Al dente is when something (usually referring to pasta) is cooked just to the point of being tender but still firm.

 Banana Chips: horror of horrors I've discovered the most dastardly trick. Banana chips are not dried, they are fried in oil! Needless to say I'm taking them off the recommended foods list. 2 banana chips = 140 calories! I know that we don't count calories here at the UnDiet, but that's just too outrageous for 2 banana chips!

Chestnut Flour is made from chestnuts and is a Starch. It has a lighter flavor and color than whole wheat flour and can be used in place of soy flour in dishes that won't be fully cooked. Soy flour has a bitter taste if not fully cooked. The bad news is that it's expensive. Oh well, you can't have everything.

Chicken Broth is too acidic for the digestive system. This is true for canned, homemade, healthy versions, bullion cubes, and powders. However there are some great mock chicken broths which are sold in powdered form and generally can be found in health food stores, usually in the bulk food section. Make sure to read the ingredients list as some have awful things like dextrose, etc. If you live in an area that has a Whole Foods Market(formerly Mrs. Gooches) they have a wonderful powdered mock chicken broth.

Coconut Milk is great to use in Fruit shakes and other Fruit dishes. It adds a rich, creamy taste and you can even get it in a lite version. Look in the Asian or Oriental food sections of your local grocery or health food store. Unfortunately the only way you can purchase it is in cans (which means it's been cooked). You can make it at home, but it's tedious. I don't mind using canned coconut milk. I suppose if you made a big batch of coconut milk and froze it, it might be worthwhile. You judge.

Crème Fraîche is what you should be using instead of sour cream which contains milk. Crème Fraîche is soured cream and therefore Neutral. The only problem with crème fraîche is that it's hard to find. Luckily it freezes well, so when you do find it, if it's off the beaten path buy lots and freeze it.

Crisp Tender you can tell a vegetable is crisp tender when a fork can easily pierce, but there's still some resistance. It shouldn't be so soft that it feels like soft butter.

Egg Beaters cost a little more than some of the other frozen egg white products but they don't contain a lot of additives either. You'll find them in the frozen and refrigerated sections with breakfast products.

Flash Browning is a technique that gives you a browned outside before finishing cooking using another method such as steaming, stewing, or a slow cooker. Heat pan using very little or no oil over high heat. Add item to be browned and let cook until underside is browned, turn and cook other side until it's browned also. Eat as is or continue cooking using your method of choice.

Food Combining is a way of eating that categorizes foods according to how your body digests them and then shows you how to eat each group in such a way as to allow food to move through your body as efficiently as possible. Food that is allowed to stagnate in your intestines results in weight gain and many other health problems. Food combining can be very simple or very complicated depending on how many of the guidelines you choose to incorporate into your lifestyle. The UnDiet does not require that you follow food combining down to the last nitty gritty detail, but strives instead to give you the most benefit through the least effort, by encouraging you to follow the guidelines that research has shown to be the most effective and that work best for your lifestyle.

Fruit must be eaten with no other foods (although celery, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocados are okay with Fruit as they are classified as "Fruit vegetables"). Fruit can be eaten throughout the day, but is the only thing that you should eat between when you wake up and noon. Make sure to wait at least 20 minutes from your last piece of Fruit until your first bite of lunch. If you eat Fruit later in the day just make sure to wait at least 2 hours after your last meal.

Eat only fresh or frozen (make sure there is no sugar or syrups added) Fruits. Canned Fruit has been cooked and is completely void of it's natural digestive properties.

Fruit doesn't digest in your stomach; it passes through your digestive system in 20-30 minutes. Because of this if you eat Fruit with any other food it gets put in a holding pattern in your digestive system and begins to rot. You lose the nutrients inherent in the Fruit and gain plenty of gas. That's no fun!

The reason that you eat Fruit only until noon is that your body is working from 4am-12pm to eliminate the food you ate the day before and you don't want to disturb that process. The faster you get the waste out of your digestive tract, the less likely it is to contribute to weight gain.

The only restriction I would place on eating Fruit is if you're on a Protein Blast and relying on the unique metabolic reaction to the lack of carbs to lose weight. Then I would recommend having celery sticks for breakfast, some decaf coffee or tea with cream if you like. This way you don't disturb the metabolic reaction to the lack of carbohydrates, nor to you disturb your bodies natural elimination cycle.

Honey contains only slight traces of residues from industrial emissions, car exhaust and agricultural chemicals because bees act as a biological filter. The bees dies if they come into contact with toxins and thus do not bring pollutants into the hive. Whenever possible use honey who's label indicates that it's unfiltered and unpasteurized. Don't give unpasteurized honey to infants. It contains a type of bacteria that, though harmless to older children and adults, can be very dangerous to those younger than a year.

Living food is anything that has not been heated above 118 degrees farenheit. These could be Fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains ... meats and dairy can also be raw but are less common and less safe.

Mayonnaise purchased from the store, especially low or non fat types are not the best choice (with the exception of Nayonnaise). The only favorable mayo I've found in a grocery store is Hollywood brand mayos. And I wouldn't look any further except they do use egg and that makes it unfavorable with a starch, and I really don't want to have two jars of mayo in my fridge (one for Proteins and one for Starches). The easiest solution I've found is to have a couple of jars of Nayonnaise in the cupboard (in case I run out of my homemade soy mayo) and soy mayo in the fridge.

Milk (from a cow) is one of the worst things you can put into your body. Most people have adverse reactions to cow's milk, it's just that they've made it such an integral part of their diet that they assume the symptoms they experience are normal! There is an abundant amount of research and information that prove dairy products are a clear and present danger. A cow's milk is designed to take a calf weighing around 90 pounds at birth to a weight of 2000 pounds within two years! Dairy products are designed by nature (or God) to make you very big, very fast. The Step-By-Step E-Mail Plan includes much more information and research on dairy products. If however you must have milk use the Lactaid brand or raw milk. The enzyme added to the Lactaid milk helps your body to digest it much easier and therefore causes much less harm. Raw milk already contains this enzyme (which is killed by the pasteurization process).

Soy, seed, or nut milks are acceptable substitutes in all of your recipes. The non-fat versions taste like water; the low-fat or full-fat versions taste great, although you might need a week or so to get used to them. I use the full-fat milks when I need a deep, rich flavor and the low-fat versions when I can get away with it.

When a recipe calls for milk I often substitute heavy cream (which is classified as a fat and not as a dairy product) mixed with water or soy/seed/nut milk.

For more information on milk and casein (the protein in milk) see Encarta Encyclopedia's entry on casein and "Milk - It Doesn't Do a Body Good", a well researched article with bibliography.

Nayonnaise is a mayonnaise made from tofu that can be found at most health food stores. I love it because it's lower in fat than regular mayo, sugar free, egg free (so it's Neutral), doesn't taste low fat, sugar free or egg free, and as an added bonus it doesn't spoil on a picnic or at the beach like a mayo made from raw egg does! Don't buy the low fat version, it has unfavorable ingredients.

Olive Oil - use only extra-virgin. This guarantees that the oil has been cold-pressed from freshly harvested olives and that the oil does not contain chemicals. This doesn't mean that the oil is organic. If you want organic olive oil, make sure that it says so on the label. Oil that's golden-yellow in color is of higher quality than oil that's green. Many chefs will recommend using regular olive oil for sauteing or in dishes that will be cooked but these oils have been refined and are therefore toxic and not favorable to your UnDiet.

Pasta - cooking: add gradually to a large quantity of rapidly boiling water so that the boiling continues. Add 1 tablespoon each sea salt and olive oil. Do not overcook. There is no exact timing so you'll need to taste the pasta several times so that you can remove it from the heat and drain in a colander just when it reaches the al dente stage. Al dente is when there is still a slight resistance to the bite, but no crunch. Drizzle with a little olive oil or a small pat of butter and toss to lightly coat.

Tip:If you overcooked the pasta and it's very soft, immediately run it under cold water while in the colander to stop the cooking process. Proceed with coating lightly with oil or melted butter.

Sauteing is a quick cooking method performed over high heat usually with a small amount of fat or oil, although you can dry saute some foods such as nuts, seeds, and spices. It is one of the fastest and tastiest ways to prepare a tender cut of meat or poultry.

Seitan is a product made from wheat gluten. It can be purchased cooked and read to eat, or is available to eat as a packaged mix. As a meat substitute it can be cubed or sliced and added to soups, stews, stir-fries, or sliced like a cutlet topped with a sauce or vegetables.

Separate Starches from Proteins by 2 and 1/2 hours when moving from Starch to Protein, 4 and 1/2 hours when moving from Protein to Starch, to give your body time to digest each food group. When you mix food groups that require different digestive juices your stomach isn't able to easily digest either food group and so it takes at least 4 times longer for the food to pass through your system, you absorb less nutrients, much of the food rots inside you, and less waste is eliminated, instead it is absorbed into your body creating a weight problem. This is because the digestion enzymes needed to digest carbohydrates (starches and sugars) and those needed to digest Proteins is so different, that when they're mixed in the stomach they interfere with the digestion of each food group. An acid process (gastric digestion) and an alkaline process (salivary digestion) can not be carried on at the same time in an ideal way in the stomach. Before long, they cannot proceed at all, as the rising acidity of the stomach when eating Proteins soon completely stops carbohydrate digestion.

Soy Flour, when not fully cooked will taste bitter. To avoid this toast it in a dry pan over medium heat until it's slightly darker and smells nutty. If you want to toast a large amount of flour to have on hand spread it in a cookie sheet with a lip and toast in a 250 degree oven for about an hour, stirring every fifteen minutes. As long as you have the oven going you can place a cookie sheet of soy flour on each rack.

Soymage (dairy, casein and lactose free dairy substitutes) can be found in health food stores and occasionally in grocery stores. There are two types of sliced cheeses; Veggie Slices which contain casein and should be used only with Neutral and Protein meals, and Soy Slices which contain Starches and should be used only with Neutral and Starch meals. There are two types of Parmesan subs: Lite and Lean which contains casein, and Soy Parmesan which contains Starch. There are also a cream cheese  and a sour cream sub which contain Starch. If your local store doesn't carry Soymage products, ask them to. They have a website ( http://www.soymage.com ) where you can read more about their products but they don't give you any information about where to find their products and they're not set up to mail them to you - I know - I've tried.

Soy, seed, or nut milks are acceptable substitutes in all of your recipes as long as they're unsweetened. Sweetened versions contain grain syrup and sometimes flour which make them a Starch and incompatible with a Protein dish. I wouldn't advise using the non-fat versions, they taste like water. Low-fat  tastes better, full-fat tastes great. Some soy milks have lots of chemicals, look for ones that (preferably) contain only filtered water and soybeans. You'll often find grain syrups listed which is fine, it just makes the soy milk a Starch instead of a Neutral.

Sucanat is dried cane sugar. While it does have calories it's an excellent substitute for refined sugar and can be used in the same amount as you would use white sugar. It dissolves easily although you'll need to give it a minute or two. Buy organic Sucanat in any health food store.

Sugar only acceptable types of sugars are those that are unrefined such as Sucanat, date sugar, maple sugar, unpasteurized, unfiltered honey, R*.

 Sugar Equivalency Chart
1 cup white sugar = 1 cup maple syrup, date sugar, honey, Sucanat, Rapadura
1 cup brown sugar = 1 cup maple syrup, date sugar, honey, Sucanat, Rapadura
1 cup powdered sugar = 2/3 cup maple syrup, honey = 1 cup finely ground date sugar, Sucanat, Rapadura

Sugar-free on a product label that means it has no sucrose. It may however have fructose, molasses, honey, corn syrup, aspartame or saccharin. All you can really be sure of is that it has no sucrose.

Sugar substitutes are a tricky business. While many such as aspartame, Nutrasweet, and Sweet 'N Low contain zero calories the composition of aspartame (which is the main ingredient in Nutrasweet) causes most people who consume it to be metabolically resistant to losing weight (only on the day in which the aspartame is consumed).

 Tempeh is a fermented, chunky cake of soybeans with a slightly nutty flavor. It can be marinated and grilled, or crumbled and added to soups, sauces, or meatless stews like chili. You'll find tempeh in the deli section of most grocery and health food stores.

 Tofu is a cheese-like substance made from soybeans. Although somewhat tasteless by itself, tofu absorbs the flavor of whatever food or spice it's combined with, and so is very versatile. It can substitute for eggs in egg salad, chicken or beef in a stew; and it can replace dairy products or eggs in a recipe. It is sold in water-filled tubs, vacuum packs, or aseptic brick packages. It is perishable and needs to be refrigerated in a water-filled container (change the water daily), however the aseptically packaged tofu doesn't need to be refrigerated until it's opened. You'll find tofu in the produce, deli, and/or dairy sections of your local grocery store.

Tofu, mashed is an excellent substitute for eggs when baking. Use 1/4 cup mashed tofu per each egg called for. If getting out the blender or food processor is too much work, I just squeeze the tofu through my fingers into the rest of the ingredients.

Tomatoes are very acidic when cooked. The good news is that the dried tomato recipes the UnDiet uses to replace cooked tomatoes taste so rich they're actually an improvement over cooked tomato sauces. Other subs: yellow tomatoes (less acidic), red bell peppers, or eat lots of alkaline foods with your cooked tomatoes.


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last revised June 12, 2001
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