Jahnavi’s Yummy Cooking that Fights Cancer and Heart Disease

JAHNAVI’S YUMMY COOKING THAT FIGHTS CANCER AND HEART DISEASE

Including how to enjoy being

Heart-Healthy Wealthy and Wise

Yummy Fat-Free All-American Favorite Recipes

By: Jahnavi and Kiran Sankhla

Foreward By: Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D.

Reverse and prevent heart disease! Enjoy cancer-fighting fun foods!

Discover what science shows about which foods help inhibit cancer growth and which foods are cancer promoters!

Eat yourself thin! Lose weight! It feels so great!

Medical proof of how you can eat more food, more frequently, without counting calories and lose weight.

Quick and easy fat-free recipes!

Finger-lickin’ good fat-free pizza, crunchy-munchy fat-free tacos, mouth -watering no-fat lasagna, scrumptious moist and chewy fat-free cookies, and much, much more!

U.S Library of Congress Copyright 2013

Print ISBN 978-0-615-91084-0

eBook ISBN 978-1-61850-030-4

Dedicated to Radha Nila Madhava

Table of Contents

Foreward

Introduction

Chapter 1: How we beat heart disease

Chapter 2: How we beat cancer

Chapter 3: Cancer success stories and some neat studies that show when cancer antipromoters prevail, cancer growth slows or stops

Chapter 4: Tasty anti-cancer foods: scientifically proven foods that starve cancer growth (anti-promoters) and foods that feed cancer growth (promoters)

Chapter 5: What to eat to look younger than your age

Chapter 6: How to eat more and weigh less - Fun ways to stop adult and childhood obesity

Chapter 7: How to be Healthy and Wealthy - Eating heart smart automatically helps reverse diabetes, stop high blood pressure, and fight Alzheimer’s

Chapter 8: How to be Wise

Chapter 9: All-American Fat-Free Kid-Friendly Dinners (Fat-free pizza, Fat-free tacos, Fat-free chili, Fat-free spaghetti and ‘meatballs,’ Fat-free burgers and Fat-free wraps)

Chapter 10: Scrumptious Italian Fat-Free Dinners

Chapter 11: Tex-Mex Fat-Free Favorites

Chapter 12: Fat-Free Tasty Burgers, Sandwiches, and Wraps

Chapter 13: Tasty Fat-Free International Cuisine

Chapter 14: Healthy junk food - Fat-free chips and munchies

Chapter 15: Fat-Free Flavorful Breakfast

Chapter 16: Yummy fat-free cakes, cookies, and pies

Appendix I: Candy For Your Soul

Appendix II: Annuit Coeptis and E Pluribus Unum

Appendix III: Some Neat Medical Studies from the NIH library about Holy Basil

Appendix IV: Life Improving Books by Medical Doctors and the Famous Book that Albert Einstein Enjoyed Reading About Meditation and Yoga

Appendix V: Here’s the way cool book about yoga and meditation that Albert Einstein and many other wise men read and appreciated:

Appendix VI: Bhakti Yoga Centers

Jahnavi Sankhla on the Houston, Texas CBS News morning show Great Day Houston sharing how to make fat-free donuts with news anchorwoman Deborah Duncan

Foreward

This delightful book arrives at the perfect time. In the past few years, the world of medicine and research has turned a corner. Instead of focusing on producing better and stronger pills, many doctors are finding that the key to helping patients regain their health is found in the foods they eat. Good nutrition has a surprising ability to help the body heal.

Our research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has shown that a low-fat, plant-based diet helps you lose weight, lower your cholesterol and blood pressure, and greatly improve your health. You can dramatically improve type 2 diabetes, often reducing or eliminating the need for medications.

In Jahnavi’s Yummy Cooking That Fights Cancer And Heart Disease, Jahnavi Angela Sankhla invites you to put this healthful approach to work. She begins by sharing the scientific information to motivate you to embrace the power of healthy eating. Then, she shares her own inspiring story of how she learned the secrets of preparing delicious and healthful foods.

Initially motivated to help her father recover from a serious condition, she learned how to prepare healthful foods that everyone will love. With patience and creativity, she developed delicious recipes for fat-free tacos, nachos, pizza, and even donuts. This book—part narrative, part cookbook—includes easy recipes for Crispy Crunchy Chimichangas, Szechuan Tofu Burgers, and Strawberry Banana French Toast, among many others. It also includes uplifting, engaging stories and personal anecdotes to inspire you in your own journey to the best of health.

Written with inspiration and detailed knowledge, this book will give you all the tools you need to get started. You’ll be on the road to the best of health and will inspire your loved ones to follow your healthful example.

Neal Barnard, M.D., is the founder and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He is also the author of The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook and Breaking the Food Seduction.

Introduction

My life changed when my father had to have emergency heart bypass surgery and some time later was diagnosed with blood cancer. I decided to remove all of the cholesterol from his diet and avoid adding oil and butter in his food. I know my father is a finicky eater and he won’t touch boring food that’s bland. He won’t stick to eating food if it isn’t tasty. He said I would rather die than having to live eating food that isn’t tasty. He’s not a health-nut. He’s a junk-food lover. So I started experimenting in the kitchen and thought of making healthy junk food for him, basically stuff that tastes like it’s fattening but isn’t. I eventually realized that using whole wheat lasagna noodles taste just as good as regular noodles. When I make Chex party mix, I completely skip the butter and just toss the cereal in reduced-sodium soy sauce and bake the cereal in the oven until crispy. What a hit! It tastes just the same! Crunchy munchy fun! The explosion of flavor is like a party in your mouth! Mmmm! My mother and sister also enjoyed my new culinary discoveries and ate with a gusto! I even made some fat-free macaroni and cheese. It tastes so good, you’d swear there’s fat in it. One day, when my sister was happily devouring the fat-free tacos I made, she said it’s so tasty and exclaimed, TGIFF - Thank God It’s Fat-free! It feels so good to eat guilt-free goodies. You know how oftentimes, young ladies are concerned about eating figure-friendly food, so my sister was extremely happy that eating like this is good for her waistline. She’s always looking for foods that make you slim.

Surprisingly, after two months of feasting on fun food like chewy crusty fat-free pizza, mouthwatering crunchy fat-free tacos, and luscious sweet fat-free cupcakes my father’s cholesterol dropped from 250 mg/dl to 150 mg/dl just by eliminating the oil and butter from his diet. We couldn’t believe it! My father passed his stress test with flying colors, too! Life was a celebration again! You can conquer a major disease like heart-disease! Thank God, my father is also a cancer survivor. It’s been 13 years! Daddy’s friends in the Pentagon Department of Defense where he works, are very happy and feel hope by seeing him.

The inspiration of the title of this book comes from our founding father Benjamin Franklin because he was healthy, wealthy and wise.

Health is wealth. Your health is greater than great riches. You’ll enjoy how this book is full of hope and inspiring medical studies. You’ll be so happy to read the true stories of cancer success and how much power you have to heal from disease. Major diseases like heart disease are reversible just by giving your favorite foods a healthy makeover. After a lot kitchen experiments, I was able to discover that I can easily make delicious fat-free pizza, fat-free nachos and fat-free lasagna that tastes fattening.

I feel like a kitchen scientist. I feel like I’ve discovered something fabulous in my kitchen labratory! Since everybody keeps on asking for my recipes, I will share my secret discoveries with you. For example, you can’t find fat-free fudge brownies made of whole wheat and natural sweeteners out there. So one day, when I added prune puree in my brownie batter, it made it sweeter without sugar. The prune-flavor melded beautifully in the rich fudge/vanilla flavor. You can’t even taste the prunes in there at all. It made the brownies moist (no butter necessary for moist texture) because of the soluable fiber from the prunes. I had a lightbulb moment: Hidden prunes in brownies, but tastes fattening! It’s so decadent, you’d swear there’s fat in it. Plus, it’s packed with the good nutrition of fruit and whole grain! A win-win situation! So that’s why I bake - because I want to enjoy scrumptious fun food like brownies and not suffer just eating a tiny little portion. When something is so yummy, you can’t have just one. I want to eat and not worry.

It’s easy to give your favorite foods a low-fat make-over, while still keeping it delicious. You can enjoy the same nachos with oven-crisped crunchy munchy tortilla chips instead of fried chips. Your taste buds can’t taste the difference. You can sink your teeth into some moist and delicious decadent fudge brownies without the eggs and oil by adding fruit purees like prune or applesauce instead of the oil. Oil really doesn’t add any flavor to baked goods, so skipping the oil doesn’t affect the yummy vanilla or fudge taste. If oil was so delicious, we would just sit around eating bowls of oil. The flavorings like vanilla or strawberry, give flavor. Using your creativity and imagination, you can enjoy all your favorite comfort foods like scrumptious lasagna and sweet chewy cookies and yummy decadent cheesecake without the artery-clogging fat and cholesterol.

Eating like this not only helps your waistline, but it is anti-aging when you remove the cholesterol and unnecessary added fat from your food. It’s so inspiring to read the countless medical studies which prove that eating a low-fat intake full of fruits and vegetables can help prevent many forms of cancer, diabetes, clogged arteries, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attacks, obesity, and even neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis. In this book, you’ll see the places on earth (like Greece, Japan and Italy) where people live the longest, have virtually no Alzheimer’s or cancer and what their secret diet is. Medical research proves that eating lots of fiber, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans helps you avoid and even heal from so many serious diseases. This is anti-aging food, full of nourishing anti-oxidant vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that help you live long, strong, and healthy. These foods are full of cancer antipromoters and make your immune system strong.

In this book, you’ll enjoy all the delicious All-American favorite recipes and medical studies from prominent physicians showing how what we eat can help us reverse major diseases. You’ll see medically proven cancer antipromoter foods and see how you can avoid eating stuff that promotes cancer growth. Meditation and prayer reduce stress which is a cancer promoter. You’ll see studies showing that even if you have a gene for a certain disease like cancer, you can help that bad cancer gene not express itself by the happy lifestyle choices you make and the foods you chose to eat. You’ll be amazed reading medical proof of the healing power of food. It’s so easy!

You’ll have fun with this book! You’ll love the easy to make yummy All-American recipes. Mmm. My mouth is watering! Wishing you tremendous success and happiness in your life! You can have it all. You can have your cake and eat it too!

Chapter 1

How We Beat Heart Disease

Every 34 seconds, an American dies of heart disease

Heart disease is our nation’s number one killer. Every 34 seconds, an American dies of heart disease, according to the American Heart Association’s statistics.1 These are happy innocent loving fathers, mothers, uncles, grandpas, grandmas who didn’t need to die unnecessarily. So many deaths could have easily been prevented, just by what we eat. It’s so easy to eat a decadent delicious fudge cake made of whole grains, without oil, eggs and butter. We can prevent our arteries from clogging up with fatty deposits by what we eat. We unknowingly eat too much hidden cholesterol in our food.

How heart disease hit home to me

and strong. One day at work, my father had a cholesterol test which showed that his cholesterol was 250 mg/dl. That’s considered high. So then my father had a stress test which he failed. That very day, the doctor said let’s take a picture of your heart called an angiogram to see if you have clogged arteries. The angiogram revealed that two of my father’s major arteries were 99% blocked and third one was 70% blocked. (You can’t feel it when the plaque is silently building up in your arteries.) The doctor said that my father was a walking time bomb. Since my father was already in the cath lab, the doctor said, We’ll just open up the blockages with a procedure called an angioplasty. Can you believe this was all in one day? The angioplasty failed and then my father had to have emergency double bypass open heart surgery.

Boy, was I scared when I was looking at my father in the cardiovascular intensive care unit with tubes everywhere! He was just happily running around the place yesterday. I was just a teenager when this happened. My father has always been energetic and healthy. He never got sick. I just couldn’t believe seeing him like that. I felt like if we continue eating fried food and buttery stuff, we’re going clog up the new bypasses.

You can enjoy delicious fun food like pizza, tacos, lasagna, donuts and cake and lower your cholesterol and trim your waistline at the same time

Soon my father came home from the hospital. I didn’t want my father to eat stuff that could clog his arteries. I decided that we should avoid cooking with butter and oil and started making all his favorite foods like pizza, tacos, lasagna, and cake. (Take a look at the mouthwatering, fun, and easy recipes in the recipe section! It’s so delicious, even the most finicky eater in your family will love it! This is kid-friendly food! Mmm!) For nachos, instead of fried corn tortilla chips, I oven crisped them. I know my father will not eat something if it isn’t tasty, so my challenge was to make healthy junk food. I began experimenting in the kitchen. For brownies, I used natural sweeteners and whole grains because fiber helps lower cholesterol. I put prune puree in the batter instead of butter. It so tasted rich and fudgy and with the wonderful addition of Madagascar vanilla! You would swear there’s butter in it. It turned out unbelievably delicious! Mmm! There’s no deprivation.

Surprisingly, after two months of eating like this my father’s cholesterol dropped from 250 mg/dl to 150 mg/dl without medication. I had no idea that giving our favorite food a makeover would make such a difference! My father’s cardiologist said that he’s a new man and said to keep on doing what you’re doing. It’s been over 15 years and he’s fit as a fiddle. A very low-fat vegetarian diet works. If we can do it, you can do it!

Eat yourself thin

Another unexpected happy side-effect of eating tasty fun foods without the cholesterol and fat was that my father also dropped excess weight without even trying. No counting calories, no dieting! He eats to his heart’s content, literally! My father went to the attic and could fit into pants that he wore when I was a baby. Eating like this makes you strong because your heart’s arteries are opening up, giving more nourishment to your heart. My father felt an increase in energy after eating healthier like this. Over a decade later, still to this day, my father easily passes his stress tests and enjoys varieties of delicious food with no deprivation. He loves fat-free tostadas, fat-free pizza, un-fried crunchy munchy potato chips and dip, fat-free fun cupcakes. By giving your favorite foods a makeover, you can still enjoy yummy stuff like cookies and burritos. You just need to substitute and make adjustments. It’s easy!

You can have your cake and eat it, too!

Instinctually, I just felt that if our arteries get clogged when our cholesterol level is high, then we should avoid eating what’s clogging it up. That should help stop the problem and maybe even make it get better. It was my passion to find ways to make delicious cholesterol-free fun food. I enjoyed experimenting a lot in the kitchen and would substitute ingredients to make moist, chewy, fattening-tasting cookies without eggs and oil. The fun part is eating my science experiment! So rewarding to sink my teeth into my delectable guilt-free jelly-filled strawberry cookies because it’s all healthy ingredients – oats, vanilla, mashed dried fruit, whole wheat flour, all-fruit strawberry preserves. I love to use antioxidant-rich fruit purees as a fat substitute in baked goods. OMG! What a great way to put moisture and flavor in cupcakes, cookies, fruit pies!

A little slice of heaven

I like food that’s easy to eat and easy to make. No fuss. No muss. I don’t like to waste time in the kitchen. This is so easy - even if you have never cooked, you can make quick and easy tasty fat-free pizza. Just take some fresh, oil-free whole grain pita breads and generously spread some delicious pizza sauce on top. Sprinkle nonfat soy mozzarella, soy Parmesan cheese and some yummy toppings like zesty sun-dried tomatoes, olives and fresh basil leaves. Pop it in the oven and voila! Instant chewy delicious pizza! If you bake it a little more, you’ll have a crispy crust. You’ll enjoy smelling the restaurant-style aroma filling your kitchen with an intriguingly tangy, spicy Italian flavor during the pizza’s sizzling short time in the oven. Sink your teeth into a slice of heaven! Scrumptious slices of pizza! I just love it when the cheese sears to the outer edge of the crust! Mmm!! So flavorful, your stomach will growl for more! Yummy! A kid-friendly delight! Feels like you’re transported to the Mediterranean.

In the the summer, I love making easy creamy dreamy luscious sweet no fat ice creams made with frozen fruit. So delectable! Mmm! It’s also fun to enjoy oven-crisped crunchy chips and dip. How about snacking on some steaming hot, oven-fried French fries smothered in sweet and tangy ketchup or your other favorite dipping sauce? Ahh, tasty strips of crisp potato goodness! Crinkle cut, shoestring or cottage fries – all soooo good!

I was blown away when I experimented in my kitchen laboratory and was able to successfully make mouthwatering delicious fat-free lasagna bursting with exciting flavors! I felt that my mouth just entered lasagna heaven! I’m craving some right now. A taste of Tuscany! While it was baking, it smelled so delicious with the tantalizing aroma of tomato, oregano, Parmesan. It seriously tastes like there’s fat in it! It’s so rich and scrumptious! Wowee!

Take away the cause and the effect ceases

I was so happy when I went to the bookstore and noticed a New York Times beststeller called Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease: The Only System Scientifically Proven to Reverse Heart Disease Without Drugs or Surgery.1 It confirmed my natural, instinctual feelings. It gave me support and encouragement. I mean, it’s so logical: if we avoid eating cholesterol and unnecessary fat, then we will stop what is causing our arteries to clog up to begin with. I was filled with tremendous hope when I read about Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D. and how he has proven through scientific studies that it actually is possible to reverse heart disease. Now, I have medical evidence to back what I already felt in my heart. I like this saying by Miguel de Cervantes: Take away the cause and the effect ceases.

When we eat too much fat and cholesterol, our arteries can start getting clogged, which can lead to things like heart attacks and stroke. Good news! Dr. Dean Ornish, MD’s studies prove that when we stop eating lots of choleterol and fat, then the blockages in our arteries start opening up.

Scientific studies show that eating low-fat, high-fiber can actually reverse heart disease and unclog our arteries.

In 1990, the medical journal Lancet published the breakthrough research of Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D.2 The doctor and his team conducted a clinical trial and put his heart patients who had clogged arteries and high cholesterol on a very low-fat, high fiber diet. They mainly ate fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans and no fried stuff. After a year, 82 percent of the patients who followed Dr. Ornish’s program had tons of heart tests like PET scans which showed the reversal of their coronary artery blockages. Their blockages started opening up! Their plaques started dissolving with no medications, no surgery, and no side effects. Their chest pain went away. Dr. Ornish said, most of them became essentially pain-free, even though they were doing more activities, going back to work, and doing things that they hadn’t been able to do, in some cases, for years.2 This shows that a very low-fat vegetarian diet not only reduces your cholesterol, but it helps open up your clogged arteries. That’s so encouraging!

Our bodies manufacture all the cholesterol we need; we do not need to add any cholesterol from our diet.

Dr. Ornish explained in his book how cholesterol is only found in animal products like turkey, chicken, beef, pork and fish. There is no plant on the face of the earth that contains cholesterol. Most people don’t realize that fish, like shell fish contain high amounts of cholesterol. You can check any book on the cholesterol content of foods. You’ll be amazed by the high amounts of cholesterol in lobster and shrimp, too!

According to Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D. Our bodies make plenty of cholesterol for our needs, and we do not need to add any. And when we do, the cholesterol is left where it does not belong – in plaques in our arteries. There is no good cholesterol as far as foods are concerned. Simply put cholesterol in raises your cholesterol. Animal products are the only source of cholesterol in the American diet.

Did you know that white meat like chicken and turkey has as much cholesterol as red meat like beef?

A four ounce piece of chicken has 100 mg cholesterol and a four ounce piece of beef has 100 mg cholesterol.3 You can check any book of food counts. You’ll be amazed to know that white meat has as much cholesterol as red meat. Even the lean cuts of meat like lean beef, has as much cholesterol as regular beef. Ounce for ounce, chicken and beef have the same amount of cholesterol.

Nutritional researcher and adjunct associate professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D. says, A number of studies have shown that, in general, heart patients who make such moderate dietary changes (chicken and fish diets) tend to get worse over time. Those who adopt a low-fat, vegetarian diet, get daily physical activity, avoid tobacco, and manage stress, stand the best chance of reversing heart disease.

White Meat Is Not Low In Cholesterol.

*Food values from the Nutritional Almanac

We aren’t eating less cholesterol when we eat lean meat; cholesterol is mainly on the lean portion of meat

Can you believe that cholesterol is on the lean portion of meat? What? It’s true! I thought it’s on the ‘marbled’ fattening areas. Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D. explains that the cholesterol is on the lean portion. It’s a misunderstanding to think that lean meat is lower in cholesterol. It certainly is not.

This information comes from the book, Learning to live with Coronary Artery Disease, by MPI (Medicine in the Public Interest, Inc.), p. 54.

Did you know that many varieties of seafood contain large amounts of cholesterol, naturally?

(This is without the rich sauces/dips and before being battered and deep fried.)

From Food Values of Portions Commonly Used p.121 Bows and Church

Clincal researchers and medical doctors explain that fish contain saturated fat and cholesterol which can cause your blood cholesterol level to increase

Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D, the author of Reversing Heart Disease, states on page 279 of his book:

•"Fish contain saturated fat and cholesterol, so fish and fish oils tend to cause LDL (bad cholesterol) levels to increase.

•Fish oils are higher in omega-3 fatty acids than whole grains and soybean products; this may increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

•In people with diabetes, fish oils may cause insulin resistance and elevation of blood glucose levels.

•Fish caught in coastal waters may be contaminated with pesticides, chlorinated hydrocarbons, and heavy metals.

•Fish oils are prone to oxidation and spoilage."

Scientific studies show that since the amounts of cholesterol in red meat, chicken, or fish are about equal, each causes a similar rise in the cholesterol level.

As we saw in Dr. Ornish’s study, switching from beef to chicken or fish didn’t help reduce artery blockage. Shrimp and lobster are very high in cholesterol, as well. In the medical journal, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a study entitled, Human Plasma Lipid Responses to Red Meat, Poultry, Fish, and Eggs4 showed that since the amounts of cholesterol in red meat, chicken, or fish are about equal, each causes a similar rise in the cholesterol level measured in blood.

Consuming cholesterol increases blood cholesterol levels

Dr. Neal Barnard, M. D., president of the National Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, explained, Every 100 mg of cholesterol you eat in your daily routine adds roughly five points to your cholesterol level. (Everyone is different, and this number is an average.) In practical terms, 100 mg of cholesterol is four ounces of beef, or four ounces of chicken, or half an egg…5

Interesting Facts:

•Fruits, Vegetables, Whole Grains, & Beans contain absolutely zero cholesterol.

•Plant foods are low in fat (except for olives, avocadoes, coconuts, and nuts).

•Chicken, fish, beer, pork, eggs have zero cholesterol-lowering fiber.

Scientific studies show that eating a cholesterol-lowering diet works just as effectively as taking a statin drug

In 2005, in an impressive study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers directly compared a group comprised of 34 overweight men and women who ate a regimen of cholesterol-lowering foods - high in soy protein, almonds, cereal fiber as well as plant sterols - with a second group of patients who followed a normal diet that was supplemented with the generic statin drug, lovastatin. After one month, the cholesterol-lowering diet was almost as effective as statins, reducing LDL by nearly 30 percent. Statins lowered LDL by 33 percent. The researchers said that people