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RadioMD Presents: HER Radio | Original Air Date: April 30, 2015
Host: Michelle King Robson and Pam Peeke, MD

Dr. Pam Peeke founder of the Peeke Performance Center and renowned nutrition and fitness expert, and Michelle King Robson, leading women's advocate, cut through the confusion and share the naked, bottom line truth about all things woman. It's HER Radio.

PAM: Hi, I am Dr. Pam Peak. Michelle is off today.
Alright, it is time to spring clean your diet for summer. What the heck does that mean? What's wrong with my diet already? Oh, gosh. Well, if we had a couple of hours but we are not going to do that. We have our wonderful Chef Abby Gellman, a professionally trained chef and registered dietitian, all in one human being, and is called a culinary nutritionist. Her website is culinarynutritioncuisine.com and Chef Abby is here to help guide us in this whole spring cleaning of your diet. What does that mean Chef Abby? Spring clean. What's wrong with our diet already?

ABBY: Well, there is not necessarily anything wrong with it. But, just like you want to spring clean your home and kind of reinvigorate now that the weather is getting nicer, we want to kind of air ourselves. So, we may have been eating a lot of heavy winter foods or eating foods that really stick to your ribs kind of food. So, you want to may be lighten it up, start walking around the farmer's markets, see all those delicious fruits and vegetables that are there now that spring is here and we can get outside and really get moving and lighten things up a little bit.

PAM: So, in other words, start scoping out where the farmer's market are and start visiting them and do a little perusing and may be think outside the box like give us some examples because I think lot of us are in kind of a dietary rut--same old, same old.

ABBY: Yes, definitely. Well, there are a lot of really fun things that happen in the spring foodwise. One thing that only happens in the spring, generally, in the farmer's markets is rhubarb and there are so many ways to prepare it. I love it pickled, just like you would do a cucumber like a regular straight up pickle that you do it with a little vinegar and hot water, may be a little dab of sugar and you just pickle the rhubarb and it just brightens up your salad, your soup, everything. And it's all over the place now. Also morel mushrooms are only happening for a few months...

PAM: Oh! Yummy! Yummy!

ABBY: ...and they are like a delicacy. They are like a truffle. They are in the truffle family. So, they are very spongy and delicate and they do so well with a flavorful sauce, you could toss them in pasta with may be some peas or asparagus, throw them in salads and they are delicious as well. And then, there are some other things that crop up now and when you have produce it in the season, it actually is supposed to be eaten in and the nutritional capacity of that item actually gets better for you as well. So, things like asparagus, which might be available all year long is really only supposed to be eaten in the spring. That's when it's harvested. So, go get some asparagus, maybe sauté it; throw it with peas and some radishes and make yourself a nice little salad and see what else is around the farmer's market.

PAM: What about fruits?

ABBY: Strawberries will soon be coming at the tail end of spring.

PAM: Soon! Soon!

ABBY: They are so delicious and blueberries will be cropping up soon as well. Apricots, we start to see in May now, also. So, starting forward, May 1st, right? We'll have apricots, berries starting to come around. Throw them in yogurt in the morning, take a handful with you when you walk out of the house. And they taste so much better when they are in season, so much more naturally sweet and so many more nutrients to nourish you during this time.

PAM: I love it! And so, how can we take, just let take a full day. We start with breakfast. How are we going to spring-erize it and summer-ize it?

ABBY: Alright. Well, we may have been eating a lot of oat meal and things. You want to try to brighten that up. Maybe we switch over to some plain Greek yogurt, put a little bit of honey in that, some fresh berries, maybe some sort of nuts.

PAM: And, that's raw honey for you. Raw honey.

ABBY: Oh, yes. Raw honey or some maple syrup is also good. And you only need a little bit. A little dab will do you. You just need a teeny, tiny amount.

PAM: Okay, everyone. You heard that out there. There's no dumping half the jar in there because we're talking about natural ways to sweeten.

ABBY: Yes.

PAM: So, the natural ways are the ways is where we have resources that hold on to every single micronutrient. They haven't been processed and refined and manufactured and beaten to smithereens and left to basically nothing.

ABBY: Exactly.

PAM: Empty calories like table sugar, right?

ABBY: Exactly.

PAM: So, you said maple syrup. Is there a type of maple syrup that's the best?

ABBY: To cook I like Grade B. It's a little bit darker, a little bit more flavorful. If you are going to use it as a sweetener, it will also add a little more complexity to your yogurt, or your pancakes or, whatever it is that you are using it for. I like it in yogurt.

PAM: For raw honey that we already mentioned, do you want one of those with the honey comb in the jar or it does matter?

ABBY: If you could find it, great. If you go to the farmer's market or to the farm directly and they have it with honeycomb, that's wonderful. Some people chew on the honey comb like a replacement for gum. You know, great. Straight to the source is the best way you can get it. So, absolutely.

PAM: Okay. And then molasses, what did you say?

ABBY: Molasses is great to cook with. A lot of people know it from gingersnap cookies and that kind of thing but it has so many good qualities. There's iron and magnesium, calcium and it's got such a complex, rich deep flavor. It's great to make baked goods. And also maple sugar. So, along the maple syrup lines, if you boil down maple syrup, it actually has a sugar component. Obviously, it's a sweet syrup, so that maple sugar you can use in place of table sugar, in place of brown sugar and in place of any kind of processed sugar. It's a great replacement in baking or in your coffee or in your tea or any place you would use a little bit of sugar.

PAM: And how do you use the herbal stevia which is wonderful because it sweetens but it doesn't play around with your insulin level, so drive up your appetite.

ABBY: You could use that in tea or coffee, I think most people do. You can cook with it as well in baking and things like that to keep the sugar content down. It works well like that as well.

PAM: Is there a specific form that you use of the stevia for cooking?

ABBY: Just the powdered. Just the powdered. I think Truvia might be the brand. It looks like a box just like you would buy table sugar in and it's a 1:1 ratio.

PAM: And you don't need that much, right?

ABBY: No. If you are using it in your coffee or your tea or a hot beverage like that, you just need a little. Like even half a teaspoon. You don't need very much.

PAM: Good. Good. And I think it's really important for people out there to really hear up. You know, when you are really spring cleaning your diet, your nutrition on a daily basis, you can still sweeten, if it works for you. So, as long it's natural and it's just like Chef Abby said, it's the closest you can get to the natural source and that's really what we strive to recommend here on her radio.

ABBY: Exactly.

PAM: Whole foods, right? And we want to be able to just...Now get on out there and get that produce, Chef Abby says. You know? Go ahead.

ABBY: One of the good things about in spring, too, and the the farmer's market is even if you are not a great cook or it's intimidating for you, now is the time where we can start to eat things raw or cook it to, you know, you maybe just steam it a little bit or sauté it lightly. So, peas are in season now. You don't have to do anything to them. You just have to kind of steam them and they're beautiful.

PAM: Oh I love peas! Alright, so we have been talking to our regular chef, Chef Abby Gellman, who is a culinary nutritionist. Her website is culinarynutritioncuisine.com and she's helping us spring clean our diet for summer. Chef Abby, thank you for being on HER radio once again.
I'm Dr. Pam Peeke with Michelle King Robson. You're listening to HER radio on RadioMD. Like us on Facebook, follow us on twitter and stay well.