Regenerative Cooking with Tania Melkonian

Regenerative Cooking with Tania Melkonian + Transcript

Chef Tania Melkonian and Sayer Ji present a special series of recipes from the Regenerate RX Menu plan. Discover practical culinary tips and in-depth information about the regenerative and healing properties of food, herbs and spices!

P.S. Don't forget to check out the "Regenerate Recipe Book" in the downloads section.

Sayer: Hi, Sayer Ji, and I'm so excited for today's episode of the Regenerate Masterclass because I have here, my dear friend and colleague, Tania Melkonian. We've been working together for... how long has it been?

Tania: Like 10 years?

Sayer: Has it been 10 years? Oh my gosh. Tania: I think 8 or 10 years, yeah.

Sayer: We've been working on a project that's been behind the scenes that you are the first to know about, and it's called Eatomology, which is a play on the word etymology. Because we're basically doing an edible philosophy of nutrition, and it's combining the amazing skills that Tania has brought to the table. She's a chef, an Ayurvedic practitioner, a yogi, a writer. If you maybe go on the GreenMedInfo blog and type in Tania's name, you'll see some amazing writing. And so we sort of merged our passions. And we've been doing these pop up education sessions here in Southwest Florida. So now we're able to share with you, wherever you are, our passion and our knowledge on the topic of how to use food as medicine.

And so a good portion of that is taking the practical skill set that an actual chef has. And then taking all the research that I've spent, you know, over a decade indexing on GreenMedInfo, and putting it together so that we have

things that taste really good, but then also deliver a real promise, as far as health benefits. That you can, you know, put into practice with your own medical cabinet, which is your kitchen cupboard and your refrigerator. So Tania has come up with 40 master recipes, we're going to feature for today. And now I'm just going to hand over the talking stick to Tania, so she can tell you a little bit about herself and her passion and you know, why she put these recipes together for us.

Tania: Thanks, Sayer. Yeah, that original project, it really kind of ignited something, right? It made us kind of understand and want to share the wholeness of the experience of preparing food, eating it, and how all of that plays into our overall wellness. So we're going to do four recipes today, of the 40 that are available on the download. And we're kind of giving you a little bit of everything. Featuring ingredients that, you know, we both feel passionate about, and Sayer's going to talk about how they fit into that medicine cabinet, the pantry, and your refrigerator.

And we're going to start by making almond bread and then we're going to make a little bit of a quick curry. A little bit of a shortcut to something that normally takes a long time to develop flavors. And then we'll be doing some nut crusted salmon. And then finally, some turkey and kale hash. So you can already probably hear about the gems, in terms of nutrition and flavor that are inherent in those recipes. So I'll start with the almond bread. And while I'm kind of putting it together, I'm sure Sayer has a lot to say about almonds.

Sayer: Yes. Well, that's the beauty of this recipe, is that almonds are really one of the most powerful functional foods that we know of. When it comes to the primary health benefit we're going to feature today, is that they've been, you know, really researched, primarily like many nuts and seeds, as antioxidants that have a lot of benefit for overall wellness. Because, you know, if there's anything true about the old model of the body, as sort of this machine, that's burning, you know, calories as fuel is that it produces a lot of oxidative stress.

And these free radicals are formed, which generally start ripping away at cell membranes and causing eventually, damage to the cell and the nucleus; which again, can lead to all kinds of chronic disease. So technically, almonds are one of the best sources of antioxidants, but keep in mind that it's very difficult to find high quality almonds these days. Unfortunately, there's a process known as irradiation, where they take literally nuclear waste (like cobalt 60, culled from decommissioned nuclear reactors) and they cold pasteurize a lot of the foods that you see, so that it kills anything that's really living in that food. That way, even a microbe won't touch it, but technically, the nutritional value is lost. And as you know from the book and a lot of the advocacy I've done on this topic, food is information. And when you ionize these molecular bonds, what happens is the information changes and it's the information content that delivers, you know, this essential template for health that you need. So when you're looking at ingredients, you see the USDA Organic logo. That's one of the only ways to vouch safe that your ingredients are not irradiated. So when you're looking for almonds, you definitely want to find organic almonds. But keep in mind, even the USDA certification almonds is a little iffy. So, some people import almonds from Italy, because they're one of the only sources of truly pure, organic, non, you know, pasteurized and chemical laden, you know materials anymore.

Tania: In fact, sourcing ingredients is one of the things we wanted to talk about. And the non-irradiated spices and seasonings is an important consideration. They feature... spices feature in a lot of recipes, they have high a medicinal value. And that's what really brings flavor. From a culinary point of view, that's how you're getting a complexity in the flavors. And you're also getting that sort of lingering idea, which is part of the whole story of food, right? You want to have a memory. You want to have an echo in your food, if I can be a little bit poetic about it.

So what I've done is I've combined unsulfured dried apricots, one free range organic egg. And then I’ve taken the curd from organic almonds, which I made into milk and we'll be using the almond milk as well in this recipe. And we're going to add a pinch of this non-irradiated, good quality cardamom; and mix this up. And basically, we're creating sort of a like a sweet bread. So it's a great option for breakfast and you can understand, you can acknowledge the medicinal power of your breakfast already. It's a kind of a breaking the fast, the first meal; it sets your pace for the day. When you add these kind of really regenerative ingredients, it makes it even more powerful.

So this is the almond milk that I've made from the almonds, the curd of which I've used, like the almond meal, in the almond bread batter. And I'm adding about half a cup of the almond milk and the rest will be spread on to the loaf or the muffins. I'm going to do them as muffins, as little toasts, halfway through the cooking process.

Sayer: So one of the amazing things about this recipe is that it is focused on what you might call anti-aging. I prefer the word 'longevity promoting', but it gets the point across. And that's, you know, the cardamom is in there, in part because it is such a powerful antioxidant. I mean, if you really look at the history of these spices, you go back to when, you know, literally, they were worth their weight in gold. There's a reason for that, is that in part, the antioxidant or longevity promoting effects were so valued. Because you know, what is more valuable than your life, right?

And that's a big part of the advocacy with Regenerate. It's not just lifespan and the number of years, it's your health span, its quality of life. And the same applies to your food. I mean, what I love about Tania's work is that you can taste and feel the quality, That not only does she go out of her way to source ingredients that we know qualitatively... like the chicken for example, that chicken was out there, in the pasture, eating a natural diet; happy. It wasn't stuffed in a little cage being pecked at, you know, with sores and like, on antibiotics. And so believe it or not, all of that is transferred to the food. And this isn't 'woo', right? This isn't just like magical thinking.

Tania: No, it's very scientifically founded.

Sayer: It's all in the book. Regenerate is all about how, epigenetically, when you look at the way in which, you know, the environment affects the cells of the body, there's a direct transfer through these little particles, known as exosomes, of genetic information that could even be passed down to your next generation and the next generation. So, technically, the quality of food and the environment within which it was raised, and the intention, is as important as the chemical composition.

And I'll say another thing, which is with Tania because I've had many meals here with my family, it's a way that she welcomes and it's the gratitude that she shows to her guests that gets transferred to the food. So that's another part of it, is that we didn't want to just, you know, provide you with the most perfect recipes on the planet, you know, by formula. There's also this thing about self-care that is really so deeply embedded in this simple act.

When someone takes the time to make a home cooked meal, it just deeply heartens me. Because really, like in today's society, it's so easy to just order, you know, Uber Eats or you know, get something that appears to be good quality, but it wasn't prepared by someone who cared. So that's another part of this recipe that I think is longevity promoting.

Tania: It's in the preparation that we get some of these benefits, right? There's a therapeutic benefit to actually handling the food and understanding where it's coming from, and seeing its transformation. And I like that you emphasize longevity promoting over anti-aging because we do kind of tend to get fixated. When in fact it's about quality of life, the vitality that you're living, not just the number of years you're living.

Sayer: Absolutely.

Tania: We're going to transfer this. Want to help me with this?

Sayer: Yeah, sure. Okay, wow, you're going to put me to work.

Tania: Grab this and we'll divide it up.

Sayer: Wow, I'm sweating here.

Tania: He doesn't expect it and then at the very last minute, I surprise him and I make him do something. Okay, so we're just going to spoon it into these.

Sayer: Well, I wanted to point another thing out about this recipe. That this is the beauty of, you know, the Regenerate Rx, is that when you look at something like apricot, there is a specific model in the research community on aging, which is called the ovariectomy-induced model of menopause and osteoporosis. Where they take the ovaries out of the female rats and within a few weeks, they develop full blown menopause and their bones start to demineralize. They get depressed. It's basically a way of inducing aging, which is something that would normally occur.

Women are much more susceptible to this change because your ovarian reserve starts to precipitously drop after around 40. And so what happens though, is if you give one of those animals that had the ovaries removed, an apricot, which actually is the fruiting ovary of the apricot plant, it's as if you never took the ovaries out. So throughout history, fruits and specific ones like apricots, you can look at peaches as well, which are related, they have been associated with eternal youth. And the reason is, is they actually perform this fundamental reproductive function in the body.

It's almost like you're getting software for the hardware of the system. And so, you know, this is actually a pretty secret weapon when it comes to longevity because it has the apricots in it, it has the antioxidants, you know, the cardamom. It has the almond antioxidant. So, you know, I just wanted to share that one thing with you, there are plenty more gems like that coming up.

Tania: So we're going to set that to cook and then we're going to move swiftly on to our curry.

Sayer: Oh, nice.

Tania: And curry is kind of reputed to take days and says to cook, to develop the flavor, so we're going to teach you some shortcuts. So you can feel the benefits of these incredibly potent spices. So let me go over and grab our little kit here.

Sayer: And I'll just say too, with this one, the specific focus is cancer. But I will say that if we even look at the last recipe, there's flaxseed in there. And I didn't speak to it but technically, if there's one food that you as a man or woman could eat that would protect you against epithelial cancers, its flaxseed. Flaxseed literally looks like epithelial cells and it produces this mucilaginous coat, which is exactly what the epithelial cells in your body do. So going through the whole alimentary canal.

So it's like this concept of like cures like. So in this specific recipe, curry is so well known to be one of the most powerful chemopreventive agents on the planet. And it's not only because of the lore surrounding, you know, these very old and healthy Indians, within the Vedic system. But also the research in the Western medical system is so compelling, on turmeric specifically being a good chemopreventive. And there's something specifically about curry that makes it even more powerful. I'll tell you a little bit about that in a minute. And I'll just toss it back to Tania.

Tania: So we're going to be starting to make the base for the curry. And the reason that it's quick is because we're going to use onions. Those aromatics are the flavor base for a lot of things. They in and of themselves are extremely potent as a medicinal food, as a healthful ingredient. But it's a superpower in terms of flavor as well. So you can take a lot of shortcuts, in terms of cooking time, and enjoy this kind of a dish without having days to prepare it.

So we're starting with our spice mixture and a little bit of cooking fat. So you are invited to use ghee or clarified butter, or coconut oil in any of these curry recipes. I'm going to use coconut oil today. So I've put a mixture of spices and again, the specifics are in the recipe in the download. But I'm sure Sayer would like to highlight some of those ingredients, probably turmeric.

Sayer: Yeah. Well I'd like to point out that right now what she's doing is a real alchemical technique; because we're taking fat and she's solubilizing the mix of spices in such a way that the fat soluble component of turmeric, one of which is known as alpha-turmerone, is removed. And when you consume it, it makes it much more bioavailable. That particular ingredient actually is able to go into the brain and stimulate neural stem cell regeneration. So there are a lot of things going on here that is very consistent with a many thousand year old Indian tradition. But which has sort of a real embedded logic that we're only now starting to discover through the optic of modern science.

Tania: So we're making what is commonly known as a roux and it's like that solubilized component with some kind of thickener. And of course, we don't want to use any flour. So coconut flour is what we're opting for. So you're adding coconut flour and you're basically making like a paste. That's your flavor base.

Sayer: Mmm, smells so good.

Tania: It already smells great, doesn't it?

Sayer: Yeah, it's amazing, the complexity. So here's one aspect of nutrition. Tania and I have focused previous, you know, writing on what's called the cephalic phase of nutrition ("cephalic" for head) and it turns out... Marc David's another really wonderful advocate of this concept, but that when it comes to the nutritional benefit of food, a good portion of it is the olfactory experience. Right? So the olfactory experience I'm having right now, just the scent of the curry is just next level. It's like you're transported to another time. And that's part of it, is that food is sensual. And in fact, Marc David, from The Psychology of Eating, talks about vitamin P for pleasure.

Tania: Yeah, I love that.

Sayer: Right? And so that's just the point, is that there's something transferred in the sensual experience, the gratitude, the receiving, you know, the wonderful efforts that is as valuable, nutritionally, as the food itself. And that's something that we've written about because there's something called orthorexia, right? There's this concept that there's only one right diet and there's only one right amount of a certain food. And you get all tweaked out about it and before you know it, you get indigestion; you haven't even eaten what you think is so good for you.

So in a way, what Tania and I are advocating is for us to open up, you know, our view of what is nourishment and realize that, you know, this isn't really again, ‘woo’, and unicorns prancing behind us, but a lot of it has to do with, you know, gratitude and it has to do with, you know, how you feel about your food.

Tania: The process and what energy you're putting. You talked earlier about, you're eating the stress of the animals that were badly treated. And so the same is true in the preparation of the food. There has to be this sense of, you know, it's a reward, "I'm rewarding myself. I'm making myself well and caring for myself at the same time." Yes.

Sayer: That's so powerful because see, self-care is something that I think a lot of us are hearing about. But it really comes down to something as simple as preparing a meal for oneself. And, you know, that's something that I've had direct experience with, you know. But moving back to the science, I mean, that's the beauty of this, is you don't have to believe in all of these, you know, poetic meanings to get the benefits.

Because just what she's done here alone, when you think about the different spices here, you have turmeric, right? You have cumin, you have black pepper, cardamom, coriander. There is a practically infinite complexity here. And there is information (literally, micro RNA is embedded in this selection)that will supervene upon and optimize the expression of your genes. And what we're talking about here is a new model of the body. Right?

It's not just about trying to prevent, you know, your oncogenes from activating. It's really about activating the resilience and sort of the optimized blueprint of wellness that's in your cells. It's your birthright and food is what makes that possible. In fact, there's this whole concept of food as anepigenetic inheritance system. Which means that basically what we've got here is as important for the expression of health, healthful gene patterns, as is the DNA in the nucleus of your cells.

But that's the disconnect. People have lost contact with the tradition that Tania is helping to reintroduce. This is more powerful medicine than any pharmaceutical company has ever even attempted to produce as an FDA approved drug. It's far more beneficial for you then than that as well, as far as chronic disease prevention.

Tania: It makes sense that it's more accessible to us than something extraneous, pharmaceutical, right? Because if our wellness, if our access to wellness is already inside, we just have to... as you used the word activate a couple times, we have to engage that and activate that with food that's available to us. And it's our right.

Sayer: Yes. In fact, I will say also,because there's a premise in Regenerate, the book, is that there's literally millions of years of history between flowering plants (they're called angiosperms), okay, that includes turmeric (as a beautiful flower, by the way) and complex animal life. And so it co-evolved, literally several hundred million years.

So the compounds and information in that plant, I need because my species is here today, in part because of the relationship with this amazing plant and the phytochemicals within it. It's also known as the xenohormetic hypothesis. So there is a real amazing body of research that now validates that statement. But back to the actual food.

Tania: Yeah, so the curry sauce we've built by picking that spice base, that nice spice blend, and adding a source of really helpful cooking fat; coconut oil, which has its own...

Sayer: Let me just move it to the camera.

Tania: Great, yeah, have a look. It's a nice beautiful color. Already you can tell that color is appetizing. It tells you that there's turmeric there, it tells you that there's something vibrant there that you want to access. And then we added a little coconut milk, organic coconut milk. Yeah, and there's our flavor base.

Sayer: That is beautiful. I mean, the reality is that there's a study that was published that I reported on, on GreenMedInfo, several years ago. Where they were looking at turmeric and curcumin particularly, as an LED alternative because in certain conditions, it emits a bright white light.

Tania: Wow.

Sayer: So yeah, it has a radiance to it. In fact, in the older Vedic lore, there's a goddess, its Gauri it's one of the expressions of Shakti, which emits a white light. And that's what turmeric was called. So there's a goddess-like parallel. Now in modern Western terms, what do we mean by that? Well, I spent a good six months looking at, at the time, about 8,000 abstracts on turmeric. And found that there was research on its benefits for over 800 diseases, which is just astounding. That one plant, you know, one compound actually within that plant, has been shown to potentially alleviate such a vast amount of suffering. It's as if compassion was built into this plant. And I have a whole other elaborate hypothesis about that, but we'll save that for another time.

Tania: I love that there's this connection to compassion because once again, you know, as a chef, coming back to that energy that you put into the preparation of food, being connected to its healthful properties. I mean, compassion is a big... you're feeding people, you're giving them access to life.

Sayer: Absolutely. Tania: And I love that.

Sayer: Well, and here it is, guys, I couldn't help myself. Because this is Eatomology and the etymology of compassion means 'to suffer with'. And as I was saying, in the past, angiosperm plants (which include turmeric) and then complex animals (which our predecessors, mammals are) they would suffer if one died. So literally, plants evolved a mechanism by which animals disperse seeds for it. And in turn, it gave it this delicious flesh, which gave it obviously food but also the information needed to be healthy. And that's why again, if you look at pomegranates or you look at apricots, or you look at even oranges, they've all been shown to replace the function of the ovary in mammals. That's because it's that essential in the survival of either species. That that's where the compassion comes in. That's at least my working hypothesis for why this is true.

Tania: So we're starting to put the vegetables in, sort of the content of the curry. We put the onions in with that sauce base, which is already starting to like make the smell even more kind of prolific and all encompassing. It's filling the kitchen. It's really nice.

Sayer: She's acting all innocent over here, but let me tell you, she just weaponized this with onion. Now onion has quercetin. If you go on the GreenMedInfo database, you look at the quercetin page, there's over 200 diseases that it's been studied to either prevent or mitigate. That's how powerful the one compound in onion is. So on top of an already incredible sea of therapy, she threw in onions. Okay.

Tania: A sea of therapy. Beautifully poetic, beautifully articulate.

Sayer: It's a little medical, but it's delicious too guys, but it's definitely an

incredible formula coming together. Oh, and then what's in there?

Tania: So here we've got a cauliflower and some sweet potatoes. So cauliflower, I know that's a powerhouse, isn't it? Yeah. And I've added some boiling water and a little bit of organic vegetable stock.

Sayer: Cauliflower is on the front page of the Regenerate book for a reason. Not only does it have this Romanesco fractal pattern, but it has something called sulforaphane. Sulforaphane is a sulfur containing molecule that is probably the most well researched anti-cancer agent that I know of. I mean, even from like clinical trials on broccoli sprouts for prostate cancer, but technically, any cancer can benefit from the immune modulatory effects of sulforaphane.

It seems to be effective at inducing programmed cell death in cells that would otherwise go off and become malignant. It has other benefits. I mean, if you look at it just for brain regeneration, we know that neural stem cells can also be enhanced in their production through the consumption of sulforaphane rich foods and that includes broccoli as well.

Tania: I'll just pop back to the almond bread for a moment. This is kind of a nice echoing because we're taking the remainder of that almond milk, you remember, and all of that is coming from... it kind of points to this sort of roots, shoots, and leaves cooking where you use every part of the food. So we've used the almond curd to make that bread, which is partially cooked. And then we've got the almond milk, which we're going to brush on top now. So I'm just going to take the remainder of the almond milk and brush it on top. It kind of helps the cooking. It kind of adds in a little bit more moisture, a little bit of juice.

Sayer: I love that. So you're saying roots, shoots, and leaves. Tania: Roots, shoots, and leaves, the whole thing.

Sayer: Yeah, so nature is incredibly well designed. And so if we take the lead from, you know, the way that nature provides its offerings and incorporate each element, then we'll benefit. So we're adding the almond milk to the top of the...

Tania: The remainder of the almond milk is being brushed on top. So it'll give it a nice sheen, so that things are appetizing to look at as well.

Sayer: Another thing with the quick curry is you have black pepper and there's been a lot made about the role that piperine has in enhancing the absorption of curcumin, which is a component in turmeric. It's about 3 to 4% of turmeric root by dry weight. And piperine enhances its absorption. Again, there are many ways you can enhance the absorption. I believe that the curry form right here is the best way to take it. And that's something that should be said or clarified, is that, you know, we live in a day and age where people want to take magic bullet, heroic doses of supplements. Because it's sort of like the allopathic model - "There's a magic pill. I just pop the right pills and I'm gonna be, you know, healthier." And it turns out that that notion, I believe, is really the wrong direction. And smaller amounts of food derived ingredients or actual food ingredients are more therapeutic. So that's something to consider. Less heroic doses, more incorporation of smaller amounts in a daily format, through your food, will probably have a greater likelihood to translate to better wellness and health.

Tania: And you talked about sort of nature putting it in a package for us, allowing us to use every part of the food, like in this sort of roots, shoots, and leaves concept. So I think you've talked in the past about how the prescription, the dosage is actually also built into the food, right?

Sayer: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. In fact, absolutely. So one example is, you know, people might ask, what is the best way to take turmeric? If for example, they have gastric inflammation or let's say they have colitis. And it wouldn't actually be ideal to take the forms that, for example, are targeted for the brain. Like there's Meriva®, which is, you know, a form that is micronized. They use lecithin to make it water soluble, and it gets absorbed more readily.

But when it comes to the alimentary canal, if you're doing a turmeric like this, it's going to paint the inside of the entire alimentary canal, you know, with those compounds. So technically, the food is a better form to deliver the whole, you know, package. That said, there are ways to target it and that's, you know, another topic. But for the purposes of this demonstration, I really feel generally speaking, what Tania is doing is the best way to consume turmeric.

Tania: All built in right here in our beautiful sauce, which is bubbling away. So what will happen is, the onions, those great delivery vessels of quercetin, they're going to get nice and soft. And then we're just going to blitz it. And so you use whatever tool you want to blitz it with. I'm going to use an immersion blender, it's going to make a little bit of noise, but we'll talk amongst ourselves and we'll figure it out. And then we're going to add that back in to the vegetables. Add a little bit of color, some green peas because we eat with our eyes and all that as well. And then we have a curry ready that you can pair with rice, anything else that's going to complete that dosage; that delicious prescription for you.

Sayer: Well now, another thing I'd like to point out is that although this quick veggie curry is being billed for cancer, this is probably one of the best alternatives to painkillers that I know of. In fact, if you look at clove alone, not only is this the most potent antioxidant herb that I know of, I can't quote the specifics of the ORAC score, but I can tell you, it's far higher than anything that I know of that's generally considered an antioxidant. But it's also one of the best analgesics.

In fact, it's been shown topically to be as effective a pain killer as novocaine. In fact, some people use it for that. That it's not only going to reduce inflammation, let's say there's an abscess, but it's going to kill pain and it's going to kill infection. So typically speaking, the formula here has a lot of benefits for those who might be dealing with osteoarthritis or you know, post exercise inflammation. That's the beauty of it. There's many ways that this can help improve your life.

Tania: Yeah, it's already sounding delicious and powerful. So the almond bread is almost out of the oven. And I think while we let that that curry simmer, although not for three days, for a few more minutes, we'll start on our salmon dish. That's a favorite, right? It's a favorite of both of ours, I know; that walnut and parsley crusted salmon. Yay, so much in there.

Sayer: I love this dish so much because what it does is it provides two forms of the very hard to obtain omega-3 fatty acids that the Western diet is just atrociously deficient in. So what we're dealing with in modern times is a diet that is so scaled up on the omega-6 fatty acid side of the fatty acid spectrum, that the omega-3 side is completely depleted. So today, for example, we're getting maybe 40 times more omega-6 than omega-3.

And because for such a long time, in ancient times, we got that ratio in a more equal balance from our foods, which is why we're advocates of the ancestral dietary template. Because you know, you look at vegetables, any kind you look at, you can go on the USDA nutrition data website, you'll see that the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 in say lettuce, or spinach, or parsley, or kale is going to be more like one-to-one. Then take something like peanut oil, peanut oil has 4,000+ times more omega-6 than omega-3. On top of the fact that that "polyunsaturated" fat (which everyone thinks is so good for you) is completely oxidized. It's completely, you know, what you might call rancid. So what we're doing here with this recipe is we're giving you a prescription for rebalancing what is without a doubt, likely going to be a pro-inflammatory, omega-6, disproportionately high diet.

Tania: And here we go with that; starting with walnuts. So these are organic walnuts, they're raw. And I'm going to use a food processor again, you use the instrument of your choice. The important thing is just to comminute the pieces so that you have a lot of surface area. And that can deliver a lot of taste and a lot of nutritional benefits as well. And just in terms of practicality, I feel like it's important to mention that when you're mixing nuts with anything else, break down your nuts first. That's a rule to live by.

Sayer: If I could add here, walnuts are one of the Law of Signatures' most amazing examples. The Law of Signatures basically says that certain foods that look like certain organs are beneficial to them. In the case of the walnut, it's perfectly resembling a brain, right? And if you look at the nut itself, it's like a skull. The brain has two sides, right? And there's a corpus callosum in the middle. And it just so happens that our brain thrives on omega-3 fatty acids. So it's really one of the more remarkable examples of a food that will nourish the brain.

Tania: After you've broken those down, add a little bit of organic Italian parsley. And you put everything in because there's a lot in here, in these stalks that we often reject. So again, back to our using the whole food, just throwing that in there and then allow that to sort of mix into this beautiful mosaic. Brown and tan, and green.

Sayer: One of the premises in Regenerate is chlorophyll is essential for enabling the body to basically harvest sunlight. So just like plants take sun, sunlight and turn it into energy, when you have chlorophyll, a component known as PBE goes into the mitochondria, and then increases the efficiency of the Krebs cycle. Now the brain is massively consuming energy, so it's disproportionately needing more energy than any other organ. So using parsley in this formula will increase the brain boosting effects dramatically.

Tania: So once you have your parsley in there, with your nuts, just a little bit of lemon and from a flavor point of view, this is a great balancer. And I think even from a nutritional point of view, it's quite embellishing. It's quite a balancer as well.

Sayer: Absolutely, lemon is one of the more incredible foods to work with because it's like a form of sunlight. I mean, it's amazing how you look at it and it looks like a sun. And then it doesn't matter what bacteria for example, that you look at that doesn't like sunlight, this is one of the best antiseptics in the body or outside the body.

Tania: We'll let that go for a while. I've added a little bit of extra virgin olive oil as well.

Sayer: The extra virgin part is very important because that ensures that you're going to get higher phenolic content. So for all the benefits that are talked about, a good portion of them are because of the antioxidant capacity. So the first pressing is always going to be higher in antioxidants. So, extra virgin is key.

Now, the thing about the salmon is that you have here an example of a DHEA- rich food. The brain needs DHEA to function optimally, as well as astaxanthin, which is a pigment containing antioxidant. So it's basically what gives it its pink color. And that is very therapeutic for the brain as well. So you have here, a trifecta of incredible, you know, sort of neuroprotective and brain boosting ingredients.

Tania: And it's kind of symbiotic too because the crust that we're going to put on top of the salmon, which already contains two of the three ingredients you're talking about, which are such powerhouses, they're going to kind of help to insulate the salmon. And help it cook more evenly, more completely, and then retain the flavors. So it's almost like taste and pleasure are colluding with health and wellness, to create this perfect dish almost. It's one of our favorites, I know.

Sayer: Yeah, so when you think about modern, you know, plagues, if you will, of cognition disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, dementia, a lot of it has to do with prolonged oxidative stress. So when you're dealing with formulas like this, you know, we're going to the root cause, basically. I mean, if you look at Alzheimer's, there's been over a thousand FDA, you know, sort of overseen clinical trials on drugs for the condition. Not a single one has been shown to do anything to prevent the disease from accelerating. Something like this is without a doubt going to hit the root cause of the condition because you have what is really a chronically pro-inflammatory state in the brain. So this is going to address some of the building blocks needed to shift the balance in the other direction.

Tania: And so we have this beautiful paste now or pesto. Sayer: That looks really good.

Tania: Yeah, it looks kind of nice right?

Sayer: It's beautiful.

Tania: It's nice. And we're going to put it over the fish. So on the one side... and it's nice to get your fish with the skin still on because then you have the other side of that little nestling protective cooking vessel, natural vessel. So we're going to divide this up between our two portions. And you create literally a crust, a little blanket for your salmon. A blanket of nutritional and flavor; support.

Sayer: It just looks good, you know? The colors are just really amazing.

Tania: Great. And then as luck would have it, our almond bread is done. And then we're going to pop this in. So again, pointing to the fact that cooking is not difficult, or...

Sayer: I also want to point out that the salmon being used here is wild salmon. And it's extremely important today that you make sure you're not getting conventional salmon. There is genetically modified salmon on the market. It has unintended adverse effects that have not been studied in human safety studies. So, you know, you wouldn't want to take that risk ultimately. And then the wild part is essential because unless they're being fed a natural diet, they're not going to have the high omega-3 fats we're talking about, nor is the astaxanthin level going to be at the level you need for you to get the benefits.

Tania: So that doesn't take very long to cook. Probably about 7 to 10 minutes. So, almond bread ready. This is how it looks. Does this smell good?

Sayer: Yes!

Tania: I guess we have to kind of communicate its success. Sayer: Yes and the texture looks very appetizing.

Tania: So we made them as little muffin kind of things. So that's great. We'll enjoy those later. Great. And then the curry, I just blend it up that base; that sauce that we had the beautiful spices and the coconut milk, and the onions. And that's kind of the key, the onion soften. And I just used an immersion blender to kind of make everything saucy, and then I added it to the cooking vegetables.

Sayer: I see that. That’s so good. Wow.

Tania: Yeah, and we're just going to let that reduce a little bit, which is cooking talk for evaporate, right? And then that'll be a delicious curry with cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and broccoli.

Sayer: For those who use GreenMedInfo, you could go on GreenMedInfo, type in the ingredients into our Smart Search and it will literally pull up all of the abstracts and all of the benefits for specific diseases. I can estimate that there's probably going to be like 500 diseases that would benefit from this, according to that algorithm. That's just how therapeutic it is from the sort of biomedical perspective.

Tania: So, are we ready for some turkey hash? Some good hearted turkey hash.

Sayer: Yes. Now this is a very interesting recipe because one might think, "Well turkey hash, how is that good for the heart?" Well, it turns out, the first ingredient, what I love about it, ghee, is clarified butter. Now I'm somebody, if you read Regenerate, you'll know that when I was introduced to cow's milk based formula, I was severely asthmatic. And it wasn't until I was 17, when I took it out of my diet that the asthma went into remission. Interestingly, I can have as much ghee as I want. Why is that? Because the casein, the white sticky protein and the milk sugar is taken out. And that's why it's also good for application, for high heat cooking because it's not going to oxidize and burn up. But another interesting thing about ghee is, people think, "Well, it's full of saturated fat. How's that good for me?" Like palmitic acid. It turns out that even the vaccenic acid in it, which is a naturally occurring trans-fat, there's research now that shows because it is naturally occurring, it actually may have heart friendly application. One of the things it might do is positively modulate blood lipids. So everything we've sort of learned about saturated fat, bad for the heart and unsaturated; good, has been inverted. Because if you think about it, "vegetable oils" from cotton seed and corn and soy, and peanut, etc.; that that didn't exist before the Industrial Revolution. They don't come from vegetables anyway. They're all oxidized, full of polyunsaturated, yes, but omega-6 pro-inflammatory fats. So the saturated fats are relatively stable, and they don't oxidize because they don't have all those double carbon bonds that make it unsaturated. So actually, when you really look deeper into the science and everything, you'll see that there's a lot of myths about what fats are good for your heart and what aren't. So needless to say, ghee and butter, I believe may be considered heart friendly, especially when consumed in moderation.

Tania: And what we're doing with it here is we're using it to toast the spices and we're kind of coating the spices. And I put in cumin, which features quite prominently in this dish, and oregano, of course, non-irradiated, organic sources. And it's helping to kind of seal the spices. I'm also going to add now, some onions. And we're looking for that sound actually, [sizzling]. That sound of applause.

Sayer: Yes, that's beautiful. And keep in mind too, the onions, the cumin, as well as the oregano are powerful antioxidants. And here's the whole thing about blood lipids and cholesterol being at the root of heart disease, is that a lot of it is just completely wrong. But there is some component of the LDL cholesterol causes heart disease hypothesis that is correct. Which is that OxLDL or oxidized LDL can be atherogenic, it can harm blood vessels. And so when you're doing cooking with these antioxidants, what you're doing is you're also providing the sort of protection against oxidation of your LDL. So that's another reason why it's a heart friendly formula.

Tania: I added a little bit of rock salt, some Himalayan pink salt, and that's going to help to do what's called sweating the onion. So it's going to release a little bit of moisture. And further that process of sort of sealing and amalgamating everything in terms of flavor and also in terms of potency. Sweating the onions means that when we bring in the turkey to cook it, it's going to allow it to sort of steam. And then we're going to add a little bit of butternut squash and then finally, just wilt a little bit of beautiful lacinato kale.

Sayer: I want to add too, here's the interesting part of the equation, is that people think, "Wait, salt, isn't that, you know, cardio toxic?" Well, there's truth to that statement in the sense that conventional salt that's been heated to something like 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and then has, you know, dust, it's dusted with silicon dioxide and anti-caking agents; basically, that's toxic salt. That is not salt that has anything to do with Himalayan sea salt or Celtic sea salt, which has got all the other minerals and elements that would be needed to promote overall bodily health, but specifically heart health. So keep that in mind, is that salt in its natural form is highly therapeutic. In its industrial, highly processed form, absolutely, I would consider it to be a risk for your health.

Tania: So I've added in turkey. And I think this is another one of those maybe... I don't want to say misconceptions, maybe that's too strong a word. But sort of, the less fat the better. Certainly from a culinary point of view, a little bit of fat is helpful to like, process the food and transform the food the way we want it to. But I think there's even a benefit too, from a nutritional point of view, right?

Sayer: Yeah, I would say so. That one of the things about fat that that people need to consider, I think, is for satiety. To really feel like you're done eating, fat is essential. And that has a lot to do with the fact that our body is comprised primarily of fat. I like to explain this to people. You know, we're in a carbo centric era, where still people think that, you know, we need to eat lots of carbohydrates in order to be, you know, giving our body the fuel it

needs. But what we're starting to better understand is that technically, that's not true.

And if you even look at the composition of our body, you're going to see primarily fat, you're going to see protein, you're going to see water. There's not going to be a lot of sugar, right? There's sugar coating the cells. You know, there's this part of the structure of the cell. But what we think we need from the so called, you know, grains and the so called carbohydrates are sort of blown out of proportion. So one of the things that we do need more of is fat.

And there's another reason for this, which is that if you're looking at it from the perspective of the way the cell gets energy, beta oxidation is a really effective way to produce energy. So you're not just burning sugar, for example, you're taking fats, and it generates quite a lot of ATP. And technically, it doesn't generate a lot of oxidative stress. Burning sugars does do that. So again, fat isn't what we have been told or meant to believe it is, in terms of heart health. It actually has a lot of benefits, as long as it is natural fat. Obviously, hydrogenated oil is a death sentence. I wouldn't suggest anyone eat plastic. I mean, hydrogenated oil is not that different from plastic.

Tania: It's not that different. Right.

Sayer: So I would stay away from it. Another thing about this recipe is sort of a secret agenda is that I don't know if you've had a turkey dinner lately, but sometimes I'll have turkey and there is something about the after effects, in terms of the calmness it generates that is such an important part of heart disease. Heart disease is really also a disease of chronic stress. You know, so we can look at it from this strictly biomechanical level. But let's face it, I mean, stress disorders, especially I think in men, honestly, they locate in the heart.

And there's something about turkey and one can say, "Oh, yeah, that's tryptophan and that's a precursor to serotonin, which then is a precursor to melatonin. And that's why we all sleep well and are calm after eating turkey," and there's some truth to that. So I would just say that one reason why this is a heart friendly formula is because after you eat it, you're going to feel good. You're going to feel calm and nourished. And that's sort of the intention behind this recipe.

Tania: Yeah, because we want... after we eat, that's part of the experience of eating and going back to that idea of the whole thing. From preparation to, you know, feeling that satiety, and having that feeling of being nourished, linger. You want to feel good, not over full after you eat; satisfied.

Sayer: Exactly. We can't leave out the fact that it has the kale. Tania: Yay!

Sayer: So this is one of the greatest and most exciting discoveries of our time, is that chlorophyll is comprised of a lot of things. One of which of course has magnesium at its center. It's the same thing as hemoglobin, it's plant blood. The only difference is it has magnesium instead of iron at its center. That's why it's green and not red. But the beauty of this new study that I reported on, it was 2013, was that there's a component that is pulled into the mitochondria. Now, keep in mind, the heart is having to put out massive amounts of energy. So when it comes to mitochondrial function, anything you can get that's going to help it function better, it's going to promote heart health. So the chlorophyll helps to enable your body to literally capture the energy of the sun and turn that into ATP in an efficient manner. While keeping reactive oxygen species low. Which are really the primary reason why people get upset about LDL levels causing damage to the heart because oxidation of LDL can be problematic. So kale is another secret weapon in this. Believe it or not, that is going to keep your ticker humming in a way that really nothing else can.

Tania: Harmonious. Harmonious humming, that's what we want. And I'm going to add the kale in last so that it's not raw but it's sort of just gently wilted. After the onions were added in, we added in the turkey, which Sayer talked about. And then I added in a little bit of butternut squash, covered it so that it would cook a little steam, and then at the very last minute, you want to put in your kale. And the kale is just... it looks like you just want to be around it. It's this beautiful deep green. Yeah, it's really nice.

Sayer: Beautiful stuff.

Tania: Delivering that plasma, like you talked about.

Sayer: Absolutely. And keep in mind, now this meal has a lot of fiber. And that's a big part of how the body eliminates fat soluble toxicants is that the fiber will bind with bile and help pull it out through natural elimination. So there's a sort of indirect cardiovascular benefit to that as well. Keep in mind, bile contains all those lipids that the statin manufacturers and the AMA have spent so much time focusing on. Actually get pulled out of the body when you have this type of fiber. So you've got that benefit as well.

Tania: So after this cooked a little bit, I covered it so that it would steam, and then we're going to add in the kale. And it's alright if the kale is a little bit wet as well. I gave that a stir. And then cover it and then turn off the heat, and just let it do its thing. And so, we've shown you the almond bread, which is the recipe we started off with; so many great things in the almonds. And then, should I get the salmon? It's ready.

Sayer: Yeah, let's take a look. Alright. Tania: Let's do it.

Sayer: I love the salmon. So this in total is a meal that you could sit down to and know that there isn't an organ system in your body that isn't going to benefit directly from this.

Tania: So that looks pretty nice too, right? Really beautiful, appetizing. Sayer: Beautiful. Wow.

Tania: Beautiful wild salmon with that nice crust on it. And then we'll show people the curry.

Sayer: You'll notice too, there's not a single grain in this entire feast. And it's not that grains are bad intrinsically. It's just that you have to use them contextually. And if we're going into the ancestral template, which is what I advocate for in Regenerate, there's really no reason to use them when you have other foods that are more part of a traditional diet; for example, tubers or squashes, roots. You can get the same texture and you get a lot more health benefits than using the grain equivalent.

Tania: Look at this curry. It looks good, right? Sayer: Wow. Let's see. Can you see that guys? Tania: Beautiful vibrant color.

Sayer: Amazing.

Tania: Little pops of green, nice smell. Right?

Sayer: Very nice smell. Yes.

Tania: And then we'll just uncover the kale and give it one final stir.

Sayer: So you could say food is medicine but it's almost like the next level, which is food is that which prevents you from needing medicine. And that may even include supplements because we don't want people to take handfuls of supplements, thinking that that's the solution. It's going to take time, it's going to take a community; it’s going to take a little support. But when you're using these recipes as your primary form of healthcare, as well as just nourishing yourself deeply, your whole world can change. Oh, wow. That looks incredible.

Tania: Bon appetit. That was fun. Yay!

Sayer: Thank you, Tania.

Tania: That was fun, right? It's always great talking about food.

Sayer: Yes. Thanks for joining us. The Regenerate platform is going to have a lot of different content like this in the future, so feel free to sign up for more of this in the future.

The contents of this presentation are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This presentation does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

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