Heirloom Bean Salad

This is a recipe that I rely on often, particularly when I’m short on time but don’t want to eat something unhealthy. As I’ve mentioned like a zillion times during my show, I think beans are one of the absolute best go-to foods when you want something tasty and satisfying.

Don’t worry, this is not one of those nasty 3 bean salads your well-meaning aunt brings to barbecues. When you start with good quality, dry beans they bring an amazingly creamy texture to a dish and are absolutely delicious. And if you prepare them properly by soaking them for a few hours beforehand, you also won’t get any of the digestive issues most of us associate with canned beans.

On that note, the title isn’t quite accurate. It assumes that, like me, you’ve spent a bit of time early in the week making a big batch of beans to add to the meals you make through Friday. That said, preparing the beans only takes 2-3 extra minutes of prep time, but there are a couple hours of waiting between the essential steps. If you use a pressure cooker it is even faster.

In a pinch, feel free to substitute lentils, which can be used similarly but cook up in only 20-30 minutes, depending on the size.

Today I made this recipe using only ingredients I already had in my fridge. I did this intentionally to show you how easy and versatile it is. But feel free to substitute any of the vegetables with ones you have or like better. It doesn’t matter which beans you use either, a simple black bean is also very lovely if you can’t find fancy heirloom beans.

This dish turns out different every time I make it, depending on what I have in the house, my mood and, of course, the season. In the summer, for example, I tend to use cucumber, French radish and a handful of arugula. Also feel free to experiment with different oils, vinegars, citrus, herbs, salts and spices (smoked paprika is a great addition).

I use this dish most often for a light lunch or substantial snack. It can be served warm or cold, or can be made into a full meal by adding a fried egg on top (or other protein) with a side of greens. This recipe is for a single serving, but it scales easily.

Heirloom Bean Salad With Winter Vegetables

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup cooked Rancho Gordo Pinquito beans
• 2 small carrots or 1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup sliced lo bok or daikon
• 1/2 green onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp freshly diced parsley
• 1 tbsp olive oil or nut oil
• 2 tsp rice or red wine vinegar
• salt
• pepper

If your beans aren’t already cooked, soak them overnight or at least 6 hours. Discard the soaking liquid, rinse several times then cook in beef, mushroom or vegetable stock until tender.

Place appropriate amount of beans in a bowl and add sliced vegetables, green onion and parsley. I tend to go heavy handed on the herbs because they add such a wonderful freshness, but feel free to experiment with the amount you like.

You’re welcome to mix the vinaigrette beforehand, but if you’re lazy like me feel free to just add oil and vinegar directly to the bowl, along with some salt and pepper and any other spices you choose.

Gently stir with a spoon, taking care not to damage the beans. Adjust salt and pepper and enjoy.

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

I had to restrain myself from including 20 articles in this week’s post, but for your sake I kept it to my usual top 10. Whatever you do don’t miss Bittman’s calculations on the price of broccoli versus McDonald’s, how easy it is to sell fruit to kids, how global warming is affecting the fishing industry, how the food industry is responding to the Real Food movement, and the other five articles.

Want to see all my favorite links? Be sure to follow me on on Digg. I also share links on Twitter (@summertomato) and the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? <<Though there have been some valid criticisms that this may not apply to those in extreme poverty, it certainly applies to a good chunk of the population (college students, I’m looking at you) who complain about the cost of healthy food. (New York Times)
• When Chefs Move the Fruit <<Hey, guess what! When you make fruit look tasty by putting it in colorful bowls sales increase by 104% in schools. Why not try it in your kitchen? (ScienceDaily)
• Reebok to Pay Settlement Over Health Claims <<It’s a rare day when a government agency calls BS of the week for me. Thank you FTC. (New York Times)
• The End Of Fish And Chips: Climate Change Causing Massive Changes In European Fisheries <<This is terrifying, and it’s real. (Fast Company)
• In Debate About Food, a Monied New Player <<They’re scared. This is good news. (New York Times)
• Food products described as artisan go mainstream <<While this kind of makes me want to vomit, it also kind of makes me really happy because it means there is a demand for quality again. I’m hoping consumers are smart enough to tell the difference between authenticity and marketing. (Los Angeles Times)
• Report: U.S. spending billions of dollars to subsidize junk food <<The apple/Twinkie comparisons they use in this article are really powerful. Please read. (Los Angeles Times)
• Humans on a Cafeteria Diet <<Want to get people to voluntarily eat 50% more than they normally would? Feed them American junk food. (Whole Health Source)
• Study of the Day: Vitamin B12 May Help Prevent Brain Shrinkage <<Sharing this study because I know a lot of vegetarians and vegans read this blog, and this is a friendly reminder to get enough B12 please. (The Atlantic)
• LENTIL SALAD | BROWN BAG CHALLENGE <<This beautiful lentil salad looks like so many of my lunches I had to share. SO easy and delicious, from one of my favorite blogs Chez Us.

What inspired you this week?

Thanks to those of you who participated in episode #4 about healthy vegetarian & vegan diets. I learned a lot while researching this post, and there’s valuable info on omega-3 fatty acids, essential minerals and other nutrition information that’s important for omnivores as well.

All show notes, including my annotated Kindle notes of Amazon’s most popular vegetarian nutrition book (I’m not a fan) are below. Everyone should at least skim through them, there’s a lot of great information/clarification in there.

Episode #5, Dairy: Friend or Foe? is airing on Monday, April 11 at 6:30pm PST. Does milk help or hurt your chances or getting osteoporosis? Does calcium cause prostate cancer? What’s the role of milk in acne? What about raw milk, is it really the holy grail? Join us on Monday to learn the answers.

______________________________________________________

March 29, 2011 | Episode #4 of Summer Tomato Live. The topic is healthy vegetarian and vegan diets (with lots of interesting nutrition information for omnivores too).

Live participation is only available to subscribers of the newsletter Tomato Slice. You can sign up at any time, even during the show, and the password for participation will be emailed to you immediately.

Click here to sign up and get the password

Read this for more information on the show and newsletter

To watch live and join the discussion click the red “Join event” button, login with Twitter or your Vokle account, and enter the password when prompted.

I encourage you to call in with video questions, particularly if your question is nuanced and may involve a back and forth discussion. Please use headphones to call in however, or the feedback from the show is unbearable.

The show will be recorded and released to the public next week. Show notes are below.

Show notes:

Follow Darya on Kindle

Darya’s Kindle notes on Becoming Vegetarian by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis

Health:

• Healthy Vegetable Sources of Protein and Iron
• Eco-Atkins Diet May Be Healthier Alternative for Weight Loss
• Fish Eaters and Vegetarians Have Less Cancer
• Intact Grains vs. Whole Grains
• Quinoa: Did You Know?
• Fishing For Answers: How To Choose Fish and Seafood
• Latest Study on Vitamin K and Coronary Heart Disease (Whole Health Source)
• The Unconvincing Evidence that Saturated Fat Causes Heart Disease (Raw Food SOS)
• Which Non-Dairy Milk is Best? (Nutrition Diva)
• A caveman and a vegan walk into a bar…
• Summer Tomato Book Review: The China Study

Tools:

• How (And Why) To Cook And Freeze Large Batches Of Lentils
• How To Cook Dried Beans Using A Pressure Cooker
• Are You Bean Careful?
• How To Cook Perfect Rice Without A Rice Cooker

I hope to see you there!

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

In case you missed it, be sure to check out the first episode of Summer Tomato Live and vote on our next show topic. Voting closes tonight at midnight, PST.

(BTW, Summer Tomato Live is now on iTunes. If you have time to leave a review I’d be deeply grateful.)

This week: why vegans have more heart risks, McDonald’s new “healthy-food” chain, what Donald Rumsfeld has to do with Diet Coke, and more bad news for people who think exercise will solve their weight problems.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For a complete list of my favorite stories check out my links on Digg. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• How to Master the Art of Seasoning: 5 Tips for Reinventing the Slow-Carb Diet <<Trying to make those beans and veggies more interesting? Here’s a great primer on seasoning. (Tim Ferriss)
• Vegans’ Elevated Heart Risk Requires Omega-3s and B12, Study Suggests <<I’ve mentioned before that I think a vegan diet can be healthy, it just requires more work than it does for an omnivore. Seems most vegans are getting it wrong. (ScienceDaily)
• Former McDonald’s Executives to Open a New Healthy-Food Chain <<Hahahahaha! McDonald’s execs are the first people I’d trust to offer a healthy diet. Nice one guys. BS of the week. (Time)
• Just how bad is aspartame? <<Great question. Sadly the politics around it are so twisted it’s hard to uncover the truth. (Grist)
• US group calls for FDA ban of soda ‘caramel’ <<Seems aspartame may not be the only thing in soda that can cause cancer. (Reuters)
• Think the gym’s gonna make you slim? Think again. <<This new study matches my experience very well. But Yoni explains why you should exercise anyway. (Weighty Matters)
• 10 Fresh, In-Season Vegetables the East Coast Should be Eating Now <<I frequently get complaints from East Coasters that my farmers market posts don’t reflect their reality. This one’s for you guys (and it’s not that different). (Treehugger)
• Obesity Alone Raises Risk of Fatal Heart Attack, Study Finds <<I’ve heard some people argue that obesity itself does not cause disease, it’s just a symptom of deeper metabolic problems or not a problem at all. This new study suggests otherwise. (Medline)
• Diet High in Fiber Might Lengthen Your Life <<Especially grains, they say. There are plenty of confounds in this study, but it’s not out of line with other research I’ve seen. (Medline)
• Rainbow Wheat Berry Salad <<And since we’re having a grain lovefest day, here’s a delicious looking recipe for a colorful wheat berry salad. Intact grains FTW! (Macheesmo)

What inspired you this week?

Last night was the first episode of Summer Tomato Live where we discussed the new best-selling book, The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. Thanks everyone for watching and submitting your questions, the show was a huge success and we had a great conversation.

[note to self: get haircut]

The entire show is available above. Normally the videos will be available a week after the live broadcast, but for this first episode I want to give everyone a chance to see what the show is about in case you’re interested in subscribing.

I’ve partnered with Foodzie and Zürsun Heirloom Beans to provide free samples of Zürsun cranberry beans (great for Slow Carb Dieters) as well as a free Foodzie Tasting Box ($20 value) to the first 150 subscribers. Spaces are filling up quickly, so sign up soon if you want the bonuses (for more info about the show and newsletter read this). US shipments only.

Subscribe to Summer Tomato Live ($3.99/mo)

The next live show is scheduled for Wednesday, March 2, at 6:30pm PST. The reason I’m choosing a different day of the week is so that Tuesday night karate class or any other regularly scheduled activity won’t be a barrier to subscribing. If this system doesn’t work for you, please let me know. If a fixed day is better for most people, we can try to make that happen.

Wondering what the next show is about? Me too! Please vote for the next Summer Tomato Live topic (if you’re reading this in an email, please click over to the blog post to vote in the poll):

[poll id=”8″]

Poll closes Friday at midnight PST.

Show notes from episode #1:

The book: The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, a #1 New York Times best-seller.

Slow Carb Diet: How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise (note: In the book there is one extra rule than is listed in this original post, “Don’t eat fruit.”)

Recommended pressure cooker: Fagor Splendid 6-Quart Pressure Cooker

Useful links:

• How (and why) To Cook and Freeze Large Batches of Lentils
• How To Cook Dried Beans Using a Pressure Cooker
• Intact Grains vs Whole Grains
• Does Fruit Make You Old and Fat?
• How To Cook And Freeze Brown Rice

Please add any tips or suggestions you have about the show in the comments. Thanks!

Photo by Andrew Feinberg

Caveman Bob: Wow I’m starving, wanna grab some grub?

Vegan Kate: Sounds great, I wonder if this place has quinoa…

Caveman Bob: What the hell is keen-wah? We don’t have that where I’m from.

Vegan Kate: No way! It’s so awesome, plus it’s a complete protein so if you can’t find beans it’s no problem.

Caveman Bob: Beans? Complete protein? Stop talking crazy. If you want protein why don’t you just eat some delicious cow? Cow is delicious. And it’s chock full of lysine. Beans-shmeans.

Vegan Kate: Oh no, no no no. I could never eat an animal or animal product. Not only is it cruel, it’s unhealthy. Animal fat causes heart disease and animal protein causes cancer. Everyone knows that.

Caveman Bob: That’s silly. I don’t have heart disease or cancer and I eat animals for a living. You should see my blood work, it’s pristine.

Besides, I haven’t even evolved to eat those weird cereals and beans you speak of. I’ve been told they’re the reason people have all these crazy diseases of civilization. Thanks, but I’ll pass.

Vegan Kate: What do you mean you haven’t evolved to eat them? We’re physiologically the same and I eat them all the time. I don’t have any of those diseases either, and my blood is also impeccable.

I’m certain it’s because I don’t eat animals.

Caveman Bob: Well I’m pretty sure you’re wrong.

Vegan Kate: And I’m pretty sure you’re wrong.

Caveman Bob: Hmm. Sounds like at least one of us is wrong. Can I get you a drink?

What don’t you eat?

Photo by Venex_jpb

If there is a single subject that befuddles the health-conscious eater, it is undoubtedly carbohydrates.

Most of us have seen the impressive results of at least temporarily restricting carbs, but studies examining the long-term effects of carbohydrate restriction are often ambiguous. Also, while some experts argue fervently for a low-carb lifestyle, some nutritionists still warn about the dangers of eating too much fat or protein.

So how do we know what to believe?

A full examination of the science behind carbohydrate metabolism is beyond the scope of a single blog post, and is in fact not entirely understood by the scientific community (for a thorough review of this topic read Gary Taubes’ book Good Calories, Bad Calories, which I have reviewed here).

However, there are a few things we do know about carbohydrates that are worth pointing out.

Lesson 1: Refined grains contribute to nearly every chronic disease in modern civilization.

It is universally agreed in the nutrition community that refined, processed carbohydrates are the worst things to eat on the entire planet.

And it is impossible to overstate how remarkable this is.

The nutrition community is one of the most disagreeable bunches in all of science. But across the board–from vegans like Colin Campbell to carnivores like Robert Atkins–not a single one of them considers processed carbs to be nutritionally neutral. They all consider them dangerous.

Without question, refined carbohydrates contribute to poor health.

Lesson 2: Vegetables protect against nearly every chronic disease in modern civilization.

Where things start to get more complicated is with unrefined carbohydrates, and the various iterations of this definition. There is ample evidence that the carbohydrates contained in vegetables are not harmful, and possibly beneficial.

To call these vegetable carbohydrates “fiber” is to oversimplify the science, but suffice to say that vegetables are good for you and contribute to your good health.

This is also generally agreed upon.

Lesson 3: Whole grains are different from intact grains.

Few people will argue against my first two points. But bring up whole grains and you will unleash a fury of controversy. Some people believe whole grains to be the cornerstone of any healthy diet, while others consider them superfluous and possibly detrimental to good health. You can find dozens of PhDs and MDs to back up your claims no matter what camp you align with.

So why is there so much disagreement? What does the science say?

The problem is that nutrition science conducted in free-living humans is virtually impossible to interpret. This is largely because the studies are so difficult to control and people’s behavior and self-reporting are so unreliable. Another problem is that the definition of “whole grains” has been watered down to a point where it is virtually meaningless.

One reason whole grains are hard to identify is because the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has created a definition that is friendly to food companies, but not to consumers.

The FDA requirements for a manufacturer to use the term “whole grain” on its label (along with the respective health claims) are as follows:

“Cereal grains that consist of the intact, ground, cracked or flaked caryopsis, whose principal anatomical components – the starchy endosperm, germ and bran – are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact caryopsis – should be considered a whole grain food.” (emphasis added by me)

Get it? To be considered “whole,” grains do not actually have to be intact.

Thus food manufacturers create products using this loose definition to their advantage, demolishing grains as normal, then adding back the required ratios of grain parts (germ and bran) to meet the standard.

This is how products like Froot Loops get spiffy health labels claiming they lower heart disease when any unbiased nutrition scientist would agree that, with 41% sugar by weight, Froot Loops almost certainly contribute to heart disease.

On the other hand, there is compelling data that intact whole grains contribute to better health.

Lesson 4: Eating grains is a personal choice, not a nutritional imperative.

The good news is that it is really easy to tell the difference between fake “whole” grains and intact whole grains. If a food actually looks like a grain (i.e., it retains its original form and bran covering), then it is an intact grain. If it looks like a Cheerio, chip, loaf of bread or pasta with a “whole grain” label, then it is a fake whole grain.

People following a primal or paleo diet will argue that this difference is irrelevant and that all grains (and legumes?!) are unnecessary for good health. Personally I disagree, but remain fairly neutral on the personal choice of removing grains from the diet entirely.

Grains do not appear to be necessary for survival (Inuit tribes survive without them), but optimal nutrition may require slightly more effort than would be necessary following a traditional balanced diet.

This is generally how I feel about all healthy, restrictive regimens such as vegetarian, vegan and raw diets. You can make it work for yourself if you are willing to make sacrifices and put in the effort.

However you should be aware that for many people, myself included, cutting whole grains out of your diet completely is extremely difficult and, if you ask me, unnecessarily painful.

Conclusion

When making food choices about grains, the critical question is not whether or not a food is “whole” grain but whether the grain is intact. For this reason, it matters very little if you substitute “whole grain” products for regular refined products such as pasta.

Examples of intact grains are oats, barley, brown rice, whole wheat, quinoa (sort of) and faro. White rice is not a whole grain, and is closer to a refined grain than a whole grain.

For optimal health, processed and refined grains should be eaten very sparingly. Small amounts such as those eaten in traditional cultures can be part of any healthstyle, but including them is a personal choice that will depend on your own goals and preferences.

The irony is that if you are able to remove processed foods from your diet, the way you eat could probably be described as low-carb. But this label really undermines a healthstyle based on real food.

Though I eat relatively few grains compared to most Americans, I cringe when I see the shining example of low-carb living, The Atkins Diet website, with images of fake pancakes and pasta plastered all over it. If that is what low-carb is, I want nothing to do with it.

Processed food is still processed food, whether the carbohydrates have been synthetically removed or not. Stick to eating real food and you’ll never have to worry about carbs.

Do you count your carbohydrates?

Originally published November 25, 2009.

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Holy smokes was it a great week for reading around the web. Not only should you read all these articles, I strongly recommend glancing through my StumbleUpon and Delicious lists (see below) to browse all the stuff that didn’t make it here today (feel free to ignore the articles about basketball).

In other news I added Facebook Like buttons to my posts this week, so go nuts 🙂

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the week

• 7 Harsh Truths that Will Improve Your Health <<I really like the points made in this article, even if the writing style is a bit annoying. We all have the power to improve our health, and it can be enlightening to see how lame our excuses sound when spelled out for us. (Dumb Little Man)
• Doubt Is Cast on Many Reports of Food Allergies <<I’ve suspected for quite awhile that this whole food allergy business was being blown out of proportion. If you’ve been “diagnosed,” you may want to get a second opinion. (New York Times)
• Is Free-Range Meat Making Us Sick? <<BS of the week. Of all the sources of dangerous food, the struggling farmers who actually do it right shouldn’t be shouldering any of the blame. How much faith do you put in food studies from China and Mozambique anyway? (The Atlantic)
• Diet and Exercise to the Extremes <<Cool story about a vegan ultra marathoner. I love meat, but I always smile when someone tells me they need it because they workout. Ha. (New York Times)
• Eating Nuts May Help Cholesterol Levels <<I posted about how to optimize cholesterol this week and recommended eating nuts. Here’s some new data that further supports nuts (you probably aren’t allergic to) for heart health. (Medline)
• Red meat and cancer: dumbing down the science <<Watch as Monica Reinagel tears conventional wisdom a new one with her analysis of studies that claim “red and processed meats” cause cancer. Rock on! (Nutrition Data)
• Vitamin D Best Taken With Largest Meal of Day, Study Finds <<Good info, especially since there is a very good chance you are vitamin D deficient. (Medline)
• Rapid weight loss is the best way to keep it off? <<Yoni Freedhoff explains why reading headlines is hazardous to your health. I’d listen to him. (Weighty Matters)
• Chicken and Radish Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing <<Just this week I discovered how wonderfully avocado goes with chicken salad. Couldn’t resist sharing this recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini.
• My Ikagai <<Mark Bittman recently re-launched his personal blog, and so far I absolutely love it. Thanks to guest writer Pam Anderson for sharing this amazing TED talk by Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+. You don’t want to miss this.

Enjoy!

Collards, Carrots and Lentils

A new study published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that both weight loss and risk factors for heart disease can be improved following a vegan version of the low-carb, high-protein Atkins diet.

The “Eco-Atkins” diet focuses primarily on soy, nuts and wheat proteins (gluten) to increase the amount of vegetarian protein in the diet. Carbohydrates were restricted to 130 g/day, which is on the higher end of most low-carb diets. All starchy foods such as bread, baked goods, potatoes and rice were eliminated. Carbohydrates were provided in the form of whole, intact grains (barley and oats) and low-starch vegetables.

In a small (47 participants), short-term randomized controlled trial, this diet lowered bad LDL cholesterol by 20%, without negatively impacting good HDL cholesterol (statin drugs improve cholesterol levels by 30%). The diet also substantially lowered blood pressure and other markers of cardiovascular disease, such as triglycerides and apolipoprotein B.

The original meat-based Atkins diet has been shown to be effective for temporary weight loss (after 1 year the effects of the Atkins diet are diminished), but cardiovascular risk factors such as LDL cholesterol and blood pressure are not substantially improved under the traditional Atkins regimen.

Interestingly, a traditional Atkins-style diet based on animal protein was not used as a control in this study, so a true comparison of the diets cannot be made using the present data. Instead the researchers chose a control diet representative of a typical high-carb, low-fat vegetarian diet that included eggs and dairy products. Both diets tested in this study represented a 60% decrease in total calories.

Because of the study design, we cannot conclude that this diet is more effective than the Atkins diet for health, though you would predict it would be if future studies made this comparison. On the other hand, it does seem that a plant-based high-protein diet is more effective at improving health than a high-carbohydrate lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, at least in the short-term in a highly controlled environment.

This study took place over the course of 4 weeks, and all the food was provided for the particpants by the researchers. Thus, compliance in the program was very high. It is not clear if the participants would have had the same level of success if they were instructed to provide their own food to comply with the dietary programs.

Despite this, satiety levels were notably improved in the high-protein group and it would be expected that the increase in satiety would encourage greater compliance in a free living situation.

A small four week study, however, tells us very little about the effectiveness of this diet. While it is possible to improve risk factors such as cholesterol and blood pressure in such a short period of time, disease outcome is the true measure of a successful diet. Also, this study did not test the feasibility of the Eco-Atkins diet in the long-term, and it is likely many dieters would object to a strictly vegan regimen.

Interesting points raised by this preliminary study include:

• Plant-based, high-protein diets may be more effective at improving cholesterol and other cardiovascular measures than traditional lacto-ovo vegetarian diets.
• Short-term weight loss is primarily determined by the number of calories consumed, not macronutrient content.
• Low-carb diets that include intact whole grains and plant-based protein can be effective at improving both weight and cardiovascular risk factors in the short-term.
• Plant-based high-protein diets can increase satiety compared to high-carb vegetarian diets.

However, many questions must be addressed before this diet can be recommended to individuals trying to improve cardiovascular measures and lose weight.

New questions:

• Can the Eco-Atkins diet be maintained in the long-term by normal individuals?
• Does the Eco-Atkins diet continue to improve cardiovascular risk factors including weight loss after 4 weeks?
• What would result from this study if beans and lentils were used instead of soy and gluten?
• Does the Eco-Atkins diet improve disease outcome?
• Does the Eco-Atkins diet extend life?
• Does the Eco-Atkins diet affect quality of life?
• Can these effects be attained through other diets that include some animal protein, more whole grains or more fat?
• Is the effectiveness of the Eco-Atkins diet affected by an individual’s level of insulin resistance?
• Can adding fish further improve the results of the Eco-Atkins diet?
• Can a further reduction in carbohydrates improve the results?
• Will you get these same results if the study is NOT funded by the soy industry?

In summary, the results of this study are interesting and encouraging, especially for those of us who think both carbohydrates and meat should be limited in a healthy diet. I very much look forward to future studies exploring this idea.

What concerns me most is the lack of marine omega-3 fatty acids (fish) in the Eco-Atkins diet, which could potentially improve cardiovascular measures even further. Fish is also important for cognitive health and may lower cancer risk.

I am also worried that a strictly vegan diet would not be feasible in the long-term for many Americans. Moreover, it is not necessarily the healthiest option available. Vitamin B12 deficiency is a particular concern, but could be addressed with supplements. Generally, however, I do not recommend relying on supplements for optimal nutrition.

Finally, this study was funded by a company that makes soy and gluten products. Personally I would have prefered to see these protein sources used in combination with other things such as beans and lentils. Many people question how much soy can be safely consumed and gluten intolerance is more common than ever, so wouldn’t it be interesting to know if there were safer alternatives? It really annoys me to see science being influenced by industry funding.

What do you think of the Eco-Atkins diet?