Discover how award-winning chef Brad Mahlof seamlessly blends health and flavor in his culinary creations. Brad, the recent victor of PBS's Great American Recipe competition, takes us on a journey from his college dinner parties to his role as a sought-after private chef. He reveals his Mediterranean-inspired cooking style and how his fitness routine shapes his approach to food, making it both nutritious and mouth-watering. Get ready to learn Brad’s philosophy on balancing proteins, carbs, and fats to create meals that are perfect for those mindful of heart health.
We also dive into the benefits of cooking with healthy oils like olive and avocado oil and the importance of fish in a heart-friendly diet. Brad and Dr. Koren discuss low-mercury options such as salmon and tilapia, offering valuable tips for integrating fish into your meals, especially if you're new to it. Plus, we explore various whitefish varieties, giving beginners a starting point with neutral-flavored tilapia before advancing to other options like cod and halibut. Tune in for actionable insights on making small dietary changes that can significantly impact your health.
Discover how award-winning chef Brad Mahlof seamlessly blends health and flavor in his culinary creations. Brad, the recent victor of PBS's Great American Recipe competition, takes us on a journey from his college dinner parties to his role as a sought-after private chef. He reveals his Mediterranean-inspired cooking style and how his fitness routine shapes his approach to food, making it both nutritious and mouth-watering. Get ready to learn Brad’s philosophy on balancing proteins, carbs, and fats to create meals that are perfect for those mindful of heart health.
We also dive into the benefits of cooking with healthy oils like olive and avocado oil and the importance of fish in a heart-friendly diet. Brad and Dr. Koren discuss low-mercury options such as salmon and tilapia, offering valuable tips for integrating fish into your meals, especially if you're new to it. Plus, we explore various whitefish varieties, giving beginners a starting point with neutral-flavored tilapia before advancing to other options like cod and halibut. Tune in for actionable insights on making small dietary changes that can significantly impact your health.
Welcome to MedEvidence, where we help you navigate the truth behind medical research with unbiased, evidence-proven facts, powered ENCORE by Research Group and hosted by cardiologist and top medical researcher, Dr. Michael Koren.
Dr. Koren:
Hello, I'm Dr. Michael Koren and I'm really excited about this episode of MedEvidence, and the reason is that we have somebody who is our guest for this episode, who has a really interesting background, somebody who I've known for a very long time and I'll get into that in a second and somebody who has actually recently won a national award for culinary expertise. It was a cooking contest called the Great American Recipe and it was sponsored by Public TV, and Brad will tell me if I'm correct about all these things in a second. And Brad was part of a really intense competition and turned out to be the winner. So, having known Brad for a long time and we'll talk about that in a second I was really excited to get him on MedEvidence so we can talk about some of his exploits in the culinary world, talk about his knowledge about healthy eating. Brad, I've enjoyed many of his meals over the years and I'll explain that in a second and Brad also has a lot of knowledge about how you can make healthy eating something attractive for people that may have some medical issues or may be concerned about their health. So, with that somewhat vague introduction, B rad, tell us about yourself, introduce yourself to the audience and tell us how you got interested in culinary science and being a gourmand.
Brad Mahlof:
S ure well thank you for for that introduction I'm Brad Mahlof and I am a chef and I split my time between New York and Miami and yeah so I guess the way I got into food was it's always been a passion of mine I've always loved to bring people together. I remember even in college in my tiny little dorm room I would host 20 people for dinner parties and it's always been a way to bring people together and kind of that that that has evolved over time into something you know more. I'm very fit. I'm very active. I CrossFit almost every day and part of cooking also corresponds and correlates to wanting to fuel my workouts and feel good and how do I do that in a delicious way? Y you know and I have private clients now who I cook for who basically want me to cook them both healthy food but also food that doesn't sacrifice taste and presentation and so finding that balance is important and you are correct t This year I was the winner of the Great American Recipe, which aired on PBS. It was an eight episode series where I competed each week and each week I'd prepare two dishes for the judges and ultimately my food. Um, you know, wo n against all the competition and yeah, so I I'm proud of that and, and maybe on the show I wasn't as healthy as I am in my day to day because I wanted to. Just I put everything to the side and wanted just to wow the judges, sure, but even that. I think eating and cooking healthy is more of a lifestyle than per se like a diet. So even my non-healthy cooking is probably still healthier than the average kind of person who doesn't really have much knowledge about nutrition. So yeah, that's kind of me in a nutshell.
Dr. Koren:
Yeah, so I did watch the episodes and you were tremendous and there was probably some extravagance in some of the dishes that may not necessarily translate day to day. Of course, it was a cooking contest, so you had to show what you can do for a special event. But some of the other contestants oh my God, I was having a heart attack just watching what they're preparing. So, compared to a lot of the other people, you had a Mediterranean style of cooking and you can explain that a little bit more for the, for the listeners and the audience, and I think that translates well to health. So it was really exciting. Also, one little piece of disclosure is you had a special guest help you for the finale, who we both have a relationship with.
Brad Mahlof:
Yep. So yeah, my mom, who is Dr. Koren's sister, was at the finale with me and we got to cook together, which was a very special experience, because I've learned a lot in the kitchen through my mom and her amazing cooking, and so it was very special to have her join me in the finale and cook a feast together.
Dr. Koren:
Yeah, I think she was your secret weapon.
Brad Mahlof:
I think she might have been for sure. You know, I think, as you know, the K oren clan is very competitive. So I think, to have both me and my mom in the kitchen. We were just a killer force.
Dr. Koren:
It was unstoppable, completely unstoppable, yeah, yeah. So that was tremendous and again, congratulations. It was, it was hard fought and, you guys deserved it and did a great job and, now you should bask in the glory of being a nationally recognized chef and culinary expert. So let's, transition a little bit now to talk about health. Obviously that's what I do and I think our audience is particularly interested in that. So break it down a little bit more for us in terms of what makes dishes healthier or unhealthy, and you can talk about general things, about fat and then maybe some of the ingredients, spices, et cetera that you think may influence whether or not this is something that somebody that is predisposed to heart disease or somebody that may have certain medical conditions has to be concerned about.
Brad Mahlof:
Sure. So when I think about food and health and kind of all of that. I first break the kind of food into three groups you have your protein, you have your carbs, you have your fats. And then, within those categories, you know there's obviously different choices we could make. And so the way I structure my food and my meals and the way I cook is I take those three components and I kind of think, hey, I want 80 or 70% of my food intake to come from protein, the rest to come from healthy carbs, the rest to come from fats, and then from there, I basically create meals, utilizing kind of the best sources of proteins, the best sources of carbs, the best sources of fats. And, as we know, there's better choices and there's worse choices, but the way I go about diet is not to diet.
Brad Mahlof:
I don't believe in dieting.
Brad Mahlof:
I think it's all about lifestyle choices and you know we don't have to strive for perfection, we just have to really embrace.
Brad Mahlof:
You know you utilizing these, this knowledge, to really have a more functional lifestyle kind of approach, and that's the basically the way I do it. When I cook, you know, with proteins, I'm usually either doing grilled fish or grilled chicken, and then I'll have a salad, I'll usually have some sort of vegetable and then and then some sort of wholesome carb and that's basically 95% of what I eat kind of is in that structure. But then I make it as delicious as possible so that it feels elevated and you don't get tired of it and it doesn't necessarily feel like you're eating healthy food. It feels like you're eating just a delicious meal and just kind of. All the background and all the calculation behind it is you know what I do behind the scenes but once you have a plate in front of you it just feels like a delicious meal that you're not even realizing is a healthy, a healthier option than you know.
Dr. Koren:
Yeah, you brought up a really good point from a psychological standpoint. You said you don't believe in dieting and basically when people diet they're denying themselves something and it just doesn't work. People don't want to deny themselves something, but when you strive for healthy eating, you're trying to achieve something. So changing the whole dietary equation to trying to achieve something versus trying to deny yourself, I think is so important.
Brad Mahlof:
For sure. You feel a sense of guilt and you feel a sense of I'm doing this incorrectly. But when you're, when you're embracing a lifestyle change and lifestyle choices, you know it's, you realize like life is, not perfect, and sometimes I'll eat healthier days than others, and that's okay. The longer you do it, you know your body will actually react. And when you eat kind of worse foods, you're going to feel the difference and you're naturally not going to want to eat those foods anymore because you're going to feel, hey, my body actually feels better when I eat these foods versus these foods, and then naturally you're going to gravitate towards the better options.
Dr. Koren:
Sure, so talk to us a little bit about what ingredients you use, particularly spices, that make your food choices and your preparation healthier versus things that may be less healthy.
Brad Mahlof:
Spices are really a personal thing and people have different palates. I love to use for my grilled fish and my grilled chicken. I use H erbs de Provence, which is a French spice blend, and it's just, it's really fragrant and and fresh tasting and it just makes all grilled foods taste amazing. So I use that all the time, I use it on the daily. I love to cook with turmeric. If you're going to cook with turmeric, just watch your counters, because it does stain everything. B but I love to cook with turmeric. I use obviously salt and pepper, you know. I know people are scared of salt, but salt does provide a lot of flavor and it does enhance flavor so to whatever level your doctor allows, don't be too scared of salt. A s long as y You d don't have, I guess, blood pressure issues or whatever. You know more about the science behind salt.
Dr. Koren:
We'll jump into that a little bit downstream. But yeah, there are some people who are salt sensitive that have to be more worried than others, but not everybody is, so that gets into some really interesting questions. One of the things that fascinates me is that people in Southern Europe live longer than people in Northern Europe. So, for example, I talians live longer than Germans, even though Germany typically has a better economy. The French live longer than the British. Do you think that's attributable to diet and some of the things that you've learned over time in terms of preparing meals more in a Mediterranean style, meaning Southern Europe versus Northern Europe?
Brad Mahlof:
For sure. So, yeah, my family, my paternal family, is from Mediterranean region and a lot of kind of the way I cook is within that style and I definitely do think that it plays a big factor in longevity and in health. Specifically, the use of olive oil and good kind of fats, I think is important. I think a lot of these Mediterranean cities are coastal and so fish is a big kind of protein source for for people versus land animals, and I do think that plays a big factor.
Brad Mahlof:
A nd also just you know the the preparation in which we cook these things. You know, are you cooking them? Are you frying them or are you steaming or grilling or or kind of sauteing them in in a healthy oil? You know healthy fat source, so I definitely do think that there are, you know, variations in in these healthy oil. You know variations in these diets between you know certain parts of Europe and the Mediterranean that do contribute to longevity and certainly, like in my own cooking, I always try to. You know, I don't even have butter in my pantry. If I'm cooking with something with butter, I have to make a special trip to the grocery store because it's not even a pantry item I stock in the house which is for a chef is so, which is so uncommon for a chef?
Brad Mahlof:
I mean, chefs love to just throw butter into everything. B ut it's just not. It's not the way I grew up, it's not. It was never in my diet and it's just. You know, I'd much, much rather kind of use an olive oil, or if I have to fry, I'll fry an avocado oil versus using a butter, or you know, a vegetable oil which is higher in, you know, saturated fats, and so certainly these kinds of choices, like while they seem small, do make a big difference in your overall health.
Dr. Koren:
Yeah, interesting. There was a neat study that was done, probably about 15 years ago now at least, where they took a British patient who had a heart attack and they were looking to see if the advice strictly advice of eating fish at least five times a week resulted in improvement in the health of people after a heart attack. And it did. There was actually a 20% reduction in mortality in death for people who ate fish five times a week just giving that advice, versus people that were told to just eat low-fat or high-fiber, etc. So there's something special about eating fish and I think that is a characteristic of the Mediterranean-style diet and I personally try to eat fish every single day and it sounds like that's a big part of your advice and your practice as well.
Brad Mahlof:
Yeah, for sure I think I eat fish. I could eat grilled salmon, I think, every single meal breakfast, lunch and dinner. I don't, but I eat a lot of salmon. It's important to note that not all fish is created equal. You do need to be careful, if you're eating fish daily, to watch to try to avoid fish that are high in mercury.
Dr. Koren:
W hich type of fish are to be avoided, or I mean two questions yeah, two questions which fish should be avoided because the mercury risk, or at least limited in terms of consumption? And, how about people that don't like that fishy taste? What do you recommend for those?
Brad Mahlof:
Sure, so fish that are high in mercury would be tuna fish, swordfish, you could do an easy Google search a nd kind of get a list of, like, highest and lowest. Salmon, which happens to be my favorite fish, which is also high in those good fats, is very low in mercury. It's probably one of the best fish you could eat.
Brad Mahlof:
But I understand, not everyone loves salmon, because it does have more of a kind of fish-like consistency and it's a little bit less neutral. You know, I would say, try to experiment, try to explore it, because it's definitely, if you can get into salmon, I would say it's the way to go. But certainly there are other fish. But certainly, certainly there are other fish. I mean, you know there's a lot of people that are kind of that hate tilapia because they're like it's the garbage, it's, you know, it's kind of the bottom of the barrel fish.
Brad Mahlof:
While I get that, you know if, if that's the only fish that you could tolerate because you just don't like fish, otherwise I would still say it's probably still a better option than having red meat, or it's still a better option than an alternative. So again, it's not just if you can't do this, don't do anything at all. So you know, if you just don't like fish, I would try to start with the tilapia, which is super neutral, it's inexpensive, you know there's, there's better fish out there, but it's still healthy enough and it basically tastes very neutral, doesn't taste fishy, it grills up really well it'll take up the taste of the spices pretty nicely right it does, it's because it's so neutral.
Brad Mahlof:
Whatever you spice it with, it'll just pick up those flavors. So start with that and then. And then you can kind of experiment and explore other other varieties of whitefish. You know also, I think cod is a good option, halibut. There's a lot of really good whitefish options as well. But I would say, if you really are unfamiliar with fish or don't love fish, I would start with tilapia, because it's the most neutral.
Dr. Koren:
Interesting. Well, B rad, that was really very, very informative. Thank you so much. So we're going to take a quick break here, but that information that you've shared with everybody is really quite valuable. And in our next segment, I'm going to get a little bit more scientific on you and I'm going to throw out some diseases and you're going to tell us how you can make things wonderful if people have these disease considerations.