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CNN Sunday Morning

Recipes for a Better Body, Life and Spirit

Aired April 07, 2002 - 08:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to talk about spring. It's a time of renewal, and what better way to renew the mind and the body than by eating healthier. Well this morning we're going to learn how to fix healthy, tasty meals with our special guests. They wrote this new cookbook, "The Healthy Kitchen: Recipes for a Better Body, Life and Spirit," Dr. Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley. She was Oprah Winfrey's personal chef for five years.

Boy, what a gig that must have been.

ROSIE DALEY, AUTHOR, "THE HEALTHY KITCHEN": Yes, busy.

PHILLIPS: Gee, yes, I can imagine. Oh, boy.

Well thanks you guys for being here.

DR. ANDREW WEIL, AUTHOR, "THE HEALTHY KITCHEN": Glad to be here.

PHILLIPS: Yes, it's been a year since I talked to you and your last book...

WEIL: Yes. Yes. Yes.

PHILLIPS: ... so this is sort of neat.

Why don't you guys tell me how you joined forces -- how you joined forces and decided to put this book together.

WEIL: Well, I've always been interested in food. I put recipes in a lot of my books on health. I've wanted to do a cookbook. I haven't had the time or the expertise and I think we complement each other very well. Rosie's got all the kitchen tips and really knows how to do the cooking.

DALEY: Yes, and a lot of people thought that I was a nutritionist or I had that kind of background, which I don't, and I didn't want to mislead people. So it was a wonderful opportunity to give people, really, information that they needed about food and then complement with the recipes so.

PHILLIPS: How did you hook up with Oprah?

DALEY: I was working at a health spa in Vista, California where I was the chef. And she came there and convinced me to move to Chicago and help her out.

PHILLIPS: Well I remember when she lost all that weight, she looked absolutely amazing.

DALEY: Yes, she looks really good.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

DALEY: We're going to be on Oprah on Monday. So we're excited about that.

PHILLIPS: Obviously you're going to go talk about your book then.

WEIL: Yes.

DALEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Very good. All right, so why did we pick the scones? And tell me about -- usually, oh boy, I love scones, but I don't always know if they're good for me.

DALEY: Well these particular ones have a lot of whole grains in it. We have oatmeal and millet. And we tried to start with the right oil, it's canola or grape seed. So that's an important aspect of cooking is to start with the right ingredients.

WEIL: Usually -- yes, usually the scones you get are -- have a lot of butter or cream,...

DALEY: Right.

WEIL: ... so it's a lot of saturated fat. And it's probably all white flour which is, you know, one of the things that drives obesity in this country is these refined carbohydrates.

DALEY: Yes, and we added a little bit of zest on top and a little bit of confectionery sugar. So we want food to taste good. We don't want the people to feel deprived. So again, our book is really about lifestyle and about enjoying your life and enjoying food.

PHILLIPS: All right. And I made it, as you can see, I made not just a few...

WEIL: Yes, good.

PHILLIPS: ... but I made a lot of marks. OK so I have a couple questions for you guys. Now a lot of us, we were talking about this, are eggs good for you?

WEIL: I think the new information on eggs is that they're not so bad, and I would recommend getting free range chicken eggs that are better nutritionally, that don't have drugs and hormones in them and you can even get some that are enriched with Omega 3 fatty acids (ph).

PHILLIPS: Hold one thought, I apologize. I didn't know we were going live on these pictures. This is Secretary of State Colin Powell. He's getting ready to take a trip to the Middle East. Of course there's been a lot of discussion -- you guys have probably been following this, too. What the heck,...

DALEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: ... we'll talk about this. And he's on a mission to promote peace in the Middle East. Whether -- the question is whether he's going to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat or not. We were hoping that reporters might possibly get a few words with Colin Powell. That didn't happen, but we will get back to it indeed if he comes out and addresses reporters.

All right, now back to healthy living. Do you like that segue?

DALEY: Yes, all those...

PHILLIPS: We do it all here on CNN.

WEIL: Well you know in stressful times I find that if I'm stressed,...

PHILLIPS: Right.

WEIL: ... coming home and making something, even if it's very simple for myself, is a way of getting back into a good mental state. And we would both like to see people get back in the kitchen and make some good food for themselves.

DALEY: Yes, I'm an artist, so we don't want cooking to be a dying art. So that's my push.

PHILLIPS: No. And hey, look, my friends used to make fun of me because I couldn't cook. And then I got married and you're sort of forced to cook, OK, and I've been impressed with the recipes I can sort of whip up.

All right, here we go, let's move on to the next section I marked here. Touch -- did we get enough -- did we talk about eggs enough?

WEIL: Yes, they're in moderation, fine.

PHILLIPS: You think?

DALEY: And free range is the best to pick. So kind of we're talking about high quality food in small amounts is probably the best way to go. So we really want people to kind of be more conscious about their choices when they're eating.

PHILLIPS: Now you bring up a good point about the right types of food. We have a friend, a chef here in the Atlanta area, and he said it's all about the freshest and...

WEIL: Yes.

PHILLIPS: ... that makes the difference versus processed or canned or bottled.

WEIL: If there's anything that I think is really bad in the American diet it's refined and processed food. We'd like people to eat more natural whole foods and to prepare them in fairly simple ways and make them attractive.

PHILLIPS: All right, tofu. You got a big thing on tofu. And I love fajitas, OK,

WEIL: OK.

PHILLIPS: And you have this recipe for tofu fajitas. I don't know if it sounds...

WEIL: Actually, we give people a choice. You can either use chicken or...

PHILLIPS: Yes.

WEIL: ... you can use tofu,...

PHILLIPS: OK.

WEIL: ... but there's a form of tofu used here that's pressed that has the texture of chicken.

DALEY: And...

PHILLIPS: Really?

WEIL: Yes, you should give it a try. Really it's -- those type of fajitas are really good.

DALEY: And it's Andy's recipe. What's really cool about our book is that in Andy's voice is like a different color than mine. So it's kind of people don't get bored. And they say oh well Andy says this, Rosie says that, so it's kind of interesting. You know and I think it's interesting reading, good recipes and some really knowledgeable. And we're hoping that it'll help people to eat better. That's our really big goal.

PHILLIPS: So do you guys argue at all? Did you argue when you were like no, we can't put that in there, we've got to put that in there?

DALEY: Well you know, I felt that Andy was the expert on what nutrition, you know, was all about so I liked him to be in charge a little bit. We let him have the upper hand.

WEIL: But we don't agree on everything, and I think our disagreements make for interesting reading.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. No, that's true, you want the best of both worlds.

WEIL: Yes. PHILLIPS: Both of you are well respected, that's fair.

All right. We've been getting a lot of e-mails and we're going to take phone calls so ...

WEIL: Oh great.

DALEY: Great.

PHILLIPS: ... stick around. All right.

WEIL: Good.

PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

DALEY: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BREAKING NEWS)

PHILLIPS: We are going to take a quick break and come back to our healthy living, eating and spirit segment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Two special guests with us this morning, Dr. Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley. The book is "The Healthy Kitchen: Recipes for a Better Body, Life and Spirit."

And been talking about how tofu really does taste good. They've convinced me. And of course we're talking about the wonderful scone recipe, and I promise I'm going to sample this in just a minute. You guys have already been -- oh you already started on yours.

WEIL: I started on mine.

DALEY: He...

PHILLIPS: Dr. Weil, you're a little hungry this morning.

DALEY: We -- yes, we miss our -- yes, our own food. We've been kind of on the road a little bit so we've been snacking.

WEIL: We like our own food.

PHILLIPS: I can imagine. You can go into my house anytime, trust me.

All right, we have -- we received a couple -- we've been asking for people to send in their healthy recipes, OK. We want to get your feedback.

The first one comes from a Dale Burnaby (ph), and he has a Broccoli Salad recipe. So tell us how this sounds, OK? Peel and chops four stalks of broccoli, dice two red peppers, dice one large red onion, combine all four cans of garbanzo beans in a large glass bowl. The dressing is crush four garlic heads into a mixture of first press -- oh you stopped -- is that good?

WEIL: Well that's a lot of garlic, four heads of garlic.

PHILLIPS: That is?

WEIL: Yes.

DALEY: It's good for your heart though.

PHILLIPS: All right.

WEIL: Yes.

PHILLIPS: OK, we're going to make a note of the garlic. Yes, not good for your love life.

WEIL: Maybe four cloves.

PHILLIPS: Four cloves.

WEIL: We'll see.

PHILLIPS: All right. Dale, we might have to change that to four cloves.

DALEY: Or did he say bulbs? I mean...

WEIL: Four heads. He said four heads.

DALEY: ... he maybe made a mistake.

WEIL: Yes. Yes.

PHILLIPS: Oh that's -- OK, there you go.

DALEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right. Press virgin olive oil,...

WEIL: Yes.

PHILLIPS: ... apple cider vinegar...

WEIL: Yes.

DALEY: That is very good.

PHILLIPS: ... augmented to taste with flavored wine vinegars, fresh citrus juice, cracked pepper, honey, et cetera, let it marinade and combine the salad and chill. What do you think?

WEIL: Sounds terrific.

DALEY: Yes, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) good.

WEIL: Now he used raw broccoli, though, did he?

PHILLIPS: Oh good point. He didn't say.

WEIL: I would steam the broccoli lightly. You want it bright green and tender crunchy. It's much better -- more easily digested and the fidonutrients (ph), the protective compounds are better absorbed by the body if it's lightly cooked rather than raw. And I think also cooked broccoli tastes better than raw broccoli.

PHILLIPS: And, Rosie, what do you think?

DALEY: I think that he did a great job. And I think maybe the garlic was a just a little mistake, he was probably talking about cloves instead of bulbs.

PHILLIPS: Instead of bulbs there.

DALEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Could you imagine four of those? Stick with you for days.

All right, we have a call. Connie's on the line from New York. Go ahead, Connie.

CALLER: Hi, I have a very important question. I have a problem with monosodium glutamate.

WEIL: Yes.

CALLER: And I have not eaten out in eight years. I have been rushed to the hospital several times. And I want to know what you think about it.

WEIL: I think there's no need for it in food. In traditional Japanese cooking and Chinese cooking, the MSG flavor was obtained from seaweeds, from natural products, but it's an example of taking something out of a -- of a natural product and refining it and making it available in an isolated form may not be so good for us. Some people are very sensitive to MSG. There's really no need for it in food.

PHILLIPS: OK, Rosie.

DALEY: Yes, I think it's a little bit like an old fashioned kind of way that they used to preserve the lettuce in the salad bar and stuff. So we're hoping that you're going to make some fresh food at home and you won't have to worry about that MSG.

PHILLIPS: Hey, you mentioned the lettuce. You know the bagged lettuce?

WEIL: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Is that healthy?

DALEY: I think so. I mean if there -- if it's fresh organic greens, washed. I mean I would probably not get the chopped up particular kind. What do you think?

WEIL: Yes, I'd rather get -- I like the whole heads of romaine -- organic romaine that are in the bags. They're pretty clean. They say to wash it on the bag, but they look pretty clean anyway.

PHILLIPS: OK, Bob from California, what's your question?

CALLER: Are you big proponents then on getting away from refined sugars and carbohydrates? I have some problems with it. You like it, but it seems to me I can't lose the weight.

WEIL: Yes, I think refined carbohydrates are really what's driving the epidemic of obesity in this country and also the epidemic of Type II diabetes which we're starting to see in kids. So if you do use flours in a product like these scones that Rosie has designed, you can make them better for you by adding some whole grains, which Rosie has done here in the form of millet and eating them with berries which have a very low impact on blood sugar. So I think it's very important for people who are carbohydrate sensitive, which is probably a lot of us, to learn the differences between these different carbohydrate foods.

PHILLIPS: He mentioned sugar, too. And, Rosie, I...

DALEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: ... saw sugar and other sweeteners.

DALEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: You guys have a whole little section on this.

DALEY: Right. We talk about honey and sugar. But you know what, I realize that people are used to those flavors and we try to use them in small amounts in our recipes so that people can kind of transfer their diets slowly. It's really hard for them to go all the way, you know, and not have those in their life. So we're trying to let them know that in small amounts it's OK. And when you make things from scratch, you may use whole sugar and whole grains and seeds and whatnot and be OK with it. It's just going to get the packaged food over and over again is probably not the best idea.

PHILLIPS: Outstanding. All right. Once again the book "The Healthy Kitchen: Recipes for a Better Body, Life and Spirit." You guarantee that,...

DALEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: ... body, life and spirit?

WEIL: Yes.

DALEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Yes?

WEIL: You'll never...

DALEY: It's good...

WEIL: Go on.

DALEY: Feels good to cook. You really do feel good after you accomplish that.

WEIL: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Yes, no, it's true. It's quite a feat.

All right, Dr. Weil and Rosie Daley, thank you so much.

WEIL: Thank you.

DALEY: Thank you.

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