284: The Function of Food: Why Eating More Plants Makes Such A Big Health Difference 🌱

Speaker 1: 0:59

On today's episode. I want to ask you a question what is the function of your food? I have a feeling it's not what you think. You're not going to want to miss this.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Hey sister, welcome to the Power on Plants podcast. Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better? Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health? Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do? Hi, we're Jared and Anita Roussel, Christ followers, health care professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food.

Speaker 2: 1:37

We, too, tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes, and we weren't finding answers the traditional route. So we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon sustainable plant-based living. The truth is, you can eat more whole plant foods and it's not hard. You just need the way. That's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived. If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place. So grab your favorite plant-based cup of happy pop in those earbuds and let's get started.

Speaker 1: 2:20

It's good to be back again in today's episode. You know, I feel like with these episodes, it's kind of like when you come back home from a vacation, you get inside and it just feels comfortable, it feels right, it feels like where you belong, it does feel like where we belong. Because I think we're with family. And I just, I love every time we record one of these episodes because I feel like I'm at home, I'm like I'm where I need to be.

Speaker 2: 2:43

What Jared's trying to say is you're our people.

Speaker 1: 2:46

You are, you're our people.

Speaker 2: 2:48

We love you and we love getting to know you, and that is exactly what's happening inside our free group, pi.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Now are you in Pi? If not, why not? It's free and it's so easy. Come on in, Join us.

Speaker 2: 3:02

That's such a good question. Why aren't you? If you're not, run, not walk. I'm just saying run, not walk. If you want to do plant-based, you want to make it stick, you're frustrated with dieting, you're hurting, you're aching, you have low energy, you've got health issues. You want to see get better naturally, and you and you want to do this in a way that's simple, enjoyable and actually tastes good, so you can do it for the long haul because you love it, not because you're having to be forced to.

Speaker 1: 3:26

And I have another question. I don't know if you mentioned this. Are you tired of doing it alone? Are you tired of doing this alone?

Speaker 2: 3:32

If.

Speaker 1: 3:33

So come on, the door's open.

Speaker 2: 3:39

That's true. That's so true. Come on in because you found your family. But one thing I wanted to say there, when I was talking about it being delicious, is you don't have to power through. You don't have to power through, like, if you think plant based is the answer, if you've discovered that it is, if you think it is, first of all, you're right. You're right because it's going to help you, no matter what you're struggling with. It is going to help you. We know for a fact it helps reverse the top diseases of our time. So you're going to get better. If you start eating more whole plant foods, things improve.

Speaker 2: 4:11

I can't promise you that everything you have is going to go away or give you a certain time frame either, because the thing is you've been eating the way you've been eating and living the way you've been living for quite some time. So it may take a little time, even though in our fast food society, we want things to happen today and now. But take the steps to put yourself in an environment and you can get the right ideas so you don't ever feel like you have to power through something that you hate. That is crazy thinking. That is stinking thinking. That's exactly what that is, so I'll think about this patient of jared's. He was talking to a patient. In case you don't know or you're new to the family, jared is a physician assistant and I'm a nurse, so jared was talking to a patient recently who started eating whole food plant-based. Was it her or her husband who's eating the tofu?

Speaker 1: 5:03

It was her husband.

Speaker 2: 5:04

It was her husband, and so what'd she tell you about her husband?

Speaker 1: 5:07

Now her husband has an ulcer and so he's had to make the switch to whole food, plant-based. About a month ago and she said that he's eating tofu, but it's just plain.

Speaker 2: 5:17

And Jared said when he told me this, his eyes got huge and he thought oh, oh man, he's thinking he has to power through Now. Maybe maybe he likes it. Maybe Maybe I do know one person that likes to eat their tofu plain. If you're one of those people, I want you to come into pie right now at powerandplantscom. Forward, slash P-I-E, join the group. You're going to get so much benefit. It's a no brainer.

Speaker 2: 5:40

But I want you to then post and tell me that you love plain tofu, because I want to meet you, I want to know people who like plain tofu, and if you do, it's OK. It is OK, it's totally OK. We're not judging you at all, but I'm just saying, when you know how delicious it can be with all these different sauces, it's like the difference between eating plain chicken Although now I'm going to be honest, that kind of grosses me out you'll get to a place where those foods you love and I used to love chicken. I used to be a major chicken eater, but I'm just using chicken as an example here. So you wouldn't normally eat a plain. Most people don't. Most people wouldn't say I love the taste of a plain boiled chicken breast.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Now it's pretty bland.

Speaker 2: 6:18

Now you might power through it if you're trying to diet because you think you need to eat a lower fat meat. So we're not going to talk about what all you're getting if you're eating that. But you're eating it and you're powering through because it just doesn't taste good to you plain. Well, it's the same thing with tofu. Maybe it doesn't taste good to you plain, or you've tried it and had a bad run in with tofu. You need to get into the place where you can learn from the people who are doing this in the way that brings them joy. You get into a place with those people who. That happens when you know how to make your food taste amazing. Guess what you no longer have to? Power through Dieting is a thing of the past. It's like a dirty word you don't have to say anymore. Dieting is about that miserable. Why would you want to have to put yourself into something and power through again? Don't do this to yourself.

Speaker 2: 7:13

People say, oh, this is a lifestyle, this is not a diet. Okay, it's great, it sounds great and all. But what I want you to understand is this is what is meant by it. This is what we mean by it anyway, when we say that power on plants. For us, you get rid of the diet by not just going plant-based and saying it's a lifestyle. Oh, this lifestyle is not a diet. No, you got to make it a lifestyle that you can make sustainable.

Speaker 2: 7:36

That's what makes Jared and me different. We believe that, in order to succeed at whole food, plant-based living, to get the results you're after, which is optimal health, because you just want to feel good, you just want to be able to do all the things you want to do in life and enjoy it with your kids, with those you love, with your friends all that You've got all these dreams. Maybe you've got dreams God's put in your life to help somebody in a certain area, but you just don't feel like it. Well, we want to get you to the place where you feel like it, and that's not just by powering through. Yeah, you can power through anything.

Speaker 2: 8:08

For a while you could force yourself to eat fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds for a while and get somewhat better. But we don't want you to have to power through. Why would you want to do that if it's not necessary, when you can actually enjoy this way of eating as much or let me blow your mind even more than your all favorites? Because, jared and I honestly I wish I could get you to understand that this happens, but it's got to happen for you, and then you're going to be the one sharing the message with the people that you know this happens. You start eating whole food, plant-based, and finding your new favorites, and before long, you find yourself loving this way of living way more than anything you ate before. And it's not just because it makes you feel good. That's a part of it, absolutely, there's no doubt. When you've got energy and you don't have to force yourself through the day because you're now having to force yourself to go to sleep at night, tell them, is it not my story?

Speaker 1: 9:00

It's a nightly thing, honey. You've got to go to bed.

Speaker 2: 9:02

I've got to get up in the morning, go to work.

Speaker 1: 9:05

What time is it? Oh no, I didn't realize it was that late. She probably, on average, miscalculates by about two hours.

Speaker 2: 9:11

It's terrible. It might be 11 o'clock.

Speaker 1: 9:14

I thought it was nine o'clock. No, sweetheart, it's 11.

Speaker 2: 9:16

We got to turn out the light. Seriously, my struggle today. Seriously my struggle. I'm so sorry, but I mean, I'm thankful, I'm so thankful.

Speaker 2: 9:26

What a better problem I will take this any day, all the energy I need over feeling just like I was dragging and I didn't have the energy to do what I wanted or needed to do. I mean, sometimes it's what you need to do. Sometimes it gets so bad, like mine did all the struggles I was having, the autoimmune symptoms, the fibromyalgia symptoms, all those different things that I was dealing with. It just got to a bad place. I'm not even going to drag y'all there right now. But you know, if you've listened to episode number one, you know some of what I went through. Some of it I probably haven't even shared with you yet. I mean, it was not a good situation. Maybe you're not in that bad of a place. Don't get there. Why should you even get? Get the changes that you're after.

Speaker 1: 10:12

And even if you're not in quote unquote that bad of a situation, don't minimize it, because the optimal health is there. So even if you feel like I'm not that bad, it doesn't matter, you can feel better. It's there. You don't have to wait till you get to that point to make those changes, because if you make the changes in what you eat and optimize that, you may never get there.

Speaker 2: 10:32

So go right now to poweronplantscom forward slash P-I-E. That's poweronplantscom forward slash pie and join us on the inside. Don't wait another day. You do not have to power through, you do not have to scrounge the internet hoping and praying to God that you can find a brownie that doesn't taste like beans. Okay, I'm just saying like it's, we're here for you. If you need your first recipes, get the power and plants cookbook. It's a no brainer. Go to power and plantscom forward slash cookbook and get it and start making the recipes. They are not hard, they're like the easiest things ever. And if you're inside of pie and you have the cookbook and you have a question about any of the methods or anything although I promise you you're probably not going to, but if you do and any of the ingredients or things are new to you, ask inside pie, okay, just ask, we are here for you. You're probably not going to have that issue with the cookbook.

Speaker 2: 11:24

I'm just saying because I have really tried to make it as simple as possible. It is literally many times just dump and go. I love to dump things in the instant pot and press start. Dump things in my blender and press start. Dump things in a bowl and stir it up, and I take the methods that people use that they do in three separate bowls and I combine them into one bowl in one step for you, because we're busy, we don't have time for all that. Who has time for that? And this is another part of finding joy is making it simple. But why does plant-based eating matter? Why these foods versus other foods? Jared had a really interesting light bulb moment that we want to share with you. These are the types of things that we talk about when we're sitting around here and we want to invite you to the party.

Speaker 2: 12:08

This is what happens. This is what we talk about, and we talk about the same things behind closed doors that we're talking about with you. We want you to know that we bring these things to you because it's what we're talking about.

Speaker 1: 12:20

You are in our living room right now. Sometimes I get in my head and I just think if I'm not talking or interacting with other people, if I may be sitting quietly working on the computer, whatever, sometimes I just think.

Speaker 2: 12:31

He's a thinker.

Speaker 1: 12:32

I'm a thinker, always have been. I don't know if that's good or bad, it just is. I had the idea what is the function of my food? So, when you're eating a typical diet where you have meat, what is the function of meat? Meat is muscle, whether it's beef, chicken, fish, whatever lamb, it's muscle. Well, what does muscle do? So within it there are a lot of fibers and proteins that deal with contraction. There's not a lot of carbohydrate in it. I mean, like, if you took a plain piece of beef, it's almost 0% carbohydrates. Typical beef is around 26% water, about 10% fat. You've got almost no carbohydrates and the rest is protein. Yes, there are some minerals and things that are found in it. So are there nutrients? Yes, but it is muscle.

Speaker 1: 13:22

Then I started contrasting that with in the plant-based world. What are the foods that we eat? What is their function? When you start looking at things like green leafy vegetables, what do they do? They take the energy from the sunlight and they create things you start looking at. They create carbohydrates and amino acids and the proteins that the plants use. So there are proteins in plants. So it creates the proteins that the plants need to grow, live, make energy, store that energy. When you start looking at things like carrots energy store that energy. When you start looking at things like carrots, potatoes it stores energy. It stores nutrients. It's part of the root system that pulls nutrients out of the ground so that the plant can then use that. Some of those nutrients get funneled up into the leaves and the stems.

Speaker 1: 14:09

When you look at things like seeds, beans, nuts, legumes these are all seeds. What do those do? They start a brand new plant. That's their function. They have all the enzymes and the nutrients and the proteins and whatever starches that are in there to start a whole brand new plant. So when I started looking at every aspect of plant foods, it all had to do with life and living, whereas with meat it's muscle. I mean, once you get it it's dead. I mean really it's dead flesh, and then when you cook it, it just doesn't have the same impact. Now, of course, some foods that we cook, but a lot of the plant foods that we eat, we eat them raw. It still has a lot of that vital essence left in it especially if you can get it right after its harvest.

Speaker 1: 14:52

If you can pick something locally, it still has the life left in it.

Speaker 2: 14:56

These are life-giving foods. This is a food you want. Now I know what you're thinking, especially if you're new to this realm of plant-based eating. What about my protein? Jared mentioned the proteins in the meat. No, the proteins also in the plants, and there's plenty of protein in plants. Most people get way too much protein and that is causing problems, but we've been marketed to, we've been tricked and we've been lied to about the amounts that we need, but also the ability to get them from plants.

Speaker 1: 15:27

And I'm sitting here, I'm over here, I've got my arms raised, because this is exactly what I do whenever I talk to my patients. Every plant on the face of this planet has proteins and plants are the original source of protein, because they're the only things on this planet that will actually take sulfur from the ground, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon hydrogen, and create brand new amino acids. Now, sure, we can take the essential ones we get from plants or our food sources if you are eating meat and then make the non-essential ones, but really all we're doing is just kind of changing some of the branches we're reconfiguring. We're not really creating brand new amino acids.

Speaker 2: 16:05

Because the amino acids are linked together. In case you don't know this, to make proteins?

Speaker 1: 16:09

Yes, Kind of like I've used the example quite a while back as pot blocks.

Speaker 2: 16:13

If you have young kids.

Speaker 1: 16:14

You have the pot blocks and they have different colors, shapes and sizes. You string them together and they'll fold and do what they do, and they have different functions. Some are structural, some are enzymes. Whatever the case may be, they serve their function.

Speaker 2: 16:27

So we don't want you to get hung up on the protein issue. We have a lot of different podcast episodes where we've already talked about that. Get inside podcast insiders experience, where you have a free search button in there that you can search every single episode type in protein. This is crucial for you to do, especially if you're worried about protein and you're new to this journey and you're thinking I gotta squash these myths. I want to know what's true about protein. Get into podcast insiders experience at poweronplantscom forward slash pie that's forward slash P I E and I want you to type in protein. We have a tutorial in there that walks you through how easy it is to search the podcast episodes. This is a no brainer. Okay. One thing you've got to squash that myth of I won't get enough protein. Okay, where do elephants get their protein? Where do you?

Speaker 1: 17:18

giraffes. Giraffes get cows. I mean, cows don't eat meat right, are they getting their protein? Where does your protein if?

Speaker 2: 17:24

you're a meat eater get its protein and that's eventually comes down to plants. That's a great point, because you're cutting out the middle man, you're getting, you're getting the nutrients you need the middle animal.

Speaker 1: 17:36

Well, no, I was thinking the middle moo. Let's cut out the middle moo.

Speaker 2: 17:42

We don't need the middle moo, so go directly to the source that God created. If you're a believer, crack open your Bible and read Genesis 129. What were you originally created to be fueled on? Yes, and we know what you look at runners. What do they stack up on before they run Carbs for?

Speaker 1: 18:00

their energy carbs.

Speaker 2: 18:01

Okay, so they're not protein stacking right before they go for a run. So we know that carbs are beneficial to our body. Carbs are not the enemy. Now don't be eating junk food carbs. It's the processed carbs that are crap. They're pulled out of the package that God made them in. So when you start pulling out and bleaching sugars and putting it through bone char to make it a sugar that somebody would want to eat, okay, not healthy. Right, that's not healthy.

Speaker 2: 18:29

We don't want to pull things out from the package God put them in, or we want to do that as little as possible. As little as possible, because the closer you are to the way it grows in the garden, the better you're going to be. And again, we know that from Genesis 129 and other things in the word, but we also know this from the research. It just backs up the word, Okay, it backs it up. So the research tells us that our bodies heal. The more whole plant foods we eat, the longer we live as societies. Okay, we look at the societies around the world. Look up blue zones that eat the most whole plant foods. They are the healthiest and live the longest active lives. This isn't just about living longer, it's about living better and, I would venture to say, living your best life, not just better, let's live our best life.

Speaker 2: 19:23

That's what you were put here for Not to be having to deal with all these issues that are distracting you from living the life that you were put here to live.

Speaker 1: 19:32

So the takeaway here for today is that when it comes to our food, we really need to be a little more intentional than just simply grabbing something and eating it and, for today, think about what your food's function is. So in the case of this, with meat it's simply just an organ that contracts, that moves bones, whereas when you look at what's in the plant world, it's seeds, it's leaves, it's roots, and all of this deals with life inside the plant. So when you eat that, is it bringing you life or is it not?

Speaker 2: 20:08

It reminds me of Jay Kordish the life is in the juice. Well, the life is in the plants. That's why the life is in the juice. Okay, so this is where we get life. We want to have the energy to bloom and to live.

Speaker 1: 20:26

Well, before we go, I just I want to share a story that all of this reminded me of. There was a documentary. They had a host that was interviewing people and unsuspectingly, they would take either a piece of raw meat or a piece of vegetable it might have been a head of cabbage or something of that nature and they would they used different vegetables from what I remember, they had different vegetables and they had some meat.

Speaker 1: 20:48

And they just were standing a few feet away and they just unexpectedly tossed it at the people some meat. And they just were standing a few feet away and they just unexpectedly tossed it at the people and what they found? Every time with the meat, people would withdraw with almost kind of a disgusted look on their face.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Try to avoid it touching them, not reach out to catch it.

Speaker 1: 21:03

But with the vegetables they just caught, it they didn't withdraw.

Speaker 2: 21:07

There was no look of disgust or surprise, it's just oh, hey, here's a head of lettuce, no internal automatic reaction of ooh, I do not want to touch a vegetable. It was ooh, I do not want to touch raw meat.

Speaker 1: 21:19

It was very interesting. It is interesting.

Speaker 2: 21:22

Think about that for a minute. Just something to share, just something to think about. Why do we have that natural internal reaction? If somebody were to throw a piece of raw meat at us, versus a piece of corn on the cob, or a tomato or an apple, or even pomegranate seeds, like well, maybe I might duck if a bunch of seeds were flying at me, right, but we're not going to duck because we don't want to catch a vegetable or a fruit. The living foods. The living foods the living foods. It makes you wonder why.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Yes.

Speaker 2: 21:51

Sunshine, I'm so glad you've been able to hang out with us today. We love you, you are prayed for and we care about you. We look forward to seeing you on the inside of Podcast Insider's Experience and getting to know you more and seeing you start to thrive and grow on this journey. Go right now to poweronplantscom forward slash P-I-E. That's poweronplantscom forward slash P-I-E. That's poweronplantscom forward slash pie, and we will see you there. Have a great day, sunshine. Thank you.