Today we’re talking about how to make a traditional, but healthy, Thanksgiving dinner with my guest nutritionist Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD. She’s the Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, on the Board of Directors of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and received the Weston A. Price Foundation’s Integrity in Science Award in 2005. Kaayla has been a guest on The Dr.Oz Show, PBS Healing Quest, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy, and many other shows. Kaayla is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food endorsed by leading health experts, including Drs Joseph Mercola, Larry Dossey, Kilmer S. McCully, Russell Blaylock and Doris J. Rapp. Her next book is Nourishing Broth coauthored with Sally Fallon Morell. (Grand Central, Fall 2014). Kaayla is known as The Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. You can read her blog at www.drkaayladaniel.com. Please join her on Facebook.  www.facebook.com/DrKaaylaDaniel

 

 

TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Real Food Thanksgiving Dinner

Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD

Date of Broadcast: November 23, 2015

DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lyndd Dadd and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world. I’m here every day, Monday-Friday at 12 noon Eastern because we do live in a toxic world. There are many toxic chemicals, but we do not have to get sick from them if we know what they, where they are, how to avoid them and how to have much, much better, healthier, more beautiful, more delicious, more pleasing things in our lives that create health. That sounds good.

Today, we are going to be talking about Thanksgiving dinner. We are going to be talking about having a delicious Thanksgiving dinner that you make yourself from real, whole, organic food that is absolutely the most delicious thing that you’ve ever tasted.

My guest today is Kaayla Daniel, PhD. She is the Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and is on the Board of Directors of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. She’s received the Weston A. Price Foundation’s Integrity in Science Award in 2005. She’s been on Dr.Oz, on PBS Healing Quest, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and many other shows.

She’s also the author of The Whole Soy Story which is an excellent book about the dark side of America’s favorite health food. I learned a lot about soy from reading that book.

So today, we’re going to talk about Thanksgiving. Hi Kaayla.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Hi Debra.

DEBRA: How are you today?

KAAYLA DANIEL: Great. Looking forward to Thanksgiving and talking on this show.

DEBRA: Me too. First, would you tell us about your personal interest? How you got interested in all these real food, soy, all the things that you do?

What was your personal story?

KAAYLA DANIEL: Yes. Well, like many, many people, I was a seeker. I wanted to be supremely healthy and I was not. Of course, like many people, I was reading the plant-based diet and the vegan diet, so we’re healthy. And soy was the healthiest food of all.

So many newspaper is talking about soy is the miracle food and the joy of soy. I got really curious, in part because I was seeing a whole lot of vegetarians who did not look all that healthy and many of them wear eating soy. I was just very curious about that and started investigating. I thought it would be a fairly simple project, but it went on for a number of years before I finally learned everything I needed to know to write the whole soy story. Yes, there is a dark side to soy.

DEBRA: I know. This show is not going to be about soy. We can talk about that in another show because I really want to get to Thanksgiving. But I do want to say that I had my own personal experience with soy where I was eating a lot of veggie burgers, protein bars and things like that.

And also, prior to doing that, I had a thyroid problem and I was taking thyroid supplement. I was taking my thyroid supplement and then I would immediately eat protein bar, immediately. I would go back to the doctor and he would say, “You’re not taking your supplement.” I would say, “Yes I am.” He says, “No you’re not. Your blood test shows nothing. You’re not taking it.”

And then, I realized that I was eating this soy bar and there’s no reason for me to connect the two except that I was just looking around to see what might be cancelling out my thyroid medication. I stopped eating the soy bars and my thyroid supplements started working.

I then later on in life could associate all kinds of hormonal problems. When I ate soy, my hormones would be imbalanced. When I didn’t, my hormones would be fine. I just finally stopped eating soy altogether. Everything that you say in the book has happened to me. So, that’s something to consider.

But today, we’re going to be talking about Thanksgiving dinner without soy.

Tell us about the Weston Price Foundation and what it does. I went to a Weston Price conference a few years ago when I was invited to speak and that was the best food that I have ever eaten anywhere. I just want to tell everybody that usually, you go to a conference and you eat whatever the hotel prepares. And when you go to a Weston Price conference, you eat the food that they are advocating. It’s organic and it’s handmade.

We had, when I was there, handmade tortillas that were made in the traditional way. We had coconut cream that had been [inaudible 00:05:56] from Hawaii. It was the most delicious food that I had ever eaten.

So tell us about the Weston Price Foundation.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Well, we’re a non-profit, educational foundation based in Washington D.C. We’re advocating for real food, whole food and slow foods, particularly, as our ancestors would’ve eaten. We’re supporters of small farmers. We’re supporters of locavorism and the right to eat real food.

Sadly, we’re losing that right in many, many states. It’s becoming harder and harder to buy directly from farmers and more and more farmers are going out of business. We’re just supporting farmers and the right of consumers to get access to that real food that is so healthy for us and so good for the environment too.

It’s also non-toxic which is what we all need as you well know.

DEBRA: Right. Yes, I do know. The food that you’re talking about in the Weston Price Foundation is exactly what we all should be eating. Not only does it not have artificial sweeteners, additives, artificial colors, flavors, all those things, BPA from can linings and toxic from packaging, not only that it does not have any of those things, but those foods, those locally grown organic, grass-fed whole foods, they have the most nutrition.

And one of the things we’re really lacking that is causing us to respond so negatively to the toxic chemicals that we were exposed to is that our bodies are just undernourished. We’re eating a lot of food but we’re undernourished.

And that’s what the Weston Price Foundation is doing. It’s fighting for us to still have the right to have those traditional foods as they’re supposed to be from nature not agribusiness kind of foods that are not industrial foods, they’re natural foods.

We’re going to be talking about the basic principles of eating that way as we talk about Thanksgiving dinner. Kaayla, tell us what you’re having for Thanksgiving dinner next week.

KAAYLA DANIEL: I have a very small family so I’m going to be having a good free range chicken, vegetable sweet potatoes, plenty of butter. Of course with that chicken, the skin is going to stay on. It’s going to be a really most and delicious chicken.

And if I had a really large family, I think I’d be going for one of those heritage turkeys. They are those turkeys that get to run around in the great outdoors. They see the sun and basically, they get to hunt and peck.

Something a whole lot of people don’t realize is that chickens and turkeys are not vegetarian. They eat a whole lot of insects, grubs and dum. You should see some chickens fight over a little bit of hamburger if it comes their way. They are not vegetarians naturally.

DEBRA: Yes, I think that most animals out in the wild – I’m trying to think of a vegetarian animal. Are calves vegetarians? No, they’re eating bugs too and worms. Hmmm… interesting question.

Tell us a little more about, you mentioned butter and skin on the chicken and things. What’s the importance of eating fat?

KAAYLA DANIEL: That is a such a great question because we’ve all been mislead that fat is dangerous and we should be low fat. But Mother Nature put fat in a whole lot of tasty foods. What I have to say is, “Did Mother Nature make a mistake? Was she out to kill us?” Of course, not.

In regards to chickens or turkeys, what a whole lot of people don’t realize (and you just see it in article after article and internet blog that all talks about)…

DEBRA: Wait a minute. I have to stop you because we have to have a break. You can tell us after the break what all those internet blogs say.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Okay.

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and my guest today is Kaayla Daniel, PhD from the Weston Price Foundation and we’re talking about Thanksgiving dinner. Stay with us.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Today, we’re talking about Thanksgiving dinner with my guest Kaayla Daniel, PhD. She’s the vice president of The Weston Price Foundation. We’re talking about how the Weston Price principles apply to Thanksgiving dinner.

Before we go back to Kaayla who’s going to tell us something that I interrupted her about before the break, I just want to say that I now have a food blog which I’ve been wanting to have for a very long time. Today is actually the first day I’m announcing it to the general public. You can go to my website. You can go to Toxic Free Talk Radio and across the top, there’s a menu. One of those buttons is Food. Just click on that button.

I’ve got lots of Thanksgiving oriented recipes – not every dish, but I have so many cranberry recipes for how to make cranberry sauce and relishes that I actually had to write a little free ebook to get them all in because they wouldn’t fit in a blog post. That’s the first thing that you’re going to see.

That’s free and you can share it with your friends.

I also have a recipe for really delicious gluten free corn bread that you can make into corn bread stuffing (and I tell you how to do that too) and how to roast a pumpkin, how to cook beans, all kinds of things, pumpkin (there are really great pumpkin muffins. Oh, my God. You’ll love those) and a pumpkin pie recipe that has no sugar in it, but it’s sweet. It has no crust, but you don’t miss it so anyone can eat this pumpkin pie.

I just want you all to know that there’s Thanksgiving recipes on my website. If you want to take a look at those, you can. Just go to Toxic Free Talk Radio and click on Food at the menu across the top.

Okay Kaayla, back to you.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Okay. Well, we’re being delighted with blogs and articles about how to have a healthy turkey day. There is just so much misinformation out there.

Many of those writers are often registered dietitians. But right across the board, most of the articles all talk about turkey. They recommend, of course, that we don’t eat the skin. They talk about the evil saturated fat, but the fact is it’s not mostly saturated fat. Chickens and turkeys are mostly monounsaturated, 44% and about 23% for the Omega-3 and Omega 6’s. So saturated fat is comparatively low.

In fact, there’s nothing wrong with saturated fat anyway, but they’re always talking about that. They’re also recommending white meat because the fat is lower and the calories are lower. First of all, I don’t think that matters either.

But here’s the thing, there’s a whole lot more nutrition in the dark meat. There’s more iron, zinc, riboflavin, thiamine and other B vitamins and especially vitamins B6 and B12. That’s the trade-off that maybe we don’t want to make. We probably should be eating white meat and dark meat.

The most important thing might be actually that we eat the skin. Why should we eat the skin? Because of all that good collagen. That’s what we need to feed our own skin and our joints. Collagen is such an important part of a healthy whole foods diet.

DEBRA: One of my basic things about food has – I was going to say “has always been,” but it hasn’t always been because like everybody else, I started out with industrial food. I as learned more about nature, health, what my body needs and what nature provides, what I figured out was that we really should be eating all the parts of everything. And so, obviously, you can’t eat the bones. But what you do is you make broth out of the bones. So, you eat the skin. You eat the dark meat. You eat the white meat. The whole animal altogether has all the different things that are needed.

And one of the things that industrial food does is that it fractionates things so you only get bits and pieces and of what nature has to offer instead of the whole thing. So that makes sense to me and what you said about the joints.

You see, what I do is I roast the chicken. In the winter time, I roast two chickens every week on Sunday, two little chickens (because that’s enough to feed me). And then, I eat roast chicken and then the rest of the week, I put it in soup, in my salad or whatever so I have that protein that’s already there.

I roast them on the bones. I don’t buy chicken breast. I roast it on the bone with the skin. And the first thing I do when I pull it out of the oven is I just rip that hot skin off and eat it. I know some people are going to gasp when they hear it, but it feels right in my body.

KAAYLA DANIEL: The skin is so delicious. Keeping the skin on and cooking chicken that way makes it moist, it makes it delicious. There’s so much taste from that.

DEBRA: It does, it does. It does.

KAAYLA DANIEL: We should also be chewing on things like the drumstick because right along the bones, there’s all that cartilage. Like feeds like.

The cartilage helps feed our bones.

I’m doing a new book which is coming out next year which will be called Nourishing Broth, I learned about all these research on cartilage that actually indicates it’s wonderful for balancing out our autoimmune system, modulating the immune system, preventing autoimmune disorders, preventing infectious diseases, even some history of healing cancer for example.

So, we don’t want to ignore those parts of the animals. We certainly don’t want to think that they’re not healthy for us because they are.

DEBRA: I totally agree. Do you eat stuffing with your turkey when you [inaudible 00:20:28]?

KAAYLA DANIEL: That can be wonderful. Of course, that fat is what gives all the flavoring to it. Many people will probably be looking at gluten-free stuffing this Thanksgiving because more and more people are discovering that gluten is a problem for them. The good news about the gluten free bread that’s in stuffing is with all those other flavorings in it, it’s going to actually taste good.

DEBRA: It’s going to taste better that it tastes by itself.

We need to go to a break again. But when we come back, I want to talk about gluten free bread and stuffing more. I have some things to say about gluten-free.

You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And my guest today is Kaayla Daniel, Vice President of Weston Price Foundation.

We’re talking about Thanksgiving dinner. We’ll be back and talk about stuffing.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Today we’re talking about Thanksgiving dinner with my guest, nutritionist, Kaayla Daniel, Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation. You can visit Dr. Daniel’s blog at DrKaaylaDaniel.com. Her name is spelled K-A-A-Y-L-A, DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

We’re going to be talking about gluten free now. She’s got an article, the first blog post on the page today is about how soy can interfere with things being gluten-free and the healing of your body. If you want to read about that, you can go to her website, DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Here’s what I want to say about gluten free (and I want to hear what you have to say about gluten free too, Kaayla). My objection to gluten free – first of all, I’m gluten free. There have been time periods in my life when I went off gluten and I really struggled with it. I’ve been not eating gluten at all. I haven’t had one morsel, one crumb of gluten since about June, I think, of this year. I haven’t struggled with it at all because I have wonderful other things to eat that I’m not sitting there saying, “Oh, I can’t eat this. I can’t eat that.” I have cookies to eat made out of different things.

But the problem that I have with most of the gluten free products that are on the market is that they’re made up of all kinds of industrially processed ingredients. So there may be no gluten in it, but there are all these starches. When I eat all those gluten free products, it just sends my blood sugar out of the roof.

My philosophy about gluten free is that if we’re eating natural, whole foods, organic (the kind of real foods that we’re talking about), that we can just eliminate whatever grains we want to eliminate and we can still use whatever ingredients were left to put together to make anything.

I use a lot of almond flour, but you can also use coconut flour and all these different things. I make really great muffins. On my food blog, I’m starting to post all these gluten-free things that I’m learning to make from whole real foods instead of going to a store and buying a package of industrial ingredients that are labeled gluten free.

KAAYLA DANIEL: I’m certainly with you on that Debra. I think we can make some really delicious gluten free products ourselves at home with, as you said, almond flour, coconut flour and so many other options.

And the truth is what we’re finding in the stores besides the fact that there’s often soy in those products, there’s a whole lot of other inferior ingredients. It’s overpriced and not really that healthy for us.

In some ways for many people, just removing that type of food from our plates is healthy too rather than to seek all these substitutes that never taste as good and leave us craving for the real thing.

DEBRA: I agree with that too. I don’t even try to make something that resembles wheat bread because I love wheat bread. Nothing is going to substitute for that. But I find that I can eat other things that I enjoy just as much. I agree with you on that point, that whole real foods are just so delicious that I don’t even miss anything on those gluten foods. The gluten-free package foods just don’t taste that good. They taste like cardboard to me. In addition, they’re not really healthy.

KAAYLA DANIEL: They really don’t. So many of my clients, when they’re trying to go gluten free, they keep trying to substitute. They keep trying to make bread, muffins, pasta and all of those things. You’re just never going to be happy.

DEBRA: Yes. It’s just not the same. But if we appreciate the foods for what they are and find something else to enjoy, that’s really what’s been successful for me. Let’s see. What else is on the table?

KAAYLA DANIEL: In terms of that chicken or turkey, in terms of the stuffing, as I’ve already mentioned, even if you’re using a gluten-free bread in there with all of the broth, the fat and the other flavors and spices, it’s going to be moist and it’s going to be delicious.

Jenny Mcgruther who does the outstanding blog, Nourished Kitchen, she has a roast turkey that involves things like lemon and onions in the cavity.

Of course, that’s gluten-free and giving it a powerfully, wonderful flavor.

She has a tip that I think is really great for a Thanksgiving dinner when we’re using a heritage turkey or heritage hen. They need to be cooked very slowly for a long, long time at a low temperature. That’s what’s get them really, really moist and juicy because sometimes these leaner chickens and turkeys can end up very dry.

And of course, so many people, even if they’re using supermarket chickens, they end up very dry. Dryness is often a problem. The answer is long, long cooking.

DEBRA: I have a friend who – she doesn’t cook heritage turkeys, but the way she cooks turkey (just the regular organic turkey or natural turkey) is that she puts it in the oven when she goes to sleep at 250 degrees and it stays there all night. When she wakes up in the morning and takes it out, it’s falling off the bone. She says that that is her favorite way to cook turkey.

KAAYLA DANIEL: That is so delicious and what a wonderful way. Of course, the food police get very alarmed at the idea of cooking at such a low temperature, but we’re starting off with really healthy, clean chickens and turkeys that are not likely to contaminate us.

DEBRA: Yes. Okay, so what else do we have? Green Bean Casserole. What can we do with that?

KAAYLA DANIEL: Well, as I recall from way, way back, isn’t that kind of thing often made with Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup and other…

DEBRA: Yes. Cornstarch and french fried onions on top. It’s just a lot of package foods. I have found that I really like – I love Green Bean Casserole, but I don’t want to eat all that garbage. I’ve taken to making green beans in cream sauce with onions and mushrooms. It doesn’t taste exactly the same because it’s not all goopy like cream of mushroom soup is, but it’s delicious.

And it’s very easy to make. I can get grass-fed cream at my natural food store. I just take the green beans. I get frozen organic green beans and I put them in a skillet. I’ll heat them [inaudible 00:34:37].

I’m going to have to tell the story after the break. I’m so interested in talking about this subject that I’m not even watching the time.

You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd and we’re talking about Thanksgiving dinner. We’ll be right back.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Today, we’re talking about Thanksgiving dinner with my guest nutritionist Kaayla Daniel PhD. She is the Vice President of the Weston Price Foundation.

Before the break, I was in the middle of giving instructions on how to make Creamy Green Beans instead of Green Bean Casserole. It’s actually very simple. All you do is sauté some onions, sauté mushrooms in butter and sauté your green beans until they’re all cooked. And then, you pour in a little cream (like heavy whipping cream) – not too much, just enough to not even cover them. You just let the cream cook down and it thickens into cream sauce.

You don’t need to put any thickener or anything in it. The cream will do it by itself. It’s absolutely delicious and a wonderful substitute for Green Bean Casserole.

Kaayla, I think we should talk about dessert. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?

KAAYLA DANIEL: I’m a big fan of gingerbread with lots of whip cream.

DEBRA: I love gingerbread.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Most people for Thanksgiving, they’re looking for pie. That’s a very important thing to make a healthy version of particularly the crust.

Now, a traditional crust is flaky and wonderful will involve lard. Many people are surprised to find out that lard is a very healthy fat, mostly a monounsaturated fat. And so, it’s coming from pastured pigs, it’s rich in vitamin D and very good for us. It makes a wonderful crust.

But when people go by a ready-made refrigerated one from one of the big food manufacturers, what they’re going to get instead, probably partially hydrogenated lard which is not a good thing (spoiling the good fat). And besides that, there’s going to be enriched flour with a whole lot of synthetic vitamins put in as well as water preservatives and even things like citric acid, yellow dye no. 5, and red dye no. 4. Why should these be in a pie crust? I’m not sure, but they are. So it’s really a good plan to make our own, healthy pie crust.

DEBRA: It’s actually pretty easy to make pie crust. If people are eating wheat, it’s very easy. I found it’s a little more difficult to make pie crust out of other flours, but that’s something that I’m experimenting with. That’s going to be coming up on the food blog.

I just want to say again that you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. Up at the top, there is the main navigation menu. Click on Food. And I do have a Pumpkin Pie recipe with no sugar. It’s very sweet just by itself and it has no crust. So, that’s the way that people – everybody that I’ve given this to loves it. I put whip cream and freshly grated nutmeg on top and it’s fabulous.

And again, I also want to mention that cranberry sauce is a big thing. Everybody has cranberry sauce on their table. And yet cranberry sauce has pesticides and BPA from the can. Bisphenol A is an endocrine disruptor. Endocrine disruptors disrupt every part of your body because it’s about the hormones. Hormones go and communicate with all your different body parts, doing basic things like whether you gain or lose weight. You can get that from your Thanksgiving dinner just by eating canned food because of the hormone disruptors of Bisphenol A in the can lining.

And it’s also sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Tell us about high fructose corn syrup.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Well, the short answer is you don’t want it.

DEBRA: Yes.

KAAYLA DANIEL: It’s much worse than regular fructose. Some people even have too much fructose. We’re not designed for these things.

And among the other problems with high fructose corn syrup, there’s actually a lot of mercury in it. Talk about toxic metal we don’t want.

DEBRA: Oh, I didn’t know that. Wow! That’s not something you want to eat for Thanksgiving dinner either.

So, I’ve put together some recipes that I have been developing over the years for a cranberry sauce and cranberry relish, put them in a free ebook (which you can pick up there, ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and then click on Food). It will take you to my new food blog. You can get that free list of cranberry sauce and relish.

I just want to tell you how easy it is to make cranberry sauce, just plain old cranberry sauce. You just boil some water, you throw in some cranberries, you bring the water back to a boil. And then, you boil it until the cranberries pop which is about two minutes.

And then, you stir in whatever sweetener you want. You could use honey. You could use coconut sugar. You could use evaporated cane juice, anything you want to use. Or you could use sweet fruits. You could use apples, you could use apple juice. There are so many ways to sweetened cranberries.

And then, you just let it cool off. And as it cools off, it gels by itself. There is no mystery. It’s one of the easiest things to make, cranberry sauce. So, there’s really no reason why you should be using cranberry sauce.

And then, you can put anything you else you want in there like oranges and walnuts. Ah, I love cranberry sauce.

And you can make your own relish. You can just get raw cranberries, put them through the food processor, chop them up, pour a little raw honey on it and you’ve got raw cranberry relish. And you can add all kinds of things to that too.

So, for me, cranberry sauce and cranberry relish is a way to be really creative at Thanksgiving. This is one of my favorite things to make.

What else would you like to say that we haven’t said? We’re almost at the end of the hour, but we still have a few more minutes that we could talk.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Very briefly, the Sweet Potato Casseroles that so many people make with marshmallows – marshmallows, typically if you’re lucky, there’s sugar in there. It’s more likely going to be corn syrup and factory farm gelatin and all sorts of artificial flavorings. So, that’s definitely something I would want to avoid. Just to point out that people who want to…

DEBRA: But sweet potatoes are good for you.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Oh, yes.

DEBRA: Sweet potatoes themselves, it’s just all the sweet stuff that they put on top. See, here’s another opportunity where you could just start with the sweet potatoes. And if you roast them in the oven, just put them on a baking sheet and leave them in the oven at 350 degrees or 400 degrees and just leave then in the over until they get really, really soft and they start bubbling sugar out of it (you’ll see these bubbles of sugar), they get really sweet. You don’t need the marshmallow. You don’t need those things. And I just sprinkle nuts on top, put a lot of butter on it. It’s so much better than those marshmallows.

KAAYLA DANIEL: And so true with any of the vegetables. If there are people wanting to keep things really simple, plenty of butter makes everything better.

DEBRA: I agree.

KAAYLA DANIEL: It also allows us to get the full benefit of the beta-carotene converting it to vitamin A. That’s where a lot of nutrition in sweet potatoes comes from.

DEBRA: Good! So the butter on the sweet potato actually helps the nutrition in the sweet potato?

KAAYLA DANIEL: Yes it does.

DEBRA: Wow, I didn’t know that.

KAAYLA DANIEL: It not only makes everything taste better, but we get more value from the beta carotene because we are able to convert it with the fat added to true vitamin A.

DEBRA: I’m always in favor of putting butter on everything myself.

I once read a book (I forgot what the title was), it was talking about how we know what’s good for us to eat. I noticed that for myself. My body feels good when I eat certain foods and butter is one of them.

So to have some sciences tell me that butter is not good for me doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t listen to science. Science proves things. But we also have our own intuitive ability to know that our taste buds are drawn to eating foods that our bodies need that has the nutrition that our bodies need. I think we should eat what taste good to us.

KAAYLA DANIEL: I think so. I feel really sorry for a whole lot of vegetarians who are going to have Tofurky this Thanksgiving.

DEBRA: I agree with you.

KAAYLA DANIEL: Although the name is so wonderful and laughter is good medicine, but what a funny name. I mean, brilliant marketing.

But what a whole lot don’t realize is the main problem with Tofurky is not the tofu; it’s the soy in there. It’s that a huge part of it is wheat gluten.

DEBRA: Oh, I didn’t know that. I thought it was mostly soy.

Well, see? For me, I was a vegetarian for nine years. At the end of the nine years, I was not healthier. I ate some meat and I went, “Ah, I need to be eating meat.” It really made a difference.

The problem that I have with vegetarian is the same problem that I have with gluten free which is if people say, “I want to be a vegetarian” or “I want to be gluten free” and so they go buy a vegetarian product or gluten-free product and then what they’re eating is industrial food. I think it’s wonderful to eat a lot of vegetables. I think it’s wonderful to eat gluten-free. But when you stop eating real food and you go buy a gluten-free product in a box or a can or a vegetarian product in a box or a can, then you’re not eating real food anymore.

KAAYLA DANIEL: That’s very true. When you’re trying to approximate the flavors of real food, our manufacturers tend to use a whole lot of MSG and other artificial flavorings. And now, the obsession for low salt, they’re using salt substitute that are genuine health hazards. The real thing is always so much better for us.

DEBRA: I’m sorry. I have to interrupt you again because we actually have reached the end of the show. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. My guest has been Dr. Kaayla Daniel. You can go to her website DrKaaylaDaniel.com. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio.