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

I’m in a New York state of mind. So, time to grab the next train and hit the big apple. This week we’re checking out Counter, right off east Houston Street in the capital of the world—New York City! And this vegetarian bistro certainly makes a good first impression.

I first heard about Counter when I was dining at Eating to Live on the Outside favorite Sacred Chow—I love Sacred Chow! I’ll actually be eating there again this weekend. Alright, enough back-story and brownnosing, time to put Counter to the test. Let’s get to it!

Counter’s got quite a few menus to choose from, but I’m only interested in the dinner and brunch menu; the others are for liquor and kids. There’s a lot of good stuff on both menus. Some bad stuff too, like eggs, cheese, and milk. Okay, what to order? What to order?

I’ll start with the appetizers. This shouldn’t be a shocker. The Market Salad is looking good. It doesn’t say what’s in it, but whatever it is, it’s topped with a fresh herb lemon vinaigrette. Honestly, I highly doubt you can go wrong with a salad at a vegetarian bistro.

The Citrus Greens Salad and The Avocado Basket Salad are also pretty cool. The Avocado Basket Salad for obvious reasons—I STILL LOVE AVOCADO! Between them they’re prepared with bitter greens, grapefruit, toasted almonds, balsamic dressing, hearts of palm, Roma tomatoes, avocado, and lemon herb dressing. If you go easy or omit the dressing, I’m not sure there’s a problem with either one of these.

I love soups, so this next appetizer is right up my alley. The Soupe Du Pistou, which is a nicoise style hearty white bean and vegetable soup with pesto. White beans are fantastic! Loaded with fiber, and, after you eat them, you can serenade your friends—sorry, couldn’t resist. I think the only concession here would be the oil from the pesto. Not bad. Oh, and if any of these are too worrisome for you. You can always order some fresh fruit, Counter gives you that option—pretty cool, right?

Now, the first entrée I like is the Marinated Vegetable Terrine; prepared with sun-dried tomato pesto, herb puree, nut cheese, shaved fennel, and bitter greens. I mainly like this one because it’s raw. Lately I’ve been trying to eat more raw veggies. Probably the only concession here is the oil used to make the pesto. Now worries—I can live with it!

The Vegetable Mosaic also looks mighty tasty—great name too! According to the menu it is a market-fresh array of vegetables; including sautéed haricots verts & escarole, braised fennel with orange, Portobello mushroom roulade, whipped maple sweet potatoes, and steamed & spiced quinoa & cumin emulsion. Wow, quite the compliment of veggies! I guess the only concession would be maple syrup used in the whipped sweet potatoes—but then again—they might not even use it. I’d check with the wait staff.

I love stews. My mom makes a killer lentil-curry stew. So it shouldn't be a huge surprise that I like the Provencal Stew; amaranth & millet dumplings, vegetables & potatoes, simmered in a seaweed-scented broth. Sounds pretty nifty if you ask me!

Finally, the Hale & Heartland looks interesting; multi-grain pancakes with organic blueberry compote & fresh citrus fruit. Well, the grain is the concession. Whole fruits and veggies would certainly rank better on Dr. Fuhrman’s Health = Nutrients/Calories, but, I don’t eat this sort of thing all the time, so, I’m cool with it. What do you think?

Well there you have it. Another one bites the dust. Honestly, I’ll probably drop into Counter one of these days, I’m intrigued. But enough about me—your turn! Check out Counter’s menu and let me know how you handle Eating to Live on the Outside. Drop a comment or shoot me an email at diseaseproof@gmail.com. Healthy eating!

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Okay, you can thank my local cable television network for this week’s restaurant. One night I’m watching South Park—yes, I’m twenty-six years old and I still watch cartoons—and a commercial for House of Souls comes on. This restaurant/nightclub serves up a hefty offering of soul food.

Now, I have to admit, I’m not that versed in soul food, but, I have a sneaking suspicion it’s not very Fuhrman-friendly; a little investigation is in order. Now, I haven’t looked at House of Souls’ menu yet. So let’s find out together! Alright, give me a second. Here we go. Let’s get to work.

Well folks, we’ve already run into trouble. The appetizers are frightening; lots of cheese, meat, and fried thingies. I swear, I’m trying to keep an open mind, but I don’t see any hope for the appetizers. Hopefully the entrees will be a little more inviting. Onward!

Oh boy, problems here too. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here, but, I doubt foods like fried chicken wings, honey ham, grilled cheese, lasagna, and manicotti are high on any Eat to Liver’s list of favorite foods—they’re certainly not on mine! Okay, what should I do? Eureka!

Actually, it’s hardly a eureka—time to order a salad. On the menu there’s something called a Tossed Salad. It’s probably a basic house salad, but it doesn’t say what’s in it. I’d ask the wait staff and ditch any undesirables it may come with and of course, I’d go easy on the dressing.

I’m sad to say, but on the whole front page of the menu, the only thing I’d order would be the salad. But let’s not tuck our tail between our legs just yet, maybe there’s more choices on the next page. Okay, hold on. Let me just click this link. Hey, hey, hey—look at this!

There’re some fish dishes I can work with. Now, Dr. Fuhrman doesn’t recommend eating a lot of fish, largely due to mercury pollution, but if you’re going to eat fish, he suggests fishes like salmon, flounder, sole, tilapia, and trout because they have lowest contamination-risk. And as luck would have it, House of Souls serves up salmon, tilapia, and flounder; OceansAlive doesn’t digs them too.

According to the menu the salmon can be made grilled or steamed, the tilapia is set on fire, and the flounder is breaded and fried. Well, the frying nixes the flounder for me, but steamed salmon and flaming hot tilapia sounds pretty tasty. And as I say all the time, if were to order either fish, I’d make sure I waited awhile before I ate fish again—Dr. Fuhrman’s orders!

Now the fish was good, but the sides are better. Here are the ones that caught my eye: collard greens, beans & rice, garlic potato, string beans, asparagus, mixed veggies, and corn on the cob. Provided none of these are cooked in butter, heavy amounts of oil, or anything that comes out of a cow. They’d all make a great accompaniment to either fish, or, any combination of them would be a nice stand-alone dish. Personally, I’d take a plate of collard greens, asparagus, and mix veggies!

So what do you think? Could soul food work for an Eat to Liver? I think so. Sure, House of Souls’ menu is saturated with plenty of unhealthy fixings, but, there’s clearly hope if you use your noggin. Speaking of that, its time for you to employ you’re Eat to Live skills. Check House of Souls’ menu (page 1, page 2) and let me know how you handle Eating to Live on the Outside. Make a comment or shoot me an email at diseaseproof@gmail.com. Healthy eating!

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It’s Friday—and you know what that means? Hit the intro-music. Turn on the laser-lights. Cue the background dancers. It’s time for Eating to Live on the Outside baby! “Who let the dogs out! Woo-woo-woo-woo!” Wow, that was lame. Sorry, onto the serious stuff.

This week—the ever-exciting—Eating to Live on the Outside heads to Washington, D.C. to visit Nora, America’s First Certified Organic Restaurant. Well, it’s certainly a mixed menu. There’s lots of food I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole—like Crème Fraiche and duck livers—but there’s also plenty of good stuff too—like kale, broccoli, shiitakes, and mango.

Okay, where to begin? Let’s start with the appetizers—since there’s one that caught my eye. The Grilled Baby Eggplant looks cool. It’s prepared with red peppers, yellow peppers, black olives, hummus, and micro cilantro. I like it! I’d ditch the olives because they’re salty, but that’s it. So far, so good!

Onto the salads—an Eat to Livers pillar of hope—all three have potential, but two of them need a little tweaking. The Mesclun Greens salad is perfect; greens, hearts of palm, mango, macadamia nuts, and lime macadamia nut oil vinaigrette. The concession here would be the vinaigrette. Personally, I’d order it on the side and only use a little bit—no big deal!

The next two salads include cheese. So once you ditch that, combined the Arugula & Heirloom Tomatoes and the Local Baby Heads of Lettuce salads are made with pepitas (pumpkin seeds), toasted pumpkinseed oil vinaigrette, arugula, tomatoes, lettuce, peaches, walnuts, and caramelized onion vinaigrette. Some good stuff here! And I doubt you’re going to miss the goat cheese and brie. Provided you go easy on the dressing, these are great. What do you think?

Now, beyond the salads its get a little dicey—as it usually dos—but don’t fret. Nora’s got a few tricks up her sleeve—or should I say treats. I see three dishes an Eat to Liver could get by with, they require no alternation, and only some minor concessions. Let’s take a look.

Two of the menu items are fish dishes, so, if you don’t eat any animals these aren’t for you. Personally, I eat fish. Not often, but I do it eat once or twice a month. First up is the Shichimi Crusted Alaskan King Salmon with shiitakes, baby corn, cherry tomatoes, scallions, broccoli, and ginger soy emulsion. The veggies look great, but what about the fish? Is it safe? Yup! According to OceansAlive.org Alaskan King Salmon is also called Chinook Salmon and Chinook Salmon is an Eco Best; meaning it has a low risk of contamination—nice!

Same goes for the Pan Roasted Alaskan Halibut. It’s also known as Pacific Halibut and our friends at OceansAlive.org give it an Eco Best stamp of approval. This tasty and safe fish is served with eggplant-tomato ratatouille, potatoes, kale, and salsa verde. You got to love when you actually see KALE on a menu! I’ve got no gripes with this either. Its worth mentioning that if I were to order either one of these, I’d make sure I’d wait a while before I ate fish again—doctor’s orders!

Alright, the last menu item I’d consider ordering is the Tokyo Hot Pot. It’s prepared with shichimi crusted tofu, udon noodles, shiitakes, baby carrots, miso mushroom broth, and crispy yams. You guessed it. The noodles are a concession. After all, noodles and pasta are nothing more than processed food—I can live with it. The Tokyo Hot Pot wouldn’t be my first choice, but if I HAD to order it, I’d just focus on all the veggies and not worry about the noodles, especially since I don’t normally eat pasta or noodles of any sort.

An important thing to mention about Nora is that it’s an organic restaurant; pretty admirable in a country saturated in trans-fat, processed junk, and fast food. So if you’re an organic fan and planning to visit the D.C. area, pop into Nora and let me know how you handled Eating to Live on the Outside. Make a comment or send an email to diseaseproof@gmail.com. Healthy eating!

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Honestly, I’m not going to act surprised anymore. I’m just going to say it. Most American eateries are epicenters of low-nutrient, disease-causing food—period! And Hobee’s is just another in the long list of offenders. So, as is often the case, this week is going to be rough—argh!

Hoebee’s menu is packed with typical standard American garbage foods—not sure what those are? Mostly over-stuffed greasy omelets, char-cooked burgers, ooey-gooey cheese dishes, and plenty of sweets, to name a few. No doubt, this isn’t going to be easy. Alright, let’s give it a try.

Well, I had to skip five sections of the menu before I found some thing with potential. That’d be the Seasonal Fresh Fruit Plate; basically a plate of fruit served with a strawberry yogurt sauce. Minus the sauce, it’s a safe option. Not sure how excited I’d be to overpay for fresh fruit, but in a pinch, it’d work. The Oatmeal with either bananas or blueberries would work too, provided it’s not made with milk. If these don’t wet you’re taste buds you could always give the Breakfast Quesadilla or the Cheesey Scramble a whirl—not!

Now let’s look at the salads. For starters, it’s worth mentioning that Hobee’s offers an all-you-eat salad bar. This is Hobee’s saving grace and without looking at the rest of the menu, I can say with confidence. This is your best bet. Personally, I’d go with the salad bar and quit trying to make the unhealthy healthy. But, I’m a glutton for punishment, so, I’ll proceed. The Embarcadero Salad and the Mediterranean Salad both look good, but, both need augmenting. Together they include grilled chicken, pears, apples, walnuts, dried fruit, Bleu cheese, raspberry vinaigrette, spring mix salad, roasted vegetables, olives, beans, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, Feta cheese, and Balsamic vinaigrette. Okay, the cheese, chicken, and olives are out, limit that dressing, and either one is looking good. One or the other would work for me, but I’m leaning towards the Mediterranean.

Outside the salads, they’re a few more things I’d consider ordering, but just to reiterate. I prefer the salad bar over any of this. But for giggles, I’d also give the Portabello Ciabatta Sandwich a try; made with grilled portabello mushroom, roasted red pepper, fresh spinach, avocado, Swiss cheese, Ciabatta bread, and sundried tomato butter. Well, the clearly the bread is the concession, and, the butter and the cheese are toast—as in gone! Not terrible, but not great either.

If a sandwich isn’t to your liking, try the Seven Veggie Medley. It comes with at least seven vegetables, grilled tofu, and your choice of tomato-basil, classic basil, chipotle pesto, or teriyaki glaze served over brown rice pilaf. Alright, I’m pretty sure there’s a fair amount of oil in this, so that’s a problem. Also, rice pilaf has pasta in it—that’s a concession. I guess this could work if you’re in the right mood. I’m not thrilled about it.

Finally, if I were willing to make a pasta-concession, I might flirt with the Salmon Fettuccine; includes fettuccine, salmon, mushrooms, spinach, chopped tomatoes, garlic, capers, lemon, herbs, and olive oil. Luckily salmon is a safer fish to eat, so that’s not a big deal, but capers are salty so they’re out and all that olive oil makes me nervous. So, if I was really feeling daring I might order this, but I’d have to at least ditch the capers.

Okay, despite these options. Hobee’s is really bad news. If you’re a responsible Eat to Liver and you have a choice, avoid Hoebee’s. Granted, the salad bar is great, but what’s the point of paying all that money for salad—you’re better off staying at home. Now that’s just my opinion. It’s you’re turn. Check out Hoebee’s menu and let me know how you handle Eating to Live on the Outside. Send an email to diseaseproof@gmail.com or make a comment. Happy eating!

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