January 18, 2025 • 36 mins
Love the Foods That Love the Planet features tantalizing low carbon dishes to help meet the urgent climate challenge.
What we eat and how we produce it matters. We know our world is careening toward warming tipping points beyond which recovery may not be possible. Shifting the food supply away from animals to plants as much as possible can drastically lower greenhouse gases and buy us the time we need to prevent irreversible harm and devastating outcomes. A plant-based diet also prolongs life, vitality, strengthens immunity, and gains protection from chronic illness and infectious disease. A healthy body and a healthy planet are linked.
We all have more agency than we think when it comes to climate change. Our food choices influence our social and family circles, which in turn collectively drive consumer demand and market response. For those who are concerned with the pressing climate crisis and who want to mitigate the growing threats of extreme weather, wildfires, loss of biodiversity, and food insecurity, Cathy Katin-Grazzini has carefully created and compiled a delicious medley of powerful plant-based recipes that help revitalize the health of our environment and our bodies.
Love the Foods That Love the Planet is loaded with recipes that are packed with climate challenge insights, featuring both creative and traditional cuisine from around the world, and accompanied by eye popping photography by Giordano Katin-Grazzini. These recipes range from simple and quick for weekday suppers to special and celebratory for weekends and entertaining and all of them help save the planet. For all who are environmentally conscious and want to bring a mindful approach to their diet but don’t want to skimp on taste, Love the Foods That Love the Planet provides an active solution for home cooks—from the newbie to the most experienced chef. Help is here, in this climate friendly cookbook.
What we eat and how we produce it matters. We know our world is careening toward warming tipping points beyond which recovery may not be possible. Shifting the food supply away from animals to plants as much as possible can drastically lower greenhouse gases and buy us the time we need to prevent irreversible harm and devastating outcomes. A plant-based diet also prolongs life, vitality, strengthens immunity, and gains protection from chronic illness and infectious disease. A healthy body and a healthy planet are linked.
We all have more agency than we think when it comes to climate change. Our food choices influence our social and family circles, which in turn collectively drive consumer demand and market response. For those who are concerned with the pressing climate crisis and who want to mitigate the growing threats of extreme weather, wildfires, loss of biodiversity, and food insecurity, Cathy Katin-Grazzini has carefully created and compiled a delicious medley of powerful plant-based recipes that help revitalize the health of our environment and our bodies.
Love the Foods That Love the Planet is loaded with recipes that are packed with climate challenge insights, featuring both creative and traditional cuisine from around the world, and accompanied by eye popping photography by Giordano Katin-Grazzini. These recipes range from simple and quick for weekday suppers to special and celebratory for weekends and entertaining and all of them help save the planet. For all who are environmentally conscious and want to bring a mindful approach to their diet but don’t want to skimp on taste, Love the Foods That Love the Planet provides an active solution for home cooks—from the newbie to the most experienced chef. Help is here, in this climate friendly cookbook.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to this edition of The
Best Ever You Show. I'm your host Elizabeth Hamilton Garino
and with me is guest Kathy Katon Kratzini. Kathy is
a new author with HCI and she is the author
of the book Love the Foods That Love the Planet.
She also has another book, which we'll talk about in
a little bit, but for now we're going to focus
on Love the Foods That Love the Planet. Welcome to
(00:28):
the Best Ever You Show. Kathy.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you so much, Elizabeth, love being here.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, it's great to have you here. So you you
have another book, Just so everybody knows this is this
is a little bit of a series going on that
I spy here. But Love the Foods That Love You back,
that's your first book, and so now we have Love
the Foods That Love the Planet. The difference between the.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Two, well, you know, the first book has more of
a health focus. It's all about eating to you know,
maximize our health and our well being. And it's you know,
chock full of wonderful plant based recipes that really lower
inflammation in the body and and you know, revamp your
(01:12):
your gut microbiome and do all sorts of wonderful things
to just enhance our health, protect us from chronic illnesses,
help us lose weight, the whole gamut. And that was
the first book. Uh, the new book, which was just
had a couple of months ago, Love the Foods That
Love the Planet, has an environmental focus because that's become
(01:33):
a you know, I'm a sustainable chef and and I've
just been over the last several years to you know,
gone really deep on eating for the planet because you know, gosh,
you know, the world that we're living in is spinning
out of control environmentally, and people don't realize how easy
and how delicious and how fun it is to just
(01:55):
shift our eating patterns a little bit in the right
direction to really helped lower greenhouse gas emissions. It's so
easy to do. And when I was, you know, doing
my research for the book, I was just so blown
away by what I was learning. I really wanted to
share this with people because when it comes to the climate.
I don't know if you have found this, but when
(02:17):
I talk to people about climate change or the planet,
you know, either people glaze over because they're so overwhelmed
and they feel the problem is so enormous, and they
feel so powerless they kind of disengage. And actually, there's
so much that we can do so easily, starting with
our forks, that people don't realize how impactful it could be.
(02:41):
So I wanted to, you know, bring hope to people
and show them a way forward that can be so
beneficial to our health, to our planetary health, and to
wildlife as well.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
You know, I love this book. I have a copy
of it. And when it was here, and say when
it was here, and I'll explain that in a minute.
When I was here at home with me, I was
I was thumbing through it. I'm like, this is a
really good book. It's hardcover, it's got great pictures, it's
it's just really a thoughtful, thoughtful book to help to
help us all do our best to help the planet
(03:16):
and so forth. But what was interesting about it also
is that I so I have four boys. The people
listening might know that. They're twenty three, twenty five, twenty seven,
and twenty nine, and each of them picked it up,
looked at it. They're like, oh, this is a cool book, Mom,
who's this blah blah blah, And then one of them
took it with them and his fiance took it, and
they're like, this is mine and so and he's a
he has a master's degree in environmental science from New
(03:40):
Haven by by you there in Connecticut, and so is
that who you wanted to appeal to.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, I am greatly flattered that he took the book,
especially you know, with the background that he has. That's
that's the biggest compliment I could get. So that that's
very gratifying. But I actually this for every man, every woman,
you know, just the average person. That's you know, we're
so consumed with life's issues and problems and just getting
(04:09):
by and and you know, our communities, our kids and
all the rest of it. We're pretty disengaged by you know,
from from the planet and what's going you know, all
that's going on with climate change. It comes up in
the media whenever you have, you know, a crisis like
what's going on in La right now with the fires
it's just devastating, or or the hurricanes and tropical storms
(04:32):
just a couple of months ago in Florida and North
Carolina and so forth. You know, there are moments when
it there are our crazy media cycle, you know, will
just bring it front and center. But for the most part.
It's it's in the background, and so I wanted to
write for everybody because it's really going to be up
to us at this point to really save our poorer planet.
(04:57):
It's it's just not happening quickly enough with our political leadership,
and you know, internationally, domestically, we've been you know, hacking
away at it. There's new technology coming, things are evolving,
but we're we're burning more fossil fuels than ever before.
You know, last year and this year broke all records,
(05:19):
and the climate. You know, if you looked at the
graphs in the book and online, you know, you would
see that the temperatures are just spiraling out of control,
which is why we're having such a dramatic weather events
and fires and all the rest of it. So so
I wanted to empower all of us because this is
this is a planetary issue, this is a global, you know,
(05:41):
every person sort of issue. It's all hands on deck
to to sort of give people the tools that they
need to so easily you know, make a difference. So
that's who I wrote it for.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well, if you're just joining us, we are speaking with Kathy.
Now I'm going to mess it up. Kathy catch on.
I can say Kathy. I can't say that.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I'll say it.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
There, you go for it.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's a mouthful. So my last name, we stuck our
two names together, which is why it's it's a stumbling block.
It's Katine, Kathy, Katon Gretzini.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I needed a refresher there. Oh boy, So we're just
going to call you Kathy the whole time. But you're
a pa based chef, Yeah, a plant based chef, a
recipe developer, and author of two books. The first one
is Love the Foods That Love You Back, and then
this other one is called I'm going to read the
whole thing here, Love the Foods That Love the Planet.
(06:41):
Recipes to cool the climate and excite the senses. Now,
one of the things that you talk about here is
helping the planet by helping yourself to plant based recipes,
and you help us by understanding what to eat, knowing
how it's produced and its impact on our planet. That
is really interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, it's you know, people don't realize that the food sector.
You know, it's something that's just not talked about nearly
as much we talk about electricity and you know, and
motor vehicles and all the rest of it. But the
food sector generates over a third of total greenhouse gas emissions,
and three quarters of those well not quite three quarters,
(07:23):
you know, a little less than that is generated by animals,
livestock and all the feed crops that are grown to
feed them. So it has an enormous impact on It's
not just animal agriculture that's the main culprit here that's
driving greenhouse gas emissions and food, but it's a big,
(07:47):
big piece of it. There are a couple of other
commodities that are way up there, like I'm sorry to say,
like chocolate and coffee that are just grown so unsustainably
they have major greenhouse gas effects as well. But most
of the time, you know, when you're eating for the planet,
you're eating the way our great grandparents eat. Frankly, you know,
(08:08):
if you just turn back the clock a little bit,
you're eating the fruits of the earth, the simple produce
that grows out of the land, you know, the whole grains,
the legoons, the vegetables, the fruits and nuts and seeds
and that kind of thing. Because they barely make a blip.
They're just like so much lower in terms of the
impacts of land use of order use of greenhouse gas
(08:30):
emissions and all our resources that if we even just
move a little bit in that direction, you know, one
recipe at a time, you can really start lowering your
own individual climate footprint really and if you go all
the way, you can slash that by seventy five percent
(08:51):
according to Oxford University. So it really has a huge
impact on what's ailing our planet right now.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So if you were to turn in the turn into
the you know, look into the book and start flipping around.
You know, what kind of recipes can readers expect. Do
you have some favorites that you put in there of
yours or.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Oh yeah, well there's a lot that's going on here.
So first of all the recipes sections there were eight chapters,
and it really runs the gamut. You know, I start
with seasonings and sauces and dressings that sort of thing
in the first chapter, and we go on to appetizers,
small bites, starters, and then I have soups, which at
this time of the year is like might go to
(09:34):
you know, I have soups and salad sandwiches. There's a
chapter on breads, quick breads and also sour dough breads,
all different kinds of breads, crackers, crepes. There are side dishes,
there are main dishes. I even have a chapter on
celebratory dishes when you have a little more time and
you want to do something festive for the holidays or
(09:55):
special occasion. And of course, you know, we end with
sweet because you know, no cookbook would be replete without
a dessert section. So that's that's, you know. And the
recipes themselves, some of them, you know, are original right
out of my noggin, but many of them I draw
my inspirations as a chef from the rich culinary traditions
(10:21):
from all over the world. So what's really fun about
the cookbook is it's it's it's really a travelogue. You
can travel in your mind's eye to remote places, you know,
and and the flavor profiles from Morocco and from Persia
and from Denmark and Japan and West Africa, and you know,
(10:42):
all over the place. There are recipes pepper throughout the
book that that have ingredients and the flavor profiles, the spices,
the herbs and so forth from from these wonderful age
old time tested traditions. And what's unique also about the cookbook,
(11:02):
which makes it more of an environmental cookbook is on
every recipe I give greenhouse gas emissions for a key
ingredient in that recipe and what's driving those numbers. So,
you know, just reading each recipe, you begin to understand
what's happening in the food system, what accounts for greenhouse
(11:24):
gases with you know, what we're growing and what we're eating.
And it's just an educational sort of thing. And I
also have highlights on most of the recipes that might
talk about the country of origin and what challenges they're
facing with the climate, or it might be climate hero
you know, the whole greens and legoons that are really
(11:46):
resilient and that we should be eating more of because
it really helps farmers hedge their risks and it's super
healthy for our gut microbiomes. Oh by the way, So
you know, just information that people may not appreciate, you know,
before they look into the book, they may not know.
So it's it's just a way to to inspire people
(12:08):
and to motivate them to make some changes in their
lives for the better.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Feels like a little bit more than a cookbook too.
There's a little bit of love behind it. Yeah, what's
your website? So that people can find you.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, it's it's Kafes with a C no apostrophe Kafes
Kitchen Prescription dot com and you can go there you
can learn more about me. You'll see information about both
cookbooks and I you know, I put out a food blog,
you know, on a monthly basis. For people that sign
(12:44):
up for my newsletter, they'll get a copy of it
might be a bunch of recipes that I'm working on,
or some some new information either about the climate or
about our health or you know, related topics, so people
can can take advantage of that as well.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Are you can We take a sidetrack over to food
allergies for a moment, because I'm a human being with
four life threatening food allergies. I'm fifty five now and
I've had food anaflexas since i was about twenty four,
and yeah, just I'm allergic to peanut, trenut fish, and shellfish.
(13:21):
So we have a lot of members of the Best
Ever You community and of the Fact Community FAACT who
you know, band together and talk about food allergies and
food allergies and kids, and sometimes cookbooks can become really
frustrating to us because there's so much in them with
(13:41):
nuts and fish and all the things that we can't eat.
So we're likeugh, I really love this cookbook, but I
can't eat that. Do you like? I dream of.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Now that I know you am, like, I dream of
writing a book with you called Love the Foods That
Heal You from food allergies for something the worst?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Absolutely, well, I think there's you know, I don't use
many nuts. I'm trying to think if there aren't, I mean,
if if there are any at all, and I'm.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Just okay if there are aren't.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I don't even think there are.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Just I didn't notice many. Actually, that's why I brought
it up on.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
There are I mean maybe a little pine nuts on
my crostatini, you know, as a garnish. You know, there's
one recipe I think in the small Bites, which involve peanuts,
but that can easily be just omitted. But pretty much
this is good for most people. I have an awful
lot of gluten free recipes throughout the book. I would
(14:43):
say you know half of them at least, you know,
so there's you know, and it's very focused on whole grains,
so you'll have unusual whole grains because it's actually really
really healthy for us to eat wide in the plant
based Kingdom, you know, not get away from get away
from rice, even corn. You know, these are our three commodities.
(15:05):
Ninety percent of the cereal grains that we consume are
in those three different products, those those crops, and yet
they're all under assault from climate change right now. And
you know, the most resilient grains come from Asia and
come from Africa, so you're looking at amaranth and tef
(15:25):
and from the north, you know, buckwheat and sorghum, and
you know, so there are so many other grains to
play with. You know, there is certainly there's some wheat
recipes and the bread recipe as well, but not exclusively.
So so I'm really trying to give you know, people
there are there's there's some rye in here too, which
(15:48):
isn't great for gluten free folks. But you know, but
again eating all of us should be eating wide in
the plant based Kingdom to really maximize the health impacts
and to lower lower our risks. My husband has a
sesame allergy, so you you you know, that's our particular
(16:08):
thing that we have to be very careful with. But
food allergies are all too common and becoming more common
as people's you know, so much of our diet relies
on today sadly on processed foods and you know, and
very inflammatory you know, meats and dairies that that you
know are problematic for many many people, and they develop
(16:30):
you know, sensitivities and even allergies or ibs or you know,
there are all sorts of impacts. It really depends. But
this is you know again, even though the focus is
more environmental, just like my other book, it's these foods
really bring down inflammation in the body and oxidative stress.
So they they sort of you know, they're they're the
(16:53):
you know, and and I don't even use cooking oils,
believe it or not, so yeah, and I don't use salt,
and I don't use fine sugars. So you're you're really
eating wonderfully flavorful of foods but avoiding a lot of
problematic ingredients for many people. So it's it's it's an
adventure in eating.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, and I appreciate you going into that. I know,
I know the books about kind of something entirely different,
but it just seems like it all ties in and
you feel like a really good resource for people who
might have questions regarding you know, food allergies. It's food
allergies are so frustrating. Yeah, you just want to participate
with everybody's food. I mean, food's so celebratory and like
(17:35):
you said earlier, you know, it's so much fun to
have a Valentine's Day night out eating and this and.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
That and eating out. Its Yeah, I agree with.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
You dangerous, it can be terrifying.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
With terrifying, you take your life in your hands, you know,
and a lot of times, you know, even restaurants try
to do right, but yeah, you know, servers don't always
know or they don't always convey the information. And you know,
you need your EpiPens and you're you know, you're everything.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, Bend and you Benadrell and your water and all
of it. Yeah, it's but yeah, so I appreciate you
going there because we just do. We have such a
wide audience and there there are a lot of gluten
free people too, So great. I just I love the
fact that it's it's sort of something for everyone, and
and and your resource we can trust and you know
(18:22):
how to how to cook for us because he's really frustrating.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, yeah, you know us, you just learn a couple
of new tricks in the kitchen. It's not difficult. This
is you know, for a beginner coax as well as
people that know their way around the kitchen. You know,
you you don't have to be a professional chef to
be healthy, but you do. You know. My other purpose
in writing the book, both books, actually is to coax
(18:48):
people back into the kitchen at all. So many people
have I don't know if you find that up in Maine,
but it's certainly true in my world that people have
stopped cooking or you know, especially people. I'm sorry to say,
I'm happy to say that among the younger cohorts that
I work with and that I know, there seems to
(19:10):
be a bit of a resurgence. So that really is
is makes me joyful to see, you know, younger kids
cooking together and really getting into you know, reclaiming their
health and doing it for the planet as well. But
but especially women of a certain age, my age, and
you know, younger even I'm a little bit older than
(19:30):
you are. They've you know, their kids are out of
the house. They they they hang up their aprons and
they say I'm done, you know, and it's they do
that at their peril, unfortunately, because you know, they're not
going to find health with takeout and with restaurants and
and so forth, and and with processed foods. They're convenient,
(19:52):
but they are not great for our health. And they're
you know, high and fat, high in sodium, low in fiber.
All these things are really bad for us. And and uh,
they're convenient, but they but you know, you pay a
big price.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah. Yeah, And I'm to go back to the food
allergy community for one second and then I'll get off
of it. Yeah, there's nothing more frustrating. And you'll look
at the blogs or look at you know, the social
media and stuff like that, and somebody will be like, hey,
I found a not free, allergy free blah blah blah
blah blah, and I'm like, it's processed food. It's like
the last thing you're a little human being needs. It's
(20:30):
just more inflammation. Trust me, I've had this forever. And
the best way to deal with all of it is
like to clean, eat as best you can lose the
inflammation part of it, and then that I won't say
the allergies go away, but they seem to manage a
little bit better.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
I agree with you. You can manage it better and
you're doing the best thing. You know. One, some allergies
are not reversible. You know. Prevention is always best, you know,
but but you can you know, only just uh protect
you can protect yourself in so many other ways from
chronic illnesses and overweight and obesity, and you know, in
(21:10):
other inflammatory conditions that happen you know that are mostly
dietarily caused, sadly. So yeah, it's very powerful. I mean,
my journey even in this, this whole eating and cooking
and all of this, you know, started many years ago
when my husband had a real health scare and we
(21:32):
flipped our lifestyles you know, like sort of overnight, and
we never looked back because the the results were so phenomenal.
So it's uh people, you know, people, you can't always
get it in a pill or a procedure. In fact,
you won't get it there. You know. Sometimes they're necessary,
but but they're not sufficient, you know, they don't protect
(21:54):
us adequately. They don't prevent it, and you can't always
you can, you can manage a condition, but it will continue,
you do worsen slowly over time. Whereas you know you
change your lifestyle. You stay active, you know, you eat healthfully,
and you try to get stressed down in your life
and and that's you know, that's a formula for for
(22:16):
well being, you know, going forward.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, otherwise things tend to fester. The I've got some questions,
more questions for you. Can you hang around a little
bit more?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You beat?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Okay? Tell us? Are you perfect in everything that you
eat all the time? So, for example, if I'm sitting
here or somebody's listening and they're like, I really want
to do this, I really want to change up the
way I eat, do all these this clean eating and
exercise more and all of these things. But it feels
a little overwhelming. Do you think you could make some
(22:49):
small steps or small suggestions for us?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh? Sure you could have it seems so monumental in
the beginning, and nobody can, like, you know, you have
to be really scared to death, you know, to really
leap in a whole, brave new world, you know, in
one fell swoop. You know, many times everybody does what's
right for them, but many times incremental steps work easier
(23:17):
for people. Just start wherever you are, Just you know,
start with one recipe and see how you like it,
and you know, make it your own and then you
can you can take in the tool with exercising too. Sometimes,
you know, if you're sedentary and you you know, you
haven't been out there, you know, start ten minutes a day,
you know, a couple of times a week, and build
(23:40):
on that week by week as you're able to do it.
And if you fall off the wagon, you know, don't
give up. You know, tomorrow's another day. Every day is fresh,
and you know, we're all human. Life gets in the way.
I just came back from a three week trip, a
very happy trip to celebrate my son's engagement to a
(24:03):
wonderful woman. But her family's from India, so we just
spent three weeks in India. Traveling was just phenomenal, but
the food was very different. I couldn't control everything, you
know that I was. I wasn't cooking, you know, and
they we did the best we could, and you know,
it was a finite amount of time. And then now
(24:23):
we're back home and we were able to, you know,
clean things up and get back on our wagons.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
So yeah, I don't think, you know, you shouldn't. What
is the expression that the enemy of the good. Perfection
shouldn't be the enemy of the you know, do you
know that express? Yeah, I don't know, but yeah, I
forget how it goes. But anyway, there we just do
the best we can and and just you know, if
(24:51):
you do, the more you do it, the bigger the payoff,
the bigger you you know, you feel better, your energy rebounds,
you know different. You can reverse so many conditions if
you have diabetes, or if you're overweight, or you know,
chronic just so many autoimmune conditions and cardiovascular you know,
(25:12):
the gamut of everything that plagues us. Many cancers as well,
you can you can manage them, and you can even
reverse some of these conditions, especially you know, the sooner
you begin. But but you know, we the one day,
the two days, you know, if you if you have
to disrupt your schedules, if you're traveling or whatever, just
(25:34):
you know, you try to plan as best you can,
and then you have to live your life and make do.
And you know, just when you're back in control in
your environment, you know, then you can you can start
over again. If you need to.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Take us to our kitchens and we're going to become
environmentally conscious cooks.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Oh great, love it.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
What's that look like?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
What's that like? What's that smell like? What's that taste like?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah? Yeah, I love your imagery because this is such
a sensory and sensual way of cooking and of eating,
because we're using our noses and our taste buds and
our eyes, our ears even you know, it's just completely involving.
I would say though from an environmental point of view,
(26:24):
you know, they are just a three easy guidelines that
I would offer for folks. One is, think about it
this way. We want to eat as low on the
food chain as we can, and we want to favor,
to the extent that we can, step by step, you know,
sustainably grown plants over animals. And there's a whole nice
(26:45):
chart in the plant in the in the cookbook, in
the front chapter that kind of lays out what are
the big drivers of climate change in terms of emission
to the little teeny weeny ones that barely have an impact.
And so you want to eat low on that chart.
You want to favor unprocessed foods over ultra processed foods,
so minimally processed or unprocessed. You know, this is you know,
(27:07):
you want to be in your kitchens. But you don't
have to be a slave to your kitchen, you know,
you know, cook big batches of things. Keep it simple.
You know, during the week, you can eat very simply,
you know, from a couple of dishes that don't have
to take more than a half an hour, you know,
to prepare. You know, it doesn't have to be any
more impactful than any other way that you're eating right now.
(27:29):
It's just a little bit of planning, maybe learning a
couple of new things that you haven't done before, but
nothing complicated. And lastly, I would say waste. Not over
a third of all food related greenhouse gas emissions come
from food waste and food loss from thirty to fifty
percent in some markets. Never makes it to people's mouths.
(27:51):
It ends up in the landfills, where it can generate
enormous amounts of methane, just like ruminant animals produce methane
when they burp and so forth. You know, well, the
landfills are just as bad. And methane is a really
terribly polluting greenhouse gas, worse twenty eight times worse than
(28:11):
carbon dioxide. It stays in the atmosphere for like trapping
heat for like twenty eight years, you know. So it's
it's you know, we want to get our methane down
and we want to waste as little as possible. So
what does that mean in your kitchen? Well, don't overbuy.
You know, sometimes retailers sell in such bulk that you know,
things rot in your in your refrigerator before you can
(28:32):
get to them. So by sensibly that way, date your
leftovers if you have leftovers. I do this all the time.
I just have a little bit of masking tape and
a marker and I put on the date. Because things
spoil after about five days or so. So you want
to be mindful of you know, how to reuse certain
foods before it's too late, and then be creative, and
(28:54):
the cookbook will help you do this. I have a
couple of really fun recipes that do this in the cookbook,
purpose foods that otherwise would be tossed. Like I have
one of my favorite recipes just because it's so environmentally
loving the planet, is my asparagus wecoop soup, which I
(29:15):
make with the woody stems of those asparagus spears that
people break off and toss, and you can cook them separately,
very quick and easy recipe. It makes the most delicious, velvety, smooth,
blended soup that's so flavorful. And I make homemade croutons.
You don't have to, but if you want to have
(29:37):
a garnish for that recipe, I make croutons out of
you know, stale bread, or I've even used the crumbs
of shredded wheat that end up in the package, and
people like, what do I do with this? I don't
want to eat this as cereal anymore? There are little
shreds of shredded wheat. But you know, you just begin
to think more creatively about the things we toss because
(29:59):
most of the time, as long as it's not moldy
and it's not spoiled, it's perfect for just to refashion
a little creatively and make it into a totally different food.
You know, crumbs like that, and parts of crackers and
so forth make fantastic crackers. They can be you know,
kneaded into bread, or they can make croutons. As I said,
you know, it's just it's just a mindset more than
(30:22):
anything else. So those three things eating low on the
food chain, unprocessed, and being mindful and creative about wasting
less would be my top guidelines for the home cook.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I love it well. It has certainly been fabulous having
you here. I kind of want to ask before we go, like,
what are pretty apple packets? But I don't know if
i'm opening up.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, that's that's an original recipe.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Make me hungry.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah that in the I have a couple of these
in the back of the book. They're different desserts and
my pretty apple packets great for this time of the
year when apples are really yummy. Is just a really
it's a kind of recipe you might want to do.
It's a bit of an arts and very simple but
arts and crafts sort of thing where you're rolling a
little bit of dough and you're wrapping slices of apples
(31:16):
with a little laminating apricot paste, which I make just
from dried, unsulfured apricots. You just reconstitute them into like
a jam in your microwave, and you know, so I'm
spreading that on the apple slices and then wrapping them
up in this little bit of dough so that it
looks like a little present, you know, with a bow
on top. And they're really fun, very elegant looking, but
(31:41):
not really complicated. It's just like five ingredients that go
into it to make a pretty dessert.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
One other thing I wanted to give some a shout
out to cookbook photography is tricky. Who did the photography
for your cook.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I'm so glad you said that. So my photographer for
both cookbooks is my loving husband Giordano, who is a photographer,
you know, as an advocation, but it's something we have
so much fun styling our food and shooting it and
editing it and so forth. So he is for both books.
(32:19):
He's done all the photography. And people can't see the
book here, but it's a very visual cookbook. Every recipe has,
you know, a wonderful photo, sometimes a two page spread.
So it makes a really pretty gift as well because
it's so visual.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
And how is it working with our crew at HCI,
because I'm a fellow HCI author with you, and I
love them so much.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yes, phenomenal. I had such a great experience with Darcy
and with Lindsay and you know, the whole crowd over there,
so easy to work with, so accommodating. They basically they
basically just wanted me to bring my vision forward and
to support me as you know, you know, curated these recipes.
(33:02):
They couldn't have been more supportive and easier to work with.
It was. It was such a pleasure. I loved HDI.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah. Yeah, I just signed on for another book with them,
so I'm all except, yeah, my third book with them,
the Piece coming out. Yeah, they're they're they're family. So
I'm glad that you are having a great experience with
them because I just I can't move enough author friends
over to them.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
A great publisher and just you know, so so great
to their authors as well. Really special.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yeah, really really respectful, and yeah, they treat you like
family coming in so and it shows in the book
to you know, you get the book and it's just like,
well here's some more love. So I hope people go
grab your book, and I hope people go to your blog,
which is Kathy just I wrote it down Kathy Kitchen.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, and also find me on Instagram if they're just
looking for pictures. You know, you can see sort of
a top read of a you know, just an array
of things that I've done.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Okay, and so the book again is love the Foods,
Love that, love that, love the Planet. And Kathy's website
is Kathy's Kitchen Prescription dot Com. I'll put links to
both in the show. Kathy, is there anything that we
missed or that you want to share with us before
we go?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, you know, not really. I would just say, you know,
don't get depressed by the climate. Take action is the
most empowering thing you can do. It's the best antidote
to eco anxiety that exists out there. People feel like
they can't make a difference. They can. You know, as
I said, you can lower your carbon footprint by up
(34:42):
to three quarters in your household just by changing shifting
how you eat. It is a huge impact. And if
we change how we eat, it changes consumer demand, it
changes what growers grow. It can really move the needle,
and we all need to pitch in right now. So
I thank you, Elizabeth for you know, the giving me
(35:04):
this opportunity to reach folks out there in your world
and to inspire people and give them hope because you know,
twenty twenty five, we're up against some scary things, but
we can. This is not rocket science. This is something
that's so easy to do. So I want people to
feel encouraged by that and to you know, to take
(35:26):
a step in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I love it well, it was great getting to know you.
Congratulations on your book, all the best success with that.
I hope you come back. We'll do like maybe a
video in the summer.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, and everybody, thank you so much for listening to
the Best Ever You Show. Visit us at best Ever
You dot com. It's free to become a member if
you want to write for us. We love our writers.
Anything that goes up on the website we put into
our magazine. So when we love our podcasts. Again. We
don't do very much advertising out in the universe. Maybe
(35:56):
a little bit of social media ads now and then,
so everything is totally grassroots. It's dependent on you telling
someone that you heard the guest, you've heard about the book,
you heard about the show, whatever it is. We are
totally word of mouth, and we have millions of downloads
on this radio show. And I really appreciate every single
one of you. We've been doing this since twenty ten
(36:18):
and I love you all, and this is our second
show in for twenty twenty five, and I'm just grateful
that you're here. And I can't wait to see who
else comes onto the show. In twenty twenty five and Kathy,
I can't wait to have you back, so thank you,
thank you. All Right, everybody take care. I have a
great day. Thanks for listening.
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to this edition of The
Best Ever You Show. I'm your host Elizabeth Hamilton Garino
and with me is guest Kathy Katon Kratzini. Kathy is
a new author with HCI and she is the author
of the book Love the Foods That Love the Planet.
She also has another book, which we'll talk about in
a little bit, but for now we're going to focus
on Love the Foods That Love the Planet. Welcome to
(00:28):
the Best Ever You Show. Kathy.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you so much, Elizabeth, love being here.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, it's great to have you here. So you you
have another book, Just so everybody knows this is this
is a little bit of a series going on that
I spy here. But Love the Foods That Love You back,
that's your first book, and so now we have Love
the Foods That Love the Planet. The difference between the.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Two, well, you know, the first book has more of
a health focus. It's all about eating to you know,
maximize our health and our well being. And it's you know,
chock full of wonderful plant based recipes that really lower
inflammation in the body and and you know, revamp your
(01:12):
your gut microbiome and do all sorts of wonderful things
to just enhance our health, protect us from chronic illnesses,
help us lose weight, the whole gamut. And that was
the first book. Uh, the new book, which was just
had a couple of months ago, Love the Foods That
Love the Planet, has an environmental focus because that's become
(01:33):
a you know, I'm a sustainable chef and and I've
just been over the last several years to you know,
gone really deep on eating for the planet because you know, gosh,
you know, the world that we're living in is spinning
out of control environmentally, and people don't realize how easy
and how delicious and how fun it is to just
(01:55):
shift our eating patterns a little bit in the right
direction to really helped lower greenhouse gas emissions. It's so
easy to do. And when I was, you know, doing
my research for the book, I was just so blown
away by what I was learning. I really wanted to
share this with people because when it comes to the climate.
I don't know if you have found this, but when
(02:17):
I talk to people about climate change or the planet,
you know, either people glaze over because they're so overwhelmed
and they feel the problem is so enormous, and they
feel so powerless they kind of disengage. And actually, there's
so much that we can do so easily, starting with
our forks, that people don't realize how impactful it could be.
(02:41):
So I wanted to, you know, bring hope to people
and show them a way forward that can be so
beneficial to our health, to our planetary health, and to
wildlife as well.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
You know, I love this book. I have a copy
of it. And when it was here, and say when
it was here, and I'll explain that in a minute.
When I was here at home with me, I was
I was thumbing through it. I'm like, this is a
really good book. It's hardcover, it's got great pictures, it's
it's just really a thoughtful, thoughtful book to help to
help us all do our best to help the planet
(03:16):
and so forth. But what was interesting about it also
is that I so I have four boys. The people
listening might know that. They're twenty three, twenty five, twenty seven,
and twenty nine, and each of them picked it up,
looked at it. They're like, oh, this is a cool book, Mom,
who's this blah blah blah, And then one of them
took it with them and his fiance took it, and
they're like, this is mine and so and he's a
he has a master's degree in environmental science from New
(03:40):
Haven by by you there in Connecticut, and so is
that who you wanted to appeal to.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, I am greatly flattered that he took the book,
especially you know, with the background that he has. That's
that's the biggest compliment I could get. So that that's
very gratifying. But I actually this for every man, every woman,
you know, just the average person. That's you know, we're
so consumed with life's issues and problems and just getting
(04:09):
by and and you know, our communities, our kids and
all the rest of it. We're pretty disengaged by you know,
from from the planet and what's going you know, all
that's going on with climate change. It comes up in
the media whenever you have, you know, a crisis like
what's going on in La right now with the fires
it's just devastating, or or the hurricanes and tropical storms
(04:32):
just a couple of months ago in Florida and North
Carolina and so forth. You know, there are moments when
it there are our crazy media cycle, you know, will
just bring it front and center. But for the most part.
It's it's in the background, and so I wanted to
write for everybody because it's really going to be up
to us at this point to really save our poorer planet.
(04:57):
It's it's just not happening quickly enough with our political leadership,
and you know, internationally, domestically, we've been you know, hacking
away at it. There's new technology coming, things are evolving,
but we're we're burning more fossil fuels than ever before.
You know, last year and this year broke all records,
(05:19):
and the climate. You know, if you looked at the
graphs in the book and online, you know, you would
see that the temperatures are just spiraling out of control,
which is why we're having such a dramatic weather events
and fires and all the rest of it. So so
I wanted to empower all of us because this is
this is a planetary issue, this is a global, you know,
(05:41):
every person sort of issue. It's all hands on deck
to to sort of give people the tools that they
need to so easily you know, make a difference. So
that's who I wrote it for.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well, if you're just joining us, we are speaking with Kathy.
Now I'm going to mess it up. Kathy catch on.
I can say Kathy. I can't say that.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I'll say it.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
There, you go for it.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's a mouthful. So my last name, we stuck our
two names together, which is why it's it's a stumbling block.
It's Katine, Kathy, Katon Gretzini.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I needed a refresher there. Oh boy, So we're just
going to call you Kathy the whole time. But you're
a pa based chef, Yeah, a plant based chef, a
recipe developer, and author of two books. The first one
is Love the Foods That Love You Back, and then
this other one is called I'm going to read the
whole thing here, Love the Foods That Love the Planet.
(06:41):
Recipes to cool the climate and excite the senses. Now,
one of the things that you talk about here is
helping the planet by helping yourself to plant based recipes,
and you help us by understanding what to eat, knowing
how it's produced and its impact on our planet. That
is really interesting.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, it's you know, people don't realize that the food sector.
You know, it's something that's just not talked about nearly
as much we talk about electricity and you know, and
motor vehicles and all the rest of it. But the
food sector generates over a third of total greenhouse gas emissions,
and three quarters of those well not quite three quarters,
(07:23):
you know, a little less than that is generated by animals,
livestock and all the feed crops that are grown to
feed them. So it has an enormous impact on It's
not just animal agriculture that's the main culprit here that's
driving greenhouse gas emissions and food, but it's a big,
(07:47):
big piece of it. There are a couple of other
commodities that are way up there, like I'm sorry to say,
like chocolate and coffee that are just grown so unsustainably
they have major greenhouse gas effects as well. But most
of the time, you know, when you're eating for the planet,
you're eating the way our great grandparents eat. Frankly, you know,
(08:08):
if you just turn back the clock a little bit,
you're eating the fruits of the earth, the simple produce
that grows out of the land, you know, the whole grains,
the legoons, the vegetables, the fruits and nuts and seeds
and that kind of thing. Because they barely make a blip.
They're just like so much lower in terms of the
impacts of land use of order use of greenhouse gas
(08:30):
emissions and all our resources that if we even just
move a little bit in that direction, you know, one
recipe at a time, you can really start lowering your
own individual climate footprint really and if you go all
the way, you can slash that by seventy five percent
(08:51):
according to Oxford University. So it really has a huge
impact on what's ailing our planet right now.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So if you were to turn in the turn into
the you know, look into the book and start flipping around.
You know, what kind of recipes can readers expect. Do
you have some favorites that you put in there of
yours or.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Oh yeah, well there's a lot that's going on here.
So first of all the recipes sections there were eight chapters,
and it really runs the gamut. You know, I start
with seasonings and sauces and dressings that sort of thing
in the first chapter, and we go on to appetizers,
small bites, starters, and then I have soups, which at
this time of the year is like might go to
(09:34):
you know, I have soups and salad sandwiches. There's a
chapter on breads, quick breads and also sour dough breads,
all different kinds of breads, crackers, crepes. There are side dishes,
there are main dishes. I even have a chapter on
celebratory dishes when you have a little more time and
you want to do something festive for the holidays or
(09:55):
special occasion. And of course, you know, we end with
sweet because you know, no cookbook would be replete without
a dessert section. So that's that's, you know. And the
recipes themselves, some of them, you know, are original right
out of my noggin, but many of them I draw
my inspirations as a chef from the rich culinary traditions
(10:21):
from all over the world. So what's really fun about
the cookbook is it's it's it's really a travelogue. You
can travel in your mind's eye to remote places, you know,
and and the flavor profiles from Morocco and from Persia
and from Denmark and Japan and West Africa, and you know,
(10:42):
all over the place. There are recipes pepper throughout the
book that that have ingredients and the flavor profiles, the spices,
the herbs and so forth from from these wonderful age
old time tested traditions. And what's unique also about the cookbook,
(11:02):
which makes it more of an environmental cookbook is on
every recipe I give greenhouse gas emissions for a key
ingredient in that recipe and what's driving those numbers. So,
you know, just reading each recipe, you begin to understand
what's happening in the food system, what accounts for greenhouse
(11:24):
gases with you know, what we're growing and what we're eating.
And it's just an educational sort of thing. And I
also have highlights on most of the recipes that might
talk about the country of origin and what challenges they're
facing with the climate, or it might be climate hero
you know, the whole greens and legoons that are really
(11:46):
resilient and that we should be eating more of because
it really helps farmers hedge their risks and it's super
healthy for our gut microbiomes. Oh by the way, So
you know, just information that people may not appreciate, you know,
before they look into the book, they may not know.
So it's it's just a way to to inspire people
(12:08):
and to motivate them to make some changes in their
lives for the better.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Feels like a little bit more than a cookbook too.
There's a little bit of love behind it. Yeah, what's
your website? So that people can find you.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, it's it's Kafes with a C no apostrophe Kafes
Kitchen Prescription dot com and you can go there you
can learn more about me. You'll see information about both
cookbooks and I you know, I put out a food blog,
you know, on a monthly basis. For people that sign
(12:44):
up for my newsletter, they'll get a copy of it
might be a bunch of recipes that I'm working on,
or some some new information either about the climate or
about our health or you know, related topics, so people
can can take advantage of that as well.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Are you can We take a sidetrack over to food
allergies for a moment, because I'm a human being with
four life threatening food allergies. I'm fifty five now and
I've had food anaflexas since i was about twenty four,
and yeah, just I'm allergic to peanut, trenut fish, and shellfish.
(13:21):
So we have a lot of members of the Best
Ever You community and of the Fact Community FAACT who
you know, band together and talk about food allergies and
food allergies and kids, and sometimes cookbooks can become really
frustrating to us because there's so much in them with
(13:41):
nuts and fish and all the things that we can't eat.
So we're likeugh, I really love this cookbook, but I
can't eat that. Do you like? I dream of.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Now that I know you am, like, I dream of
writing a book with you called Love the Foods That
Heal You from food allergies for something the worst?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Absolutely, well, I think there's you know, I don't use
many nuts. I'm trying to think if there aren't, I mean,
if if there are any at all, and I'm.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Just okay if there are aren't.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I don't even think there are.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Just I didn't notice many. Actually, that's why I brought
it up on.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
There are I mean maybe a little pine nuts on
my crostatini, you know, as a garnish. You know, there's
one recipe I think in the small Bites, which involve peanuts,
but that can easily be just omitted. But pretty much
this is good for most people. I have an awful
lot of gluten free recipes throughout the book. I would
(14:43):
say you know half of them at least, you know,
so there's you know, and it's very focused on whole grains,
so you'll have unusual whole grains because it's actually really
really healthy for us to eat wide in the plant
based Kingdom, you know, not get away from get away
from rice, even corn. You know, these are our three commodities.
(15:05):
Ninety percent of the cereal grains that we consume are
in those three different products, those those crops, and yet
they're all under assault from climate change right now. And
you know, the most resilient grains come from Asia and
come from Africa, so you're looking at amaranth and tef
(15:25):
and from the north, you know, buckwheat and sorghum, and
you know, so there are so many other grains to
play with. You know, there is certainly there's some wheat
recipes and the bread recipe as well, but not exclusively.
So so I'm really trying to give you know, people
there are there's there's some rye in here too, which
(15:48):
isn't great for gluten free folks. But you know, but
again eating all of us should be eating wide in
the plant based Kingdom to really maximize the health impacts
and to lower lower our risks. My husband has a
sesame allergy, so you you you know, that's our particular
(16:08):
thing that we have to be very careful with. But
food allergies are all too common and becoming more common
as people's you know, so much of our diet relies
on today sadly on processed foods and you know, and
very inflammatory you know, meats and dairies that that you
know are problematic for many many people, and they develop
(16:30):
you know, sensitivities and even allergies or ibs or you know,
there are all sorts of impacts. It really depends. But
this is you know again, even though the focus is
more environmental, just like my other book, it's these foods
really bring down inflammation in the body and oxidative stress.
So they they sort of you know, they're they're the
(16:53):
you know, and and I don't even use cooking oils,
believe it or not, so yeah, and I don't use salt,
and I don't use fine sugars. So you're you're really
eating wonderfully flavorful of foods but avoiding a lot of
problematic ingredients for many people. So it's it's it's an
adventure in eating.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, and I appreciate you going into that. I know,
I know the books about kind of something entirely different,
but it just seems like it all ties in and
you feel like a really good resource for people who
might have questions regarding you know, food allergies. It's food
allergies are so frustrating. Yeah, you just want to participate
with everybody's food. I mean, food's so celebratory and like
(17:35):
you said earlier, you know, it's so much fun to
have a Valentine's Day night out eating and this and.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
That and eating out. Its Yeah, I agree with.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
You dangerous, it can be terrifying.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
With terrifying, you take your life in your hands, you know,
and a lot of times, you know, even restaurants try
to do right, but yeah, you know, servers don't always
know or they don't always convey the information. And you know,
you need your EpiPens and you're you know, you're everything.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, Bend and you Benadrell and your water and all
of it. Yeah, it's but yeah, so I appreciate you
going there because we just do. We have such a
wide audience and there there are a lot of gluten
free people too, So great. I just I love the
fact that it's it's sort of something for everyone, and
and and your resource we can trust and you know
(18:22):
how to how to cook for us because he's really frustrating.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, yeah, you know us, you just learn a couple
of new tricks in the kitchen. It's not difficult. This
is you know, for a beginner coax as well as
people that know their way around the kitchen. You know,
you you don't have to be a professional chef to
be healthy, but you do. You know. My other purpose
in writing the book, both books, actually is to coax
(18:48):
people back into the kitchen at all. So many people
have I don't know if you find that up in Maine,
but it's certainly true in my world that people have
stopped cooking or you know, especially people. I'm sorry to say,
I'm happy to say that among the younger cohorts that
I work with and that I know, there seems to
(19:10):
be a bit of a resurgence. So that really is
is makes me joyful to see, you know, younger kids
cooking together and really getting into you know, reclaiming their
health and doing it for the planet as well. But
but especially women of a certain age, my age, and
you know, younger even I'm a little bit older than
(19:30):
you are. They've you know, their kids are out of
the house. They they they hang up their aprons and
they say I'm done, you know, and it's they do
that at their peril, unfortunately, because you know, they're not
going to find health with takeout and with restaurants and
and so forth, and and with processed foods. They're convenient,
(19:52):
but they are not great for our health. And they're
you know, high and fat, high in sodium, low in fiber.
All these things are really bad for us. And and uh,
they're convenient, but they but you know, you pay a
big price.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah. Yeah, And I'm to go back to the food
allergy community for one second and then I'll get off
of it. Yeah, there's nothing more frustrating. And you'll look
at the blogs or look at you know, the social
media and stuff like that, and somebody will be like, hey,
I found a not free, allergy free blah blah blah
blah blah, and I'm like, it's processed food. It's like
the last thing you're a little human being needs. It's
(20:30):
just more inflammation. Trust me, I've had this forever. And
the best way to deal with all of it is
like to clean, eat as best you can lose the
inflammation part of it, and then that I won't say
the allergies go away, but they seem to manage a
little bit better.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
I agree with you. You can manage it better and
you're doing the best thing. You know. One, some allergies
are not reversible. You know. Prevention is always best, you know,
but but you can you know, only just uh protect
you can protect yourself in so many other ways from
chronic illnesses and overweight and obesity, and you know, in
(21:10):
other inflammatory conditions that happen you know that are mostly
dietarily caused, sadly. So yeah, it's very powerful. I mean,
my journey even in this, this whole eating and cooking
and all of this, you know, started many years ago
when my husband had a real health scare and we
(21:32):
flipped our lifestyles you know, like sort of overnight, and
we never looked back because the the results were so phenomenal.
So it's uh people, you know, people, you can't always
get it in a pill or a procedure. In fact,
you won't get it there. You know. Sometimes they're necessary,
but but they're not sufficient, you know, they don't protect
(21:54):
us adequately. They don't prevent it, and you can't always
you can, you can manage a condition, but it will continue,
you do worsen slowly over time. Whereas you know you
change your lifestyle. You stay active, you know, you eat healthfully,
and you try to get stressed down in your life
and and that's you know, that's a formula for for
(22:16):
well being, you know, going forward.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, otherwise things tend to fester. The I've got some questions,
more questions for you. Can you hang around a little
bit more?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You beat?
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Okay? Tell us? Are you perfect in everything that you
eat all the time? So, for example, if I'm sitting
here or somebody's listening and they're like, I really want
to do this, I really want to change up the
way I eat, do all these this clean eating and
exercise more and all of these things. But it feels
a little overwhelming. Do you think you could make some
(22:49):
small steps or small suggestions for us?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh? Sure you could have it seems so monumental in
the beginning, and nobody can, like, you know, you have
to be really scared to death, you know, to really
leap in a whole, brave new world, you know, in
one fell swoop. You know, many times everybody does what's
right for them, but many times incremental steps work easier
(23:17):
for people. Just start wherever you are, Just you know,
start with one recipe and see how you like it,
and you know, make it your own and then you
can you can take in the tool with exercising too. Sometimes,
you know, if you're sedentary and you you know, you
haven't been out there, you know, start ten minutes a day,
you know, a couple of times a week, and build
(23:40):
on that week by week as you're able to do it.
And if you fall off the wagon, you know, don't
give up. You know, tomorrow's another day. Every day is fresh,
and you know, we're all human. Life gets in the way.
I just came back from a three week trip, a
very happy trip to celebrate my son's engagement to a
(24:03):
wonderful woman. But her family's from India, so we just
spent three weeks in India. Traveling was just phenomenal, but
the food was very different. I couldn't control everything, you
know that I was. I wasn't cooking, you know, and
they we did the best we could, and you know,
it was a finite amount of time. And then now
(24:23):
we're back home and we were able to, you know,
clean things up and get back on our wagons.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
So yeah, I don't think, you know, you shouldn't. What
is the expression that the enemy of the good. Perfection
shouldn't be the enemy of the you know, do you
know that express? Yeah, I don't know, but yeah, I
forget how it goes. But anyway, there we just do
the best we can and and just you know, if
(24:51):
you do, the more you do it, the bigger the payoff,
the bigger you you know, you feel better, your energy rebounds,
you know different. You can reverse so many conditions if
you have diabetes, or if you're overweight, or you know,
chronic just so many autoimmune conditions and cardiovascular you know,
(25:12):
the gamut of everything that plagues us. Many cancers as well,
you can you can manage them, and you can even
reverse some of these conditions, especially you know, the sooner
you begin. But but you know, we the one day,
the two days, you know, if you if you have
to disrupt your schedules, if you're traveling or whatever, just
(25:34):
you know, you try to plan as best you can,
and then you have to live your life and make do.
And you know, just when you're back in control in
your environment, you know, then you can you can start
over again. If you need to.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Take us to our kitchens and we're going to become
environmentally conscious cooks.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Oh great, love it.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
What's that look like?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
What's that like? What's that smell like? What's that taste like?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah? Yeah, I love your imagery because this is such
a sensory and sensual way of cooking and of eating,
because we're using our noses and our taste buds and
our eyes, our ears even you know, it's just completely involving.
I would say though from an environmental point of view,
(26:24):
you know, they are just a three easy guidelines that
I would offer for folks. One is, think about it
this way. We want to eat as low on the
food chain as we can, and we want to favor,
to the extent that we can, step by step, you know,
sustainably grown plants over animals. And there's a whole nice
(26:45):
chart in the plant in the in the cookbook, in
the front chapter that kind of lays out what are
the big drivers of climate change in terms of emission
to the little teeny weeny ones that barely have an impact.
And so you want to eat low on that chart.
You want to favor unprocessed foods over ultra processed foods,
so minimally processed or unprocessed. You know, this is you know,
(27:07):
you want to be in your kitchens. But you don't
have to be a slave to your kitchen, you know,
you know, cook big batches of things. Keep it simple.
You know, during the week, you can eat very simply,
you know, from a couple of dishes that don't have
to take more than a half an hour, you know,
to prepare. You know, it doesn't have to be any
more impactful than any other way that you're eating right now.
(27:29):
It's just a little bit of planning, maybe learning a
couple of new things that you haven't done before, but
nothing complicated. And lastly, I would say waste. Not over
a third of all food related greenhouse gas emissions come
from food waste and food loss from thirty to fifty
percent in some markets. Never makes it to people's mouths.
(27:51):
It ends up in the landfills, where it can generate
enormous amounts of methane, just like ruminant animals produce methane
when they burp and so forth. You know, well, the
landfills are just as bad. And methane is a really
terribly polluting greenhouse gas, worse twenty eight times worse than
(28:11):
carbon dioxide. It stays in the atmosphere for like trapping
heat for like twenty eight years, you know. So it's
it's you know, we want to get our methane down
and we want to waste as little as possible. So
what does that mean in your kitchen? Well, don't overbuy.
You know, sometimes retailers sell in such bulk that you know,
things rot in your in your refrigerator before you can
(28:32):
get to them. So by sensibly that way, date your
leftovers if you have leftovers. I do this all the time.
I just have a little bit of masking tape and
a marker and I put on the date. Because things
spoil after about five days or so. So you want
to be mindful of you know, how to reuse certain
foods before it's too late, and then be creative, and
(28:54):
the cookbook will help you do this. I have a
couple of really fun recipes that do this in the cookbook,
purpose foods that otherwise would be tossed. Like I have
one of my favorite recipes just because it's so environmentally
loving the planet, is my asparagus wecoop soup, which I
(29:15):
make with the woody stems of those asparagus spears that
people break off and toss, and you can cook them separately,
very quick and easy recipe. It makes the most delicious, velvety, smooth,
blended soup that's so flavorful. And I make homemade croutons.
You don't have to, but if you want to have
(29:37):
a garnish for that recipe, I make croutons out of
you know, stale bread, or I've even used the crumbs
of shredded wheat that end up in the package, and
people like, what do I do with this? I don't
want to eat this as cereal anymore? There are little
shreds of shredded wheat. But you know, you just begin
to think more creatively about the things we toss because
(29:59):
most of the time, as long as it's not moldy
and it's not spoiled, it's perfect for just to refashion
a little creatively and make it into a totally different food.
You know, crumbs like that, and parts of crackers and
so forth make fantastic crackers. They can be you know,
kneaded into bread, or they can make croutons. As I said,
you know, it's just it's just a mindset more than
(30:22):
anything else. So those three things eating low on the
food chain, unprocessed, and being mindful and creative about wasting
less would be my top guidelines for the home cook.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I love it well. It has certainly been fabulous having
you here. I kind of want to ask before we go, like,
what are pretty apple packets? But I don't know if
i'm opening up.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, that's that's an original recipe.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Make me hungry.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah that in the I have a couple of these
in the back of the book. They're different desserts and
my pretty apple packets great for this time of the
year when apples are really yummy. Is just a really
it's a kind of recipe you might want to do.
It's a bit of an arts and very simple but
arts and crafts sort of thing where you're rolling a
little bit of dough and you're wrapping slices of apples
(31:16):
with a little laminating apricot paste, which I make just
from dried, unsulfured apricots. You just reconstitute them into like
a jam in your microwave, and you know, so I'm
spreading that on the apple slices and then wrapping them
up in this little bit of dough so that it
looks like a little present, you know, with a bow
on top. And they're really fun, very elegant looking, but
(31:41):
not really complicated. It's just like five ingredients that go
into it to make a pretty dessert.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
One other thing I wanted to give some a shout
out to cookbook photography is tricky. Who did the photography
for your cook.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I'm so glad you said that. So my photographer for
both cookbooks is my loving husband Giordano, who is a photographer,
you know, as an advocation, but it's something we have
so much fun styling our food and shooting it and
editing it and so forth. So he is for both books.
(32:19):
He's done all the photography. And people can't see the
book here, but it's a very visual cookbook. Every recipe has,
you know, a wonderful photo, sometimes a two page spread.
So it makes a really pretty gift as well because
it's so visual.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
And how is it working with our crew at HCI,
because I'm a fellow HCI author with you, and I
love them so much.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yes, phenomenal. I had such a great experience with Darcy
and with Lindsay and you know, the whole crowd over there,
so easy to work with, so accommodating. They basically they
basically just wanted me to bring my vision forward and
to support me as you know, you know, curated these recipes.
(33:02):
They couldn't have been more supportive and easier to work with.
It was. It was such a pleasure. I loved HDI.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah. Yeah, I just signed on for another book with them,
so I'm all except, yeah, my third book with them,
the Piece coming out. Yeah, they're they're they're family. So
I'm glad that you are having a great experience with
them because I just I can't move enough author friends
over to them.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
A great publisher and just you know, so so great
to their authors as well. Really special.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yeah, really really respectful, and yeah, they treat you like
family coming in so and it shows in the book
to you know, you get the book and it's just like,
well here's some more love. So I hope people go
grab your book, and I hope people go to your blog,
which is Kathy just I wrote it down Kathy Kitchen.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, and also find me on Instagram if they're just
looking for pictures. You know, you can see sort of
a top read of a you know, just an array
of things that I've done.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Okay, and so the book again is love the Foods,
Love that, love that, love the Planet. And Kathy's website
is Kathy's Kitchen Prescription dot Com. I'll put links to
both in the show. Kathy, is there anything that we
missed or that you want to share with us before
we go?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, you know, not really. I would just say, you know,
don't get depressed by the climate. Take action is the
most empowering thing you can do. It's the best antidote
to eco anxiety that exists out there. People feel like
they can't make a difference. They can. You know, as
I said, you can lower your carbon footprint by up
(34:42):
to three quarters in your household just by changing shifting
how you eat. It is a huge impact. And if
we change how we eat, it changes consumer demand, it
changes what growers grow. It can really move the needle,
and we all need to pitch in right now. So
I thank you, Elizabeth for you know, the giving me
(35:04):
this opportunity to reach folks out there in your world
and to inspire people and give them hope because you know,
twenty twenty five, we're up against some scary things, but
we can. This is not rocket science. This is something
that's so easy to do. So I want people to
feel encouraged by that and to you know, to take
(35:26):
a step in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I love it well, it was great getting to know you.
Congratulations on your book, all the best success with that.
I hope you come back. We'll do like maybe a
video in the summer.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, and everybody, thank you so much for listening to
the Best Ever You Show. Visit us at best Ever
You dot com. It's free to become a member if
you want to write for us. We love our writers.
Anything that goes up on the website we put into
our magazine. So when we love our podcasts. Again. We
don't do very much advertising out in the universe. Maybe
(35:56):
a little bit of social media ads now and then,
so everything is totally grassroots. It's dependent on you telling
someone that you heard the guest, you've heard about the book,
you heard about the show, whatever it is. We are
totally word of mouth, and we have millions of downloads
on this radio show. And I really appreciate every single
one of you. We've been doing this since twenty ten
(36:18):
and I love you all, and this is our second
show in for twenty twenty five, and I'm just grateful
that you're here. And I can't wait to see who
else comes onto the show. In twenty twenty five and Kathy,
I can't wait to have you back, so thank you,
thank you. All Right, everybody take care. I have a
great day. Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.