It’s All About Food

This week on IT'S All ABOUT FOOD, Caryn Hartglass is recording from Costa Rica, trying to understand what keeps pulling her back. It starts with a closed valve, four toilets, and a few containers of water, and it opens into a bigger story about how precious water is, from drought and “water bankruptcy” worldwide to polluted tap water in the US. She'll take you to a remote pueblo and the land she bought in 2005. There, a clearing has grown into a forest, the pejibaye palm has fed people for thousands of years, and the work is physical enough that you fall asleep tired and wake up refreshed. Along the way she'll get into why she distrust the words “efficiency” and “convenience,” what a 1759 novel and a Turkish farmer with twenty acres teach about good work, and the fruit and vegetable drink she's still thinking about. Not knowing what’s next, Caryn is following her heart.

 It’s Halloween, so we’re talking about what’s truly scary in our food. We start at the meat counter, follow kids from sports drinks to energy drinks like Ghost and Monster, read their labels ingredient by ingredient, and of course we’ll add in some fun, healthy Halloween treats.

Brenda Davis, RD, Vesanto Melina, MS, RD and Charlyn Black, MD, ScD, Plant-Powered Seniors, Nutrition Essentials and Easy Recipes for Adults 50+
Three internationally recognized experts in plant-based nutrition. An evidence-based guide from two leading registered dietitians and a public health expert. Discover how a well-planned plant-based diet supports strength, bone health, heart health, brain health, and everyday vitality after 50 — with practical food guides, simple recipes, and real-life strategies. Together, the authors have written more than 15 bestselling nutrition books and have over 100 years of combined professional experience helping people improve their health through evidence-based plant-based nutrition.

Jade Koyle is President at Grand Teton Ancient Grains, /www.ancientgrains.com, a family-owned and operated farm, and mill committed to restoring ancient grains to the family dinner table. Koyle’s mission is to restore the finest organically grown ancient foods from around the world into our modern lifestyles. One of those ancient foods is Einkorn, the most primitive wheat available on earth. Einkorn contains a different type of gluten than modern wheat. As sixth-generation farmers, Koyle and his family cultivate their farmland using proven organic and biological methods that build up the soil and pack nutrition into the foods they grow. 

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017. She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016). In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal for contributions to science and society.

Ellie is an animal communicator and healing expert who consults with people, animal rescues, and sanctuaries all over the world on how to save, heal, and treat their own animals. She founded The Gentle Barn in 1999, a nonprofit organization that rescues and rehabilitates not only dogs and cats, but horses, cows, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, emus, llamas, and donkeys. Ellie formulated her own “Gentle Healing” method, using a combination of animal communication, energy healing, holistic healing, holding therapy, and western medicine to heal animals no one else would take and had nowhere else to go. Ellie specializes in healing puppies with Parvo, calves from veal crates, and orphaned animals of all kinds. Ellie and her husband Jay Weiner have brought The Gentle Barn national and now have three Gentle Barn locations, in California, in Missouri and in Tennessee. The Gentle Barn is one of the largest and most beloved farm animal sanctuaries in the world. It is their goal to be the voice for animals, share their stories, and open the hearts of humanity towards all living beings. For more information about The Gentle Barn, please visit: www.gentlebarn.org. Gentle is Ellie’s newest book, a heartfelt children’s book inspired by the friendship between John Lewis Thunderheart and Sky. 

Dr. Rudrani (Rani) Banik is a board-certified neuro-ophthalmologist. Dr. Banik runs a private practice based and is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Mount Sinai. Dr. Banik is also certified in Integrative Medicine. She focuses on the root cause of eye diseases and uses strategies based on nutrition, botanicals, lifestyle modification, and supplements. Dr. Banik’s expertise is often featured as an expert in her field, having appeared on Good Morning America, The New York Times, TODAY Online, and many more . She has been voted Castle Connolly Top Doctor and NY Magazine’s Best Doctor in Ophthalmology annually since 2017. Dr. Banik is the author of two best-selling books, Beyond Carrots – Best Foods For Eye Health A to Z and Dr. Rani’s Plant-Based Visionary Kitchen. She founded The Eye Summit™, the first online FREE educational event focused entirely on integrative strategies to protect and preserve vision.
 

Born in India, trained at the Institute of Culinary Education, Palak built her name winning Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay on Food Network. Her debut cookbook Food Is Love weaves plant-based, Indian-inspired recipes with the emotional language of food. Now, integrating principles informed by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and clinical collaboration with healthcare professionals, she brings that same joy into a wellness practice that helps people actually stick to the way of eating their body needs.

Urvi A. Shah, MD, MS, DipABLM is a lifestyle medicine certified hematologist, oncologist and physician scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her research interests in studying the role of modifiable risk factors (diet, metabolism, and microbiome) in cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship with a focus on myeloma. She leads the NUTRIVENTION dietary intervention trials which is a series of 6 trials in patients with cancer and precancer states. Results from the first NUTRIVENTION trial have been published in Cancer Discovery. This is the first trial that showed that a high fiber diet improves key cancer risk markers and may delay progression to the cancer myeloma in patients with precursor plasma cell disorders. Dr. Shah has published first author papers in prominent journals such as Cancer Discovery, Blood, and Clinical Cancer Research amongst others and has been an invited speaker and session chair nationally and internationally.
Dr. Shah has been supported by career development awards (National Cancer Institute [NCI] K12, International Myeloma Society and American Society of Hematology [ASH] Scholar) and research awards (ECOG ACRIN Young Investigator Translational Research, Henry Moses, Celgene Future Leaders in Hematology, NCI Early Investigator Advancement Program, Clinical Cancer Research Early Career, ASH David M. Goldenberg CRTI, 40 under 40 in cancer). Her research has been funded by multiple foundations (Blood Cancer United, Gabrielle’s Angel, Allen, Riney, HealthTree, Society of MSK, Comedy vs Cancer and Willow Foundations).
Links mentioned in the podcast:
NUTRIVENTION trial
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Randy Mosher is a food writer and creative consultant who teaches at the Siebel Institute of Technology brewing school. He is the author of five books, including Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink. He is currently a minority partner in two Chicago-area breweries. In this episode we discuss his new book, Your Tasting Brain: A Sensory Approach to Wine, Beer, and Other Pleasures, a scintillating invitation to enrich our culinary pursuits by understanding how our bodies turn a taste into flavor, emotion, and meaning.