are not vegan. 

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Homemade Vegan Queso Sauce Nachos

As we've been slowly replacing eggs and dairy with their vegan counterparts, Lori ran across the delights of nutritional yeast. This queso recipe, made from nutritional yeast, flour, water, and salsa, is healthier than regular cheese sauce. While Lori wasn't thrilled about the taste, I loved it. The recipe is here.

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Baked Kale Chips

A little olive oil, a little seasoning, and voila! An unexpected but delicious crispy snack that serves as a healthier potato chip alternative. And check out the amount of vitamin A! We found the recipe here.

Dinner and a Movie (Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead)

I put Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on my Netflix instant queue several weeks ago and had skipped over it several times because I really didn’t know what to expect. It was a Saturday night, Lori was making dinner (we’ll get to that later) and I had the chore of choosing our entertainment during dinner. This film has been popping up on forums and blogs more frequently as of late, often mentioned alongside Forks Over Knives, so I took a leap.

An Australian based production, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead follows Joe Cross, a financial guru, from New York to Arizona as he “reboots” on a 60-day all fruit and veggie juice diet. Joe is overweight, suffering from a chronic auto-immune based illness and swallowing prescription steroids when he finally decides to take the plunge. Joe goes to the extreme (with medical supervision) as he drives across the U.S. with a Breville juicer in the back of his SUV. The standard “reboot” program is a bit different, as the Reboot Holdings website states:

This is our classic program which has worked wonders for people around the world. This program consists of 5 days of eating, blending and juicing only whole fruits and vegetables; followed by 5 days of just juicing; followed by 5 days of eating, blending and juicing whole fruits and vegetables. Think 5-5-5. (jointhereboot.com)

As Joe spreads the word to various cities and people on his tour, he runs into a truck driver named Phil. Phil is overweight and suffers from the same illness Joe has. They share a batch of juice and Joe sends Phil on his way (first exchanging contact information).

Finally, Joe ends his tour and flies back to Australia only to receive a call from Phil, asking for help. Phil has hit rock bottom and wants to change his life and diet for himself and his family. The film takes an interesting turn at this point and follows Phil around as he wrestles his food demons and “reboots” on juice.

While the film doesn’t feel like a Breville juicer commercial, when I visited fatsickandnearlydead.com it felt a bit like an infomercial. The juicer is never shown up close, nor is the brand ever mentioned in the film. The main message is “we are what we eat” and changing your diet to fruits and vegetables exclusively can do amazing wonders for your health. What’s really amazing is Joe and Phil stop experiencing complications with their illness and are eventually taken completely off prescription medications. If you’re looking for a change and are sick and tired of all the latest diet trends, definitely check this film out.

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Now, the lovely little dinner we had was of Lori’s design. A wonderful broth and noodle based veggie and tofu soup of sorts. She marinated tofu, boiled some Asian pasta in vegetable broth and sautéed some broccoli, green peppers, onions and carrots to form a delightful dish.