What if everyday pantry staples could help you eat healthier and more affordably, and also free up your time in the kitchen? In this episode, registered dietitian Milette Siler shares why food is medicine is a powerful tool for improving health alongside traditional medicine and pharmacotherapy, and how ingredients like canned tomatoes and canned fruits can play a nutritious role in your meals. Whether you’re aiming to improve your own health or help others do the same, this conversation highlights how smart food choices, even from a can, can support a healthy, balanced diet.
In this episode you’ll hear:
2:45 – Why does food as medicine matter?
7:30 – About Teaching kitchens
10:15 – Nutrients in fresh vs. canned and frozen foods
15:30 – How to store fresh herbs
16:10 – Fiber in canned tomatoes and canned fruits
19:00 – Are canned fruits healthy?
21:15 – Should you drain canned fruit?
25:15 – What to avoid when buying canned fruit
26:10 – Is there a concern with BPA in canned foods?
27:30 – Smoothies and satiety
30:45 – How to build a healthy pantry
32:30 – What does a dietitian do?
35:30 – “It’s what we don’t eat that gets us into trouble.”
Thank you to our sponsor, Pacific Coast Producers.
Resource:
CREDITS:
Host – Dr. Sabrina Falquier, MD, CCMS, DipABLM
Sound & Editing – Will Crann
Executive Producer – Esther Garfin
©2025 Alternative Food Network Inc.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/culinary-medicine-recipe--3467840/support.
In this episode you’ll hear:
2:45 – Why does food as medicine matter?
7:30 – About Teaching kitchens
10:15 – Nutrients in fresh vs. canned and frozen foods
15:30 – How to store fresh herbs
16:10 – Fiber in canned tomatoes and canned fruits
19:00 – Are canned fruits healthy?
21:15 – Should you drain canned fruit?
25:15 – What to avoid when buying canned fruit
26:10 – Is there a concern with BPA in canned foods?
27:30 – Smoothies and satiety
30:45 – How to build a healthy pantry
32:30 – What does a dietitian do?
35:30 – “It’s what we don’t eat that gets us into trouble.”
Thank you to our sponsor, Pacific Coast Producers.
Resource:
CREDITS:
Host – Dr. Sabrina Falquier, MD, CCMS, DipABLM
Sound & Editing – Will Crann
Executive Producer – Esther Garfin
©2025 Alternative Food Network Inc.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/culinary-medicine-recipe--3467840/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a lot of nutrient dense, very nourishing food that
comes in can form that is minimally processed by the way,
I like to celebrate that not all canned food is
heavily processed. Sometimes, even as a dietician, I kind of
fall into that help halo. Everything has to be fresh,
but there are lots of options that retain a lot
of those nutrients and offer a lot of practical approaches
(00:21):
to feeding ourselves.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to culinary Medicine Recipe. I'm so happy you're here.
I'm your host, doctor Sabrina Falke. I was a primary
care doctor for sixteen years and went to school for
four years to specialize in culinary medicine. In this work,
I get to combine my passionate expertise in both medicine
and food to teach people about food is medicine and
to empower them to understand what ingredients optimize health and
(00:46):
also how to cook those ingredients to make delicious meals.
On the show, I interviewed top chefs, doctors, healthcare visionaries,
and food service professionals who are making great strides in
the field of culinary medicine. Join me as we continue
to explore or the amazing world of culinary medicine, where
I will empower you to make changes to your health
and wellness with great food right away. Welcome to today's show.
(01:11):
I'd like to thank the sponsor today's episode, Pacific Coast Producers.
I'm so excited for today's guest, Mallette Siler, who's an RD.
I have known her for about seven years and she
has done incredible work advancing the food is Medicine movement
in a variety of ways. She's done over a decade
of work in the culinary medicine space, including enhancing nutrition
(01:32):
education for medical students, residents, and health professionals. She's also
started a culinary medicine clinical service line with a physician
in this work, and she's transformed community kitchens into clinical
spaces where patients can utilize insurance for culinary medicine shared
medical appointments. Well, I'm so excited that we're here having
this conversation. I welcome your wisdom and I really am
(01:53):
looking forward to getting into it. Welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I'm very excited to join you on a very stormy
Texas morning. So if you hear a little bit of thunder,
a little bit of rumble. It's not me getting ready
for lunch. It's the weather.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I love it. Coming from San Diego, we don't often
have weather, so my neighbor next to me and I
actually will text each other. Did you see there's weather outside?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's a bomby eighty degrees? Oh wait a gus.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well that would be too hot. We like it, misszo.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Oh okay, see, I'm learning things too. You know, I've
had the best guacamle of my life in San Diego,
most beautiful avocado I've ever seen, and I'm a connoisseur.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So oh that sounds delicious. All right, with already our
mouth salivating, let's get started. So you and I have
known each other seven ish years, and it has been
amazing to see your career shifting and the work that
you're doing at ut Southwestern just growing in so many
different aspects and it has been amazing to watch. And
(02:55):
part of it has been you continuing to find your
voice to reach different graphics. So with that in mind,
why does food is medicine matter?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Why are we having this conversation? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, let's talk about it because I had someone ask me,
you know, food is medicine is really having a moment
and I kind of looked at them askance and said,
you know, food is medicine has been around is a
topic for thousands of years, right, we're just now getting
around to really talking about it in the United States,
and how does it fit within a framework. It's not
(03:30):
a fringe topic anymore. I think it's important when we're
talking about food is medicine or food is medicine. You know,
those two terms are similar, but they kind of get
bandied around to really define it acknowledge that for some
folks it's controversial because anytime we're talking about food, food
can be the poison, but it's also the remedy.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Food is medicine is an approach where we're incorporating food
and food focus education directly in your healthcare. Right, whether
preventing disease or we're managing symptoms, or we are treating
disease with food. It's controversial. I work in oncology, That's
been part of my background. I started doing this work
(04:16):
in the teaching kitchen alongside an outpatient oncology practice, and
I determined really early on before it got really hip
and popular, hey, you know, this is never designed to
replace traditional medical nutrition therapy. But it's a really useful
tool in my toolkit. So why does food as medicine matter?
(04:39):
As a clinician? I was determining early on that my
job as a dietician was to give advice and to
talk about behavior change, and to offer tools, offer educational handouts,
and tell folks what they needed to do as far
as lifestyle and behavior change to help them through their
(05:00):
cancer journey. And you know, I felt like we were
making a lot of progress getting folks to see why
is this important? How does it directly impact my health?
But where we continually struggled as clinicians, myself included is
how how do I implement that? So much of the
work I did as a dietitian was talking about macro nutrients,
(05:24):
talking about dietary fiber. We're talking about grams, we're talking
about milligrams. We might be giving a picture, but there
were folks who just weren't connecting the dots. So when
we switch and were able to bring them into a
teaching kitchen and tie in that clinical context with the food,
with the how putting food in people's hands, putting carrots
(05:45):
in people's hands, it's showing them how to make coal
grains taste delicious. It really overcame a lot of those barriers.
My dear friend and physician partner, doctor Jacqueline Alvin, who
has been really integral into shaping my personal approach to
food is medicine, says it best, and she says, you know,
just like everything else in our country, nothing seems to
(06:05):
be the easy people want. It's this, or it's that.
It's pharmacotherapy and traditional medicine or food is medicine, and
they don't really align. And that's just not the approach
that I think works best for most people. We want
both options, the whole myriad of spectrum of options integrated
(06:26):
as tools in toolkits for clinicians, and they have their
evidence based hat on and that I can say a
blend of all these things work. Yes, we might want
you to have you to continue your statins, but we're
also going to take a look at how can we
build flavor, reduce reliance on sodium, and get more potassium
in your diet by following a Mediterranean diet pattern. That
(06:49):
could help you as well, and potentially we could move
off some of that statin medicine. But right now we're
using both as an approach.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I love that you're emphasizing that it's not one or
the other, because often when we're talking about food is medicine,
people assume that we're in this space against medications like
you mentioned Staton, so cholesterol lowering medications, or especially working
with oncology. So if someone has cancer, it's not saying well,
chemo or a carrot, it's looking at what are the
(07:19):
tools that can be used. So in the teaching kitchen,
when you're empowering people, how does that conversation go as
far as if you want people to eat more produce,
for example, we'll stay on that side. How does that
play out of how to empower people after they take
your class to have this continue in their own households.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Oh, that's such a great question. How do we implement that?
And that again is going to be individualized, But we
find that whether you are a participant at a food
pantry like that's where you're getting the majority of your food,
or if you have plenty of resources and you could
go to any grocery store, if you're going to specialty
food stores, there are opportunities to make it more simple,
(08:02):
to make it more functional. You know, I work with
for example, folks who have cancer and you know, they
might not have access issues, but they might have time
issues they're going to treatments, or their energy levels are suffering.
So anything that I can do to make the nourishing
option the most accessible option for you is going to work.
(08:24):
So part of my method as a culinary dietitian is
showing people how to meal plan, showing people how to
identify some recipes, things that are nourishing, things that are delicious,
things that they and their loved ones appreciate. One of
the greatest tools we have is the ability to have
(08:46):
three or five simple meals that we can make, whether
that's middle of the week, we're tired, we're lazy, we
don't want to put our mental energy into figuring out food,
and it's just a couple of steps away. It's in
our freezer, it's in our pantry. These are things that
are shelf stable or frozen, and you can pull them
out and you can rely on them and pair them
(09:07):
with other fresh products. You know, maybe we've got like
a lovely some fresh cilantro or some mint, and then
we've got some canned beans in canned tomatoes, and we
can pull that out and make a quick salsa that's
a blend. As we mentioned before, it doesn't have to
be all this or all that. It's just another tool.
There's a lot of nutrient dense, very nourishing food that
(09:28):
comes in can form that is minimally processed. By the way,
I like to celebrate that not all canned food is
heavily processed. Sometimes, you know, even as a dietitian, I
kind of fall into that help halo. Everything has to
be fresh, but there are lots of options that retain
a lot of those nutrients and offer a lot of
practical approaches to feeding ourselves.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I feel like I have to emphasize that I, even
personally in my own household doing this work, I sometimes
will feel guilty. It's like, oh, I'm using something that's
minimally processed that's in my cupboard, and then to remember
my own each right that this is. Yes, we're all busy.
It doesn't mean because we do this work that all
of a sudden we have, you know, an extra hour
(10:08):
in the day to chop from scratch or cook beans
from scratch, and so often, and I'm guessing this comes
up for you too. So if we do give the
flexibility and the liberty of having someone really understand that
having things in your pantry in the freezer are beyond
not just okay, but truly reach for them and make
(10:30):
it more accessible. Often the question comes up about nutrition,
the nutritional value. What happens when you minimally process food
versus having something fresh, either from a garden or bought
at a farmer's market or the grocery store. So what
are the differences in nutritional aspects with the different types
of processing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's a great question. It comes up a lot with
my patients, right, and you know I struggle with that myself.
First off, when you think about fresh, I am a
big supporter of local farmers' markets, growing food ourselves. But
we know when you look at the data, especially in
North Texas where I'm at, what we can grow in
a garden is you know, it's kind of like the
garnish on the plate, right, it's not providing most of
(11:10):
the nourishing calories that we need to really sustain good health.
So fresh at most grocery stores is a subjective term,
you know, I'm not I don't want to disparage the
beautiful food that you see there because it can and
often is very healthy. But you know, sometimes you think, hey,
look at that. Look at the journey of most tomatoes
(11:31):
to the grocery store, for example. You know, they're picked
oftentimes when they're green, and then they can ripen on
the counter as they travel to the grocery store. But
it you know, days, weeks, in the case of some
food on our shelves, sometimes months or or even up
to a year before it's actually put on a counter
a purchase at the grocery store as a fresh option, right,
(11:54):
whereas we can trast that with most frozen food or
most canted food. The factories where you know, peaches are canned,
for example, it's right, it's five miles ten miles down
the road from the peach tree farm and there they
wait until that peach is perfectly ripe and it's had
an opportunity to really optimize those micronutrients, and then it's
(12:17):
brought a few miles down the road to the factory
and with very minimal processing. You know, maybe there's a
little bit of heat. You know, I grew up actually
in a farm, and we canned peaches. That's how we
got through the wintertime. You know, I lived in rural
Idaho canning peaches was just part of it, and I
know really mostly it's steam with very few, if any
(12:40):
additives at all added to that process. There is sometimes
with frozen food and impact to vitamin C. Vitamin C
is used as an antioxidant by the body, and it
can be fragile. So there's some data that with some
foods it depends on the food group, that your vitamin
C content in frozen can sometimes drop between about forty
(13:02):
to sixty percent, but that there is actually some data
that suggests that some of this micronutrient content actually it's
more readily preserved when we're canning. So when we are
looking at opportunities to nourish ourselves in a practical way,
when you think about food waste, for example, I know
(13:22):
that that's a new topic to throw in here. Food
isn't nutrition until we consume it. And currently in America
we throw away about forty percent of our food that
we purchase, mostly fruits and vegetables. Nobody's getting nourished, right,
So when we have frozen food or canned food, it
gives us a wide margin of error. We're much more
(13:44):
likely to consume that product before it goes bad. So
for me as a culinary dietitian, I really try to
help my patients contextualize like, oh, is there a small
drop in nutrients here? What about that? I said, you know,
in a lab that might be yes or no, But
I want you to think about the practical approach of
what this looks like for you in your kitchen at home.
(14:07):
And we've all been there where we pull a bag
of you know, like zucchini out of the back of
the fridge and you're like, uh, oh, uh oh, nobody's
nobody's getting any nourishment from this, and those micronutrients are
are history. So i'd I say the practical approach is
if you have a way to purchase food that is
(14:27):
going to be nourishing, you know, in a two weeks,
three weeks, six months from now. That's the reality of
nourishing our bodies in today's world.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
That is such gem of information. There's a couple things
I want to touch on. Number One, as soon as
you said the zucchini in the back of the drawer,
I'm picturing zucchini or cucumbers where your finger goes right
through you.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, I do adore them, and you know, I you know,
I have a lot of fresh food in my fridge
right now, and I love the accommodation of you know, hey,
I go to the grocery store, I'm home with things.
I buy that cucumber. I'm going to want to eat
that in the next few days. Oh but guess what.
I also bought some can beans and some can tomatoes
I bought, so I have a little bit more margin
(15:10):
of error with those products, right, and then I can
combine and make those things work. But yeah, I mean,
I have to be honest as a culinary dietician. I
often am not there in time to resuscitate some sad cilantro.
Although I do have a tip for that. I know
that it's not specifically what we're here to talk about,
but I always say, get your fresh herbs out of
(15:31):
the plastic bags they sell those in at the grocery store.
If that's where you're getting your herbs. If you put
them in a glass of water, treat them like fresh flowers,
cut off snip off the ends, and then they look
fancy in your fridge. It'll last for four times longer.
So I'm all about preserving your food. We want to
eat it and it looks really pretty and you feel
super fancy.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
M that sounds like you're ready for social media posting
with that visual.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I know, right like I'm just gonna put my cilantro
out and take my picture boom. I know it's all
about looking fancy.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
That's good one of the parts I love. And not
only what you said, like it's not nutrients still it
goes in our body, but also the sense of how
it's cooked. So you mentioned like for example, the vitamin
C is sensitive, fragile, and yet when we can tomatoes
or when we cook tomatoes, then the lycopene rises. So
the sense of knowing the difference of the micro nutrients
(16:24):
and not having to memorize it, just loosening up and
say I'm going to get different nutrients. Yeah, packages of
micronutrients in different forms. Okay, so tomatoes, canned tomatoes, I
feel like those we often can use with confidence. We
feel confident saying it. Let's go to canned fruit because
I know there's a conversation a couple things. Number one,
(16:45):
like you mentioned the peaches and how quickly they go
from essentially the farm, like truly right on the tree
and they're in the cans, which is fabulous. My understanding
is they're peeled, so what happens to the fiber content
in there? I've been asked that. And number two, what
about the juice or syrup that's used? And why do
(17:07):
we have to use juice or syrup in canned fruits?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
This is fascinating science. I am at my heart of
food science, girly, So I do always have to say,
I love your the point that you made earlier about
when we're looking at a wide variety of plant foods,
we might choose a format. You know, like maybe one
day I'm eating white rice. Is it necessarily the most
nutritious option? Maybe? Maybe or not, But I'm going to
(17:30):
eat that with a wide variety of other foods, and
that can be a delivery point. So when you it
is true when we remove the skin from fruits and
vegetables and during the canning process with peaches, we are
reducing a small amount of fiber. It's true, but the
canning process itself, fiber is a durable substance. It's you know,
(17:53):
it's not going to go away when it's canned. It's
still going to retain that. So, yes, you do use
lose small amount of fiber there. I always think about
what am I eating those peaches with. Of course, you
could open up a can of peaches and enjoy them
by themselves, or you can make them into One of
my favorite things to do is make a really nourishing dessert.
(18:13):
It's very very lightly sweet with canned peaches with a
cobbler topping of you know, whole grains and oats and
adds a lot of dietary fiber along with that. You
could cut up those peaches and put them into an
oatmeal for breakfast with the light sweetness of the peach
(18:34):
or the fruit along with that. So it's an opportunity
to add a little bit of naturally occurring sweetness along
with more fiber rich foods. And if you're following that
dietary pattern all day long, you're going to be much
more likely to beat that fiber recommendation, which unfortunately less
than half of us do right now.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
And as far as how canned fruits are canned, so
sometimes you see either heavy syrup or light syrup or
in juice, why not do water?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
This is fascinating. So I have to be really transparent
and say that I was always trained as a dietitian.
You want that fruit in water, not in syrup juice, right,
which makes sense on paper until you look at the
actual science of what happens when you put a piece
(19:22):
of fruit into water. Right, we have two different you know,
you know, it creates almost stick of vacuum where we're
pulling out the sweetness that's naturally occurring in the fruit
and it goes out into the water, essentially creating a syrup.
But that leaves your fruit. You know, not only does
it not taste as good, but it also kind of
damages the structural integrity. It just tastes off. So feedback
(19:47):
from years and years and years of consumers saying this
fruit doesn't taste very good at all really led us
to take a closer look at what happens scientifically in
that can. So what they do now that preserves that
So we have that that equal density or intensity of
nutrients on both sides, is they can it in its
(20:10):
own juice, so that way everything is equal. It's we're
not pulling any of the flavor, any of the nutrition,
any of the density out of the fruit. So that way,
when you pull that out, you have that fruit just
as it went in.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I feel like I have to end with the word isotonic.
I don't often get to use that in at So
you're putting an isotonic solution where you're creating that thirteen
percent sweetness on the fruit as well as.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I wasn't going to go in there and with a
renin angiotensin analogy there, but maybe some of our more
sciencing people, I think isotonic is a it sounds. It
is as impressive as it sounds. You want to hang out,
I always say, you know you've got a club, a
party happening on. You want equal equal fun happening on
(21:01):
both sides of that cell. Well, so yes, thank you
for whipping that in there. It's an isotonic adjustment.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I wanted to touch base on what you said of
creating this cobbler otherwise, so I'm gonna say what I
would do and please correct me if I'm wrong. So
in that scenario with the peaches, I would pull out
the peaches from the syrup I and not use the
syrup yet the natural sweetness again, this equilibrium of the
sweetness that has occurred. Now you're pulling that peach out,
(21:30):
you're using it and remembering that's the source of your sweetness,
so you may not need to add any additional sugar,
just like we talk about when I do this work
in if I'm making a caesar salad, a white bean
caesar salad, for example, and the saltiness may be coming
from my capers, it may be coming from my cheese source,
so I may not need to add additional salt. So
(21:50):
in this scenario, that's how I would look at this.
I'm making a fruit forward dessert and the peaches are
bringing the sweetness to the party, and because they have
the fire, it essentially balances out the blood sugar going up.
But you taken away Molett is a dietitian of how
you would answer, because people still get so concerned about
the sweetness. I'm eating sugar and what's it going to
(22:12):
do to my body short and long term? So how
would you approach this?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Well? I love your approach. I feel like we hang
out so much, doctor Falca, that we might be simpatico
in a number of respects. But again, I lean back
into that philosophy that we hear of. Just as there
are no superfoods, there is no one food that when
we consume that food that's going to solve all of
our nutritional problems and make us beautiful and charming people.
(22:39):
There's also, especially when we're talking about desserts or natural
the sweetness. So when we're talking about fruit, there is
a differentiation between added sugar and naturally occurring sugar. So
I think it's important to say yes, when we are
adding fruit juice into the can, is that added sugar?
Does that meet the definition of Yes it does. But
(23:01):
when we're pulling out that is exactly what I do.
I will drain the fruit when I open up pulping
up a can of fruit, and typically drain out that juice.
Some folks might want to incorporate that, But then would
you need to add an additional added sugar, you know,
to if you were creating a dessert. No, that could
serve as its own, which also saves money, saves time,
(23:24):
and could be a great choice. So, yes, there is
a small amount of added sugar in that juice. But
when we're looking at increasing consumption of naturally occurring sugar,
does the fruit that is used in canning, is that
is still a naturally occurring sugar source, absolutely, which has
(23:45):
a lot of the other benefits that we touched on
dietary fiber. We're incorporating dietary fiber. So when we talk
about consuming sugar, for a lot of folks that are
managing blood sugar, whether they have type two diabetes or
they're concerned about other issue, choose when you consume sugar
along with fiber that has different impacts for our body.
(24:05):
It's not going to spike our blood sugar. You know,
it's a slower increase in our blood glucose levels, and
then it doesn't fall off as quickly, which creates those
sugar lows, which gets us craving more simple carbohydratestic We
create that cycle of sadness I call it. You know,
(24:26):
you have something with a lot of sugar in it,
very little fiber. We crash. We want to reach for
something quick to fix our problem, and then you get
all of this up and down and up and down,
which impacts our health and wellness. So do I believe
as a dietitian that canned fruit, when used appropriately, can
be a part of a nourishing Mediterranean diet approach to health.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Absolutely, Mic drop on that you have spoken the yeah,
and it's and it's that loosening up of ourselves. So
if we have access to can and that is what
we are able to have in our kitchen to realize
that just like you just said that that is food
that fits into the Mediterranean pattern of meating, and you've
(25:11):
said it so eloquently. I so appreciate you talking about
this isotonic or similar amount of sugar between the juice
or light syrup that it's used and the actual fruit.
And that amount of the light syrup or juice is
about thirteen percent. So if you are buying canned fruit,
it's important to know what to look for, and what
you want is either can in its own juice or
(25:32):
fruit juice or light syrup, and that again is going
to be that equal amount that Malet just talked about.
What you want to avoid if at all possible, is
the heavy syrup because that does have a sugar content
that it's higher than the natural fruit, so that would
give you more added sugars. If you have no option
(25:53):
then making sure with holing out the fruit from the
syrup that it was used for and trying to drain
it of any excess sugger. Hopefully that's helpful for purchasing
and feeling more comfortable with canned fruit. Since we're talking
about canned foods the can itself, what is the concern
or should there be a concern about the steel cans
(26:15):
or BPA because that's another reluctance that people have about
using can goods.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
I always like to emphasize that, you know, when we're
talking about canned fruit, when we're talking about canned beans,
when we're talking about can tomatoes, these staples that could
help build our health in our pantry, most of those
are BPA free, and it's very easy to flip that
label over. It's going to be on the back of
the label, very recognizable. So looking for that, if that's
(26:43):
something that is a particular concern, you can go in
your pantry right now and ensure yourself, Hey, this is
BPA free. That's the standard of quality in with canned
food now. I actually the steel can. To me talking
about sustainability, steel cans are highly recyclable. You know, you
rich those and that I know, I feel better as
(27:06):
somebody who is concerned about the sustainability not just of
my own personal ecosystem, but our planet thinking about you know,
this is something that contributes to a healthier planet and
reduces food waste. You know, packaging, food packaging just there's
a lot out there, so steel cans. It's a healthy
way to preserve food that I support.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Now going back into the culinary medicine brain, So if
I make a smoothie with say canned cherries or the
fruit salad or all these how as far as feeling
satiated after the meal, if I've made that smoothie, does
it change how long I feel full? If I'm if
I'm having those in a smoothie, if I'd used fresh
(27:49):
or if I'd eaten the fresh fruit versus making a smoothie.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
You know, it's interesting. There was a systematic review a
few years ago looking at a variety of studies that
analyze the difference, you know, the role of mastication or
chewing mastications just the fun sciencey way to say we
chew our food. So there's a lot of mechanisms that
talk about, you know, when you're actually actively chewing your
(28:15):
food versus drinking your calories in the form of a smoothie,
what does that What is the role of satiety? Does
that impact our gut microbiome? What signals are we sending
to our brain? So during the processing of fruit in
a can, it makes them. It can make it a
little bit softer, easy to easier to consume. As we
(28:37):
mentioned earlier, that doesn't impact the fiber though the fiber
is still there. Just cooked fruit is a little bit softer,
it's a little bit it might be a little easier
to digest. So if we're concerned about satiety, chewing your
food all offers a number of benefits. This study was
really interesting. You know, they looked at a lot of
(28:57):
things including you know, pizza. You know, whether you chew
a piece of pizza up forty times or ten times,
and then we evaluate what does that do to our
homeown levels that regulate satiety, such as grellin or naturally
occur in GLP one looking for opportunities if you're drinking
as smoothie, whether you're putting in fresh fruit or frozen
fruit or canned fruit, is there opportunities to add additional
(29:20):
dietary fiber. I like to mix in oats into my
smoothies to add a little bit more dietary fiber. But
just the fruit naturally occurring, we're not adding simply juice,
we're adding the whole fruit in there is going to
offer a lot of those benefits that ate satiety. But
then I always think, you know, you could always pair
(29:40):
that as a dietitian. I say, what do we know
promotes satiety? Protein produce, So the dietary fiber that's going
to be in produce, which is very prevalent and present
in canned food, versus protein. So making sure that we're
including a protein source in our smoothie. Sometimes that might
look like, hey, maybe you want to blend some tofu
(30:02):
in there. Maybe you want to add some Greek yogurt.
When you have a nice blund, a great breakfast or
a great lunch or a great dinner is going to
be a blend of lean protein, quality carbohydrate and maybe
a little bit of a healthy bat that's going to
promote society and give you everything you need to feel
nice and full, keep your energy levels till you get
your next dose of nourishment.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Two last questions, Are you ready? I'm ready? I'm here
for it, okay. Number one, If you wanted to leave
our listeners with one takeaway or piece of advice to
carry forward, what would it be?
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Man, I know we're kind of going against my whole philosophy.
There's no one message. But if I had to say
one message. You're saying, what if we have somebody that's like, Yes,
Molett and doctor Falkier have convinced me that I want
to invest in my personal nourishment by having a healthy
pantry that I can rely on. How do I get
(31:01):
started with that? My one piece of advice would be
to take the same approach that I do in clinic
with anybody who wants to big change, start small, Start small,
and think about yourself. Who you are right now, what
resources do you have, how much space do you have
to a lot to this? How much money do you
have to a lot to this? Trust me, there is
(31:23):
a cottage industry out there, people who would love to
take your money and tell you what to do. My
advice is think about what you use to nourish your
body now and how can you make that work in
a pantry. And that could be like, you know, you
go to the store and maybe you buy an extra
bag of the rice that you know you and your
family like, or Hey, look can tomatoes are on sale
(31:46):
instead of just one can for pasta for tonight, I'm
going to buy you know, they're on sale, I'm to
get I'm going to pick up five or six cans.
Start small and make a plan using food that you
know that you and your family like right now, and
then you can always expand on that. And if you're
not quite sure what works for you at home yet,
you can make a list and do an inventory. What
(32:07):
are some recipes things that I like? Is there a
way that canned food could make this more convenient and
nourishing for me? To make it more accessible? So that
would be my one piece of advice. Think about yourself,
make one or two small changes, and then build from there.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Now for your last question, what's one myth or misconception
in your field you wish more people understood?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
That is so deep. Okay, I'm going to tell you
one that came up just recently. Dietitians. We're a little
bit of a rarity in the world. There's some barriers
to getting care with a dietitian, especially if you're wanting
to utilize your insurance. It's changing, but it's still growing.
So a lot of times when people know that I'm
a dietitian, they think I'm the food police. Andy, I'm
(32:55):
gonna tell you right now, me and every other dietitian
I know that that's not really our role, right, We're
here to help you. We're here to be an asset
for you to help you figure out how to make
your nutrition goals work. So when I'm in the lunch
room with somebody and I'm looking at their plate of food,
the initial advice is they cover their plate. They're like, oh, no,
(33:17):
the dietitian is going to judge me.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
For my lunch.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
And I said, I guarantee if a dietitian is looking
at your plate, they're probably wondering if it's good and
if you would give them a bite if you have
they asked. We're here to be your friend. We're here
to help We're here to help you meet your health
and nutrition goals. We're not here to judge you. We
want to make a change in the world so it's
more accessible and affordable for everybody to have access to nourishing,
(33:42):
delicious food.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I'm guessing you have had the experience as I have
had at the grocery store where you run into somebody
you know and they look at what you're purchasing. Yes, yes,
I feel sometimes with that because I get most of
my produce from the farmer's market or a specific place.
So when I am at a more routine grocery store.
(34:04):
There isn't much produce in there, and I feel like
I have to add a ps, this is not this
is not my produce. Run.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I don't get it all here. Yeah, I've Actually my
son's birthday was a few weeks ago, and I had
bought you know, he wanted a specific ice cream and
all of the fixings were his favorite dinner, which you
know is not an everyday dinner clearly. And yeah, I
did have someone say, oh, someone's having a party. I'm well, yes,
(34:32):
the party not every day, This is not every day.
I'm like, you know what, I need to chill. You know,
we're just as influenced by that as well, you know
what we should be as clinicians. I love doctor Tim Harlan.
He says, you know, everyone needs help managing their relationship
with food, whether you're an internist or truck driver or dietitian.
(34:55):
We can always look for opportunities to improve. So I
view those as it's an opportunity for me to be
humble and recognize that, you know, I don't have to
be perfect.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
And also I encourage the ice cream moments, the celebrations.
That's what they're about is celebration and to not feel
any sense of shame or otherwise. Is there anything you
haven't said, as we've had this incredible conversation that you
want our listeners to know.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You can do it. You know, sometimes we look at
where we are now and where we want to be,
or where we assume our healthcare provider wants us to be,
and it feels like an ivory tower out of touch.
You know, that's just not attainable. And the truth is
that what keeps us from help, especially in this country.
(35:50):
It's not the nodding moments I'm like, oh, I'm eating
this and I'm bad, I'm eating that and I shouldn't.
It's what we don't eat that gets us into trouble
far more than anything else. So looking for opportunities to
be more inclusive with ourselves to yes, as you mentioned,
celebrate the treats. But then all, where can I find
more nutrient dense, calorie bang for my buck as I
(36:13):
like to call it, Where I can get more of
the things that matter, more fruits, more vegetables, more nuts
and seeds, more whole grains. Where are the Are there
any opportunities for me to pivot just a little bit
to allow more of this nourishment to enrich my life.
I want people to understand that you're not as far
(36:34):
off as you think. A better you, a more healthy, nourished,
mindful you, is within your grasp.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
How can people reach you?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Oh, okay, so I'm getting better at the socials. I'm
getting better at the social media. Probably the most accessible
way to reach me and where I reach others is
on LinkedIn. As far as I know, I'm the only
Malette out there, so finding me on LinkedIn. I do
have a Instagram account that is willfully neglected rd Foody Mallet.
(37:09):
That's where you can find me on an Instagram, but
LinkedIn is probably the best way to do that. And
I have several publications as well, thank.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
You and as I want to thank you so much.
And one of the things that didn't come out in
the conversation but I do want to emphasize is the
work that you and doctor Albin have done of moving
clinical culinary medicine forward in a way that is first
in the country, of utilizing people's insurance so do shared
medical appointments consultation service, and I mean, I know that's
(37:41):
just a tip of the Iceberg of the work you're doing,
but you are moving mountains and you're opening up doors
for the rest of the country to be able to
follow suit and realizing that culinary medicine really does fit
into our current medical system. So I thank you for
all of you, from your humor to your wisdom, to
your willingness to share this time with us. And it's really, really,
(38:02):
really been a pleasure, not just to sit here with you,
but to know you for all these years. So thank
you so much.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Mollett, thank you very much. It was my distinct pleasure
to be a part of this conversation today.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
I hope you feel motivated by this episode. Please leave
us a rating and a review and mention our show
to others who you think could use this information. That
could be your doctor, it could be somebody who works
in the food service industry who's interested in the health components.
It could be a friend that is working on their
health journey. If you want to hear more, please remember
to follow Culinary Medicine Recipe on your favorite podcast listening platform.
(38:38):
Until next time, Sandu and Bona Pettie. All content provided
or opinions expressed in this episode are for informational purposes only,
and are not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please
take advice from your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional.
There's a lot of nutrient dense, very nourishing food that
comes in can form that is minimally processed by the way,
I like to celebrate that not all canned food is
heavily processed. Sometimes, even as a dietician, I kind of
fall into that help halo. Everything has to be fresh,
but there are lots of options that retain a lot
of those nutrients and offer a lot of practical approaches
(00:21):
to feeding ourselves.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to culinary Medicine Recipe. I'm so happy you're here.
I'm your host, doctor Sabrina Falke. I was a primary
care doctor for sixteen years and went to school for
four years to specialize in culinary medicine. In this work,
I get to combine my passionate expertise in both medicine
and food to teach people about food is medicine and
to empower them to understand what ingredients optimize health and
(00:46):
also how to cook those ingredients to make delicious meals.
On the show, I interviewed top chefs, doctors, healthcare visionaries,
and food service professionals who are making great strides in
the field of culinary medicine. Join me as we continue
to explore or the amazing world of culinary medicine, where
I will empower you to make changes to your health
and wellness with great food right away. Welcome to today's show.
(01:11):
I'd like to thank the sponsor today's episode, Pacific Coast Producers.
I'm so excited for today's guest, Mallette Siler, who's an RD.
I have known her for about seven years and she
has done incredible work advancing the food is Medicine movement
in a variety of ways. She's done over a decade
of work in the culinary medicine space, including enhancing nutrition
(01:32):
education for medical students, residents, and health professionals. She's also
started a culinary medicine clinical service line with a physician
in this work, and she's transformed community kitchens into clinical
spaces where patients can utilize insurance for culinary medicine shared
medical appointments. Well, I'm so excited that we're here having
this conversation. I welcome your wisdom and I really am
(01:53):
looking forward to getting into it. Welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I'm very excited to join you on a very stormy
Texas morning. So if you hear a little bit of thunder,
a little bit of rumble. It's not me getting ready
for lunch. It's the weather.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I love it. Coming from San Diego, we don't often
have weather, so my neighbor next to me and I
actually will text each other. Did you see there's weather outside?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's a bomby eighty degrees? Oh wait a gus.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well that would be too hot. We like it, misszo.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Oh okay, see, I'm learning things too. You know, I've
had the best guacamle of my life in San Diego,
most beautiful avocado I've ever seen, and I'm a connoisseur.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So oh that sounds delicious. All right, with already our
mouth salivating, let's get started. So you and I have
known each other seven ish years, and it has been
amazing to see your career shifting and the work that
you're doing at ut Southwestern just growing in so many
different aspects and it has been amazing to watch. And
(02:55):
part of it has been you continuing to find your
voice to reach different graphics. So with that in mind,
why does food is medicine matter?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Why are we having this conversation? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, let's talk about it because I had someone ask me,
you know, food is medicine is really having a moment
and I kind of looked at them askance and said,
you know, food is medicine has been around is a
topic for thousands of years, right, we're just now getting
around to really talking about it in the United States,
and how does it fit within a framework. It's not
(03:30):
a fringe topic anymore. I think it's important when we're
talking about food is medicine or food is medicine. You know,
those two terms are similar, but they kind of get
bandied around to really define it acknowledge that for some
folks it's controversial because anytime we're talking about food, food
can be the poison, but it's also the remedy.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Food is medicine is an approach where we're incorporating food
and food focus education directly in your healthcare. Right, whether
preventing disease or we're managing symptoms, or we are treating
disease with food. It's controversial. I work in oncology, That's
been part of my background. I started doing this work
(04:16):
in the teaching kitchen alongside an outpatient oncology practice, and
I determined really early on before it got really hip
and popular, hey, you know, this is never designed to
replace traditional medical nutrition therapy. But it's a really useful
tool in my toolkit. So why does food as medicine matter?
(04:39):
As a clinician? I was determining early on that my
job as a dietician was to give advice and to
talk about behavior change, and to offer tools, offer educational handouts,
and tell folks what they needed to do as far
as lifestyle and behavior change to help them through their
(05:00):
cancer journey. And you know, I felt like we were
making a lot of progress getting folks to see why
is this important? How does it directly impact my health?
But where we continually struggled as clinicians, myself included is
how how do I implement that? So much of the
work I did as a dietitian was talking about macro nutrients,
(05:24):
talking about dietary fiber. We're talking about grams, we're talking
about milligrams. We might be giving a picture, but there
were folks who just weren't connecting the dots. So when
we switch and were able to bring them into a
teaching kitchen and tie in that clinical context with the food,
with the how putting food in people's hands, putting carrots
(05:45):
in people's hands, it's showing them how to make coal
grains taste delicious. It really overcame a lot of those barriers.
My dear friend and physician partner, doctor Jacqueline Alvin, who
has been really integral into shaping my personal approach to
food is medicine, says it best, and she says, you know,
just like everything else in our country, nothing seems to
(06:05):
be the easy people want. It's this, or it's that.
It's pharmacotherapy and traditional medicine or food is medicine, and
they don't really align. And that's just not the approach
that I think works best for most people. We want
both options, the whole myriad of spectrum of options integrated
(06:26):
as tools in toolkits for clinicians, and they have their
evidence based hat on and that I can say a
blend of all these things work. Yes, we might want
you to have you to continue your statins, but we're
also going to take a look at how can we
build flavor, reduce reliance on sodium, and get more potassium
in your diet by following a Mediterranean diet pattern. That
(06:49):
could help you as well, and potentially we could move
off some of that statin medicine. But right now we're
using both as an approach.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I love that you're emphasizing that it's not one or
the other, because often when we're talking about food is medicine,
people assume that we're in this space against medications like
you mentioned Staton, so cholesterol lowering medications, or especially working
with oncology. So if someone has cancer, it's not saying well,
chemo or a carrot, it's looking at what are the
(07:19):
tools that can be used. So in the teaching kitchen,
when you're empowering people, how does that conversation go as
far as if you want people to eat more produce,
for example, we'll stay on that side. How does that
play out of how to empower people after they take
your class to have this continue in their own households.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Oh, that's such a great question. How do we implement that?
And that again is going to be individualized, But we
find that whether you are a participant at a food
pantry like that's where you're getting the majority of your food,
or if you have plenty of resources and you could
go to any grocery store, if you're going to specialty
food stores, there are opportunities to make it more simple,
(08:02):
to make it more functional. You know, I work with
for example, folks who have cancer and you know, they
might not have access issues, but they might have time
issues they're going to treatments, or their energy levels are suffering.
So anything that I can do to make the nourishing
option the most accessible option for you is going to work.
(08:24):
So part of my method as a culinary dietitian is
showing people how to meal plan, showing people how to
identify some recipes, things that are nourishing, things that are delicious,
things that they and their loved ones appreciate. One of
the greatest tools we have is the ability to have
(08:46):
three or five simple meals that we can make, whether
that's middle of the week, we're tired, we're lazy, we
don't want to put our mental energy into figuring out food,
and it's just a couple of steps away. It's in
our freezer, it's in our pantry. These are things that
are shelf stable or frozen, and you can pull them
out and you can rely on them and pair them
(09:07):
with other fresh products. You know, maybe we've got like
a lovely some fresh cilantro or some mint, and then
we've got some canned beans in canned tomatoes, and we
can pull that out and make a quick salsa that's
a blend. As we mentioned before, it doesn't have to
be all this or all that. It's just another tool.
There's a lot of nutrient dense, very nourishing food that
(09:28):
comes in can form that is minimally processed. By the way,
I like to celebrate that not all canned food is
heavily processed. Sometimes, you know, even as a dietitian, I
kind of fall into that help halo. Everything has to
be fresh, but there are lots of options that retain
a lot of those nutrients and offer a lot of
practical approaches to feeding ourselves.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I feel like I have to emphasize that I, even
personally in my own household doing this work, I sometimes
will feel guilty. It's like, oh, I'm using something that's
minimally processed that's in my cupboard, and then to remember
my own each right that this is. Yes, we're all busy.
It doesn't mean because we do this work that all
of a sudden we have, you know, an extra hour
(10:08):
in the day to chop from scratch or cook beans
from scratch, and so often, and I'm guessing this comes
up for you too. So if we do give the
flexibility and the liberty of having someone really understand that
having things in your pantry in the freezer are beyond
not just okay, but truly reach for them and make
(10:30):
it more accessible. Often the question comes up about nutrition,
the nutritional value. What happens when you minimally process food
versus having something fresh, either from a garden or bought
at a farmer's market or the grocery store. So what
are the differences in nutritional aspects with the different types
of processing.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's a great question. It comes up a lot with
my patients, right, and you know I struggle with that myself.
First off, when you think about fresh, I am a
big supporter of local farmers' markets, growing food ourselves. But
we know when you look at the data, especially in
North Texas where I'm at, what we can grow in
a garden is you know, it's kind of like the
garnish on the plate, right, it's not providing most of
(11:10):
the nourishing calories that we need to really sustain good health.
So fresh at most grocery stores is a subjective term,
you know, I'm not I don't want to disparage the
beautiful food that you see there because it can and
often is very healthy. But you know, sometimes you think, hey,
look at that. Look at the journey of most tomatoes
(11:31):
to the grocery store, for example. You know, they're picked
oftentimes when they're green, and then they can ripen on
the counter as they travel to the grocery store. But
it you know, days, weeks, in the case of some
food on our shelves, sometimes months or or even up
to a year before it's actually put on a counter
a purchase at the grocery store as a fresh option, right,
(11:54):
whereas we can trast that with most frozen food or
most canted food. The factories where you know, peaches are canned,
for example, it's right, it's five miles ten miles down
the road from the peach tree farm and there they
wait until that peach is perfectly ripe and it's had
an opportunity to really optimize those micronutrients, and then it's
(12:17):
brought a few miles down the road to the factory
and with very minimal processing. You know, maybe there's a
little bit of heat. You know, I grew up actually
in a farm, and we canned peaches. That's how we
got through the wintertime. You know, I lived in rural
Idaho canning peaches was just part of it, and I
know really mostly it's steam with very few, if any
(12:40):
additives at all added to that process. There is sometimes
with frozen food and impact to vitamin C. Vitamin C
is used as an antioxidant by the body, and it
can be fragile. So there's some data that with some
foods it depends on the food group, that your vitamin
C content in frozen can sometimes drop between about forty
(13:02):
to sixty percent, but that there is actually some data
that suggests that some of this micronutrient content actually it's
more readily preserved when we're canning. So when we are
looking at opportunities to nourish ourselves in a practical way,
when you think about food waste, for example, I know
(13:22):
that that's a new topic to throw in here. Food
isn't nutrition until we consume it. And currently in America
we throw away about forty percent of our food that
we purchase, mostly fruits and vegetables. Nobody's getting nourished, right,
So when we have frozen food or canned food, it
gives us a wide margin of error. We're much more
(13:44):
likely to consume that product before it goes bad. So
for me as a culinary dietitian, I really try to
help my patients contextualize like, oh, is there a small
drop in nutrients here? What about that? I said, you know,
in a lab that might be yes or no, But
I want you to think about the practical approach of
what this looks like for you in your kitchen at home.
(14:07):
And we've all been there where we pull a bag
of you know, like zucchini out of the back of
the fridge and you're like, uh, oh, uh oh, nobody's
nobody's getting any nourishment from this, and those micronutrients are
are history. So i'd I say the practical approach is
if you have a way to purchase food that is
(14:27):
going to be nourishing, you know, in a two weeks,
three weeks, six months from now. That's the reality of
nourishing our bodies in today's world.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
That is such gem of information. There's a couple things
I want to touch on. Number One, as soon as
you said the zucchini in the back of the drawer,
I'm picturing zucchini or cucumbers where your finger goes right
through you.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, I do adore them, and you know, I you know,
I have a lot of fresh food in my fridge
right now, and I love the accommodation of you know, hey,
I go to the grocery store, I'm home with things.
I buy that cucumber. I'm going to want to eat
that in the next few days. Oh but guess what.
I also bought some can beans and some can tomatoes
I bought, so I have a little bit more margin
(15:10):
of error with those products, right, and then I can
combine and make those things work. But yeah, I mean,
I have to be honest as a culinary dietician. I
often am not there in time to resuscitate some sad cilantro.
Although I do have a tip for that. I know
that it's not specifically what we're here to talk about,
but I always say, get your fresh herbs out of
(15:31):
the plastic bags they sell those in at the grocery store.
If that's where you're getting your herbs. If you put
them in a glass of water, treat them like fresh flowers,
cut off snip off the ends, and then they look
fancy in your fridge. It'll last for four times longer.
So I'm all about preserving your food. We want to
eat it and it looks really pretty and you feel
super fancy.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
M that sounds like you're ready for social media posting
with that visual.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I know, right like I'm just gonna put my cilantro
out and take my picture boom. I know it's all
about looking fancy.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
That's good one of the parts I love. And not
only what you said, like it's not nutrients still it
goes in our body, but also the sense of how
it's cooked. So you mentioned like for example, the vitamin
C is sensitive, fragile, and yet when we can tomatoes
or when we cook tomatoes, then the lycopene rises. So
the sense of knowing the difference of the micro nutrients
(16:24):
and not having to memorize it, just loosening up and
say I'm going to get different nutrients. Yeah, packages of
micronutrients in different forms. Okay, so tomatoes, canned tomatoes, I
feel like those we often can use with confidence. We
feel confident saying it. Let's go to canned fruit because
I know there's a conversation a couple things. Number one,
(16:45):
like you mentioned the peaches and how quickly they go
from essentially the farm, like truly right on the tree
and they're in the cans, which is fabulous. My understanding
is they're peeled, so what happens to the fiber content
in there? I've been asked that. And number two, what
about the juice or syrup that's used? And why do
(17:07):
we have to use juice or syrup in canned fruits?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
This is fascinating science. I am at my heart of
food science, girly, So I do always have to say,
I love your the point that you made earlier about
when we're looking at a wide variety of plant foods,
we might choose a format. You know, like maybe one
day I'm eating white rice. Is it necessarily the most
nutritious option? Maybe? Maybe or not, But I'm going to
(17:30):
eat that with a wide variety of other foods, and
that can be a delivery point. So when you it
is true when we remove the skin from fruits and
vegetables and during the canning process with peaches, we are
reducing a small amount of fiber. It's true, but the
canning process itself, fiber is a durable substance. It's you know,
(17:53):
it's not going to go away when it's canned. It's
still going to retain that. So, yes, you do use
lose small amount of fiber there. I always think about
what am I eating those peaches with. Of course, you
could open up a can of peaches and enjoy them
by themselves, or you can make them into One of
my favorite things to do is make a really nourishing dessert.
(18:13):
It's very very lightly sweet with canned peaches with a
cobbler topping of you know, whole grains and oats and
adds a lot of dietary fiber along with that. You
could cut up those peaches and put them into an
oatmeal for breakfast with the light sweetness of the peach
(18:34):
or the fruit along with that. So it's an opportunity
to add a little bit of naturally occurring sweetness along
with more fiber rich foods. And if you're following that
dietary pattern all day long, you're going to be much
more likely to beat that fiber recommendation, which unfortunately less
than half of us do right now.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
And as far as how canned fruits are canned, so
sometimes you see either heavy syrup or light syrup or
in juice, why not do water?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
This is fascinating. So I have to be really transparent
and say that I was always trained as a dietitian.
You want that fruit in water, not in syrup juice, right,
which makes sense on paper until you look at the
actual science of what happens when you put a piece
(19:22):
of fruit into water. Right, we have two different you know,
you know, it creates almost stick of vacuum where we're
pulling out the sweetness that's naturally occurring in the fruit
and it goes out into the water, essentially creating a syrup.
But that leaves your fruit. You know, not only does
it not taste as good, but it also kind of
damages the structural integrity. It just tastes off. So feedback
(19:47):
from years and years and years of consumers saying this
fruit doesn't taste very good at all really led us
to take a closer look at what happens scientifically in
that can. So what they do now that preserves that
So we have that that equal density or intensity of
nutrients on both sides, is they can it in its
(20:10):
own juice, so that way everything is equal. It's we're
not pulling any of the flavor, any of the nutrition,
any of the density out of the fruit. So that way,
when you pull that out, you have that fruit just
as it went in.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I feel like I have to end with the word isotonic.
I don't often get to use that in at So
you're putting an isotonic solution where you're creating that thirteen
percent sweetness on the fruit as well as.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I wasn't going to go in there and with a
renin angiotensin analogy there, but maybe some of our more
sciencing people, I think isotonic is a it sounds. It
is as impressive as it sounds. You want to hang out,
I always say, you know you've got a club, a
party happening on. You want equal equal fun happening on
(21:01):
both sides of that cell. Well, so yes, thank you
for whipping that in there. It's an isotonic adjustment.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I wanted to touch base on what you said of
creating this cobbler otherwise, so I'm gonna say what I
would do and please correct me if I'm wrong. So
in that scenario with the peaches, I would pull out
the peaches from the syrup I and not use the
syrup yet the natural sweetness again, this equilibrium of the
sweetness that has occurred. Now you're pulling that peach out,
(21:30):
you're using it and remembering that's the source of your sweetness,
so you may not need to add any additional sugar,
just like we talk about when I do this work
in if I'm making a caesar salad, a white bean
caesar salad, for example, and the saltiness may be coming
from my capers, it may be coming from my cheese source,
so I may not need to add additional salt. So
(21:50):
in this scenario, that's how I would look at this.
I'm making a fruit forward dessert and the peaches are
bringing the sweetness to the party, and because they have
the fire, it essentially balances out the blood sugar going up.
But you taken away Molett is a dietitian of how
you would answer, because people still get so concerned about
the sweetness. I'm eating sugar and what's it going to
(22:12):
do to my body short and long term? So how
would you approach this?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Well? I love your approach. I feel like we hang
out so much, doctor Falca, that we might be simpatico
in a number of respects. But again, I lean back
into that philosophy that we hear of. Just as there
are no superfoods, there is no one food that when
we consume that food that's going to solve all of
our nutritional problems and make us beautiful and charming people.
(22:39):
There's also, especially when we're talking about desserts or natural
the sweetness. So when we're talking about fruit, there is
a differentiation between added sugar and naturally occurring sugar. So
I think it's important to say yes, when we are
adding fruit juice into the can, is that added sugar?
Does that meet the definition of Yes it does. But
(23:01):
when we're pulling out that is exactly what I do.
I will drain the fruit when I open up pulping
up a can of fruit, and typically drain out that juice.
Some folks might want to incorporate that, But then would
you need to add an additional added sugar, you know,
to if you were creating a dessert. No, that could
serve as its own, which also saves money, saves time,
(23:24):
and could be a great choice. So, yes, there is
a small amount of added sugar in that juice. But
when we're looking at increasing consumption of naturally occurring sugar,
does the fruit that is used in canning, is that
is still a naturally occurring sugar source, absolutely, which has
(23:45):
a lot of the other benefits that we touched on
dietary fiber. We're incorporating dietary fiber. So when we talk
about consuming sugar, for a lot of folks that are
managing blood sugar, whether they have type two diabetes or
they're concerned about other issue, choose when you consume sugar
along with fiber that has different impacts for our body.
(24:05):
It's not going to spike our blood sugar. You know,
it's a slower increase in our blood glucose levels, and
then it doesn't fall off as quickly, which creates those
sugar lows, which gets us craving more simple carbohydratestic We
create that cycle of sadness I call it. You know,
(24:26):
you have something with a lot of sugar in it,
very little fiber. We crash. We want to reach for
something quick to fix our problem, and then you get
all of this up and down and up and down,
which impacts our health and wellness. So do I believe
as a dietitian that canned fruit, when used appropriately, can
be a part of a nourishing Mediterranean diet approach to health.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Absolutely, Mic drop on that you have spoken the yeah,
and it's and it's that loosening up of ourselves. So
if we have access to can and that is what
we are able to have in our kitchen to realize
that just like you just said that that is food
that fits into the Mediterranean pattern of meating, and you've
(25:11):
said it so eloquently. I so appreciate you talking about
this isotonic or similar amount of sugar between the juice
or light syrup that it's used and the actual fruit.
And that amount of the light syrup or juice is
about thirteen percent. So if you are buying canned fruit,
it's important to know what to look for, and what
you want is either can in its own juice or
(25:32):
fruit juice or light syrup, and that again is going
to be that equal amount that Malet just talked about.
What you want to avoid if at all possible, is
the heavy syrup because that does have a sugar content
that it's higher than the natural fruit, so that would
give you more added sugars. If you have no option
(25:53):
then making sure with holing out the fruit from the
syrup that it was used for and trying to drain
it of any excess sugger. Hopefully that's helpful for purchasing
and feeling more comfortable with canned fruit. Since we're talking
about canned foods the can itself, what is the concern
or should there be a concern about the steel cans
(26:15):
or BPA because that's another reluctance that people have about
using can goods.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
I always like to emphasize that, you know, when we're
talking about canned fruit, when we're talking about canned beans,
when we're talking about can tomatoes, these staples that could
help build our health in our pantry, most of those
are BPA free, and it's very easy to flip that
label over. It's going to be on the back of
the label, very recognizable. So looking for that, if that's
(26:43):
something that is a particular concern, you can go in
your pantry right now and ensure yourself, Hey, this is
BPA free. That's the standard of quality in with canned
food now. I actually the steel can. To me talking
about sustainability, steel cans are highly recyclable. You know, you
rich those and that I know, I feel better as
(27:06):
somebody who is concerned about the sustainability not just of
my own personal ecosystem, but our planet thinking about you know,
this is something that contributes to a healthier planet and
reduces food waste. You know, packaging, food packaging just there's
a lot out there, so steel cans. It's a healthy
way to preserve food that I support.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Now going back into the culinary medicine brain, So if
I make a smoothie with say canned cherries or the
fruit salad or all these how as far as feeling
satiated after the meal, if I've made that smoothie, does
it change how long I feel full? If I'm if
I'm having those in a smoothie, if I'd used fresh
(27:49):
or if I'd eaten the fresh fruit versus making a smoothie.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
You know, it's interesting. There was a systematic review a
few years ago looking at a variety of studies that
analyze the difference, you know, the role of mastication or
chewing mastications just the fun sciencey way to say we
chew our food. So there's a lot of mechanisms that
talk about, you know, when you're actually actively chewing your
(28:15):
food versus drinking your calories in the form of a smoothie,
what does that What is the role of satiety? Does
that impact our gut microbiome? What signals are we sending
to our brain? So during the processing of fruit in
a can, it makes them. It can make it a
little bit softer, easy to easier to consume. As we
(28:37):
mentioned earlier, that doesn't impact the fiber though the fiber
is still there. Just cooked fruit is a little bit softer,
it's a little bit it might be a little easier
to digest. So if we're concerned about satiety, chewing your
food all offers a number of benefits. This study was
really interesting. You know, they looked at a lot of
(28:57):
things including you know, pizza. You know, whether you chew
a piece of pizza up forty times or ten times,
and then we evaluate what does that do to our
homeown levels that regulate satiety, such as grellin or naturally
occur in GLP one looking for opportunities if you're drinking
as smoothie, whether you're putting in fresh fruit or frozen
fruit or canned fruit, is there opportunities to add additional
(29:20):
dietary fiber. I like to mix in oats into my
smoothies to add a little bit more dietary fiber. But
just the fruit naturally occurring, we're not adding simply juice,
we're adding the whole fruit in there is going to
offer a lot of those benefits that ate satiety. But
then I always think, you know, you could always pair
(29:40):
that as a dietitian. I say, what do we know
promotes satiety? Protein produce, So the dietary fiber that's going
to be in produce, which is very prevalent and present
in canned food, versus protein. So making sure that we're
including a protein source in our smoothie. Sometimes that might
look like, hey, maybe you want to blend some tofu
(30:02):
in there. Maybe you want to add some Greek yogurt.
When you have a nice blund, a great breakfast or
a great lunch or a great dinner is going to
be a blend of lean protein, quality carbohydrate and maybe
a little bit of a healthy bat that's going to
promote society and give you everything you need to feel
nice and full, keep your energy levels till you get
your next dose of nourishment.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Two last questions, Are you ready? I'm ready? I'm here
for it, okay. Number one, If you wanted to leave
our listeners with one takeaway or piece of advice to
carry forward, what would it be?
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Man, I know we're kind of going against my whole philosophy.
There's no one message. But if I had to say
one message. You're saying, what if we have somebody that's like, Yes,
Molett and doctor Falkier have convinced me that I want
to invest in my personal nourishment by having a healthy
pantry that I can rely on. How do I get
(31:01):
started with that? My one piece of advice would be
to take the same approach that I do in clinic
with anybody who wants to big change, start small, Start small,
and think about yourself. Who you are right now, what
resources do you have, how much space do you have
to a lot to this? How much money do you
have to a lot to this? Trust me, there is
(31:23):
a cottage industry out there, people who would love to
take your money and tell you what to do. My
advice is think about what you use to nourish your
body now and how can you make that work in
a pantry. And that could be like, you know, you
go to the store and maybe you buy an extra
bag of the rice that you know you and your
family like, or Hey, look can tomatoes are on sale
(31:46):
instead of just one can for pasta for tonight, I'm
going to buy you know, they're on sale, I'm to
get I'm going to pick up five or six cans.
Start small and make a plan using food that you
know that you and your family like right now, and
then you can always expand on that. And if you're
not quite sure what works for you at home yet,
you can make a list and do an inventory. What
(32:07):
are some recipes things that I like? Is there a
way that canned food could make this more convenient and
nourishing for me? To make it more accessible? So that
would be my one piece of advice. Think about yourself,
make one or two small changes, and then build from there.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Now for your last question, what's one myth or misconception
in your field you wish more people understood?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
That is so deep. Okay, I'm going to tell you
one that came up just recently. Dietitians. We're a little
bit of a rarity in the world. There's some barriers
to getting care with a dietitian, especially if you're wanting
to utilize your insurance. It's changing, but it's still growing.
So a lot of times when people know that I'm
a dietitian, they think I'm the food police. Andy, I'm
(32:55):
gonna tell you right now, me and every other dietitian
I know that that's not really our role, right, We're
here to help you. We're here to be an asset
for you to help you figure out how to make
your nutrition goals work. So when I'm in the lunch
room with somebody and I'm looking at their plate of food,
the initial advice is they cover their plate. They're like, oh, no,
(33:17):
the dietitian is going to judge me.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
For my lunch.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
And I said, I guarantee if a dietitian is looking
at your plate, they're probably wondering if it's good and
if you would give them a bite if you have
they asked. We're here to be your friend. We're here
to help We're here to help you meet your health
and nutrition goals. We're not here to judge you. We
want to make a change in the world so it's
more accessible and affordable for everybody to have access to nourishing,
(33:42):
delicious food.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I'm guessing you have had the experience as I have
had at the grocery store where you run into somebody
you know and they look at what you're purchasing. Yes, yes,
I feel sometimes with that because I get most of
my produce from the farmer's market or a specific place.
So when I am at a more routine grocery store.
(34:04):
There isn't much produce in there, and I feel like
I have to add a ps, this is not this
is not my produce. Run.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I don't get it all here. Yeah, I've Actually my
son's birthday was a few weeks ago, and I had
bought you know, he wanted a specific ice cream and
all of the fixings were his favorite dinner, which you
know is not an everyday dinner clearly. And yeah, I
did have someone say, oh, someone's having a party. I'm well, yes,
(34:32):
the party not every day, This is not every day.
I'm like, you know what, I need to chill. You know,
we're just as influenced by that as well, you know
what we should be as clinicians. I love doctor Tim Harlan.
He says, you know, everyone needs help managing their relationship
with food, whether you're an internist or truck driver or dietitian.
(34:55):
We can always look for opportunities to improve. So I
view those as it's an opportunity for me to be
humble and recognize that, you know, I don't have to
be perfect.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
And also I encourage the ice cream moments, the celebrations.
That's what they're about is celebration and to not feel
any sense of shame or otherwise. Is there anything you
haven't said, as we've had this incredible conversation that you
want our listeners to know.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You can do it. You know, sometimes we look at
where we are now and where we want to be,
or where we assume our healthcare provider wants us to be,
and it feels like an ivory tower out of touch.
You know, that's just not attainable. And the truth is
that what keeps us from help, especially in this country.
(35:50):
It's not the nodding moments I'm like, oh, I'm eating
this and I'm bad, I'm eating that and I shouldn't.
It's what we don't eat that gets us into trouble
far more than anything else. So looking for opportunities to
be more inclusive with ourselves to yes, as you mentioned,
celebrate the treats. But then all, where can I find
more nutrient dense, calorie bang for my buck as I
(36:13):
like to call it, Where I can get more of
the things that matter, more fruits, more vegetables, more nuts
and seeds, more whole grains. Where are the Are there
any opportunities for me to pivot just a little bit
to allow more of this nourishment to enrich my life.
I want people to understand that you're not as far
(36:34):
off as you think. A better you, a more healthy, nourished,
mindful you, is within your grasp.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
How can people reach you?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Oh, okay, so I'm getting better at the socials. I'm
getting better at the social media. Probably the most accessible
way to reach me and where I reach others is
on LinkedIn. As far as I know, I'm the only
Malette out there, so finding me on LinkedIn. I do
have a Instagram account that is willfully neglected rd Foody Mallet.
(37:09):
That's where you can find me on an Instagram, but
LinkedIn is probably the best way to do that. And
I have several publications as well, thank.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
You and as I want to thank you so much.
And one of the things that didn't come out in
the conversation but I do want to emphasize is the
work that you and doctor Albin have done of moving
clinical culinary medicine forward in a way that is first
in the country, of utilizing people's insurance so do shared
medical appointments consultation service, and I mean, I know that's
(37:41):
just a tip of the Iceberg of the work you're doing,
but you are moving mountains and you're opening up doors
for the rest of the country to be able to
follow suit and realizing that culinary medicine really does fit
into our current medical system. So I thank you for
all of you, from your humor to your wisdom, to
your willingness to share this time with us. And it's really, really,
(38:02):
really been a pleasure, not just to sit here with you,
but to know you for all these years. So thank
you so much.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Mollett, thank you very much. It was my distinct pleasure
to be a part of this conversation today.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
I hope you feel motivated by this episode. Please leave
us a rating and a review and mention our show
to others who you think could use this information. That
could be your doctor, it could be somebody who works
in the food service industry who's interested in the health components.
It could be a friend that is working on their
health journey. If you want to hear more, please remember
to follow Culinary Medicine Recipe on your favorite podcast listening platform.
(38:38):
Until next time, Sandu and Bona Pettie. All content provided
or opinions expressed in this episode are for informational purposes only,
and are not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please
take advice from your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional.
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