What the Dietician Said

Yesterday we visited a dietician named Kelly Morrow, a practicioner and teacher at Bastyr--a well-known naturopathic college. We drove our mini-van into the Wallingford district of North Seattle and as we parked in the underground parking lot, a young woman driving some sort of SUV was pulling out. Her bumper sticker read, "MINI-VANS ARE TANGIBLE EVIDENCE OF EVIL." I did a double take! Had we entered some sort of zone where mini-vans and all they represented were despised? I looked around and we had the only mini-van there! I know this has nothing to do with nutrition, but it was so bizarre, I just had to share. I guess I've been sheltered in the burbs so long where mini-vans are ubiquitous that I never realized the animosity bubbling just under the surface for this very practical family car. :-) Seattlites...what can I say? They've gotta have a bumper sticker decrying something or another!

So enough about that, here's what we learned that might be of general interest. First of all, Kelly complimented us on our diet and said it looked very healthy, but that she'd like to do an analysis if we'd send her a 3 to 5 day food journal.

As we talked about doing a raw diet, she said that she always liked to base her dietary views on the wisdom of the ages, so to speak. What had ancient cultures eaten? She commented that no human culture had ever eaten a purely raw vegan diet. Apes eat a raw vegan diet, but they spend 6 to 8 hours eating everyday. Eating "Daniel's Diet" definitely takes more time to eat! I sent my husband off this morning with a trough of salad which he can feed from all day long! Today's salad included romaine and mixed baby greens, mini carrots, sugar snap pea pods, yellow and orange bell peppers, avocado slices, fresh asparagus spears, alfalfa sprouts and cooked black beans.

She also encouraged us to consider eating some vegetable and bean soups on cold days which she felt could also be part of a healing diet. She also encouraged John replace some of the fruit with more nuts, legumes and grains like quinoa and millet.

I eat a lot of fruit and I think all of that sugar is probably not the best for me since I am probably a little insulin resistant. So I will also be taking Kelly's advice.

One of the books she recommended is Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert. I'll add that to my list!

At times I feel torn...I've read of people curing themselves of chronic diseases and cancer via a 100% raw diet and I've also heard of people doing the same with a vegan diet which included some cooked foods. I think Kelly's concern was that we enjoy our food as well. I agreed with her that it would be easier to "go raw" in So. Cal. but that up here during a cold, rainy winter a raw diet was a bit counter intuitive. So many of these recipes I think would be very appropriate for a hot summer evening (not that we get that many of those in the Puget Sound!). I've started to make sure that the food gets set out so it comes to room temperture before we eat--this really helps.