Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen – Enlightened Eating
Some people will need cholesterol-lowering medication in addition to eating plant-based.
There have been studies that have shown that if you eat plant-based, you decrease that rate of inflammation. And even if you’re on cholesterol-lowering medication and you get normal cholesterol, if you’re still eating animal products, the inflammation is still there. So, the plant-based eating does so much good for you.
Lisa Berry: I need to highlight that again because I remember reading that. How do we know which of us can do a lot of nuts and seeds and oils and who of us should not be doing them?
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: So, there’s no nutritional value to oils.
Lisa Berry: No omega?
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: You’re much better off to get a good fat from saying avocado or walnuts or flaxseed, flax meal because if you can minimize oils. First of all, it’s a lot of calories, and it’s really to make food more palatable. So, you use the smallest amount possible if you need it on a salad or if you need to cook with it, and you try to maximize the good fats from these other foods that I mentioned.
Some people feel fine on seeds and nuts. Other people feel heavy. You know, they just feel the nuts are a vegetable fat, but they can make some people just feel too full. So, they may not eat those.
People with heart disease and people with diabetes should be eating a very, very low-fat diet. If you have diabetes, one of the studies that have been done shows that it’s very hard for insulin to work properly with a lot of fat in the diet. It prevents the insulin from getting into the muscle cells. And so, they’ve found that if you eat a low-fat diet with diabetes, you can eat plenty of complex carbohydrates, but your blood sugar will go down. And a plant-based diet is three times as effective as the ADA diet, the diabetic diet that’s talked about.
Lisa Berry: I’m really happy that you made that distinguishing factor between complex carbs and fats. Because back in the day, probably 20 years ago when I was teaching nutrition, it was, okay.
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: Right.
Lisa Berry: What about coconut oil because I just love my coconut oil?
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: I know, I know. The problem with coconut oil is its 90 percent saturated fat. So, saturated fat means it’s like animal fat, but it’s a vegetable. So, it’s one of the very few products that are not an animal that behaves like an animal. Thus, palm oil and coconut oil have this high amount of saturated fat. So, it’s good to apply to your skin, but it’s not good to eat.
So, canola oil is about 5 percent saturated fat, olive oil is about 14 percent saturated fat, and coconut oil is about 90 percent saturated fat. So, coconut oil is more like the good lard.
Lisa Berry: Right, it kind of looks like it, too.
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: Yeah. So, there’s a lot of misinformation about coconut oil. I mean, the marketing is misleading, quite misleading.
Lisa Berry: I think everybody, you have to listen to your body and, as you said right at the beginning, have the conversation with yourself – what are your choices, what are your goals, how do you feel.
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: Yeah. So, you know, that would do you want to lose weight, do you want to stop smoking, do you want to eat a salad every day. I mean, it’s such a wide variety. But, you name what you want to change.
Lisa Berry: I would love for you because you have had some incredible life experiences. Like, to be able to go to Africa and go to India, and just if you, I would love to hear just the differences in diets and foods and thoughts and everything.
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: Well, there’s a lot of plant-based eating in of course both India and Africa. It’s–food is not as plentiful, and so people there eat a lot fewer calories. I mean, I’ve seen people eating like one avocado in an entire day.
The children at Mother Teresa’s children’s home don’t have as much food as we have in here. I could say, they have more love. And so, you know, it’s difficult to compare. It’s very difficult to compare.
Lisa Berry: It’s not better or worse. It’s just different. Enlightened Eating–first of all, what made you think of that title?
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: I thought about Enlightened Eating because I was thinking, when you’re enlightened, you see things as they are, that you’re, you know, you’re wise, you’re compassionate. And so, I thought that way you would know that you’re eating classically, never have to change how you eat if you’re eating plant-based, that you’ll be thinner, you’ll be wiser, you’ll be healthier. And that’s where that came from.
Lisa Berry: I love that you said that’s classic because you’re right, it’s timeless, it doesn’t have to change. It’s not a fad. It’s not a diet.
Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen: Yes, that’s exactly right. It’s a classical way of eating.
I mean, I would say that it’s impossible to separate what we eat from how healthy we are, that what we eat affects our health and the health of the world around us. And when you eat plant-based, even if it’s not 100 percent plant-based, your part of the solution and not part of the problem.
Lisa Berry: Wow, I love that. That was so beautifully said; we cannot separate it. And if you think I would like to see some changes in your health, and you’re drawn to this, you feel a little bit enlightened, I would just invite you to find Dr. Cassandra Ohlsen on Facebook, pick up her book Enlightened Eating, follow her there on Facebook because she just offers so many tips and everything.
