The Science Behind Veggie Mush

Eating plants is good for you

Here we’ll go through some of the science behind whole food plant-based diets and explain why Veggie Mush contains the ingredients it does.

Veggie Mush meals are based on Dr. Michael Greger’s book How Not to Die and his Daily Dozen recommendations for daily meals. His site, nutritionfacts.org, is a great resource for evidence-based nutrition and whole food plant-based eating!

Beans

Beans are high in fiber and protein. They have a low glycemic index, meaning they cause less of a spike in blood sugar than other foods containing the same amount of carbohydrates. They also cause a “second meal effect” – hours after eating beans (even overnight!), they can moderate the blood glucose spike from your next meal.

Beans may be associated with increased lifespan – a 2004 study found an 8% decrease in mortality for every 20 g of beans consumed daily.

Learn more about beans here.

Oats

Veggie Mush contains rolled oats as a primary source of carbohydrates. Oats are high in fiber, protein, and other nutrients such as iron, zinc, manganese, selenium, magnesium, and phosphorus. Oats are whole grains, which have relatively lower glycemic index than refined grains and are associated with decreased risk for heart disease and all-cause mortality. Oats are also quick to cook compared to other grains.

Cruciferous vegetables

Vegetables and dark leafy greens contain many important nutrients, but one class of vegetables stands out above all the others: cruciferous vegetables like kale, broccoli, and cabbage. This group of vegetables contain tons of nutrients as well as antioxidants and other phytochemicals that are vital for things like immune function and lowering cholesterol.

Phytochemical just means “plant chemical”, and refers to the thousands of molecules found in plants, most of which are not considered essential nutrients for humans. The role of phytochemicals in diet is a relatively new field; however there is some evidence that increasing phytochemical intake can decrease risks of cancers and a wide range of other diseases.

Cruciferous vegetables also contain the precursors for sulforaphane, which is a phytochemical that helps with your liver’s detoxification system. Drying the vegetables does decrease their sulforaphane content due to the high temperatures involved. Veggie Mush contains dried cruciferous vegetables because they are more shelf-stable, but if you want to maximize sulforaphane content, you should eat fresh vegetables, or cook your veggies at optimal temperatures.

Seeds

Nuts and seeds are a great source of plant-based fats. Veggie Mush seed & spice mixes contain ground sunflower and flax seeds.

Sunflower seeds provide most of the fat in Veggie Mush, as well as a significant amount of fiber and protein. They are high in vitamin E, selenium, niacin (vitamin B3), magnesium, and pantothenic acid (vitamin B5).

Flax seeds are high in fiber and have benefits ranging from helping control hypertension and inflammation to reducing the risk of some cancers.

Turmeric and black pepper

While eating a whole food plant-based diet increases phytochemical intake generally, there are a few specific phytochemicals that have been shown to improve health. Turmeric and black pepper provide some of these specific phytochemicals.

Turmeric contains curcumin, a powerful antioxidant that also gives the spice its brilliant yellow color. Curcumin has been shown to reduce damage to DNA. Another phytochemical in black pepper, piperine, can make curcumin 20x more bioavailable, which is why we include both these spices in Veggie Mush.

Salt

There is strong evidence that higher sodium intake is correlated with higher blood pressure, which also means higher risk for cardiovascular disease. The FDA recommends eating no more than 2300 mg of sodium per day (roughly one teaspoon of salt), and the American Heart Association recommends an even smaller amount – 1500 mg (about ⅔ teaspoon of salt). Americans eat more than 3400 mg of sodium per day on average. A large fraction of that sodium comes from processed foods and salt injected into meat, and it’s not uncommon for people eating a lot of those foods to be eating upwards of 6000 mg of sodium per day. Vegetarians and vegans tend to eat less salt, but still need to watch out for high salt content in processed vegetarian and vegan foods. Eating a whole food plant based diet without a lot of added salt is a great way to manage your salt consumption!

Because people have such widely varying preferences, we offer No Salt, Standard Salt, and High Salt variants of Veggie Mush. If you eat 1 Umami Mush, and 1 Cruciferous Mush in a day, the Standard Salt version provides a total of 1350 mg of sodium (to stay well below the FDA recommendation), while the High Salt version provides about 2580 mg of sodium (above the FDA recommendation). (Breakfast Mush has very little sodium so it doesn’t factor in here.)

Note that without added salt, the plants in Mush provide very little sodium – around 20 mg per meal. Your body does need some sodium to function, and this may not be enough! So if you’re eating only No Salt Mush, you may want to add a little salt or get your sodium from other sources, unless your doctor or nutritionist has told you otherwise.

We use iodized salt in Veggie Mush to make sure we provide enough iodine. If you eat 2 meals of Veggie Mush with Standard Salt, you’ll get 95% of your RDA for iodine (150 ug).

Putting it all together: the Daily Dozen

Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen is a checklist of foods to try to eat every day. Let’s see how Veggie Mush does!

Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen from nutritionfacts.org

Beans: Veggie Mush meals contain ¼ cup of dehydrated chickpeas, which turns into about ½ cup of beans per meal when cooked. Eating 3 servings of Veggie Mush per day meets the bean requirement for the Daily Dozen. ✅

Berries: Breakfast Mush contains ⅛ cup of dried blueberries, which meets half the daily berry requirement.

Other fruits: Breakfast Mush contains ¼ cup of dried fruit, which meets half of the fruit requirement.

Cruciferous vegetables: Cruciferous Mush contains roughly ¼ cup of dehydrated broccoli (equivalent to ½ cup hydrated), which meets the Daily Dozen requirement! And Umami and Cruciferous Mush also both contain ⅙ cup dehydrated kale as well. ✅

Greens: Cruciferous and Umami Mush contain ⅙ cup of dehydrated kale each, for a total of ⅓ cup dehydrated (equivalent to ⅔ cup hydrated). This fulfills ⅔ of the requirement for dark leafy greens.

Other Vegetables: Cruciferous and Umami Mush contain about ½ cup combined of dehydrated tomato, mushroom, butternut squash, and red bell pepper. These roughly double in volume when cooked, meeting the 1 cup requirement for other vegetables. (Really, the dehydrated veggies are in much smaller pieces than fresh vegetables are typically measured in, so 1 cup is probably an underestimate. Going by the calorie content, we estimate that 1 serving of Cruciferous Mush and 1 serving of Umami Mush together provide the equivalent of about 3 cups of chopped fresh vegetables.) ✅

Flaxseed: each mush meal contains 1 tsp of ground flax, so 3 meals meets the flax requirement of 1 tbsp per day. ✅

Nuts & Seeds: each mush meal contains just under ¼ cup of sunflower seeds, so each serving on its own meets the Daily Dozen requirement. ✅

Herbs & Spices: each Cruciferous and Umami meal contains 1/16 tsp of turmeric and a small amount of black pepper. The ceylon cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom in Breakfast Mush add up to 1.25 tsp per meal. This exceeds the requirement, but we still recommend adding your herbs and spices of choice to make your Mush as delicious as possible! ✅

Whole Grains: each Mush meal contains ⅓ cup of rolled oats, which approximately doubles to ⅔ cup volume when cooked. 3 servings of mush per day easily therefore gives a total of 2 cups of cooked oats, meeting the whole grain requirement of 1 ½ cups per day. ✅

So to meet the Daily Dozen guidelines, you can eat 1 serving each of Breakfast, Cruciferous, and Umami Mush, as well as a little extra fruit and dark leafy greens. You're on your own for beverages, exercise, and Vitamin B12! (Veggie mush does not provide any B12, so it's important to take a supplement if you're eating mostly plants).

See our nutrition spreadsheet for complete Veggie Mush nutrition information.