It’s All About Food

Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment

Jill Nussinow, a.k.a. The Veggie Queen TM, is a Registered Dietitian who has been teaching vegetarian cooking at Santa Rosa Junior College, in Sonoma County and throughout the country since 1985. Her award-winning cookbook, The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, was published in 2005. Her first DVD Creative Lowfat Vegan Cuisine came on the market in December 2004. She has released a cooking DVD (October 2007), Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes. Jill is a vegetarian, vegetable and plant-food expert. You can find out more about Jill at her website www.theveggiequeen.com, www.pressurecookingonline.com or read her blog at www.theveggiequeen.blogspot.com.

Raising Elijah

with Sandra Steingraber
An internationally recognized authority on environmental links to cancer and reproductive health, Sandra Steingraber, PhD, is the author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment, a new edition of which was just published by Merloyd Lawrence Books/Da Capo Press. It has been adapted into a feature-length documentary film by The People's Picture Company.  In 2001, Steingraber received the Rachel Carson Leadership Award for her “outstanding contributions to the conservation and environmental movement.” A columnist for Orion magazine, she has lectured before the parliament of the European Union, at various medical conferences, and on numerous college campuses, and is a scholar in residence at New York’s Ithaca College.

World Peace Diet

Dr. Will Tuttle is an award-winning speaker, educator, author, and musician. His music, writings, and presentations focus on creativity, intuition, and compassion. He is the author of The World Peace Diet which has been called one of the most important books of the 21st century: the foundation of a new society based on the truth of the interconnectedness of all life.

Feeding the School Community

with Neal Shatar
Neal Shatar is the Director of Food Services at New Hampton School (NHS) and uses only the freshest and finest ingredients in his food. This is not your typical high school cafeteria fare. Neil prides himself in serving only the best to his students and faculty: fair trade organic fruits and vegetables; gluten free and vegan menu options; and that’s just for breakfast. Neal is a plant-based, whole foods eater who was greatly influenced by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn as well as being inspired by Will Tuttle (a guest on our show next week) and his book, The World Peace Diet. He came to NHS in the fall of 1995. He was attracted by the wording in the ad that posted the job for Food Service Director. The ad read: “We are looking for someone to join our NHS Family to be responsible for feeding the school community.” It was this invitation to join the family of staff and faculty and be an active part in the NHS community that first brought Neal here, and it is the reality of being a part of this community that keeps him here. As a lover of healthy food, Neal appreciates the support he has for building a food service program of which he is proud to be a part. As a dedicated “life long learner” Neal very much enjoys his relationships with the faculty, students, and staff. He is happy that his concerns for and dedication to justice and excellence are valued here. He feels that he is allowed to thrive and that he is appreciated. He is very proud to work along with the food service staff in an excellent dining program. Neal says, “It is great to ride to work with my wife Sheryl on our tandem bicycle. I am so glad that she chose to be a baker over a career in social work.”

The GreenFreeze Campaign

with Amy Larkin
Amy Larkin is an award-winning entrepreneur and producer who has launched cultural institutions, co-founded one of the first affinity-marketing businesses, and been involved with Greenpeace for 30 years--as a board member, adviser and, since 2005, as Director of Greenpeace Solutions, leading the international organization’s financial and business initiatives. Amy co-founded Message!Check Corp. (City of Seattle’s 1989 Small Business of the Year), producing checks that carry the messages of nonprofits. Message!Check in turn provided over $10 million in license fees to its nonprofit clients in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, Amy also served as Executive Producer of Fabrica, Benetton’s Institute of Arts and Communication, in Italy. She created the program plan for the City of San Jose’s $500 million Civic Center (designed by Richard Meier), and launched the Real Estate Initiative for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council following September 11th. For Greenpeace, Amy has been quoted and interviewed in The Washington Post, Newsweek, Reuters, Bloomberg, Greenbiz, NPR, CNBC, and others. She currently serves as the Chair of the Board of the ARChive of Contemporary Music, the largest collection of contemporary music in the world.

The Organic Consumers Association

with Ronnie Cummins
Ronnie Cummins is founder and Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a non-profit, U.S. based network of 850,000 consumers, dedicated to safeguarding organic standards and promoting a healthy, just, and sustainable system of agriculture and commerce. The OCA’s primary strategy is to work on national and global campaigns promoting health, justice, and sustainability that integrate public education, marketplace pressure, media work, litigation, and grassroots lobbying. Cummins is also editor of OCA’s website www.organicconsumers.org (30,000 visitors a day) and newsletters, Organic Bytes (270,000 subscribers), and Organic View. Cummins has been active as a writer and activist since the 1960s, with extensive experience in human rights, anti-war, anti-nuclear, labor, consumer, environmental, and sustainable agriculture campaigns. Over the past decades he has served as director of US and international efforts such as the Pure Food Campaign, and the Global Days of Action Against GMOs. From 1992-98 Cummins served as a campaign director for the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C. In 1998, Cummins organized the SOS (Save Organic Standards) Campaign, spearheading the largest consumer grassroots backlash against the US Department of Agriculture in recent history. He is also a frequent lecturer, both in the US and abroad. Cummins has published numerous articles and authored a series of children’s books called Children of the World. Cummins’ most recent book is Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers (Second Revised Edition Marlowe & Company 2004). He lives with his wife and 12 year-old son in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, headquarters of the OCA in Mexico, as well as in Finland, Minnesota on the north shore of Lake Superior.

The Natural Vegan Kitchen

Today on It’s All About Food, Caryn spoke with Christine Waltermyer the author of the new cookbook, Natural Vegan Kitchen.  Afterward she commented on a recent news program about black foods including black beans. She spoke about all the delicious things that can be done with all beans, beans of any color. She also talked about the development of Urban Gardens.

Asian Fusion

with Chat Mingkwan
Chat Mingkwan grew up in Bangkok, Thailand. He has apprenticed in provincial French cuisine at La Cagouille in Rayon, France, traveled extensively in Southeast Asia, and worked in restaurants in the San Francisco area. Currently Chat runs Unusual Touch, a business specializing in catering, food consulting, and restaurant design, Thai cooking classes, and culinary expeditions to Thailand. He is the author of the cookbooks "Buddha's Table" and "Vietnamese Fusion" and "Asian fusion."

Forks Over Knives

with Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Campbell and Brian Wendell
FORKS OVER KNIVES examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the so-called “diseases of affluence” that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering yet under-appreciated researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. Dr. Campbell, a nutritional scientist at Cornell University, was concerned in the late 1960’s with producing “high quality” animal protein to bring to the poor and malnourished areas of the third world. While in the Philippines, he made a life-changing discovery: the country’s wealthier children, who were consuming relatively high amounts of animal-based foods, were much more likely to get liver cancer. Dr. Esselstyn, a top surgeon and head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, found that many of the diseases he routinely treated were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed. FORKS OVER KNIVES utilizes state of the art 3-D graphics and rare archival footage. The film features leading experts on health, examines the question “why we don’t know”, and tackles the issue of diet and disease in a way that will have people talking for years.

Sprouts the Miracle Foods

with Steve Meyerowitz, The Sproutman
Gardens of mini-vegetables were part of Sproutman's lifetime fight against chronic allergies and asthma. After 20 years of disappointment with orthodox medicine, he became symptom-free through his use of diet, juices, and fasting. In 1980, he founded "The Sprout House", a "no-cooking" school in New York City teaching the benefits of a living foods diet.  Steve is a health crusader and author of 10 books including Power Juices Super Drinks, Wheatgrass Nature's Finest Medicine, Juice Fasting and Detoxification, and Food Combining and Digestion. His most recent book is The Organic Food Guide: How to Shop Smarter and Eat Healthier.  He has been featured on PBS, the Home Shopping Network, TV Food Network, and in Better Nutrition, Prevention, Organic Gardening and Flower & Garden Magazines. His sprouting inventions, such as the "Hemp Sprout Bag" are sold nationwide. You can visit him at www.Sproutman.com.