Neal Barnard, MD | Pantry Staples - Healthy Foods to Stock Up On Now

hi everybody I'm dr. Neal Barnard this is an unprecedented time and when you go into grocery stores people are running around filling their carts hoarding all kinds of things and let me tell you something you're hoarding all wrong you're getting unhealthy foods let me show you some foods that you ought to be stocking up on okay the first one a no-brainer and that's old-fashioned oatmeal why it's healthy brings your cholesterol down lasts forever and it's filling but I know what you're thinking wait a minute maybe for some people a little oatmeal with some cinnamon and raisins and blueberries is good but every time I make it I follow the instructions and it turns out like rocks well what's the answer let me give you a quick one-minute cooking tip how to prepare perfect oatmeal that you'd actually want to eat first of all if you want your oatmeal to be crunchy do what it says on the package boil the water then pour the oatmeal in that seals the oatmeal grains and it keeps them kind of crispy but let's say you like a nice bowl of creamy oatmeal what you should do instead is put the water and the oats in the pan first not hot then turn it on and a fields are already in the water when it heats up it'll turn out nice and creamy very simple and of course you can top it with whatever you want strawberries blueberries almond slivers I actually saw some people putting bacon on their oatmeal sorry several points off don't do that okay next thing let's say every morning you have your cold cereal with cow's milk ditch the cow's milk instead pick up some soy milk or almond milk or hemp milk or oat milk there are a million of them nowadays and in their cartons they last just about forever they taste great and they're healthy for you number three rice rice lasts a long time extremely nourishing and there's white rice extra points for brown rice but I know what you're thinking now you're saying wait a minute I made brown rice once and it came out just like wet newspapers here's why brown rice has the fibre still on it and that fiber coating absorbs some water and can make it kind of mushy so are we gonna do well I'm gonna spend a few hundred dollars and get a really expensive rice cooker maybe I got another tip for you here's what you do here's how to make perfect brown rice number one take about a cup of rice this can be brown rice in a saucepan a cup of rice in the saucepan and now rinse it put it underneath your faucet get it all wet and then drain that extra water off and now you're just left with some damp rice in a pan put it on the stove turn up the heat to high and stir it dry this will take maybe two minutes not longer than that we're not making popcorn we're just toasting it a little bit until it's all nice and dry crackling just a hair at that point we're gonna fill it with extra water you know when you cook rice the package instructions say one part rice two parts water don't do that even at the risk that your roommate is going to rush in and say don't do it this way here's what you should be doing three parts water or more for one part of rice what you're doing is you're cooking it like pasta and then when it's done you just drain that extra water off how long about forty minutes okay so rinse it off stir it dry toast it a little bit and then cook it for 40 minutes with extra water drain off the extra water best rice you ever had now this will work with brown rice where it's great this will also work with white rice to a degree but it's it's better with brown and extra points if it's short grain rather than long grained it has a little bit of a nutty or texture the long grain is fine too okay next beans if you've been a person who's always having canned beans that's great they last a really long time but how about cooking them from scratch I know what you're thinking I thought this too it takes forever who has time well I came to a realization if you're soaking the beans they soak themselves you put them in water and you can go do something else and while you're cooking they cook too they don't require close supervision let me show you how to cook beans from scratch step 1 take about a cup of beans rinse it off the instructions always say that because they say there might be a little bit of a stone or stick in there and I have to tell you I have never found one but nonetheless I rinse them anyway and you should too and then we soak them overnight put it in a big pot and more than cover the beans with water and add a little bit of salt maybe about a tablespoon of salt why because otherwise without that salt sometimes the beans can have that outer coating can be a little bit leathery the next day and somehow the salt seems to stop that the theory is it keeps calcium from getting in from your water into the beans who knows but add a little salt you'll be glad you did then tomorrow morning what you do is drain off that water just the soaking water and rinse it again and now fill it with fresh water and boil it for just about an hour maybe a little bit more but not more than that they don't have to boil for a really long time and then you've got great beans now what do I do with them my favorite thing in the world get an immersion blender do you know these things they cost very little maybe 20 bucks 30 bucks 40 bucks and you put it into your pot of these and you go and purées the beans into this beautiful creamy texture and now best of all take those little tubs with the red lids you know the ones that they have portion it out and you can freeze them put one portion in one another portion in another one and they last for weeks and weeks and weeks now when you're ready to have them for lunch you just take your little container you run it under hot water under your faucet and out pops this little brick of frozen beans put it in a bowl you can microwave it for a couple of minutes and you've got fabulous beans to make it even more fabulous how about topping it with a little pico de gallo you know what I'm talking about you dice some Tomatoes some onions a little cilantro if you are a cilantro lover a little bit of lime juice a little bit of jalapenos put it on top delicious that's cooking that's the secret by the way while you're thinking about beans don't stick with just black beans or pinto beans you can but why not explore there are a million kinds of beans in the bulk aisle in the cans aisle in those little bags if they have all stacked up on the shelf and don't overlook that basic one chick peas chickpeas are transformed into hummus and you can get hummus at the store but you know what if you make your own it is so cheap so quick and now you're controlling the flavor the oil content everything and it's super easy to do here's what you do get a food processor if you don't have one they run maybe 50 bucks will buy you a perfectly serviceable one and I've got a recipe for you that I will give you you just put the chickpeas maybe a clove of garlic little tahini not a lot just a little bit for flavor some parsley some onions little water black pepper some salt zip it down in your food processor add a little extra water so it's nice and creamy you'll notice I did not throw in lots of oil or frankly any oil there's a little bit of fat in the tahini and that is about it but you'll discover if you add just enough water it's creamy and tasty without all that extra grease so I have fun of it what you'll discover is the store has all kinds of beans and other legumes that you want to try okay so let's review what's on my list so far oatmeal fair enough I have my cold cereal with a non-dairy milk and there are so many out there brown rice is great other kinds of rice are fine too beans dried or canned and have salsa and other seasonings for fun okay but there's a lot more oh did I forget the obvious one vegetables vegetables are the healthiest things there are and you can get them frozen they're not expensive you know those little bricks of frozen vegetables they sell at the store they cost almost pennies oh wait you're phobic of broccoli well the solution is not years of psychoanalysis to try to figure out where that phobia came from the answer is flavorings go to the store there's a product if you've never seen this this will change your life it's called break Liquid aminos tastes like soy sauce you just spray it on kale collards spinach broccoli and they just come alive or try some rice vinegar or even a squirt of lemon juice for Reese I cannot explain the bitter flavor of the vegetable combines with the sour flavor of the vinegar or the lemon juice and they combine to make it almost sweet this will work with any green vegetable and if you have a vegetable phobic child at home they will love it now I mentioned seasoned rice vinegar but there's a million others to try balsamic there's a million have a look let's use the T word tofu is the one food people are really phobic of until they taste it made the right way and then they just can't get enough of it it's delicious it's high in protein but no cholesterol no fat and when you buy tofu look at the date on it it lasts a really long time in the refrigerator and there's lots of ways of making it you can scramble it up and right next to the tofu in the store is something called tempeh that might be a new word for you but have a look at it it's soybeans as well but it's fermented and it can be sliced up and it tastes very much like bacon when it's sauteed very savory dish okay so back to tofu there are a lot of ways of making it some people just put it in a non-stick pan scramble it up with a little turmeric to make it yellow some soy sauce maybe some miso other spices herbs sometimes vegetables delicious now let me share with you a trick that I found take your tofu block slice it up throw it in a non-stick pan Brown it on both sides it just takes a couple minutes and now pop it onto a plate and add a little bit of ginger a little nutritional yeast and some soy sauce delicious it's sort of that high protein starter for your breakfast without any cholesterol with underneath that I've got a recipe that I'll share with you by the way we were talking about cook we're putting it in a non-stick pan you can get nonstick pans online you can get them in culinary stores and the best nonstick pans have a nonstick surface and right under it is stainless steel I'm shy about the ones that have aluminum as the top layer because the aluminum is linked in some studies to Alzheimers risk have it be stainless steel under the nonstick surface a couple other tips use a very very gentle sponge when you clean up your your cookware if your rough with it you'll start peeling the the layer off and it's not gonna last very long and don't throw any oil if keep it clean this will surprise you it will be perfectly fine it'll last much much longer without the oil okay how about a veggie burger they've been around forever and there are more brands than ever before you'll see them at the store you can keep them in your freezer they last a really long time so what's on my list I started out with oatmeal and if I have cold cereal I'll top it with a non-dairy milk brown rice beans salsa and other seasonings veggies fresh frozen canned they're all fine Bragg's aminos vinegars tofu or tempeh let me say another word about nutritional yeast nutritional lease is on our list because it has a cheesy flavor no fat you'll often find it in the supplement aisle or the bulk aisle at the store and you got to fight through the bodybuilders or who are all getting it because it's high-protein low-fat nutritional yeast by the way it's not baker's yeast and it's not brewers these those are bitter nutritional yeast is bright yellow cheesy flavor delicious so this is an unprecedented time we're home and we could be snacking on all kinds of unhealthy things and when this current situation is over we're gonna have more regrets than when we started how about this let's make this a time to stock up on healthy foods and that ourselves get as healthy as possible in the meantime thanks a lot

Channel: Physicians Committee

Views: 2,237,337

Keywords: health, foods, pantry, immune foods, diet

Id: jxcc2gB5-Kw

Length: 12min 50sec (770 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 01 2020