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

What a coincidence. The name of this week’s restaurant was also my ex-girlfriend’s pet name for me…moving on. Boneheads serves up a lot of fish—so you know what that means. We’ve got to be careful. Who’s ready to dodge some mercury? Let’s get ready to rumble!

Okay, let’s just get this out of the way now. You can also order chicken at Boneheads. I don’t eat chicken, so I’ll skip all that. Now, the types of fish we’ve got to choose from are salmon, tilapia, mahi-mahi, shrimp, and grouper. For starters, let's get the skinny from OceansAlive.org:

Salmon
Only Atlantic salmon is rated and Eco Worst and a Health Concern.

Tilapia
All three varieties are rated as Eco Bests.

Mahi-Mahi
It’s also an Eco Best!

Shrimp
Northern shrimp are the variety rated as an Eco Best.

Grouper
All five varieties are rated an Eco Worst and a Health Concern.

For me the writing is on the wall. The easiest—and probably best—option is either the tilapia or the mahi-mahi. Personally, I adore mahi-mahi, so that’s what I’d go with. How about you? I guess you could ask the wait staff about the salmon if you were really hell bent on it.

Alright, so I’ve ordered the grilled mahi-mahi, what would my topping and side dish be? I’d probably go with the Pineapple Salsa over the Sautéed Piri Piri Mushrooms. Between the spice of the Piri Piri peppers and the sautee oil, the salsa is the clear-cut winner.

As for my side, I’m cool with either the Grilled Zucchini Strips, the Chilled Marinated Broccoli, or a Side Salad, but my heart is with the broccoli. You’d be hard-pressed to get me to choose something other than the cruciferous vegetable. Oh! Here’s an idea. Why not just order the chilled broccoli with the zucchini strips and a side salad—good idea? I think so.

The appetizers and soups are bad news, so no need to waste time with them. The salads on the other hand are workable. I’m digging either the Greek Salad or the House Salad; combined they’re made with cabbage, feta cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, carrots, and bell peppers. The only thing I’d ditch is the cheese and in this case skip the dressing—unless of course you think Greek, Ranch, and Blue Cheese dressing are nutrient-dense. You don’t—right?

Now, you might be bold enough to give the tacos and sandwiches a try. Given the other choices, I wouldn’t order them. The Grilled & Roasted Portobello sandwich is made with lettuce, tomato, a piri piri mayonnaise, and served with fries or Asian cole slaw. Well, after you drop the mayonnaise and don’t order the fries or the cole slaw, you’re still left with a bread concession and honestly, not a lot of food. Sorry, but why bother? Stick with a salad or some grilled fish.

I kind of feel like I got off easy this week, Boneheads is pretty straight forward. The things that work are pretty obvious and the things that don’t, even more so, but you tell me. Scope out Boneheads menu and let me know how you handle Eating to Live on the Outside. Make a comment or send me an email to diseaseproof@gmail.com. Until then, eat greatly!

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Hopefully everyone’s recovered from their Thanksgiving tryptophan hangover because this week Eating to Live on the Outside hitches a ride on the LIRR and sits down for a meal at the Tiger Lily Café. It’s a good mix of healthy vegetarian and healthy flexitarian food, but let’s see if it works for an Eat to Liver. Time to put the Tiger Lily Café to the test—growl!

Let’s start with all the sandwiches and wraps. Okay, let’s just get this out of the way now. All the wraps include bread (the wrap), so that’s the first concession. Personally, I can deal with it. I seldom eat bread anymore and for any of these wraps I’d order the whole wheat to cushion the blow. Alright—glad that’s over with—moving on.

Well, I see four options I like. My favorite is the Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Wrap; made with zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, onions, peppers, scallions, hummus, kalamata olives, mesclun greens, and balsamic vinaigrette. The reason why I like this one should be obvious—ALL THE VEGGIES! Now, I’d probably ditch the olives because they’re salty and I’d ask for the dressing on the side. Oh, and if the hummus has olive oil, that’d be a concession too. I can live it with.

Next up is the Shaharazade; prepared with hummus, grated carrot, mesclun greens, and sprouts. The main reason I like this one is the sprouts. Sprouts are really tasty and can help jazz up a boring entrée. The only potential worry I see is the hummus, if it has olive oil. The next two are pretty cool too. The Bella Bella Sandwich and the Greek Salad Wrap; combined they’re made with Portabello mushrooms, red peppers, mozzarella, salt & pepper, balsamic/pesto sauce, Romaine lettuce, Roma tomatoes, Kalamata olives, red onion, bell peppers, cucumber, and vinaigrette. Okay, if you eighty-six the salt & pepper, cheese, and olives, you’re in good shape. And again, if it was me, I’d order that dressing on the side, that way you can use as little as you’d like.

Now, if you’re feeling silly—I usually am—you might give the Peanut Butter and Fresh Banana Wrap a try; it’s just chunky peanut butter and sliced banana. Here’s the problem. Dr. Fuhrman once told me that conventional roasted peanut butter usually contains acrylamides. So, if you order it, you’re making a pretty decent concession, but like I said. If you’re feeling silly, go for it. I say this because I find it hard to resist the siren-song of bananas and peanut butter—just call me Elvis. “Uh thank you, thank you very much.”

Before we move onto the salads, its worth noting that the Tiger Lily Café gives you the option of making any of those wraps into a salad. So that’d nix that pesky bread concession. Although, I doubt a peanut butter banana salad would taste good, but tempting nonetheless. Now, Tiger Lily Café does offer salad-salads too. They all look good and all could conceivably work; with tweaks as needed. My two favorites are the Mesclun Salad w/”The Works” and the Greek Salad; together they’re made with field greens, salsa fresca, cucumbers, scallions, Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers, Bermuda onion, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. Peace of cake! Drop the olives, cheese, and go easy on the dressing. Wham-bam thank you mam!

Finally, the Tiger Lily Café offers up a whole host of fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies. If you feel like treating yourself to something sweet, this might work for you. Heck, it’s a lot better than having a candy bar or something worse. Here’re a few things I’d order. Maybe an apple-pear-carrot juice or what about a blend of blueberries, beets, and cabbage? Hello antioxidants! As far as the smoothies and cocktails go, I like the Iron Maiden, the Red Devil, and Bermuda Triangle—clearly I am feeling evil. The Iron Maiden is made with carrot juice and wheatgrass. Wheatgrass is very interesting. The Red Devil is a blend of beets, red apples, and ginger—neat! And lastly, the Bermuda Triangle is just a bunch of bananas, strawberries, and orange juice all whirled together. Honestly, any one of these sounds mighty refreshing right now!

The goods news is if you ever find yourself stuck in a Tiger Lily Café trap, you know you’re in good hands. The Tiger Lily Café is certainly Fuhrman-friendly. Plenty of wholesome veggie options for even the most ardent Eat to Liver. For me, it all comes down to how many fruits and vegetables I can get my hands on. The Tiger Lily Café has more than enough to go around, but don’t take my word for it! Check out The Tiger Lily Café’s menu 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.

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First off, big kudos to Michael for emailing me this week’s restaurant—thanks Michael! Today we’re grabbing a bite to eat at The Natural Café. Now, I’ve got to say, having just given it a quick scan. It looks good. So no long preamble today—let’s dig in!

Alright, I’m going to try and keep this evaluation as close to 100% Fuhrman-friendly as possible. With that being said, the appetizer I’m going with is the Vegetarian Chili; which includes cheese, onions, and corn bread. Once you ditch the cheese and corn bread it looks mighty good. The soups are another option, provided they’re not to salty, have lots of veggies, and you skip out on the 7-grain bread.

Next up are the salads and you’ve got plenty of options. Here are my favorites. The Botanical Garden Salad is great; made with baby-leaf lettuce, carrots, red onions, jicama, tomato, and sprouts. The Spiritual Spinach Salad also looks very tasty; prepared with spinach, carrots, olives, artichoke hearts, feta cheese, veggie-bacon bits, and sprouts. I’m ditching the cheese, olives, and the veggie-bacon. And lastly, I like the East Beach Salad; it comes with grilled veggies, baby-leaf greens, carrots, tomato, and jicama. I’m a sucker for grilled veggies on salad! Now you know what I’m going to say next, “Of course I’d go easy on the salad dressing.”

In the face of all these great veggie options, I doubt I’d be inclined to order a sandwich, but, what the heck! Let’s take a look at a couple. For obvious reasons I like the Grilled Veggie Sandwich; its made with grilled veggies, lettuce, sprouts, tomato, garlic mayonnaise, and served on 7-grain bread. Now, the bread is the concession and the mayo is out the window, but like I said, I’m a sucker for grilled vegetables. The other sandwich I’m digging is the Portobella Mushroom; prepared with a marinated grilled portobello mushroom, jack cheese, grilled onions, tomato, sprouts, pesto, garlic mayo, and served on 7-grain bread. Again, the bread is the concession and I’m totally ditching the cheese and the mayo.

Moving on to the Vegetarian Entrees and there’s lots of good stuff here too. I really like the Buddha Burrito; it’s prepared with sauteed veggies, pinto beans, rice, ranchero sauce, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and wrapped in a whole wheat chapati with a salad garnish. Okay, I’m sacking the cheese and sour cream. Hopefully there’s not too much oil being used in the sautéing process—that would suck! And the chapatti is a concession I can live with. Hey, the salad’s cool! The Natural Tamale is also pretty neat; it’s made with corn, green chiles, pinto beans, ground peanut, and garlic wrapped in a corn masa topped with ranchero sauce and sour cream and served with rice and black beans. Goodbye sour cream! Other than the masa concession, it looks good.

And finally, if all else fails. You can give this time-tested strategy a whirl. Make yourself a tasty meal out of the sides. Let’s see what we got. Well, I could certainly go for some steamed veggies, a baked potato, avocado, and some pinto beans. Not sure those around me would appreciate the pinto. Eh, it’s a risk I’m willing to take! I’m a real sucker for steamed veggies too. Especially steamed broccoli, I’m sure most of you would agree. Steamed broccoli is surprising addicting!

Thanks again to Michael for giving me a heads-up about The Natural Café. An Eat to Liver could certainly find refuge here. Sure, you’ve got some cheese and bread to dodge, but in a frontier packed with standard American restaurants a little cheese and bread should be the least of your worries. Now, it’s your turn! Check out The Natural Café’s menu and let me know how you handle Eating to Live on the Outside. Make a comment or send an email to diseaseproof@gmail.com. Until next time, eat well!

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Okay folks. I’ve said it a bunch of times, but, with Eating to Live on the Outside you’ve got to take the good and the bad. Sometimes we get the good, like Sacred Chow and Arnold's Way, but other times we get the bad, like Friendly’s, Fazoli’s, and this week’s destination, Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes. Brace yourself buckaroos, it’s about to get messy.

Clearly, a sandwich shop right away implies lots of problems; bread, nasty fixings, and sandwich meat. And guess what? It’s just as bad as you think. The majority of the food is “good ole fashioned” standard American junk-food; corn beef, hot reubens, bbq pork, roast beef, etc, etc. Lucky for all of you, I am feeling pretty spunky today and ready for a challenge—charge!

Let’s start with the sandwiches. I only see two I’d entertain the notion of, but, they both need work. Oh, and let me say this right now. Obviously there is a bread concession, believe me, it’s the lesser of many evils, I can deal with it. Here’s the first one. The Turkey Avocado Club; made with turkey, bacon, Swiss cheese, guacamole, mayo, baby greens, and toasted white bread. Lot’s of garbage here. Okay, bye-bye cheese, adios bacon, ciao turkey, and goodbye mayo. Wow! We’re sure left with a lot—aren’t we? I know, pretty pathetic! Well if the guacamole is made with out sour cream and you’re into toasted white bread with just the baby greens, then I guess it works. Although it hardly sounds appetizing—don’t you agree?

Alright, I think the Lite Turkey is better. It’s prepared with turkey breast, fat-free honey Dijon, lettuce, red onion, tomato, and toasted multi-grain whole wheat bread. I’m ditching the turkey again; the only flesh I eat is fish. Also the Dijon has got to go, just not my thing. Again, hardly a monumental meal, but if you’re a distressed Eat to Liver trapped in a sandwich shop its better than conceding to a Hot Pressed Cuban sandwich loaded with unhealthy pork loin, ham, salami, Swiss cheese, and mayonnaise.

Surprisingly, Dagwood’s offers up a bunch of salads or—as I call it—an Eat to Livers bastion of hope. From what I see, you’ve only got two real options: Mary K’s Green Salad or a Side Garden Salad. Mary K’s Green Salad is a comprised of romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, Greek feta cheese, Greek dressing, Kalamata olives, diced tomatoes, and Greek potato salad—Egad! Okay, I’m tossing—no pun intended—the cheese, olives, and the potato salad. After that, you’re left with something, sort of. Now, I have no idea what the Side Garden Salad comes with. It doesn’t say, but I’m assuming it is pretty basic; probably lettuce, red onion, tomatoes, carrots, and croutons. If so, I’d scrap the croutons and go with it. And of course, I’d go easy on the dressing.

There you have it Eat to Livers, all done! And after doing that review, I can honestly hope that I never find myself in a Dagwood’s. The majority of the menu is utter ooey-gooey standard American goodness and I stay far clear of restaurants like this, but, in the event that the Mafia kidnapped me and threw me into a Dagwoods, at least I can say I’d have a fighting chance. Alright, you know what time it is. It’s your turn! Scope out Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes’ menu 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. Until next time, eat well!

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Alright! We got a real winner this week. McFoster’s Natural Kind Café, way off in Omaha Nebraska, is packed with veggie goodness! Even the website is loaded with fruits and vegetables. Hard to beet that—OOPS!—I mean beat that. So let’s get right to it!

There’s lots of good stuff all over this menu, I’ll focus on my favorites. For starters, there are plenty of Fuhrman-friendly appetizers to order. I really like the Happy Hummus; made with pureed garbanzo bean, garlic, tahini, lemon, spike, Indian spices, whole-wheat flatbread, and a garnish. Clearly the bread is the concession, but when you consider everything else, I think it’s worth the risk.

Probably even better than this is either the Cold, Raw and Blanched Veggies or the Your Favorite Vegetable. The Cold, Raw and Blanched Veggies is just carrots, broccoli, celery, other vegetables, and two dipping sauces. Well, provided you go easy on the sauce, kind of hard to hate this one. And Your Favorite Vegetable is exactly that. Your favorite vegetable sautéed, charbroiled, or steamed with garlic, Italian seasoning, fresh basil, spike, or, nothing at all. Personally, I would keep the seasoning and order up some steamed greens. What do you think about that?

The salads are looking strong too. My two favorites are the Kind Salad and the Artichoke Salad. The Kind Salad is prepared with greens, cabbage, carrots, onion, cucumber, and seasoned with whole-wheat croutons. Obviously, once you ditch the croutons you’re all set! Now, the Artichoke Salad is made with oil-less balsamic vinaigrette, greens, poached veggies, sprouts, onions, cucumbers, kashi green salad, and garlic bread. I’d pass on the garlic bread and keep everything else status quo. Oh! I would definitely ask for the oil-less dressing on the Kind Salad too.

Okay, onto the Entrees and Sandwiches. I’m digging the Vegetable Enchiladas; made with steamed corn tortillas, seasoned veggies, ancho chile sauce, umeboshi plum sauces, and served with an organic orange, jicama, and pickled onion salad with Cajun red beans. I’m cool with all of this. I can deal with the tortillas this one time. Next—and no surprises here—I am way into the Avocado Deluxe. They make it with toasted sunflower bread, avocado, cucumber, onion, greens, sunflower, pea sprouts, salsa, and organic or soy cheese. The fact that this thing is made with avocado earns it high marks in my book, but even still, I’m ditching either variety of cheese. I don’t eat dairy and I’m not into soy cheese, but other than that—rock on avocado, rock on!

Now, if none of this strikes your fancy. Check this out. McFoster’s gives you the option of ordering veggies any way you want them. Your options are steamed, steamed with spices, sautéed, made with sesame and ginger, curried, primavera style, or charbroiled. I’m partial to either steamed option or getting them sautéed; getting them sautéed would mean olive oil, no big deal. I can deal with it. Especially when you consider the veggies you can pick from: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage, zucchini, onions, peppers, and other seasonal vegetables. I’m leaning towards some broccoli, carrots, and cabbage—yummy!

I’m telling you, I am really feeling McFoster’s. If I ever get to Omaha, I’ve really got to pop in for a visit. What about you? Does McFoster’s get your mojo going too? If so, tell me about. If you haven’t yet, check out McFoster’s menu and let me know how you handle Eating to Live on the Outside. Make a comment or drop me an email at diseaseproof@gmail.com. In the meantime, eat well!

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