I'm Kristine from UW Medicine.
Take one part National Nutrition Month and one part
and one part March Madness and what do you get?
March Madness, Tournament of Fiber
Actually that's Veggie Madness, Tournament of Fiber.
To build excitement for the final week of voting
in March, excuse me, in Veggie Madness,
we're talking with Molly Haas, a clinical dietitian at Harborview Medical Center
about the importance of veggies in our diet.
For our friends out there on Facebook,
ask your veggie questions for Veggie Madness
in the comments field. We will get to as many questions
as we can during this broadcast.
Let's go ahead and kick it off with some questions.
Molly, why is it important to eat a lot of vegetables?
Vegetables are a very important part of our diet.
They provide a lot of vitamins and minerals.
On top of that, they have a lot of fiber, which helps
keep us full and protects our digestive system.
Are some veggies healthier than others?
So that's a good question. I know a lot of vegetables get
kind of a bad reputation, especially potatoes, because
they think of fries and more "unhealthy" applications of potatoes.
But really all fruits and vegetables have some health benefits
that maybe others don't. For example, potatoes
have a lot of potassium, that's something that most of us
need in our daily diet.
So incorporating a lot of fruits and vegetables
helps make sure we're getting a variety of
all the vitamins and minerals we need
as well as that healthy fiber I was talking about before.
One thing a lot of dietitians will mention,
and just kind of a good way to think about eating,
is to eat the rainbow, meaning you're eating a bunch
of different colors of fruits and vegetables
because each color sort of corresponds to
some of the vitamins and minerals you might find
in that fruit or vegetable.
Is going vegan healthy?
There is a couple questions in this question.
Is veganism healthy is one, and two, is being vegan healthier
than, say, oh hey guys, healthier than say eating an omnivorous diet
that most of us eat.
You can definitely be a vegan and get most of the vitamins
and minerals you need and certainly all of the protein that you need.
Especially now that veganism has been so common
for so long, there are so many vitamins
oh, sorry, not vitamins and minerals, but
so many meat substitutes that have a lot of protein in them
that kind of taste like meat.
There's a lot of options that weren't around when
people first started to go vegan.
In some ways, it's easier now.
I would say that anybody that is interested in going vegan
definitely eat as many different types of fruits and vegetables
as you can to make sure that you are getting
all those vitamins and minerals, and then also
you will want to talk to your doctor or registered dietitian
to make sure you're not deficient in anything like B12
or iron, vitamin D or calcium.
These tend to be things we get mostly from animal sources.
Not to say you can't get a lot of them from
fruits and vegetables and other plant-based foods
but it is something that vegans tend to have a little bit
more trouble getting than everybody else.
But, again, as long as you're talking to a health professional
about it you should be able to get what you need.
I don't believe a vegan diet is any healthier
than a regular diet that has both plant-based and
animal-based foods, it's really just a matter of
what works for you, and of course the moral aspect
of animal rights that draws a lot of people to veganism.
Certainly if that's something that's important to you
a vegan diet is a good option.
I want to remind our Facebook friends, if you have any questions
let us know in the comments field.
What should someone know before switching to a more plant-based diet?
There are a couple things that might change
if you go to a plant-based diet.
One, the amount of food prep tends to change
so where a lot of non-vegetable foods
tend to be a little bit easier,
just grabbing a sandwich with a couple pieces of bread
or popping something into the microwave.
With fresh fruits and vegetables there is a little bit more
prep involved, a lot of washing, cutting and peeling.
So you may have to devote a little bit more time to food prep.
Of course there are other options, a lot of frozen fruits and vegetables
are already prepped, and it's just a matter of throwing them
into whatever you were making before.
But certainly kind of factoring that into it.
Another thing is that when we increase the amount
of plant-based foods into our diet, especially if
your diet was pretty low in fruits and vegetables before,
you may notice a bit more bloating
and some discomfort, that just comes from
adding more fiber to your diet.
It goes away in time. Most people would find that after
a couple weeks they really don't have those symptoms anymore.
It's just something you might want to be aware of going into it.
What are some easy ways for someone to add more vegetables into their diet?
I think this is an opportunity for people to get creative with what they make.
If you like to cook, think of it as a challenge
to try and figure out how your favorite recipe
can have more fruits and vegetables in it.
Really any recipe, any meal, can have vegetables added to it.
One thing I like to do is add vegetables to soups I make.
Find a recipe for a particular type of soup
and think about what vegetables I want
or maybe what I have in my refrigerator at the time
or just what sounds good in that particular recipe,
and then add that to them. It adds volume to the soup
so all of a sudden you have more soup now,
and it's just a good way to get a few more vegetables in there.
Note to our followers on Facebook, we have a recipe
coming online tomorrow, it will be on Right as Rain,
which you can find at rightasrain.uwmedicine.org
and that will be posted live tomorrow.
That's a recipe for our Sideline Stew
that we've incorporated some veggies that have been
eliminated from the competition.
On that note, veggies, I'd like to turn it over to you.
Do you have any questions for Molly?
Oh hi Snap Peas. Hi. Join the party.
I was eliminated in the first round of the Veggie Madness tournament
and stupid broccoli made it to the Chomp-ionship.
I'm wondering if you could just, why, why was broccoli so much more popular?
Snap peas got eliminated by broccoli.
I'm sorry to hear that. I think you're delicious.
I know that broccoli's kind of having a moment in the sun right now,
everybody is familiar with broccoli, they know what to do with it.
You just chop off the top and roast it or steam it.
I think people don't know what to do with you.
So maybe this is a good challenge to the viewers
to try and figure out how to cook with snap peas.
You know you don't even have to cook snap peas,
you can just eat them raw, they're delicious.
I think your time will come, maybe not this year
maybe next Veggie Madness is going to be your shot at the Chomp-ionship.
So I know people are very familiar with orange carrots,
but are purple carrots just as nutritious?
Yeah so as a Husky alum, Go Huskies,
I do have to say I have a special place in my heart for purple carrots.
So different colors of fruits and vegetables mean
mean that the fruits and vegetables have different chemicals
that turn them that color, and those chemicals
are good for us, that's the vitamins, the minerals
that cause the fruits and vegetables to have those colors.
So really it just means that you, an orange carrot,
and maybe your cousin the purple carrot,
just have a little bit different vitamin/mineral makeup.
You're both healthy, and I think it's best
to have a little bit of both the purple and the orange carrot.
Good answer, thank you.
I have a question. The tomato is often misunderstood,
and I was wondering, in your opinion
is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
So this is purely my opinion, and I know this is a hotly debated issue,
I always think of the tomato as a vegetable,
just because I eat it with other vegetables.
You make a salsa, that's got onion, tomatoes, cilantro,
all these things I think of as vegetables.
I know you have seeds, and some people might think
that because you have seeds you're a fruit,
but I say veggie all the way.
Do any of our Facebook friends have questions for us?
No? OK, we will keep going.
I just wanted to give a sneak peek.
We just finished the Fiber Four
and I wanted to let our viewers know that
if you're wondering who's in the Chomp-ionship
we have a sneak peek reveal: It is broccoli versus sweet potato.
Voting opens on Thursday, please check it out
at uwmedicine.org/veggiemadness
And with that, thank you Molly for joining us today.
Thank you for having me, this has been really fun.
Check us out on Thursday, we'll be live and
you can vote for the champion in the Chomp-ionship.