Anita: 0:00

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, healthcare professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food. 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 to traditional routes. 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. Hello friend, welcome back to Power on Plants.

Anita: 1:14

Jared and I are excited to bring you another wonderful, life-changing whole food plant-based episode. Why is it life-changing? Because we show you how to eat whole food, plant-based in the way that's exciting and enjoyable, so that it lasts. Because we know that you're tired of not feeling good. You want to feel your best naturally, without having to take a lot of medicines, and you want to be powered to live a long and full life, and that is what we're all about. So if you're all about that, too, and you're looking for the answer that you need, you are in the right place. And if you haven't been around here long, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. We are very big on flavor. We want the food to taste amazing, and one of the ways that you do that is you season your food, and today we're talking about seasoning with something that you might not often think of as a seasoning per se, but it's a really important one, and that is vanilla.

Jarrod: 2:07

I'm over here smiling because I don't think it's a big secret that we're all about flavor.

Anita: 2:12

No, that's our thing.

Jarrod: 2:14

Of course we're into health, but it has to be delicious, Delicious health.

Anita: 2:19

And why is that? That's because if it doesn't taste amazing, you would have to force yourself to do the thing that you think will get you where you want to go. And even if it did get you where you wanted to go, if it was miserable and the food didn't taste good, what's going to happen? You're never going to be able to maintain it. You cannot make it a lifestyle because you don't love it. So, with Power on Plants, jared and I have created the five-step framework for making these foods so enjoyable that you never, ever want to go back. You don't feel deprived. You love the way you eat and it lights you up.

Anita: 2:54

We had somebody we're working with the other day and she said I totally get it. Now she's just gone all in with us inside Accelerator and she's doing all the steps of the framework, decided to go 100%, give it a try. And she said I see why you're lit up about it. I mean this is amazing. It is changing her life, and we see that happen time and time again with our clients and our patients, as we can help them to understand. It's not difficult. You will not feel deprived when you do it right. You just have to know the method, because we know that. We know this works, it works, it works, it works and that's why we're so excited about it, because it's changed our lives and we see it change lives every single day. Actually, jared tells his patients, if he does his job right, he'll be out of a job.

Jarrod: 3:41

Yes, I'm giving them advice to where they may not need me as much.

Anita: 3:51

And that is what we're all about. So we're talking today about vanilla. Now, when you think about adding vanilla to your food, you probably go to vanilla extract. That's what I went to in my mind years ago, because that's all I knew. I mean, that's what we bought growing up, right? We added that to our foods when we were cooking, even from scratch. But with vanilla extract there was the imitation and the pure.

Anita: 4:07

So of course we wanted to buy the pure whenever we could, and that's what we did because we felt like, hey, pure is healthier, right, but there's even a better way than pure vanilla. Why is that? Because pure vanilla has alcohol in that, and even Dr Greger has brought up the fact that that can be concerning, because things start happening in our mouth when we eat vanilla that has been processed with alcohol. So any kind of alcohol, it's not really about the combination, it's the alcohol that we're taking into our mouth. So when it hits our mouth it can cause problems that can lead to cancer, and that's what I've heard Dr Greger talk about before. And so we try to avoid alcohol whenever we can.

Anita: 4:49

Are we saying you can never take a drink? We're not telling you what you can never do ever. But what we're saying is, dr Greger says that that, according to the research, is not the healthiest thing to do. So why not? If you can get vanilla pure, just vanilla bean, that is the whole plant food, right? If you can get that instead of vanilla extract, even if it's a pure vanilla extract with the alcohol and some of the additives mixed in, why wouldn't you want to correct? So we want to look at how do you get the vanilla bean in its more natural, pure, whole form that it's grown in. But why do you want to eat vanilla in the first place? Well, there are health benefits to eating vanilla, right?

Jarrod: 5:29

Well, the first thing that popped into my mind is because it tastes amazing.

Anita: 5:32

Because it tastes amazing. That's the no-brainer.

Jarrod: 5:35

It makes everything so much better. I have actually gotten into the habit for the last year or so, adding it to my morning oats routine.

Anita: 5:43

It's so good.

Jarrod: 5:44

It tastes amazing. It's very easy. I feel like doing vanilla powder is easier than doing the liquid form, just because it's easier to control the amount that I put into it.

Anita: 5:52

Oh, you brought up a good point of vanilla powder. Okay, so that's the alternative that we want to look at. You can either get the whole bean. That's the alternative that we want to look at. You can either get the whole bean you can buy those at many stores you cut the bean lengthwise, open it up and you scrape out the paste that's on the inside. With the back of a knife you can do that easily or with a spoon, and the paste just comes right out. That is pure vanilla bean, but you can also get it dried in the form of a powder.

Anita: 6:17

One thing that Jared and I want to warn you about is to avoid, if you can, the white vanilla powders, because those white vanilla powders usually either have some protein powders mixed in or they have a lot of additives, things like powdered sugar or other sugars. They add that to stretch it because vanilla can be quite expensive, right? So to save on their bottom line, they're trying to stretch out the product so they don't have to put as much vanilla in there. They can stretch it with sugar and some of these other things that just aren't good for you. So you want to look at getting a vanilla bean powder that is the color of vanilla bean, which is a brown or a darker brown. It looks like real vanilla bean, because it is. It has one ingredient the vanilla bean.

Anita: 7:02

So what I'm going to do for you is, inside our free group Podcast Insiders Experience, I'm going to give you our favorite vanilla bean powder link so that you can find that. And if you say, oh man, I want that, but now it's a year down the road, it's two years down the road and I'm listening to all the podcast episodes and it's been a while, I'll probably never be able to find that in there, oh, yes, you will, because inside our free group we've made everything searchable for you. All you have to do is type in vanilla or vanilla bean powder and it should pull up the post for you very easily. We have set this up to be a no-brainer, incredible resource for you where we're setting you up for success and giving you those first steps so that you can start getting results. Before you join us inside Accelerator, and that's when we take you by the hand and walk you step by step through the five steps of our framework that are going to change your life.

Anita: 7:57

But start getting results now, putting these things into place by joining us at poweronplantscom forward slashP I E. That's the free group at poweronplantscom forward slash P I E. You are going to find so much good information in there that is searchable. You can even search all the podcast episodes. It will search every word in every episode Every time we said it really is a no brainer, like if you're not in every episode every time. We said it Really it's a no-brainer, like if you're not in there, why are you not in there? Get in today.

Jarrod: 8:26

Definitely go and look and find which one is our favorite, because when you look at it it has a very rich dark color to it and the smell is incredible. And you mentioned about the imitation vanilla that's out there. It will smell like vanilla but it's a synthetically made compound of just the molecule vanillin, which gives it its primary flavor. But there are over 200 different compounds within vanilla that contributes to its flavor. So you're really not going to get that depth of the flavor and the nuances that are in there that are like in the vanilla bean. So we highly recommend it. It really is akin to like we recommend getting fresh ground black pepper because it's so different than the pre-ground that it's got a little pepperiness to it, but it doesn't really have a whole lot of smell. But fresh ground black pepper oh, it's a whole different flavor and taste sensation.

Anita: 9:14

And the other thing too is, if you're getting the artificial vanilla, you're not getting the beneficial nutrients.

Jarrod: 9:22

Exactly. You're not going to get the health benefits that come with the natural. And what are those I mean?

Anita: 9:28

what are the big ones that we know about? I want you to share these with them because it really is mind-blowing. How much is in this. One thing and this is where you have to wrap your mind around the fact that whole plant foods can change my life, absolutely can change your life, can naturally reverse chronic diseases that you may have been told you'll have for life. We see it all the time Autoimmune disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, unexplained headaches, spine pain. I mean we could go on and on. It really is a no-brainer, and when you think about all these flavors these foods are adding, but we're just talking about one.

Anita: 10:07

So what I want you to wrap your mind around right now is the fact that this is one thing, and these are all the benefits that we know of that God has put into this one whole plant food.

Anita: 10:18

When we get in its whole form like we're eating the long pure vanilla bean that we're scraping out the paste, or we're eating the dried vanilla bean powder that is not white but it's the dark one that we're going to share with you inside the free group you're going to get these benefits, so many benefits, but your food's going to taste amazing. But this is just one whole plant food. So then you stack another, and another, and another, and another, and you can see why before very long, with all the benefits and blessings that God's put in all of these foods, how your life can change in dramatic and incredible ways. So now, instead of feeling exhausted all day, every day, you're actually excited to get up and live and fulfill your purpose and your calling and enjoy it. So what are the other benefits of just this one thing that we're talking about vanilla?

Jarrod: 11:07

Well, in the list of things you've just mentioned that's actually a lot of what's on my list here it's actually known to help with cholesterol, diabetes, you know, blood sugar control, high blood pressure. It is known to help fight inflammation, has antibacterial properties to it. It's known to reduce anxiety, which is thought to be possibly from the anti-inflammatory action that it has, because inflammation affects us everywhere in the body, all those inflammatory mediators. They circulate throughout the body and can even affect us in the brain. So you've got this low level of inflammation that's exacerbating all these things, so that when you have a lifestyle that's not promoting inflammation by you're not promoting it because you're moving the meat, dairy and the eggs, but now you're taking the foods that actually fight inflammation. Well, now you're getting rid of that inflammatory state. So not only physically do you feel better, but mentally, intellectually, you feel better.

Anita: 12:02

You're thinking clearer, exactly, and that's so important when you're thinking clearly. Imagine running a business. Let's say you have a business that you're running and you need to get to the next level. You're trying to get these things accomplished In your home. You're trying to get more organized. You just want your life to flow more smoothly. In either of those situations, if you can't think clearly and you have low energy and you're constantly exhausted and going from this diagnosis to that diagnosis and trying to figure this out and Google those symptoms out, how much time and energy and brain power are you going to have to arrive at where you want to be in life? I mean, that was our constant struggle. We get it, but these are the foods that can change everything for you.

Jarrod: 12:49

And I would even say you may not even know the full extent to which you're being limited, because there are many times when people, physically, they think they're doing okay and then they actually say, okay, I'm going to go all in, I'll go 100% plant-based, and within a week they feel great. But they didn't know, they felt bad because that was all they ever knew.

Anita: 13:07

Right.

Jarrod: 13:07

So intellectually, mentally, maybe we think we're operating at full capacity. But what if you're not?

Anita: 13:14

What if you're not? What if?

Jarrod: 13:15

you're not? And what if you could take it to the next level and up your game in whatever it is Running a business, running a home, like what we did homeschooling.

Anita: 13:25

Right.

Jarrod: 13:25

In addition to running the home.

Anita: 13:26

So let me ask you this, jared how many patients or clients have you worked with that when you've given them this information and they've decided to go all in that they didn't get any improvements in how they felt.

Jarrod: 13:37

Oh, none of them. They all got at least some level of improvement, but the ones that really went all in.

Anita: 13:44

They could tell the difference quickly, even within a week, massive improvements.

Jarrod: 13:46

They felt lighter, they didn't feel tired, the food didn't weigh them down. I mean, they noticed these benefits extremely quickly.

Anita: 13:52

I honestly can't think of one person that we have worked with that has not gotten incredible results that have shocked them in one area of their life or another, something that has just blown their mind.

Jarrod: 14:05

And I think for many of them too, it highlighted they didn't realize how bad they felt until now that they actually feel good. They can look back and see wow, what a difference.

Anita: 14:15

When you keep bringing that up. And that was your story. You told me you didn't realize how bad you felt. I didn't realize I was so achy. I didn't realize I had all these things going on until you felt better.

Jarrod: 14:27

Which further highlights just how quickly whole plant foods can change things for you.

Anita: 14:32

Totally life-changing and it breaks my heart that this isn't part of the general information. I mean, it is because we're putting the information out there, but we're trying to reach more people with this message which actually, if you have a minute, leave us a review. It means so much to us because it's going to help us reach more people and this is so important to us because this is why we went into health care. We didn't go into health care to help people manage their diseases. We went into healthcare to do what we're doing now. That lights us up and it's helping people reverse their disease so they can actually get out there and live life and enjoy it. Which brings me back to the flavor of vanilla, not just the health benefits. The flavor is amazing. I mean, I just went in there and made some baked potato cubes, some sweet baked potato cubes, and I put some cinnamon and some spices on there and I baked those up and then I put some of that powdered vanilla. Oh, wow, it really bumped up the flavor and made them amazing. We love putting vanilla in things like our cookie dough hummus and our brownie batter hummus. It's delicious All these desserts like the chocolate cheesecake pie and some of our cookie dough hummus and our brownie batter hummus. It's delicious. All these desserts like the chocolate cheesecake pie and some of our cookies. It just goes on and on and you can get those recipes at poweronplantscom forward slash cookbook. We have two cookbooks waiting there for you, plus a load of bonuses.

Anita: 15:55

If you don't know where to start, or even if you've been doing this for a while and you think you know what, I shouldn't have to force myself to love this. I need the recipes that are actually going to make my taste buds sing. This is it. Just do it for yourself, and not only that you're going to love it, because they will get you out of the kitchen so much faster. Really, it's like one of the last episodes where we were talking about the taste and see method is super important. You need to be able to taste some whole food, plant-based recipes that actually taste good, brownies that don't make you want to cry because they taste bad. They actually bring tears to your eyes because you think, oh, I can actually live this way. I mean, if I can have things that taste like this, or Anita's Alfredo sauce, or their favorite lasagna that tastes like my mom's, or pizza, or flatbreads that are gluten-free or gluten-free millet bread or raisin bread, cinnamon raisin bread that is so delicious.

Jarrod: 16:47

I'm sitting here thinking about some of these different recipes that you're mentioning, and there are a number of them that use other spices. So like cinnamon, because I'm thinking places where I use vanilla and how it's not just vanilla that's in there. We have stuff like cacao powder, cinnamon, my morning oats I'll have oats, I'll use the vanilla powder, I'll add either cinnamon or, lately, I've been using pumpkin pie spice, because I started that back in the fall Not that I've ever been a big pumpkin pie person per se, but it seemed like the right time for it. And now I absolutely love the flavor, but that has cinnamon and has other spices in it. But then the blueberries that's a superfood. Sometimes I'll put strawberries in it.

Jarrod: 17:27

All these different foods have tons of nutrient content, so you're getting all these health benefits that stack one on top of the other. I think that's one of the things that lights us up so much about whole food, plant-based. Even though we highlight some of these different foods and we'll continue to do so because we want you to see the different benefits in these foods and really appreciate them but it's in all the whole foods. All the whole plant foods have tons and tons of nutrients and health benefits to them.

Anita: 17:55

And when you're describing that, I'm thinking of all the layers of flavor. Again, I got to go back to the flavor because it's just deliciousness upon healing deliciousness and really it just is so simple. It's the simplest way to live you can imagine when you know how. So get inside the free group and join us. Grab your cookbook if you don't have it already. If you do have it and it's just sitting there, open that puppy up and find yourself a new favorite. It is going to light you up and make you so excited about whole food, plant-based living. Sunshine, we have loved hanging out with you again today. You are loved, you are prayed for and we will see you again very soon. Thank you.