Creating plant-based amazingness

I’m sure I’ve already mentioned that I’m seeing a vegan dietician to help me with my plant-based nutrition transition. But it is so much more than that! Allow me to explain…

When I first started looking up info about diabetes-specific diets (beneficial ones, no diabetes-inducing ones) I stumbled upon a local young woman who was diagnosed with a rare form of diabetes, called MODY (maturity onset diabetes of the young) which she managed to control by diet alone! I found out that she was going to be at a local health and wellness conference and I made sure to be there so that I can meet her and ask her a ton of questions!

The day of the conference, I finally got the chance to speak to her, but she was so busy with signing her book and getting ready for her talk (and I was totally startstruck) that I didn’t manage to ask her everything I wanted to, but she suggested I give a certain dietician a call. This dietician, Anne-Marie Roy was at the same conference, so I took advantage of the situation and went looking for her.

When I finally found her, she was at a kiosk for the Montreal Vegetarian Association answering questions left and right. She was very approachable and explained to me that she ran a clinic called La Clinique Renversante (The Reversal Clinic in English) where she takes on 10 to 15 people who are either curious about living a plant-based lifestyle or who suffer from type II diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol problems, and she takes them on a 12 week journey through the world of vegetarianism and veganism. I made the decision right then and there to be a part of this and said, “Where do I sign up?” and that’s how my journey began and I haven’t looked back since.

The program is simple: we meet once a week for 2 hours and discuss nutrition facts (and fiction), learn plant-based nutrition basics, and we also discuss the ethical and moral dilemmas around food (GMOs, factory farming, etc.) During the 12 weeks, we have 4 cooking classes where we team up with professional and established plant-based Quebecois chefs who show us new and exciting recipes and flavours. So far, we’ve done 3 cooking classes and they just keep getting better and better! Here are some pictures I took along the way:

I look forward to these cooking classes! The food is fresh and organic (in fact, one of the chefs owns a farm and brings in a bunch of her own produce), the recipes are simple and delicious, and the ambiance is just amazing. Many people in the class are longtime vegetarians who are trying to transition to veganism and they still learn something new each time. It’s such a great feeling to work with all these people towards one common goal of health and compassion for ourselves and the planet.

If any of you are Montrealers who would be interested in following this program, click here to visit Anne-Marie’s website and inform yourself. It really is worth every penny, and if you read my last post and saw the progress I’ve made, you’d also agree that there is just no substitution for good nutrition.

Oils

How often do we hear about olive oil being good for the heart? It’s true that if you’re going to use any kind of oil, olive oil is best (as long as it is cold pressed, and make sure not to heat it because this oxidizes it). Oils and fat can be a tricky subject. Not eating any fat at all compromises nutrient absorption but getting too much of it compromises your health. The trick is to try to get your fats from whole, healthy foods rather than (heavily processed) oils.

Did you know that plants are made up of many components, one of them being fat? Plant fats are called “phytosterols.” Without them, fruits and veggies aren’t digested properly! See how perfect nature is? Some veggies have higher amounts of fat, like olives and avocados. It is suggested that if you’re searching for an authentic olive taste in your hummus for example, the most nutritious thing to do would be to add olives rather than olive oil. Not just for the delicious taste and the phytosterols, but when you use the whole food rather than just the oil, you get all the other nutritious components like fibre, vitamins and minerals. No more empty, oily calories! (Side note: on nutrition labels, in the “Fat” section, every gram of fat is equal to 9 calories, while every carb and protein is equal to 4 calories. So, say you have a store-bought, factory-manufactured hummus worth 70 calories for 2 tablespoons. The label details 5g of fat, 6g carbohydrates and 2g protein. Calorie-wise that means 45 calories of fat (5g x 9cals), 24 calories of carbs (6g x 4cals) and 8 calories of protein (2g x 4cals) which is actually 77 calories. Out of 77 calories, 45 of them are just fat, which is more than 50%. Hummus is made entirely of chick peas which usually have 1g of fat per half-cup serving. So where does this fat come from? Added oils to make the dip more smooth. The more you know…)

This revelation changed a lot for me. This may be the hardest thing to change, since we’ve been led to fiercely believe that olive oil is healthy. I never made the connection between phytosterols already in whole plant foods and the empty calories from olive oil. Now that I had become plant-based and veggie-crazy, what was I going to dress my delicious salads with? My dietician gave me a marvelous idea for replacing my too-common and boring oil-and-vinegar dressing: nut butter dressings!

This is so simple and I’ve just never ever thought of doing this. In fact, once she mentioned this idea, I began to hear about it everywhere, even in Dr. Furhman’s book “The End of Diabetes“. He reiterated what my dietician said: oils are nothing but fat. They have been stripped of their fibre and vitamins and any nutrients. But nut butters haven’t lost any of those things. (Bonus: there’s protein in nut butters, and none in oil.) They’re also way more flavourful than regular oil, and so versatile.

Here’s what my dressing usually looks like:
– 2 tbsp of tahini (or peanut/almond/sunflower seed butter)
– 1/4 cup of water
– 1.5 tsp tamari/soy sauce or miso paste
– 1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
– 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
– pinch of pepper
– herbs (coriander, parsley, basil)
– anything else that I feel like adding in!

I start off by putting the nut butter in a bowl and gradually stirring in the water. You will notice the butter get a little thick but keep stirring! You can add more water if you want your dressing to be less thick. Then, add in all the other ingredients. Feel free to add anything else to the mix, like hot chili flakes, chopped sun dried tomatoes, olives, anything you like. You can store your dressing in a container for 4-5 days in a refrigerator.

I love this recipe. Sometimes I add some curry powder and less water so it comes out like more of a dip and I just dip some veggies or crackers in it. Has this post caused you to question your use of oils? Would you try this dressing recipe? Let me know how it turns out!