Health Counseling

Beans, Beans The Magical Fruit…

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Beans, beans the magical fruit the more you eat the more you…..okay you know how the rhyme goes.  Beans are a great source of protein and nutrients but for many people eating beans does a real number on their stomachs. The cause of the gas is from a sugar in the beans and it is easily preventable.  Here are a few ways to make beans give you less gas:

1. Make sure if you are using dry beans to soak them for at least 8 hours and then make sure when you do cook them that they are cooked in fresh water until soft.  Do not add salt to the water. Alternatively for canned beans make sure to rinse them to remove all the salt and then I recommend cooking them in a little vegetable broth for 10 minutes.

2. Refried beans, not the healthiest; these beans that have been cooked once and then cooked a second time with some sort of fat weather margarine, oil or vegetable shortening.  The fat helps to balance that sugar causing gas.

3. Do not eat fruit with beans such as tomatoes.

4. Eat rice and beans- whole grains and beans are a great combination and civilizations have been pairing these two things for hundreds of years- this is proof that they are a wonderful combination.

5. My favorite thing to do is add seaweed, specifically kombu to my beans when I am either boiling them from dry or even with canned when I do a second mini cook.  Additionally adding seaweed will provide a number of essential minerals and is a great detoxifier; I also love to add it to my grains (don’t worry if it makes you squeamish you don’t have to eat it to get the benefits and it doesn’t make your grains or beans taste funny).

I would recommend that if you shy away from beans because of their “magical properties” that you test out these 5 easy tips and see how your body feels.  Everyone’s body is different so if one suggestion doesn’t work for you move on to the next.

Below are a few of my favorite bean recipes:

Three Bean Burgers

2 cups of black eyed peas, kidney beans, and chickpeas
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/2-3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2t chili powder
1/2t cumin
1/4t garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1T hot sauce (I used VT Pepperworks Chocolate Chipotle)

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Mash the beans up and add in the spices, chickpea flour, panko breadcrumbs and hot sauce. Form the patties into 1/4 cup patties and bake for 10 minutes on each side.


Creamy Mashed White Beans

2 cans Cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
8-10 oil packed sundried tomatoes, chopped small
5 scallions, chopped small
3T vegan cream cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1t garlic powder

Add all ingredients to a pan over medium heat and mash with a potato masher.  Mix everything together and then heat until warmed

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Diets: Which ones really work?

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I can’t post much this morning as I have to get ready for my first day at my new job.  I’m really excited and I can’t wait to start.  I did a short yoga sesh this morning to relax my body and mind and get ready for the big day.  I then dug into a big bowl of oatmeal with my new addiction Sun Butter.

For my one of my fundamentals classes I have been doing some reading on various diets including Macrobiotic, The Blood Type Diet, Sally Fallon Diet, The Atkins and many others.   I now am looking for some feedback on what others experiences are; what kind(s) of diet(s) have you tried? What was your experience? Do still prescribe to a set diet or do you have guidelines that you follow?

Eating Vegan & Avoiding Highly Processed Foods

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I was recently asked by a reader about strategies for eating vegan but staying away from high processed foods.  I find that one of the biggest issues that face vegans (especially new vegans) is changing eating habits from a meat based to a plant based diets.  Many times it is easier to turn to meat analogues, faux cheeses, and other processed vegan or by chance vegan products that are familiar. 

 I know from my own experience of going vegetarian at a young age that many times I turned to veggie burgers as my protein or main dish and ate the vegetable or starch sides my mom made.  As I grew up and became more aware of nutrition and what is good and bad for you body I began to change my diet.  My husband is a good example of change from junk food vegan to healthy vegan.  When we first started dating his daily food intake was that of pop, chips and veggie burgers, all vegan and all highly processed junk foods. Today my husband’s usual day is oatmeal, a variety of fruits, steamed veggies, whole grain and tofu or beans.  This is not to say that he and I are perfect and only eat a high whole foods diet but at home we try to 75% of the time. 

For us 75% of our food intake is fresh fruits and veggies, beans and brown rice.  About 10% of our diet consist of lightly processed foods such as sprouted grain bread, sprouted tofu, and tempeh.  I classify foods with 5 or less ingredients as lightly processed and the ingredients have to be recognizable I shouldn’t have to turn to my dictionary to find out what it is.  The last 5% of our diet is alcohol (mostly red wine, gin and beer), and highly processed foods such as faux cheese, meat analogues, crackers and fried foods. 

I think it is important to recognize what you are putting in your body.  Go take a look at those yummy veggie burgers you have stashed in your freezer- do they contain for than 5-7 ingredients? Can you recognize them all without having to pull out the dictionary?  If you answered yes then great they are an okay choice.  However know that the better choice might be to grab some beans, spices, diced up veggies and bread crumbs and make your own yummy veggie burgers. 

A good starting point when shopping is to avoid the inside aisle of your market- you know the ones with all the processed foods like chips and pop.  Fill your at least 2/3 of your basket with fruits and veggies, the remaining 1/3 should be filled with beans, lightly processed foods, whole grains and a few more highly processed (but only a few).  Make sure to check labels- if you don’t recognize an ingredient put it down it’s not for you (I would like to note some healthy ingredients may be new to you so focus more on chemical sounding ingredients and artificial colours to start).

Here are some great resources for living a more whole food vegan lifestyle:

http://happyherbivore.com/

http://www.thekindlife.com/

http://www.getitripe.com/