I'm Thankful For . . .

This guy!

It's Holiday Season!

By now, I'm sure everyone got their annual email from the McDougall Program with the holiday recipes.

Holiday Meal Planning & Recipes (Updated) | Dr. McDougall's Health & Medical Center

How about the PDF from Forks Over Knives?

Remember this article from 2015 about recipes for Thanksgiving suggested by the folks at the Engine 2 (Now known as Plant Strong) website?

By the way, they're having a sale on the Engine 2/Plant Strong Meal Planner. 

Save $30 on the Plant-Strong Meal Planner annual plan with code: GIVETHANKS30

If you prefer videos of Esselstyn Thanksgiving suggestions, these are the recipes Ann said they're serving to 42 people this Thanksgiving:









As for us, our son is working Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday at Target, and he's very picky about what he eats the night before work, so we have nothing special planned to eat as a family on Thanksgiving.  My husband and I will have Chef AJ's Sweet Potato Chili for ourselves - it'll be cooking in the Instant Pot while we drive out to pick him up (Trains will be on holiday schedule both days and only run one an hour and be super crowded, so as long as my husband is off work we'll go pick the poor guy up), and Friday evening when we get home we'll all sit down for our Thanksgiving dinner, a big old pot of garlicky mashed potatoes as shown in the above video, a few pounds of carrots, and the McDougall Golden Gravy. 




Gee, that sounds exactly like a meal we had just a week ago. Maybe I'll splurge and make the PCRM Sweet Potato Pudding. A perfect McDougall Thanksgiving dinner!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Another Batch From Dr. Esselstyn

Once again, via Mary Pope, owner of the Dr. Esselstyn Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease- Recipes & Discussion Facebook Community:

A few more responses from Dr. Esselstyn:

I have low blood pressure (as low as 76/50) naturally and have been encouraged by my doctor to up the sodium level, much more than the 1,500mg/day. One side effect of low BP is passing out, which it does seem to help with. If I don’t have any heart disease, is this level okay for my heart? ***The blood pressure level is too low and requires a cardiologist’s evaluation to correct.

I have heart disease, but must take proton pump inhibitors as I had a Hellers Myotomy without fundiplication. It is my understanding that nitric oxide is made in the stomach and mouth, but ppis interfere with nitric oxcide production in the stomach. So my question is, is it necessary to eat more greens than a fist size, six times a day to get sufficient nitric oxide? ***No

Explain in detail why some few individuals have been recommended to eliminate grains temporarily. What is the cause and effect? ****It seems to identify whether the liver production of cholesterol may be stimulated by consuming an excess of grain.

My husband has lost muscle mass since doing the reversal diet. Is there a way to rebuild this? He’s 56 yrs old and has a shoulder that bothers him, so lifting weights isn’t really possible right now. ****Resistance exercise will help to maintain muscle mass.

What could be the cause of a normal Systolic blood pressure but high Diastolic ? ****High systolic blood pressure accompanied by normal diastolic pressure is called isolated systolic hypertension, which is possibly caused by artery stiffness, heart valve problems or hyperthyroidism.

I see he reversed what the last question asked about - normal systolic and high diastolic. I hope that one gets re-submitted.

More from the Esselstyns

This time it was a member of the community who had approached the Esselstyns to ask questions. Here's what he posted about the encounters:

Martin Kilroy
100% Esselstyn Nutrition Forum
11/19/2019

In an earlier thread, I suggested that it was not "required"  to include ground flaxseed or chia seeds in the Esselstyn reversal diet.  I would think that our diet has sufficient omega 3 fats.


I posed this question to Ann and Dr. Ess via email:  
Could you please clarify whether the flax or chia is "required" on the heart disease reversal plan?


Ann:
Put ground flax in your oat cereal…one tablespoon and when it is mixed in you will not know it’s there.  Be  sure to use ground.  The whole flax goes right through you.


Dr. Ess:
Flax or chia and green leafy vegetables are valuable for obtaining omega-3.


When I saw Dr. Esselstyn last night, I again asked:
Do you require flax or chia seeds to get your omega 3 fats or do you get enough from all the greens that we're eating?


Dr. Ess: I like it if you can put either a tablespoon of flaxseed meal or a tablespoon of chia seeds on your cereal in addition to eating plenty of green leafy vegetables. (emphasis on like and plenty)


I'm now adding the tablespoon of flaxseed meal to my morning steel cut oats and I'm not going to quibble about whether it's "required."

How to Store Foods Without Using Plastic

From Eco With Em Facebook site, in both English and Spanish:

A New Book Coming?

Not from Dr. McDougall but from one of the Esselstyns. Jane posted this recently to Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

RECIPE TESTING WITH EGGPLANTS: We have been playing around with eggplant and are loving the results! How do you do your eggplant? - - - #EggPlant #BakedEggplant #NightShade #ResearchAndDevelopment #RecipeDevelopment #NewRecipe #Plantbased #HeartHealthy #PlantStrong #JaneEsselstyn #fibersource - - 🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆 🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋

A post shared by Jane Esselstyn ➖ Author (@jane_esselstyn_rn) on Nov 19, 2019 at 9:12am PST

I like eggplant, and can usually find decent looking ones in any grocery store around here, and this food looks pretty darn good. The speculation for the topping in the comments run from hummus, an Esselstyn favorite, to a cheezy sauce. I may try this soon using plain hummus. Maybe cauliflower steaks on one tray and this on another. Hmmmm.

Dr. Esselstyn Guidelines Clarification: Part 2

Again, this comes form Mary Pope of the Dr. Esselstyn Preventing And Reversing Heart Disease- Recipes & Discussion FaceBook community.

A few more responses from Dr. Esselstyn. I know they stay busy, so I appreciate him taking time to answer some!
What is your position on roasting and air frying starchy vegetables? There has been some debate on Acrylamide s (possible carcinogens) that form as a chemical reaction when starches are fried, baked or roasted. Is this something that we should be concerned with or ?  Thank you. - As long as you don't char the food it is fine to use an air fryer.

I have heard there's different types- Best B12 vitamin? Bonus points for brand.  Thank you! - Natures Made Brand

I'd like to know if he knows of a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic that supports his work.   - Check out this website https://www.plantbaseddoctors.org/?fbclid=IwAR1qvB5tFb8GZBw1gWmIYZgdP2s-0NrPJETNZaohx45g3VM0O0hbd1ho9nE 

Have you seen an improvement in aortic and mitral valve function with this nutrition program ? - No, those are both mechanical problems.

What about iodine supplements? - They are unnecessary.

Can high cholesterol numbers , if someone is Vegan, be attributed to diet ? Or is it more of an abnormal function of the liver ?  Can any of this be corrected ? - Yes, they can be corrected with whole foods plant based diet.  Keep in mind that some people do require the aid of a statin in order to get the numbers down.

There is a commercial bread from Aldi, that is compliant, except for 1 gram of sugar per slice. ( from honey)  Would this be ok to eat, or should it be avoided? - Keep it at a minimum.  Most bread except for Ezekiel has some type sweetener.

Is it ok to have yonana dessert (only fruit) a few times a week? - Yes, but it would count as a serving of fruit. 

How much fruit is allowed?  Who has to limit it? - Fruit should be limited to 2-3 pieces per day.  If you are eating too much fruit it will raise your triglycerides.

Q&A with Dr. Lisle, Dr. Lim, and a Hairier Jeff Novick

This was posted to Dr. McDougall's FaceBook page. The sound is a little echo-y because it appears they're using the laptop's mic, and because it's FaceBook Live and not YouTube/Webinar Jam there's no option for captions, but it's still clear enough for those of us who are HOH to catch most of it.

What A Great Son I Have

Hubby and I came home from our weekly grocery shopping trip and I found this on the kitchen table:

While we were gone our son made himself some oven fries, and he said he knew I would love the batch he made so did this for me just before he came down to carry the bags upstairs. He made them a bit salty for my taste, but it's the thought that counts. He knows I love my spuds as much as I love him!

I bought that ketchup during that trip and added it for the photo. It's from a company called True Made Foods, and I see Amazon also sells it in jars:

The ingredients are:

and it tastes pretty darn good!

Amazon also has one with no added sugar, so I may order some of that when this bottle is done.

Dr. Esselstyn Guidelines Clarifications

These come "straight from the horse's mouth," so to speak.

Mary Pope, owner of the Dr. Esselstyn Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease - Recipes and Discussion FaceBook community, spoke with Dr. Esselstyn's office last week and arrangements were made for members of her group to send questions in to Dr. Esselstyn's secretary, Jackie Frey, and she would submit them to Dr. Esselstyn herself, and send back the answers from the good doctor. The first 10 questions (from a very long list) were sent late last week. Mary posted this today:

Here are the answers to the first 10 questions I sent. I’ll figure out a way to compile them by subject so they can be a reference.
Is it ok to just eat beets everyday for the six servings of greens? - No, Important to mix it up - arugula and kale are powerful
How have you lowered homocysteine? Is methyl folate needed? - Not when you eat plant based
Which Engine 2 foods are ok for someone with heart disease? - Almost all of them. Read ingredients. Rip's big bowl has a very few walnuts which probably don't matter for most.
Since the recommendations for reversal are stricter than those for prevention, it seems intuitive that ideally (to do the best one possibly can), everyone should follow the reversal recommendations. Is it so, or is there some reason why there is little or no advantage for some people (no diagnosis or high risk) to follow the reversal recommendations? - It makes sense, though for healthy, athletic people, nuts and avocado are fine...just no oil, no meat, no dairy for everyone and lots of vegetables and leafy greens
Does the doctor feel that the recommendation for flax seeds is sufficient to meet one's DHA/ALA needs? If not, what else might one need to do? - Flax seed meal and chia seed are excellent for DHA/ALA and the leafy greens as well.
1) Raw verses cooked and if portion sizes should increase with raw. - Some raw is good but some cooked is excellent and for leafy greens you get way more cooked.
2) If spinach/beets/chard should be limited because of the high oxalates/kidney stress? - Use reasonably and not exclusively - variety is good.
3) Does fresh raw cold pressed vegetable or fruit juice damage the endothelial? - NO juicing - do not juice. The fructose, the sugar in fruit is separated from the fiber in juicing. It is then rapidly absorbed and injurious. You lose the benefits of fiber best obtained by eating the whole fruit. Chew your food, especially your greens.
Realizing that the main component in the process of preventing/reversing comes from dietary changes, not supplements, I would like to have your input on any benefits of NATTO-K. Thank you! - It is not something we suggest using.
Clarification on water fasting up to two non-consecutive days per week since I can’t find that ‘update’ on the website. Apparently, he mentioned it recently at a conference in regards to reaching a plateau and/or lowering cholesterol? - Effective for losing weight when at a plateau. Consider doing Monday and Thursday.
Why is caffeinated coffee not allowed but caffeinated tea is ok? - The caffeinating process in tea is different from that of coffee.
Is decaf coffee ok? - Yes

Garden Gravy

We recently had one of our favorite meals - potatoes and carrots. Hubby and I had our Russets fresh out of the Instant Pot whole, while our son, ever the rebel and picky eater, insisted on the Bob's Red Mill Instant Potato Flakes mashed potatoes.

I usually make the McDougall Golden Gravy (minus the tahini) when I make my spuds, but because this was going to be Sunday dinner I wanted something a wee bit fancier, and decided to try Tim Kaufman's (Fat Man Rants) Garden Gravy. He used to have a load of recipes easily available on his website, but they're now hidden behind blank icons. If you click on every grey square you might find the one you're looking for. A search only takes you to his new blog page, not what you're searching for.

He does demo his recipes on his FaceBook page in his weekly live videos, and here is where he did the mashed potatoes and Garden Gravy, from the book Fat Man's Essential 40 Plant-Based Recipes: Quick and Easy Plant-Based Food (Fat Man's Recipes Book 1). It now looks like he combined his 2 books into one paperback called FatMan's Favorite Recipes instead of the 2 separate Kindle books.

The FaceBook version is slightly different than the book version that I show, but in the video he also says he rarely uses recipes or measures ingredients and prefers to make up recipes as he goes along,

Garden Gravy

3 bell peppers (any color)
2 medium onions
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 cups unsweetened plant milk
2 tablespoons liquid aminos
1 tablespoon onion powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch

In a non-stick pan, saute onions, peppers and mushrooms with water and the garlic powder on high/medium heat until the veggies are soft and wet, about 10 minutes.
In a blender, combine the cornstarch, nutritional yeast, onion powder, liquid aminos, and milk, and blend on high until mixed thoroughly. Add the mixture to the pan and cook on high, stirring constantly, until a gravy-like consistency is obtained.
Remove from heat and serve over potatoes, noodles or rice.

In the video he uses a bag of frozen peppers. I used a one pound bag of frozen onions and a jar of pimientos, drained, because I had no other peppers around.

In the video he used 2 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of oats to make oat milk because they didn't have any other plant milk in the house at that time. He said near the end that the gravy came out too thick for his liking, most likely from the oat milk acting like a thickener. I used Pacific Oat Milk because I have very little Pacific Almond Milk left and my son prefers to use that in his mac & cheese instead of oat milk. I should have just taken his almond milk.

Another big difference - in the video he puts the onions in a dry skillet, explaining that between the onions and peppers and the mushrooms they make enough liquid as they cook, they didn't need any additional liquid. In the written recipe he adds a cup of water to the pan, and so did I. Another mistake.

In his videos he uses Bragg's Liquid Aminos, so that's what I used.



First off, it took forever (over half an hour on medium-high) for the onions and mushrooms to cook down, and I chopped those mushrooms pretty small. There was hardly any flavor left when all the veggies were finally softened. Add the three cups of milk with its blended-in additions and it took another half hour before it thickened a little bit. It took another 15 minutes before it was thick enough to pass for watery gravy.

And it tasted horrible to me! The oat milk made the whole thing sweet. So here was a slightly thickened batch of sweetened liquid, made lumpy with limp, overcooked vegetables. My husband said it was okay, and he's going to finish the leftovers during the week with his lunches, probably pouring it over some toasted bread slices. He didn't think it was sweet at all. But I couldn't even eat more than a few bites of my potatoes and veggies before I gave up. I scraped off what I could from the potatoes, rinsed off my carrots, and just nibbled a bit before giving up the dish for good. My husband ate it for his "seconds" and I went to the kitchen and grabbed a clean bowl and the half a potato that was left in the pot and another few scoops of clean carrots and ate it all with just some Mrs. Dash Table Blend.

Will I try this recipe again? Only if I can find some Pacific Almond Milk next time we go to Whole Foods. Those stores seem to be the only places within a 50 mile radius that are currently selling it, according to the Pacific web site, and the last time to WF, the store we went to had none of that brand, and others they had of course had oil in them. Hubby is on vacation next week, so we'll give the store a call later this week and ask them to get a case of the milk and one of those baby Brussels sprouts. Hopefully they'll be able to get at least one of the items - last time they said they were unable to get an extra case of the sprouts but there was plenty on the shelf we can purchase, so we bought a case worth's but at regular price, not the 10% off they say you get if you order the case. Whole Foods now charges for their paper bags, too. Even though we have a new store that opened a bit closer to home (only 5 miles closer, not even a 15 minute driving difference) I'm finding less and less reasons to make the trip.

Oat milk may be good in sweet dishes, like oatmeal or baked goods, but not in savory things like gravy! Worse comes to worse and I can no longer get almond milk in stores without oil, I may be forced to make my own on an as-needed basis using almond butter. The problem with that, besides the obvious time and trouble it takes to make and clean up after, is having almond butter in the house. You know what AJ says about "if it's in your house, it's in your mouth," right? I can't keep a jar almond butter in this house! Sure, I could buy those tiny packets of Justin brand, but they add oil, so it's as bad as buying almond milk with oil.

Don't mind me - I'm just cranky because I didn't get my Golden Gravy on my potatoes last night.