The China Study: A Meaty Book

So Dr. Wildman showed up at Homeland as often happens on a Thursday. He made one comment about The China Study. "That's a meaty book you gave me. That's not light reading."

Learning

I've been challenged by a lot of things in the last two days, most of them interior. Or, maybe I should say, my limitations confronting the demands of the world.

I'm challenged by my temper. I'm playing around in my mind with the comment by a person who used to be my counselor, that anger = fear. I seem to have an ample amount of both anger and anxiety. So my challenge at work lately is my own temper. To be challenged by a note from the committee invested in responding to and preventing falls by residents at work: notes that appear to attack me personally. So I responded by grumbling which escalated to venting which gained volume to an inappropriate level. I was cautioned to keep my voice to an indoor level; also it was reported that I said, "Dammit." I'm thinking, "That's the only swear word I used? Oh, thank God!"

I'm challenged by being in three meetings, yet being given more paperwork, and being informed the charge nurses need to leave the desk periodically. What's wrong with this scenario?

I was challenged today by again needing to participate in a "status meeting" for a resident, without any particular prior preparation. I ended up facing about eight middle-aged children of a resident, all complaining that she oughtn't to be taking Ativan. Later I looked it up and realized, she has her own power of attorney, and can take whatever medications she agrees to. But I also charted that there are alternative medications she could take, or even have a mental health evaluation.

The high point of my day was seeing the charge nurse from Pink Wing confronting the receptionist [who publishes the census sheets for each hall] about our mutual desire to have the name of the MD for each resident listed on the census sheet. She stood up and said, "The charge nurses are responsible for running the unit and it's our decision to list the doctor's name on the census sheet." Her assertiveness blew me away.

Pomelos, Pomegranates, Bears, the Fire Tablet and The China Study

I dreamt about it all night, the visit to the doctor's office of the medical director where I work. "They like coffee and brownies," he'd said, when we set the time and date for the visit, which was set for this morning, "nine-ish." The idea was just to show each of the nurses at Homeland, in turn, around the office so we could see how things work in the office: the phone calls, the computers, emailing the MD with requests for orders or with problems with the residents. Dr. Wildman doesn't like faxes and, although at first I was sure that it was more efficient to fax doctors, now that I'm used to phoning for all issues, I actually like doing business that way better.

I said the Fire Tablet last night. I'd gone to the store and bought brownies, then a pomelo and a pomegranate as an antidote. I'd also bought a copy of The China Study because I've meant to give one to Dr. Wildman. The science of the studies is so credible, the logic of basing health on good nutrition is so fundamental, and yet it seems so contrary to conventional medicine. Also, obviously, for most people, switching to a whole foods, plant based diet is not a popular prospect. So I yearned to have Dr. Wildman read the book, but I had a lot of anxiety about giving it to him. I was afraid of indifference, ridicule, anger or opposition. So I read the Fire Tablet for extra courage.

In the morning I got out the fancy yellow paper platter and cut up a pomelo: I cut it in half and created sliced sections which I set in rows. The other half I cut off the bottom so it would rest flat on the platter and put the half face up on the platter on the side. Then I opened a pomegranate by slicing off the blossom end, slicing a cone-shaped opening in the pith in the center, making small slices on the edges so it would come apart easily, placed both thumbs in the center and gently pulled apart the pomegranate into sections.

I peeled the pith partitions off and trimmed off extra peel and removed the few brown berries at the edges. With the rows of lime green sliced pomelo and red sections of pomegranate berries glistening on the platter, the fruit looked beautiful. I prepared everything with love.

I drove to the office in the Allenmore "A" building and found the office, clutching the bag with the brownies, the bag with the platter of fruit, and the gift bag with The China Study inside; when I nervously entered the office I placed these in the break room for the nurses. It was great to meet the nurses in the office. I've spoken to each of them on the phone, and it was nice to put faces to the familiar voices. Some of them I'm quite fond of.

Dr. Wildman goes to Yellowstone National Park every year and has a passion for wildlife. There were about fifty various prints and photos of bears decorating the walls of the office. I spent about two and a half hours watching how they do things in the office: answering the phones, using the computers to enter the patient's chart as soon as the issue is brought up, and the nurses emailing the MD and the doctor emailing back with his reply. I learned that when the nurse phones the office with a particular issue, it's okay to say, "I need an answer by noon," or the end of the day, or whenever.

I got to see the nurse use a bladder scanner, a very expensive ultrasound device for determining the amount of fluid left in the bladder after the patient empties the bladder. So expensive, I'd never seen one before. This is wonderful, as it saves the patient from the invasive procedure of inserting a catheter into the bladder. Dr. Wildman says Homeland is going to get a bladder scanner next week, which is quite an achievement with this family-owned business.

At the end, Dr. Wildman asked me if I'd enjoyed the visit. Then he put on his coat and announced he was going for lunch with his son. Now or never. Quickly I gave him the gift bag with the copy of The China Study, explained that it was a thank-you gift; he said he'd look at it later. Out he went, and out I went, saying goodbye to the nurses. They said the fruit looked beautiful. And that was that. I guess it remains to be seen what discussions, if any, arise from The China Study.

"When the swords flash, go forward! When the shafts fly, press onward! O Thou Sacrifice of the worlds . . . Verily, I have heard Thy call, O All-Glorious Beloved; and now is the face of Baha flaming with the heat of tribulation and with the fire of Thy shining word, and He hath risen up in faithfulness at the place of sacrifice, looking toward Thy pleasure, O Ordainer of the worlds . . . Should all the servants read and ponder this, there shall be kindled in their veins a fire that shall set aflame the worlds."

~ Baha'u'llah

Plant-based Tamales At Last!

I learned to make tamales. Here is my plant-based recipe, adapted from a couple I found on the internet. I pared down the size of the recipe; I'm not feeding an army [okay, maybe an army of one.] After I made them I was trying to figure out what would work more easily for a steamer, as I used a kettle and the steamer plate from the pressure cooker set, set atop a ceramic bowl for added height. The tamales are supposed to steam vertically. Anyway, it just hit me. Of course. Steam the tamales in the pressure cooker. I'll have to figure out the time by more experimentation. So for this recipe one can just figure on a regular steamer and the long cooking time.

Plant-based Tamales:

Dough:
2 cups water
3 cups Masa Harina flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil

Filling:
2 cups cooked black beans
one baked yam, peeled and mashed
half an onion, diced
half a red bell pepper, diced
several cloves of garlic, grated
one small tomato, diced
several shakes green Tabasco sauce [to taste]
several shakes cayenne pepper [to taste]
a shake of ground cumin
a shake of coriander

[As you can see I didn't bother with cooking down tomatillos or any of that stuff; go for it if you have the time.]

The Process:
Soak several corn husks for about half an hour. Tip: separate the corn husks so they really soak well, instead of leaving them in a bunch the way I did until I figured it out. Take one of the larger husks and tear off quarter-inch strips for tying the tamales.
Mix dough with your hands, mix filling.

With tapered end of the corn husk facing you, take about 1/2 cup or less of dough and spread it across the top half of the husk. Add about a tablespoon of filling. Fold the right and left sides over, fold up the end and tie a strip of corn husk around the middle to secure it and place it in the steamer upright, with the open end up. Be sure there's plenty of water in the steamer.

Steam them all for about 1 1/2 to two hours. They won't overcook.

You could use anything for the filling; vegetables, spinach, whatever you like. Experiment and enjoy!

Compulsive Eating

I have more or less decided to enroll in therapy to more effectively deal with my compulsive eating. Last year when I made a pilgrimage to Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, and prayed in the Baha'i Shrines, one of the issues I brought up in my prayers was to finally identify the best, truest, healthiest diet. Well, I found the whole foods, plant-based way of eating, proven by solid scientific research, and it was like a tremendous stroke of lightning, lighting my way. The spark of truth, at last.

Even though I am clear about what foods to eat; even though I feel 100% better when eating a whole foods plant based diet; even though I feel committed to practicing this and have taken a powerful and informative online course on nutrition from Cornell University which has answered a lot of questions; and even though I have converted to home-cooking most of my meals and learned and created dozens of satisfying and delicious meals, I still have difficulty with compulsive eating under certain conditions. Like the child said to the ice cream cone, God willing I will lick this.

The Awful Waffles

I share this sad experience so no one else will have to travel the same lonesome path . . .

My circumstances being that I am changing to a whole foods, plant based diet, and that I love to experiment with cooking, most of what I make lately is an experiment. Not all my experiments work out. That's just basically the law of averages. I've created some incredibly good recipes, mostly soups. But. I'm not going to hit 100%.

We went to the Second Sunday Devotional with Waffles [conventional egg and milk waffles, well-made and delicious] this morning. Fired up by the new lectures I've been studying online by eCornell, especially by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. and Dr. John McDougall on reversing coronary artery disease with a strict plant-based diet, I decided to bring an alternative waffle batter.

I started with a cup of buckwheat* pancake/waffle mix, added a cube of Mori-Nu tofu which in some dishes substitutes very well for eggs. [Both are white, mushy and full of fatty acids.] Then I goofed around by adding about a cup of applesauce and one cup dry oats cooked in soy milk: see, we are already getting way too moist. I added a squirt of agave syrup, and about a tablespoon of grape seed oil because I was hoping to avoid having the batter stick to the waffle iron, which belonged to the host. Thinned out the batter with soy milk. And about a tablespoon of ground flax seed for the health of it.

Okay, first of all, eggs are a binder, sticky, and cause the batter to keep sticking together as the heat coagulates the eggs and cooks the waffles. No eggs, less sticking-together. [On the other hand, we don't want the inner aspect of our arteries sticky, either, which is what eggs and dairy fats accomplish efficiently.] Second of all, buckwheat is not like wheat: it does not have the same level [if any?] of gluten, another sticky, binding quality. Third, too much moisture, so the waffles were never going to cook all the way through. Fourth, the agave syrup, similar to honey, caused a tendency to burn on the outside, while the inside was still uncooked.

We coated the waffle iron surface with olive oil, although we know it breaks down under high heat, but it was healthier than butter. We also added some frozen blueberries, which delay cooking time. After about five or ten minutes the waffler signaled that the waffles were as done as they were going to be. Although we didn't have the scenario of the waffle sticking inside the pan and creating a horrible mess, it took some careful extraction with a plastic spatula to remove it. The exterior was very dark, with an odd, waxy texture. The inside was barely cooked.

While I was fooling around with my initial waffle, my daughter was happily eating those provided by the host; by the time I extricated it from the waffle iron, most guests were moving on to the scrambled eggs and yogurt and working their way out to the living room to visit.

Okay, I thought, this batter won't work for waffles. Too friable. Let's see if it's still fryable. So I tried making pancakes. [I have made successful pancakes in the past with tofu instead of eggs, but I was using wheat, not buckwheat.] Same difficulties, but easier to get the pseudo pancakes to turn in the skillet. Pretty much a failure all around. Here's reason # 437 I'm in love with my husband. He's so positive. Even though, waiting for these monstrosities to emerge from the kitchen, he had to be pretty hungry, he stayed positive. "They could probably have cooked a little more, but they're delicious."

My plans for the leftover batter: see if it will cook up into muffins. Never say die.

Actually, I had fun with all of this. The only truly painful part was that, while I was still struggling with the vaguely pancake-shaped objects in the kitchen that burned on the outside while refusing to cook on the inside, was this: missing the puns I could tell were emanating from the living room. The most unkindest cut of all.

Next time I will bring potatoes.

*Buckwheat, despite the "wheat" in the name, is not related to wheat and not a grain. It is an ancient variety of grass. That makes the cooking properties different.

Principles In Practice

Dropped everything and went to Pierce County Feast, where there was a potluck. I hadn't prepared or brought food, and even though I had some pea soup before I left, by the time consultation was over I was hungry. Every entree had chicken or beef or cheese in it, but I picked at a few tablespoons anyway. Meanwhile I was telling the hostess, since she asked, about the Plant Based Nutrition online eCornell course I'm taking. I got all the way through my China Study Conversation, and suddenly she jumped up. "I forgot! I need to put out the whipped cream for the pie!"

Later we went to Ruby Tuesday where I ate a salad without dressing for the first time in my life, counting various "diets" in the past. I also ate a half baked potato nude except for salt. [It's going to take awhile to get rid of the salt.]

We went grocery shopping, kind of dicey this time as circumstances have made me low in cash. I bought an entire shopping cart full of groceries for less than $100 because, with a few exceptions, I was buying all dried beans and oats, etc, and vegetables. It reminded me of when I was Pearl's age and I rode my bicycle, tricked out with folding pannier grocery baskets, to the neighborhood market and kept a running total of my purchases as I selected groceries, because I was paying with cash.

I'm planning to try out ground flax seed on my oatmeal instead of crushed pecans. The soy milk stays, for now.

Hello Again

Guess I'll visit my blog again, huh. Another week blenderized with 12 hour shifts and it isn't enough to pay my mortgage and I keep freaking out about it. Meanwhile I'm on the third in the eCornell online course Plant-Based Nutrition, Principles in Practice, and the lectures are more and longer and some more boring and some more opinionated, even if they are right . . . and in the middle of it I lost internet connection for a day and freaked out about that, but I returned from work and it was back. And I'm needing to be more and more assertive at work, which is good for me but stressful to learn.

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday and her big gift to me was to still be here alive on this planet. Pearl is growing and changing and practicing her driving. So it was a fluke last night that I left my cell on as I listened to an interminable lecture on supplements online and she called at 12:30 having gotten lost on the way home from the Regal Cinemas. Some kind of grace that I had a Tacoma map in front of me and helped her find her way back onto the main street home. The dome light in her car isn't working and she forgot she had a flashlight in the glove box. Besides, I think she gets overwhelmed driving around disoriented and just needs to stop and say, "help!"

Happy Birthday, Pearl, thanks for being here!

Four Days Later

Here I am four days later. I was scheduled to work twelve hour shifts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then I also agreed to work today [Friday] 12 hours also. A marathon. It's also like time travel through the week. When all I do is work, and sleep, and spend 30 to 60 minutes each night on my eCornell course, the rest of the world slips by and I sort of wake up at the end of it disoriented to any events which may have occurred as I passed by.

One of the nurses at work, her ex-husband was one of the police officers slain recently in Tacoma. I don't know what to say on the card.