Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Improvements

My workplace provides free annual health screenings, which has provided some insight into how what I eat (and my physical activity) affects my health. I have been working on eating better for several years with gradual (though in some ways drastic) improvements. I was surprised in some ways to find out 2 years ago, that my cholesterol and blood pressure weren't ideal. I lost the information for that test, but I know that my total cholesterol was somewhere between 180 and 195 (LDL between 100 and 110) and my blood pressure was between 130/80 and 140/90. I was especially surprised that even though I've been vegan for so many years, my cholesterol wasn't as low as it could be (since cholesterol comes from animal products, though it is also produced by the body).

In the next year, and especially leading up to the next test, I tried to eat many more greens, raw veggies, fruits, and less oils, and even less processed foods (which was already pretty low). I was also riding my bike a bit more and had started an exercise routine that I stuck with better. The next test showed great results. My total cholesterol had dropped to 147 with LDL at 68. I didn't do much to improve my diet or exercise over the course of this past year, although I have maintained a better diet than ever before. I just received my newest test results which weren't drastically different but still showed marked improvement: Total cholesterol was 141 and LDL was 56. My HDL (good cholesterol) went up from 68 to 76. My triglycerides, which I have no information about from 2 years ago, were 49 last year and 45 this year. I don't have my blood pressure information from last year, but this year it was 100/72.

It was nice to be able to see such a big difference from 2010 to 2011 and then still an improvement from 2011 to 2012. It gives me more confidence that nearly anyone is capable of making similar and potentially even greater improvements to their health.

Cauliflower Soup with Fresh Dill and Sundried Tomatoes

I've been wanting to use fresh dill since I am growing it my garden. I don't believe I've ever used fresh dill in cooking before. Since I also had cauliflower from the farmer's market, I decided a soup might be good with both those ingredients.

I boiled some cauliflower and chopped potato and sauteed some onion and garlic. I soaked some sun-dried tomatoes in water and a dash of liquid smoke (I wanted to see how that would taste, but I didn't notice a huge difference). I blended up just a handful of cashews in the blender to add some creaminess to the soup, then added the cooked potatoes, cauliflower, onion, and garlic and some of the water (being careful because it was hot). I also added some Bragg's liquid aminos, several stalks of dill, a little garlic powder, and some white pepper. I added more water, but not all the water from boiling the cauliflower and potatoes, because I wanted a thick soup.

Since I had some peas growing in my garden, I added some to the soup, but didn't find that it added much to the dish. I cut up the sun-dried tomatoes with kitchen scissors and added them to the soup. It was quite good. If it didn't have the tomatoes, I would've perhaps added more salt or Bragg's or added some lemon juice.

Salsa Zucchini over Millet

Tonight I made a batch of millet, referred to as a pseudo-grain because it is actually a seed. It reminds me a bit of couscous because of it's color and texture.

Zucchini was on sale the other day, so I bought two, and decided to cook them up with some salsa, which was inspired by a weird vegan tostada recipe I made for my family a while back when they were willing to try food I made- I just wish I had tried the recipe first, because that one was a bit lacking. Anyway, I sliced the two small-medium zucchinis in half lengthwise then sliced it into half-circles a few millimeters thick. I cooked that up in a cast iron pan, adding some chopped garlic, stirring often. Once the zucchini was pretty tender, I added maybe a 1/3 cup salsa, stirred a few more times. Then I added a tiny bit of tahini (like 1/2 tbsp) and some nutritional yeast. I ate that with some millet. There was enough salt in the salsa to not feel like i had to add any.

I really like this kind of dish with avocado, but since I had none, I added the tahini to give it a little creaminess. At times I have also added greens like spinach.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Hard squash is something you can buy without using for a while. I bought an acorn squash on sale a couple weeks ago and finally got around to using it. I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, and baked it. I had cooked some dried beans earlier in the day so I decided to use those along with some greens from my garden, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and crushed walnuts.
I seasoned it with some balsamic vinegar, a splash of Bragg's liquid aminos, paprika, and chipotle powder. When everything was done, I scooped the bean filling into the squash. This is something I'd definitely make again.

Indian food

I love Indian food. Over time I have gathered various spices and cookbooks which make it easier to make Indian food at home. I often browse through the recipes at http://showmethecurry.com/, because although I don't have all the ingredients most of the time, I've still had some delicious food by mostly following the recipes. Plus they have videos for people who find that useful.

I have made the coconut chutney, the Lemon Rice but with quinoa instead of rice, I somewhat randomly chose this Channa recipe to base my seasoning of the leftover black lentils I needed to use up tonight.

You can make so many delicious plant-based dishes with an Indian influence. I choose vegan recipes and try to minimize or omit the oil, salt, etc.

White Beans, Tomatoes, and Kale

I'm watching Forks Over Knives while I eat dinner tonight. I thought I'd stop to write up what my dinner consists of before I forget.

I just used a can of white northern beans, rinsed, and cooked it with a little chopped onion and two chopped roma tomatoes. I added a little bit of Bragg's liquid aminos, lime juice (not fresh unfortunately), garlic powder, and chili powder. Then I added some chopped kale and cilantro. When it was done, I added maybe 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of tahini and mixed it all together. It was quite quick and it tasted delicious.

Chickpea Cilantro Soup

I never used to like soup, aside from chicken and stars with a bunch of saltines. I think the reason I wasn't into soup had to do with not having much soup growing up, as well as not liking celery, which seems to be in most soups.

I've been surprised, however, that I've like nearly every soup I've made, even without a recipe. Inspired by Dr. Joel Fuhrman's suggestions of cooking soups, I've tried a few that involve blending.

This time I made a soup not very much like those Dr. Fuhrman recommends, but good and healthy nonetheless. First I sauteed some onions and then some garlic in a cast iron pan. I transferred this to a bigger pot and added some water, turned it to medium-high and added some chili powder, garlic powder, Bragg's liquid aminos, epazote, and part of a chopped over-sized and tough zucchini that some friends grew in their garden. Once the zucchini was pretty well cooked, I put some water, sunflower seeds, and leftover cilantro stems into a blender, then used a slotted spoon to add about half of the non-liquid ingredients from the soup pot.

You have to be careful with hot liquids in blenders. I usually use less liquid while cooking, then add cool water for the blending, then mix the rest of the hot liquid in at the end- in the pot.

I poured the portion I just blended into a large glass container that I will use for leftovers if there are any. I then added a bit more water and the rest of the non-liquid pieces from the cooked soup. I then added all of the blended soup in with the liquid that remained in the pot. I then added some cooked chickpeas, tasted it, and added a tiny bit more each of Bragg's, cayenne, and chipotle powder. I also added a little bit of lemon juice (didn't have fresh). Now I need to eat it because it's getting cold...

Healthy Chocolate Pudding

No, this is no tofu pudding. This is no "sugar-free" pudding with fake sweeteners, sugar alcohols or stevia, this is a delicious pudding made from mostly raw whole foods. This is healthy enough that I've had it for breakfast a couple times. It's probably less calories than many cereals people eat for breakfast.

I wasn't going to include this because it wasn't as affordable for a treat as I'd like to promote. But in comparison to a similar sized serving of a frozen dessert like soy icecream, I'd say it's pretty comparable.

The key to this recipe is a nicely ripened mango. I've made this several times now, and the riper the mango, the less it clashes with the chocolate.

So initially I made this with a handful of macadamia nuts (unsalted!), but when I ran out of those, I made this with cashews and was not disappointed. Today I made it with raw almonds and it was good, but I think I prefer cashews.

I take about a handful of nuts per mango and blend them up in a blender or food processor (the blender seems to work best for this recipe) until I have a finely ground powder. You could also use a nut butter, in which case I could add that after blending the mango. Then i rinse and peel the mango with a veggie peeler. I cut the mango off the core in smallish pieces and put all those pieces in the blender. I add some vanilla extract, maybe a teaspoon or so. I blend this for a bit, and I might have to scrape the sides and the bottom to get it all blended. Then I add cocoa powder to taste. I usually add enough that it looks and tastes like chocolate pudding (although I've not had any sort of chocolate pudding in a long time, so I'm not sure how accurate this is). Then it's done! It should be a nice pudding-like consistency.

I would like to also try this with avocado instead of mango some day...

Quick Beans and Kale

The other day I was a bit hurried for dinner. I had some pre-cut kale in the fridge and was in the mood for beans. I threw a can of rinsed pinto beans and the kale in a pan with a little water. Once the kale was cooked through, I added some chipotle salsa, a little nutritional yeast, Bragg's liquid aminos, garlic powder, and tahini. It probably took around five minutes.

Other types of salsa could probably work. The chipotle salsa I used is not very hot, which is preferable in my case. I would've also enjoyed a salsa verde.

I used tahini to add a bit of creaminess since I don't use any sort of cheese nor oil. The nutritional yeast is commonly used by vegans to add a bit of a cheesy flavor.

Beans and greens are a good combo, it's just a matter of seasoning.

Tabouli-Inspired Sunny Cilantro Millet Salad

I've recently come to love cilantro, but I haven't yet come around to parsley. I know tabouli is a healthy dish, so I came across a cilantro tabouli and thought I'd try it.

The recipe was actually for a cilantro tabouli made with millet, and since I already had some millet that we made for our dog, I was even more encouraged to pick up some cilantro at the local farmer's market.

We had some red bell peppers to use up, and I regret not having any fresh tomatoes, but roasted the red bell peppers and soaked and chopped some sun-dried tomatoes. While the red pepper was roasting, I saw that I also had a zucchini to use up and figured I'd use it raw by grating it. This turned out well because the millet was a little on the dry side, which the moisture of the zucchini made up for.

So I mixed some chopped garlic, a little salt, and some lemon juice (unfortunately not fresh, but it worked anyway), and the grated zucchini into the millet. I chopped the cilantro as the roasted red pepper was resting in a bag and the sun-dried tomatoes were still soaking. Then I cut up the pepper and tomatoes and mixed those into the salad. Finally I added some sun flower seeds and a dash of apple cider vinegar, mixed it thoroughly, and it was done!

Sundried-Tomatoes and Olives in Various Dishes

I didn't buy sun-dried tomatoes nor olives for a while because they seemed too expensive. I'm realizing now that a little goes a long way as far as flavor goes, so if it's used more like a seasoning, it isn't really as expensive.

I've had a few dishes in the last few days with these ingredients as well as variations on a dijon dressing.

I made black rice, chopped zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, garlic, fresh basil, walnuts, dijon mustard, and red wine vinegar.

A couple days later, I cooked up some chopped broccoli, chopped zucchini, chick peas, garlic, and added some sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and a dijon dressing made from dijon mustard, tahini, and red wine vinegar.

The next similar dish I made was a salad made with red leaf lettuce, chick peas, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and the same tahini dijon dressing.

Today I made a salad with spinach, chopped zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, fresh basil, crushed walnuts, dijon mustard, garlic powder, and red wine vinegar.

I soak the sun-dried tomatoes for a little while, the chop them or cut them with clean scissors. I bought some kalamata-style black olives in a jar. I chop them up into small pieces. I've not been much of an olive fan, and they're not necessarily a health food according to some folks, but I found them to be a nice addition to my meals as of recently.

Curried Chickpeas with Coconut Cilantro Quinoa

Although more complicated than the Easy Quick Meal: Curry-seasoned grain and veggie dish I posted about before, this was really good for a whole foods plant-based dish.

I first got the quinoa going and in a separate pan, I toasted some cashews and coconut flakes that would later be added to the quinoa along with cilantro and lemon juice.

I water sauteed (see this link about healthy sauteeing- but you can use plain water) sliced carrots, chopped green chili, and garlic, plus a good amount of curry powder and a dash of Bragg's liquid aminos.  Then I added the coconut milk, chickpeas, and kale and cooked that up for a few minutes.  It was quite delicious.

Cashew Sweet Potato Cheesecake

I was looking for a way to use the natural sweetness of sweet potato in a dessert so I wouldn't feel compelled to add sugar.  I found a recipe that combines the healthiness cashew-based cheesecake (as opposed to one made of real or fake cream cheese) with sweet potato, which I imagine would not work raw like many cashew-based cheesecakes are.  I've tasted a delicious raw vegan cheesecake, which is unfortunately $7 a slice but is just as good, if not better, than vegan cheesecakes made with processed ingredients.  I also made one when I received raw cashews and other nuts as a gift, but if I had purchased all the ingredients, it still would've been expensive even if it was less per slice.  The raw cheesecake, while having some benefits of the living foods, is much more involved than this recipe which doesn't have a crust.

I liked that the recipe included some stevia, since I was also concerned about minimizing sugar.  Despite the presence of the sweet potato and the stevia, I wasn't prepared to omit the sugar, although I did use less than it called for (1 1/2 tbsp rather than 2 tbsp), and I used a coconut sugar (sourced from the coconut flower) which is supposed to be one of the healthier sugars.  I have agave nectar at my house, but I have come to suspect that most agave nectars are processed similarly to high fructose corn syrup (with even more fructose) unless it's raw, which is too expensive for me.  I'm glad I didn't skip the sugar, because it really wasn't even very sweet even with the sugar.

I had baked the sweet potato, then took off the peel and added the coconut oil to melt it.  I think the coconut oil, while I would have preferred to skip that too, gave the cheesecake a firmness that made it easier to eat and serve.  This firmness could've possibly been accomplished with lecithin or something, but I've never used that and don't own any.

I also altered the recipe by adding lemon juice of about 1/2 lemon, and frozen blueberries which I blended just a bit longer.  I baked it in a glass pie pan that I greased with coconut oil, then sprinkled with almond flour.  The cheesecake ended up a bit thinner than I thought it would.  It was less than an inch thick.  Next time I might double the recipe for one cake, but I would probably also have to cook it longer.

Is it Guacamole with Mangos or Mango Salsa with Avocado? Who Cares, it's Great.

Mangos were on sale recently, then we made a stop somewhere that had avocados on sale.  I had cilantro from some friends' garden (thanks!), so I thought now was the time for some mango salsa.  It has ripe mango, fresh cilantro, a bit of chopped red onion, a clove of chopped garlic, some serrano chili (jalapeno tends to be too spicy for me), and lemon juice.  I added the avocado and mixed it together. 

I decided since I didn't want to eat corn chips, I'd make a salad of it, so I added romaine lettuce.  It was really delicious.

The China Study's Compelling Arguments for Plant-based Diet

I had read bits of the book The China Study here and there, but I finally borrowed the book and am reading it more thoroughly.  I highly suggest checking it out.  To me it is rather validating since I have been vegan for nearly 12 years.  There is a lot of compelling evidence that more animal protein directly correlates with worse health.

At the same time, I think the emphasis may be too much on the lack of animal proteins and not enough on the presence of a variety of phytonutrients like anti-oxidants and other nutrients that benefit health that are only more recently being discovered.  All the beneficial chemical compounds in veggies like broccoli and kale for example.  Also, while the author recommends a whole foods plant-based diet, I feel that some people may feel like all they have to do is go without the animal products and reap healthy benefits.  Having been a junk food vegan until a few years ago, I know that vegans are perfectly capable of being unhealthy.  Even in the last year of eating especially healthy foods, has shown lowered cholesterol (yeah, it was actually not at an ideal level), blood pressure, and body fat.  Not to mention other benefits.  Anyway, here's some intriguing excerpts of the book's intro.  The link below allows you to read a lot more of the intro without having the book in your hands.

I will potentially change my views on the message of this book.  I know for example that it goes into depth to question whether fiber is beneficial in and of itself, whether it is part of a synergistic set of nutrients that are beneficial, or whether it just displaces unhealthy foods like animal protein (meaning the more fiber in the diet the less animal protein). 

Anyway, here's some of the book:

Some of the findings, published in reputable scientific journals has shown that:
- Dietary change can enable diabetic patients to go off their medication.
- Breast cancer is related to levels of female hormones in the blood which are determined by the food we eat
- Consuming dairy foods can increase the risk of prostate cancer
- Antioxidants, found in fruits and vegetables, are linked to better mental performance in old age
- Kidney stones can be prevented by a healthy diet. And two excellent books have been written about reversing heart disease, even severe heart disease, with diet alone.
These findings demonstrate that a good diet is the most powerful weapon we have against disease and sickness. An understanding of this scientific evidence is not only important for improving health; it also has profound implications for our entire society. We must know why misinformation dominates our society and why we are grossly mistaken in how we investigate diet and disease, how we promote health and how we treat illness.

...

What we found was shocking. Low-protein diets inhibited the initiation of cancer by aflatoxin, regardless of how much of this carcinogen was administered to these animals. After cancer initiation was completed, low-protein diets also dramatically blocked subsequent cancer growth. In other words, the cancer-producing effects of this highly carcinogenic chemical were rendered insignificant by a low-protein diet. In fact, dietary protein proved to be so powerful in its effect that we could turn on and turn off cancer growth simply by changing the level consumed.  Read more.