Health and nutrition with kidney transplant recipient and Food Not Bombs co-founder

in the studio with my co-host, Earlene Anthony. This week, we will be talking about health and nutrition with Mary Lou Tutsi-Lazo. She is a kidney transplant recipient over 25 years ago. Also, our special guests in the studio with us are nutrition and fitness educator Michelle Hendrickson, nutritionist Maribeth Rivera-Brute, and Keith McHenry, co-founder of Foods Not Bar. But first, in honor of Black History Month, on the QMRA report, the next three shows on February the 11th, the 18th, and the 25th, we will be doing a Black History Moment focusing in on important individuals that have contributed to Black history. The first one I would like to mention is the President of the United States, Dr. Michael McHenry. He is a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, and the second is George Washington Carver, and the information will be read by Andrea Ross. Thank you, Melvin. Good evening, audience. George Washington Carver was an American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown. He is believed to have been born into slavery in Missouri in January of 1864. Carver's reputation is based on his research into promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes, which also aided nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops, both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve the quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 practical bulletins that contained the following. He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spengard Medal of the NAACP. George Washington Carver, a great American hero, and a black American. Thank you, Andrea. That's George Washington Carver, the peanut man. Okay, I'm delighted to have with us in the studio Mary Lou Tussilazo. She's a kidney transplant recipient over 25 years ago, and she's going to talk to us about how important it is to eat right and live right as far as health and nutrition is concerned. Now joining us in the studio are nutrition and fitness educator Michelle Hendrickson, nutritionist Maribeth Rivera-Brute, and the co-founder of Foods Not Bomb, Keith McHenry. Welcome to the Qumran Report. Thanks. Good evening. Thank you. Now I'd like to start off with Mary Lou. First of all, how did you get the name Tootsie? Oh, it was a special name for me being a sweet kid. Not like Tootsie Rolls or something like that. Tell us a little about your background and your job in the Philippine National Museum. Well, first of all, I worked with the National Museum for seven years, and then I transferred to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. I was the transplant coordinator for 15 years. Okay. Now, what is the health system like in the Philippines? You know, we're always here. We hear a lot about Cuba, how great their health system is. How about, what's the health system like in the Philippines? It's better now because the secretary of the Department of Health used to be my boss, the director of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. And he did a lot of changes, giving a sort of, it's like Medicare here. So when before, dialysis is not called. It's called Medicare. And it's covered by the government. Now it can be covered by insurances. Okay. Okay. Now, how did you lead up to getting a kidney transplant? Can you talk about that? Oh, yes, Melvin. There are many reasons why somebody gets sick of kidney diseases. But in my case, I was hypertensive at a very small age. I was in the hospital. I was in the hospital at a very early age. And also, I developed tonsillitis a lot of times. And one of the reasons why somebody can have what we call the end stage renal disease is streptococcal infection can cause damage to the kidneys. Hypertension can cause damage to the kidneys. And diabetes. And chemicals. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. When you drink or take this in excess, it can damage your kidneys. There are also what we call diseases from the family, you know. Yes. When I was reading your book, I have three kidneys, which is an excellent book, which is edited by Dr. Rosemary Rosetta Laquette. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. things that I know about a lot of the patients there is that they said that earlier in their life they ate a lot of salty food and do they contribute to it also problems with the kidney oh yes oh yes Melvin yeah if I may if I may mention Dr. Rosemary Rosetta was my transplant surgeon and she is the only lady vascular surgeon in the whole of Asia in the whole of in Asia and she is the head of the transplant department of the St. Luke's Medical Center one of the prime hospitals in the Philippines okay okay now what was the date of your transplant well I had my transplant in November 18 1986 okay what is the process for finding a match for donors oh since I had a living related donor that's what we call living related she is my sister my younger sister what's it called living related donor mm-hmm my sister was my donor we had to undergo several tests first of all you have to have the same blood type there's also this test called tissue typing test you know and also the cross-matching there are several tests that the donor and the recipient have to undergo before the doctors can tell you that you can make a go of the transplant operation okay now how does dialysis affect one's overall health the process of for me undergoing dialysis was a very harrowing experience some live can live long with dialysis but I think it also depends on the condition of the patient mercy how important is di to a person's overall health oh it is very important Melvin it is because if you eat a lot of salty foods it can cause hypertension and therefore it will damage your kidneys eating a lot of sweets or sugar you you may develop diabetes and with diabetes also you develop hypertension. And all of that. It is very important that you eat everything in moderation Melvin. Yes okay everything in moderation and then a balanced diet which we're going to talk about a little later on but just about any kind of sugar is bad for you bad for the body. You can you can depends like I told you earlier if you're diabetic then you can eat a lot of food that has a lot of glucose. So as a diabetic I veer away from sweets. Okay look let's bring in our other in studio guests, nutritionist and fitness educator Michelle Hankerson, nutritionist, Maribet Rivera-Brewt and Kit Mehinri Co-founder of foodsnotbomb. Earlene can you give us a little background on each one of our guests? This is the bio on Michelle her personal passion for team athletics and friendly competition has inspired her to bring team building exercises routines and nutrition activities to the children of our Los Angeles communities. She believed it is truly a team effort that can on Michelle. Her personal passion for team athletics and friendly competition has inspired her to bring team building exercises, routines, and nutrition activities to the children of our Los Angeles communities. She believed it is truly a team effort when encouraging a child to implement changes towards a healthy lifestyle. After helping implement nutrition education program in the undeserved communities of Los Angeles, during the day she continued to seek new ways to support her communities through community activism and organizing. Bio for Maribeth Rivera Brute. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico where she studied at the Antillian Adventist University and received a degree of BS in biology. She traveled to the US in 2002 to pursue her degree in biology. She was a graduate of the University of New York, and she was a graduate of the University of New York. She was a graduate of the University of Addict Addict Addict Addict Addict Addict Addict Addict Addict Addict Addict she works for the County of San Bernardino Department of Public Health as a nutritionist. In her spare time, she spent time as a health educator, a nutritionist for the American Heart Association, doing classes, participating in health fairs, and collaborating in the development of nutrition curriculum for the county in Los Angeles. The bio for Keith McHenry, he is co-founder of Food Not Bombs. He's an artist and author, helped start Food Not Bombs in Massachusetts in 1980, and the second chapter in California in 1988. He has recovered, cooked, and shared food with the hungry with Food Not Bombs for over 30 years. He co-wrote Food Not Bombs, How to Feed the Hungry and Build Communities, as well as wrote, and illustrated, Hunger for Peace, How You Can Help End Poverty and War with Food Not Bombs. Okay, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. I would like to start off with the same question I asked Mary Lou. How important is diet to one's overall health? Diet is very important because you can prevent any other diseases. So that's why a lot of people nowadays, they're just, I mean, you have diabetes of two-thirds of the world, and you have diabetes of two-thirds of the population in the U.S. that are overweight and obese. And besides that, out of the 7 million people, billion people that we had in the world, 1 billion, I mean, we're talking about 4 billion people are overweight and obese, and this can easily prevent it by just eating healthier and just have a healthy lifestyle. It's just as easy as that. Mm-hmm. Okay, what should a good balanced diet be composed of? That's a good question. Because that's the most common question that I get from my parents, usually. So a balanced diet is actually when you have fruits and vegetables, and according to the USDA guidelines, you have the half of the plate fruits and vegetables, and you should always have a source of grain. In this case, it should be whole grain products, 100% whole wheat, 100% whole grains, and you should always have a source of protein, okay? And we mostly emphasize the lean protein, so we're talking about, tofu, for example, is a lean protein, protein that are low in fat. And you should always have a source of calcium. A lot of people, they're like, oh, milk in there, but if you don't drink milk in case you're vegetarian, you also have the soy milk, and you also have the almond milk, or even just vegetables like broccoli, they're excellent in calcium. So as long as you have that balance in there, it'll make it. Mm-hmm. Now, so many people come up eating stuff like scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and all that stuff, and they're like, oh, I don't know, browns, toast, coffee, all of that. Can you talk about that for a while? I know that's not considered a balanced diet. Usually people tell me about the donuts and coffee and the continental breakfast, but actually we're talking about, those parents, they come to me and they mention this type of lifestyle or diet that they usually follow at home on an everyday basis. I tell them just to change them step-by-step. And they say, well, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't by step because if you tell them to change in all the sudden first of all they're going to get frustrated and then second of all they're not going to follow it they're not going to care about it so I tell them you want to follow include those foods that are healthier for you step by step little by little until you reach your goal and that's a very important thing have a goal for yourself that way you can of course you want to reach and that way you can also have a healthier lifestyle now how about young kids in the family how do you deal with situations like snacks snacks yeah well I tell parents when they want snacking of course is snack is something very important for children I tell them choose those that are less than 200 calories and mainly you want to have their the fruits or a vegetable at least that way you can also reach your daily goal of the amount of portions you want to have and that way you can also reach your daily goal of the amount of portions of fruit and vegetables a day and also you want to combine it with a simple protein food so for example you want to have like an apple and then some almonds with it you have the calcium right there from the almonds you have the protein right there from the almonds and you have there the rich antioxidants from the fruit now do you also let me ask you this we'll get into talking about different foods a little later you kept collaborating and publishing an article for the American Heart Association and you said you were going to publish an article for the American Heart Association and you said you were going to publish an article for the American Heart Association Association entitled Five Steps to Prevent Heart Disease and Be Heart Healthy. Can you talk about those five steps? Sure. One step that I really focus and encourage is about choose wisely what you drink. In this case, we want to focus on water. So a lot of people nowadays, they forget that the cheapest source is right there, which is water. And actually, you should have at least eight glasses of eight ounce of water a day. Or just simple as half your weight, half your weight should be of water because our body is 70% of water. So that'll help also to control the blood pressure. And at the same time, will actually lower the amount of sodium that you have in your body by just adding more water to your body too. Another step that you can do is adding the fruits and vegetables into your diet. You need the fiber, you need the antioxidants. And antioxidants, I'm talking, for example, vitamin C. Vitamin C and vitamin E has also been proven that they help to prevent heart disease or heart conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels. You also have there to include the whole grain product, which leads to fiber. A lot of people, especially Americans, they lack of fiber. And fiber, it's something so important. A lot of people, when they think about fiber, they only think about the digestive system. And it's not only about the digestive system, it actually is go. Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive day. So for example, you want to focus here on unsaturated fat, in other words, non-animal products, or just limit the amount of those, because those are the ones that will really going to get, lead you to a heart attack if you're just eating that too much every day. Yeah. Another simple step that I mentioned is about physical activity. So physical activity is a big component if you want to prevent a heart condition or a heart disease. You mean physical activity like walking? Walking, jogging, whatever physical activity you feel comfortable with. Yes. Because a lot of people when I tell them a physical activity, they first pop up the gym. And I'm like, well, if you can afford a gym, I mean, go for it. But the population that I deal with most of the time are low income and they cannot afford a gym. So it may be easier for them just go around the block, maybe do some exercise, two or three times with the family or friends. That'll do it. As long as you're at least an hour physical activity a day, as long as you have one hour physical activity a day, that'll do it. Now you also mentioned cut out processed foods. Can you talk about, can you explain what is processed food? Processed food, we're talking about these foods that change the consistency, the natural originality of the food. So you're talking about the origins of the food itself. So for example, you have rice. When we're talking about rice, it's highly processed, for example, white rice. But if you notice the natural way of rice, you have the brown rice, which has the skin itself, the brown skin that actually has the richest amount of fiber antioxidants right there. Flour. Yeah, for example, flour. Of course you have there the whole grain in there, brown flour. When we're talking about refined flour or refined bread, for example, you're talking about the white that has been bleached. Yes. So we want to encourage more that are whole grain, that are less processed, that we can get the richness of the fiber right there and the richness of antioxidants. A lot of people don't know that whole grain products, they're also good in antioxidants like zinc. You have it right there. Okay. Let me touch on each one of the five steps that you mentioned. And the first step you said is drink more water. And I was asking you earlier, you mentioned like eight cups and a regular, what size bottle? 16 ounce water bottle. Okay. So we're talking about 64 ounces of water a day would be a... What is it? Is it anything... Okay. Okay. Is it anything that's taken in too much water that would affect the body? Well, actually, yes. I don't know if you remember, some of you may be remembering here a couple of years ago, there was this person that died of drinking too much water in a contest because of the high amount of hydrogen can also be toxic. But always there's the rule of thumb that we like to use is that half of your body weight should be amount of ounces of water that you should be drinking a day. Of course, there are exceptions, for example, certain people with certain type of dialysis that they need less amount of fluids or water a day and other conditions related with the kidneys. That can be a kind of an issue for some people just because they may need the amount of water that they used to drink years ago, but now they are restricted. But as long as you're healthy, then at least half of the body weight of an ounce should be an amount of water you should be drinking a day. And that can be reached. I mean, parents, they tell me, how can I just drink at least a gallon of water a day? Because that's about 64 ounces right there. And I tell them, well, take your water bottle with you. Yeah. It's something as easy as that, especially with children. Parents nowadays, they just bring juice or soda or any other type of juice drink that they think is good because the marketing has been so high in vitamin C, but they forget about the amount of sugar right there. Yeah. So, parents, you want to focus on watering there and just bring, have more water available for you and for your family. Now, a little small child, would it still apply to like that eight glasses a day? That's too much for a little small. How do you balance that out? Like what you mentioned earlier, the body weight? Yeah. Yeah. For children, yes, it's definitely, it's different. It'll be less. So, usually for preschool age, we're talking about between ages two and three, it's going to be a little bit more. But for children, it's going to be a little bit less. So, usually for preschool age, it's two to five years old. It's about five cups at the maximum of water a day because of course they may have other drinks too, including milk. But yeah, we usually, yeah, recommend about five cups of water for preschool age children. School age can be a little bit more, can be raised up to seven cups up to nine years old, but nine and above, then it's recommended at least eight cups. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The second thing you got is gold grain. Gold grain. Gold grain. I think you mentioned that. Can you talk a little bit more about that? The whole grain? Gold grain. Yeah. The whole- The second step. Yeah. I mean, go into whole grains in here. I mean, you switch, if you are used to eat white bread, switch it to whole grain, 100% whole grain. And that's one of the things that I really emphasize in my classes. I tell parents, make sure that your products are 100% whole wheat, 100% whole grain. Otherwise, it's going to have brown sugar in it, or it's going to have an added sugar. Yeah. And then, you know, there's an additive called caramel color. And if you know, caramel color is an additive used in Barney's paints. And when I tell that to parents, they're going to be like, oh, I'm going to now look into the 100% whole grain, whole wheat. Yeah. And of course, besides the fiber in there, like I said, you have the antioxidant zinc. Zinc is also have been proven along with vitamin C that also helps to combat other diseases such as colds, for example. Yeah. So, a lot of people, they just forget about, it's just making simple steps in your kitchen, just open the cupboard, look into your kitchen, what can I change here to switch from whole, from white or refined flour to whole grain? Okay. And then, what do you mean by eat seasonally? You know, by the season, different... Seasonal food. Yes. That's something, for example, when you have here the, for example, let me say berries. Berries are usually you can find during the fall, winter time. And, for example, also you have apples, galas. Yeah. And, you know, the apples are excellent right now in the October, November months. They're cheaper. So, in other words, you can afford it. And, let's say you want to have your strawberries, for example, in off season. So, freeze them. That's what I tell parents. Just freeze them. You can have them there for a very long time and still will keep the nutrients. And, you just want to have it readily available. Because some parents in here, they just don't have enough food. And, because of that, the financial situation and they cannot afford to have blueberries, for example, in July. They're going to be expensive. But, if you buy them during the season time, then it's cheaper, buy in bulk, freeze them, and you have it already available for the whole family. Okay. Thank you. Let's go to Michelle. Can you tell the listeners, audience, what you're going to be eating? Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to be eating a lot of vegetables. I'm going to be eating a lot of vegetables. Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive Addictive I work as a nutrition and fitness educator, and I used to work with Mary Bett, and she was my amazing supervisor, and she helped me build nutrition programs for the school districts in the L.A. area. And what it is is we built a preschool program and a fifth grade program where we teach children about nutrition with the focus on the new food plate that Mary Bett spoke about briefly. And we teach the children five food groups and how to pick healthy foods from each food group. And the nutrition program covers everything from a small lecture about the group and followed by. An exercise routine, but something that's simple, easy, fast, fun that can be done in an apartment setting. We deal with a lot of low income families where where the children are. There's no parks available to them in the area or mom and dad aren't home to take them to the park or safety is a huge issue. So it's it's something as simple as how many push ups and sit ups can I do during a commercial during my favorite cartoon episode? And documenting it and they get little prizes when they come back to class. We also do cooking and taste testing. We found, well, every child goes through their phase where they don't want to eat vegetables. But unfortunately, there's there's a lot of children out there who don't have the option of of trying new vegetables because what's a bit what's the lack of availability in their their neighborhoods at their local grocery stores? So whether it's an issue of not affording it or if the family can afford it, getting to the local grocery store where prices are are decent, you pick up some of the produce and it's already rotting at the time of purchase. So so so we're able to bring fresh produce, good produce and have the children really experiment with it and what it is, what it looks like and how to make special recipes with them. so that if they do come across and they have the opportunity to tap into better resources, they can have fun with cooking. And one of the other aspects of our nutrition program, which I've fallen in love with, is the gardening program. And again, a lot of community gardens aren't available to our kids, but what we've done is we made a special project out of it where we bring used containers to the classroom and show the kids how to make their own little windowsill garden or put something on a stair that they might have available to them and just watch their little tomato plant grow. Or I think sometimes we switch it up. One family did cucumbers one year, and they were able to bring the cucumbers to class and share with the rest of the class. So it's been really exciting. The parents always come back, and they tell us how the child, has actually taken responsibility for the plant. And some kids have killed their plants because they water them too much and give it too much attention. But it's really created a sense of ownership when the child comes in and they're just beaming with their project. And another thing we do is we teach nutrition through art. Nutrition through art. Through art. And one thing we've done is there's, once they go through the five food groups, and they've done taste testing, and they've done gardening, and they've figured out where the produce really comes from. And we do an activity. I know a lot of kids dread going to the grocery store with parents. So we make it fun, and we talk about what a grocery list is. And we do a lot of parent classes in collaboration with the child classes. And one thing we do discuss about healthy eating is a lot of healthy eating and a lot of routines take planning. So we get the kids involved in the planning, and we'll do a little art project and create a grocery list, a poster-sized grocery list. And we divide the grocery list into the five food groups. And they're able to kind of paint pictures or paste pictures of the foods that they liked from each food group. So they can go home and talk to mom or dad and whoever does the shopping. And, you know, I think I can try this. Can you touch on the five? Can you mention what are the five food groups? The five food groups. We have grains, vegetables, protein, dairy, and fruits. Okay. I feel like I'm testing my little ones right now. Another question I wanted to ask you is I hear all the time the problem in getting young people to eat vegetables. Mm-hmm. What's the best way, solution to that to get them to eat vegetables? Make it attractive to them. And I will also recommend to just create ownership for them. For example, gardening is one of the best ways that I've seen children eating the vegetable itself. So I remember when I was working here with Michelle in L.A., children, for example, the cucumbers, children were like, I'm not going to eat cucumbers at all. But once they see the plant, the growing process, the harvest process, and they create this ownership like, oh, I grow this. This is mine. I'm going to eat it. And let me tell you, they'll eat it. Oh, yeah. Okay. They'll eat it. And this is just amazing how you can just have just by just one plant teaching them to grow. Okay. You have there the science component, plus you have the nutrition component in there. And about making it attractive to them, that's a way to making it attractive with gardening. And you also want to just give them variety. I always tell parents it's not about every day eating rice and beans, rice and beans, rice and beans. You have there, you are in a country where there's a lot of variety in there. So take advantage of it. I mean, include a different fruit or different vegetables, especially. Yeah. Let them choose the vegetable. Include them in the preparing process in the kitchen. The cooking process. And that's another way that we've seen children when they see how the food is prepared. And for example, a lot of kids may just have a little yucky on raisins for surprisingly, you may think, oh, that's a sweet fruit because it's dry fruit. But when they see in different recipes how it's created and how it's prepared and when they see other children eating it, they'll eat it. And they're going to tell you it tastes really good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I always tell parents be this role model. So even if you don't like lettuce, but at least try to find a variety of lettuce that you enjoy that way your child enjoys. Now, before we get into food, not bombs in Keith, what about peanut butter? Is it? I hear a lot of pros and cons about peanut butter. I really recommend the old fashioned peanut butter. That way. It's just the peanuts, just the ground peanuts itself. And you have there the oil, of course, that you have to strain. You mean not the whipped up peanuts? No, just because it has added sugar and it's more processed. But it's just as simple as getting the old-fashioned peanut butter. And if you read the ingredients, just peanuts and maybe a little bit of salt just for the taste of it. But other people have just bought it right there. They have the machines where they can ground the peanut and make it into a butter, peanut butter right there. Same thing as for almonds. They have the machines in certain supermarkets, organic markets. They have the machine right there for almonds. They can ground it. You have there the almond butter, too. But I always recommend the old-fashioned way. That way you have it unprocessed and you have it right there naturally. Okay. All right, Tim. Let's move over to Keith. The first thing I want to ask you is can you tell what is the difference between vegetarian and vegan? Okay. Well, when we started. All of us in Food Not Bombs in 1980, we thought of ourselves as vegetarian. And then it wasn't until really the 90s that there started becoming the idea of there being vegan and vegetarian. And so the difference is that vegan is no animal products at all. And that can even be like no leather shoes and no wool coats and wool socks. So there's many, many levels of it. And. And particularly in a vegan diet, you would not have any dairy. You would not have any fish. You would not have any meat. You wouldn't even have honey and things like that. Because of the bee? Huh? Because of the bee? Because it's an animal making honey. Right. So. And then when we were starting Food Not Bombs, we didn't really think all of that out in 1980. So we actually had in some of our recipes honey. But. We didn't have any other things like, you know, we didn't eat any meat. I hadn't eaten meat since I'd been. I had to butcher seven roosters when I was in high school. And so that's really the difference. So like a lot of vegetarians, they might have cheese. They might have, you know, like milk or cream in their coffee, something like that. But they wouldn't eat any meat, you know, and there can be different varieties of that. But definitely. If you're a vegetarian, you're not eating any fish, any meat at all. And a vegan would have nothing that is derived from an animal at all. So that's really the level. But you do find, of course, people have nuances of that. And, you know, some people that say they're vegetarian for whatever reason, they eat fish because maybe it's wild or something like that. But really, most people that are vegetarian would eat no meat of any kind, even fish. Okay. Okay. Now, can you tell us a little about Food Not Bombs, the history of it, how it got started, you know, the goals, the programs, et cetera, like that? Yeah. So when we were in 1980, the eight of us that started Food Not Bombs, we were involved in a bunch of projects. And one of them was to stop a nuclear power station in Seabrook, New Hampshire. And one of our friends in the group got arrested. And so. To raise money for his legal defense, we started doing bake sales. And we found that we didn't really make any money. And so we, coincidentally, because we were, you know, like young college students, we had a bunch of ways of making a living. And one of them is we were moving a family. We had a company called Smooth Move. And the family was throwing out a poster that said, wouldn't it be a beautiful day if the schools had all the money they needed and the Air Force had to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber? So this gave us the idea. And so we had the idea to get some military uniforms from Army, Navy surplus, go out with our baked goods. And we had the poster lean against the table. And we had a little bolt that we put on the table that we said we'd been able to raise money so much, so far for a bolt. And we did the street theater. And people would like go, wow, really? You know, that's like, are you sure you're generals, really? And stuff like that. And eventually we would tell them why we're out there and why we're against nuclear war and nuclear power. That was one of the things. And then there's something that's really important about nutrition is organic food. Because you get more nutrition from organically grown produce and everything than you do from commercial produce. Even though, like, unfortunately, it's a lot more expensive nowadays because it's not really subsidized and stuffed by our taxes. So anyway, I ended up working at an organic produce market. And I was throwing away a lot of produce because in 1980. A lot of people didn't know what it was. And I started taking it to these housing projects a couple blocks away from the grocery store. And all the stuff that they couldn't sell. And people really loved it. And then one day I was talking to them. I said, why is there this modern building across the street from your projects? This is really crazy. Your buildings are falling apart. And they got a brand new glass building just, you know, like less than 100 yards away from you. And they said, well, that's where they make, design nuclear missiles or something. And I found out. They designed the Gush. And that's where they built that They're really misguided. They're spending all this money on that while people like living, you know, the workers in the weapons lab are looking down on people that are skinny looking for food. And so that gave us the idea for the name Food Not Bombs. And then the final thing that happened was we realized the banker, the board of directors of the Bank of Boston were on the board of the company building the nuclear power station. They were on the board of directors of the company buying the nuclear power station and on the board of all the other nuclear industries in town. So we thought, wow, that's just like the way the bankers were in the Great Depression. They were like lending themselves money without any oversight. So we decided to take some of that food that we were given to the projects, make a big pot of soup, dress up like hobos, go down to the stockholders meeting of the Bank of Boston at South Station at the Federal Reserve and hand out the food and say, man, these bankers keep this up. People will be out in the streets standing in line to eat at a soup kitchen. And while we're making all the soup, we're like, wow, maybe we can find people who really need this great soup. So we went to Pine Street Inn and we talked to the guys living there and they're like, oh, that's a great idea. We'll come to a protest like that. Just like the 60s. That's so cool. And it was this amazing day. So at the end of that, we just start going around the city, picking up food. This is in Boston and Cambridge. Get the food that couldn't be sold from the grocery stores. And we focused on organic. We went to the food co-ops, Air One, the store I worked at, Bread and Circus. And we got like high-end bagels and all this stuff. And then we would deliver it to housing projects, to the Rosie's Place, the Bad Women's Shelter, to other programs like that. And then in the afternoon, we would set up a table with our food, with literature. We'd do puppet shows, all this stuff, and try to get people to talk about different issues. Like at that time, there was the war in El Salvador. The Soviet Union had invaded Poland. Reagan was making Star Wars. There's all these crazy things going on. And then we would have the vegetarian or vegan meals there. And you'd be walking by. Most people at that time thought it was just a bunch of people living in India that ate vegetarian. And so they'd be, oh, wow, that tastes really good. And then we had literature about how you could feed many more people a vegetarian and vegan diet than you could a meat-based diet. You would have... You had less impact on the environment, and it would be much better for your health. And so we'd have information about that. So that's how we got started. And we did that just in Boston for... I was involved for eight years there. That group still exists. But then I moved to San Francisco, started a second group. And to our surprise, we ended up getting arrested sharing food in front of Golden Gate Park. And that inspired people to start to want to learn how to do their own Food Not Bombs groups. And so we had made like a flyer, seven steps. We started to food not bombs. We started getting that out to people. And each arrest seemed to... We had like 94 arrests in August of 88 and September of 88. Then there was a crisis where the homeless were being attacked in San Francisco. So they started protesting in front of City Hall. We fed them. Ended up with 300 more arrests. And so on. By the end, there was over 1,000 arrests in San Francisco for feeding the hungry. But each one of those waves inspired people to start new chapters. So today we're in over 1,000 cities of the world. Yeah. Great organization too. Food Not Bombs. Let's take a little quick break for our community calendar. Then we'll come back in our roundtable discussion and get more into nutrition and health. This is the community calendar for the month of February. The next Veterans Community Workshop is being held this Tuesday, February the 5th, 2013. Thank you. From 5.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. The workshop is free to veterans and non-veterans. At this time, the participants are working on writing their own original stage plays. The workshop is located at the Vortex 2341 West Olympic Boulevard. This is near the corner of Santa Fe and Olympic. The Metro Bus No. 60 and 66 stop near or close to the corner. If you're interested in the workshop or for more information, you can contact 213-908-6587. Upcoming guests on the Kulon Report, Monday, February 11th, will be Bob Bowen. He is a volunteer at the Los Angeles Downtown Women's Center. This is just a reminder. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to... And the call-in number for the show is... Now, back to our host. Hey, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. We're back with our in-studio guests for our roundtable discussion talking about health and nutrition. The first question I want to put out on the roundtable is... How can we improve the overall health here in America, especially among our young people? You want to go on slow and changes. And this is one thing that I really emphasize in the classes. When you want to make a change, it's not easy. So when I tell parents about making changes in the way they're eating, I tell them, hey, you're used to eat the same way for the last 20 or 30, 40, whatever years you have. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. Making a change all of a sudden, it's hard. It's hard. I mean, I haven't... I never said that it is easy. I always tell them it is. It can be hard. For other parents, it can be easy. But I always tell them it's not impossible. So you want to go and change it. You want to take it slowly. You want to take it at your own pace because you don't want to get frustrated. That way you can stick to the goal and that way you can stick to the changes that you want to go to. Okay. How about... In relationship to the fast food and bad health. Now, we know we got a lot, all these fast foods, the McDonald's, the burger. Can you just go down... How do you work that out with young people to get them... Is there anything in these fast food places in which you can recommend for them or tell them when they go? I know Subway probably might be one of the better fast... I guess. Can you comment on that? Because it's a challenge when... You know, every time a young person step outside of their door, they look right, left. Yeah. Fast food's everywhere. Oh, yes. Yes. And especially we live in a fast-paced world where everything has to be already created. Mm-hmm. The most... The thing that I really... I'm most concerned about fast food is the high amount of fat and the high amount of sodium and the highly processed foods you have there. Of course, it's already pre-cooked. I will assume it's going to be high in sodium because of the preservative. And, of course, it's going to be high in fat because fat is also used as a preservative. So when I tell people about if you really want to... If you really are on a fast pace, let's say you're just on the run and you just want to have something quick to eat, try to prepare at least lunch or some snack for you during the day. That way, when you just go have your dinner, for example, you're not... starving and then you tend to overeat. Yes, they can be other places that they may have healthier choices. So what I tell them, look for those that are mostly whole grain, made with whole grain products. The most ingredient will be fruits and vegetables in it. Try to at least have it low fat. And then if you want to just, let's say, try something new, hey, be adventurous too. So I always tell them, especially young people that like to be adventurous, especially nowadays. So when I tell them about be adventurous, try something new, something that can help to improve your lifestyle, just go for it. But you still want to go into your own pace too. Okay, let me, I want to talk about real quick. Because we're winding down. I want to talk about some foods that's good for the health and why. And I want to get into our open mic over here with Andrea doing a piece. But what is the health benefit of oatmeal? You have the fiber right there. I mean, it's excellent, excellent fiber. And fiber, like I said, it has so many benefits right there. Yeah. And especially if you buy the old fashioned, the old fashioned way. Not the oatmeal in the package. No, not that one. You want to go into the old fashioned, the whole grain right there, the whole oat. I know some people like my friend Keith said, it's not a big deal, the difference of cooking. It's true. It may take just a couple more minutes. But yeah, you have there the whole grain in there. The whole oat just take a bad full benefit of the fiber in there. Okay. Now how about garlic? Garlic, it's a natural antibiotic. Okay. Is it better to use garlic in its natural state or to like put it in food and vegetables when you cook or it really don't matter? Well, in terms of cooking, I like to include garlic in my food. And as long as I can to use fresh garlic, I'll use it. Mm-hmm. Just because of rich flavor, especially for those people who are following a cardiac diet, low sodium diet, garlic is a great ingredient to just have the full flavor of the food in there. Okay. Look, we're going to come back real quick for some closing comments. We're winding down. I want to get a little quick open mic here with Andrea. She's going to do a piece, because this is Black History Month. What's the piece you're going to do, Andrea? This piece is entitled 100, 100 Years of Black History Month. 100, 100 million? Okay. Andrea Ross. Thank you. 100 million perished upon those cold and deadly seas. 100 million stories awash with grim dark tragedy. 100 million stolen, held hostage by an arrogant, ignorant breed. 100 million captured, enslaved by those who are! 100 million killed, by those who felt a pitiful need to conquer, rape, and pillage our magnificent African land to kill and steal at will. Priceless treasures from the grasp of the black man without rationale, without reason, without any explanation as to why. 100 million souls were destroyed with their heritage stripped, boned, and destroyed. No mercy or mercy allowed. No mercy allowed. No mercy allowed. No mercy allowed. No mercy allowed. No mercy allowed. arrogant, brutal beast motivated simply by monetary gain. So 100 million had to die and suffer such atrocities as human cargo bound, then shipped traversing those bloody cold seas. 100 million families. 100 million hells. Can any other scenario eclipse this historic horror tale? The Japanese, the Jews, the Armenians, the Indians, you say? Well, totaled all together would not eclipse the plight we suffered then and still suffer now today without compensation, without 40 acres and a mule reparation, without a simple I am sorry apology. They remain mute and deadly silent, forgetting about the past with, 100 million dark, stark memories. That number, I said, was 100 million. Thank you. Okay, Andrea Ross. Okay, let's go around. We still got a little time when we get some closing comments and your contact information for those who would like to get in contact with you. Start with Mary Lou. Oh, yeah. I'd like to say life is precious. Don't waste it. Eat well, live well. And for those patients who would like to get some more information from me, they can call me at this number, 213-284-5101. Thank you. Okay. My last comment will be just eat healthy, stay active as much as you can. Okay. Any questions, they can call me. My office phone number, the county, is 909-388-01. They can also contact me through my email, which is maribet. B is a boy. R-U-T is a tongue. E at D-P-H as Department of Public Health. Dot S-B county. S-M-A-N-I-N-O-C-H-A-U-N-T. Dot G-O-V. Or they can also contact me at my other email, M-A-R-I-B-E-T-S. That's F-I-T-A-1 at gmail.com. I know it's a little long, but. Okay. Thank you. Keith. Yeah. So if you want to get involved in helping provide organic, healthy, vegan, and vegetarian meals to people anywhere throughout Southern California, we're in about 30 cities. They can find out more information at foodnotbombs.net. And there, there's a toll-free number. You can call from any pay phone at 1-800-884-1136. And, and again, it's foodnotbombs.net. And maybe if you're traveling, you know, we've got Food Not Bombs groups in all over the world. And we definitely, we're an all-volunteer, no-paid-staff movement. So we really need your help. Okay. Thank you, Keith. Michelle. And if anyone would like the Children's Nutrition Program at their school or community, community center, it also is combined with the parent program. You can reach me at 323-866-6883. Again, it's 323-866-6883. Or email michelle.henrickson, that's M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E dot Henrickson, H-E-N-R-I-C-K-S-O-N at C-S-H-S dot org. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Now, I would like to extend a special. Thanks to my co-host, Ms. Earlene Anthony, Andrea Ross, who read that great poem, my in-studio guest, Mary Lou Tutsi-Lazzo, nutrition and fitness educator, Michelle Henkerson, nutritionist Maribeth Rivera-Brune, and Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs. Please listen to past shows of the Qumran Report. On iTunes, Facebook, and skitrow.la. Thank you for tuning in to the Qumran Report. And from your host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson, may the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. Thank you.