July 23, 2023 • 46 mins
Welcome to another episode of Perfectly Pl@nted, where we're shedding light on the transformative power of plant-based eating.
Today, we sat down with the remarkable Dr. Brooke Bussard, physician, health coach, fitness specialist, and author of the enlightening book, 'Chew On This: Bite-Sized Stories about Nutrition.' We heard about how Dr. Bussard was enlightened by the work of renowned doctors like Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Barnard, and Dr. Ornish. Now, she's a vocal advocate for the benefits of optimizing nutrition, empowering clients to prevent and even reverse chronic diseases.
We ventured into the world of Dr. Bussard's Quick Cooks app, a convenient resource that's changing the way people approach their meals by making wholesome cooking simpler and more accessible.
Finally, we extracted some golden nuggets from Dr. Bussard about forming healthy habits and implementing positive changes to reach optimal health. We rounded off our enlightening conversation with some resources and tips to help you embark on a journey towards better health.
So, whether you're exploring the idea of a plant-based lifestyle, or you're eager to improve your health, this episode is a treasure trove of advice, tips, and inspiring stories. Don't miss our captivating exchange with Dr. Brooke Bussard; it's bound to leave you feeling informed and inspired.
Chew On This: Bite-Sized Stories about Nutrition, is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Chew-This-Bite-Sized-Stories-Nutrition/dp/B0C54W8765
Contact Dr. Bussard at https://plantsoveranimals.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Good morning and welcome to Perfectly Planted
Hello Vesemay, welcome back, Ihave missed you.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good morning Daphne.
I have missed you so much andour chats and our Sunday podcast
.
It's been some time right.
We've had a busy summer, bothyou and I.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So I've been sharing on my Watsuit wingman that you
have been on sabbatical.
I didn't want to want toexplicitly share where you were,
what you were doing, but howwas your sabbatical?
It was great.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Daphne, thank you.
We were in, we toured, we did aEuropean tour.
Essentially, we went to Italy,switzerland and France, and so
much to share.
Maybe we could separate it outfor another podcast, because I
am so excited for today and ourepisode.
I am too.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, so, vesemay, would you like to share with our
audience the wonderfulopportunity we have for Dr
Brooke Basard to join us today?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Absolutely Daphne.
I know I won't do justice toall of what Dr Basard's amazing
accomplishments have been, butlet me briefly introduce her to
those of you watching today orlistening.
She swapped out her white coatfor an apron and her stethoscope
for a spatula.
Dr Brooke Basard now prescribeshealthy, appealing recipes.
In her role as a health coachand fitness specialist, she
(01:31):
guides her clients towards theirbest personal outcomes, with a
focus on optimizing nutrition,which is so important, as you
know, with the goal ofpreventing and reversing heart
disease, diabetes, obesity andother chronic conditions.
Brooke thrives on watchingpeople progress from confused
consumers to empowered eaters,and she's not gardening with her
(01:53):
husband or hiking with her sons.
Brooke enjoys speaking to allage groups about powerful, the
powerful link between food andgood health, which is so
important.
She graduated from University ofVirginia School of Medicine and
College of Arts and Sciences,and Brooke blends her medical
knowledge with her expertise innutrition.
As if that wasn't enough, shealso teaches food for life
(02:17):
classes for the PhysiciansCommittee for Responsible
Medicine.
She also wrote a book which Iam so enjoying.
It's called Chew on this BiteSize Stories About Nutrition,
which is available on AmazonKindle version right now.
Hopefully, paperback will bedistributed by Amazon soon.
Dr Brooke Basard, akaSuperwoman, I hope you don't
(02:40):
mind me naming you that.
Welcome to the show.
We are so excited to have youjoin us.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh, thanks, Vesame.
Thank you, Daphne, for havingme today.
I appreciate the opportunity tospend some time with you guys.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Dr Basard, we appreciate your time.
It's funny because, after I'veheard of you for a long time
through Food for Life and thenwas able to briefly touch base
with you at the Fairfax VegFest,but after having an opportunity
to converse with you by emailand then thank you for hosting
(03:17):
and inviting me to the let'sBeat Breast Cancer Fundraiser, I
feel like our paths are sosimilar.
I would love if you could sharea little bit about your vegan
journey, about your journey as aphysician and health coach, and
how you have arrived at thispoint in your life, being able
(03:39):
to impact so many people.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, I guess it starts with the path to becoming
a physician, because at thatpoint I knew nothing about the
world of plant-based eating,about what a vegan was.
I don't even think I couldprobably pronounce vegan at the
time.
This was back in the 90s, whenit was extremely fringe to be
(04:05):
eating that way.
I went to med school, like mostaspiring doctors do, in order
to help people.
Help people feel well and feelgood.
I've always loved the humanbody.
I really enjoyed anatomy laband physiology.
Those first two years of medschool as you know Daphne are
(04:27):
spent in lectures and labs,which are awesome.
You learn so much.
Then you transition in thatthird and fourth year to seeing
patients.
It was great to see thepatients listen to their history
, think about their symptoms andthinking about what you could
do to help those symptoms.
(04:48):
Typically, that was done with aprescription pad.
We were not getting to the rootcause of the problem.
Each time the patients wouldcome back to clinic it was like
how are you doing?
Are you taking your meds?
Has the disease progressed anyfurther or have we halted it?
We never even thought aboutreversing disease.
(05:11):
We were just trying to managethe symptoms and help people
deal with this diagnosis thatthey had.
I guess during that time Istarted to have my own GI issues
.
I would pretty much have bellypain every day, along with
(05:32):
bloating and constipation, andyears past I kept thinking how
do people live like this?
This is crazy.
I don't understand why my bellyhurts so bad.
I went to see GI specialistspeople that I knew and nobody
had an answer.
It was like well, takemetamucil or oh, do you want to
(05:53):
be in this clinical trial forthis new drug and you can call
in every day and report yoursymptoms?
I thought, no, I really don'twant to do that.
I was talking to mysister-in-law one day,
frustrated as one could be, andshe said Brooke, do you think it
might be something that you'reeating?
That seems so ridiculous nowthat I didn't consider that at
(06:19):
the time At least I didn'tconsider it in the way that I do
now and the bottom line is thatdairy products and various food
additives, along with a lack ofnutrient dense foods,
essentially was the problem.
I had a dysbiosis, I had animbalance of gut bacteria, my GI
(06:45):
tract was not healthy, itcouldn't function the way that
it was supposed to, and that waslife-changing, absolutely
life-changing, something thatpeople really don't think you
know is that impactful.
But having belly pain every dayor having bloating and
constipation every day, I meanit really affects the quality of
(07:06):
your life.
And so while I was learningabout the impact of food on
health, of course I started tostumble upon you know
Esselstyn's work, dr Barnard'swork, you know Dr Ornish's work,
and learning about the impactof food on cardiovascular
(07:27):
disease, diabetes, obesity, in away that we hadn't really
thought about it before.
You know, it was so eye-opening.
These were things that you donot learn in medical school and
I thought, oh my gosh, I have tototally shift gears and try to
get this information out to theworld.
(07:49):
And so I left medicine, became ahealth coach, did a lot of, and
still do.
I love to talk to groups, givepresentations, teach classes.
So I teach classes in variouscolleges throughout the
Baltimore area and, yeah, andthen I just you know I get a lot
(08:13):
of clients from my classes,from speaking engagements and
then word of mouth, and peoplecome to me because you know
they've heard from their doctorthat you know, all of a sudden
they've developed prediabetes ordiabetes or they've got heart
disease to the point where youknow people want to do surgery
but they don't want surgery andthey come to me and you know
(08:36):
eating the right foods changeseverything.
It really it really does.
And so that's really been mypath and you know as circuitous
as it was.
I think you know it's endedwell, like I learned a lot,
where I needed to learn a lot,but then I moved on from there
(08:59):
and I can use all of myknowledge of, you know,
physiology and pathophysiologyto apply, you know the
principles of plant-basednutrition to health and at the
same time, talk to my clients,doctors, when they need to, you
know, start to lower theirmedications and, you know, be
(09:20):
cognizant of, you know watchingtheir blood pressure, because
all of those things will startto change as they get healthier
by eating more plants.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You are where you were meant to be.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yes, that's right.
So, yeah, that's an amazingjourney.
I think that that resonates somuch with also me too, and so
many of our viewers.
I also know that you have afantastic website, which I was
pulling a lot of recipes off oflast night, primarily the black
(09:56):
bean brownie one.
It's called Plants Over Animals.
I just want to know what wasyour intention of starting your
website and what do you hope?
What messaging do you hope yourviewers and followers get out
of the website?
And I think you could subscribeto a newsletter too.
We could talk about that too.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Totally so.
On that homepage you cansubscribe to the newsletter and
you know I just send out updates, usually about once a month.
But as you see from this screencapture, the resource section
is really why I put the websitetogether to give people more
information, because usuallyjust after one conversation
(10:39):
their interest might be peaked.
But you know they certainlyhaven't learned what they need
to learn.
It takes a long time, you know,to really start digging into
the information.
You've got to get over thehurdles of the things that you
learned in the past, the mythsthat might be stuck in your head
, and so a lot of times when Italk to somebody, I'm talking to
(11:03):
them from a health perspective,but I might be talking to them
from an environmentalperspective, about the impact of
eating plants, and for somepeople they love to learn about
the animal aspect.
So Plants Over Animals coversall three big reasons why you
might want to choose plants overanimals when you are making
(11:25):
your meals, and so that's why Iput the website together.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
We have a beautiful earth and these countries that I
visited over the summer.
It's just breathtaking viewsand I think that you know I have
a new outlook on you know why?
Why not?
There's a different reason, notjust for our own health, which
I think a lot of us in ourculture is well.
What's in it?
For me, it's our health,obviously, but also there's such
(11:54):
a longer term impact across theentire world, and when you go
and visit some of thesecountries and the beauty of our
land, it's just even within ourcountry.
You know it's so important forus to not forget that as well.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But I think the problem is we don't always I
mean, it took me 40 years toreally understand where the food
on my plate was coming from.
It was never taught.
It really.
In fact, I would say it was acognitive dissonance between
what we're doing to animals,what we're doing to the planet
and what I'm putting in my bodyevery day.
(12:29):
So you know, berkeley websiteis so comprehensive.
It's one place where people cango to whatever may be initially
driving them into plant-basednutrition, and for me it was
health related after seeing gamechangers.
But then it opened up thiswhole Pandora's box to Vesemme's
(12:51):
point that, oh my gosh, Ireally did not understand all of
the other implications ofeating the chicken and the beef.
And, yeah, it was eye-opening.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I think and it helps you sort of, you know, not that
you need to justify, but ithelps support your decision when
you know that it's also helpingin these other ways.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Mm-hmm, and you know talking about helping in other
ways, what?
So?
I know I have many otherfriends who've written books,
Some who say they'll never do itagain, Others who say it was
wonderful.
What was the impetus for you towrite two on this, and can you
tell us a little bit about thebook and what was the passion
(13:38):
that made you realize that youneeded to be able to tell this
narrative in a way that wasdigestible for anyone?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
So I would say there were probably about you know,
four or five years where peoplestarted to ask me when are you
gonna write a book?
And I think it's just because Ihave a way of presenting
information I'm a little bit,you know, quirky and silly, I
think and I think that probablycomes across in the book A way
of presenting information thatyou know people find interesting
(14:11):
.
And so I thought, you know, Ithink I'm ready.
This was what was it.
It's been a little over a year,maybe a year and a half, since
I started writing.
Yeah, it was in April of lastyear that I started writing,
chew on this and, yeah, all of asudden it just hit me.
I thought I think I really I'mready to write a book.
(14:33):
And when I started, I mean itjust poured out of me.
It was so much fun, I had somuch fun writing this book and
creating these characters andcreating stories in order to
convey the information.
I felt like there's so manygood nutrition books out there
and I love to just sit down with, you know, a book by Dr Gregor
(14:57):
or Dr Barnard, or you know allthe people who have written such
good books, but so many of myfriends, family, clients,
students.
They said, brooke, it's justtoo dense, I can't do it, I
can't sit down and read it.
It's not, you know, it's notsomething that's easy for me to
(15:19):
do.
So I thought, okay, I'm gonnawrite something that's totally
different, you know, and see ifI can help those people have a
book that they can read to getthe information in just a
totally different way.
And so that's how Chew on thiscame about.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I loved it.
I found it very colorful andplayful and the messages really
resonated.
I you kept my attention readingthis book, which is hard, like
you said.
He called it dense, it's justdry.
It's a lot of I mean.
You know, I would need a booklike that to be converted into a
TV show.
So I was like, keep myattention really.
(15:58):
But your book Chew on this wasvery playful.
I thought with the characters,with the dialogue between the
characters, with reallydebunking those myths that you
were talking about, because Ithink it's so hard, and one of
them I will mention was theinflammation chapter that you
wrote because I was like, wait asecond, you know how we could
(16:21):
talk about it just for onesecond.
Because you know I, as a lot ofour listeners may know, I have
three boys, are very active,they play soccer primarily and
they get.
If they get injured, it's animmediate.
Let's get some ice on it and inyour book say don't, you, don't
.
That's your body's response totrying to heal the inflammation
that you have, and inflammationis coming from your blood
(16:43):
vessels just trying to healitself and so you're just
delaying the process if you putice on it and I just thought,
wow, I would have.
Honestly, I could have read amedical book 10 times, read the
similar words or content, and itdidn't.
It wouldn't have resonated withme, but your book absolutely
did, and I know that lots, a lotof our health is.
(17:07):
You know, like you had the gut,your gut health was, your
microbiome was off kilter and soinflammation was probably key.
And there's other components ofthese chronic conditions that
we deal with where you know,inflammation is a primary
component.
What, what are three?
That was so.
That was one of the messagesthat came across for me, but
(17:28):
what are some of the three keymessages you hope your readers
take away from your book?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Three key messages of well, we could, we could.
I'm sure there's more thanthree, I'm sure there's more
than three, but let's, let'sthink of three.
I like three is a great number.
Yeah, well, I would say.
I mean, the first one is justto eat more plants.
Yeah, and you know, I think theeasiest way for me to help
people do that is just to havethem take their normal foods,
(17:56):
their normal meals, and start tocrowd things out that aren't
made from plants and put moreplants in.
And I think fajitas are a greatexample.
So if somebody's got, you know,a chicken or a beef fajita, why
not have smaller and smallerportions of the meat?
(18:17):
Start to add more and more ofthe veggies, whether it's, you
know, peppers or onions or corn.
Start to add some beans in,because we know how helpful you
know all the legumes are, andstart to crowd out those
animal-based products untileventually you're like I don't
really need that anymore, mm-hmm, and that way it doesn't feel
(18:41):
like you're starting all over.
You take things that you knowand you start to make them more
and more plant heavy until theyjust become, you know, a totally
plant-based meal.
So I think eating more plantsis probably the number one
message.
The next message would be that Ithink that the chapter I can't
(19:05):
remember which chapter it isright now but DNA is not destiny
.
Yes, I think a lot of peopleget tied to blaming their DNA
for their situation.
So they might say obesity runsin my family, diabetes runs in
my family, heart disease runs inmy family, and I think it's
important to remember that allof those families, they share
(19:28):
the same pantry, they share thesame refrigerator, they share
meals, and so you know, try adifferent meal and see if you
can change your health outcome,because we well know now that
that's a very effective approachto dealing with things, because
we can turn our genes on andoff with our food choices,
(19:51):
mm-hmm.
So I think eating plants, yourDNA, is not your destiny.
And probably another good oneis just that that you should
play the long game.
Like, don't expect that you canreverse your diseases in a
(20:15):
short period of time.
You know a week or two, becauseit didn't take a week or two
for them to develop Exactly.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
There's an Amazon Prime meme sorry to interrupt
you that says you know your bodyis not Amazon Prime, like it'll
take more than two days for youto change your body.
I mean, it didn't take you twodays to get to where you are
right.
So give yourself some grace andsome time.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yeah, and you know there's just there's so much
noise out there that you need tocut through.
There's a learning curve youneed to be on and you know
you're not always gonna have thebest choices available, correct
.
So I like to tell peopleconsider it as a spectrum and
you've got good, better, best.
You know you wanna avoid thingsthat are, you know, health
(21:05):
hindering, that you know, weknow are damaging to the body.
But then you know, as long asyou're somewhere on a spectrum,
so you know if you have to, youknow choose white pasta or white
rice over.
You know the whole grain version, you know that's okay, you know
, that might be the situationthat you're in or what you
prefer right now in your journeyto becoming a more whole food
(21:29):
eater.
So I think I think Beth's mywere you the one who said grace.
I think that's a nice yes.
Yeah, give yourself some graceas you make the transition.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah, and I'd also loved your carbohydrate section
of the book.
Anyway, I think for all of ourviewers and listeners,
definitely grab a copy of thebook because it had great
messaging, like I said.
I mean it's debunking the mythsin a very playful way, right?
So the carbohydrates I thinkthat was my biggest thing as I
was going, and Daphne is likecarbohydrates aren't bad,
(22:00):
vesemay, and I'm like really,are you sure?
Because I was told, cut themout at night, cut them out at
night so you could get cut thatmore.
You know more lean.
And it's true, you know it's.
And then one other thing I'm sosorry I'm not going to give all
the secrets of your book, Ipromise, but it was the
saturated fats in meat and howyou can see the marbling in red
(22:25):
meat, but you don't see thatsaturated fat marbling in
chicken, and so everybody thinkshow chicken is so lean for you?
And it's like no, becauseyou're not really seeing all of
what's in it, right?
So I found that veryinteresting.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, they're the same color.
You know, when things are thesame color they hide pretty well
.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
It's one of the five, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Inbrik, we want to talk a little bit about your
Quick Cooks apps and I want toshare your how to Go Vegan
website.
But before we go there, I justwant to go back to the fact that
your DNA is not your destiny,because we all, you know, one of
the things that Vesame and Ihave spent a lot of time talking
about is community healthequity the fact that there are.
(23:15):
There has to be amulti-generational change.
So families pass on food, passon behaviors, lifestyles and
looking at all of the pillars oflifestyle medicine the
nutrition, the exercise Can youjust touch on?
We focus a lot on perfectlyplanted on nutrition, but our
(23:39):
four pillars are actuallyaligned with the pillars of
lifestyle medicine.
Can you touch on how those alsoimpact your ability to prevent,
reverse or manage disease?
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Sure, sure, yeah, I think you know, starting with a
mindset of being prepared.
I think being prepared andhaving a plan and knowing you
know what your meals are gonnabe, what your movement's gonna
be, what your sleep habits looklike, you know when you're gonna
(24:12):
, you know interact with familyfriends, you know be social like
sort of having anall-encompassing sort of routine
set into your days really helpsto make that more automatic,
because we wanna decrease theamount of decisions that we make
(24:33):
every day.
I'm sure most of probably yourviewers, have heard of decision
fatigue.
So we want to make sure thatyou know we create habits and
routines and that they becomeautomatic and that's really how
we, you know, live ourhealthiest lives.
So for my clients, as far asplanning, I like for them to put
(25:00):
together a menu.
You know what their meals aregonna look like for the week and
usually it's just dinner andthen you can use that same meal
plan every week or have two orthree that you rotate through,
you know, each month, and Ithink that's really helpful
(25:20):
because it reduces anxiety whenyou already know what you're
gonna have for dinner and thenjust making sure that your
pantry, your fridge, yourfreezer are stocked with good,
healthy foods that are your sortof go-tos.
That also is gonna, you know,reduce anxiety, decrease your
stress, and you're gonna bemaking healthy choices.
(25:41):
So it's all gonna start to, youknow, build on itself and you
know it becomes, you know just,it's so empowering once you get
the hang of it and you're likeI've got this and you know these
are my choices.
They make me feel great.
You know I'm reversing mydisease processes.
(26:03):
I'm, you know, getting healthyit's and then building movement
into your day.
So, knowing that you're eithergonna get up and do, you know,
20 minutes of yoga before youstart your day, or your day is
jam-packed and you know yourVesemay and you're gonna walk
(26:23):
around the soccer field whileyour kids are at practice, you
know Like you've got a plan forhow you're gonna move at some
point in your day and thenyou're gonna get to sleep on
time.
You're going to have a bedtimeand a wake time that are very
routine, because when you shiftthose it typically throws people
(26:46):
off and it's not as restorativeas you would hope.
So you know, having a setbedtime, a set wake time and if
you know that things are gonnachange, adjust the other end
accordingly.
So if you know you've gotta getup early to go to a soccer
tournament, you know over theweekend you're gonna go to bed a
little bit earlier than nightbefore and try to really carve
(27:09):
that into your schedule.
So I think planning is one ofmy key mindsets for people that
is very helpful for you know,really allowing all of the
pillars of lifestyle medicine tocome together.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So I am very interested what does a day in
the life of Dr Brooke Basardlook like for you and primarily
what you know?
I'm sure you get each one ofthose, the pillars in.
So your activity, your movement, your you know meal preps or
(27:50):
whatever it may be in, butreally interested to see when it
comes to, like nutrition, thatphysical activity, your sleep,
how do you reduce your stressspecifically, Well, I would say,
once everything else has diedin, the stress really comes down
, like I feel like, since I'vebeen plant based.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
I have been so much less stressed than before, and
maybe that's partly because Ilove what I'm doing now and I
feel like it's so effective andthe people that I see every day
are so happy because they'regetting healthier.
So you know it all sort of.
You know feeds on it, so youknow feeds on itself.
But I would say you know mybody pretty much wakes up at the
(28:37):
same time every day withouteven setting an alarm, and so
usually you know I'm up, usuallyyou know between 5.30 and 6.
, and I love oats.
So usually for breakfast it'seither overnight oats or I'm
making oats or I'm makinggranola out of oats, something
like that.
(28:58):
And then movement.
I do like to get movement inearlier in the day when possible
.
I feel like my body feelsbetter when.
I moved earlier, and sometimesit's just, you know, a 20 minute
sort of yoga, stretch, kind ofmovement.
Sometimes it's a walk with mydog, you know.
(29:21):
Sometimes it's a strengthtraining session.
Try to do that, you know, atleast two, if not three, times a
week, because we all know howimportant it is to maintain our
muscle mass as we age.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Good for so many things, including our bone
health and, you know, ourendocrine health from a diabetes
standpoint.
But let's see some movement.
And then lunchtime is oftenleftovers from the fridge, from
a prior night's dinner, if not alot of times.
(29:54):
I'll just make a veggiesandwich or avocado toast,
something like that.
And then let's see, theafternoons are pretty busy
between seeing clients andgetting my kids where they need
to go.
My youngest son he's got hislearner's permit but he's not
(30:16):
driving yet, so I still havedriving duties in the afternoons
.
But then the evenings we alwayseat family dinner together,
which has been shown to be greatfor everyone not just the kids,
but for the adults too.
It's a great way to connect andsocialize with your family.
(30:39):
So for dinners, we do a lot of,I would say, Tex-Mex.
We do flatbread, we do lentils.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Is everybody plant-based in your family, like
your boys?
Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah, so that has been great, because I do know
that when I work with clientsand they are solo on this
journey, it is so much harder.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
It is, it's so much harder.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
But I think when I went through the process of
learning about plant-based mealsand just the effect of eating
plants on our health, I reallyjust said to the family I can't
feed you anything other thanplants at this point.
Like it doesn't resonate withme to do that and I'm just gonna
(31:32):
have to ask you to bear with me.
You'll make it to the otherside, and they did very quickly.
I mean, there was really nopushback and we transitioned
over.
It was probably over the courseof a year or so, because I was
in the learning process.
So I was learning about meat andthen I was learning about fish,
(31:53):
and then I was learning abouteggs, and then I was learning
about cheese and dairy.
And I would just tell them andthey were young at the time,
they were seven and 10, when Itransitioned them to a
plant-based diet Wow, okay, yeah, but they were very
understanding and I just said,okay, so, boys, here's what I
(32:14):
learned about milk today, andthis is why I can't bring dairy
products into the house anymoreand they were like oh okay, mom,
I would say there are very fewmembers, even of my extended
family, who aren't totallyplant-based at this point.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, that's fantastic, yeah, so that's all
you know, hats off to you,because that's to be able to.
I get a lot of pushback, andnot specific to my family, but
it's like you know, it's soingrained in our culture and our
lifestyle.
It's where the first questionout of everyone's mouth is well,
(32:57):
how do you get your protein?
And I know you talk about thatin your book as well.
It's the first questioneverybody asks.
You know it's like, oh mygoodness.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Fesame, that's why it's chapter one.
Yeah, plant-based protein too.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
you know Like hello, let's talk about that yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
But, Fesame, I know we were talking last night about
the fact that you're alreadypulling together some of Dr
Bessard's recipes and Dr Bessardjust wanted to you to share a
little bit about your QuickCooks app.
And then I think Fesame has afood question.
She wants to ask you if youhave a few more minutes.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Sure, sure.
So Quick Cooks is an app that Icreated maybe three or four
years ago now in response to.
I was teaching a few classesfor like senior learning with a
community college out in CarrollCounty and I had a fair number
(33:58):
of people in the class who werewidows and they were just not
excited about making meals forthemselves.
And then at the same time I hadanother group that were college
students and they were likewell, we don't have access to
much in a kitchen or tools orplaces to store a lot of
(34:20):
ingredients or spices.
So I thought I'm gonna puttogether an app where people can
literally go in, pick what kindof meal they want whether it's
breakfast or dinner, or justmake smoothies or soup or
whatever and then they just pickone appliance whether it's the
(34:41):
microwave, the stove, the slowcooker, the pressure cooker you
choose one appliance might bethe blender and you can make
your own food and you can makeyour meal with just a few
ingredients with that oneappliance and you're done.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
I love that.
That's perfect.
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So that's how Quick Cooks came about, and I use
Quick Cooks still all the time,like I'll have a night where I
thought, oh gosh, I did not plananything or I thought I was
gonna have leftovers last night,but everybody ate all of it,
yeah, so I'll just pull up QuickCooks and make the three bean
(35:23):
chili or Tex-Mex bowl or theloaded sweet potatoes or
whatever it is, and they'resuper simple and I've got
granola recipes on there, soit's great at breakfast and at
dinner and I think it's just areal easy resource for people
and it's free, so that's alwaysgood.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I will be downloading that today and on my kids'
phones as well, so they can bemore self-sufficient, especially
during the summer months.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
I think that's a great idea, because teaching
kids how to cook is definitely adeficit in our society, and
it's not the unhealthy like puta breakfast sandwich in the
microwave.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
It's a let's get you the healthy thing to eat.
That's quick, Right, Betterchoices, Okay.
So my question to you is what?
You have a ton of amazingrecipes on your website and we
will post all of this in ourshow notes and also on our blog,
but what are the top three?
We'll stick with three again.
(36:23):
What's the top three recipesthat you either is your favorite
or that you tend to makefrequently?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Okay, well, just before we got on this call today
on the podcast, I had just madebreakfast cookies and I would
say breakfast cookies have beenthe most popular recipe on my
website forever.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Okay, no good.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
When people make them , they hear about it.
Yeah, they're so good.
I often quadruple the batch.
Oh yeah, I make 48 at a timeand I just stock them in the
fridge and the family just eatsthem, either for breakfast or
snack, for dessert, whatever itis.
They're delicious, they'rehealthy, they're easy.
(37:10):
You can freeze them.
So if you make a big batch butyou're like, oh, we're not gonna
eat all these in time, I justfreeze them.
I don't leave them on thecounter for too long because
they're so delicious thatbacteria like them as well.
Okay, so keep them in thefridge.
(37:30):
In the fridge, got it?
Yeah, if you have stuff that'shighly processed, it can stay on
the counter longer.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, for months, For months.
I remember we came back fromour trip a month and I was like,
wow, this doesn't have anybacteria on it and I'm like it
should go in the trash.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Exactly Gary, yes, okay.
So then, as far as dinnerrecipes, I would say the kidney
bean quinoa burgers are one ofmy favorite.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Again, you can make a large batch, you can put them
in the fridge and you can eithereat them for dinner and put
them on a bun and put yourcondiments on slices of fresh
tomatoes and romaine lettuce.
But sometimes you will just seeme walk through the kitchen,
reach into the fridge, grab akidney bean quinoa burger and
(38:26):
just eat.
Yeah, yeah, they're deliciouswhen they're cold.
I love them and they're prettyeasy to make.
Okay, and then a third.
I would say the lentil mushroomtaco meat.
So we'll go back on your dinnerone more time, although, okay,
we're gonna have to do four,because I do realize that we
(38:48):
definitely need to point out butlentil mushroom taco meat.
When I have guests over whoaren't plant-based and I make a
taco bar that could be eithertacos or burritos or whatever, I
make this lentil mushroom tacomeat and it's it, you know, is
the substitute for ground beefand it is delicious.
(39:11):
It's so delicious.
Sometimes I throw in walnutsalso just to give it a little
extra crumble.
Yeah, on the website I had thelentil mushroom taco meat,
because when I'm really helpingpeople try to reverse obesity
and diabetes, I try to get a lotof fat out of their diet just
while we're getting fat out oftheir cells.
(39:34):
But you know, once you reachyour optimal, you know healthy
weight for your body, then Ithink you know you have more
leeway for you know addingthings like walnuts back in.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, I love this.
It has no oil in it.
No, it's delicious too, it'svery easy.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
So easy.
Okay, so we got to go to thedessert section.
Right, can't forget dessert,can't?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
forget dessert.
Everybody likes a good dessert,I mean the breakfast cookies
were really breakfast, notcookies, so we got to go to
dessert.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
But honestly, you could eat these desserts for
breakfast too, because you know,like the black bean brownie.
That's what I'm making, and youknow who doesn't want to get
their legumes in in the morning.
Right, that's right.
So you could eat those forbreakfast.
But I would say we don't wantto overlook the flourless
(40:29):
chocolate chip chickpea blondies.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
So I made these.
One time I had a client who Iwas going over to his house
every Sunday for two to threehours and we would do meal prep
for the week.
Like I really didn't even knowhow to cook, so I was teaching
him how to cook and we weredoing the meal prep, and you
know, it was breakfast, lunchand dinner.
We were stocking his fridge,and so one day I brought over
(40:54):
these flourless chocolate,chocolate chip, chickpea,
brownies or blondies and I justput them on the counter and you
know, it was probably aroundnoon time.
I was getting ready to leave anda son came down who was in high
school.
He's like, oh, what's this?
And I was like, oh, just someblondies I made.
And so he started eating him.
He ate that half of the pan andthen he went on his way
(41:15):
wherever he was headed and hisdad goes.
Don't ever tell him those which, because that's why I'm gonna
get him to eat, you know, youknow chickpeas.
Now I was like, okay, I'll dothat, that's great.
So, yeah, so those are some ofmy favorites, but I'm making my
(41:36):
grocery list.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
I'll be in the kitchen today, if you want to
find me.
I'll be All this delicious food.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
The amazing thing is most of these items people have
in their pantry.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yes absolutely.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Can of black beans, a can of lentils, a can of
chickpeas, I think.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
I just need to pick up some dates.
I think that was the one,because I already checked out
the website.
So we've gone through.
You have a lot going on, brooke.
We have the Quick Oats app.
That's for quick, easy one.
It could be a microwave, ablender, whatever where people
could use that, so that's a freeapp.
Go to the App Store Quick Oatsapp.
(42:14):
Then there's also your QuickCooks Sorry about that Quick
Cooks app and then there's awebsite how to go, vegan website
, your main website, plants overanimals.
And then the book.
Chew on this.
You are a busy lady.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Brooke, as we wrap up today, perfectly planted.
One of the our tagline is deedsof positivity and empowerment.
Would.
Is there anything positive andempowering that you would like
to share with our audiencewatching or listening today?
Speaker 3 (42:54):
There are so many things that are positive and
empowering.
Yes, I would say.
I would say the most empoweringthing to know about
transitioning to a plant-baseddiet is that it's never too late
.
Some people think, oh, I'm inmy 50s, I'm in my 60s, I'm in my
70s, you know it's too late.
(43:15):
Like I should have started thiswhen I was much younger.
The change is remarkable.
The body's ability to heal isso remarkable.
It does not take very long.
Just have a little bit ofpatience.
Give yourself.
I mean, if you give yourself 90days, you will be amazed by the
difference.
I mean, within a week or twoyou'll start to feel different.
(43:38):
But if you're trying to reversedisease, you know it really
doesn't take.
You know very long at allcompared to.
You know the amount of time ittook to get there.
Exactly.
It's possible and you will feelso amazing and you will feel so
in control.
You won't feel dependent on aprescription pad and somebody to
(44:03):
fill out that prescription pad.
Like you can make these choices.
You don't need anybody'spermission.
You can just go out there andyou know, choose healthy foods
and change your life.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Drop the mic, choose healthy foods and change your
life.
That's as it all.
Well, dr Prasar, thank you somuch for joining us on Perfectly
Planted.
It's the problem that we haveis actually not we could go
through every single chapter.
We enjoyed your book that muchand I definitely encourage
(44:39):
anyone listening or watchingtoday to go out to Amazon.
You can get the Kindle versionnow.
The paperback copy will becoming soon and this book is
something that you can share itwith your teenagers, with family
, friends.
It is so easy to read and allof the points are so digestible
(44:59):
that I would digestible in food.
That pun intended and notintended that I would encourage
you to go out and pick up a copyand to share the learnings with
anyone who may listen.
Super, thank you.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Thank you both so much.
It was great talking to youtoday.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
And I also want to thank everyone listening and
watching today.
We appreciate you.
If you're new to PerfectlyPlanted, we hope you'll come
back and listen on a futureepisode.
And if you are enjoying SundaySeedlings, please feel free to
like, subscribe, turn on thatbell so that you can get
notifications when we'll behosting another live stream or
(45:40):
posting another recording.
And if you like our channel,please like or subscribe to us
on YouTube.
We hope to hear from you on ourblog.
Please know that you are caredfor, you are appreciated and we
hope that you are able to take afew seedlings away and apply
them to reaching your optimalhealth.
(46:01):
Take care and we'll talk to yousoon.
Bye, bye.
Good morning and welcome to Perfectly Planted
Hello Vesemay, welcome back, Ihave missed you.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good morning Daphne.
I have missed you so much andour chats and our Sunday podcast
.
It's been some time right.
We've had a busy summer, bothyou and I.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So I've been sharing on my Watsuit wingman that you
have been on sabbatical.
I didn't want to want toexplicitly share where you were,
what you were doing, but howwas your sabbatical?
It was great.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Daphne, thank you.
We were in, we toured, we did aEuropean tour.
Essentially, we went to Italy,switzerland and France, and so
much to share.
Maybe we could separate it outfor another podcast, because I
am so excited for today and ourepisode.
I am too.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, so, vesemay, would you like to share with our
audience the wonderfulopportunity we have for Dr
Brooke Basard to join us today?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Absolutely Daphne.
I know I won't do justice toall of what Dr Basard's amazing
accomplishments have been, butlet me briefly introduce her to
those of you watching today orlistening.
She swapped out her white coatfor an apron and her stethoscope
for a spatula.
Dr Brooke Basard now prescribeshealthy, appealing recipes.
In her role as a health coachand fitness specialist, she
(01:31):
guides her clients towards theirbest personal outcomes, with a
focus on optimizing nutrition,which is so important, as you
know, with the goal ofpreventing and reversing heart
disease, diabetes, obesity andother chronic conditions.
Brooke thrives on watchingpeople progress from confused
consumers to empowered eaters,and she's not gardening with her
(01:53):
husband or hiking with her sons.
Brooke enjoys speaking to allage groups about powerful, the
powerful link between food andgood health, which is so
important.
She graduated from University ofVirginia School of Medicine and
College of Arts and Sciences,and Brooke blends her medical
knowledge with her expertise innutrition.
As if that wasn't enough, shealso teaches food for life
(02:17):
classes for the PhysiciansCommittee for Responsible
Medicine.
She also wrote a book which Iam so enjoying.
It's called Chew on this BiteSize Stories About Nutrition,
which is available on AmazonKindle version right now.
Hopefully, paperback will bedistributed by Amazon soon.
Dr Brooke Basard, akaSuperwoman, I hope you don't
(02:40):
mind me naming you that.
Welcome to the show.
We are so excited to have youjoin us.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh, thanks, Vesame.
Thank you, Daphne, for havingme today.
I appreciate the opportunity tospend some time with you guys.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Dr Basard, we appreciate your time.
It's funny because, after I'veheard of you for a long time
through Food for Life and thenwas able to briefly touch base
with you at the Fairfax VegFest,but after having an opportunity
to converse with you by emailand then thank you for hosting
(03:17):
and inviting me to the let'sBeat Breast Cancer Fundraiser, I
feel like our paths are sosimilar.
I would love if you could sharea little bit about your vegan
journey, about your journey as aphysician and health coach, and
how you have arrived at thispoint in your life, being able
(03:39):
to impact so many people.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, I guess it starts with the path to becoming
a physician, because at thatpoint I knew nothing about the
world of plant-based eating,about what a vegan was.
I don't even think I couldprobably pronounce vegan at the
time.
This was back in the 90s, whenit was extremely fringe to be
(04:05):
eating that way.
I went to med school, like mostaspiring doctors do, in order
to help people.
Help people feel well and feelgood.
I've always loved the humanbody.
I really enjoyed anatomy laband physiology.
Those first two years of medschool as you know Daphne are
(04:27):
spent in lectures and labs,which are awesome.
You learn so much.
Then you transition in thatthird and fourth year to seeing
patients.
It was great to see thepatients listen to their history
, think about their symptoms andthinking about what you could
do to help those symptoms.
(04:48):
Typically, that was done with aprescription pad.
We were not getting to the rootcause of the problem.
Each time the patients wouldcome back to clinic it was like
how are you doing?
Are you taking your meds?
Has the disease progressed anyfurther or have we halted it?
We never even thought aboutreversing disease.
(05:11):
We were just trying to managethe symptoms and help people
deal with this diagnosis thatthey had.
I guess during that time Istarted to have my own GI issues
.
I would pretty much have bellypain every day, along with
(05:32):
bloating and constipation, andyears past I kept thinking how
do people live like this?
This is crazy.
I don't understand why my bellyhurts so bad.
I went to see GI specialistspeople that I knew and nobody
had an answer.
It was like well, takemetamucil or oh, do you want to
(05:53):
be in this clinical trial forthis new drug and you can call
in every day and report yoursymptoms?
I thought, no, I really don'twant to do that.
I was talking to mysister-in-law one day,
frustrated as one could be, andshe said Brooke, do you think it
might be something that you'reeating?
That seems so ridiculous nowthat I didn't consider that at
(06:19):
the time At least I didn'tconsider it in the way that I do
now and the bottom line is thatdairy products and various food
additives, along with a lack ofnutrient dense foods,
essentially was the problem.
I had a dysbiosis, I had animbalance of gut bacteria, my GI
(06:45):
tract was not healthy, itcouldn't function the way that
it was supposed to, and that waslife-changing, absolutely
life-changing, something thatpeople really don't think you
know is that impactful.
But having belly pain every dayor having bloating and
constipation every day, I meanit really affects the quality of
(07:06):
your life.
And so while I was learningabout the impact of food on
health, of course I started tostumble upon you know
Esselstyn's work, dr Barnard'swork, you know Dr Ornish's work,
and learning about the impactof food on cardiovascular
(07:27):
disease, diabetes, obesity, in away that we hadn't really
thought about it before.
You know, it was so eye-opening.
These were things that you donot learn in medical school and
I thought, oh my gosh, I have tototally shift gears and try to
get this information out to theworld.
(07:49):
And so I left medicine, became ahealth coach, did a lot of, and
still do.
I love to talk to groups, givepresentations, teach classes.
So I teach classes in variouscolleges throughout the
Baltimore area and, yeah, andthen I just you know I get a lot
(08:13):
of clients from my classes,from speaking engagements and
then word of mouth, and peoplecome to me because you know
they've heard from their doctorthat you know, all of a sudden
they've developed prediabetes ordiabetes or they've got heart
disease to the point where youknow people want to do surgery
but they don't want surgery andthey come to me and you know
(08:36):
eating the right foods changeseverything.
It really it really does.
And so that's really been mypath and you know as circuitous
as it was.
I think you know it's endedwell, like I learned a lot,
where I needed to learn a lot,but then I moved on from there
(08:59):
and I can use all of myknowledge of, you know,
physiology and pathophysiologyto apply, you know the
principles of plant-basednutrition to health and at the
same time, talk to my clients,doctors, when they need to, you
know, start to lower theirmedications and, you know, be
(09:20):
cognizant of, you know watchingtheir blood pressure, because
all of those things will startto change as they get healthier
by eating more plants.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You are where you were meant to be.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yes, that's right.
So, yeah, that's an amazingjourney.
I think that that resonates somuch with also me too, and so
many of our viewers.
I also know that you have afantastic website, which I was
pulling a lot of recipes off oflast night, primarily the black
(09:56):
bean brownie one.
It's called Plants Over Animals.
I just want to know what wasyour intention of starting your
website and what do you hope?
What messaging do you hope yourviewers and followers get out
of the website?
And I think you could subscribeto a newsletter too.
We could talk about that too.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Totally so.
On that homepage you cansubscribe to the newsletter and
you know I just send out updates, usually about once a month.
But as you see from this screencapture, the resource section
is really why I put the websitetogether to give people more
information, because usuallyjust after one conversation
(10:39):
their interest might be peaked.
But you know they certainlyhaven't learned what they need
to learn.
It takes a long time, you know,to really start digging into
the information.
You've got to get over thehurdles of the things that you
learned in the past, the mythsthat might be stuck in your head
, and so a lot of times when Italk to somebody, I'm talking to
(11:03):
them from a health perspective,but I might be talking to them
from an environmentalperspective, about the impact of
eating plants, and for somepeople they love to learn about
the animal aspect.
So Plants Over Animals coversall three big reasons why you
might want to choose plants overanimals when you are making
(11:25):
your meals, and so that's why Iput the website together.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
We have a beautiful earth and these countries that I
visited over the summer.
It's just breathtaking viewsand I think that you know I have
a new outlook on you know why?
Why not?
There's a different reason, notjust for our own health, which
I think a lot of us in ourculture is well.
What's in it?
For me, it's our health,obviously, but also there's such
(11:54):
a longer term impact across theentire world, and when you go
and visit some of thesecountries and the beauty of our
land, it's just even within ourcountry.
You know it's so important forus to not forget that as well.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But I think the problem is we don't always I
mean, it took me 40 years toreally understand where the food
on my plate was coming from.
It was never taught.
It really.
In fact, I would say it was acognitive dissonance between
what we're doing to animals,what we're doing to the planet
and what I'm putting in my bodyevery day.
(12:29):
So you know, berkeley websiteis so comprehensive.
It's one place where people cango to whatever may be initially
driving them into plant-basednutrition, and for me it was
health related after seeing gamechangers.
But then it opened up thiswhole Pandora's box to Vesemme's
(12:51):
point that, oh my gosh, Ireally did not understand all of
the other implications ofeating the chicken and the beef.
And, yeah, it was eye-opening.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I think and it helps you sort of, you know, not that
you need to justify, but ithelps support your decision when
you know that it's also helpingin these other ways.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Mm-hmm, and you know talking about helping in other
ways, what?
So?
I know I have many otherfriends who've written books,
Some who say they'll never do itagain, Others who say it was
wonderful.
What was the impetus for you towrite two on this, and can you
tell us a little bit about thebook and what was the passion
(13:38):
that made you realize that youneeded to be able to tell this
narrative in a way that wasdigestible for anyone?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
So I would say there were probably about you know,
four or five years where peoplestarted to ask me when are you
gonna write a book?
And I think it's just because Ihave a way of presenting
information I'm a little bit,you know, quirky and silly, I
think and I think that probablycomes across in the book A way
of presenting information thatyou know people find interesting
(14:11):
.
And so I thought, you know, Ithink I'm ready.
This was what was it.
It's been a little over a year,maybe a year and a half, since
I started writing.
Yeah, it was in April of lastyear that I started writing,
chew on this and, yeah, all of asudden it just hit me.
I thought I think I really I'mready to write a book.
(14:33):
And when I started, I mean itjust poured out of me.
It was so much fun, I had somuch fun writing this book and
creating these characters andcreating stories in order to
convey the information.
I felt like there's so manygood nutrition books out there
and I love to just sit down with, you know, a book by Dr Gregor
(14:57):
or Dr Barnard, or you know allthe people who have written such
good books, but so many of myfriends, family, clients,
students.
They said, brooke, it's justtoo dense, I can't do it, I
can't sit down and read it.
It's not, you know, it's notsomething that's easy for me to
(15:19):
do.
So I thought, okay, I'm gonnawrite something that's totally
different, you know, and see ifI can help those people have a
book that they can read to getthe information in just a
totally different way.
And so that's how Chew on thiscame about.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I loved it.
I found it very colorful andplayful and the messages really
resonated.
I you kept my attention readingthis book, which is hard, like
you said.
He called it dense, it's justdry.
It's a lot of I mean.
You know, I would need a booklike that to be converted into a
TV show.
So I was like, keep myattention really.
(15:58):
But your book Chew on this wasvery playful.
I thought with the characters,with the dialogue between the
characters, with reallydebunking those myths that you
were talking about, because Ithink it's so hard, and one of
them I will mention was theinflammation chapter that you
wrote because I was like, wait asecond, you know how we could
(16:21):
talk about it just for onesecond.
Because you know I, as a lot ofour listeners may know, I have
three boys, are very active,they play soccer primarily and
they get.
If they get injured, it's animmediate.
Let's get some ice on it and inyour book say don't, you, don't
.
That's your body's response totrying to heal the inflammation
that you have, and inflammationis coming from your blood
(16:43):
vessels just trying to healitself and so you're just
delaying the process if you putice on it and I just thought,
wow, I would have.
Honestly, I could have read amedical book 10 times, read the
similar words or content, and itdidn't.
It wouldn't have resonated withme, but your book absolutely
did, and I know that lots, a lotof our health is.
(17:07):
You know, like you had the gut,your gut health was, your
microbiome was off kilter and soinflammation was probably key.
And there's other components ofthese chronic conditions that
we deal with where you know,inflammation is a primary
component.
What, what are three?
That was so.
That was one of the messagesthat came across for me, but
(17:28):
what are some of the three keymessages you hope your readers
take away from your book?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Three key messages of well, we could, we could.
I'm sure there's more thanthree, I'm sure there's more
than three, but let's, let'sthink of three.
I like three is a great number.
Yeah, well, I would say.
I mean, the first one is justto eat more plants.
Yeah, and you know, I think theeasiest way for me to help
people do that is just to havethem take their normal foods,
(17:56):
their normal meals, and start tocrowd things out that aren't
made from plants and put moreplants in.
And I think fajitas are a greatexample.
So if somebody's got, you know,a chicken or a beef fajita, why
not have smaller and smallerportions of the meat?
(18:17):
Start to add more and more ofthe veggies, whether it's, you
know, peppers or onions or corn.
Start to add some beans in,because we know how helpful you
know all the legumes are, andstart to crowd out those
animal-based products untileventually you're like I don't
really need that anymore, mm-hmm, and that way it doesn't feel
(18:41):
like you're starting all over.
You take things that you knowand you start to make them more
and more plant heavy until theyjust become, you know, a totally
plant-based meal.
So I think eating more plantsis probably the number one
message.
The next message would be that Ithink that the chapter I can't
(19:05):
remember which chapter it isright now but DNA is not destiny
.
Yes, I think a lot of peopleget tied to blaming their DNA
for their situation.
So they might say obesity runsin my family, diabetes runs in
my family, heart disease runs inmy family, and I think it's
important to remember that allof those families, they share
(19:28):
the same pantry, they share thesame refrigerator, they share
meals, and so you know, try adifferent meal and see if you
can change your health outcome,because we well know now that
that's a very effective approachto dealing with things, because
we can turn our genes on andoff with our food choices,
(19:51):
mm-hmm.
So I think eating plants, yourDNA, is not your destiny.
And probably another good oneis just that that you should
play the long game.
Like, don't expect that you canreverse your diseases in a
(20:15):
short period of time.
You know a week or two, becauseit didn't take a week or two
for them to develop Exactly.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
There's an Amazon Prime meme sorry to interrupt
you that says you know your bodyis not Amazon Prime, like it'll
take more than two days for youto change your body.
I mean, it didn't take you twodays to get to where you are
right.
So give yourself some grace andsome time.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yeah, and you know there's just there's so much
noise out there that you need tocut through.
There's a learning curve youneed to be on and you know
you're not always gonna have thebest choices available, correct
.
So I like to tell peopleconsider it as a spectrum and
you've got good, better, best.
You know you wanna avoid thingsthat are, you know, health
(21:05):
hindering, that you know, weknow are damaging to the body.
But then you know, as long asyou're somewhere on a spectrum,
so you know if you have to, youknow choose white pasta or white
rice over.
You know the whole grain version, you know that's okay, you know
, that might be the situationthat you're in or what you
prefer right now in your journeyto becoming a more whole food
(21:29):
eater.
So I think I think Beth's mywere you the one who said grace.
I think that's a nice yes.
Yeah, give yourself some graceas you make the transition.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah, and I'd also loved your carbohydrate section
of the book.
Anyway, I think for all of ourviewers and listeners,
definitely grab a copy of thebook because it had great
messaging, like I said.
I mean it's debunking the mythsin a very playful way, right?
So the carbohydrates I thinkthat was my biggest thing as I
was going, and Daphne is likecarbohydrates aren't bad,
(22:00):
vesemay, and I'm like really,are you sure?
Because I was told, cut themout at night, cut them out at
night so you could get cut thatmore.
You know more lean.
And it's true, you know it's.
And then one other thing I'm sosorry I'm not going to give all
the secrets of your book, Ipromise, but it was the
saturated fats in meat and howyou can see the marbling in red
(22:25):
meat, but you don't see thatsaturated fat marbling in
chicken, and so everybody thinkshow chicken is so lean for you?
And it's like no, becauseyou're not really seeing all of
what's in it, right?
So I found that veryinteresting.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, they're the same color.
You know, when things are thesame color they hide pretty well
.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
It's one of the five, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Inbrik, we want to talk a little bit about your
Quick Cooks apps and I want toshare your how to Go Vegan
website.
But before we go there, I justwant to go back to the fact that
your DNA is not your destiny,because we all, you know, one of
the things that Vesame and Ihave spent a lot of time talking
about is community healthequity the fact that there are.
(23:15):
There has to be amulti-generational change.
So families pass on food, passon behaviors, lifestyles and
looking at all of the pillars oflifestyle medicine the
nutrition, the exercise Can youjust touch on?
We focus a lot on perfectlyplanted on nutrition, but our
(23:39):
four pillars are actuallyaligned with the pillars of
lifestyle medicine.
Can you touch on how those alsoimpact your ability to prevent,
reverse or manage disease?
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Sure, sure, yeah, I think you know, starting with a
mindset of being prepared.
I think being prepared andhaving a plan and knowing you
know what your meals are gonnabe, what your movement's gonna
be, what your sleep habits looklike, you know when you're gonna
(24:12):
, you know interact with familyfriends, you know be social like
sort of having anall-encompassing sort of routine
set into your days really helpsto make that more automatic,
because we wanna decrease theamount of decisions that we make
(24:33):
every day.
I'm sure most of probably yourviewers, have heard of decision
fatigue.
So we want to make sure thatyou know we create habits and
routines and that they becomeautomatic and that's really how
we, you know, live ourhealthiest lives.
So for my clients, as far asplanning, I like for them to put
(25:00):
together a menu.
You know what their meals aregonna look like for the week and
usually it's just dinner andthen you can use that same meal
plan every week or have two orthree that you rotate through,
you know, each month, and Ithink that's really helpful
(25:20):
because it reduces anxiety whenyou already know what you're
gonna have for dinner and thenjust making sure that your
pantry, your fridge, yourfreezer are stocked with good,
healthy foods that are your sortof go-tos.
That also is gonna, you know,reduce anxiety, decrease your
stress, and you're gonna bemaking healthy choices.
(25:41):
So it's all gonna start to, youknow, build on itself and you
know it becomes, you know just,it's so empowering once you get
the hang of it and you're likeI've got this and you know these
are my choices.
They make me feel great.
You know I'm reversing mydisease processes.
(26:03):
I'm, you know, getting healthyit's and then building movement
into your day.
So, knowing that you're eithergonna get up and do, you know,
20 minutes of yoga before youstart your day, or your day is
jam-packed and you know yourVesemay and you're gonna walk
(26:23):
around the soccer field whileyour kids are at practice, you
know Like you've got a plan forhow you're gonna move at some
point in your day and thenyou're gonna get to sleep on
time.
You're going to have a bedtimeand a wake time that are very
routine, because when you shiftthose it typically throws people
(26:46):
off and it's not as restorativeas you would hope.
So you know, having a setbedtime, a set wake time and if
you know that things are gonnachange, adjust the other end
accordingly.
So if you know you've gotta getup early to go to a soccer
tournament, you know over theweekend you're gonna go to bed a
little bit earlier than nightbefore and try to really carve
(27:09):
that into your schedule.
So I think planning is one ofmy key mindsets for people that
is very helpful for you know,really allowing all of the
pillars of lifestyle medicine tocome together.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So I am very interested what does a day in
the life of Dr Brooke Basardlook like for you and primarily
what you know?
I'm sure you get each one ofthose, the pillars in.
So your activity, your movement, your you know meal preps or
(27:50):
whatever it may be in, butreally interested to see when it
comes to, like nutrition, thatphysical activity, your sleep,
how do you reduce your stressspecifically, Well, I would say,
once everything else has diedin, the stress really comes down
, like I feel like, since I'vebeen plant based.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
I have been so much less stressed than before, and
maybe that's partly because Ilove what I'm doing now and I
feel like it's so effective andthe people that I see every day
are so happy because they'regetting healthier.
So you know it all sort of.
You know feeds on it, so youknow feeds on itself.
But I would say you know mybody pretty much wakes up at the
(28:37):
same time every day withouteven setting an alarm, and so
usually you know I'm up, usuallyyou know between 5.30 and 6.
, and I love oats.
So usually for breakfast it'seither overnight oats or I'm
making oats or I'm makinggranola out of oats, something
like that.
(28:58):
And then movement.
I do like to get movement inearlier in the day when possible
.
I feel like my body feelsbetter when.
I moved earlier, and sometimesit's just, you know, a 20 minute
sort of yoga, stretch, kind ofmovement.
Sometimes it's a walk with mydog, you know.
(29:21):
Sometimes it's a strengthtraining session.
Try to do that, you know, atleast two, if not three, times a
week, because we all know howimportant it is to maintain our
muscle mass as we age.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Good for so many things, including our bone
health and, you know, ourendocrine health from a diabetes
standpoint.
But let's see some movement.
And then lunchtime is oftenleftovers from the fridge, from
a prior night's dinner, if not alot of times.
(29:54):
I'll just make a veggiesandwich or avocado toast,
something like that.
And then let's see, theafternoons are pretty busy
between seeing clients andgetting my kids where they need
to go.
My youngest son he's got hislearner's permit but he's not
(30:16):
driving yet, so I still havedriving duties in the afternoons
.
But then the evenings we alwayseat family dinner together,
which has been shown to be greatfor everyone not just the kids,
but for the adults too.
It's a great way to connect andsocialize with your family.
(30:39):
So for dinners, we do a lot of,I would say, Tex-Mex.
We do flatbread, we do lentils.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Is everybody plant-based in your family, like
your boys?
Yes, okay.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah, so that has been great, because I do know
that when I work with clientsand they are solo on this
journey, it is so much harder.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
It is, it's so much harder.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
But I think when I went through the process of
learning about plant-based mealsand just the effect of eating
plants on our health, I reallyjust said to the family I can't
feed you anything other thanplants at this point.
Like it doesn't resonate withme to do that and I'm just gonna
(31:32):
have to ask you to bear with me.
You'll make it to the otherside, and they did very quickly.
I mean, there was really nopushback and we transitioned
over.
It was probably over the courseof a year or so, because I was
in the learning process.
So I was learning about meat andthen I was learning about fish,
(31:53):
and then I was learning abouteggs, and then I was learning
about cheese and dairy.
And I would just tell them andthey were young at the time,
they were seven and 10, when Itransitioned them to a
plant-based diet Wow, okay, yeah, but they were very
understanding and I just said,okay, so, boys, here's what I
(32:14):
learned about milk today, andthis is why I can't bring dairy
products into the house anymoreand they were like oh okay, mom,
I would say there are very fewmembers, even of my extended
family, who aren't totallyplant-based at this point.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, that's fantastic, yeah, so that's all
you know, hats off to you,because that's to be able to.
I get a lot of pushback, andnot specific to my family, but
it's like you know, it's soingrained in our culture and our
lifestyle.
It's where the first questionout of everyone's mouth is well,
(32:57):
how do you get your protein?
And I know you talk about thatin your book as well.
It's the first questioneverybody asks.
You know it's like, oh mygoodness.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Fesame, that's why it's chapter one.
Yeah, plant-based protein too.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
you know Like hello, let's talk about that yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
But, Fesame, I know we were talking last night about
the fact that you're alreadypulling together some of Dr
Bessard's recipes and Dr Bessardjust wanted to you to share a
little bit about your QuickCooks app.
And then I think Fesame has afood question.
She wants to ask you if youhave a few more minutes.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Sure, sure.
So Quick Cooks is an app that Icreated maybe three or four
years ago now in response to.
I was teaching a few classesfor like senior learning with a
community college out in CarrollCounty and I had a fair number
(33:58):
of people in the class who werewidows and they were just not
excited about making meals forthemselves.
And then at the same time I hadanother group that were college
students and they were likewell, we don't have access to
much in a kitchen or tools orplaces to store a lot of
(34:20):
ingredients or spices.
So I thought I'm gonna puttogether an app where people can
literally go in, pick what kindof meal they want whether it's
breakfast or dinner, or justmake smoothies or soup or
whatever and then they just pickone appliance whether it's the
(34:41):
microwave, the stove, the slowcooker, the pressure cooker you
choose one appliance might bethe blender and you can make
your own food and you can makeyour meal with just a few
ingredients with that oneappliance and you're done.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
I love that.
That's perfect.
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So that's how Quick Cooks came about, and I use
Quick Cooks still all the time,like I'll have a night where I
thought, oh gosh, I did not plananything or I thought I was
gonna have leftovers last night,but everybody ate all of it,
yeah, so I'll just pull up QuickCooks and make the three bean
(35:23):
chili or Tex-Mex bowl or theloaded sweet potatoes or
whatever it is, and they'resuper simple and I've got
granola recipes on there, soit's great at breakfast and at
dinner and I think it's just areal easy resource for people
and it's free, so that's alwaysgood.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I will be downloading that today and on my kids'
phones as well, so they can bemore self-sufficient, especially
during the summer months.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
I think that's a great idea, because teaching
kids how to cook is definitely adeficit in our society, and
it's not the unhealthy like puta breakfast sandwich in the
microwave.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
It's a let's get you the healthy thing to eat.
That's quick, Right, Betterchoices, Okay.
So my question to you is what?
You have a ton of amazingrecipes on your website and we
will post all of this in ourshow notes and also on our blog,
but what are the top three?
We'll stick with three again.
(36:23):
What's the top three recipesthat you either is your favorite
or that you tend to makefrequently?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Okay, well, just before we got on this call today
on the podcast, I had just madebreakfast cookies and I would
say breakfast cookies have beenthe most popular recipe on my
website forever.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Okay, no good.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
When people make them , they hear about it.
Yeah, they're so good.
I often quadruple the batch.
Oh yeah, I make 48 at a timeand I just stock them in the
fridge and the family just eatsthem, either for breakfast or
snack, for dessert, whatever itis.
They're delicious, they'rehealthy, they're easy.
(37:10):
You can freeze them.
So if you make a big batch butyou're like, oh, we're not gonna
eat all these in time, I justfreeze them.
I don't leave them on thecounter for too long because
they're so delicious thatbacteria like them as well.
Okay, so keep them in thefridge.
(37:30):
In the fridge, got it?
Yeah, if you have stuff that'shighly processed, it can stay on
the counter longer.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, for months, For months.
I remember we came back fromour trip a month and I was like,
wow, this doesn't have anybacteria on it and I'm like it
should go in the trash.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Exactly Gary, yes, okay.
So then, as far as dinnerrecipes, I would say the kidney
bean quinoa burgers are one ofmy favorite.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Again, you can make a large batch, you can put them
in the fridge and you can eithereat them for dinner and put
them on a bun and put yourcondiments on slices of fresh
tomatoes and romaine lettuce.
But sometimes you will just seeme walk through the kitchen,
reach into the fridge, grab akidney bean quinoa burger and
(38:26):
just eat.
Yeah, yeah, they're deliciouswhen they're cold.
I love them and they're prettyeasy to make.
Okay, and then a third.
I would say the lentil mushroomtaco meat.
So we'll go back on your dinnerone more time, although, okay,
we're gonna have to do four,because I do realize that we
(38:48):
definitely need to point out butlentil mushroom taco meat.
When I have guests over whoaren't plant-based and I make a
taco bar that could be eithertacos or burritos or whatever, I
make this lentil mushroom tacomeat and it's it, you know, is
the substitute for ground beefand it is delicious.
(39:11):
It's so delicious.
Sometimes I throw in walnutsalso just to give it a little
extra crumble.
Yeah, on the website I had thelentil mushroom taco meat,
because when I'm really helpingpeople try to reverse obesity
and diabetes, I try to get a lotof fat out of their diet just
while we're getting fat out oftheir cells.
(39:34):
But you know, once you reachyour optimal, you know healthy
weight for your body, then Ithink you know you have more
leeway for you know addingthings like walnuts back in.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, I love this.
It has no oil in it.
No, it's delicious too, it'svery easy.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
So easy.
Okay, so we got to go to thedessert section.
Right, can't forget dessert,can't?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
forget dessert.
Everybody likes a good dessert,I mean the breakfast cookies
were really breakfast, notcookies, so we got to go to
dessert.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
But honestly, you could eat these desserts for
breakfast too, because you know,like the black bean brownie.
That's what I'm making, and youknow who doesn't want to get
their legumes in in the morning.
Right, that's right.
So you could eat those forbreakfast.
But I would say we don't wantto overlook the flourless
(40:29):
chocolate chip chickpea blondies.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
So I made these.
One time I had a client who Iwas going over to his house
every Sunday for two to threehours and we would do meal prep
for the week.
Like I really didn't even knowhow to cook, so I was teaching
him how to cook and we weredoing the meal prep, and you
know, it was breakfast, lunchand dinner.
We were stocking his fridge,and so one day I brought over
(40:54):
these flourless chocolate,chocolate chip, chickpea,
brownies or blondies and I justput them on the counter and you
know, it was probably aroundnoon time.
I was getting ready to leave anda son came down who was in high
school.
He's like, oh, what's this?
And I was like, oh, just someblondies I made.
And so he started eating him.
He ate that half of the pan andthen he went on his way
(41:15):
wherever he was headed and hisdad goes.
Don't ever tell him those which, because that's why I'm gonna
get him to eat, you know, youknow chickpeas.
Now I was like, okay, I'll dothat, that's great.
So, yeah, so those are some ofmy favorites, but I'm making my
(41:36):
grocery list.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
I'll be in the kitchen today, if you want to
find me.
I'll be All this delicious food.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
The amazing thing is most of these items people have
in their pantry.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yes absolutely.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Can of black beans, a can of lentils, a can of
chickpeas, I think.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
I just need to pick up some dates.
I think that was the one,because I already checked out
the website.
So we've gone through.
You have a lot going on, brooke.
We have the Quick Oats app.
That's for quick, easy one.
It could be a microwave, ablender, whatever where people
could use that, so that's a freeapp.
Go to the App Store Quick Oatsapp.
(42:14):
Then there's also your QuickCooks Sorry about that Quick
Cooks app and then there's awebsite how to go, vegan website
, your main website, plants overanimals.
And then the book.
Chew on this.
You are a busy lady.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Brooke, as we wrap up today, perfectly planted.
One of the our tagline is deedsof positivity and empowerment.
Would.
Is there anything positive andempowering that you would like
to share with our audiencewatching or listening today?
Speaker 3 (42:54):
There are so many things that are positive and
empowering.
Yes, I would say.
I would say the most empoweringthing to know about
transitioning to a plant-baseddiet is that it's never too late
.
Some people think, oh, I'm inmy 50s, I'm in my 60s, I'm in my
70s, you know it's too late.
(43:15):
Like I should have started thiswhen I was much younger.
The change is remarkable.
The body's ability to heal isso remarkable.
It does not take very long.
Just have a little bit ofpatience.
Give yourself.
I mean, if you give yourself 90days, you will be amazed by the
difference.
I mean, within a week or twoyou'll start to feel different.
(43:38):
But if you're trying to reversedisease, you know it really
doesn't take.
You know very long at allcompared to.
You know the amount of time ittook to get there.
Exactly.
It's possible and you will feelso amazing and you will feel so
in control.
You won't feel dependent on aprescription pad and somebody to
(44:03):
fill out that prescription pad.
Like you can make these choices.
You don't need anybody'spermission.
You can just go out there andyou know, choose healthy foods
and change your life.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Drop the mic, choose healthy foods and change your
life.
That's as it all.
Well, dr Prasar, thank you somuch for joining us on Perfectly
Planted.
It's the problem that we haveis actually not we could go
through every single chapter.
We enjoyed your book that muchand I definitely encourage
(44:39):
anyone listening or watchingtoday to go out to Amazon.
You can get the Kindle versionnow.
The paperback copy will becoming soon and this book is
something that you can share itwith your teenagers, with family
, friends.
It is so easy to read and allof the points are so digestible
(44:59):
that I would digestible in food.
That pun intended and notintended that I would encourage
you to go out and pick up a copyand to share the learnings with
anyone who may listen.
Super, thank you.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Thank you both so much.
It was great talking to youtoday.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
And I also want to thank everyone listening and
watching today.
We appreciate you.
If you're new to PerfectlyPlanted, we hope you'll come
back and listen on a futureepisode.
And if you are enjoying SundaySeedlings, please feel free to
like, subscribe, turn on thatbell so that you can get
notifications when we'll behosting another live stream or
(45:40):
posting another recording.
And if you like our channel,please like or subscribe to us
on YouTube.
We hope to hear from you on ourblog.
Please know that you are caredfor, you are appreciated and we
hope that you are able to take afew seedlings away and apply
them to reaching your optimalhealth.
(46:01):
Take care and we'll talk to yousoon.
Bye, bye.
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