Athletes’ Plant-Based Whole Food Diet from Nutrition Professor Timaree Hagenburger (vegan), Part 1 of 2 – Collard-Powered Buddha Bowl

She is an American registered dietitian nutritionist with a master’s degree in public health, a nutrition professor at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, California, as well as a certified Exercise Physiologist through the American College of Sports Medicine.

“Today we’re going to make a collard-powered Buddha bowl. Let’s start with the collard greens. Mushrooms are very health-promoting. They will on many different levels, reduce cancer because of the unique compounds. They also can help us protect our cells and our bones. OK. So, as this is warming, I don’t use any oil when I’m cooking. Beautiful ginger. Very anti-inflammatory, full of flavor.”

“And now that we have the vegetables cooked, I want to add some mustard powder. This will also bring in the enzyme that will help us make this cancer-fighting bowl. So we’ll put a little bit of mustard and then turmeric, extremely anti-inflammatory, very important for the body.”

“We are ready to build our bowl. Let’s start with some quinoa with red rice, lentils, black beans, and I cooked all of these dry. They’re just cooked in water. And I typically use a pressure cooker for those. And then I have steamed sweet potatoes, full of potassium and vitamin A, and is a wonderful source of complex carbohydrates. Beets have been shown to be extremely important for athletes. One cup of broccoli sprouts has the equivalent cancer-fighting ability as 27 cups of broccoli; they’re just so potent. Red bell peppers are very high in vitamin C. However, they will lose that vitamin content if cooked. So that’s one vegetable that we really want to consume fresh.”

“And then I mentioned that seeds are really important for our sources of whole food fats. So here are some pumpkin seeds and they’re going to provide us with zinc, and potassium, and magnesium. Wonderful sources. And black sesame seeds. And then our very last, we’re going to add some rice vinegar. And then I want to get some cilantro. Cilantro is going to be a very important herb that will help us actually get rid of any kind of heavy metals in our brain. We can do a little bit of lime. Lime is for cancer prevention; we could use the skin. So I’ve already washed these, and then we do a little bit of that lime zest on top and then a little squeeze of juice. OK. So this is a power bowl that’s fit for any athlete to meet a huge majority of their nutrient needs.”