Today, we're going to find out why she's eating these items and only these items and how this extreme diet is affecting her family.
Addiction specialist Dr. Drupinski is here to tell you how this differs from other eating disorders.
Then, she's a real-life seeping beauty.
You're going to meet a woman who has a disorder that causes her to sleep, literally fall into a sleep that lasts as long as 64 days.
And all summer long, we've been talking about food truths.
And today, one of the country's most popular journalists reveals the number one food that you are not eating that you should.
But first, meet Jessica.
She's looking for help to end her extreme diet.
Hi, I'm Jessica.
I'm 30 years old, and I've been eating plastic, paper, and rubber for most of my life.
I have pica.
Pica is an eating disorder when you eat non-nutritional items.
So looking back, the first thing that I remember eating was gum off the bottom of pub tables.
I remember when I was about 12 or 13, my parents had a couch that had a wooden arm.
And gradually over time, over a couple weeks, I had eaten an entire chunk out of the side of the couch.
I have eaten pencils with erasers, metal, lead, everything.
Tinfoil was a big thing for me.
The list goes on.
There's about 50 plus items that I've eaten.
More than anything, I've eaten plastic, paper, and rubber.
Paper and plastic is usually easier to hide so I can keep it secret, keep it from people.
Jessica's joining us.
So you've been eating these non-food items since you're about age five?
Yes.
What real foods do you eat?
I don't have much of an appetite, but I do eat real food.
You know, chicken, vegetables.
Not much of a snacker.
I love chocolate.
So you eat actually fairly healthily except for the things you're putting in your body that you shouldn't.
Yes.
And why do you think you do it?
You're not trying to stay thin, I gather.
No, no, I'm naturally thin.
It's more of just anxiety, stress, coping mechanism.
And what happens when you go to the bathroom?
Do you have pains?
I'm just trying to understand how your body is reacting to this.
No, I don't, on a day-to-day basis, there's no pain, anything like that.
I do have chronic constipation, which I think is just from years of eating things I shouldn't have.
So I try and stay away from certain foods that will cause constipation or things like that.
You have two children?
Son, or a stepson and a daughter, yes.
So how do you explain what you're doing to them?
I don't.
I keep it hidden.
They don't know about it.
Well, they're going to know.
Can I hold your hand?
You seem nervous over there.
They're going to know about it after the show.
Yes, and I will sit down and explain it to them.
What are you going to say?
That I have a disorder and that I'm working on it and that I'm trying to fix it.
Has anyone ever tried to help you?
Have you gone to folks for support?
I tried once.
I went to an eating disorder place over where I live, but the focus wasn't PICA.
There was never really a discussion about it.
It's not known.
I don't know much about it.
So it's hard to fix something that you don't know how to.
Does this scare you?
Very much so.
I think there's, I'm sure I have damage.
I see it causing more damage.
You know, I have broken teeth and low motility.
Digestive system, things like that.
So I have a very good friend.
His name is Dr. Drew Pinski.
He happens to be a world expert at addiction, but also in this area.
If I could get him to see you, would you sit with him?
Absolutely.
When we come back, Dr. Ju is going to help Jessica with her eating disorder.
Stay where you are.
Next.
An eating disorder like no other.
Dr. Ju and I give Jessica an intervention.
It's kind of a depriving, aggressive thing to do to yourself, isn't it?
Will she accept Dr. Ju's offer and get the help she needs?
Next.
It's our big hygiene experiment.
When it comes to your jeans, hair, sheets, the ever asked, do I really need to wash it?
Dr. Javon's jeans are disgusting.
We bust your biggest misconceptions.
And I'm going to reveal the crazy, good, cleaning hacks that you got to see.
Isn't that pretty cool?
It's awesome.
I love that.
I love that.
Next idea.
All nuise.
That's coming up tomorrow.
At Nixon Specialist, Dr. Drew Pinsky is here along with Jessica, who acknowledges that she's eating plastic objects and other things instead of food.
So Dr. Ju, how is Jessica's issue different from more traditional eating disorders?
Well, this is what you call, she called it herself, PICA syndrome.
And it originally was people with iron deficiency.
There was something in people that couldn't have access to proper nutrition.
They'd begin eating clay, rocks, ashes out of an ashtray, chewing ice.
It was your body would naturally try to get iron out of the environment.
But PICA can be more generally associated with something a little more serious, which I think you understand you have as well, where you said you've been once treated as though it were an eating disorder, but it seemed like something a little more, is that right?
Yes.
And it does, interestingly, Dr. Raz, there is neurobiological research.
The old dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain we think of a lot in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex in mental health, not functioning normally in somebody that has a real PICA syndrome, as well their drive system and appetite systems and satiation systems are different.
How different we don't really know yet.
There's a lot there.
But the other thing that so many people that work in mental health and addiction have to deal with is trauma too.
And you seem like such a fragile, fragile person.
I'm just imagining there was some trauma in your past as well.
Is that true?
Yes.
Yeah.
And so, you know, your body tries to deal with that trauma, survive it any way it can.
And your particular solution, as you said, when you got nervous, you got anxious, you're aware you do this stuff as a way to try to regulate emotions.
But it's kind of a depriving, aggressive thing to do to yourself, isn't it?
Yes.
Explain to me why that works for you.
I don't know.
Is it a reenactment of something?
In other words, were you sort of deprived and abused as a child?
I'm not sure.
I don't quite remember my childhood, you know, prior to age five.
And do you notice, if you give me your hand, too, both of us have we want to take care of her, right?
I mean, we feel the fragility, but she and she covers so much with that beautiful smile, right?
But behind that, it's palpable.
It takes my breath away, frankly, what you must be dealing with, right?
Yes.
And have you ever thought about getting more comprehensive help for this?
I know the eating disorder, it's one piece of it, but there's a lot more.
I'm sure there's plenty of.
Yeah, and there's medication that can help.
SSRIs, the old, you know, the plain old SSRIs work, antipsychotic medicines for some people.
It's related to obsessive-compulsive disorders, right?
Makes sense.
You've got these compulsive behavior you can't control, and medications work for that too.
But more importantly, you really just need a comprehensive evaluation.
Somebody really looks at the whole picture and puts a team together, because this can be treated.
You can feel a lot better.
Oh my gosh, doesn't she take your breath away?
When you lie in bed at night and think of what's going on in your life, what do you think might help you the most?
I think talking to someone just about the different things that have happened in my life and just being able to learn how to deal with stress and emotions and things like that on a daily basis.
So we call that building emotional regulation.
And brains heal other brains, Dr. Oz.
We don't in this country make as much as we should have of how relationships heal people.
We're healers, right?
We've lost that in our system.
We're not allowed to do what we do as healers because the systems and bureaucracy don't give us the time to do it.
But brains heal other brains.
So learning to tolerate closeness and letting somebody who wants to help help rebuild your emotional system.
Does that make sense?
It makes sense, but what's really amazing me, Jessica, is you.
It took a lot, a lot to come here and talk about this.
And I want to be able to support you.
I think the best thing I can do, and Dr. Drew agrees with this, is to get you someone near your home where you can probably talk about very painful things that have probably happened in your life.
And I'm going to interrupt you and just say, people don't have to be fearful that they're going to have to revivify painful things.
You're going to cry right here.
I'm friendly with this, aren't you?
No.
Well, she laughs while tears are boiling in her eyes.
But the point is, you don't have to fear that we're going to make you revivify something awful.
It's about what you can tolerate and rebuilding a regulation around that.
So you're not putting things in your mouth like foil.
How aggressive, how awful, how deprived, right?
Yes.
So I want you to be able to do it in private in a place that you feel safe.
Dr. Joseph Spinozola, Spinozola, is a gentleman who runs a center.
It's called the Psychological Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute.
It's not far from your home.
We looked it up.
Okay.
And he's agreed to meet with you.
It'd be perfect.
He can give a full evaluation and gather a team in the context of just exactly what you said you needed and pull together the right people to get all aspects of this managed.
And guess what else?
You don't want any of this intergenerational stuff going on where some of this rains down on your kids.
You know what I'm talking about?
You want to break it here.
Stop it now.
Let that motivate you, if nothing else.
Absolutely.
It's part of the reason I'm here.
I figured.
You go visit with him.
Huh?
You go visit with him.
Dr. Spinoza.
Spinozola.
Spinozola.
Yes.
Absolutely.
The appointment you made.
I'd better show how you're doing.
We'll be here for you.
Thank you for sharing your story.
You can watch Dr. Drew Week Nights on HLN at 9 p.m.
I'll be right back.
Next, we take a turn and meet a real-life sleeping beauty, a 20-year-old woman with an unusual disorder that causes her to fall into long bouts of sleep, sometimes for 64 days.
The diagnosis that took over two years to find.
That's next.
This next story you have to see to believe.
Take a look at 20-year-old Nicole.
She may look like a typical young person sleeping in.
But Nicole's a little different.
She's known as the real-life sleeping beauty, and her reality is far from a fairy tale.
Nicole is a disorder that causes her to fall into sleeps that last as long as 64 days.
64 days.
Today she and her mother are letting us decide their home for an exclusive look.
I remember when Nicole had her longest sleep episode.
She had fallen asleep and I tried to wake her up on the bed and she just was not waking up.
It was before my 14th birthday and Thanksgiving and all I remember is waking up in January.
She had stayed asleep for the next 64 days.
This is when her, shortly after her sleep episode started at just six and a half years old.
In the beginning we just thought, you know, with her sleeping that she was just coming down with the flu.
At that time too, she was sleeping about 18 hours a day and when awake she would be very confused, not able to recognize me and saying I want my mommy, where's my mommy?
We just knew something was wrong.
It took us 25 curling months to get a proper diagnosis.
These sleeping spells make me feel like depressed because I can't do anything about it.
Usually we know when an episode is coming on.
Nicole will actually complain of having a headache and being really lethargic.
Then she'll come and sit next to me on the couch and she'll sleep there the rest of the day.
Seems like that's her safety zone.
She'll go to bed and that'll last anywhere from 22 to 64 days straight.
When Nicole comes out of the episode, she has no idea how much time has passed.
At times I miss him on Christmas, birthdays, junior and senior prom.
So I bought this prom dress and I couldn't even wear it because I went to a sleeping episode.
Nicole will actually sleep about 18 hours a day and the only time that she wakes up is to eat.
Her eyes are all glazed over.
She's in a sleepwalking phase.
We do have to make sure that she drinks water.
We have to keep her hydrated because of the, she has been dehydrated quite a few times.
Right now I'm taking Nicole to her doctor's appointment.
It's actually become a very typical thing for us to do for the last 10 years.
Just have to make sure that everything's okay even though it's a regular checkup.
I feel like I spend most time at the doctor's office than living my life.
Take a big breath.
Nicole's sleep episodes really take a toll on me and Nicole needs care 24-7, you know, around the clock each day.
I really do not get much sleep at all.
I really worry about my mom because I know she's really depressed.
It makes me feel guilty sometimes.
Sometimes I feel like I'm gonna fall apart but I have to hold it together for Nicole.
I can't live like this.
Nicole and Vicky are here.
I was worried you wouldn't be awake for the show.
Seriously, are you doing okay?
Yeah, I'm good today.
I'm just taking it day by day.
As I watch that video, it's hard for me as a father.
And Vicki, I'm sure it's difficult for you watching your daughter sleep.
What's the most important thing you've missed during these long sleeping episodes?
I missed the pass away of my grandfather.
I called him the day I came out of an episode, and I called him twice.
And he didn't answer, and then my great-grandma called and said they found him passed away, and we were really close.
That happened while you were asleep for those couple weeks?
Yeah, dude.
So, Vicki, what's it like to tell your daughter all these things that have happened, the loss of loved ones, events she missed?
It's very disheartening.
It's heartbreaking, depressing to go and tell your child that they missed out on birthday parties, other life activities, Christmases, proms.
It's very disheartening.
I mean, to go and sit there and tell your child everything that they've missed out on and to go back to where they began, you know.
And, well, it's been 64 days.
You missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, your birthday, and oh, wow, Happy New Year.
You know, it's another year.
Nicole, you look very drained to me.
I'm just saying that as a doctor, and I'm sure you've been seeing lots of folks trying to find solutions.
What have they been telling you?
What's your diagnosis?
They told me they have Klein-Levin syndrome when they found out.
I'm glad they found out because that's one thing to get off my shoulders.
Yes, you haven't answered.
Do you know much about this rare condition?
No, not really.
Well, I know they're studying it.
This is a mysterious condition.
We don't really know why folks fall asleep and can't wake up.
But at least, you know, doctors are holding out a lot of hope because they're making progress on it.
But while you're struggling with this and getting the care you need, Vicki, I want to bring you in this if I can.
One of your biggest fears is that your daughter is going to fall asleep and not wake up.
My biggest fear is that she's going to go into an episode, not wake up, and maybe when she comes out of it, I possibly won't be there for her.
And it's scary living that day to day.
You want some help?
That would be wonderful.
I'm sorry you're going through this.
I've asked a good friend of mine, Mike Dow.
Mike, if you come on up and psychotherapist, Mike Dow has a grief.
Come on, my daughter.
Mike, you've been listening, and I think all of us, and as a parent, I identify completely with where you are.
We want to protect our kids, and sometimes we can't.
So, Mike, if you can offer some advice.
Yeah, absolutely.
First of all, I grew up with a brother with a rare brain disease, so I know how this can be a family illness and affect everybody in a family.
What I see in you, Vicki, I can see that catastrophic, worst-case scenario thinking.
And when I look at you, I see a woman who is carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.
Is that right?
Yes, it is.
You look like you can't take it anymore.
No, I can't.
It's very hard.
And as much as I wish, and I know Dr. Oz wishes we could just make this go away, I also know that we have an opportunity to focus sometimes on what is right in our life.
I want you to look at your daughter.
What's right with this beautiful girl sitting next to you, your daughter?
What do you see?
A beautiful girl who looks healthy and ready to basically go out into the world and enjoy life as it is.
And I want you to take your mom's hand.
I imagine that the fear and the anxiety that your mom feels every day, I believe that you feel that, is that right?
I imagine that causes some guilt for you.
Yeah, it does.
What do you want?
I want you to turn to your mom.
Are you going to be okay?
Yeah, I just don't want her to have to worry about it.
What do you want your mom to do differently?
I don't want her to have to worry day by day.
Maybe take care of herself a little more.
Anything you want to thank her for?
Mom, thank you for.
Thank you for being here for me every day.
What is it?
I see a lot right going on.
I know we're focusing a little bit on what's wrong, and I don't want you to stop searching, and I don't want doctors to stop searching for a treatment or a cure that's going to help, but what is that like for you to hear?
It lifts a little bit of weight off, you know, knowing that there is someone that actually cares.
It must feel really good.
Because it feels like there's nobody else out there that's, you know, no one's ever asked me or said anything like that before.
It must feel really good to have your beautiful daughter.
Thank you for all the care that you've given her.
It's your choice, Vicki, to release the burden.
Because ultimately, I think you're going to be okay, Nicole.
But Vicki, worry about the price you're paying.
You've got to be there as a role model so she can live her good life as well.
I said, we're going to help you.
I'll do whatever I can to support you, Mike, as well.
We'll be next to you.
We'll be there to help you out if you show up as well.
I appreciate it.
Good luck to you both.
Thank you, Richard.
Thank you.
I thank you very, very much.
You can check out Mike Dow's new book, The Brain Fog Fix, and I'll be right back.
Next, we're switching gears to a vegetable everyone wants to overlook or avoid.
But we're changing that today.
Rich in fiber, potassium, and vitamin D, it's a real immunity booster.
They're wonderful.
We're going to show you how to make mushrooms your star ingredient.
Next.
It's our big hygiene experiment.
When it comes to your jeans, hair, sheets, if you ever ask, do I really need to wash them?
Rebust your biggest misconceptions in all new lives.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're with Mark Bittman.
He says there's one vegetable that everyone overlooks.
What is it?
The mushroom.
The mushroom.
Which is not technically a vegetable, but I'm going to say it is.
But for the purposes of today's show, I love mushrooms.
First of all, they're great for your immune system, fantastic for blood pressure, so many things that benefit from mushrooms.
And the best meat substitute there is.
I mean, they're meaty, they have protein, they are chewy, they're wonderful.
All right, so to help audit this, we're going to show you how mushrooms make a star ingredient for all your meals.
And we've got three best friends to help us figure out if we're telling the truth or not.
Ebony, Trine, and Ebony are all here to avoid mushrooms.
Because they don't like mushrooms.
They hate them.
But today they're going to give them a chance.
Just because Dr. Bittman, Mark Bittman, is here.
You ready to prove how good these mushrooms are?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know what to say.
First, the mushroom star we're going to start with is the mushroom trifalatti.
So go ahead and start tasting, my dear.
So what does trifalati mean, by the way?
It's a term that's applied to a combination of olive oil, garlic, and parsley, and usually served with mushrooms.
It's right, so three things have to be in it.
All right, show us how you make it.
Well, we have this beautiful assortment of mushrooms here, and these are wild, actually.
These are actually pretty large.
Hen's foot, yeah, they are.
But you know you can get more and more mushrooms in the market now so it's easy to do an assortment.
These are dried porcinis, dried and reconstituted porcinis.
So if you mix them with a combination of button mushrooms or shiitake or any combination, these will absorb some of the wild flavor of the porcinis and they just get better.
So mushrooms in a pan with some oil.
Ideally, at the bottom, there we go.
This will probably take a little longer than we have.
But the idea is...
TV time, we'll make it up.
Okay, we will.
We want the garlic in here too.
There you go.
Is this butter?
That's going to go in at the very end.
A lot of butter.
That's a little bit of butter.
It's a tablespoon for four servings.
I mean, come on.
Look at this.
Ladies.
Do you like the mushrooms?
Yeah, very good.
Harry and Harry.
I love it.
So they're not moving in garlic anymore.
All right, so onions.
I love it.
Here's a parsley from the chuffelatti, right?
Smells good.
And as long as we're jumping the gun here, this is the porcini soaking liquid.
So smell that.
Super flavorful.
It smells wild.
Do we add a little of that and some white wine?
Is it good white wine?
Yeah.
It's good wine.
And that'll just cook down and then you toss it with pasta and your extremely modest amount of butter.
Well, there's a lot of butter.
It is good though, isn't it?
Get the mushroom flavors, the wildness.
It actually smells good.
We haven't done anything.
It smells great.
That's our first option.
We got one more chance to convince you to turn you into mushroom lovers or mushroom haters.
The mushroom star, this next dish is the mushroom stir-fry.
So take it away, Tyranny.
And as we're talking about, what we're doing here is we're showing how similar dishes are, not how different, or how small changes can make big differences in flavor.
So this isn't that different.
We have mushrooms.
We've cut them up.
We're going to cook them in oil with some garlic and ginger.
There's no butter this time, I noticed?
No butter this time.
So radical of you.
And a bunch of vegetables.
I mean, this is.
You put the veggies before the mushrooms?
Onions?
It doesn't.
It doesn't matter.
I mean, as you say, TV time.
So all we're concerned is we don't burn the studio down.
But if you were making it at home, does it make a difference or not?
Well, I would put in the, I would do what I'm doing here.
I'd cook the onions, garlic, and ginger a little bit.
Then I'd add the mushrooms and the vegetables at the last minute.
The vegetables, the broccoli at least, is a little bit parboiled, so it'll cook faster in the stir-fry.
But this will look much prettier this way, too.
Carrots, celery, broccoli.
You got the colors in there.
Beautiful, right?
Ladies, thoughts?
Love it.
Love it.
Good.
Wait, would you love more?
I like the second fry.
The second one.
The second one better.
Yeah, the second one better.
I love the better.
Make this right because we made that right.
How long do we have to cook this for?
I'd say this would be done in 12 minutes, maybe 15 minutes.
12 minutes?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, all the work here is chopping.
Right.
Yeah, I love both of them.
I have to agree.
The second one's a little bit more flavorful to me.
But that's because of the butter in the first one.
Yeah, you don't like the butter in the first one.
It turns you off.
Ladies, thank you for being mushroom lovers today.
I think it'll change your life for the better.
Thanks for joining us today.
You can find all of Mark's recipes at Dr.Oz.com and in his new book, Kitchen Matrix is in Stores Now.
We'll be right back.
Next, the flavor doesn't stop there.
Some people say it's the most important meal of the day.
But what if you want a protein-packed breakfast, but you hate eggs?
We have amazing and healthy egglist options.
They're going to make you believe in breakfast again.
Coming up next.
Whoever said a doctor's visit isn't fun has obviously never been to the Dr. Oz show.
Is that right?
Make your appointment today.
Go to Dr.Rise.com slash tickets and sign up for free tickets.
Breakfast.
Now some say it's the most important meal of the day.
So what if you want a protein-packed breakfast, which is really important, but you hate eggs?
Author and big-time foodie Mark Bittman is here with his protein-rich breakfast for people who actually hate eggs.
So why is the eggs so synonymous with breakfast, do you think?
I mean, they are a great food.
Super high-protein, easy, good for you, etc.
And we used to have them all the time because we were all farmers.
Now we'd buy them, of course.
But they're not essential.
You don't need them.
Well, so all the egg haters out there, you can unite now.
We have rounded up amazing, healthy, and eggless options that are going to make you believe in breakfast again.
I've got Jessica, Ruth, and Wanda from the audience.
They're whipping up Mark's three favorite eggless breakfasts.
And he promises me, pardon the pun, they are egg cellent.
Yeah.
Can't blame me for that.
We'll be here all week.
So why do you like these three dishes these wonderful women are cooking up for us for breakfast?
Well, they're different.
They taste great.
They have different flavor profiles, much different flavor profiles.
And they're super high protein, which is what a lot of people want at breakfast.
All right, the first dish that Mark loves is the beans and greens breakfast burrito.
And Jessica's preparing it.
Hi, Jessica.
Why do you like burritos so much?
You know what?
I love this because I can make it the night before and it takes less than a minute in the morning to prepare.
So I'm a vegan, so this is delicious.
Kale, I love the spices.
It's fresh, it's healthy, it's so easy to make.
It's one of my favorite dishes for breakfast.
So we just plate it out of burrito?
Absolutely.
So I like to throw some pumpkin seeds, get some crunch.
I like it nice and spicy.
Let me just say this.
Black beans have more protein per ounce than eggs, right?
Peppitas have plenty of protein also.
I'm going to share this.
Kale has protein in the future.
That sounds good.
So that's good.
Protein's not an issue.
Thank you.
We keep working.
We're eating.
All right.
Do a nice job.
You're welcome anytime in my house to have one.
This is a really good choice.
I like the texture difference as well.
All right.
Keep it warm.
We'll come back to you.
All right.
Today's eggless breakfast.
Get over here, Mark.
I'm pulling around over there.
This is actually sort of a dessert, I thought.
Almond, cherry, and chocolate couscous.
Were you skeptical about this when you first heard about it?
Well, I know a thing or two about dessert, and who doesn't love dessert for breakfast?
Right.
It feels indulgent because it's got the almonds, which adds a lot of sweetness, the almond milk.
My daughter's lactose intolerant, so this is perfect for her.
We love couscous.
Dark cherries, I love dried fruit, and dark chocolate for breakfast.
Hello?
It's really good.
So it's couscous cooked with almond milk, with almond butter, and whole wheat couscous, so extra protein there.
Do you want some in a bowl?
May I?
Can I serve you?
You can serve me, too, but I'll tell you, it is a little sweet.
You have to enjoy the sweetness to get it, but it's got a lot of protein in your face.
You know, a lot of people, a lot of people are used to sweet breakfast and they like sweet breakfast.
That's true.
I wonder if you could use an almond milk that's not sweetened and that would adjust the sugar.
Of course, you could.
It's very good.
Do you want to?
I'm more of a sweet.
No, he's got work to do.
Get over here.
The last is a protein-packed.
I got caught chewing the last one.
Eggless breakfast, which Mark calls one of his favorites, broccoli and tofu scramble.
Are you a big scramble person, Wanda?
I am not really a big scramble person.
I really don't care for eggs, but I do need the protein.
But when you hear broccoli and tofu together in the same sentence, but when I did this, I was like, I was amazed.
I was really surprised.
You know, you put a little bit of fennel, a little bit of paprika, peppers, and a pinch of salt, and you're good.
Smoked paprika.
So actually, it's like eating bacon, I'm telling you.
And I actually like adding chili flakes too, because I love the heat.
No, this smoked paprika is real fine.
It's great stuff.
And you're right, it makes it taste like bacon.
Could you go for this?
Oh, yes, definitely.
I definitely would go for that.
And again, more protein than eggs.
Yeah, guys, if you don't like eggs, one of these will satisfy your palate.
I can guarantee you.
We covered the entire gamut.
I want to thank Jessica, Ruth, and Wanda for making these foods.
You want more recipes like this?
You can go to Dr.az.com or check out Mark's new book, Kitchen Matrix.
We'll be right back.
Next, we keep on cooking with Top Chef host and cookbook author, Pat Malachim.
She's revealing her secrets to making veggie noodles taste like the real thing.
Look how beautiful that looks.
Plus, our first Top Veggie Noodle Chef competition.
Next.
It's our big hygiene experiment when it comes to your jeans, hair, sheets.
If you ever ask why you really need to wash them, rebust your biggest misconceptions.
All new lives.
That's coming up tomorrow.
And celebrity host of Top Chef, Padme Lachmi, is here.
And for all of you pasta lovers, we're about to reveal the secret to making veggie noodles taste like the real thing.
I'm going to start off though with this pickling idea.
And I'm sort of surprised you like pickling because I found out that you're a super taster.
I am a super taster.
I only found this out a couple years ago, but I've always been able to decipher what's in a dish through my taste buds and my sense of smell.
It's very sensitive.
But super sensitive tasters oftentimes don't like too challenged.
I know, you're right.
It's interesting.
And I do.
I generally go toward things that are spicy or, you know, like a chili spicy with heat or sour.
I think for me, since most of taste is also smell, my nose is very sensitive.
I can, you know, kiss you and tell you what you had for breakfast yesterday.
That could be problematic.
Yes, I know.
And I'm also friends with Chad, so I'm not going to do that.
But I mean, this is why I can't wear commercial perfumes because it often gives me a headache.
So I wear essential oils that are natural and organic.
And I think that's the way it manifests itself in my life.
And I think it is the direct reason that I do what I do in food.
You know, if you saw me chop an onion, you would be highly unimpressed.
It's because of my taste buds.
So this is a recipe I talk about in the early stages of Krishna's life in the last part of the book.
Pickling is a great thing to do with your children.
I believe that the earlier you get children interested in the food that they eat and in cooking, the more they'll be invested and likely to eat the food they've had a hand in making.
And you will, you know, to give the gift of good eating and nutrition to a child, you benefit that child long after you're there and can control.
Educate their taste buds.
Absolutely.
So to the pickle.
You spiralize.
Yeah.
So I'm taking these carrots that have been so beautifully spiralized.
We are pickling peppers.
We're pickling hot peppers.
You can do it with any mixed vegetables.
We're adding some onions for some extra flavor.
And some coriander seed here.
Some dried oregano.
That is salt and sugar because you need both to balance.
And all the salt?
All of it, my dear.
And then this is just white distilled vinegar.
And these peppers will take about two to three months to be ready, depending on how fermented or pickled you like your peppers.
They will get mellow in heat the longer they pickle.
And the carrots, because they're spiralized and not in bigger, thicker slices, won't take two or three months.
You can use those in about very good.
You can use those in about probably a week or two, depending on how much crunch you want.
It's an art form here.
I would think that's a good thing.
Look how beautiful that looks.
Who wants this?
Here.
All right.
Don't drop it until the show's over.
All right.
Just stop pulling around over there.
We have a procession.
Now we're going to take advantage of your tasting skills that you've been talking about in our very own noodle chef competition.
Okay, great.
Hi.
Now to win the Veggie Noodle Chef competition, you have to impress Padma.
Ali, you're going to go first, Darlene.
Darlene, second.
But at the end of this all, we're going to award the coveted prize.
Are you ready?
I'm very ready.
Ali, what is your secret?
So I made a gluten-free chicken parmesan with spiralized rutabaga today, and I'm a proudly Italian-American woman, so I knew I wanted to show the power of spiralizing by lightning, lightning classic Italian dish.
So what we have here is a chicken that is breaded in almond meal that's been seasoned with basil, oregano, and then the star of the show is really the spiralized rutabaga and it has a similar butteriness that a potato would have, but it's lighter in carbs, lighter in calories, lower on that glycemic index.
And who doesn't love chicken parmer?
I hope you both do.
Wait, I do.
What is the heat that I'm getting?
Is that red pepper flavor?
A little bit there.
That's a good idea.
The rude bago tastes fantastic.
Oh, thank you.
And it's crispy too.
It sometimes gets, you know, mushy.
It's not at all.
It has much more flavor than regular pasta and it has bitter notes, like a lot of root vegetables do.
So it gives this a greater dimension and nuance than you would with just a plate of plain flour pasta, I think.
Are you going to keep eating here the whole time?
Please do.
That's a recipe.
There's plenty to go about.
Thank you.
Darlene, take it away.
All right.
I hope Padma, you're not full already.
I'm not.
Are you kidding?
I'm uniquely qualified to do my drunken noodles.
Drunken noodle, also known as Pad Ki Mau.
We have our hot, we have our spicy like me.
Okay.
Okay.
And we have our sweet and we have our salty.
And it's all in one.
And what I love about this dish is that it is protein rich and it's full of great vegetables.
We have our zucchini, and it's colorful and it's beautiful, right?
What's all in here?
I love this long.
What's this long?
That's actually zucchini.
That's the spiralized zucchini.
Okay.
Yes.
And then we have our string beans.
I'm trying to get a bite here.
Not having it.
Go ahead.
We have our string beans, we have our carrots, red pepper, we have our Thai basil.
You are spicy, aren't you?
I am.
I can tell.
I am, Dr. Harvard.
That has a good amount of heat.
It's delicious.
You're still eating Padma.
Aren't you going to judge?
I'm going to give a good, educated opinion here.
I need two bites.
What do you say?
And she's super tasty.
So it's like all going in.
Yeah, man.
I'm a super tasty.
This is a very complex dish.
Thank you.
And I do believe there's lots of spicy.
India, you enjoying it?
I am enjoying it very much.
Thank you.
Come over, let's put you to work.
You have to deliberate now.
So I'm going to give you the honors of awarding the very first making veggie noodles tastes like the real thing award.
The short name is the Veggie Noodle Prize.
Only one of these wonderful women can go home with it.
The other one, well, you know how it goes in Top Chef.
I know.
Your thoughts?
Do you want me to say who won?
No, you have to first send someone away.
That's the best part of the show.
Someone has to leave, right?
Take your spiralizer and leave.
Okay.
I loved how traditional this dish was, but unfortunately, Allie, you're going to have to pack your spiralizer and go.
I'm so sorry because this noodle dish that was Asian inspired was very colorful and beautiful and I like how many vegetables and protein there, you know, different kinds of both there were.
And I also think that I like that you hit all the notes of salty, sweet, spicy, and tart.
Since you're well fed, let's carry this over there.
It's heavy.
Here's your thigh.
Congratulations, Darling.
Ali, you're a winner, too.
You're merry welcome, Daddy Little.
I'll give you the spiralizer.
We'll be right back.
Nice to you guys.
We have the craziest health confessions.
So, what's the worst thing you've ever seen in a restaurant?
I would go to work and there would be hundreds of roaches.
Roaches like people work behind the scenes at your favorite restaurants, spill the beans.
We had a little bit of a rodent problem.
Then, the freakiest facts about food.
Big deal.
We're going to start with salt.
What if you've been using it wrong your whole life?
All nuance.
That's coming up on Wednesday.
We're back with top chef's Padma Lakshmi, and she has one more tip.
A lot of you are going to, well, you're going to want to try it.
It is her go-to cleanse when she says she needs to clean out those digestive pipes after all the eating she does on Top Chef.
So, what is it that helps you with that problem?
I call it cranberry Draino because it literally clears my pipes.
Cranberry Draino?
Yes, and it also makes me, it's not appealing, but I mean, it's one of my least appealing or appetizing recipes actually that I've ever done, but it's a very useful one.
You know, when I eat these copious amounts of food on Top Chef, I need something to keep my digestive tract healthy.
And I also, you know, want to eat the food of the contestants with joy and curiosity and be hungry, but I want something to help feel full, make everything go, you know, as it should.
And so, this is.
How fast after you take this Drano substance?
Does you receive it?
It's not that fast, I wish, but no, I actually will consume three of these a day on the set of Top Chef.
You really want to go?
You know, yeah, I mean, this is a whole nother show.
This is a whole nother show, but I mean, I, sometimes on Top Chef, I consume about seven or eight thousand calories a day.
Are you serious?
I'm not kidding.
I mean, think of all the food.
Even if it's 17 contestants and I take one or two bites of each dish like I did here.
Guys, if you can eat 7,000 calories a day and look like Padma, you want to take this cranberry Draino.
So, okay, so you got the, you got the cranberry.
Well, it's also because I exercise.
I don't want to, you know.
So, you have to use pure cranberry juice, not the sweetened kind, 100% pure cranberry juice.
It's very sour.
So, you want to only use about two ounces of it, or at the most, four.
This is one cup of green tea.
This is probably about six ounces.
You want to melt or dissolve, excuse me, about a teaspoon of honey in the green tea.
This is fiber powder, and this is one gram of vitamin C with also electrolytes and vitamin B and B complex and some other things.
You know, there are many brands you can buy in packets.
And this is ice just to the only sugar, this is unsweetened cranberry.
The only sugar is a little bit of the side is one teaspoon of honey.