My note to PCRM re: Kickstart

[Guest guest]

Today is the last day of the PCRM Kickstart program, and having not communicated

with them via e-mail for several days (having made my point), I felt honor-bound

to sent the following note upon reading the last day of the program's recipe

from " Chef Tal. "

 

" Congratulations on finishing the first program. I sincerely hope it was

successful and I know y'all put in a lot of time and effort. Quite admirable!

 

It is ironic though, that the last recipe (recommended by " fat is flavor " (a

direct quote) Tal) is the following:

 

" Mediterranean Chickpea Wrap

 

This is a great mash-up of strong ingredients-chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes,

cumin, onions, and lots of garlic.

 

Makes 4 sandwiches

 

sea salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 carrot, peeled and finely diced

1 onion, finely diced

1 banana pepper, seeded and finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne, or more to taste

freshly ground black pepper

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, with liquid

1 white potato, peeled and finely diced

5 whole oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped

4 pieces vegan naan bread or tortillas, heated or toasted "

 

 

The two tablespoons of oil are totally unnecessary, and even the concept of

oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes makes my arteries quiver. This recipe is very

high fat and inconsistent with the recommendations of Dr. Barnard, Esselstyn,

and Ornish. What's worse, it would have been very easy to " de-fat. " Saute in

water, broth, or wine, use no-oil dehydrated tomatoes hydrated, or better yet,

RAW tomatoes diced or sliced. Tal has no clue.

 

As such, I'm guessing close to a day's worth of added fat (by Essy standards)

per serving.

 

Hardly a " fit " or " fitting " ending to an ambitious program. IMHO, Tal's recipe

is an embarrassment to all the good work that PCRM does, and his fame via Oprah

doesn't mitigate the high-fat approach he consistently uses in his recipes.

 

I hope greater thought and discrimination goes into the fat content of recipes

in the next Kickstart, regardless of the " celebrity " factor.

 

Again, I'm sincerely impressed by PCRM's efforts and recognize how difficult

this all must have been to produce. I'm just more in favor of staying in line

with your organization's own dietary recommendations regarding added oil and not

succumb to a " once they go veg, then we can get them to go low fat " attitude.

 

I firmly believe if you're going to do it, do it " right " from the beginning

through to the end.

 

Best regards, Mark "

[Guest guest]

To my knowledge, Mark, this was the second, not the first, PCRM

Kickstart Programme. I followed the last one in September of last year. Our

Vegan Slimmers group emailed them at that time about excessive fat in recipes and

also about some ludicrous suggestions such as tripling up on a salad recipe

which was already designed for 8 servings – I don’t know about you,

but 24 servings of salad would go off in my fridge before I got the chance to

eat even a third of them. The PCRM did take on board some of our comments but

obviously the fat issue looks likely to be an ongoing problem with some of

their celebrity chefs. However, at least they are doing something towards

getting the vegan message out there in a non-threatening way and I believe that

is to be applauded. A lot of the time, mainstream eaters are put off veganism

because the message that comes across is extreme and aggressive. People move to

a vegan diet for many different reasons and it may take some people a while to

move towards a lower fat diet on top of an animal-product-free one. I agree

with you that the added fat in this recipe is unnecessary and frankly

distasteful to one who has tried to eliminate excessive fat, but if a recipe

like this encourages someone to move from meat-eating to a vegan diet, then I’m

all for it.

Christie

 

 

 

 

On Behalf Of Mark Sutton

21 January 2010 14:09

 

My note to PCRM re: Kickstart

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is the last day of the PCRM Kickstart program, and having not

communicated with them via e-mail for several days (having made my point), I

felt honor-bound to sent the following note upon reading the last day of the

program's recipe from " Chef Tal. "

 

" Congratulations on finishing the first program. I sincerely hope it was

successful and I know y'all put in a lot of time and effort. Quite admirable!

 

It is ironic though, that the last recipe (recommended by " fat is

flavor " (a direct quote) Tal) is the following:

 

" Mediterranean Chickpea Wrap

 

This is a great mash-up of strong ingredients-chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes,

cumin, onions, and lots of garlic.

 

Makes 4 sandwiches

 

sea salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 carrot, peeled and finely diced

1 onion, finely diced

1 banana pepper, seeded and finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne, or more to taste

freshly ground black pepper

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, with liquid

1 white potato, peeled and finely diced

5 whole oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped

4 pieces vegan naan bread or tortillas, heated or toasted "

 

The two tablespoons of oil are totally unnecessary, and even the concept of

oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes makes my arteries quiver. This recipe is very

high fat and inconsistent with the recommendations of Dr. Barnard, Esselstyn,

and Ornish. What's worse, it would have been very easy to " de-fat. "

Saute in water, broth, or wine, use no-oil dehydrated tomatoes hydrated, or

better yet, RAW tomatoes diced or sliced. Tal has no clue.

 

As such, I'm guessing close to a day's worth of added fat (by Essy standards)

per serving.

 

Hardly a " fit " or " fitting " ending to an ambitious program.

IMHO, Tal's recipe is an embarrassment to all the good work that PCRM does, and

his fame via Oprah doesn't mitigate the high-fat approach he consistently uses

in his recipes.

 

I hope greater thought and discrimination goes into the fat content of recipes

in the next Kickstart, regardless of the " celebrity " factor.

 

Again, I'm sincerely impressed by PCRM's efforts and recognize how difficult

this all must have been to produce. I'm just more in favor of staying in line

with your organization's own dietary recommendations regarding added oil and

not succumb to a " once they go veg, then we can get them to go low

fat " attitude.

 

I firmly believe if you're going to do it, do it " right " from the

beginning through to the end.

 

Best regards, Mark "

[Guest guest]

This is interesting to me because I saw those recipes for 8-serving salads (which were usually supposed to be the only item in a particular meal) and thought it was just not enough food.  I didn't follow the suggested menu plan, but I would probably have eaten the entire recipe in a single meal (and probably still would have been hungry an hour later).  When I eat a vegetable salad I usually eat it out of a serving bowl -- and even then the calorie count is very, very low -- there just aren't a lot of calories in a greens-based salad unless you add calorie-dense foods (like oil-based dressing, for example, or, better choices, a few beans or seeds or starchy foods).

 

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Christie <christie0131 wrote:

 

 

 

suggestions such as tripling up on a salad recipe which was already designed for 8 servings – I don’t know about you, but 24 servings of salad would go off in my fridge before I got the chance to eat even a third of them.

[Guest guest]

Mark. Great letter. It was clear direct and precise. You stated facts. Your

feelings were clearly stated and worked in a way to maintain dialog and care. I

appreciated how you acknowledged the work PCRM did to create the program and

fully support and agree with your thoughts on the fat and " Chef Tal " . He seems

like such a nice man. Very well intentioned is my impression of him. I just wish

he were more aware of all the aspects of nutrition that we are and reduce the

fats and oils in his recipes.

 

Perhaps we can invite him to our blog group or Drs Esselstyn or T Colin

Campbell, Barnard, McDougalls work?

 

Thanks for your leadership on this issue.

 

Tom=

[Guest guest]

For those of you in the Los Angeles area tomorrow Saturday 1/23/10.

In celebration of 40 years of service Follow Your Heart, Chef Tal will be

signing books and preparing a delightful 3 course vegan meal.

For info call FYH at: (818) 348-3240

 

Sent from my iPhone