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

In the spirit of DiseaseProof’s new Green Living category, this week Eating to Live on the Outside takes a look at a 100% veggie-friendly restaurant, Vegan Glory. The cuisine at this place is sure to leave a tiny carbon-footprint, but, can it satisfy the savage Eat to Liver?

Well, it’s not a total slam dunk, but it’s certainly workable. Let’s start with the appetizers. They’re a little tough; lots of frying going on. The steamed veggie dumplings are your best bet. Personally, I’d skip the appetizers.

Instead of an appetizer, you could go with a soup, but before you do, know that you are probably going to be taking a salt hit. Restaurants soups tend to be very salty. If I were feeling bold, I’d go with either the Miso Soup, Seaweed Soup, or the Tom Yum Soup; combined their made with soft tofu, kelp, mushrooms, broth, seaweed, vermicelli, napa cabbage, tomato, exotic herbs, and hot & sour lemongrass broth. All good stuff, maybe the vermicelli worries you, it doesn’t bother me, but the salt does, so I’d skip the soup.

Now we come to the best part of the menu—the salads! I like them all. Here are my two favorites. The Papaya Salad is made with green papaya, carrot, green beans, sliced tomatoes, lime juice, and ground peanuts. Honestly, this is one of my favorite things to eat. I order this at almost every Thai restaurant I eat at. So for me, this is a great option!

I also like the Green Power Salad. It’s got lots of great stuff! It’s prepared with Romaine lettuce, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, cucumber, edamame beans, red onion, walnuts, and your choice of peanut, tahini, or Italian dressing. Told you, it’s really cool! I’d go with the peanut dressing and order it on the side. How about you?

The other salads are nice options too. The Cucumber Salad comes with cucumber, red onion, and sweet vinegar. The House Salad is greens with your choice of Italian, peanut, or tahini dressing. The Glass Noodle Salad is made with vermicelli, tomato, mushrooms, red onion, lettuce, and a spicy lime dressing. And the Glory Salad is garden salad, grilled tofu, and peanut dressing. All good!

The curry is decent too. Vegan Glory serves up three kinds, green, red, and yellow curry. Combine these curries are made with hot red curry paste, coconut milk, basil, bell peppers, eggplant, bamboo shoots, seasonings, medium green chili paste, spices, herbs, mild yellow curry, onion, carrot, and potato. Not bad. Although I’m not a huge fan of curry, are you?

The chef’s specials and burgers have some potential too. I like the Lentil Loaf. It’s made with lentils, brown rice, bell pepper, onion, spices, and served with steamed brown rice. Well, if you can get passed the rice, it looks good to me. The Grilled Tofu Burger and the Veggie Burger are nice. The veggie burger is made with lentil, brown rice, veggies, and spices, and, they’re both served with Romaine lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, vegenaise, and an organic bun. Same deal here. If the rice and bun doesn’t bother you, these work in a pinch, but I’m dropping the vegenaise—yucky.

Now, the A La Carte section of the menu is iffy. Sure, they come with lots of veggies, but they’re all either stir-fried or sautéed. So it’s up to you. Is that a big deal to you? It’s a big deal to me, but since I hardly eat any fried foods, I can handle it. Here are the two dishes I really liked, despite the frying.

The Chinese Broccoli is neat; stir-fried Chinese broccoli, garlic sauce, served with steamed brown rice—simple, but good. I also like the Garlic Pepper. It’s prepared with sautéed garlic, black pepper, cilantro, garlic sauce, lettuce, and steamed brown rice. The lettuce cushions the blow of the sautéing.

Now, if all else fails and none of these strike your fancy—not even the salads—you can always order a side of grilled potatoes and a side of steamed vegetables (snow peas, carrots, broccoli, and zucchini), but hey, maybe I’m insane. Maybe you can do better. Check out Vegan Glory’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 then, eat yummy good food. Peace!

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DiseaseProof is getting a “Green Living” category! Nowadays, with skyrocketing gas prices and global warming bearing down on us, you can’t help be a little curious about green living. I know I am!

Actually, I’ve already made a bunch of green purchases. Take my natural rubber Jade Harmony yoga mat for example:

My earth-friendly shopping bag from Stop & Stop:

My organic Earth Day t-shirt I bought from Old Glory:

And this 100% recycled jewelry from Tarma Designs:

But my biggest green achievement is my diet. Eating a diet based on wholesome fruits and vegetables places less burden on our environment. These articles will help explain why:

FAONewsroom: Livestock a major threat to environment.
“When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.”

The New York Times: Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler.
“Global demand for meat has multiplied in recent years, encouraged by growing affluence and nourished by the proliferation of huge, confined animal feeding operations. These assembly-line meat factories consume enormous amounts of energy, pollute water supplies, generate significant greenhouse gases and require ever-increasing amounts of corn, soy and other grains, a dependency that has led to the destruction of vast swaths of the world’s tropical rain forests.”

Virtual Water: The Virtual Water project.
“The water footprint of a person, company or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the commodities, goods and services consumed by the person, company or nation. The idea of the water footprint is quite similar to the ecological footprint, but focusing on the use of water.”

The Los Angeles Times: Treading lighter with low-carbon diets.
“The global food and agriculture system produces about one-third of humanity's contribution to greenhouse gases. So questions about food are shifting from the familiar ‘Is this good for me?’ or ‘Will it make me fat?’ to ‘Is it good for the planet?’”

Not only do I feel good about my health, but helping to preserve the well-being of our planet is an added bonus! Now, this gave me an idea. Remember this video about growing tomatoes out of garbage:

Guess what? I’m growing my own heavenly tomatoes! Okay, for a month I saved my fruit and vegetable scraps—Dr. Fuhrman staffers Linda and Susan and my mom also pitched in—here’s what I ended up with as of May 3rd:

Check out the digging and burying I did on May 4th:

By May 9th I had more scraps and I bought my tomato plant:

And then on May 10th I added to the pile and planted my tomato:

By May 18th my little tomato plant had already grown a lot:

And as May 27th it was even bigger:

I checked this morning and it’s already starting to flower! Not bad for a dopey blogger. I’ll be caring for my tomato all summer long, so keep checking the Green Living category for updates!


If you’re passionate about healthy eating and caring for the environment DiseaseProof’s new Green Living category will be a great place to get all your green news! Feel free to email your own green tips and suggestions to diseaseproof@gmail.com. Continue Reading...

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This week Eating to Live on the Outside heads all the way, down the street. Yup, keeping it local today, we’re checking out Fusion. Fusion serves of French/Asian cuisine. An interesting combination, but, is Fusion Fuhrman-friendly? Let’s find out.

Okay, it’s a mixed bag. Like this. Under specialties, I like the Kuril Salmon, but before I ordered it. I’d ask the waiter what kind of salmon it is because according to Oceans Alive, Atlantic salmon is a high contamination risk. So, I’d only go for it if it’s wild salmon.

Next, I like the Roasted Tomato and Lentil soup, under potages; it’s made with fire roasted tomatoes and masoor yellow daal. Honestly, beans and tomatoes are both great. I’ve got no issues with this one. Have you ever had daal?

There are a couple nice options under salades. The Shanghai Greens and the SumTum are rock star! Combined their prepared with fresh greens, chili truffle vinaigrette, green papaya, roasted peanuts, cherry tomatoes, and vodka citron vinaigrette. Okay, both dressings are a tiny concession, but, do as I do. Order them on the side or just skip it!

Now, I see three things I like under Mises-En-Bouche. I’m digging the Tofu Delight, Spring Roll, and the Fusion Triangles. Yup, they’re not the best option. Here’s why. The Tofu Delight is crispy tofu glazed with sweet chili, the Spring Rolls are your basic vegetable spring roll, and Fusion Triangles are stuffed with cinnamon spiced ground vegetables. The tofu isn’t too bad, but the rolls and triangles are probably made with some sort of dough, so that makes them iffy. Neither of these are my first choice, but they hey, could be a lot worse!

The Polynesian Mahi Mahi is pretty cool. It’s under Plat Principal. Mahi Mahi is an iffy fish too; be sure to check out Oceans Alive on Mahi Mahi. Okay, so provided Fusion’s Mahi Mahi is safe, the Polynesian Mahi Mahi is made with meunier sauce and accompanied with sautéed bok choy—can’t beat some bok choy!

Flambe Wok offers a lot of potential. I see three dishes I like. The Mekong Vegetables, Chili Paneer, and the Szechwan Tofu; combined they’re prepared with stir-fried fresh vegetables, black bean sauce, sautéed fresh chilies, onions, bell peppers, light soy sauce, and tofu sautéed in an Asian sauce. Lots of good stuff here, the sautéing, frying, and soy sauce worries me, but it’s a decent amount of veggies, so I can deal with it.

Okay, the lunch menu has two nice options. The Pad Ka Tiem is stir-fried tofu and vegetables glazed in a black pepper garlic sauce. I’m becoming a bigger and bigger fan of tofu. Also, the Chengdu Vegetables seems interesting. It doesn’t say what vegetables are in it, but whatever they are. They’re prepared in a Szechuan sauce. Yeah, not perfect, but workable.

Like I said, Fusion is a mixed bad. It’s a clear cut example of how Eating to Live on the Outside goes. You’ve got to take the good with the bad. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself eating at home all the time. Now, since Fusion is close by, maybe I can coax Dr. Fuhrman into heading over to Fusion with me. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, check out Fusion’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 then, eat well! Peace!

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It’s Friday! And you know what the means. More blog posts from me using the phrases, “check it out”, “take a look”, and “here’s a bit?” No. Well, actually yes, but that’s not what I’m taking about. Friday means Eating to Live on the Outside, and this week we’re heading to New York City.

I’m a total city urchin, I love New York! And New York City is a great place for health eating and this week’s restaurant, Candle Café, is no exception. Candle Café claims to serve up organic vegetarian cuisine—so it’s got to be good—right? Only one way to find out!

Okay, most of Candle Café’s menu is very workable. I don’t see any major red flags. So, here are the menu items I’d be most inclined to order. Now, since the cocktails and smoothies are first on the menu, I’ll start with those.

As for the cocktails I like the ones made with greens. Combined the Green Goddess, Candle Cocktail, and the Solar power are concocted with mixed greens, apple, lemon, ginger, carrot, celery, and beet. Yeah, no pun intended, but you’d be hard pressed to find a problem with these.

Onto the smoothies, the Tropical Freeze is cool. It’s got orange juice, bananas, strawberries, mangos, and pineapples—no problems here! The Classic Combo is awesome too. It’s made with apples, berries, and bananas. So far, so good!

Now, it’s time for an appetizer. The steamed edamame beans are great—I eat a lot of them—but I’d ditch the sprinkle of sea salt. I also like the quesadilla, relax, there’s no cheese, remember, “Organic vegetarian cuisine.” However, it does come with soy cheese, which I can do without. I don’t like that stuff. In addition to the soy cheese the quesadilla is made with bean puree, grilled vegetables, salsa, guacamole, and a whole wheat tortilla. Clearly, the whole wheat tortilla isn’t the best thing in the world, but I can live with it—hooray for grilled vegetables!

Next up are the salads. No surprise here, there’s a bunch of great ones. I’m cool with the House Salad, Living Crunchy Sprout, Chopped Salad, or the Aztec Salad. They’re made with a lot of great stuff; mixed field greens, hearts of palm, tomatoes, carrots, sprouts, raisins, sesame seeds, Romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomato, chickpeas, red onion, tofu feta, bi-color quinoa, black beans, jicama, spiced pumpkin seeds, barbequed grilled tempeh, seasonal vegetables, brown rice, steamed greens, avocado, mango, and a variety of dressings. Yup, lots of good stuff! The only thing I’d do is nix the tofu feta and tempeh—not my bag—and I’d order those dressings on the side—good idea?

Alright, there are a couple decent options in the sandwiches and burgers, but they’re all made with tempeh and seitan, and as I’ve said, neither of those get my motor running. So, I’ll skip that section of the menu; which brings me to the sides. In the event that you don’t like any of menu items I’ve mentioned, the sides might be your salvation. You could certainly order a plate of quinoa salad, a baked sweet potato, and steamed vegetables and greens. Now that’s Fuhrman-friendly!

Yeah, Candle Café is cool beans. Certainly a healthy spot in the heart of the big apple and since New York City is one of my stomping grounds. I should drag my butt into Candle Café and tell you all about it, but in the meantime, check out Candle 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 then, eat very healthfully! Peace.

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I just flipped through the last couple month’s of Eating to Live on the Outside and I’ve got to admit, its been a nice run. Check out these great restaurants: Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille, Salad Works, Live, Green Tango, and Leaf Cuisine. All good!

And this week’s is another winner. Daily’s has serious potential. Thanks to Michael for emailing me about it. Daily’s menu is about half and half; half the food is iffy, but the other half could easily soothe the savage nutritarian. So, enough vamping—let’s hit it!

For starters I like the steamed vegetables and the small mixed green salad; hard to find something wrong with these. Steamed veggies rock and provided you go easy on the dressing, the green salad kicks butt too.

Now, onto the salads; I like four of the six. I’m skipping the Baja Flavors Pasta Salad and the Large Mixed Green Salad; the Baja Salad because of the pasta and the Green Salad because it’s a tad boring, but the rest entice me.

Combined the Chinatown Chicken Salad, Thai Noodle Salad, Greek Salad, and Spinach Pasta Salad are made with Romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrots, water chestnuts, chicken, sesame seeds, sprouts, soba noodles, celery, scallions, cabbage, feta cheese, black olives, pepperoncini peppers, rotini or fussili pasta, spinach leaves, red onions, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, and your choice of dressing. Wow, a lot of stuff!

Okay, here’s the stuff I’d omit: the chicken, soba noodles, feta cheese, black olives, either pasta, parmesan cheese and of course, I’d order the dressing on the side. I’d go with the balsamic vinegar. What would you do?

I’m passing on the entrees and pizza; nothing there gets my motor running. Let’s check out the sandwiches and wraps and yes, the wrap, bun, or bread would a concession. I’m fine with it. A bread concession I can live with, believe it me, it could be A LOT worse!

My two favorites are the Veggie Wrap and the Mediterranean Wrap. The Veggie Wrap is made with a flavored tortilla, mushrooms, onions, black olives, tomatoes, zucchini, brown rice, and a ginger sesame dressing—I’m ditching the olives and getting the dressing on the side. Now, the Mediterranean Wrap includes a flavored tortilla, tomato sauce, zucchini, mushrooms, lentils, brown rice, and nonfat mozzarella cheese—I’m dropping the cheese.

I also like the Grilled Eggplant and Zucchini, the Garden Vegetable Burger, and the Thai Wrap; altogether they’re prepared with roasted red pepper spread, eggplant, zucchini, French baguette, garden vegetable burger, whole grain honey bun, flavored tortilla, tofu, celery, cucumber, shredded carrots, mushrooms, rice, and various dressings. All good stuff; grilled eggplant, zucchini, and mushrooms are three of my favorite things!

I’m jumping over the desserts and drinks and going right for Daily’s Blender Bar. I like four of them. The Paradise Splash Smoothie; fresh orange juice, strawberry, and banana. The Double Berry Blitz; blueberries, strawberries, and apple juice. Razzle Dazzle; cranberry juice, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. And the Fit & Fresh; raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and apple juice. Seriously, what’s better than blended bananas!

Now, perhaps the coolest thing about Daily’s is that the menu lists the nutrition facts. This is a HUGE asset for anyone who is mindful of their nutrition. So, here are the nutrition facts for the items I selected. Take a look:


Pretty cool—right? Yup, I definitely think Daily’s is a great place to have a healthy meal. But hey, I say it all the time, what do I know? I’m just a blogger. I’m hardly a nutrition expert. So, do me a favor, scope out Daily’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 then, eat wisely. Peace.

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On your way to work today you probably drove past three or four fast food joints, one or two casual dining places, and at least few delis or mini-marts; not exactly havens of healthy eating. Hey, by now you know, Eating to Live on the Outside is hard work!

But, lucky for us, this week’s restaurant is a break from the terrible. By terrible I am referring to Eating to Live on the Outside flunkies like Don Pablo's, Jackson's Sports Grill, Fazoli's, and Lonestar Steakhouse—I’m still shaking from these places.

Good thing Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille serves up plenty of fruit and veggie-inspired dishes. Now, Blue Sage isn’t perfect, but we can work with it. I’m pretty confident even the most ardent nutritarian could find something to eat on this menu. Let’s see if I’m right!

Admittedly, I’m not much of an appetizer guy, but there is one that might work. The Green Curry BBQ Summer Rolls are rice paper wrapped around baby spinach, Thai glazed barbeque vegetables, smoked red onion, ginger, basil, soy syrup, dipping oils, and a side of jicama. Agreed, it’s a little dicey, but the hefty amount of veggies could help you overlook the oil, smoking, and barbeque—what do you think?

The salads are less complicated, let’s jump to them. Both the lunch and dinner house salad are great; combined their made with spring mix, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), sun-dried berries, plum tomatoes, with a maple mustard, chile lime, or smoked chile vinaigrette. I’d probably get the chile lime on the seed and then kick back and enjoy those pumpkins seeds and berries.

The Asian Citrus Spinach salad is also really cool. It’s prepared with roasted gold beets, tangerines, green curry barbequed onion, spicy cashews, and an orange sesame vinaigrette. Another solid option is the Adobo Cubano; roasted plum tomatoes, grilled peppers, chipotle carmelized onions, baby spinach, and cheddar cheese. For both of these I’d order the dressing on the side and as for that cheese—no thanks!

Onto the entrees. I’m digging the Green Curry Shepherds Pie; made with couscous, brocolini, butternut squash, candy stripe beets, sun burst squash, green curry coconut broth, and Okinawa purple potato rosette. Its kind of exotic, but it does sound great. The Sonoma Sampler works too. It includes tabouleh grain salad, black beluga lentils, black berry barley, roasted sweet corn, grilled zucchini, guacamole, sesame eggplant, and a pepper-topped grilled pita hummus. Alright, provided that guacamole is sour cream free, the only major concession I see is the pita. I can deal with. Black beluga lentils, sounds interesting.

Two more. Both the Quesa Havana and the El Fino sound nice; combine they’re made with whole wheat tortilla, adobo black beans, cilantro, mango, jack cheese, avocado-roasted corn salsa, baby greens, chile lime vinaigrette, spinach, grilled pears, maple pecans, gorgonzola, grilled onions, dairy-free carmelized onion mayo, spring mix, pear-walnut vinaigrette, oranges, roasted baby yellow beets, and sun-dried cranberries. There’s a lot of good stuff here, but I’d drop the mayo, gorgonzola, jack cheese, and, I’d get those dressings on the side.

The cool thing about Blue Sage is that quite a few of their entrees are vegan, like the house salads and Asian Citrus Spinach salad. Now, even though I’m not a vegan. I like to see this because vegan usually means vegetable-based. Sometimes it can mean faux-food and refined junk, but more often than not it means veggies—very cool!

Well, I feel pretty good about Blue Sage and I’m positive a nutritarian could have a nice meal there, but what do I know? I’m just some dopey blogger. You people are smarter than me. So, put your thinking cap on and check out Blue Sage’s menus 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 then, eat well. Peace.
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