How Can A Vegetarian Diet Be Of Help To PD Patients? (Part 1)

By Nona Lema


(First of a 3-part article series)


Introduction

Hi! I’m Nona Lema. I’m not a doctor nor a nutritionist. At home, I’m simply a wife and a mother who loves to cook delicious and healthy vegetarian meals for my family - - traditional Filipino food that we, as a family, have enjoyed eating together for the past 30 years.

In the following article series, I’d like to show you, in simple language, the direct link between PD and the vegetarian diet. Anyone who is interested in cooking healthy food for their PD patient will see and understand the connection very clearly. Veggie food and PD are compatible on these basic points: a) fiber, b)nutrients, AND c) protein.

Of course there have been many medical and nutritional researches/statistics made to prove that a vegetarian diet is indeed excellent for PD patients. But the question is, how do you translate these informations into a delicious meal? In other words, when you go to the kitchen to cook lunch or dinner for your loved one with PD, what do you cook? And why?

This article series is meant to educate, to share, most of all to show love and compassion to those afflicted with PD - - by showing how you can prepare nice, home-cooked meals that they too can enjoy. Happy veggie cooking!

Fiber Rich Food

It is very important that caregivers of PD patients understand very well the need for more fiber intake. What has fiber got to do with PD? PD is a progressive neurological disorder that results in the death of dopamine-producing cells in the brain. Loss of dopamine affects movements. So because PD patients are generally “slow mo”, therefore they also generally suffer from chronic constipation. Fiber is beneficial in preventing constipation.

Now, this is another important thing caregivers should understand - - Fiber is found ONLY in plant food. Foods containing fiber include fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains. Meat, fish, chicken and eggs do not contain fiber AT ALL.

We Filipinos are very fortunate to have been blessed with so much variety of different fruits and vegetables, our very own prutas at gulay, - - delicious, juicy, succulent, naturally healthy; pagkaing butil-- whole grains and nuts, beans and legumes that are so fragrantly wholesome, so full of rich, nutritious taste.

To be really healthy, experts say you need to consume about 25-40 gms of fiber everyday. For PD patients, a little more, maybe 50-60 gms.

To translate, it means for breakfast, maybe you can prepare for them one serving of oatmeal or cracked wheat or farina (also known as sooji), cooked with milk and sweetened with honey or muscovado sugar, a slice of buttered wheat bread toast or fried tofu sandwich. Be sure to always feed them with lots of fruits in season – bananas, pineapple, papaya, chico, etc, sliced up fresh or juiced . Root crops are also a very nutritious and fibrous breakfast item. You can serve them camote, gabi, kamoteng kahoy, ube - -cooked in many different traditional kakanin or ginataan style. Sometimes you can serve them plain or fried rice with scrambled tofu instead of bacon and scrambled eggs.

Tofu or tokwa is sometimes called the ‘vegetarian’s best friend’. It is a by-product of soy beans, sometimes called ‘the poor man’s protein’; it is such a versatile food and so protein-rich. It has been eaten for thousands of years in most Asian cultures that were traditionally vegetarian. Tofu or tokwa may be substituted to almost anything that you would need meat, fish, chicken and eggs for.

So for now, a good starting point in adapting a vegetarian or at least a ‘semi-veg’ diet is to try to eat meat less often. Substitute as often as you can with healthier, more fibrous food alternatives. All your all-time favorite meat, fish, chicken and egg dishes such as pork or chicken adobo, arroz caldo, escabeche, pork menudo, beef caldereta, etc.may be prepared the healthy meatless way. How? Simply substitute with tofu or tokwa. Or for a fancier version, try substituting with gluten, and/or different varieties of ‘veggie cold cuts’ - - veggie meat, veggie sausage/hotdog, veggie tapa (all available at popular vegetarian food stores).

Soups may be prepared from mashed or pureed or blended vegetables; or mixed with grain pasta or noodles. But then again, instead of meat, fish or chicken soup stock, try substituting with cream of vegetable powder or canned soup, vegetable bouillon or any kind of plant-based seasoning or appetizer.

For lunch and dinner, you can prepare all kinds of ginisang gulay, or ginataang gulay - -sitaw, kalabasa, talong, upo, okra, ampalaya, bichuelas, pechay, repolyo,etc. It’s also a good habit to always feed them kamatis, either cooked or fresh because it’s a fiber rich food. With your variety of gulay, simply make a gentle, healthful twist - -instead of sauteing with pieces of pork, shrimp, chicken or eggs, again try mixing slices of fried tofu or tokwa.

Why is there a need to gradually avoid (if possible) all kinds of meat food? Because, as I have said earlier, all meat food have ZERO fiber. It means meat food does not contain moisture and bulk. Meaning, therefore, that it does not make the stool soft and easy to dispose. On the contrary, it makes the stool become even more compacted and dry. That is why, if the PD patient’s diet is meat-heavy, they will have a tendency to suffer from chronic constipation.

So again, try to remember - -the only way to get good fiber is to eat vegetable food.

As far as cooking veggie food for your PD patient goes, be creative. Be innovative. Read up on a lot of vegetarian recipes. Familiarize yourself with the different ways of substituting your meat food with vegetable food.

One last piece of advice:

If there’s extra attention and care there in your cooking, the PD patient will feel it. If the cooking is done grudgingly, or with anger or contempt or just because it’s a routine paid job, then the PD patient will also feel it. So the least we can do for them is, try to cook delicious meals—and cook them with genuine care and concern.

Note:

Nona Lema is the author “GULAY”, the best selling Filipino Vegetarian Recipebook, available at National Bookstore and Powerbooks.