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September 2013 Volume 1 Issue 3
Plant-Based Nutrition and Lifestyle Newsletter is a newsletter devoted to improving your nutrition and your health.
By making small changes in your lifestyle, you can make big improvements in your health.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food” ~ Hippocrates.
What's New?
- Recently earned my certification for Dr. McDougall’s Starch Solution Course—a scientifically based program successfully used by Dr. John and Mary McDougall for nearly forty years to help patients regain their lost health and appearances. I use Dr. McDougall's principles and protocols in my nutrition practice which have helped my clients regain their lost health.
 Also, recently visited (Sept 6-8) Dr. McDougall at the McDougall Advanced Study Weekend and talked to him
about my practice and listened and met some great expert guest speakers on health, nutrition and new medical research as it relates to health
and wellness today. The topics were informative, profound and showed how there are different approaches to health that can make a powerful differences in our lives.
Also, enjoyed the wonderful and delicious foods prepared by Mary and her staff. It's always a joy to visit and learn!
To Your Health,
Jerry Casados, NTP, Founder of Plant-Based Nutrition and Lifestyle
What are Starches? And why it is an important food to have in your diet!
 Today, a misunderstood food and often maligned are starches or carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are our primary source of energy (your body prefers glucose (sugars), from carbohydrate digestion). They’re the main source of calories in virtually every diet worldwide.
Starch is valuable to us because we can break it down into simple sugars that provide us with sustained energy and keep us feeling full and satisfied. Starchy foods are plants that are high in long-chain digestible carbohydrates—commonly referred to as complex-carbohydrates. Think of endurance athletes who “carb load” before an event. Examples of starch include grains like wheat, barley, rye, corn, and oats; starchy vegetables like winter squash, potatoes, and sweet potatoes; and legumes like brown lentils, green peas, and red kidney beans. Nonstarchy green, yellow, and orange vegetables are good for you to eat, but on their own do not give you enough calories to sustain your daily activities and keep you feeling satisfied.
The science shows after eating, the complex carbohydrates found in starches, such as rice or beans, are digested into simple sugars in the intestine and then absorbed into the bloodstream where they are transported to the cells in the body in order to provide for energy. These long chains of glucose or sugar must be broken down inside your intestine before they can be used as fuel. The process of digesting these complex sugars is slow and methodical, providing a steady stream of fuel pumped into your bloodstream as long-lasting energy. This is what keeps your energy levels high through-out the day.
Two Types of Carbohydrate:
Complex-Carbohydrates (starches) – Don’t Make You Fat!
Carbohydrates (sugars) consumed in excess of the body’s daily needs can be stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver. The total storage capacity for glycogen is about two pounds. Carbohydrates consumed in excess of our need and beyond our limited storage capacity are not readily stored as body fat. Instead, these excess carbohydrate calories are burned off as heat (a process known as facultative dietary thermogenesis) or used in physical movements not associated with exercise. It does not turn into fat like some low-carb diet people claim because starch often travels in bad company. By that I mean, people slather sour cream or butter their baked potato or oils on their pasta. I don’t’ think 1.7 billion Asians who eat high-carbohydrate (starch-based) diet of mostly rice and vegetables (that are trim and healthy) are aware of that myth.
Simple-Carbohydrates = Empty Calories
Simple carbs are refined, processed carbohydrate foods that have had all or most of their natural nutrients and fiber removed in order to make them easier to transport and more 'consumer friendly’. Pure sugars have been stripped of many of their nutrients, except for the simple carbohydrate—thus they are called “empty calories.” Most baked goods, white breads, snack foods, candies, soft drinks and non-diet soft drinks fit into this category. Bleached, enriched wheat flour and white sugar - along with an array of artificial flavorings, colorings, and preservatives are the most common ingredients used to make 'bad carb' foods.
The Starch Solution
All large populations of trim, healthy people, throughout verifiable human history, have obtained the bulk of their calories from starch. Here are some examples:
Caloric Engines of Human Civilization
Barley – Middle East for 11,000 years
Corn (maize) – North, Central, and South America for 7,000 years
Legumes – Americas, Asia, and Europe for 6,000 years
Millet – Africa for 6,000 years
Oats – Middle East for 11,000 years
Potatoes - South America (Andes) for 13,000 years
Sweet Potatoes – South America and Caribbean for 5,000 years
Rice – Asia for more than 10,000 years
Rye – Asia for 5,000 years
Wheat – Near East for 10,000 years
Starches are Comfort Food
Just think of starches as comfort food, and everyone usually has a favorite comfort food. With a starched-based diet you can have these same comfort foods you like but made without the meat or dairy and still have the same great flavors. Such foods as: a spinach lasagna, minestrone soup, bean and rice burrito, a pot roast without the roast, mashed potatoes and gravy with roasted vegetables and corn, and homemade three bean chili and much, much more...
Starch is Clean Fuel
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Starches are very low in fat (1% to 8% of their calories)
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Contains no cholesterol
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Do no grow human pathogens (salmonella, E. Coli, etc. – come from animal sources)
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Do not store poisonous chemicals like DDT, methyl mercury
Starch is Complete Nutrition
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Starches are plentiful in protein ( 6% to 28% of their calories)
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Contains a proper array of vitamins and minerals
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Full of dietary fiber and high energy carbohydrates
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Very energy satisfying “comfort food”
References:
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The Starch Solution. John A. McDougall, MD and Mary McDougall. 2013;5,7,8.
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Nutrition in the News
The Starch Solution, John A. McDougall, MD and Mary McDougall
Recommended reading from my mentor and hero and who's principles I follow in my nutrition practice.
Dr. McDougall challenges the notion that starch is unhealthy. From Atkins to Dukan, the fear-mongering about carbs over the past few decades has reached a fever pitch; the mere mention of a starch-heavy food is enough to trigger a cavalcade of shame and longing.
In The Starch Solution, bestselling nutrition / lifestyle doctor and board-certified internist John A. McDougall, MD, and his kitchen-savvy wife, Mary, turn the notion that starch is bad for you on its head. The Starch Solution is based on a simple swap: fueling your body primarily with carbohydrates rather than proteins and fats. This will help you lose weight and prevent a variety of ills.
Fad diets come and go, but Dr. McDougall has been a proponent of the plant-based diet for decades (40 years), and his medical credibility is unassailable. He is one of the mainstay experts cited in the bestselling and now seminal China Study—called the “Grand Prix of epidemiology” by the New York Times. But what The China Study lacks is a plan.
Dr. McDougall grounds The Starch Solution in rigorous scientific fact and research, giving readers easy tools to implement these changes into their lifestyle with a 7-Day Quick Start Plan and 100 delicious recipes. This book includes testimonials from among the hundreds Dr. McDougall has received, including people who have lost more than 125 pounds in mere months as well as patients who have conquered life-threatening illnesses such as diabetes and cardiac ailments.
Featured Recipes - Starch-Based
Pasta Primavera
This pasta dish is high in fiber and plenty of complex-carbohydrate for that energy boost.
8 ounces Linguine or spaghetti pasta (whole wheat if possible), enough for two or three people
1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
¼ cup onion, diced
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
10 to 12 stalks asparagus, woody stems removed
and sliced into 1 inch pieces. Add any other veggies you like.
2 cups of snow pea pods |
1 cup broccoli florets
2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half or 1 can diced canned tomatoes (drained)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup Tomato sauce
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 heaping tablespoon of fresh basil |
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Procedure
1- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until al denté, according to package instructions.
2- In a large skillet heat the water or vegetable broth over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Sauté, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes until fragrant and the onion is beginning to soften.
3- Add the asparagus, snow peas, broccoli and sauté for another 4 minutes, until it begins to turn bright green. Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce along with a pinch of salt and pepper and sauté for another 2-4 minutes, stirring often.
4- Add the cooked pasta, lemon juice and fresh basil Stir it all together and serve.
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Italian White Bean, Kale and Potato Stew
This is a hearty dish for that cool fall day with nutrient-dense starches and vegetables.
1 cup diced red or white onion
3 cloves garlic
2 28 oz cans diced tomatoes (salt free if you prefer)
¼- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
5 cups red-skinned potatoes cut into one inch squares |
1 Tbs dried oregano
1 Tbs dried parsley
6-8 cups packed cups of kale, after it has been de-stemmed and chopped
2-15 oz cans Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
salt (optional) |
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Procedure
1- Place a large soup/stock pot over a medium high flame and pour some of the liquid from one of the cans of the diced tomatoes into the pot to cover the base of the pot. When the tomato liquid starts to bubble, add the onion and stir. Lower heat a little. Press garlic into pot. Add red pepper flakes (to taste). Continue to cook and stir, lowering heat as the time passes, for a total of about 10 minutes or until onions are soft.
2- Add the rest of the first can of diced tomatoes and the entire second can into the pot. Bring heat up to medium-high again so that tomatoes begin to simmer. Place diced potatoes, oregano and parsley into the pot and stir. Cover pot, lower heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
3- Place all of the kale into the pot and cover the pot again. Let kale steam and shrink for 3 minutes. Uncover pot and stir in kale. Add Cannellini beans and stir. Taste and season with salt (or not). If potatoes are not as soft as you desire, continue to let simmer.
Servings: 6
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