Ethos Recipe Facts
Our recipes are developed to optimize health and help reverse and prevent chronic disease. They are inspired by the regenerative organic produce grown right here on the farm. And, they are backed by scientific evidence that stands behind everything we do at Ethos, whether it's in the medical office or in the field. We welcome you to explore these resources and learn about the amazing health benefits associated with these recipes.
IMMUNE-BOOSTING MUSHROOM CHICKPEA STEW
Mushrooms are medicinal superstars of the plant eating world, even though scientifically, they belong to the kingdom of fungi, not plants. Mushrooms are known to improve our immune defenses through modulating effects on the respiratory and gastrointestinal, or GI tracts. These tracts are the human body’s interfaces with the outside world and allow us to have access to materials such as oxygen, fuel and nutrients - all necessary to sustain life. However these interfaces potentially leave the body open to invasion by disease causing infections.
Research has demonstrated that when eaten regularly, mushrooms are particularly effective in boosting levels of IgA antibodies, weapons our immune system produces on the surface linings of our gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts (1,2). These IGA antibodies attack and destroy foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria when they attempt to infiltrate our bodies.
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22113068/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25866155/
BREAST CANCER “BEETING” BORSCHT
Bile is a detergent manufactured by the liver and excreted into the intestine to help dissolve fats and get them absorbed into our bodies. The main component of bile is bile acids which are made from cholesterol. But problematically, bile acids are converted into mutagenic secondary bile acids by gut bacteria. These dangerous secondary bile acids (SBAs) have been associated with the formation of colon and breast cancers (1),(2),(3),(4).
The SBAs are absorbed into our systemic circulation where they exist at very low levels. However human breast tissue selectively sequesters SBAs at up to a hundred times the concentration found in the bloodstream (5). It is in breast tissue where these SBAs are thought to have estrogen like effects on promoting breast cancer growth (6).
Although many vegetables can neutralize SBAs by binding to them in the intestinal tract (7), it is the humble beet that clearly outshines all other foods in its ability to do this (8). Interestingly it is not just the fiber of the vegetables that are binding the SBAs. It is the beet’s unique phytonutrients that make it a champion (7).
SATISFYING PLANT-BASED SOUR CREAM
Nuts are among the most calorie dense foods you can possibly eat, containing more calories per ounce than a hamburger or a hunk of cheese. But in recent years, a trove of scientific evidence has accumulated indicating that eating nuts does not contribute to weight gain, and may actually help to prevent it (1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6)!
Nuts have special properties that are unlike other foods, so if we take in more calories in nuts than we immediately need, those calories DO NOT end up being stored as body fat. How do nuts do this? A small amount of the excess calories remains bound to the fiber material in the nut and is not absorbed, passing out with our stool. A larger amount of the excess calories are accounted for by nuts’ special ability to increase the body’s basal metabolism, the burning of fuel at rest.
But the lion's share - about 70% of the excess calories - are accounted for by what's called "nut satiation." When we eat nuts, they make us feel satiated or more full, so we end up eating less of other foods (7),(8),(9). Nuts’ abilities to not contribute to weight gain is just one powerful way we have discovered that they help us.
POTASSIUM POWERHOUSE - STUFFED ACORN SQUASH
Squash is one of the best sources of potassium you can get! 98% of Americans suffer from a severe potassium deficiency. At the same time 99% of Americans eat way too much sodium (1).
Sodium and potassium are two minerals that have a special relationship in the human body and often work together to ensure our health. So instead of thinking about sodium and potassium separately, it is often more useful to think about intake of these vital minerals in terms of the sodium/potassium ratio.
Over most of our 2 million years of evolution, paleolithic humans consumed less than 1000 mg of sodium per day and in the range of 10,000 mg of potassium per day, giving us a sodium/potassium ratio of no greater than 1/10. Today, the average American eats 3400 mg of sodium and only 2500 mg of potassium, making for a completely inverted ratio of 1.36/1.
The larger the sodium/potassium ratio, the greater the risk of dying not only from a heart attack or stroke, but from other causes as well (2). With a sodium/potassium ratio of 1/36, our stuffed acorn squash dish is just what the doctor ordered to lower your sodium level, increase your potassium level, and when eaten as part of a diet of whole, unrefined plant foods, decreases your chances of dying from all causes (2,3).
KEEP THE DOCTOR AWAY BAKED APPLES
Plants defend themselves by manufacturing natural chemical weapons called phytochemicals. Plants use these phytochemicals, also known as phytonutrients, to meet challenges in their environment, like warding off hungry insects, fighting diseases and even to aid in reproduction. Over millions of years of evolution, plant-eating humans have commandeered these special antioxidant molecules to fight our own diseases.
An important class of these phytonutrients is called polyphenols. In recent years we have discovered that apples are loaded with a very unique combination of these polyphenols. It is thought that these polyphenols may play a crucial role in helping to prevent a variety of chronic illnesses, from cardiovascular disease to cancer (2),(3),(4),(5).
One of the cancers we are most concerned about preventing in America is colorectal cancer. Of cancers that affect both men and women, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death (6). So it is exciting to find a study that looked at the effect of eating apples on the risk of developing colorectal cancer. The study showed that eating more than one apple per day was associated with a 50% reduced risk of developing colorectal cancer, while no other fruit was significantly associated with decreasing colorectal cancer risk (7).
Perhaps this is because the polyphenols specific to apples are large molecules, particularly good at surviving digestion in the small intestine and are delivered intact to the colon where they have their salubrious effect. These same polyphenols are known to interfere with initiation and growth of cancer cells in many different ways (5).