America is Going Vegan, Exponentially

Vegetarian diets have been considered healthy in the past few decades, but studies in recent years have questioned the validity of dairy & egg products being healthy as well. With a constant influx of undercover investigations appearing on facebook, youtube, and Netflix documentaries, more and more Americans are becoming aware of what really goes on in factory farms and food processing plants (and eventually into their food.) With heart disease & cancer being the leading causes of death in the United States, and continuing research by Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (1) and NutritionFacts.org (2), people are making the connection between diet and health.

Poor health is not just an adult problem. What children are fed at a young age will determine their health & eating habits as they grow up. Childhood Type II Diabetes has been on the rise, affecting 208,000 U.S. citizens under age 20 and continues to grow (3). 16 million Americans have gone vegan or vegetarian as of 2009 (8), and 100 million have mentioned they started making healthier choices like switching from cow’s milk to dairy-free products or cutting red meat from their diet. The demand for vegan products is higher than ever in 2014, that even schools & daycares are creating plant-based menus for kids! Oh, and did I mention McDonald’s sales dropped 3.8% this month (9)? Yes, America is Going Vegan!

America is Going Vegan, Really! The nation’s first vegetarian public elementary school was announced in May 2014 at Public School 244 in Queens, NY (4). Today, MUSE School CA near Los Angeles has been announced that they will be the first official VEGAN school in the country in 2015 (5). The 2014 Golden Carrot Award winners via PCRM for the most healthy school menus were MUSE School CA, Lincoln Public School District in Lincoln NE, and Desert Garden Montessori School in Phoenix! Yes, we officially have at least FIVE healthy plant-based schools in the U.S. now. And TWO are local!

In addition to Desert Garden Montessori, you can check out the Little Learner’s Group Daycare in Mesa for a fully plant-based menu. The owner, Clarissa, is a former client of mine who has gone vegan through my Nutrition Coaching services, and she now raises her son vegan and wants to ensure good health of the children in her daycare as well. She put together a fully plant-based menu on her own and after extensive efforts, has gotten it approved! Yes, America is Going Vegan! (Golden Carrot Award was given for the Top Vegan School Lunch program.) America is going vegan one school at a time.

Contact me for More Info:

1. www.PCRM.org 2. www.NutritionFacts.org
3. http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/
4. http://school-stories.org/2014/05/inside-the-nations-first-vegetarian-public-school/
5. http://www.ecorazzi.com/2014/10/23/ca-school-to-become-first-vegan-school-in-the-country/#.VEmDVIOG5T8.facebook
6. http://www.pcrm.org/nbBlog/index.php/10th-anniversary-of-the-golden-carrot-award/ 7. http://www.thelittlelearnersgroup.com/
8. http://news.therawfoodworld.com/16-million-people-us-now-vegan-vegetarian/?utm_content=buffer19afa&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
9. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mcdonalds-profit-down-30-on-us-china-woes-2014-10-21

Personal Trainer in Tempe AZ | Plant-Based Nutrition Coach

Benefits of CHOCOLATE this Valentine’s Day!

So you’ve heard all the bad things about chocolate, like how it is high in fat and sugar and will make you gain weight if you overeat it… But, if you take away the dairy and the sugar, you might actually have a healthy product! Let’s take a look at the benefits of chocolate in it’s most valuable ingredient: cocoa.

Cocoa Powder comes from the cocoa bean, grown on cacao trees mainly in South America. Raw Cocoa is a nutritious plant that contains several minerals like calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, and zinc. (Sounds like the benefits of chocolate could mean good for your bone health… Now we are onto something!) Not only that, but cocoa powder by itself contains almost 20% of calories from protein!

Image by http://www.nutritiondata.self.com/

Cocoa powder can be used in so many ways! I like to come up with healthy ways to eat food we like, especially chocolate!! Here is a 3-ingredient cocoa recipe that you can try for Valentine’s Day:

2T cocoa powder
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup dried pitted dates

Instructions: Use a food processor to mix all of the ingredients together, then shape into cookie balls. No baking required. (This was a favorite in our first Vegan Challenge!)

I have so many more chocolate-y ideas! Join the Vegan Challenge for more cocoa-based recipes and you can experience all the benefits of chocolate! Contact Me for More Info: