A little indulgence won’t hurt you in long term, but a slippery slope of meal upon meal of unhealthy food can set you back. Here is the best advice, from Dr. Michael Greger, the plant-based doctor, and founder of NutritionFacts.org. He is the author of the best-selling books: How Not to Die and How Not to Diet, among other important and helpful guides to achieving your health goals through plant-based eating.

What should you eat instead of turkey?

Dr. Greger: Have you tried the Baked Grain Loaf with Umami Gravy recipe from my The How Not to Diet Cookbook? If not, you must. It’s a fabulously hearty loaf that you can make with any variety of whole grains, like oat groats, red quinoa, and brown lentils, and features heart-healthy walnuts. Since it’s baked in the oven, I always roast some veggies to serve on the side. The rich Umami Gravy brings an even deeper flavor to the dish.

Are sides with sauce healthy or unhealthy?

The longer question is: Is it better to eat greens with the buttery or cheesy sauce or skip them if they are drenched in fatty sauce? Better to eat creamed spinach or no spinach? (Obviously, we prefer steamed spinach but we are in the minority when it comes to a family meal!)

Dr. Greger: The question isn’t whether sides are healthy or unhealthy, but whether they are more or less healthy when compared with another option. Certainly, mashed sweet potatoes are healthier than potatoes au gratin. And steamed greens drizzled with balsamic are healthier than broccoli in cheese sauce. What if the only vegetable sides are drowning in fat, salt, or oil? I hate to miss out on veggies, so I go for the least fatty, salty, and oily option and promise myself to bring healthier veggie dishes the following year for everyone to enjoy!

How can we be “in the spirit” of celebrating and not overdo the alcoholic beverages?

Dr. Greger: For many, celebrations go hand-in-hand with imbibing, but excessive alcohol consumption can turn a festive get-together into a blurry, messy fiasco. If you do enjoy wine, beer, or spirits, sip one or even two glasses of water after each alcoholic drink. That’ll slow down your consumption and give your body — and your mind — time to absorb the booze. Just as importantly, be in the moment. Enjoy your friends and family, share stories, laugh at jokes, and simply be present. You can’t do that when you’re fuzzy-headed or wobbly on your feet!

Everyone sits around watching football on Thanksgiving like it’s required. What should we do instead?

Dr. Greger: Some of my favorite Thanksgiving memories are of strolling in the woods, breathing in the crisp fall air, participating in a clean-up of a neighborhood park, and volunteering at my local animal shelter, taking dogs for a walk, and giving them a cuddle. There are so many ways we can show how thankful we are.

What is the healthiest delicious dessert?

Or, Is there a dessert that someone who is dieting and trying to lose weight can still enjoy and be relatively guilt-free and healthy?

Dr. Greger: My Crust-Free Pumpkin Pie recipe in The How Not to Diet Cookbook!

Below is the recipe!

Crust-Free Pumpkin Pie

Serves 6 to 8

No need to feel deprived of a special dessert around the holidays with this pumpkin pie that is free of crust, sugar, and dairy, but filled with the great taste of pumpkin and spices.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons ground chia seeds
• 1 cup raw unsalted cashews, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, and then drained
• 1 (15-ounce) BPA-free can solid-pack pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• ⅓ cup blackstrap molasses, at room temperature
• ⅓ cup Date Syrup (recipe below), at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350º F.
2. In a small bowl, combine the ground chia seeds and 3 tablespoons of water, stirring to mix well. Set aside for 10 minutes to thicken.
3. Combine the drained cashews and the chia mixture in a high-powered blender and blend until the nuts are finely ground. Add the pumpkin puree, molasses, Date Syrup, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla and blend until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
4. Transfer the mixture into a 9-inch pie plate and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top looks cooked. Let the pie cool completely to room temperature, 1 to 2 hours, and then refrigerate until chilled and firm, about 3 hours. Keep refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Date Syrup

Makes: 1½ cups

Date Syrup is great to have on hand when you need a whole food sweetener.

Ingredients

• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

1. Combine the dates and water in a heatproof bowl, and set aside for 1 hour to allow the dates to soften. Transfer the dates and the soaking water to a high-powered blender. Add the lemon juice and process until smooth. Transfer to a glass jar or other container with a tight-fitting lid. Store the syrup in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 weeks.

Any other ideas of how to be healthy and not feel like we are “missing out?”

Dr. Greger: Thanksgiving isn’t about a dead turkey or groaning on the couch, rubbing our bellies, and watching sports on TV. It’s a national holiday of — quite literally — giving thanks. It’s an opportunity to celebrate our good fortune with loved ones and give back. Pay it forward. How? By being appreciative of all we have and lending a helping hand to others who may not be as fortunate. If those aren’t your traditions, there’s no reason they can’t be. Happy Thanksgiving, friends.

The post Dr. Greger on How to Stay Healthy and Plant-Based This Thanksgiving Holiday appeared first on The Beet.

To turn back the clock 14 years, live longer and healthier, add more plant-based foods.

Seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, researchers conducted a similar study that measured how much vitamin C subjects had in their bloodstreams. (Because vitamin C level is considered a good biomarker of how much plant-based foods someone eats, it was used as a proxy for having a healthy diet.) The drop in mortality risk among those who ate a healthier diet (defined as one that is high in plant-based foods) was equivalent to being 14 years younger. Imagine turning back the clock by 14 years with simple dietary choices.

Aging and disease can be thought of in part as the oxidation of the body, so it makes sense that eating antioxidant-rich foods may slow down this oxidant process. On average, plant-based foods may contain 64 times more antioxidants than animal foods (meat and dairy). Including a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices in each meal continuously floods your body with antioxidants to help ward off stroke and other age-related diseases.

Kick the sticks, once and for all. Do we still need to say this? Evidently, yes.

Research has found that to be your healthiest, consumption of fruits and veggies, along with not smoking, has been associated with longer protective telomeres, the caps on the tips of your chromosomes that keep your DNA from unraveling (aging, dying, or acting erratically and leading to diseases like cancer). Every time your cells divide, a bit of that cap gets lost. Telomeres can start shortening as soon as we’re born, and when they’re gone, we’re gone. The foods we eat may impact how fast we lose our telomeres: Consumption of refined grains, soda, meat, and dairy has been linked to shortened telomeres, while fruit, vegetable, and other antioxidant-rich plant food intake has been associated with longer ones.

A word about smoking: According to the CDC:

• Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans a year;
• 16 million Americans are living with at least one smoking-related disease;
• For every person who dies from a smoking-related disease, 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness; and
• 34 million Americans—roughly 1 in every 10 adults—still smoke cigarettes.

If you are one of them, quit. Today. Check out the CDC’s website for how to quit to help you on your path to better health in 2021.

Get going and keep going.

My Daily Dozen recommends one daily “serving” of exercise, which can be split up over the day. Aim for at least 40 minutes of vigorous movement, such as jogging or participating in active sports, or 90 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, like brisk (four miles per hour) walking. Again, you don’t have to exercise in one lump of time—just try to meet at least that minimum recommendation each day throughout the day.

Perhaps all those dogs we adopted from shelters during COVID-19 are saving us, since they’re getting us out and about on several walks a day! The more you get up from your desk or couch, the more you avoid sitting for long stretches, the better. My daily “dose” of exercise may seem daunting, but you’ll quickly see how it is imminently doable.

For more on how to live a more healthful and longer life, and for all the latest research on evidence-based nutrition, visit NutritionFacts.org, the public service site I run, and read How Not to Die, How Not to Diet, and the How Not to Diet Cookbook: 100+ Recipes for Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss.

The post Dr. Michael Greger’s 3 Simple Rules for Living Healthier in 2021 and Beyond appeared first on The Beet.

Given to students in Germany, the 11-part nutrition course, which Dr. Michael Greger is an advisor to, is called The Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN) International. The purpose of PAN is to teach medical students nutrition and increase awareness in the medical community of the power of plant-based nutrition for treating and preventing diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Taking place in Munich, the online course has more than 2,700 medical students signing up for the 11-part series so far. The organizers are hoping to expand it to the rest of the world.

The first time the course was offered, nearly  2,500 people attended, mostly medical students from Germany. The event’s Medical Director, Niklas Oppenrieder MD, says: “This record number of attendees shows us that nutrition and nutritional medicine need to be a much more central part of medical education and healthcare. That’s what we are working for at PAN.”

The 11-part Iss Das! (“Eat That!”) series has been organized almost exclusively by volunteers from the PAN University Groups and brings together renowned experts from diverse specialties of medicine and nutritional science. The online talks will take place between November 2020 and January 2021 and will cover topics such as nutritional medicine in cardiology, food and the climate crisis, and gastroenterology and the microbiome.

A patient who presents with heart disease, type 2 diabetes or even some forms of cancer (such as colon, or hormonally linked cancers such as breast and prostate) are likely to never hear a word about how changing their diet can help them get healthier, along with taking vital life-saving medicine, according to research. As prevention and intervention, doctors like Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn have used dietary changes to help treat patients facing heart surgery, to the point where signs of the disease have been reversed by adopting a whole-foods plant-based diet.

How does this affect you? The next time a doctor tells you that you need to go on medication, ask about nutrition. No one is suggesting we turn our backs on science, medicine and life-saving drugs or medical progress, but “Let thy Food Be thy Medicine” is as old as the Hippocratic Oath. Food should be a tool in the kit of all doctors facing lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and chronic inflammation. Studies have shown a whole-food plant-based diet low in oil can reverse symptoms of heart disease. Ask your doctor if this is an option for you.

The post Doctors Don’t Learn Nutrition in Med School. Here’s How That Effects You appeared first on The Beet.

The Beet: What is your best advice about staying healthy over the holidays? With Coronavirus, it seems even more important than ever to take care of ourselves.

Dr. Michael Greger: Quite simply, we should eat natural foods that come from the ground and from the fields, not factories, and from gardens, not garbage. 

Studies have shown plant-based eating can improve not only body weight, blood sugar levels, and ability to control cholesterol, but also emotional states, including depression, anxiety, fatigue, sense of well-being, and daily functioning. Researchers have shown that a more plant-based diet may help prevent, treat, or reverse some of our leading causes of death–including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure—all of which have been shown to be conditions that lead to the most severe cases of COVID-19.

The Beet: Do those same foods help our immune systems function better? How does eating healthy keep us safe from COVID-19?

Dr. Greger: Only one way of eating has ever been proven to reverse heart disease in the majority of patients: a diet centered around whole plant foods. If that’s all a whole-food, plant-based diet could do—reverse our number-one killer—shouldn’t that be the default diet until proven otherwise?

The fact it may also be effective in preventing, treating, and arresting other leading killers seems to make the case for plant-based eating simply overwhelming.

For example, studies of plant-based diets have shown, 90 percent reductions in angina within just a few weeks. Plant-based diet intervention groups have reported greater diet satisfaction than control groups, as well as improved digestion, increased energy, and better sleep, and significant improvement in their physical functioning, general health, vitality, and mental health. 

The Beet: Do you have an immunity holiday recipe? Something simple? Even a holiday dessert with dates and turmeric (immune-boosting foods)?

Dr. Greger: My Pumpkin Pie Smoothie recipe from The How Not to Die Cookbook is perfect for getting you into the holiday spirit with a pep in your step. It tastes like pumpkin pie in a glass! This recipe is as easy as can be and makes one 1½ cup serving.

Ingredients

• ½ cup solid-pack pure pumpkin (pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 small frozen ripe banana, cut into chunks before freezing
• 3 soft Medjool dates, pitted
• 1¼-inch piece fresh turmeric, grated (or ¼ teaspoon ground)
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tablespoon almond butter

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients with 1 cup of water in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Serve and enjoy immediately.

Q: Do you have any tips for not getting off track diet-wise, or even trying to lose weight this season?

Dr. Greger: It’s not what you eat today that matters, or tomorrow, or next week, but rather what you eat over the next months, years, and decades. As the days get shorter and colder, it’s harder to get outside to exercise and move around, and with the social limitations put on us due to the pandemic, this season may bring us some sadness and anxiety, rather than happiness and cheer.

They don’t call it comfort food for nothing. Overeating may be a sign that something is eating us.

The Beet: So how do we stop stress-eating?

Dr. Greger:  Though some people eat less during stress, the majority of us not only eat more, but tend to gravitate toward foods high in sugar, fat, and calories. If you give people their own private snack buffet, those with high chronic stress levels eat less fruits and veggies and more chocolate cake. We suspect it’s cause and effect because you can demonstrate the acute effects of stress in a lab. Randomize people between solvable and unsolvable word puzzles, for example, and food choice shifts from a healthy snack (grapes) to a less healthy snack (M&M’s) in the more stressful condition. Even just watching a video with distressing scenes, including traffic problems, financial hardship, or sexual harassment can evoke the same shift in eating behavior toward chocolate.

The best way to relieve the effects of stress is to relieve the stress itself. To the extent possible, we should try to reorient our lives to avoid major stressors and use exercise to work off what’s unavoidable. This can include yoga, walking, or resistance band stretching. Mindfulness techniques can be used to reduce stress and deal with cravings. To buffer the release of the stress hormone cortisol, we can reduce our intake of saturated fats and added sugars, and pile on the plants.

And when it’s time to prepare a meal, think of it as an opportunity to do something good for yourself. To treat yourself. To give yourself food that is delicious and healthful.

The Beet: How do we prevent weight gain during the holidays?

Dr. Greger: It’s actually quite simple: It turns out the healthiest diet also appears to be the most effective diet for weight loss. Indeed, we have experimental confirmation: A whole food, plant-based diet was found to be the single most effective weight-loss intervention ever published in the medical literature, proven in a randomized controlled trial with no portion control, no calorie counting, no exercise component: the most effective ever.

The Beet: What do YOU eat for TG? A fake turkey? Which one? Or do you make your own? AND why does real turkey make you feel drugged?

Dr. Greger:  Though it’s commonly thought the amino acid tryptophan in turkey makes us feel lethargic and even sleepy, any large such meal will do it. I most definitely keep turkeys off my plate on Thanksgiving and all other days of the year, but I also tend to stay away from the plant-based turkey alternatives readily available these days. Don’t get me wrong: I think they can be great for those wanting a close approximation to a traditional holiday entrée, but without all the myriad downsides of consuming animal products, but I prefer foods that are less processed. Foods that are whole and hearty.

Some of my favorites are included in my The How Not to Diet Cookbook, including Roasted Root Vegetables on Garlic-Braised Greens, Baked Grain Loaf with Umami Gravy, Roasted Kabocha with Kale-Cranberry Stuffing, and Balsamic Butternut, Brussels, and Beets.

The Beet: Everyone who is interested in going splant based asks the question — BUT WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR PROTEIN?

Dr.Greger: Anyone who doesn’t know how to get protein on a plant-based diet doesn’t know beans! Protein from plant sources is preferable because of the baggage that comes along with protein from animal products. Food is a package deal. Beans and other legumes, such as split peas, chickpeas, or lentils, are the protein superstars of the plant kingdom, and we should ideally enjoy them every day.

Dr. Greger is also the founder of Nutritionfacts.org, a site devoted to eating plant-based for your health, from the perspective of a science-based career treating patients and educating the public on how avoiding foods with animal fat and instead choosing to eat vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, grains and legumes is a healthier approach. For more information on how to adopt a plant-based diet, visit Nutritionfacts.org.

The post How to Eat to Stay Healthy, Avoid COVID Over the Holidays, from Dr. Greger appeared first on The Beet.