Bringing "Plant-Based" to the Masses

It is now edging towards the later side of 2011. We still have a worldwide epidemic of obesity and chronic disease. Medical costs are literally bankrupting our nation...even though nobody is getting better by using the medications and procedures that absorb all of that money. Cancer is no longer the "C word" due to its overshadowing prevalence. Type 2 diabetes now occurs in eight percent of the population! A third of the U.S. population is overweight. 34% of the population is obese, 6% of which are "extremely obese."

But...despite the concern of hopelessness...

We indeed have a solution...

And the world is starting to listen...

Miracles occurred when we at EarthSave, Int. took 20+ participants, clients of the Sacramento Food Bank, through a Dr. McDougall-style plant-based program for 30 days...

The results? Multiple year-long medication prescriptions were halted, energy skyrocketed, weight and cholesterol levels plummeted, blood pressure normalized, morale was lifted, etc., etc.

A documentary about plant-based nutrition soared at nationwide box-offices...Forks Over Knives was the first full-length feature film on the topic to make it to dinner table talk. And the companion book officially made the New York Times Bestseller List.







Look where we have come! Vegan and veg-friendly restaurants continued to grow and thrive. Vegan cookbooks were hitting the shelves with a gusto...People like President Bill Clinton, Steve Wynn, and Twitter creator, Biz Stone, went plant-based.

To sum up the success and take people to the next level, I made an infotainment documentary with award-winning  filmmaker extraordinaire, Jesse Pomeroy, which has just released to DVD. To Your Health is best summed up as a fun and fast-paced "journey into the Plant-Based World."

To Your Health is an in-depth study of whole food, plant-based nutrition, debunking the most common myths associated with modern nutrition. Exploring your need for protein, calcium, supplements, metabolism, and other issues, To Your Health provides answers to your biggest questions.







Follow me as I travel the country to interview the biggest names in the Plant-Based World including Dr. T. Colin Campbell (The China Study), Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live), Dr. John McDougall (The McDougall Program), Dr. Neal Barnard (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine), and Dr. Pam Popper (the Wellness Forum), and many more including Brendan Brazier, Chef AJ, and Mike Anderson. My travels take me from Cornell University and the countryside of New Jersey to the San Francisco Bay and the far reaches of Central California. I visit the benevolent haven that is Farm Sanctuary along with incredible restaurants like Millennium and The Veggie Grill. This fun and entertaining journey is full of life-changing information and hope for a future of better health for all. 


Here is the trailer:

In addition, I wrote my first book...The Complete Idiot's Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition. It is the perfect resource for anyone curious or forehead-deep in plant-based nutrition. The book covers the entire lifespan-from pregnancy and infancy to seniors; all health and fitness levels (including those diagnosed with any of multiple chronic diseases to elite athletes); and varying degrees of experience with plant-based nutrition. There are also 40+ recipes, a chapter on stocking your kitchen and even one on exercise.



My second book is a cookbook which I co-authored with an incredibly talented chef, Beverly Lynn Bennett. Titled The Complete Idiot's Guide to Gluten-Free Vegan Cooking, you will find recipes for extraordinary items like gluten-free vegan sausages, biscuits, cakes, and more. Look for it on shelves on December 6th.

Let's continue to bring plant-based to the forefront of the masses. The timing is perfect and many curious people are finally piquing an interest. We are at the tip of the tipping point...let us take a stand and stop the destruction of our population and everything in its way...

Elevation

There is inspiration and then there is elevation. I have been blessed (or cursed) with a mad passion for plant-based, whole food nutrition...a passion that wakes me up early in the morning and keeps me up late at night, constantly striving for ways in which to share my passion, educate others, motivate, contribute. This depth of inspiration grows from the hope that I might help as many people and animals as possible...and then multiply that exponentially.

Usually, my days are filled with answering questions, defending my choices, guiding others to proper resources, explaining, expressing, describing, enlightening...

Last night at the EarthSave event honoring John Robbins and fundraising for our new beautiful program, Meals for Health, the ambiance was radiating with this feeling of home, comfort, inspiration, compassion. I felt surrounded by like minded people, filled with the same drive, fortitude and focus. This is why it is elevating, a step beyond inspiring, when all of that energy comes together and fills the soul, empowering the mind, body and spirit to proceed, to endure, to connect.

As I listened to John Robbins, my hero, speak, I had the same reaction as when I heard for the first time last Fall and the first time I discovered him as a young girl reading Diet for a New America. Physically, I cried. Mentally, I ventured. Spiritually, I soared. As I had tears running down my cheeks, I asked John's wife Deo (who I sat on the floor in front of in order to sill myself with enough energy to fuel me until the next visit) if she cries everyday from the wisdom and inspiration that is *John*. She said she cries every time she hears him speak. I can only imagine. The profundity and sagacity that pours out of John's lips every time they move is impossible to express. Thus, I cannot recommend enough his books, his talks.

The whole evening was invigorating. As the new Executive Director of EarthSave, just starting out with this new program, I could not sleep last night...eager to get started. We have the potential and the amazing people behind us (Dr. John McDougall as Medical Director, Rip Esselstyn and Ambassador, Blake Young as our partner at the Sacramento Food Bank, to name a few) to make a significant impact...and we will. There is no limit to the prospects for which this project is intended...to make a difference in people's lives. People who have limited or no access to resources, who are sick with chronic disease. We will show the world that food is everything...and can make or break human health. It will underscore the relevance of how sick we have become as a nation via our misguided educators and strident misinformation coming from the food and pharmaceutical industries. We are going to establish a precedence like none previously recorded.

So stay tuned...