PlantPure Nation.com has a 10 day challenge that is well designed that will jump start you on this path. Learn more here

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (www.PCRM.org) has a 21 day Kick Start program which is very well designed and will guide you on a healthy and sustainable plan to health.
Learn more here

Rip Esselstyn's ENGINE 2 Diet is perhaps the best place to start

GET DARK GREENS INTO YOUR DIET EVERY DAY
(Probably the single most important change)

Watch these 4 videos and implement them all

CHAPTER ONE: GREEN JUICE

CHAPTER TWO: PINA COLADA KALE

CHAPTER THREE: KALE SALAD

There is no short cut or pill to quick health. In order for the human body to function at it's highest level of health and self healing you MUST:

A) UNCLOG - Rid your diet of all foods that clog up your circulatory and digestive system so that blood and thus oxygen can flow freely to every cell. This means ALL meat, dairy, sugar, oils, gluten and added oils should be eliminated from the diet. They are all health damaging foods.

B) IMMUNE UP - In order to get your immune system working at its peak you must rid your diet of the foreign proteins that cause an immune response that attacks your own tissue and you must rid your diet of the substance that shuts the immune system down for hours. To do these things you must rid your diet of every molecule of dairy products and all sugar and sweeteners. Your total fructose intake should not exceed 15 grams a day (about one apple). Eat mushrooms, broccoli sprouts and other superfoods like garlic and dark greens. An immune system in top shape is your only protection from cancer.


C) RAW SUPER FOODS in; JUNK FOOD OUT - Your diet needs to be made up of whole, organic plant foods - heavy on the many types of green leafy vegetables like kale, collards, spinach, bok choy, parsley, cilantro, chard, arugula, romaine and brussel sprouts. Eliminate all foods from a can, box, and most from jars. Frozen bagged fruit and vegetables are OK. Try to buy organics. Grow your own food. Sprouts and micro greens can be grown indoors year round. 2012 reports indicate broccoli sprouts might be beneficial in fighting cancer. Get a juicer and juice vegetables and greens - super healthy! See this Juicer review. Snack on small amounts of almonds or pecans. Avoid roasted nuts - that is the same as cooked oils - very inflammatory.

Add anti-inflamatory foods to your smoothie/juice like ginger and tumeric root.

Your 90% there already - two more to go.

D) DETOX - The more you learn about how dirty our food supply is with added chemicals the more disgusted you will be. By eliminating meat and dairy you have already rid your diet of over 80% of the toxins most Americans ingest daily but there is still a lot of toxins in what's left.
Drink lots of reverse osmosis filtered water, or by bottled water in glass containers, or trusted well water ( a risk these days) At the very least drink city water that has been filtered with a good carbon filter to take out the chlorine but in this case you are still consuming the fluoride and toxins in the fluoride additives. Avoid canned goods and plastic water bottles because of BPA and even the BPA free packaging is not safe if plastic. Don't take any over the counter med's or prescriptions (don't stop current med's without consulting a doctor but if you follow this diet advice in a short time you likely won't need any med's). Try not to let your food touch nonstick teflon surfaces, aluminum or plastic (newer ceramic nonstick coatings are much safer and work great). Avoid all GMO foods by buying only organic especially corn and soy.

E) EXERCISE, SUNSHINE, RELAXATION - Don't underestimate the importance of all three of these. Strive to do something every day to get the heart pumping for at least 15 minutes. Once you follow A, B & C above you will have so much energy, your weight will come down and exercising will be much easier to do. Start out by walking briskly and work your way into more fitness training. Strong bones are built by loading them through exercise, not calcium pills.

Most people in the US are low in Vitamin D which you get from sunshine hitting your skin. Get outside and expose your skin at least 20 minutes or 40 minutes if dark skinned. In winter, spring, or fall or extended cloudy periods you should be taking a good vitamin D supplement. The only other supplement we recommend is Vitamin B12 which you need if you are not eating any meat.
Read more about B12 here

Stress causes chemical changes to the body that are unhealthy. Try to rid your life of unnecessary drama and take time out to read, meditate, pray or do yoga.


NOTE: The above tips may seem extreme to you - they are!. They are not only based on the latest science and epidemiological studies, but real world experience we have witnessed with our own eyes. Also we have studied and visited some to the best healing lifestyle centers in the country and almost without exception they operate on the above diet principals. If you step back from our industrialized world and think how we would eat if in the wild (like a gorilla) the above advice takes us to the natural diet our bodies are designed to thrive on. It's almost unheard of that wild animals get cancer but the three animals (humans, dogs and cats) that eat foods highly processed with ingredients not of their natural diet are experiencing cancer epidemic.

Quick tips for EATING:
1. The single simplest thing you can do for good nutrition is to start your day with a green smoothie blender drink. This is a mix of your favorite fruits and green leafy vegetables mixed with water to make a taste, nutritious meal in a glass.
Adding fresh ginger root, ground flax seed and berries is beneficial as well.

Mix up the greens you use every day from the list in C above. Frozen bagged organic fruit works well here but more greens than fruit is better - just enough to sweeten it a bit.

2. Replace cows milk with organic soy milk, almond milk, hemp milk or rice milk.
(avoid those with carrageenan & "natural flavors" and buy the unsweetened versions)

My two favorites are Trader Joes organic soy and Tempt brand

3. Eating out - Use the web site www.happycow.net to find healthy vegan restaurants in your area. In Cincinnati we have the LOVING HUT Cafe in Pleasant Ridge or The Rooted Juicery in Oakley. It is difficult to get oil free, healthy organic food from any restaurant so keep eating out to a minimum. Most chain restaurant employees don't even know what's in their food. See our Resources page and scroll down to see a list of local restaurants that have good vegan options. My favorite fast food: Chipotle burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, tomatoes, hot salsa, guacamole and lettuce. Biggest negative here is aluminum cookware and lots of sodium.
Most fast food and national chain restaurants offer nothing for healthy vegan's. Until they do I recommend avoiding them. Ethnic restaurants seem to always have good vegan options, especially Thai, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Sushi, and Mediterranean.

4. Salads - Salads are your new best friend and you should put a major effort into learning how to make a variety of interesting salads using a variety of dark green leafy vegetables. Most creamy dressings have dairy in them. Most other dressings are loaded with unhealthy GMO oils. Try the variety of fat free vinaigrettes like raspberry walnut, balsamic vinaigrette, garlic vinaigrette. Preferably make your own no oil fresh dressing with lime or lemon juice and tahini or avocado.
Try adding chopped fennel, bok choy, spinach, marinated or fresh peppers, marinated artichoke, olives, fruits and berries, raisins, walnuts, pecans, black beans, etc. Be creative. Dark green leafy vegetables are some of the most nutritious foods on earth. Iceberg lettuce not so much. Try to have a big salad every day. Don't like salads - look at this page and you will understand the nutritional value of green leafy's.

5. LUNCH - can be the most difficult meal. It's best to pack a good lunch if your not home. Make a vegetable sandwich with stone ground mustard or vegan mayonnaise (whole foods or Super Krogers health section) use collard leaf to make a wrap instead of bread. A green smoothie makes a great meal. Bean salads, cole slaw salads, broccoli salad, cold gluten free pasta salads also work well as lunch. Soups and chili can be a good staple for lunches but all commercial soups are full of MSG so it's best to make your own with veggie stock like Pacific brand or Trader Joes organic veggie stock - the only two I know of that don't have MSG.

6. DINNER - Explore rice dishes, gluten free pasta, lentil dishes, quinoa, baked organic sweet potatoes(so much better than non-organic), squash, Just make a couple vegetable side dishes and a simple salad. As you have the time explore the huge variety of ethnic foods and gourmet RAW food dishes and you will never be bored eating this way. It's a challenge to avoid all added oils but strive to get there. The results are worth it to unclog your arteries that you have spent your whole life clogging up.

Easy Meal Ideas

Here are some meal ideas that are staples on my table regularly:

u Bake several ORGANIC sweet potatoes (non organic taste bad- not sweet)  on Monday,  warm them up in a pan for an easy meal prep any day of the week. Bake at 350° for 60 min or a bit longer if big ones. Put foil under to catch drippings.

u Grill/broil/bake  a portabella mushroom cap with the stem removed and fill the 2 caps with 1 chopped shallot, 1 clove chopped garlic, ½ chopped jalapeno, 1 shot sherry vinegar, 1 shot balsamic vinegar, pink salt and black pepper.
I broil 12” from burner at 400 for 1^st 10 min then bake another 10-12 or  grill on medium – never flip. Sherry vinegar only at Whole foods or likely Jungle Jims.

u Wild Rice blend by Lundberg, a taste blend of 5 rices, cook a cup or two without oil , 2 cups water / 1 cup rice, add 1 tbs pink salt to water, cook (45min) and add a bunch of mushrooms cooked in a little balsamic vinegar and a splash of water to keep from drying out when pan sautéing.
Season to taste with pink salt and black pepper. Add cooked mushrooms to rice when nearly or fully done cooking.

u Cook some QUINOA using veg stock (Pacific organic or Trader Joes organic – all others have MSG) season with a little pink salt & pepper. Can add chopped onions/veggies into it to make it more interesting. Cooks fast like 10 min

u  Saute in small amount of water chopped shallot, celery and garlic, then add 2 oz tomato paste, 1 tbs smoked paprika and cooked (canned) beans of your choice – I like Cannelli (white). To avoid cans, I use cardboard packaged beans from Whole foods or better to soak dry beans overnight then cook for 90 min or so.

To these “main dishes”  I add 2 of the following.

u Broccoli steamed 5-6 min with a lime wedge juiced on it on plate
u Frozen peas cooked in water 4 min then tossed in pink salt and pepper.  Trader Joes has best deal on frozen organic peas/organic, corn niblets
u Green beans steamed 6 min, then tossed in pink salt and pepper
u Small salad – put some effort into making interesting salads using darker greens, not iceberg lettuce.  Better to make own dressing with avocado or tahini, lemon juice, herbs.
u Butternut squash – cooked with sweet potatoes. Cleaned and prepared with a little maple syrup (omit if healing cancer) )and a pinch of cardamom, pink salt and pepper
u Asparagus steamed or grilled then tossed in very small amount of olive oil (omit if healing heart disease) and pink salt and pepper
u Corn on the cob, use olive oil instead of butter(omit if healing heart disease), pink salt.

Breakfast –
u Uncooked rolled oats soaked 10 min or less in Almond(Pacific), organic soy(Trader Joes), or hemp milk(Pacific), Add cinnamon, allspice, honey if milk is unsweetened, banana, and fresh organic berries.
u Smoothy – my favorite is 1” whole pineapple, 1 apple cored, handful of kale, small thumb sized peeled raw ginger, 1 red beet, any other greens or sprouts I have, blend till smooth (3½hp Blendtek or Vitamix  blender is the right tool)
u In a hurry – glass of water and juice of ½ a lemon

Lunch – I make a batch of potato salad or coleslaw every week which is usually my lunch.

u Eating out it’s a salad or Chipotle salad bowl with brown rice, black beans, tomatoes, medium salsa, guacamole, lettuce, then I add chipotle hot sauce.
Note Chipotle is the only chain restaurants that have no MSG (free glutamate) in the food that I know of.

Other tips: stay away from all forms of cooked oils.
Try to eat raw foods for breakfast and lunch, then cooked for dinner

To your health!

See our recipe pages for more ideas