Vegan Cooking with TLC

How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older by Michael Greger, M.D., FACLM is a very long book. I read it out of curiosity about where Dr. Greger was going with it. How Not to Age took me months to read but also included a couple of pauses in reading due to a trip and personal circumstances. I reviewed How Not to Ag e on Reviews with TLC . I first became acquainted with Dr. Greger by watching his videos on nutritionfacts.org . I liked that he explained complex research in easy to digest segments that made sense and that he injected a bit of humor into his presentations of very serious analysis of the research around nutrition. I have read several of his books, own a couple of his cookbooks, and use the Daily Dozen app whenever I feel like I'm slacking off on my nutritional needs. I have discussed some of Dr. Greger's other books and website before because they have been instrumental in my journey to eat a healthy, whole food plant-based die...

  After reading How Not To Diet by Dr. Michael Gregor, I anxiously awaited the release of the The How Not To Diet Cookbook by Dr. Gregor and Robin Robertson. I'd found How Not To Diet interesting, and I liked several of the ideas in the book. He promoted healthy eating more than weight loss and talked about how a healthy lifestyle leads to a stable and healthy weight in most cases. I like the concept of focusing on health instead of weight.  At least one or two of my friends were skeptical when I told them I was reading the book. The same basic question arose. "Why? You are a healthy weight." and to be clear, I am a healthy weight. I was more interested in the research surrounding health than in weight loss. I found many of his tips just made good sense. Since they couldn't result in losing too much weight and had other health benefits, I decided to incorporate some of them into my lifestyle. Regular readers might remember me addressing some of this last year in th...

I tend to lean toward science driven facts. Let's be a little more specific. I like peer reviewed, unbiased research that follows the scientific method. I don't care much about faith or beliefs or opinions unless there are facts and research to back up whatever faith, beliefs, and/or opinions are presented. I'm skeptical  about research conducted by an industry that props up that industry. Anything that can be used as a marketing ploy that was financed by a particular industry always raises my suspicions. Diets, as we've come to understand them, are created with a beginning and an end even though we all know that if you don't make lifestyle changes, they don't work. A lifestyle is a permanent way of doing something, preferably based on the most relevant scientific research. So even a lifestyle change isn't always that permanent if the science later points in a different direction. I'm a fan of Dr. Michael Gregor's work because he and his team...

As we've all practiced social distancing and self-quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, I've been a bit challenged to eat the whole food plant based diet I normally do. I generally eat an abundance of fresh produce. I went to the grocery as I normally do for a few weeks but practiced social distancing, but each week I also picked up a few frozen versions of some of the things we eat on a regular basis, just in case the need arose. As I thought about how to prepare to be able to eat a whole food plant based diet without the need for a minimum of a weekly trip to the grocery store, I started thinking about whether I wanted to buy canned or frozen food. I'm lucky because we have a stand alone freezer, so I opted for frozen. Frozen tends to be less processed - less "cooked" - than canned and therefore holds more of its nutritional value, but I do have some canned/jarred goods and will use those as well.  As I look at the items I gravitated toward, I'm ...

Recently while travelling I started thinking about an Instagram post I saw a month or so ago that talked about being vegan as being "privileged". I didn't really think much about it at the time though I am aware there are food deserts in many places.  As I shopped for groceries in a place where I couldn't find the things I easily buy at home, I started to think about how there are places where being vegan or finding healthy food options aren't so readily available, even if they aren't full on food deserts. There are places where options are so limited that people have to make do with what they can find. I don't know how we can address this issue in a widespread way, but I think it behooves us to recognize that it's easier to find some ingredients in some places than in other places. This is why I often include links to my ingredients and tools on Amazon. I figure if one is online, one can at the very least order some of the ingredients, but after g...

I decided to talk a bit about snacking today because that's what's on my mind. Are you a snacker? I tend to only snack when I don't eat full, nutritious meals. I've noticed lately that I've been snacking more than usual at the same time I noticed I wasn't putting in the effort to eat meals. My snacks are nutritious, but a handful of nuts isn't going to provide the energy, fullness, and nutrition to keep me going through the day. I know this. I know it's worth taking the time to fix breakfast and a light lunch to avoid snacking all day, but sometimes I convince myself I'm too busy or I'm not that hungry or... whatever excuse I give myself for not taking the time to fix myself a nutritious and healthy meal. My snacks tend to be nuts, dried, fresh, or frozen fruit, and sometimes air-popped popcorn. But, even when I choose healthy snacks, they don't have the same positive effect on my body as eating a full meal. As I was writi...