Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

What’s a Siringitu? Not sure, but, this week’s Eating to Live on the Outside restaurant looks like a good one; a nice follow up to my Sacred Chow experience. La Siringitu, located in Albuquerque New Mexico, has got real potential for an Eat to Liver. Sure, like always, there are a few catches, but all-in-all it’s seems okay. So, let’s hit it!

Let’s see, what to order? Alright, the African Burrito looks cool. It’s prepared with black beans, corn, rice, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. And I’m guessing, probably tortillas too. Well, the cheese is getting packed into a rocket ship and launched into the sun. According to Dr. Fuhrman, cheese is bad news. Now the rice, personally I don’t get hung up over rice too often, but, given the variety of ingredients, I’m tossing it too. That leaves me with just the tortilla as my concession. I can live with it.

Next, the Hot Sandwich has got my mojo going—not literally, it just looks tasty. It’s made with sautéed barbecued tofu, veggie bacon, bell-pepper, onions, lettuce, tomato, apple slices, cucumbers, wheat hoagie bread, and it’s served with the soup of the day. For starters, the veggie bacon doesn’t interest me, so that’s out. I’ll keep the barbecued tofu, mainly because I’ve never tried it before. So, that leaves me with some concessions. The oil used in the sautéing process and the bread, but, as I’ve said many-many times before, I don’t eat out very often, so I’m willing to roll with a few punches. Oh, and for the soup of the day, well, that depends on what it is.

The Seasoned Curry Tofu Salad seems okay—the flavor of curry intrigues me. This salad is prepared with seasoned curry tofu, lettuce, and assorted veggies. I’d love to know exactly what veggies it includes, but, I can live with the suspense. “Assorted veggies” is a grab-bag I can live with any day of the week. Lately I’ve been eating more raw veggies, so this salad is a good fit. And the dressing? Whatever it is, I won’t use that much—if at all.

Have you ever tried mixing fruit into your veggie salad? I do it all the time with avocado and cantaloupe. So naturally, this salad is right up my alley. The Mixed Leaf and Fruit Salad. Now, the name says it all. I’d probably ask the wait staff exactly what’s in it, but honestly, its not like its going to be bad—its fruit and leaf veggies! And, if you omit the dressing—provided it comes with one—no concessions! Sweet.

Okay, if you look at the rest of La Siringitu’s menu. You’ll see, there are some red flags, like ice cream and cheese for example, but, if I were to stick with one of these four dishes, I think I’ll be okay. What about you? What would you order? Check out La Siringitu's menu and let us know how you Eat to Live on the Outside? Leave a comment or email us at diseaseproof@gmail.com.

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And it was good! What’s the significance? Well, back in December I examined Sacred Chow Vegan Bistro for Eating to Live on the Outside and I gave it pretty high-marks. Now, I was in New York City this past weekend, so I decided drop by and give it a whirl. Here’s what my friend and I noshed on.

Alright, I don’t know I how missed this salad in December, but the Shiitake Mushroom and Spinach Salad was dynamite. It came with a hearty amount of meaty Shiitake mushrooms, lots of baby spinach, oodles of sunflower seeds, and a very light Indian dressing. It tasted great! I’m on a bit of a baby spinach kick lately and this combination of flavors really worked. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “What about the dressing?” Sure, definitely a concession, but they don’t use that much and it really ratchets up the flavor of the salad. So it’s worth keeping.

My friend also ordered a salad. She went with the Four Seasons Salad. It was a nice looking dish with lots of stuff in it. It came with seasonal greens, beets, carrots, apples, Dijon vinaigrette, and yuba strips. She really enjoyed it. Now, when you eat out with me, you always run the risk of me picking at your food. So I speared myself a forkful of my friend’s salad and I can tell you firsthand, the amount of salad dressing is very negligible. Keeping it would be a concession, but one I could easily live with. Just focus on those super veggies, the beets!

Now, since my friend and I had never eaten their before, we did look a little bewildered when we first opened up our menus, but a couple of regular diners were quick to make some recommendations. One of them suggested the Lima Bean Dill Soup and the Root Vegetable Latkes with Indonesian Date Butter. Okay, I went with the soup and my friend ordered the latkes. The soup was tasty. Not salty or heavy, very light and almost refreshing, with plenty of nutritious lima beans to go around. It was a nice compliment to the salad.

The latkes were pretty good too. Again, I pilfered one off my friend’s dish. For starters, they’re very colorful and you can see all sorts of things in them, like carrots and beets. The date butter was also very interesting. In my opinion it tasted much better than regular butter—although I haven’t eaten butter in years, so maybe my opinion is a little skewed. But anyway, it was very sweet and really worked well with the subtle sweetness of the latkes.

Now that the weather is getting nicer on the east coast, I’ll be going into Manhattan more often and I’ll probably being going out of my way to pay Sacred Chow so more visits. Honestly, the food is that good. Sacred Chow's menu is loaded with solid options for any Eat to Liver. So next time you’re visiting New York be sure to stop by this great little hole-in-the-wall in Greenwich Village. Cheers!

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Subway! A fast-food restaurant! Have I lost my mind? The answer to that question is yes, but that happened a long time ago. And yeah, this week we’ll be taking a look at Subway, a fast-food restaurant. Relax. It’s not the first time we’ve dabbled in fast-food. Just last month we tackled Taco Del Mar and let’s not forget Eating to Live on the Outside favorites Chipotle and Baja Fresh. So of all the mainstream fast-food restaurants, why would I pick Subway?

Well, this week it just so happened that I found myself witness to an unusual amount of Subway commercials and all of them proclaimed “freshness.” This put a bee in my bonnet—and yes, I look very silly in a bonnet. Fresh is a great word, to me it’s the opposite of processed or refined. And when you’re talking about food, fresh is an Eat to Livers best friend. So, what do you say? Let’s see how fresh Subway really is.

Okay, for starters its worth mentioning that we’ve got one across-the-board concession to deal with, bread. If you walk into Subway hell-bent on a sandwich you’ve got to accept the bread, sure, you can order wheat bread, but either way, bread will be your first concession. Personally, I can deal with it.

Let’s see, the first group of sandwiches are called Fresh Fit—there’s that word again. Well the Veggie Delite looks pretty good to me. It’s prepared with lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, olives, pickles, and your choice of condiments. Now, if I were ordering this, I’d keep everything, get it on wheat bread, and probably garnish with basic yellow mustard. If you get past the bread, you’re left with a pretty phytonutrient-rich meal if you ask me. And, according to the website the Veggie Delite only packs 6 grams of fat or less—a nice little perk.

After the Veggie Delite you basically hit a brick wall. The rest of the Fresh Fit sandwiches include meat, and, there’s really no point ordering them without the meat because you’d just be better off sticking with the Veggie Delite. So let’s just scope out the rest of the menu instead.

Alright, the Fresh Toasted sandwiches are out. I don’t really see any hope here, unless of course Dr. Fuhrman changes his nutritional recommendations to include hearty portions of melted cheese and meat. And you can bet the farm, the beach house, the mansion, and vineyard that that’s not going to happen. Moving on.

Next up are the Local Favorites. Can you hear the sound of screeching tires? Because we’re about to hit a familiar wall again. We’ve got two options, the Cold Cut Combo or the Classic Tuna. The Cold Cut Combo is essentially the Veggie Delite with meat and cheese, and, the Classic Tuna is prepared with mayonnaise—a rancid horrible food in my opinion. Well, let’s see if Subway’s remaining menu selections fair any better.

I’m skipping the Catering Choice—I’m not exactly planning a dinner party here—and the Fresh Fit for Kids doesn’t apply to me, even though I have the mentality of nine-year old. So then, what’s left? Well, not too much. I could try my hand at the Tomato Garden Vegetable with Rotini soup, but it’s loaded with a ton of salt—eighty-six that idea! Or maybe I could just sit and nurse a Fruizle Express. What’s a Fruizle? It looks like some sort of smoothie, but, I have my suspicions about sugar content, so I wouldn’t order that either. So again, what’s left?

Well, as the cartoon pig says, “That’s all folks!” Subway may be fresh, but they don’t offer very much menu diversity for an Eat to Liver. The Veggie Delite is really your only option, provided you can get over the bread concession. Oh, and this worth mentioning. If the bread concession really aggravates you, you can ditch it all together and just order The Veggie Delite as a salad. And once you omit or limit the salad dressing, you’re in decent shape. Think of it this way, if you HAD to eat at Subway at least it’s not completely hopeless.

And remember, if you’ve got an interesting Eating to Live on the Outside story we’d love to hear from you. Hey, we might even make a post out of it. Check out Subway’s menu and email us at diseaseproof@gmail.com.

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Its spring and the weather is getting nicer, well, at least it supposed to. Right now it feels more like fall in fair New Jersey and who would eat at a sidewalk café on a gloomy fall day—I would! Because this week Eating to Live on the Outside is grabbing a bite to eat at Camille’s Sidewalk Café. Never heard of it? Neither did I. All the more reason to jump in head first!

Okay, after a quick inspection, Camille’s looks very similar to Panera Bread. And if you remember, that didn’t work out so well. Hopefully Camille’s can do better. Camille’s offers up some pretty typical menu selections: sandwiches, wraps, salads, grilled-wraps, smoothies, and various flatbread-type creations. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Sounds like a lot of bread.” Yup, I agree. Looks like some concessions are in order—surprise-surprise.

The first thing I’d consider eating would be the Bangkok Thai Wrap, but, I’ve got some finagling to do. It’s prepared with a spinach tortilla, grilled chicken breast, Provolone cheese, Romaine lettuce, sprouts, carrots, crunchy noodles, water chestnuts, and sesame Oriental dressing. For starters, the grilled chicken and the cheese are gone. No sense consuming that standard American junk! Also, the crunchy noodles are history and I’m going easy on the sesame dressing. So what am I left with? A spinach tortilla wrapped around a whole bunch of veggies and a little dressing. It’s a concession I’m willing to make, how about you?

The Sonoma Veggie Wrap also has some potential, but—and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out—you’ve got to make some of the same alterations for this one that we did for the Bangkok Thai Wrap. The Sonoma Veggie Wrap comes with a spinach tortilla, Pepperjack cheese, Romaine lettuce, carrots, black olives, sprouts, sunflower seeds, and honey-mustard dressing. So then, I’m ditching the salty olives, the nasty cheese, and limiting the dressing. And again, I’m left with a lot of phytonutrients encased in a tortilla. Not a bad concession, if you’re willing to make it.

Now, salads are a great choice for an Eat to Liver, but, at face-value they’re not always a slam-dunk. Why? Well, more often than not the salads at many standard American restaurants are loaded with all sorts of the junk. I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider cheese, croutons, and crunchy noodles healthy additions to my salad. Rather, they’re just extra crap to pick off or omit. Guess what? A lot of Camille’s salads are full of this kind of stuff. So, I’ve got some work to do.

Bangkok seems to be a good place for us, so, I’m going with the Bangkok Thai Salad, which is basically the Bangkok Thai Wrap minus the spinach tortilla. So after I make some familiar alterations, I’m left with a pile of Romaine lettuce, carrots, water chestnuts, sprouts, sunflower seeds, and a little sesame Oriental dressing. Clearly, this is a better choice than the wrap, especially if refined flour products make your skin crawl.

Alright, I wouldn’t write off the other salads either. If you chip away at their standard American exterior, each one would make a decent choice for an Eat to Liver. Although, I’m not so sure what we would do with all that leftover chicken, cheese, and croutons. I wonder if it can be grinded up into Astroturf?

So what’s left to order? Well, not much. The oily Paninis aren’t worth it, especially the vegan one that comes with Feta cheese—yeah, you might want to read about that one for yourself. Also, I’m not feeling the flatbreads or the pizza. Now, you might be able to make a sandwich work for you, but they don’t look all that exciting to me, besides, you got to deal with all that bread—phooey! Personally, I’ll just stick with one of the salads or maybe sit and sip on smoothie, provided I ditch the honey first.

So there you have it, Camille’s Sidewalk Café. Probably not as bad as Panera Bread, but still, a tough sell. It’s not exactly loaded with Fuhrman-friendly options. Sure, they make a valiant attempt with their salads and providing the nutrition information online, but, Camille’s doesn’t quite cut the mustard. But don’t take my word for it, check Camille’s menu and let us know how you Eat to Live on the Outside? Leave a comment or email us at diseaseproof@gmail.com.

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Now that’s a pretty encouraging name if you ask me. It’s also a good marketing move. Unlike the original name for McDonald's, which was “Have You Looking for a Bathroom in a Hurry.” So, does Health in a Hurry live up to its moniker? Well there’s only one way to find out. Troops! Suit up, we’re going in.

Okay, I’m happy to report that Health in a Hurry is very similar to other health-conscious restaurants we’ve encountered in the past. Meaning, there are lots and lots of Fuhrman-friendly menu items to choose from, not unlike the menus of Pure Food and Wine and Mesob. So, instead of being a tyrant about the menu, I’m going to pick the dishes that look the most appealing to me; because as you’ll see, Health in a Hurry gives you plenty of options.

First up, check out the soups! Specifically the Greens, it’s prepared with collards, spinach, arugula, swiss chard, kale, parsley, onions, and celery. I think we can all agree—that’s a ton of phytonutrients! Dr. Fuhrman is a big advocate of soups. Why? Well, think about it. When you eat soup you eat, you consume the chunky stuff and the liquid, right? So you don’t really lose any nutrients in the cooking process, do you?

Next is the Crisp Green Salad, it looks mighty tasty! This salad comes with chickpeas, carrots, red cabbage, golden beets, mixed greens, blue cheese, and dressing. Obviously the blue cheese gets the heave-ho. Dr. Fuhrman considers cheese to be a downright horrible food. With the cheese gone, you’re left with a pretty decent salad. Personally, I’d go lightly on the salad dressing and simply relish the power of the beets, although, what they do to you after the fact can be funny.

Take a look at the Summer Slaw. An interesting dish that probably looks nothing like the standard American coleslaw they used to slop into those tiny plastic cups in school cafeterias—and that’s a good thing! The Summer Slaw is made with celery root, diakon, radish, red cabbage, green cabbage, carrot, celery, and jicama. What got me excited about this dish are all the vegetables I haven’t tried. I’d be hard-pressed to pass this one up. Has anyone ever tried diakon, jicama, or celery root? Tell me about. I’m sure they’re all very nutrient-rich.

Now, normally when I eat beans, my friends hit the bomb shelter. Well sorry guys, hope its cozy down there, because the Mexican Lentil Salad is looking good. It’s prepared with "chilpolte-lime" vinaigrette, green lentils, jicama, celery, carrots, red onion, and fresh cilantro. Again, there’s jicama in there, so this would be a great opportunity to give this veggie a whirl. And of course, I’d be sure to go easy on the dressing, especially since this one has a little heat.

Finally, I’m really digging the Roasted Veggie Wrap. What’s it come with? Let’s see. Red pepper, yams, carrot, fennel, parsnip, onion, olive oil, salt & pepper, and a spinach wrap. Pretty cool, right? I love roasted fennel! I’d probably drop the olive oil and the salt, but I’d keep the spinach wrap. That would be my concession. I don’t think it’s a particular big concession, like I say all the time, focus on the veggies. Repeat after me, “Focus on the veggies.”

So, I think Health in Hurry certainly lives up to its namesake. We just looked at five potential meals for an Eat to Liver and most of them required little or no concessions. Tell you what, take a look at the rest of Health in Hurry’s menu and let us know how you Eat to Live on the Outside? Leave a comment or email us at diseaseproof@gmail.com.

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