Healthy Eating

One of my initiatives is healthy eating. I follow a whole foods diet, meaning I stick to unprocessed, real foods. I recommend this approach to my patients and suggest the Dietary Actions to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. When combined with a low daily sodium intake (50 mmol per day), the DASH diet reduces blood pressure by 11.5mmHg (Sacks, et al., 2001)!

Here is a fall cookie recipe I adapted from Brittany Mullins. This recipe is vegan (dairy and egg free) and oil-free. They could easily be made gluten-free if one used gluten-free flour and oats. I found that oil-free cookies are a little, well sticky is the best way to describe them. Most people don't mind the texture because they taste so great and have a normal mouth feel. It's just when you pick them up that they feel sticky.

Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Eating Bird Food 

Serves: 25

Ingredients

·       1 cup whole wheat flour (Gluten-free optional)

·       ½ cup old fashioned oats

·       1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·       ½ teaspoon baking soda

·       ½ teaspoon sea salt

·       pinch of ground nutmeg

·       1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

·       1 cup sugar

·       ½ Tablespoon ground flaxseed

·       1 teaspoon pure vanilla

·       ¼ cup vegan chocolate chips or carob chips

Instructions

1.     Preheat oven to 350° F.

2.     Stir together dry ingredients (flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, sea salt, nutmeg) in a mixing bowl.

3.     Mix together wet ingredients (pumpkin, sugar, flaxseed and vanilla) in a separate mixing bowl.

4.     Combine wet and dry ingredients.

5.     Stir in ¼ cup chocolate chips. Mix well.

6.     Drop rounded tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet. Press cookie dough down into a cookie shape with a spoon or your fingers.  Don’t worry about spreading.

7.     Bake for 15-16 minutes.

8.     Move cookies to a wire rack and cool completely before eating

References:

Sacks, F.M., Svetkey, L.P., Vollmer, W.M., Appel, L.J., Bray, G.A., Harasha, D., … Lina, P. (2001).  Effects on blood pressure of reduced dietary sodium and the dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet. The New England Journal of Medicine, 334(1): 3-10.