This article originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of the Kansas City Wellness Magazine.
My September column led a reader to ask me a question about the raw food diet. She’s been eating exclusively raw for the past six months. Now her hair is falling out.
She didn’t provide any details about her diet, but here is my response: her diet is out of balance. The bulk of your diet should come from your garden, CSA or produce department, that is, fresh fruits and vegetables. Leaving out the vegetables is most common mistake people make in their diet. It’s hard to drop the convenience mindset that causes us to reach for packaged foods that contain too much fat and sugars and too little life force and tissue-repairing phytonutrients. It’s just as easy to find raw packaged food as any other. The most used tools in your kitchen should be your knife and cutting board.
I don’t think it matters too much whether you eat raw or cooked, or vegetarian or carnivore. There are two diets that are clinically proven to reverse diabetes: the vegan diet, with no animal products, and the Paleo Diet, with pastured meat, poultry, wild game and fish. What the two diets have in common is the consumption of more vegetables in a month than the average American eats in a year! You may feel better on one diet or the other, but it’s the vegetables that are curing the diabetes, not whether the food is raw, cooked, vegan or animal. If a diet can reverse diabetes, I think it can reverse just about any condition.
Now is a good time to examine your Thanksgiving dinner menu with vegetables in mind. Have you ever noticed how brown thanksgiving dinners are? Think about it: turkey, potatoes with brown gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Peas were the only vegetable at the last Thanksgiving dinner I spent with my folks. The abundance of meat and carbohydrates is responsible for the food coma most of us feel after Thanksgiving dinner. For a healthful and delicious Thanksgiving menu, please go to www.thedoctorcooks.com and click on the left sidebar “Recipes / Holidays and Special Occasions” and scroll down a bit. It’s well balanced and vegetables play a prominent role. The only thing you will miss is the food coma. Here are two of the vegetable side dishes to tempt you:
Carrots, Pecans and Fennel (Friendly Foods by Br. Ron Pickarski. O.F.M., 1991 Ten Speed Press)
I always turn to Br. Ron Pickarski’s Friendly Foods for festive vegetable recipes.
2 cups peeled carrots, sliced into 1/8 inch thick matchsticks
½ cup thinly sliced fennel, or ½ teaspoon ground fennel seeds
1 TBSP grapeseed oil
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup roasted pecans
2 tsp cornstarch
1 TBSP water
1 TBSP chopped parsley
Steam the carrots in a small amount of water, just until tender-crisp, about 1 – 2 minutes. Be sure not overcook them.
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the fennel in the oil for 2 minutes. Add the syrup, pecans and carrots. Reduce the heat to low.
In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water together, then add to the carrot mixture. Finally, stir in the chopped parsley and serve hot. Serves 4
Make this dish raw by replacing the grapeseed oil with extra virgin olive oil, using raw pecans and leaving out the water and cornstarch. Yum!
Kale and Parsnips (Friendly Foods by Ron Pickarski, O.F.M., 1991 Ten Speed Press)
1 cup halved and sliced onions
1 cup halved and sliced parsnips
1 TBSP grapeseed oil
1 cup water
2 TBSP minced fresh ginger or ½ tsp ground dried ginger
1 quart kale, stems removed
Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onions and parsnips in oil for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Add the water and the ginger. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the kale, cover and continue cooking for 4 to 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. Serve hot. Serves 4.
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