The advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of mother's market and kitchen mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition.

Hello, I'm Kimberly King, and welcome to the mother's market radio show, a show dedicated to the Truth, Beauty and Goodness of the human condition. On today's show, our body needs protein to keep it performing at its best, so listen close and find out ways you can get the right amount to maximize your lifestyle.

Later, we'll tell you what's new at mother's market and what's going on around town, but first up, Dr. Rob Stevie is a passionate consumer advocate and educator with over 16 years of natural health and natural products industry experience, a Doctor of naturopathic medicine and a certified natural food chef, droves widely known, provides an informed and an innovative perspective to support branding, marketing, PR and other business development needs with a focus on education and community, over the past decade, Doro has helped to identify and expand key health categories such as probiotics, enzymes, way protein for Mentos and whole food supplements. We welcome to the mother's market radio show, dock. Rob, how are you?

I am doing wonderful. Great to have you here today. I am so excited to be back on the show and again, awesome to see everyone.

It's great to have you here. Why don't you fill our audience in a little bit on your mission and your work before we get to today's show topic... Well, I've been in the industry for so many years, it's fun to be an educator or an advocate, so on to promote the best of the best. I have a philosophy of Better Living, which is my goal is to try to help you live a better today than yesterday, and we'll work together to have a better tomorrow than today.

I love that.

That's good. I was gonna say, by the way, 'cause we've been interviewing over the years, I think you get younger every year, by the way, I have it, in 10 years, I have you age. And I think it's the healthy living is, but I think it's attitude too, I think it's... I like to smile, I like to have fun, I don't take it too seriously, and I love what I do is... So it's not really work.

It's definitely your passion in the show today we're talking about the power of plant-based proteins, and so you're a doctor of naturopathic medicine who then to culinary school, which focused on plant-based cooking, which is so interesting.

So over 15 years ago, why did you choose that program get you way ahead of your time, right. And you've already become a doctor, it was funny because it was... Ahead of the time, it was kind of weird. It was all, you going to be an... A vegetarian food. And it's such a weird thing, I was like, blame, I've already been in naturopathic school and it was uncool and unpopular, that's not gonna dissuade me at all, I felt that people have a right to eat what they want, they wanna have it taste good. I think that some of them are doing it for medical reasons, so you can't judge them just for philosophy, they need to do this, and I felt that everybody eats. That was one of my core reasons for going to culinary school is that no matter who I speak to as a doctor, we all had that in common, that food is our unifying bottom line, and so you can make the food at the bottom of the vegetables are through the fruits, the plant-based material has to taste good and be foundational to... Then you can always add whatever you want, if you eat chicken or other animal proteins, you can always sit on top, but it was that base of culinary experience that I wanted everyone to say, Oh, he's... Badges actually tastes really good.

That's so good. That's true. And you were doing healthy than you were making the healthy switch from a long time ago, we're hearing a lot of buzz about plant-based proteins, that does seem to be the trend.

Yes, can you give us a little background? And how can I promote better health?

Definitely, the major trend is plant-based proteins, you're seeing it in individual ingredients as well as finished products, this is exciting to me because they're usually cleaner for the most part, as far as other ingredients and how they're raised its own a soils healthy... And the growing practices are healthy is usually a better option, often less or allergies to it as well, more digestible, but we are founded on the minerals and nutrients that come from the ground and from the plants, and we need to incorporate that into our diet and see a lot of people doing green smoothies and green juices and kale was the big thing a few years ago, it's still popular, but it's not as buzzy, but people don't realize or now they're learning more and more that you can get a good solid complete diet with protein. From these plans that you don't need to rely on animal-based proteins for protein, you have body builders, Olympic athletes all standing proud saying This is a body built on plants, and that's exciting to be able to promote.

Oh, that's really great. What are some of the most popular options, and I don't know if it's from those diets or from the food traditionally, one of the most popular, say, however, there's been knock on side to a degree on GMO, non-GMO or is it digestible or not, but we see a lot of the booms, chickpeas lentils is a great protein source, so there's a bunch of those leading the charge, I have to say is probably one of my favorites, and hemp seeds, hemp protein powders, incorporating hemp hearts into salads and foods, these are ways to boost regular diet foods with more protein, can you talk a little bit about... And I did ask you a little bit about... But there's the diets right now that are there all the crates, those trending diets, so even like a J and beyond, they go vegan for 20 days, and you have all these popular trends, but what people find is that maybe you're not familiar with it, the taste of certain plants, I find it, unfortunately, a lot of kids say can go to the grocery store, not even recognize vegetables, and so we need to really push that back to the forefront. On the other hand, I see schools, there's a school in New York City or freshman that was built around teaching young kids about healthy eating and a lot of plant-based making plans tastes good. And so that was a really key for me was like How to call you make this taste really well, and what can we make it work for the every day diet? I've taught more people, I think, how to make homes using carbon beans or chickpeas as a dip or a snack or with a little veggies, and they go, Wow, this actually tastes really well. I enjoy this, I can make it my own. I can have it more Glenmore, so... But it's mine and they're like a Thales, Hayford, but it is... And that's a really good part of this, you're just finding ways to sneak in more veggies and more plant-based proteins into the everyday diet, the diets. I see a lot of people then going vegan or vegetarian, of them are eating improperly, they're eating a lot of carbohydrates versus a full-rounded diet with Father fats, healthy proteins, and you can get those from plants. Mediterranean diet is very popular, it's not fully necessarily plant-based, but it's leaning that way, there's a great blog or wicked healthy that puts a lot of good healthy recipes out there for those that wanna try more plant-based dishes, and it's not... The old hat was very, had to be the food hippie, living on all these grains and greens, and now it's like, No, the trend young people to are going, I wanna be more environmentally conscious, I wanna be health-conscious, and I wanna find ways to make plans work for my diet and for my lifestyle, and on those blogs and everything, you said that there are some recipes that I was...

I love most importantly. Yeah, when someone says, I wanna... We have a family member or early 20s, she said, I wanna go vegan, I wanna eat a vegan diet, I'd say, Okay, great. How are you going to do that? It's not so easy just saying, what's just start avoiding me that you have to plan your meals a little bit, you have to think about the different combinations of vegetables, they're just vegetables. So there's a little bit of effort that goes into it, but we see even the younger generation especially leaning towards that more and more, on the other hand, is baby boomer are starting to realize that when they reduce it, if they don't go extremely full plant-based or full vegetarian or vegan, they reduced the amount of animal proteins in their diet, they feel better, that their joints feel better than a Assisi, they would drop a few pounds. That's really the bonus here, we're not trying to say it has to be a 100% or let's say a 108 degree turn around to your lifestyle, it's selectivity. I've always been a believer in conscious consumers, I'm making good choices for yourself, not judged by anyone else, that's why I don't typically use the label, I was like, I'm a vegetarian or I'm a vegan, I tell people I choose to eat vegetarian meals, or I choose to be eating a vegan diet or taking that philosophy, but to label yourself on that diet is almost limiting, 'cause if one day you're in a situation where you don't have an option, should you starve or should you just be conscious and say, I'm making you a conscious choice to eat this today.

Well, and this kind of actually leads me to my next question, so does eating a plant-based protein, does that make you a vegetarian or a vegan... Not really, no. I think you are just choosing to eat more of a plant-based, and I think that what people... Is a great transition if you wanna go 80-20, like a lot of people do say, I'm gonna just try to cut down or make a couple of days, a couple of dinners a week, plant-based only and go online, there's so many more resources than it. Those many years ago when I went to connect, this is so new and exciting to go on so many blogs and so many sites and get good recipes and see how the evolution of plant-based eating has just grown, so you have so many options. And then if you don't wanna cook, you can... How do people do... And I find you can go into the soup markets, and I'm even mainstream ones, from Target Kroger to Whole Foods, or it would have you, and you can find so many more vegan offerings or vegetarian offerings, and that gives people a chance to try and then say, Oh, I could do this at home, or I wanna make my own. Or things like that. So it's exciting to see that the accessibility and the options are growing leaps and bounds, walking through Expo West and walking through the aisles of the trade show, the options are tremendous, it used to be few and far between, and you... To be very careful, it's probably put on their labels now, we had a vegan cheese line today that blow me away, I was like, it was really, really good. And a whole line of it from federal to Rand, I was like, This is really quality stuff, and it wasn't that way, I have to be in... It wasn't that way, 10, 15 years ago. It did have a weather you shoe kinda... No texture and taste. Not anymore. So even though that used to be critical of it, try some again, go in and explore and experiment, and that's why I tell people now is go into those stores and just try a couple of new plant-based vegan products. Once in a while, it doesn't have to be a full conversion, but just incorporate a little bit more into your pantry, into your fridge, and you'll see it becomes easier and easier to allow that plant-based focus. Yeah, and it's probably just developed into the taste has come a long...

Farragut, to give you an example, I was interesting to you earlier as a plant-based seafood company, so tuna fish, can you imagine eating two differ sandwich, it's not from the sea, not being environmentally harming, the ocean is not worrying about toxins in the water, but all from a six-room being blend that tastes amazing.

And so that to me is really exciting. For me, I have an allergy to shellfish, which is unfortunate, but now the same companies coming out with crab cakes that have the same taste and texture of cracks, and right now I can go and at least know what that is, having to go to display afterwards, 'cause a lot of these options that really are nice to see, and just the innovation is weaves and bound is one of the big thing that was talked to this morning simply about plant-based food innovation because there's so many opportunities to get more of this into the consumer's hands, and we talked a little bit about, again, the difference between plant-based and not being a vegan necessarily, but how you get protein and you plant in your plant-based diet too. Can you expand on that a little bit? Surf you say vegan, it has a little bit more to no honey, no egg, no fish, these are... Okay, if that's your choice. And that's where you wanna go. I totally support that. Some people are just looking to get more vegetables and the nutrients from vegetables in their diet, or they're a little bit more about the impact of animal raising or they've seen some of these documentaries about factory farms and they don't really wanna go down that road.

So some of the most probably one, like I said, was so... But you have to look and make sure it's non-GMO, typically it's a big problem or a big concern them... For a lot of consumers, I like the fermented, says like Tampa and me, so... But you get an organic animal is one of great sources of protein, especially for kids as a snack, and so those are one of the things I love to say If you get an organic at Mommy, it's a great thing for kids to snack on versus candy or chips, and they're getting a good plant-based digestible protein, like I said, guard bands and chickpeas, another one that's really popular from Humes to new, from chips, they're making it out of chips now is really popular there grains Kina amaran, these are amazing protein sources. Hemp, as I said, Hameed, there's just even spinach, even a banana.

Okay, you think that banana does have a lot of protein, but it has some protein and roughly two grams per cup of banana, so Spanish, these are things that are common clinical and Russell sprouts, they may not have a tremendous amount other incorporated into a comprehensive diet. You're getting protein, so you're not deficient in protein by eating vegetables. I want people to understand that what is the buzz and the attraction around him... Well, habits one of the most complete proteins, so a, there's a bunch of Intamin acids that you find in protein, and that's something that... It's a little challenging, but there's just so much disability, so much nutrients, certain compounds in hemp that aren't found in other plants that are beneficial to us, so I think hemp is a great product that from hemp sees to have protein to try to incorporate a little bit of help in your diet, every day is a great tool from the see the oil, all the omega-3s, so help you get good healthy fats, good protein, and it actually tastes really good too. The tosses are made snack.

Well, if this is great information right now, we need to take a quick break, but more from dark Rob in just a moment. Don't go away, we'll be right back.

And welcome back to the mother's market radio show.

And we wanna remind you that if you missed any portion of today's show, you can find us on iTunes by searching mother's market or download the show from our website, mother's market dot com, click the link for radio and listen to the past shows, plus download our Healthy Recipes and money savings coupons, all available at mother's market dot com. And now back to our interview with Dr. Rob stressful, and we're talking a little bit a lot about the power of plant-based proteins, and this is very interesting, and let's talk about other concerns about plant-based proteins, either food or supplements. protein shakes. Yeah, there's a lot more... We just had a big article come out around plant pest protein shakes and powders, and they seem to have a high levels of lead or arsenic in it really, and even more so than some like the way proteins, but that's good in the sense that they're testing for it... And then they'll call out those manufacturers to do a little bit more stringent control, but not all of them had that issue, but that was something they found surprising, you think, Oh, planet, it's coming from the soil, so it's grown in soil that has heavy metals or other... Unhealthy compounds that gets brought up through those plants and then puts into our food, so we do need to know that kind of traceability, we wanna get Colas of certificates of analysis when we're talking about these proteins and even our products, we wanna know where it's grown, we wanna know if it's conventional or organic, same thing, like I say with... So a majority, I think it's 80 plus percent of SOAS GMO genetically modified. And for many people, they don't wanna have the genetically modified, so you have to look for organic or non-GMO project-verified type products. That's part of it. So we just talk about the way it's grown in the soil conditions, the other side of the challenge could be how our individual bodies digest it, some people who have a hard time digesting beans, some people have seen that they get more gas yet there's been products out there specifically that are developed to supplement the vegetarian or vegan diet, loophole, don't know about it, but if you get a dietary something and a plant-based enzyme, again plant-based, which is no enzyme help to break down this outer coding, the silos of these plant matters, it makes it more digestible for some people that traditionally, they don't have the enzyme, so met my background's anthropology, traditional cultures and diet. So what do they do before there were cool bottles of supplements and enzyme as well, they had certain techniques.

So fermenting is one that's why say That's fermented like Tampa and miso is more digestible than other Sybase proteins like tofu or Satan, Satan is a very gluten ESS, very hard digest, women's very popular in vegetarian diets, not when I typically recommend very often, so the... So the other was almonds, I love almonds, I'm a big fan of Hammons. We're researching it from around the world now, not just California, and the reality is that when you learn about the term soaking and sprouting... Yeah, I want you to talk about this.

It's great. So there's guidelines for different types of beans and nuts, but specifically say almonds almonds, you're supposed to soak for about eight hours and clean water and then dry them at low temperature, and by doing that, you remove a certain asset, it's Who fighting accident was designed by nature. To be an outer coating of the Armand to protect it from bugs and bacteria eating it, that was what the nature intensifies on the tree and hits the ground, it has this little security shield around it that helps it stay viable longer, but if you've... Sokoto simple, we just soaking it, then when you go and eat it, that predicts been washed away and remove it, it actually more digestible for our bodies, too much levels of that free acid has been shown to block certain digestive processes in the body for proteins.

So there are techniques, people like the proud... I'm a big sprouting fan too.

So when you see that little sprout coming out of them, that's when it's a lie, that sprout is energy to its max, it's nature saying We're ready to bust out of our show and show you what we're good for, and that's what I like. So looking at people that are looking at plant-based diets, just don't take it off the show for, just don't look at raw... Look at the techniques, the fermenting, the soaking, the sprouting, all these things that really enhance the digest ability and the ability for your body to absorb the nutrients that those proteins and those plans to provide, whether it be proteins or minerals or other nutrients.

So just to go back to your almonds story, can you get these almonds in a sprouted form or do you have to do that?

There are some companies... Again, there's a process here.

So when you talk about high volume and scales and Manufacturing, some of the bigger companies don't take the time to soak them or sprout them, but there are a bunch of really cool companies out there, you can find online and you can find a lot of health and stores, many years ago, there was a small company from the Northeast quality among brothers, and they were really, they soaked and sprouted and season these Amos, then we'll snack bags and I could not get enough of them.

They are awesome, they change their name acting living nuts, because they were really alive and digestible and functional, I don't know if they're still even around it, so social... How far back in the industry I've done, but the... They're still around. You can search specifically for soak or sprouted, probably likely sprouted, but I know that there are more and more innovations along those lines coming... That's interesting, let's talk about the meat alternative, and that category seems to be grown... We did talk about meat, but I want to... Let's talk about that. Beyond burger, the news picture was pretty amazing, there's a high-end restaurant in New York City that started serving the... Beyond burger is it looked like a burger, it takes like a burger and even when you cut into it, I've been into it, I had the juice that was the blood or the port, 'cause they wanted people to feel comfortable, I guess, with their concept of... It's just like a burger, but you don't have to hurt an animal to do it, and it's just plants, it's a bunch of beans and I don't know. They're Formula specifically, I know like I said, the plant-based seafood company, good catch is just launching, they're a blend of six different goods from chickpeas Lantos, I believe, and Fabian, but the way they process it in very clean way, it just a texture and taste to a degree, it's never gonna be the same as a fish, but it's amazing for those that are looking for The Plant-Based Alternative, and there's now plant-based... Beyond sausages, I think I hear coming out, there are a brand colour, heart has a really good egg protein or egg alternatives to people on scrambled eggs, these are things that weren't available when I went to... Call her to school for Pan-based nutrition. We had to do it from scratch, we had to deal with what we had, which was fine, but now it's amazing how many options like that are becoming available, it's not just fake chicken or soy, everything, it's not... It's just amazing to have that you can have a beyond burger and vegan cheese on top of it, and the future is now for that, and it's a lot better than the soil and green that we thought the future would be... Right, right, right.

It's actually probably pretty good for you, and I just wanna mention because it's not one of mine that I typically lean on, but the blue green algae and some of those micro-Aldis are super foods. They're also considered a plant-based protein, they're high protein levels, so one of those times you see those added into supplements or green drinks for an added boost of protein as well.

What innovations in this category are you seeing or force... Like I said, more and more of what you're familiar with, I remember having a... I used to travel around to health in stores all the time, like 500 a year, and I was... But I was like, How do you stay healthy? With that kind of road warrior schedule, I said, Well, I have the good fortune of not of eating in health food stores, so I got to try different things and go to their delis and whatever it is, and not have to go to the convention restaurants and the mainstream fast food for my meal, which allowed me to eat healthier, and I remember one time a long go ahead, a belt, but it was a Tempo, it was made from a fermented soy strips and it was infused with favor and in a nice wrap, and I was like, Well, I was like, This is really good. And so there's a lot of things that we're so familiar with that some of us don't wanna give up, that's rewari-think that example is a good catch are doing... It's like the crab cakes and I can never have as a kid, it... Could they be able to say, I can have this and now it's sustainable, environmentally friendly, good for my body, you made a clean ingredients, and that's where I think the real innovation is if you have a growing demand from the young kids and they're 18 or even younger, we have young kids at home and they may hesitate, but if you give it two months in a while and say it, you eat a bad... You don't even know.

It's fun to be able to do that. And then, of course, I guess had the older population, and they're just looking for ways to maintain their health, unfortunately, a lot of the dietary, the processed foods and even the Animal-based proteins, they can cause the body to be very acidic, that caused a mineral imbalance in the body to a degree, and these darkness is Spanish, and all these call and all these nutrients, they replenish it, and when you've been deprived for many years or those minerals, and you start to eat it and you start to feel better, I mean, that's what people have when they do cannabis now and they're doing Hempstead, all these things, they're trying to say, Well, I feel better, and that's what is driving the innovation, the consumer demand, when you walk around these shows and you walk in the health and stores, and you're walking around the industry and even talking to doctors, I have the DNA, the natural ice who I went to is now, I know if he's got a turn or began again, the labels don't really matter, but he's plant-focused, and it's nice to see that from the top down, from the doctors are starting to realize that this is the way to be, This is the better tires... And it doesn't have to be extreme. It doesn't have to be 110% all the time. I don't advise that if that's not that what you're comfortable with, Find your comfort zone, this is about you find a better today than yesterday, and that's all working together through education through new options and opportunities to have a better tomorrow, not just yourself, but your family, your community and us as a world, our hope is that this movement is to drive a more sustainable planet, and that's part of most of these companies, mission does not just sell you products to take away that this is a long-term strategy to protect the Earth, and I think that's something that everyone should get behind a little bit, at least... Try it a little bit by a few of these products. Support the effort that's being made.

I love it, this is great. And you're right, everybody's making a difference as you go along, so you touched on something earlier in it, I guess, do you see a future where we don't get our protein from animals, you know, it's challenging to say that that a future without consuming animals. I think there's a lot of ideas out there that may say that that's the future we need, however, it doesn't necessarily mean that that's the... We can achieve, there's an over-population issue right now on the planet of people, and there are some cultures, and there are some communities in parts of the world where they didn't have those options you have... From the northern Antarctic region, you're gonna say Don't eat whatever they're eating in the Waller, whatever you lived on the Inuit on that at a vegetable... Well, it doesn't work in those climates, one of the things I saw was traditionally, animal proteins were used seasonally, so it's amazing that you can see what works, what does in certain cultures, certain histories, what was grown, if you're from a culture that grew up eating meat and potatoes and not a lot of vegetables, and you just start to switch over to all vessels, you might not have the health benefits that you might want, and blood type diet has talked about this before for many years and, Oh, I might need to have a little bit of animal protein, and you might wanna be a vegan or vegetarian, but if you start getting sick and now I'm nourished, you have to consider that you're an individual and your body is designed to function, and I always employer for people to live in their own body, don't be judged by the outside as much, don't worry about trends as much, if you start feeling bad, you might wanna change it a little bit, if you feel really good, you might wanna go in one further and go a little deeper, and that's where the key here is just a matter of owning your own health and getting education and experimenting, life is a journey to experiment, and so I think that's really my take away from everything.

Excellent, well, thank you so much for your time, Dr. Rob and some great advice. We really appreciate your knowledge and we look forward to having you on again, but in the meantime, get more information on duck Rob on his website, drab dot com, and we look forward to your next visit. Thank you, my pleasure. Follow me on social media, I'm always on. And it's a real pleasure to be here. You guys are doing a great service. Always fun to be on the show.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to the mother's market radio show, and for shopping at mother's market, the advise and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of mother's market and kitchen, mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition.