ROOTED IN PLANTS
Eating enough fruits, veggies improves health, eliminates need for meat
Joseph Mckelvey slid some kale from his cutting board into a colander and moved on to chopping up butternut squash.
The December afternoon marked the first time the 64-year-old retiree was making butternut squash and kale soup, a recipe he learned from “Real Men Cook and Eat Vegetables,” a program of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
About an hour later, it wasn’t quite ready, but Mckelvey’s wife, Mary, wanted a taste anyway.
“Beautiful, beautiful,” she said as he filled a bowl from the steaming pot on the stove in their Gahanna home.
The Mckelveys have been adding more fruits and vegetables to their meals over the years, in part to control Joseph’s Type 2 diabetes.
It’s a change that health-care providers like to see. Programs like those offered at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, which includes the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital, seek to encourage people to pile plates with plant foods — everything from cauliflower and peaches
to quinoa, lentils and nuts.
Some steer patients toward plant-heavy meal plans; others say the way to go is to exclusively eat foods that grow from the ground.
Enter the plant-based diet. This “diet” isn’t a temporary change to lose weight. Rather, it’s a lifelong eating style meant to prevent certain cancers and other illnesses and address chronic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
People should take steps toward eating three to five servings of both vegetables and fruits each day, said Dr. Kristin Devor, who practices at Upper Arlington Preventative Primary Care, part of the Central Ohio Primary Care network.
Those who forgo animal foods can get complete protein, she said, from pea-based products or soy products such as beans, tofu, soybased tempeh and seitan (wheat gluten). Complete proteins also can come from combining such foods as beans and rice, or peanut butter and whole-grain bread.
Devor said she has seen patients lose weight, get more energy and go off blood-pressure medication or insulin.
“The advantages are kind of endless,” she said. “You’re really eating this way for your health.”
Dr. Inga Jolly of Mount Carmel Medical Group in New Albany recommends plant-based eating for all patients, especially those who have Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even arthritis or autoimmune or inflammatory diseases.
“I wish more people would give it a try,” Jolly said. “If people do want to go plant-based to make some changes, it doesn’t take long to see those changes.”
The notion that protein must come from meat is a cultural phenomenon, Jolly said, and there’s no evidence that dropping meat leads to protein deficiency or malnourishment.
She noted that U.S. Olympic weightlifter Kendrick Farris is vegan — eating no animal products whatsoever (including meat, fish, eggs and dairy)
— as are several members of the NFL’S Tennessee Titans.
Dr. Garrett Heinz, an Ohiohealth doctor training in family medicine, is a strong believer in the power of food choices. He advocates eating mostly whole plant foods, meaning minimal consumption of processed or animal-derived foods.
“In the medical community, there’s just an emphasis on medicine and surgery and quick fixes,” Heinz said. “I want to address the root causes.”
Heinz is part of the Ohiohealth Riverside Methodist Hospital Family Medicine team, where a “Food Is Health” pilot program offers an on-site pantry with fresh and healthy foods free of cost for patients with Type 2 diabetes. Patients also receive recipes and nutrition education.
Other efforts to introduce people to vegetable-based eating can be found at Ohio State University’s 3-acre Garden of Hope, said Colleen Spees, an associate professor and cancer-prevention researcher.
One project provides gardening opportunities to families in underserved areas. They harvest fruits, vegetables and herbs and receive nutrition education, recipes and cooking demonstrations. They are provided health coaches and wearable fitness trackers.
New behaviors have formed, and researchers have seen weight loss and improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides.
“It’s astounding. It’s really astounding when you give people the tools and support them,” Spees said. “It’s intensive, but it’s also cheaper than giving them drugs the rest of their lives.”
The “Real Men” program began about seven years ago to address health disparities for AfricanAmerican, Latino and underserved white men, said Jaci Holland, program manager of the James’ Center for Cancer Health Equity.
James dietitian Candice Schreiber offered participants a virtual grocery store tour, with tips on what to buy to reap the benefits of plant food.
“A lot of us like to think about meat as the center of our meals,” Recipe courtesy of the Ohio State Wexner University Medical Center Nutrition Services
she said. “It’s kind of reframing that meal planning, basing your meals around those vegetables.”
Joseph Mckelvey participated in the program with a handful of fellow retirees from the men’s linedance group at the Marion Franklin Community Center on the South Side.
It included an assessment of their nutrition knowledge and two informational sessions, and participants received seeds and other materials to grow vegetables and herbs at home. It culminated in September with the men preparing a plant-heavy meal at The Kitchen culinary-arts restaurant in German Village.
Mckelvey said he learned new ways to prepare foods, including grilling cauliflower, making zucchini pancakes and seasoning peppers with a mix of brown sugar and less-sodium Lawry’s Seasoned Salt.
His soup was chock-full of plant foods. Along with the squash and kale, it consisted of onions, celery, carrots, great Northern beans, rosemary and thyme.
“It just kind of expanded my horizons,” he said of the “Real Men” experience. “I never thought I could prepare these types of dishes before.”
jviviano@dispatch.com @Joanneviviano