Dr. Weil's cooking dos and don'ts; create healthier and more delicious meals with these easy tips from Andrew Weil, M.D

Natural Health, May-June, 2002 by Donna Coco

* DON'T ignore milk substitutes, like soy, almond, and rice milks. They are lower in saturated fat than whole milk, says. Well. They're also helpful if you are sensitive to the lactose in milk. If you drink milk; buy low-fat organic; conventional milk often contains residues of antibiotics, drugs, and hormones.

Fish, Meat, & Poultry

* DO eat fish, which is low in saturated fat and high in protein. Some fish--like mackerel, salmon, and sardines (one of Weil's favorites)--also contain high levels of healthy omega-3 fats. If you don't like the flavor of canned sardines, try them fresh, suggests Weil. "Fresh sardines are very delicious," he says, and they're becoming more commonly available in markets.

* DON'T focus a lot of your meals on red meat and unskinned poultry, because they're high in saturated fat. Weil won't eat these products for personal reasons, including the negative environmental impact of raising cattle and poultry.

* DO buy free-range, organic meat and poultry when you eat it. Conventional meat and poultry often have traces of drugs and hormones, notes Weil. Also, the unhealthy diets fed to animals on conventional farms produce less nutritious products.

* DON'T grill fatty meats and poultry; the more fat, the more likely it will drip onto the grill's heat source and produce carcinogenic smoke. And high-temperature grilling of animal protein produces carcinogenic compounds in the meat, says Weil. If you really want to grill, choose leaner cuts and marinate them first. "This is new research," says Weil, "that marinating flesh foods greatly reduces their carcinogenic potential when they're grilled--especially [in marinades with ingredients like] citrus juices, tumeric, and garlic."

* DO consider fake meat alternatives; they're low in fat and high in nutrients. "I really like soy stuff, so I eat a lot of baked tofu, soy meats. I love tempeh," Weil says. "I also like gluten a lot. There's canned Chinese gluten that is really great. It's such an easy dinner, Sometimes I'll just steam some broccoli and mix it with a can of braised gluten."

Donna Coco is the managing editor of Natural Health. She was thrilled to learn from Weil that olives, one of her favorite snacks, are as healthy as olive oil.