and welcome to this edition of the Healthy Planet Radio program. My name is Bob D. Benadetto, your host for the best hour of your life, the one that’s always in front of you right now, whenever that happens to be. The Healthy Planet focuses on topics that will help to educate you about the deep connection among all life on Earth and the powerful effects your everyday choices can have on creating a clean, healthy, and compassionate world.
So, with temperatures across the US into dangerous and record-breaking levels, there’s no doubt that it is indeed summertime. And that means, among other things, that it’s time for the beach, pool parties, barbecues, and hopefully getting outside and moving a lot more.
Now, thinking back about 6 months, you’ll remember that many of the resolutions we all made at that time were aimed at getting ourselves to be healthy and with perhaps a few less pounds than we were holding on to in the winter. We know that most New Year’s resolutions don’t work. They don’t sick since at the time that we make those resolutions, we may have been lacking in motivation or inspiration or support or information to support us in how to achieve our goals.
But the good news is that the goal of staying healthy and fit are important at any time of the year and at all times of our lives. So the very best time to start is always right now, whenever that happens to be and whenever you have the motivation. So instead of feeling guilty or powerless for not having followed through on this year’s resolutions, we can always start toward our goals in any moment. And this next hour could be that moment for you. And I say that because you’ll be hearing information on health and nutrition that has the power to jumpstart your lifelong health journey.
And that might mean losing weight. It might mean also improving the day-to-day habits that you normally take part in in a way that is proven to both improve your health, our mental clarity, the way we feel, as well as the quality of our lives. So, what we’ll be providing over this next hour is potentially very valuable information. And what makes it way more valuable than something you might read on the internet from a self-proclaimed health expert of the day is that we have an expert guest with us who to me defines the term credible source. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart since I’ve witnessed her devotion to this work and to the truth that she speaks not for just months or years but decades.
And her name is Brenda Davis. She is a registered dietician, a plant-based trailblazer, and an internationally acclaimed speaker who has generously spoken at our Healthy Planet events on Long Island and has been on this radio show before. She’s been featured as a speaker at nutrition, dietetic, and lifestyle medicine conferences in over 25 countries on six continents. As a prolific writer, Brenda has authored, co-authored 13 books with nearly a million copies in print in 12 languages. She’s developed many continuing education courses for physicians, dieticians, and allied health professionals, and is a contributing author on 10 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her latest books include Plant Power Protein, Nourish, Kick Diabetes Essentials, and The Kick Diabetes Cookbook. Her books have won multiple awards. Brenda Davis is a past chair of the vegetarian nutrition dietetic practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She was the lead dietician in a randomized controls trial on type 2 diabetes in the Marshall Islands and we’ll be speaking about that momentarily. And Brenda was the seventh recipient of the Plantrition Project’s Luminary Award. Welcome back to the Healthy Planet, Brenda Davis.
Oh, thank you so much, Bob. I um really appreciate the in invitation and I’m really looking forward to the conversation today and thank you so much for your very kind words.
Hey, you’ve earned them all. You’re very welcome. Thank you.
But Brenda, if one peruses various forms of social media, it’s very easy to be confused about just about any topic. Since for many people, it’s understandably difficult to differentiate between factual evidence-based information and a really sensational grabbing headline on a website that poses as a reputable news source, but really isn’t. With that said, let’s start out by talking about the quality of the information we’ll be discussing on this show. How strong is the evidence to support the perspective that a plant-based diet is the best for one’s health?
I would say the evidence is honestly overwhelming and and you know there was a an article that was published in a very prestigious journal that examined really this very question and it was called can we say what diet is best for health and the authors of this particular report concluded basically that a diet that’s close to nature predominantly plants uh is decisively associated with health promotion and prevention and what I think a lot of people don’t realize is most health authorities agree. Uh the World Health Organization Europe put out a report in 2021.
Uh and the report I think was called plant-based diets, the environment and chronic disease or something like that. And uh they basically said that plant-based diets are beneficial. The beneficial effects, including the protection they offer against premature mortality and disease risk reduction, is really quite overwhelming in that they actually encourage national governments around the world to be, you know, encouraging uh a shift towards more plant-based diets to as a means to prevent and control NCDS or non-communicable diseases. If you look at guidelines from national governments around the world, it’s unbelievable how many are recommending eating mostly foods of plant origin and or cutting meat consumption. And I I can you know name off a number uh certainly Canada where I’m from uh Brazil, China, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, Qatar, Taiwan, the UK, the list goes on where they are in really uh pushing uh their uh people their their population to be consuming more plant-leaning diets and and and then if you look even at health authorities like the American Cancer Society, the American American Institute of Cancer Research, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, you’ll see over and over again uh guidelines that promote uh the consumption of more plant-based foods.
And in Canada, uh we actually have a food guide, and I don’t know if you’re familiar with our new food guide, but as of 2019, our food guide is a plate. Half the plate is fruits and vegetables, a quarter of the plate is whole grains, and a quarter of the plate is protein uh foods. And and it includes all protein foods, including both plant and animal proteins. But there’s an emphasis on plant protein and it encourages consumers to select plant sourced protein more often because of its association with reduced risk of disease. So I think and and we see the same thing with dietary pattern research. So when you look at various dietary patterns and their impact on health, the the the patterns that always come out ahead are plant, you know, plant-based uh programs like the or plant-based patterns like the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet or plant-based diets, including entirely vegan diets with which tend to come up on top in terms of diet quality scores. And and when you look at animal- centered or western style diets, they’re kind of at the bottom of the barrel. And so this is not something that I would say most uh nutrition experts are debating about that much anymore. Most experts will say eat more fruits and vegetables, eat more legumes, eat whole grains, eat nuts and seeds, eat fewer highly or ultrarocessed foods, and reduce your intake of animal products. and and you know it’s not just a matter of human health. It’s a matter of you know choosing a diet that’s more ecologically sustainable long-term and more ethically justifiable in terms of if you think about the 70 or more billion animals we kill on the planet and that doesn’t include anything from the ocean that’s just land animals every year. It’s not easy to raise that number of animals in a way that is kind and ecologically appropriate.
No. And we live in a country of animal lovers. People love their animals, love like family. And there’s the meat paradox which shows that people can love their animals and have a real feeling and understanding of them as individuals with their own interests and personalities and yet go and have lunch and have a burger with another animal that was very much like the animal that they love. It’s I couldn’t I couldn’t agree more. And and it’s this, you know, sort of cognitive dissonance, if you will, or Yeah. I I think we we can’t let ourselves go there if we’re still eating the stuff. Um because it makes us feel like um we’re, you know, we’re not moral or something like that. And so we don’t even, you know, we put the blinders on and say, “I don’t want to see, you know, I don’t want to hear. I don’t want to see.” And unfortunately the reality is whenever we purchase the products we’re supporting a system of cruelty that is absolutely unjustifiable.
It it is indeed. Not to mention as you briefly mentioned the environmental impacts and the impacts on our world food supply which is impacting hundreds of millions of human animals as well. Yes. Brent, I was just thinking a short while ago it struck me. Aren’t we fortunate that the same foods that are best for our health and the best for the environments are also those that don’t hurt animals? That it all does sync up because we could live in a world in a dimension where animal foods really were best for us and then we’d have to fight to say, “Look, we believe in treating animals well, but we really have to work… to make your diet better because you’re not going to be as healthy.” But here we live in in a place where it all lines up. That’s a good thing. It does. It’s like winwinwin. win, right? So, it’s not hidden agendas. It’s all making it consistent. Doing the best thing for the environment, best thing for our health, best thing for the animals, best thing for humans eating everywhere. So, best thing for our economy. Absolutely.
Yeah. And uh Brenda, to be clear, as we’re talking about plant-based diets going forward, you’re obviously placing an emphasis on the quality of the plant-based diet as well.
Oh, yes. And it’s really interesting if you look at the research in the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of research that has, you know, looked at diet quality. And in fact, there’s a special diet quality scoring system that was designed to the to actually examine the relationship between the quality of plant-based diets and disease risk. And it’s called the PDI or the plant-based diet index. And it it it’s out of Harvard. and and and so the plant-based diet index kind of gives positive scores to eating more plant foods and negative scores to eating animal products, but they it gets more granular than that. They’ve got something called the HPDI or the healthy plant-based diet index, which which gives higher scores to uh less processed or whole plant foods and then negative scores to animal uh foods and and uh processed plant foods. And then there’s something called the UPDI or the unhealthful plant-based diet index. And that is sort of a a diet that emphasizes uh the more processed plant products. And there have been a lot of studies already that have used these metrics to determine how these various things impact disease risk and the risk of both death and disease. In some cases, if you look just at PDI, risk of death and risk of disease is consistently reduced when you have a high PDI and the risk reduction was actually close to 50% for obesity, prostate cancer progression and cognitive dysfunction. And then when it comes to an HPDI, well, the association is even greater. It has an even greater impact. We see, you know, an over 60% risk reduction for obesity. I think it’s about 55% for colarctal cancer and and and and prostate cancer progression. On the other hand, and this is something that I think is really important for people eating plant-based diets to get, the UPDI is actually associated with increased risk of disease compared to people who are, you know, not eating an unhealthy plant-based diet. Uh the risk is increased, I think about 30% for mortality. and it’s increased for every single disease that we look at. So, it’s important to recognize that the quality of the plant-based diet really matters in terms of disease risk reduction. Of course, an unhealthy plant-based diet will still reduce animal suffering and reduce the ecological impact of your food choices, but it won’t necessarily protect you from death and disease. Then to me, and I think this is an important point, for people that are plant-based, you are an example for other people. They look to you to see how well a plant-based diet does. For some people, you might be the only vegan, if you’re eating a vegan diet, that they’ve ever met. So, if you do poorly, sort of you are judged or the vegan diet is judged based on how you do in their eyes. And so you want to be healthy. You want people to to notice and say, “Wow, you’re that age and you’re on no medication. You have no diseases. You’re that fit.” That is what really can motivate people to say, “Gee, maybe this is worth trying.” And so we really want to be as healthy as possible. And so you don’t want your diet to be based on all of these ultrarocessed plant foods. So we’re talking about, you know, sugar sweetened beverages and white sugar, white flour, white rice based products and all of these very processed foods that have added salt, sugar, and fat and and all sorts of food additives. This is just not good news for people. So quality is important. We want our diet to be mainly unprocessed whole plant foods.
Okay, pretty simple. So, let’s dive into the other side of the equation, which is how eating a plant-based diet leads to a reduced risk of various chronic diseases from heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Well, let’s begin with what makes a plant-based diet so protective.
Plant-based dietary patterns are protective. It’s actually quite simple because they maximize protective dietary components like fiber and phyitochemicals and antioxidants and plant stanels and steriles and pre and probiotics. These are components that are associated with disease risk reduction and increased longevity and at the same time they minimize potentially pathogenic dietary components or components that we know to be potentially harmful like saturated fat, trans fatty acids,… refined carbohydrates, a new 5GC which is a pro-inflammatory molecule in meat, a TMAO and the precursors of TMAO which are pro-inflammatory molecules. chemical contaminants, prooxidants, endotoxins, all of these potentially harmful compounds are minimized in a whole food plant-based diet. And so that that’s basically the bottom line. And so it’s not a big surprise when we look at the rates of chronic diseases in people eating plant-based diets, we we see that they’re reduced. And in fact, there have been a number of populations that are generally healthconscious individuals who eat different dietary patterns. And researchers have been following these populations, these healthconscious populations for several decades. And there are three main populations. One is in the United States, and it’s called the Adventist Health Study 2. About 96,000 people in this uh study. And I believe it started in about 2002. It’s ongoing. The second is in the UK. It’s called Epic Oxford. It’s been going for even longer. And then the third is uh the SUI studies from Taiwan. And in the Adventist Health Study 2 and the Epic Oxford, they actually compare healthconscious omnivores with semi-vearians, pescatarians, lacto vegetarians, and vegans. and they control for intake of alcohol and and the smoking and the level of exercise and all of these potentially confounding variables. And generally these healthconscious people tend to drink the same amount, smoke the same amount and so forth. So it’s a very fair comparison of you know the vegans versus the omnivores. So we’re not comparing vegans to people eating a standard western diet. Uh and in fact in both of these cohorts, if you look at anyone in these cohorts, whether they’re omnivorous or vegan, they die at about half the rate of the general population. So this is important to note. And in sushi, it’s a little different. They compare near vegans, people eating a a vegetarian diet that includes very little dairy, very little eggs, uh, with omnivorous people from the suchi hospital populations. And the results of these studies are really interesting. So just to give you a few examples, if you compare rates of eskeemic heart disease, uh they tend to be about, you know, over 20% lower among lacto vegetarians and vegans. And in in the Adventist Health study too, rates were actually 55% lower among vegan men. There was an a recent umbrella review that showed an almost 30% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 24% lower risk of eskeemic heart disease among vegetarians and vegans. Now hypertension in all of these studies is significantly lower and and in the Adventist health study too it was 55% lower among lacto vegetarians and 75% lower among vegans. Diabetes was over 35% lower among lacto vegetarians and somewhere between uh 53 and 62% lower among vegans in in these uh studies. Cancer was only about 8 to 11% lower among lactoovo vegetarians, but it was 16 to 19% lower among vegans. And in sushi, breast cancer was 58% lower among vegetarians. And people that ate soy every day, it was 63% lower. And then for other diseases, cataracts, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, diverticular disease, um urinary tract infections, gout, kidney disease, depression, dementia, all were significantly lower among lacto vegetarians and vegans compared to the omnivores. So the evidence is really quite strong that people eating plant-based diets do very well. And these weren’t all whole food plant-based diets. They were a variety of plant-based diets, some of which were, you know, of lower quality than others. And I think that tells us that if we’re actually consuming a very high quality plant-based diets, our potential for reducing our risk of mortality and chronic diseases is even greater, which is very encouraging.
That’s amazing considering the numbers that you just told us. Yeah. to do better than that. I mean, that in itself is just 51% heart disease. Wow. Yeah, that’s great.
You’re listening to Bob D. Benadetto with the Healthy Planet radio show on W USB 90.1 FM Stonybrook. We’re speaking to Brenda Davis, the registered dietician who has authored or co-authored 13 books with nearly a million copies in print, a plant-based trailblazer, and an internationally acclaimed speaker. You can find out more about Brenda at www.brenda, as in registered dietitian.com. brenda.com….
Let’s talk about going from that to another disease topic of the day. There were studies that indicated that eating a plant-based diet actually had led to a reduced risk of both contracting COVID 19 and of suffering from the most serious impacts. Tell us about that.
Absolutely. a number of studies and and there was one study that actually even compared people eating uh plant-based versus uh pescatarians and and I think the people eating plant-based had about a 73 or 72 or 73% risk reduction and for the pescatarians I think it was about 59%. So there’s no question that there is a reduced risk of contracting the disease and a better chance of surviving the disease. And I think that’s because of a number of factors and and I maybe the most important factor is that is that we tend to have uh a healthier body weight and less um hypertension, less of all of the comorbidities that increase our risk of of CO 19. So definitely eating a plant-based diet, it, you know, and I guess we could go on and say it reduces inflammation, it reduces oxidative stress, it improves our gut microbiome and reduces risk of dispiosis, it reduces risk of lipotoxicity and kind of all the drivers of chronic disease.
That’s uh again very powerful and we look at that and it can almost seem unbelievable. And I say that because I’ll give you for instance when CO 19 came out within the first couple of weeks people were saying it’s caused by 5G, it’s caused by this, it’s caused by that. Everyone who had their own cause and their own focus thought that it was the result of what they’re focused on. And so we’re talking about a plant-based diet in the context of improving health and we had mentioned earlier the environment and everything else. And it can seem almost unbelievable. It’s so good. And it actually also applies to co 19 which just rocked our world over the past several years.
Absolutely. And that I think is what people need to understand. Uh the power of a plant-based diet to protect our health is absolutely overwhelming. You know, so many people, I think, hesitate because food is so critical to our human connection and it’s such a huge part of our our social interaction that I think a lot of people would sooner die than not be connected to the people they love and they’re they fear that if they eat differently than their tribe, uh, they won’t belong. And belonging is just so important. So, I want to do everything that I can do and I I hope others that are in the same position that are promoting plant-based diets do what they can do to help normalize, to help make eating plant-based easier, more fun, more delicious, you know, sort of more approachable. And one of the things I like to do is prepare really wonderful food for people that aren’t plant-based and and so they can try it and it gives them this feeling that well gee maybe this isn’t so bad after all. Maybe I could do this. And even just taking little steps in the right direction makes a difference. It’s not all or nothing. Every step we take in a direction of a more sort of conscious compassionate lifestyle is worth taking.
Absolutely. And of course your tribe will change with you. Absolutely. As you do, you know, having been absolutely and you’ll start connecting. Yeah. You’ll connect with people who are are doing the same. But, you know, one of the things that, you know, I think is important to recognize is that you don’t have to give up your association with people that aren’t eating the same way as you. I think if you share food with them, if if you’re kind, if you’re compassionate, I have a lot of relatives who aren’t plant-based, but they’re very sensitive to my being plant-based, and they’re they’re usually quite happy to try the food that I’m preparing. And many of them actually end up asking for recipes. And and so sometimes when we confine ourselves to only others who are absolutely likeminded, we actually have less impact on the people that are thinking a little differently. So we need to, you know, just feel free to to um you know, to relate with others and to connect with people who are eating a wide variety of dietary patterns.
Yeah. And in so doing, you will act to bring something potentially very good into their lives and give them both length of life and quality of life, which is just, you know, a real gift that there’s there’s no other more valuable gift that you can really give anybody.
I know my parents uh who are 99 and 94, they go to their doctors and they’re old, of course. You know that that’s a good ripe old age and they’re not playing tennis. But the doctors when they see the medications they’re on, they say that’s it. And different doctors have said it’s just extraordinary and they don’t see patients at their age like that. So despite the fact that they have to deal… with old age stuff, old age doesn’t have to mean that you’re at 70 you’re changing your lifestyle in a drastic way because you just can’t do things or at 80 that you’re not thinking clearly. And you know, it just it makes a big difference as we age. And that’s a whole show unto itself. Uh uh yes it is and your parents are inspiring a lot of people. Um it to me it’s one of my greatest joys is to see people at that stage of life who are still uh able to be productive or to you know have enjoyment in life. And I think of people like Caldwell Esleston and Colin Campbell who are both 90 and their wives are 88 and they’re still speaking and being very active and productive. Yeah. And inspiring so many other people. So it’s possible and living this type of lifestyle increases the chances of that happening. I think for many of us our goal is to be, you know, climbing a mountain when we’re 100. So, you know, I’m working towards that. I just turned 65 this year, so I’m officially a senior. Um, but my body doesn’t feel much different than it did when I was 30. And I can still do physically most of the things that I could do at that age as well. And so, we just have to keep doing it. And I think we’re we’re going to reap the rewards as we grow older.
Yeah. And by the way, Brenda, I will tell you that you uh did come to Long Island and spoke and you’ve done radio shows and my parents came to many of those meetings, which is what their inspiration was to change. So, who knows what role you played. Well, that warms my heart. Thank you so much for saying that. Yeah, of course.
So, we’ve talked about a lot of the benefits and the plus side, but there are conditions, I assume, and nutrients of concern for people eating plant-based diets that warrants discussion.
Yes. And so whereas most uh chronic conditions uh the risk is significantly reduced in people eating plant-based, there is one condition for sure where we have an increased risk, particularly females, not so much uh men, and that is an increased risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis. And that the reason that we’re probably at higher risk is that we tend to have a low lower BMI, which is a lot lower body mass index, less bone mass to start with because we’re smaller, lower calcium intakes, lower vitamin D intakes, sometimes lower protein intakes, and for women, there’s less uh use of of hormone replacement therapy and people eating plant-based diets. And so all of those things may contribute, but there was, and I think this is encouraging, there was a recent review, a 2020 review that showed no evidence of increased risk when the diet is carefully constructed to maintain adequate calcium and vitamin D levels. And that’s what the Adventist uh health study too showed as well. There was no increased risk and there was no increased uh risk in men either. So, but that’s something that that women in particular do need to be conscious of. And of course, you know, maintaining strong bones means weightbearing exercise. Uh, and that’s hugely important. Uh, there was a study that showed a higher risk of stroke. I think in particular he hemorrhagic stroke, but most of the other studies haven’t shown that and they’ve actually shown lower incidence of stroke. So there there was a study as well that looked at at diet quality and they found healthful plant-based diets reduced risk whereas unhealthful plant-based diets uh increased risk of stroke. So you know high sodium processed food diets probably as we would expect increased risk of stroke. So in terms of uh disease risk I think those are the two red flags we need to just be a little bit aware of. Uh and then in terms of um you know making sure the diet is adequate, I think this is really important because we can shoot ourselves in the foot if we don’t ensure nutritional adequacy. And so whereas plant-based diets, no question reduce the risk of chronic disease, they may actually increase the risk of certain nutritional shortfalls, all dietary patterns, there’s a risk of nutritional shortfalls. It’s just different nutrients for different patterns. But with plant-based patterns, vitamin B12 is an issue because vitamin B12 is not naturally present in plant foods in any, you know, significant amount. There might be a little bit in some fermented foods. If they’re especially if they’re fermented in less than sanitary conditions, there may be a little bit in some seaweed, but if you dry it, it tends to convert some of the B12 to inactive analoges, which don’t help to… prevent a B12 deficiency. So, I if you’re on a plant-based diet, you need to ensure a reliable source of B12. And that would include foods that are fortified with B12, like a non-dairy milk or a veggie meat, for example. But the most reliable source is a supplement. And uh we need you know probably 50 to 100 micrograms a day or you know 2,000 micrograms uh in you know 1,000 micrograms twice a week kind of uh dosing. Now you might people might be thinking wow that sounds really high cuz the RDA is only 2.4 micrograms a day for adults. Uh in Europe it’s a little higher. They’re almost double what we are in terms of their recommended dietary allowances. But uh you know it sounds 50 to 100 a day sounds so high but in fact we absorb so little of that. We might absorb you know 1% or 2% or something like that and that’s why you have to take significantly more than what the RDA is. So so B12 is one. Vitamin D is another but vitamin D is a nutrient that everybody has to be aware of. especially if you’re not exposed to a lot of sunshine year round. And I live in Canada, I have the seven or eight months of the year where we probably produce very little vitamin D. And so taking a supplement makes good sense. And the amount you need varies uh depending on the individual and as you get older, you need more because we just don’t don’t make it as efficiently. Uh so vitamin D is something we need to be aware of. And then the other nutrients that I think are worth mentioning are iodine. Iodine, if you’re eating a whole food plant-based diet and you’re not using iodized salt, which has been used as the vehicle to provide iodine to the, you know, huge population for many decades. If you don’t use that, you may not get enough in whole plant foods. you know, omnivores will get some in fish and they’ll get some in dairy products because we clean the the cow’s teeth with um you know, we sanitize them with iodine and so there’s some in milk. And so there are, you know, more sources in in an omnivorous diet than there are in a plant-based diet, except if you use seaweed. Seaweed is or you eat seaweed on a regular basis is a very concentrated source of iodine. In fact, about a 16th of a teaspoon of ground kelp is it provides the 150 micrograms you need. If you consume, you know, an entire teaspoon, you you’d exceed the upper limit for iodine. So, we just need to if you’re eating seaweed, be conscious of, you know, how much is in the seaweed. And you want 150 micrograms a day. If you get double that, that’s fine. You don’t want to go much over the upper limit of,00 uh micrograms a day for children. The uh difference between the RDA and the upper limit is very small. So we have to be even more cautious of that. And this I think is really an important message. If you’re short on iodine, if you’re eating a whole food plant-based diet and you’re pregnant, you could rob your child of about 10 to 15 IQ points just with a marginal iodine deficiency. uh a severe iodine deficiency in pregnancy is the number one cause of severe cognitive dysfunction globally. So severe um you know uh cognitive uh impairment and so we do need to make sure we have a reliable source of iodine and and so for many people that may be a supplement because for a lot of people seaweed isn’t a big part of their diet, right? and and then the other nutrients that you know we just want to be aware of. Uh iron, zinc, uh choline, uh these are all, you know, in a plant-based diet and we can get enough by eating a range of food. And then the other one that I think is important to mention is omega-3 fatty acids. So, one of the things you often hear is that, well, you need fish to get enough omega-3s. And and in fact, fish get their omega-3s mainly from microalgae, which is a little plant in the ocean. And we now culture that plant, and it’s available uh for consumers in supplement form, uh which is a very reasonable option for people eating plant-based. Of course, you can get omega-3s from flax and chia seed and hemp seed and walnuts, but that’s alpha linolinic acid, and that’s not the type of omega-3 that’s quite as biologically active as the longchain omega-3 ZPA and DHA. And so, you know, yes, our body can convert, but the conversion is fairly inefficient. So, getting a direct source… may be helpful for some people, especially people with diabetes, hypertension, and chronic disease. they they may not convert very efficiently. So so that’s another nutrient. And then the the last nutrient I would mention is calcium because for a lot of people they just assume calcium will be fine. Uh but people eating a whole food plant-based diet may not get enough especially uh if they aren’t conscious of the calcium sources within the plant-based diet. So we do need to focus a little a little bit on, you know, low oxilate greens and higher calcium richch beans and and some of the seeds like chia seeds and all and nuts like almonds that are richer in calcium and and including some calcium fortified non-dairy beverages can boost your intake to meet the RDA really quite easily. So they contain about the same amount of calcium as as milk as dairy milk. So I think those are the nutrients just to be aware of.
Great. Uh this is Bob Denardetta with the Healthy Planet radio show on W USB 90.1 FM. We’re speaking to Brenda Davis, registered dietician who has authored or co-authored 13 books with nearly a million copies in print. A plant-based trailblazer and an internationally acclaimed speaker. You can find out more about Brenda Davis at www.brenda brenda davis rd as in registered dietitionian.com brenda davisrd.com.
So, with the summer upon us, also come the barbecues. For those with family and friends who are looking to go more plant-based and yet will still be going to barbecues, can you offer some plant-based food suggestions that are healthful substitutes? Uh, absolutely. So, I personally replace traditional burgers with veggie burgers, and you can purchase them or you can make them yourself. Yesterday I actually made 22 burgers using grated beets, mushrooms, onions, quinoa, lentils, ground oats, walnuts, sunflower seeds. I just make a huge batch. I bake them first and then I freeze them. They’re ready for the grill for the summer. And they are lovely. My absolute favorite thing for the grill is tofu and tempeh. I make my own tempe cuz I’m not that crazy about the commercial stuff, but tofu is my favorite. And tofu is one of those things that you know it just soaks up the flavors that you introduce to it. So I make wonderful marinades. I do a marinade using beet juice and it makes the tofu pink and you grill it and serve it with a homemade dill sauce and it is absolutely fabulous. You can, you know, make shish kebabs using tofu. You can do all sorts of things with tofu and and tempe in the same way. And of course you can, you know, there are plant-based sausages and wieners and but a lot of them are very highly processed and I haven’t tried this, but some people talk about carrots as a replacement for a wiener and you boil them and then marinate the carrots and there are a lot of recipes for those on the internet and and uh that seems like the only thing is you know and porttoella mushroom steaks also but the mushrooms and the you know carrot wieners are are not a great source of protein. So, I would say if you’re serving those, you want to include in the meal a good protein source like an edamami salad or something like that. And jackf fruit um Satan, those can be used as well. I I saw a recipe recently for for a combination jackfruit Satan uh you know, burger or or no, it was ribs they called it. And so there’s all sorts of things like that as well.
Okay. And how about just a couple of words on the plant-based meats, the the burgers and things like the Beyond’s burger that are coming out recently, which they’ve recently improved the nutritional profile of. What do you have to say about those in terms of fitting in as a celebration food when you do go? And you know what? They do fit in as a celebration food. And I I they’re more, you know, ethical. They’re more ecologically sustainable. And there have been a number of studies showing that they favorably compare in terms of lab results and people eating those relative to meat. People do better uh in terms of blood cholesterol levels and so on uh when they’re consuming the plant-based meats, but they’re not health foods. They’re they’re fairly highly processed foods. Some are quite high in saturated fat. We need to compare labels…. But to me, they are more like a celebration food or if you’re having people over that are very omnivorous and they would never eat tofu. You know, we had my son-in-law’s parents here from Bulgaria. They can’t speak a word of English. We made some of these sausages and I made a really beautiful meal. They had no idea they weren’t meat sausages. So, it can work for for things like that. I personally don’t eat them very often, but I don’t absolutely avoid them. I think that they have their place. If your child is going off to summer camp and all the kids are roasting hot dogs on the fire, it’s really nice for them to have a hot dog, too. And so, there is a place for them. Just, you know, be conscious that they are celebration foods. Exactly. Right. That’s perfect.
And Brenda, I do want to get a link to those recipes you’ve mentioned if I could do so. if you have those available. Absolutely. I’ll put them on our archive page. I also saw another recipe that you gave, a very simple recipe, which is pineapple banana soft serve because people love ice cream during the summer. Oh, well, I do two things for for summer ice cream. One is pineapple banana or mango banana or I have this machine called a Yonana machine and you can do it in your blender, you can do it in a Champion or a Green Star juicer, but that’s a lot more work to clean. The Yonana machine you can pick up at a secondhand store for under 10 bucks usually. And uh and they’re great. I mean, it makes a beautiful soft ice cream. People are amazed. I just gave one to an omniverous friend at the gym. She said she is dazzling her family with this thing. She’s making the ice cream all the time and they just love it. And so that that’s a a great choice. And the other one I do is a I I take bananas and cut them in half, poke a stick in and freeze them. And then I put a swirl of peanut butter and a swirl of dark chocolate and then roll it in some nuts. And it’s like a it’s like an ice cream bar. And they are wonderful treats in the summertime. Oh, that’s great. That’s great.
Well, as we’re getting very close to the end, you’ve been at this for such a long time and you’re in a good position to give us a historical perspective and perhaps some hope about how society is moving in regards to adopting a more plant-based diet. What do you have to say about what you’ve seen? Well, I love I love this question, Bob. Um, you know, I’ve been doing this for 35 years plus and and uh I can remember when I first started, vegan diets were considered downright dangerous. Uh, vegetarian diets were considered risky. I was a registered dietician. I was pretty sure I’d be ousted from my profession by becoming vegan. And and it was really hard to get a decent tasting uh plant-based milk. Uh, vegan cheeses were they tasted like plastic. Uh, if you asked for a vegan meal in a restaurant, people would look at you like you were from a different planet. They had no idea what you were talking about. The world has changed in a very positive direction. Uh, it’s easy to find plant-based options. Most restaurants have amazing vegan options and or plant-based options. Some of them I just went to a very fancy restaurant and asked them if they had anything that was completely plant-based and they said, “Oh, we have a completely plant-based menu.” And they got it out and brought it to me and and so it’s a very different world and it’s very encouraging. You know, when I started out, there were hardly any physicians doing this. Now, we have the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. We have the Plantrition Project and these organizations that are training physicians and and and teaching physicians about uh plant-based eating and are doing just an incredible job. So, it’s a very very uh positive transformation in the years. I I honestly never thought I would see um us being at the place we are today with plant-based uh eating. So, I’m I’m very excited about it and I’ll be doing this for another 35 years. So, fantastic.
And I I believe you. Uh what most of our listeners don’t know about you is that you are indeed a living, breathing example of the efficacy of a healthful plant-based diet and lifestyle. So great job and thank you so much, Bob. All right. Such a pleasure to have you and we look forward to having you back on the show and keep up the great work. Well, thank you so much, Bob, and thank you for what you’re doing to educate uh so many people in your community and beyond and and I’m very honored to have been part of the show today. Thank you. Hey, of course. You’re welcome.
And this is Bob D. Benazettto with the Healthy Planet radio show on W USB 90.1 FM Stonybrook. I’m so happy to have been able to bring you and to have spoken to Brenda Davis, registered dietician who has authored and co-authored 13 books with nearly a million copies in print, a plant-based trailblazer, and that’s an understatement and an internationally acclaimed speaker. You can find out more about Brenda with some great information on health, recipes, and so much more at www.brenda.com. That’s brenda Davis RD as in registered dietician.com.
There are a lot of so-called health experts around these days, but there’s no one I trust more to be not only accurate and have a high degree of integrity in her work, but to just be a wonderful person who I just trust and who lives the message beyond anyone else that I’ve known. And I’ve known a lot of people in this work, but she is spot-on in both the way she approaches her lifestyle and the way she approaches her work and the joy with which she brings this powerful message to the public. And I know, as I’ve said before, he can trust what she says because what she says is backed by what she knows, and she only says what she knows. So, thank you, Brenda Davis. And that’s all the time we have this evening. Join us again on the 1st and third Fridays of each month at 6 p.m. For more info on HealthyPlanet and our radio shows, visit our website at www.healthyplanetusa.org or like our Facebook page which is atealthyplanetusa. Until next time, stay strong, relax, make your voice heard in this world by continuing to speak up for what’s right. Consider a shift to a more plant-based diet for yourself, for the planet, for the animals. Be kind to those around you, including our amazing four or multi-legged