Nicole Astra:
Welcome to Talking Plant Protein. I'm Nicole Astra.

Joey Thurman:
And I'm Joey Thurman. It's the start of a new year and eating healthy is at the top of everyone's minds.

Nicole Astra:
And you've heard it a thousand times, eat more plants to be healthy. But you do not have to give up meat to make an impact in your body and on the planet. When I spoke to Victory nutritionist, Jocelyn Reichert, we discussed the rise of the flexitarian diet. Here's what she sees trending among consumers.

Jocelyn Reichert:
People are asking for plant-based substitutions for their favorite dishes, for their traditional dishes. They want to know how to make a plant-based substitute. How do you make a spaghetti carbonara?

Nicole Astra:
Because they want it to be healthier without missing the comfort.

Jocelyn Reichert:
Exactly. They want it to be healthier comfort without missing the comfort, without missing that experience that takes them back to maybe when they were young, maybe even how they grew up, but they want to make it healthier. They want to make it more plant-based. So, how do you make a dish more plant-based? Well, you work with us on healthy substitutions. Spaghetti carbonara can be spaghetti squash carbonara, and it doesn't have to be all or nothing, like we talk about all the time. Maybe you still incorporate some half and half into that carbonara instead of completely taking out all animal products. But this is a way to transition into more healthy plant-based eating.

Nicole Astra:
That's something I wish the carnivores understood, was just make some simple substitutions to get more plants in your diet. It's not about giving up meat completely.

Joey Thurman:
Yeah. I mean, just pull it back a little bit, add some more greens in there.

Nicole Astra:
Which I know you will never do.

Joey Thurman:
I have lots of greens, right. I mean.

Nicole Astra:
No, I mean, you can't give up the meat.

Joey Thurman:
Oh I know, I'm a fan of meat. Maybe I'll pull back and just add some beans or something like that.

Nicole Astra:
But It's all about the balance. Yes.

Joey Thurman:
Now it's incredibly important to know what we're putting in our bodies. Now, right now, according to the CDC, over 26 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes. That's a massive number. Author, Dr. Cyrus Khambatta of Mastering Diabetes came up with a formula to help people control their insulin. And get this, it's a high carb diet. Oh, carbs.

Nicole Astra:
We can't do that.

Dr. Cyrus Khambatta:
If you choose to eat a low carbohydrate diet, what that means is that you're going to be getting the bulk of your calories from either fat or protein or some combination of the both. So, you limit your carbohydrate intake and that that forces you to eat more fat and protein. When you do that, you actually are suppressing your carbohydrate tolerance. In other words, you are making insulin less active inside of your muscle and inside of your liver. And as much as a week. Okay. Now a lot of people are like, "Come on, are you kidding me? You're telling me that I've been living with type two diabetes. I'm taking Metformin, maybe some other oral diabetic medications. And you're telling me that I can eat a high year carbohydrate diet and all of a sudden my glucose is going to improve." And the answer is, yeah.

Joey Thurman:
I thought that was really interesting how you can have high carbs, but the caveat is you have to be low fat.

Nicole Astra:
Here's also good news for pasta lovers. Jazilupini is pasta made from legumes, and it's very popular among the diabetic community. But founder Jazz Sanchez is receiving a lot of buzz beyond the plant-based world as well.

Jazz Sanchez:
The bean is naturally very low carb. It's more low carb than chickpeas and soy, which are also legumes like the lupin bean. And it's gluten free, it's vegan and it fits into all of those categories. So, so many people can enjoy it whereas vegans can't have egg pasta, but it mimics that egg pasta texture so well. So, so many people that typically wouldn't be eating pasta are now able to have it with jazilupini and it supplements the diet for people who need extra protein, who are vegans as well. But where I really found my niche which you're mentioning, is the diabetic community. So many people cannot have pasta, unless it's one of those zero carb or zero calorie. Pasta's like shirataki noodles, which is basically just like a cognac fiber and it doesn't taste very good. Customer experience was very important to me when developing jazilupini because first, I developed it for me and I would never sell to other people, something that I would not want to eat. And I always say our slogan is that it looks like pasta, it cooks like pasta, it tastes like pasta, it is pasta.

Nicole Astra:
Be sure to check out her whole story on our website. Joey, she was first introduced to the lupin bean in a pub in Italy by an older gentleman.

Joey Thurman:
That seems a little strange. So lupin or lupini. What is it?

Nicole Astra:
It depends where you're at, I guess. I've heard it both ways, but either way it is nutritious and so high in fiber.

Joey Thurman:
Powerful.

Nicole Astra:
The power of plants, people. So, eating clean has tremendous health benefits. Jessica Gebel has some health issues of her own, which led to the creation of Clean Label Fabalish made with aquafaba. Eric Cox has her story and more.

Eric Cox:
All right. Thanks, Nicole. And Jessica, this is a real game changer, what you have going on here. I understand you had a pretty difficult health journey on your way to creating Fabalish. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Jessica Gebel:
Yeah, absolutely. So, my parents were Polish immigrants and working multiple jobs during the week, and we kind of grew up on just just fast foods and TV dinners. And we didn't think about food at the time. No one actually gave it a second thought. And so, yeah, thankfully in my early twenties, I ended up having a lot of health issues. I say, thankfully, because I wouldn't be here right now. But I was prescribed various drugs and steroids and antibiotics, and nothing actually really helped. It made it worse if anything. But intuitively I knew I was too young to have problems like that, so I dove in a little bit deeper in and intuitively I started looking at my diet and my lifestyle, and I started changing the way I ate and cooked, actually, for myself. And I started to heal myself and it was, for me, it was incredible.

Jessica Gebel:
I really opened up my eyes and I knew I wasn't the only one in this position. And so, I just became super passionate about cooking and clean eating, and I wanted to go to culinary school, the Natural Gourmet Institute. In order to get to school, I applied to various grants and scholarships, and I got myself on the food network show called Cooks versus Cons. I was an amateur chef. It's two cooks against two amateur chefs and the audience and the judges don't know who's who, and I ended up winning by my own shock. I was shocked. I shocked my own self, but I was able to prove that you can cook healthy, but it was absolutely delicious because your dish was winning. Right. Not... So, yeah. So, for me I was really showing that I was making a difference.

Jessica Gebel:
And so after graduation, after school, I became a private chef to help other people like myself. And that's where I started working with aquafaba, which I'll talk a little bit about that in a second. But aquafaba is a great tool to use in the kitchen because it's soy-free, nut-free, gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free. And it really gives that nice flavor, that creamy texture that we love. And so then I started selling my sauces at farmer's market. So, it's a long story, but it's all important to where I am today. And now we're growing like crazy in stores and online, and it's just been an exciting journey for me.

Eric Cox:
It certainly sounds exciting.

Jessica Gebel:
Yeah.

Eric Cox:
And it sounds incredible. An incredible testimony. And like you said, it all started with aquafaba and chickpeas. That's one simple ingredient we have in front of us. Can you tell us how you created the company based off this?

Jessica Gebel:
Yeah. Yeah. So, I always thought chickpeas were fascinating and there's such an untapped potential with chickpeas. And when I discovered aquafaba in school, my mind was blown. I was like, this is so cool. It just sounds so simple. And normally we would toss this down the drain.

Eric Cox:
Yep.

Jessica Gebel:
I can show you a little bit how it works. Normally we'd toss this down the drain. So, this is aquafaba and when you strain it... So we have the chickpeas here and normally we would strain this and toss this down the drain. To me, I call it liquid gold because you're going to see in just a little bit, why, but I was using chickpeas first and then, for my clients and I would use the aquafaba as a great sauce replacement. So, let me just show you. So we upcycle. So, we use the chickpeas and this. We don't toss anything out, which is really important for us.

Eric Cox:
Yeah.

Jessica Gebel:
Let me just close this.

Eric Cox:
That's incredible.

Jessica Gebel:
There we go. Yeah. So, it's really funny. You just pop this into a food processor, like so, and you're about to see what happens. It's just magical.

Eric Cox:
Wow. After just a minute, it looks totally different.

Jessica Gebel:
It's crazy. So aquafaba, when the chickpeas are being boiled in that water, the chickpeas release tiny strands of protein and starches that mimic an egg white consistency. So, when you whip up an egg white, this is pretty much exactly what it would look like.

Eric Cox:
Right.

Jessica Gebel:
So, you can make meringues out of this, whip cream. You just have to add, whether it's sugar or salt or oils or acids. There's a lot more that you have to add into it, but this is such an amazing base.

Eric Cox:
Wow.

Jessica Gebel:
So, this is the base of our sauces that you can see here. We've got our ranch, faba dip, a tzatziki and a queso. So, that's what's great about it, is that it has that creamy egg white consistency, or maybe a dairy consistency.

Eric Cox:
Yeah.

Jessica Gebel:
And then you can just add whatever flavor. Smells a little bit, it's a mellow bean flavor.

Eric Cox:
It's nice though. Yeah.

Jessica Gebel:
Yeah. But it's not overpowering.

Eric Cox:
I enjoy it.

Jessica Gebel:
Yeah. It's not overpowering at all and doesn't really have much flavor. So, you just have to make sure you add that flavor, whether it's sweet or savory that you go, and we went savory.

Eric Cox:
Certainly versatile.

Jessica Gebel:
Yeah. It really is.

Eric Cox:
Very versatile. That's incredible.

Jessica Gebel:
And then from the actual leftover chickpeas, we make our baked and organic falafel, which is the first on the market. So.

Eric Cox:
Right over here, right over here.

Joey Thurman:
I just learned something new. I didn't realize that you could basically take the liquid of that and then one, be nutritious and also heal yourself.

Nicole Astra:
And there's a huge influx of the byproduct. So, keeping that nutritious waste in the food system. So, it's closing the economy as well.

Joey Thurman:
I like closing the loop.

Nicole Astra:
Yes.

Joey Thurman:
And it's going to be delicious. Put some sugar in there too. And oh, we know don't have sugar. I didn't say that. I didn't say have sugar. Now, speaking of sugar that you should get rid of. It's not just what we eat, we have to be in tune with our body and mind. And one simple way to do this, Nicole. I know. Are you stressed?

Nicole Astra:
We're always stressed. Busy moms, right? Yeah.

Joey Thurman:
So, let's take care of our body and our minds. So, it's called five finger breathing.

Nicole Astra:
Okay.

Joey Thurman:
So, we're going to go from the stress state to a relaxed state here. Now.

Nicole Astra:
Yes.

Joey Thurman:
This is sensory, right. We can feel our hands. Okay. So, our hands are similar to the bottom of our feet. Glabrous skin. I know things, right. Not just a pretty face.

Nicole Astra:
Okay.

Joey Thurman:
So, we're going to take our finger here. We're going to take a deep inhalation and we're going to pause at the top of each finger, exhale at the bottom.

Nicole Astra:
Okay.

Joey Thurman:
All right, ready? We're going to take a deep inhale through the nose. Pause, exhale through the mouth. Right with me? In, pause, exhale.

Nicole Astra:
Don't feel silly. Do this.

Joey Thurman:
There you go. In, you close your eyes. In. I feel amazing right now. Exhale. One more. In and exhale. How do you feel?

Nicole Astra:
I love it.

Joey Thurman:
That's good.

Nicole Astra:
The truth is, it's what? 15 seconds but we don't even take that time to check in with ourselves in the day.

Joey Thurman:
Right. So you check in, you take that inhalation through the nose, which you get more oxygen in through your nose. People don't breathe, right. We take a pause and we exhale throughout the mouth or out the nose doesn't really matter too much. And it brings us from that fight or flight state of crazy running from tigers to parasympathetic, where we rest, digest and recover.

Nicole Astra:
And recover. It's right. We talk about health all the time and it really is more than what we feed our bodies. It, yeah... Absolutely. Love it. That's all we have for you today. Thanks for joining us in Talking Plant Protein. I'm Nicole Astra.

Joey Thurman:
And I'm Joey Thurman. We will see you next time.