Doctors Mandated to Inform and Educate - Imagine That!

The mission of Compassionate Cooks is to "empower people to make informed food choices." How can any of us make "informed" decisions about our health if we aren't given the tools, resources, options, and information to do so. Believing their doctors to have all the information about what it takes to live healthfully (by the way, they don't!), they also believe their doctors would give them all the information they need to make critical decisions about treatment and prevention. By the way, they don't.

When diagnosed with coronary artery disease, patients are told about surgery (specifically angioplasty and bypass) but rarely about the role the typical, rich Western diet plays in the *cause* of coronary artery disease. And they are rarely told that they may prevent it, treat it, and reverse it with a low-fat, plant-based diet. Diabetes patients are led to believe their only option is lifelong dependence on pharmaceutical drugs. They are not told that a whole-foods, low-fat, plant-based diet is effective in treating and preventing diabetes.

Now, thanks to California state assembly member Tom Ammiano, a new bill (Assembly Bill 1478) has been introduced that will require that a "physician and surgeon obtain a
patient's written acknowledgment confirming the receipt of information, as specified, regarding treatment through medical nutrition therapy prior to delivering nonemergency treatment for diabetes or heart disease."

According to the American Heart Association, in the US in 2006 there were about 1.314 million angioplasties and 448,000 bypass operations performed. Many hospitals derive 80% of their income from the treatment of heart disease. And yet these interventions do nothing to treat the underlying disease or to prevent future blockages from occuring.

If this law passes, it could potentially save billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives every year. If people had the information they needed to take their health into their own hands and realize they can actually prevent PREVENTABLE diseases such as heart disease, it would mean a monumental shift in how people perceive themselves and the power they hold.

Please contact the members of the Business and Professions Committee, which will consider the bill very soon. Urge them to pass the bill. Keep your email brief, but please write. It will take all of 5 minutes of your time.

For Mary Hayashi:
Assemblymember.hayashi@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2118

For Bill Emmerson:
Assemblymember.emmerson@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2163

For Connie Conway:
Assemblymember.conway@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2134

For Mike Eng:
dave.maritn@asm.ca.gov
916 319 2149

For Ed Hernandez:
Assemblymember.hernandez@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2157

For Pedro Nava:
Assemblymember.nava@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2135

For Roger Niello:
Assemblymember.niello@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2105

For John Perez:
Assemblymember.John.Perez@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2146

For Curren Price:
Curren.price@asm.ca.gov
916 319 2151.

For Ira Ruskin:
Assemblymember.ruskin@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2121

For Cameron Smyth:
Assemblymember.smyth@assembly.ca.gov
916 319 2138

For Sarah Huchel B&P Consultant:
sarah.huchel@asm.ca.gov
916 319 3306

Soooooo Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt

Admittedly, I've never been a huge yogurt person. I like it - don't get me wrong - but because I don't obsess over "probiotics," I never pursued it as health food, and because I tend to opt for fruit smoothies for breakfast, I just never saw the need to add yogurt to my morning ritual. I've enjoyed many soy yogurts in the past, particularly peach and vanilla, and because of my husband's affinity for them, they often took up residence in our fridge and in his belly.

All that has changed - all thanks to Turtle Mountain. If that name isn't familiar to you, you most likely know them as "So Delicious" or "Purely Decadent," the most delicious line of non-dairy ice creams EVER (in my humble opinion). Formerly referring to their line of non-dairy goodies as "Soy Delicious," I see now why they've changed it. They have expanded beyond soy milk as the base for their ice creams and yogurts and have delved into the delicious world of coconut milk!

Their new line of coconut-milk-based yogurt is unbelievably delicious. I confess I've tried only the vanilla, because I fell in love at first taste, before it was even down the hatch - and I prefer to dress it up with my own fruit and nuts. But I do look forward to trying the other flavors as well, which include blueberry, chocolate (yikes!), passionate mango, plain, pina colada, raspberry, strawberry, and strawberry banana.

The yogurt is thick, creamy, delicious (did I mention delicious) and full of all those good little bacteria people get so kooky about. Another great food from a great company. Check out their website and store locator to find a store near you that carries it, then run out and buy some. And if you get to the chocolate before I do, let me know what ya think! Enjoy!

Creating a Traditional Vegan Passover Seder

(Excerpted from the upcoming The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion.)

A Jewish holiday observed by most Jews, Passover (Pesach) commemorates their exodus out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom. A vegan Seder is not only traditional in its own right, it reflects the principles of freedom and mercy that signify this holiday.

Matzoh
The most significant observance involves the removal of leavened foods and the serving of matzoh commemorating the fact that the Jews leaving Egypt did not have time to let their bread rise. Matzoh, unleavened bread made from flour and water, can be used as flour (for cookies and cakes), meal (for bread crumbs), farfel (a noodle or bread cube substitute), and full-sized matzohs (as bread). Matzoh is eaten three times during the Seder.

Seder Plate
The Seder Plate is a special plate containing six symbolic foods used to retell the story of the exodus.

*Charoset, a mixture of fruit and ground nuts soaked in wine, represents the mortar used to cement bricks when the Jews were slaves in Egypt.
*Parsley, celery, or other green herbs dipped in salt water, symbolize spring and new life, as well as the tears of the Jewish slaves.
*Freshly grated horseradish, sometimes mixed with cooked beets and sugar, symbolizes the harshness of slavery.
*Bitter herbs, such as the bitter-tasting roots of romaine lettuce, are also used to signify the bitterness of slavery.
*Jewish vegans replace the egg, a symbol of fertility and new creation, with a flower or roasted nuts. Some even use a miniature white egg-sized eggplant, whose stem has been removed.
*Jewish vegans replace the “shankbone,” meant to symbolize the sacrificial lamb, and point out that even the Talmud explicitly allows for roasted beets to be used in its stead.

Make Your Own Seder Plate
You can purchase decorative “Seder plates,” which are designed to section off the plate for the various elements, naming them in Hebrew as well as English. Vegan versions are not yet available, so a friend of mine went to one of those paint-it-yourself pottery stores and created her own vegan Seder plate, designating a place for the Haroset, Parsley (or “Greens”), Horseradish, Bitter Herbs, Beetroot, and Eggplant.

Passover menus are in the new cookbook, which won't be out until June. One of the recipes, however (Matzoh Ball Soup) can be found at the Compassionate Cooks Message Board. Look for this Passover Menu in The Vegan Table:

*Charoset
*Matzoh Ball Soup or Traditional Vegetable Soup
*Passover Pizza
*Matzoh Chocolate Brittle