It wasn’t long before I began proudly announcing my status as a plant eater. I started using negative, derogatory language to describe animal products and became judgmental of people who still ate factory-farmed meat and ultra-processed foods. I was that vegan: the one who stereotypes others by the contents of their shopping carts and brings up the gruesome details of factory farming during meals.

Being plant-based became part of my identity.

I was moved to teach classes and give talks. I went to vegan festivals and handed out vegan pamphlets while wearing pro-vegan t-shirts. I blogged about vegan food, got certified as a plant-based health coach, and launched a business under the plant-based banner. The budding alt protein movement caught my attention as the industry grew, and I threw myself into it with nerdy abandon as a content marketer for plant-based companies.

What started as a quest for better health turned into a personal brand—with a hefty side of self-righteousness.

I know I’m not alone in this. The trajectory repeats itself in all diet cultures, resulting in tribalism that feeds feelings of grandiosity among its members and ostracizes anyone who steps outside the group’s self-determined dogma. These myopic, restrictive bubbles trap their members with cherry-picked science and the threat of being canceled for any deviation or disagreement.

But my thoughts and beliefs are shifting. I’m disturbed by infighting among plant-based factions and fanatical attitudes toward dietary perfection. Differing opinions about protein and fat have led me to step outside the whole food, plant-based bubble and listen to scientific analyses from other voices who take a more measured approach.

I’m starting to ask myself: why are we plant-based? Are we truly standing for something and protecting our health? Or are we clinging to a dietary “identity” that’s really a cage in disguise?

Slaves to dietary perfectionism

There’s no denying that the average American eats too many ultra-processed foods and not enough fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. Plant-based diets could significantly impact the national disease burden in a society where 60% of adults have chronic conditions linked to lifestyle factors.

For many, dietary change is a godsend for managing, reducing, or reversing disease. But for others, it becomes a trap of restrictive rules from which they can’t escape.

I saw this firsthand at a vegan conference I used to frequent. Many attendees trudged the halls like living skeletons, just this side of emaciated. They scrutinized the food buffet and avoided anything they considered artificial or “bad,” regardless of how meticulously the dishes had been prepared to meet their dietary preferences. They’d consumed so much plant-based health and nutrition information that they were almost paralyzed—afraid of oil, fearful of fats, and wary of added salt and sugar.

That’s where I found myself early in my plant-based journey, and I still struggle with some of those rigid thoughts and behaviors.

Google has the power to suck me in for 20 minutes as I try to figure out exactly how much protein I need to support my workouts on a plant-based diet compared to an omnivorous one.

Variations in caloric absorption between different forms of the same foods haunt me when I plan meals or make snacks.

I worry that switching from a savory, veggie-packed breakfast to a bowl of oatmeal with fruit and nuts for just one morning will throw off my entire carefully calibrated diet—even though the “rules” by which I calibrate are of my own making.

Social media only exacerbates the problem. Heated debates fly from every direction and clash in a mind-bending kaleidoscope of questions: should we go SOS-free? Follow a Nutritarian diet? Get in line with the McDougall plan? What about the Esselstyn diet—must we all adhere to its stringent protocol because we have the beginnings of heart disease due to our mothers’ diets when we were in the womb?

For those just starting to explore a plant-based lifestyle, the flagrant fanaticism is enough to make them give up before they begin. The potential health benefits don’t seem to be worth the trouble if they come with an unyielding framework that dictates every bite.

Fear: an industry standard

Far from leading people to better health, these frameworks perpetuate fear: fear of gaining weight, fear of developing chronic diseases, fear of premature death.

This kind of crippling terror in relation to food is so insidious that it has its own name: orthorexia.

Coined in 1998, the term refers to “an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating” and is characterized by:

• Fear of eating foods deemed “unclean” or “impure”

• Fear of not having access to “safe” foods

• Increasing restrictions on personal food choices

• Obsession with content centered around healthy food or healthy eating

• Unhealthy interest in or criticism of what others eat

Though not an official eating disorder, orthorexia is a real condition—one that runs rampant in plant-based communities. It sucks the joy out of eating, leading sufferers to denigrate themselves if they deviate from their personal dietary rules. These behaviors and thought processes can easily progress to a clinical eating disorder if the environment and community continue to reinforce the supporting narrative.

Us vs. them: The plant-based superiority complex

Niche plant-based and vegan communities have long spearheaded such reinforcement, but it’s beginning to spread to the mainstream plant-based movement as well. There’s a pervasive “us-vs-them” mentality that begets negativity, disharmony, and verbal abuse.

Even within apparently supportive plant-based communities, there are divisions: strict vegan, sugar free, gluten free, whole food plant based, whole food plant based no oil, whole food plant based salt-oil-sugar-free, ultra-low-fat plant based (no nuts!)…the list goes on. Each tribe has a particular “rule book” that members must not question for fear of being criticized, ostracized, or canceled. If someone faces a health problem that the community’s rules are purported to prevent or cure, they’re told that they’re Doing It Wrong and that returning to the prescribed dietary pattern without wavering is the only way to avoid the dire consequences of chronic disease.

Where do we draw the line? Do we turn up our noses at Grandma because she still uses animal products to cook her traditional dishes? Do we snub our friends who eat meat (or dairy, or oil, or sugar, or…)? Do we degrade ourselves for not attaining the perfect plant-based ideal of our own making?

Breaking Free

And so I find myself at a crossroads. Although adopting a plant-based diet has improved my digestion, minimized my skin issues, and eliminated my joint pain, it hasn’t solved every health problem. It’s not the magic bullet that its staunchest proponents insist it to be, and the constant internal battle over rules and frameworks has taken a toll on me psychologically.

As someone who’s struggled with both anorexia and bulimia, I find myself frustrated with the rigidity. I’m sick of scrutinizing restaurant menus and sitting on the sidelines at group meals. I want the freedom to choose what I eat—even if it’s not always plant based.

And sometimes I wonder: what if, one day, the health issues I still grapple with made it inadvisable or impossible to stay plant-based? Would I lose my "identity" as a plant-based advocate—or even my livelihood working with plant-based brands? Would harsh judgment be directed at me as it has been at others in the community who failed to maintain the purity apparently required by those in this niche?

I don’t want to grapple with fear over whether having one half of a farm-raised deviled egg at Christmas or experimenting with A2 cheese might get me booted out of the space where I’ve spent the last 13 years making plant-based friends and connections. And I’d like to drop the superiority complex associated with the number of years I’ve been eating only plants.

Do I still believe that eating plants is the healthiest diet? Yes.

But I don’t think we have to be 100% rigid about it.

The movement I joined with such enthusiastic belief in its ability to improve people’s health has become—in many ways—a stifling, judgmental bubble that leaves no room for dissent.

Our rigidity inseparably intertwines diet and lifestyle choices with people’s identities and breeds fear, guilt, and disordered eating patterns.

I, for one, am ready for more flexibility to figure out the best way to support my health and the health of those around me—including developing a healthy relationship with food.

Which might just mean having a deviled egg this Christmas.

This was a hard (and scary) piece to write. I’m grateful for the help and support of the Foster collective in putting it together, especially Sarah Ramsey, Sara Campbell, Anthony Pica, Jude Klinger, Steven Ovadia, Russell Smith, Chris Angelis, Diana Klatt, Lyle McKeany, Zoe McDonald, and Sixian Lim.

I looked up from stacking kale into the produce cooler along the wall, unsurprised. It was a typical question from customers at the local co-op where I did my weekly Friday evening work shift in the produce department. The store’s focus on fresh, natural and organic drew the kind of crowd who preferred to avoid anything they believed might contaminate their food.

“Over there, along that wall, on the right,” I replied, pointing to the opposite side of the produce department. “We also have local apples at the other end.”

“Are they organic?” the customer wanted to know. (This, too, was typical.)

“No, but we don’t stock anything that’s been bathed in pesticides.” I could assert this with confidence based on the co-op’s food sourcing guidelines. “And they’ll taste better because they didn’t come from as far away.”

“Thanks, but I think I want the organic,” the customer replied without hesitation. Never mind that the local apples were delivered from a nearby farm just a few days before, while the organic ones came all the way from New Zealand.

This conversation repeated itself countless times during the five years I spent working those shifts. It represents one of many points of confusion I witnessed among consumers—the very same consumers that the plant-based industry categorizes as “educated” or “savvy.” These consumers, the assumption goes, understand where their food comes from and how it’s produced and use this information to make better purchasing decisions.

But chatting with shoppers opened my eyes to a different reality: Many “educated” consumers are actually confused consumers. When deciding what to buy, consumers rely on what they believe about information—not what the information actually means.

Looking only at purchasing behaviors and self-reported preferences leads companies to erroneous conclusions about why consumers choose one product over another. Decisions about R&D and product positioning based on these conclusions are a waste of time, money and effort that can sometimes spell the end of a brand.

Getting product attributes and messaging right is essential for the plant-based and alternative protein industries to start driving meaningful dietary changes. Brands need to look beyond what “educated” consumers know to uncover how their beliefs influence what they put in their carts.

Consumer confusion: Insights from the co-op

Talking to people while they shop isn’t a luxury available to every brand founder or marketing team, but I had plenty of time during those five years of weekly shifts to engage in dozens of enlightening customer conversations.

These observations showed me that consumers want to make the best choices for their health, but all they know how to do is follow sets of food rules they’ve cobbled together from disparate health information they’ve heard and read over the years. These sets of rules influence how consumers think about plant-based products.

The plant-based movement faces the challenge of guiding its customers from confusion to understanding through thoughtful product positioning and marketing messages. To do that, brands need to rethink their own beliefs—beliefs about who their target customers actually are and how to deliver information in a way that helps those customers understand how plant-based foods fit into their dietary patterns.

It all starts with understanding what’s going on in consumers’ heads when they make food choices. Here are five main beliefs I encountered at the co-op and what they mean for plant-based brands.

1) Everything that isn’t organic is bathed in pesticides (and is probably GMO)

Consumers equate “organic” with “safe.” In their minds, buying organic means getting food free from pesticides and genetic modification. Non-organic food, particularly produce, is automatically suspect. If a food doesn’t sport an organic label, customers assume it’s covered in scary chemicals or harbors some bizarre manmade mutation that could do who knows what to their biology.

It doesn’t matter that organic farmers also use pesticides and that only five GMO crops are sold in U.S. produce departments as of this writing. Most people don’t know this. In fact, they’re so convinced that organic is good and conventional is bad that they’ll avoid local produce grown with minimal pesticide use in favor of organic produce grown thousands of miles away.

(They’ll also avoid seedless watermelons and grapes—because clearly anything without seeds must have been biologically manipulated in a lab. This is such a common misconception that the co-op put up myth-busting signs in the produce department to explain that it’s not true.)

2) The more labels a food has, the safer (and healthier) it is

The obsession with organic shows that fear is a strong driver of purchasing behavior for health-conscious consumers. They’re concerned about—or outright terrified of—how pesticides and GMOs might affect their health. The same goes for any ingredient or farming practice vilified by the media or denounced by influential voices in natural and holistic health circles.

“The rise of ‘clean eating’ and the marketing of ‘natural’ foods has not made us feel safer. Instead, these trends leave us less certain and less confident in the food choices we make.” - Jack A. Bobo, Why Smart People Make Bad Food Choices

Some producers take advantage of these perceptions and slap as many labels on their packaging as possible to signal that they’re the safest, healthiest choice—and people fall for it. I saw this trend unfolding during the latter part of my time at the co-op, most notably with a brand of organic cauliflower that was also Non-GMO Project Verified. Not only is there no such thing as GMO cauliflower (yet), but the USDA also requires organic foods to be free of GMOs—making for a stunningly redundant label.

The problem with this practice is that it only makes customers freak out more. They begin to believe a specific label or combination of labels makes one product superior to another even if the labels are redundant or the products are the same. Data from the International Food Information Council’s yearly Food and Health Survey bears this out: People perceive “natural” foods as healthier and shun anything that resembles a “chemical.”

3) Buying local is vital (so bring on the Northeastern oranges)

Although the local label continues to take the back seat to organic most of the time with co-op shoppers, it’s still an important signal. And, like organic, it’s wildly misunderstood.

Take, for instance, the customer who asked for local oranges. This would have been a reasonable request in, say, California or Florida. But given that the co-op is in upstate New York, it simply showed that the customer had no idea what “buying local” entailed, even though she was convinced she should do it.

The illusion of year-round seasonality magnifies this misconception. Even “educated” consumers predicate their diets on the assumption that all types of produce will be available regardless of the time of year. They don’t realize they’d have to subsist on greens and garlic scapes in the spring and potatoes and squash in the winter if they stuck with the standard of buying local. Blinded by the produce section’s timeless uniformity, aspiring locavores prioritize availability over health, environmental and social benefits.

4) The last bunch of kale in the bin can’t possibly be fresh

Whether or not it’s local, consumers want produce to be perfect. This bias persists to an insane degree despite efforts to normalize “ugly” fruits and vegetables. Most people won’t buy produce that has even the slightest sign of inferiority. From a tiny ding in an apple skin to a single spot of brown on a leaf, flaws are deemed unacceptable.

I had customers ask if there was any fresh lettuce only minutes after I filled the bins in the cooler. I watched a fellow produce worker put all the salad mixes with the current day’s date into the clearance section because customers were convinced the greens were moments away from going bad. And I can’t tell you how many times we culled the last bunch of kale or handful of potatoes because almost nobody would buy produce that was sitting by itself in the bin.

This same mentality carries over to packaged foods. Dented cans and boxes inevitably wind up on the clearance shelf—and sometimes even then, people won’t buy them. In consumers’ minds, if the outside isn’t pristine, the food inside can’t be any good, either.

5) Big Food is a bunch of liars, but celebrity doctors hold the magic keys to health

Firmly held beliefs about food aren’t limited to labels and appearances. The media—and social media—has done a fantastic job of convincing people that they must eat or avoid certain foods to achieve perfect health. Add to that the propensity toward seeking Dr. Google’s advice for every ailment, and it’s the perfect recipe for a whole range of dietary dogmas.

“It seems like there are new stories from social media influencers every day about potent food additives or ingredients that will either kill you or make you live forever.” - Jack A. Bobo, Why Smart People Make Bad Food Choices

I saw this play out in customers who shopped with lists from The Latest Best-Selling Diet Book in hand, as if missing even one recommended food would render the protocol useless. And I’m sure the same mindset was behind the fear of conventional produce and GMOs.

Health-conscious consumers seem particularly prone to latching onto whatever the Natural Health Gurus tell them while harboring a deep distrust for Big Food and Big Pharma. These beliefs surrounding food and diet are powerful, and consumers who follow specific regimens aren’t easily persuaded to change.

Going beyond data to understand the educated consumer

All those Friday evening shifts at the co-op were customer research in disguise. My conversations with customers opened my eyes to what’s actually going on in people’s heads when they shop—and taught me that “educated” consumers are a diverse group that includes people who:

• see organic, non-GMO, chemical-free food as safer and healthier.

• believe local is better (but don’t necessarily know why).

• read a lot of articles and books on alternative medicine and holistic health.

• jump on every new health trend because they believe all the headlines.

• read a book on a specific healthy diet and commit to following it exactly.

• actually are more educated about how food is grown and produced.

Whatever category they fall into, every consumer has specific standards for what they will and won’t eat. To effectively communicate how a plant-based option fits these standards, brands need to look beyond data and trends and learn about beliefs, attitudes and mental barriers.

Including the desire to buy local oranges.

Thanks to Foster members Minnow Park, Jude Klinger, Daniel Sission, Lyle McKeany, Steven Ovadia and Caryn Tan for their help finalizing this piece!

‍

For some people, going plant-based can be intimidating. There are so many unknowns:

Does it require shopping at special stores?

Subsisting on mock meats and cheeses?

Spending countless hours trying recipes that may or may not taste good?

Cyd Notter, Kathy Davis and Chuck Carroll agree that the answer is a resounding NO.

In fact, they can all say from experience that going plant-based was much easier than they expected—and it’s led to other positive changes in their lives, including better health and more confidence. So much so that Chuck calls the plant-based lifestyle “Life 2.0.”

Together, they offer encouraging insights to help others transition to a plant-based diet regardless of background, age, location or personal food preferences. (Just ask Kathy, who used to hate beans!)

The prevailing theme? Going plant-based is not only easy but also delicious and highly customizable. It’s all about moving away from foods that trigger emotional or binge eating, experimenting with delicious whole plant foods to find the ones you can love for a lifetime and enabling yourself to eat well no matter what the circumstances.

But to stick with the plant-based lifestyle in the long term, there needs to be a central “driving force” behind the decision, something to act as a north star when temptation strikes.

Kathy suggests asking yourself: “Why do you want to eat this way? What outcome are you looking for?”

Chuck adds that staying the course is truly life-changing, and what you gain from “giving up” animal products can be an ongoing source of motivation. Seeing that you can, in fact, make food choices that are both satisfying and great for your health—and feeling the positive effects—boosts confidence and inspires you to keep going.

“You do not have to be a statistic,” he says.

🥗 Episode Highlights

• Tips for going all-in with a plant-based diet if you don’t know where to start

• Why it’s important to talk to your family about your motivations for going plant-based

• A particularly amusing exchange about Kathy’s experience with learning to love beans

• Encouragement for anyone who’s afraid going plant based will be too hard

• How to overcome the struggles many people face when going plant-based

• Why it’s important to have a solid reason—not just a short-term goal—for adopting a plant-based diet

• Why plant-based diets are the gateway to long-term health

• How going plant-based can inspire confidence and vitality in other areas of life</aside>

Top Takeaways for Brands

The insights Cyd, Kathy and Chuck share in this episode provide a window into what your customers are looking for when choosing plant-based products or transitioning to completely plant-based diets—and the information they’re getting when they turn to others for advice.

Here’s how you can apply their advice and tips to improve your products and connect more effectively with your audience:

1. Be mindful of the fact that a lot of people are still confused about what being plant-based actually entails. Marketing messages perpetuating the idea that 1:1 analogs are necessary **for plant-based diets can act as barriers to adoption. Consider positioning your products as enjoyable enhancements to plant-based diets instead of daily essentials.

2. Instead of focusing solely on what your customers want from a product, discover the outcomes they’re hoping for when they go plant-based. Engage with them through messaging that touches on these personal motivations.

3. People need to know that going plant-based isn’t difficult. Think about how your product can make the transition—and long-term adoption—easier, and communicate that in your messaging. Whether it’s a quick and healthy option people can grab when they don’t have time to cook or an ingredient that can make adapting favorite meat-based recipes easier, aim to come alongside your customers as a guide on their plant-based journey.

4. Plant-based eaters who make the switch for health will read labels and hold you accountable for ingredients they don’t view as being in line with their personal dietary goals. Know what they’re looking for and either avoid it or incorporate educational content into your marketing to explain what role each ingredient plays in your product.

5. With the prevailing theme of simplicity and preparedness, there’s an opportunity for brands to simplify plant-based food prep for those who want to make more from scratch but don’t have the time or resources to do so on a regular basis. Kits or starters for popular plant-based recipes like burgers, cheese and energy balls or staples like soups and stews reduce barriers to adoption by giving people a starting point—and more confidence in the kitchen.

Need a guide for your plant-based diet transition?

My ebook, The Whole Food Plant-Based Diet Starter Guide, has everything you need to get started: foods to eat and avoid, shopping help, example daily meals and nutrition tips.

Grab it now 👉🏻 on Amazon!

About Cyd, Chuck and Kathy

Cyd Notter is a graduate of the Center for Nutrition Studies, a certified instructor for The Starch Solution and other dietary courses, a past newspaper columnist, and the author of the award-winning book The “Plan A” Diet: Combining Whole Food, Plant-Based Nutrition with the Timeless Wisdom of Scripture. Cyd has been helping people transition to a plant-based diet for over 25 years and offers coaching through her 6-week online course.

Kathy Davis is a plant-based lifestyle and mindset coach, the CEO of VegInspired, and the author of three plant-based cookbooks. Kathy empowers high-achieving professionals to elevate their energy by adopting healthy living habits so they can show up at their optimum performance and achieve their goals.

Chuck Carroll is known as “The Weight Loss Champion” for a reason — he has lost and kept off 280 pounds for more than 10 years! Before overcoming a severe food addiction, Chuck weighed a jaw-dropping 420 pounds and had a 66-inch waist. Now he is using his new lease on life to inspire others and host The Exam Room Podcast by the Physicians Committee, which has been downloaded millions of times to become the No. 1 nutrition podcast in nearly 80 countries!

Connect with Today’s Guests

Cyd

• https://cydnotter.com

• Free Webinar: https://cydnotter.com/register

• Plan A Diet Facebook group

• Buy The Plan A Diet

Kathy

• https://veginspired.com

• Instagram @veginspired, @eatmoreplantsacademy

• Amazon author page

Chuck

• The Exam Room podcast

• Instagram: @chuckcarrollwlc

• Twitter: @chuckcarrollwlc

• Facebook: WeightLossChampion

Traditional medicine addresses chronic disease with pills and procedures that control symptoms or attempt to fix damage that’s already been done.

Plant-Based TeleHealth (now Love.Life Telehealth) takes a different approach: lifestyle medicine that uses a plant-based diet and personalized care to get to the root of diseases and help patients heal.

That’s what attracted Dr. Kim Scheuer, Dr. Niki Davis, Dr. Colin Zhu and Dr. Chris Miller to this unique new practice that serves patients across the U.S. They wanted to stop “putting band-aids” on patients’ problems, go beyond what they were able to do in traditional practice and start giving patients the time and attention they needed to get better—for good.

Through Plant-Based TeleHealth, these doctors and their colleagues are able to help patients reduce their medications and improve their health. The patients get less of what they don’t want (more pills) and more of what they do want (freedom from symptoms and disease).

Being part of that process has made practicing medicine more enjoyable.

“We get to watch these people helping themselves get better and start to live their lives again,” says Dr. Davis.

Dr. Scheuer sees an even bigger benefit: “It’s just such a pleasure to see how this affects not only the individual, but it ripples out to the community and to the world.”

It’s true: When patients are given the power to make choices that positively affect their own health, others see the change and want the same for themselves. And because Plant-Based TeleHealth is available in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., the ripple effect can spread far and wide.

Although the doctors acknowledge that making sweeping lifestyle changes isn’t the easiest approach, Plant-Based TeleHealth gives them the freedom to provide the support, information, accountability and encouragement people need to implement and stick with those changes. This includes making individualized adjustments to plant-based eating plans to ensure optimal results.

In the end, as Dr. Zhu points out, it’s all about the basics. Starting with whole, nutritious plant foods; talking to patients to uncover other factors that could be influencing their disease states; and laying out personalized diet and lifestyle plans provides the foundation for success.

“It’s really about people showing other people that this is possible, that this is wonderful,” says Dr. Davis. “And then it just spreads that way.”

🩺 Episode Highlights

• What makes plant-based lifestyle medicine different from mainstream medical care

• How taking a holistic look at the whole person instead of just their symptoms changes the way medicine is practiced and enables a lifestyle approach

• Why the ability to spend more time with patients is critical to helping them make lasting diet and lifestyle changes

• How quickly plant-based lifestyle medicine can begin to resolve symptoms and control or reverse chronic diseases

• How lifestyle medicine gives people control over health by enabling them to make choices instead of being stuck in a cycle of medications and side effects

• How personalized dietary adjustments can help people achieve the best results when eating plant based

• The need to dig deeper and go beyond nutrition to discover all the potential factors that influence patients’ health

• The importance of understanding what potentially conflicting information patients will get from traditional doctors who don’t understand plant-based lifestyle medicine

• The need for a paradigm shift in health, wellness and medicine to get people back to the basics and on track for long-term healing

• Success stories from the doctors’ practices

Takeaways for brands

1. People are going to want to take charge of their own health in increasing numbers, which will lead them to seek personalized nutrition. If your brand offers specific health or nutrient benefits, use your messaging to show consumers how it can help them meet their goals.

2. If your brand’s messaging leverages the health aspect of plant-based eating, make sure everything about your brand aligns with that promise. This includes ingredients, preparation instructions and all content you create.

3. Think about the outcomes your customers want, not just what product attributes will attract them. Consider how much help they need getting to those goals, and craft your messaging based on the significance of the dietary changes they’re making. People transitioning from a SAD diet to completely plant-based will need more guidance and education than seasoned plant-based eaters looking to optimize their health.

4. Customers have multiple thoughts and concerns around their diets that can influence how and what they buy. Use your messaging to address potential points of frustration or concern, such as nutrient intake. Demonstrate how your product can fill a gap in their diets or help them meet nutrient requirements specific to their health goals.

5. Resist the temptation to shower your customers with information, particularly if you’re marketing to a segment that’s healing from chronic conditions or has struggled with those conditions in the past. Instead, use your platform to provide useful, actionable guidance to make plant-based eating easier and more enjoyable.

Want to try a whole food plant-based diet for yourself?

My ebook, The Whole Food Plant-Based Diet Starter Guide, has everything you need to get started: foods to eat and avoid, shopping help, example daily meals and nutrition tips.

Grab it now 👉🏻 on Amazon!

About the Doctors & Plant-Based Telehealth

Plant-Based TeleHealth

Plant Based TeleHealth (PBTH) provides offers lifestyle medicine care for patients who have chronic disease and other conditions. Through the powerful, evidence-based practice of promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyle modification, including a whole food, plant-based diet, doctors work with patients to help them go beyond managing symptoms to experience real healing.

Dr. Kim Scheuer is board certified in both Family Practice and Lifestyle Medicine. She is conversant in Spanish and American Sign Language and is licensed to see patients in over 20 states. Kim lives and benefits from the lifestyle she recommends for her patients and loves to share her knowledge with all who want to be healthier and happier.

Dr. Colin Zhu is board-certified in family practice/OMT and lifestyle medicine. Passionate about the intersection of medicine, food, and nutrition, Dr. Zhu trained as a chef and a health coach and launched TheChefDoc in 2017, an online wellness and lifestyle education platform which has been featured in several publications. He is also the author of "Thrive Medicine: How To Cultivate Your Desires and Elevate Your Life,“ and is the podcast host of Thrive Bites.

Dr. Niki Davis is a “rocket scientist” turned lifestyle medicine doctor and is board certified in both family and lifestyle medicine.

Dr. Christina (Chris) Miller is a board-certified emergency physician, a board-certified Integrative Medicine practitioner and certified in both functional medicine and health coaching. Her experience with lupus led her to a plant-based diet, and through Plant-Based TeleHealth, she helps patients with chronic and autoimmune diseases use plant-based nutrition and lifestyle modifications to get on the path to healing.

All the doctors are available for telehealth appointments at PlantBasedTeleHealth.com!

Connect with the Doctors Online

• https://plantbasedtelehealth.com

• Dr. Scheuer: https://dokslifestylemedicine.com/,  Instagram @drkimscheuer

• Dr. Davis: https://drnikidavis.com, Facebook, Instagram @nikidavismd

• Dr. Miller: https://eatandlivehealthfully.com

• Dr. Zhu: https://chefdoczhu.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram @thechefdoc, host of Thrive Bites podcast

Get notified when new episodes go live! Drop your email in the sidebar box. 👉🏻

‍

Simon Hill’s journey into the plant-based space started at age 15 when he saw his father have a heart attack. The idea that heart disease could “run in families” planted seeds that today have blossomed into a career as a nutritionist, podcast host and author.

Since that first brush with the effects of lifestyle disease, Simon has immersed himself in the science of diet and plant-based nutrition. Rather than supporting any particular dietary dogma in the plant-based space, he provides research-backed advice backed to help people plant their diets appropriately according to goals and life stage.

He cautions against drawing a hard line on issues like protein requirements and oil consumption and instead advocates keeping an open mind to what ongoing research reveals.

“I think it’s important to not always reduce everything to black and white,” he says, “because science is not black and white.”

Science, in fact, has a lot of nuance, and Simon believes certain sections of the plant-based community have jumped to erroneous conclusions based on a handful of studies. This unhelpful approach can lead to obsession instead of awareness and prevent people from truly thriving on plant-based diets.

As an alternative, Simon believes it’s more beneficial to provide tools and information that help people navigate a food landscape that’s designed to encourage the overconsumption of ultra-processed fare. Such actionable guidance can help break down common barriers to making the kinds of dietary changes that lead to better health outcomes.

But there’s one other important piece to the puzzle: enabling people to succeed on plant-based diets once they make the switch. Science shows that people eating plant-based have unique nutrient considerations, which can change depending on age, health status and activity level.

Ideally, Simon would like to see more research into nutritional needs at different ages and life stages. He believes it’s going to take more data across demographics to settle some of the persistent questions about plant-based nutrition and ensure that people have the best information to tailor their diets to changing needs as they age.

He believes “every diet needs to be appropriately planned” and continues to use his platform to provide information and guidance that helps people adopt and stick to healthy plant-based diets.

This is a super nerdy episode! Simon draws his information from hours spent immersed in nutrition science and shares some great insights for anyone who wants to optimize their plant-based lifestyle.

🌱 Episode Highlights

• How seeing his dad have a heart attack spurred Simon to get into plant-based nutrition

• Why educating people about healthy food isn’t the key to improving diets or health outcomes

• How the food environment may prevent people from making healthier dietary choices

• A scientific look at common myths and misconceptions in the plant-based space

• Limitations of measuring one specific biomarker during an isolated moment in time when attempting to  determine a food’s effect on long-term health

• Why being aware of nutrient needs specific to plant-based diets and current life stage is a smarter approach than obsessing over single nutrients or foods

• Why it’s important for the plant-based community to be opened-minded about new discoveries in nutrition science

• The effects of dietary dogma—and how science can help correct erroneous conclusions

• Simon’s tips for maximizing nutrition and health on a plant-based diet

Takeaways for brands

1. People who have or know someone who has a chronic condition diet-related condition tend to be more willing to make dietary changes for health reasons. If you’re marketing to an audience with this mindset, it’s extremely important to deliver on the health aspect of plant based.

2. People don’t need more education on why plant-based foods are healthy; they need help overcoming barriers that prevent them from switching to and sticking with a plant-based diet. In product development, branding and marketing, consider how you can make it easier to choose your product over a more familiar, visible brand that doesn’t offer the same health benefits.

3. It’s important to be aware of the narratives in the plant-based space and know your customers’ foundational beliefs about food. The dietary “rules” people adhere to can influence how they perceive your product. Avoid using messaging that contributes to confusing or damaging messages in the plant-based space. Instead, use your marketing to come alongside your customers and help them achieve their personal health and nutrient goals.

4. Be aware of nutritional needs and concerns in groups you’re targeting, be it relating to activity level, age or stage of life. Emphasize benefits specific to your audience in your marketing. These are areas where you can connect with customers and be a guide on their plant-based journeys.

5. Don’t worry about trying to convince or prove to people that a plant-based diet is the “best diet.” Focus on the benefits that science shows correlate with eating plant foods—and save yourself from getting sucked into the internet diet wars!

About Simon & Plant Proof

Simon Hill is a nutritionist and qualified physiotherapist and the the founder of the popular Plant Proof podcast and blog.

On top of his formal education, Simon spends hours deciphering scientific studies so that he can break down how to fuel your body to promote longevity and reduce the chance of developing disease while simultaneously achieving whatever health and fitness goals you may have.

He is the plant-based food contributor to Chris Hemsworth’s fitness app, Centr, and in 2019 Simon opened a plant-based restaurant, Eden, in his Sydney neighbourhood of Bondi. In 2021 he published his book The Proof is in the Plants with Penguin Australia, which shot to the #1 non-fiction book Australia-wide in its debut week.

Simon frequently shares plant-based food, health and science information on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Follow, Listen to & Read Simon’s Work

• https://plantproof.com

• Twitter: @theproof

• Facebook: TheProofPod

• Instagram: @plant_proof

• The Plant Proof Podcast

• Buy The Proof is in the Plants

‍

As a registered dietician and a vegan of almost 30 years, Ginny Messina has a lot of experience in the plant-based space. She spends a lot of her time writing books, articles and tweets relating to vegan and plant-based nutrition.

Her goal with all this work? To “ensure that vegans have the best information that will allow them to stay vegan.”

Ginny brings a balanced and reasonable perspective to some of the most common questions and controversial issues within the plant-based community, including protein and fat, oil consumption and whether “ultra-processed” foods and sweet treats have a place in a healthy diet.

While she maintains that anybody can be vegan, she also acknowledges that doing it right requires some attention to nutrition. But she doesn’t see this as a shortcoming for plant-based eating. In fact, she believes taking the extra time to get educated and supplement properly is more than worth it for the health and environmental benefits the diet offers.

Ginny is troubled by narratives within the plant-based community that vilify specific plant foods like oil and nuts, insist that vegans who “do it right” never get sick or promise that plant-based eating is the magical key to weight loss. Rather than adhering to restrictive, dogmatic dietary rules, she  thinks vegans should have the freedom to explore the spectrum of vegan foods from whole food plant based to alternative meats.

“Your diet does not have to be pristine perfection every minute of the day,” she says.

And, in the grand scheme of things, she’d rather see people eating vegan meat alternatives and sweet treats than going back to animal products. The reality is that there’s uncertainty in all areas of nutrition, including plant-based nutrition, and it’s not possible to make 100% hard and fast rules about how every vegan should eat.

As a dietician, Ginny would prefer that people choose whole plant foods over Beyond Burgers and vegan KFC. But in her view, it doesn’t matter how someone does plant-based eating as long as they’re promoting an overall healthier diet that makes a positive impact on people and planet.

🥗 Episode Highlights

• Giving vegans good, accurate nutrition and health formation to help them succeed on a plant-based diet

• Ginny’s balanced views on protein, fat and other hot-button vegan nutrition issues

• The changing nutritional requirements throughout life that vegans need to pay attention to

• Psychological benefits of eating higher protein for people who come from SAD/meat-centric diets (satisfying, helps them stay vegan)

• Why it’s okay (and even beneficial!) to add some oil to your plant-based diet

• Essential and important supplements for plant-based eaters

• Why Ginny thinks veganism is “the ideal way to eat in our world today”—and it’s not just due to the health benefits

• Why the fat shaming in the vegan space needs to stop

• Importance of balance and realism when talking health in the plant-based space

Takeaways for Plant-Based/Vegan Brands:

1. It's important for plant-based brands to pay attention to the conversation around protein and fat. Both macronutrients increase satisfaction, so getting the right balance in your products can help people stick with plant-based diets, especially those transitioning from SAD or meat-heavy diets.

2. Prevailing narratives about veganism, health, weight and “vegan junk food” can skew how consumers perceive of vegan products. Decide whether you want to promote better health or an enjoyable eating experience, and you’ll be better able to position your product within your customers’ lifestyles.

3. Ginny’s three main reasons vegans fail all relate to perceived or actual restriction: finding plant-based eating too difficult, not meeting nutrient needs, or feeling like the outcomes fall short of expectations. Your brand can help with these areas by creating nutritious products and educating consumers on how to incorporate them to create satisfaction on a plant-based diet and achieve their desired results.

4. In your branding and marketing, contribute to a balanced discussion. Avoid making radical claims you can’t back up or promising things you can’t realistically deliver. Instead, focus on sharing helpful information on topics and outcomes your customers care about.

Want more straightforward plant-based diet info?

My ebook, The Whole Food Plant-Based Diet Starter Guide, covers all the basics: foods to eat and avoid, shopping help, example daily meals and nutrition tips.

Grab it now 👉🏻 on Amazon!

About Ginny

Virginia (Ginny) Messina, MPH, RD is a dietitian and public health nutritionist specializing in vegan nutrition. She has a degree in nutrition from Douglass College of Rutgers University and a master's degree in public health nutrition from the University of Michigan.

She has worked as a dietitian for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), taught nutrition to dietetics students at the university level, and was the director of nutrition services for a group of medical clinics serving 50,000 patients in Washington, D.C.

As a long-time vegan, she seeks to share the best and most up-to-date information on vegan nutrition and to make ethical eating an easy and realistic option for everyone. She publishes widely on topics related to vegan diets for both health professionals and the public and is a regular contributor to Our Hen House and One Green Planet.

Connect with Ginny’s Work

• https://theveganrd.com

• Twitter: @theveganrd

• Facebook: TheVeganRD

• Instagram: @GinnyMessina

• Buy Ginny's books on Amazon

For additional balanced views on veganism and plant-based health, check out Mark Rifkin in S1E5.

‍

What's the difference between "plant-based" and eating plants? Deb Czech knows!

As a knowledgeable student of all things whole food plant based, she shares valuable insights on why going beyond the "plant-based" label to eat closer to the source is important for health and sustainability.

About Deb Czech

Inspired by the movies Forks Over Knives and Food, Inc., in 2012 Deb Czech switched up her meals to harness the nourishing power of plants. She studied plant-based nutrition through the T. Colin Campbell Foundation and eCornell.

Upon finishing the six-week intensive program, she pushed animal foods off her plate for good.

Later, Deb sliced and diced her way through the Forks Over Knives plant-based cooking course at the Rouxbe Online Culinary School.

After establishing Planted Platter in 2018, Deb earned a spot in the selective Food for Life instructor training through the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, becoming licensed in 2019 to teach a wide range of the group’s research-supported, plant-based nutrition programs.

Prior to Planted Platter, Deb’s marketing and public relations career has included experience with consumer brands, agriculture, recreation, hospitality, and wellness clients.

Before pursuing recent education in the plant-based nutrition field, she completed her undergraduate degree in political science at Yale University and received an MBA from Simmons College in Boston.

Deb credits her parents for planting an early seed in her mind about healthy eating: they cultivated a large backyard garden behind her childhood home, providing abundant vegetables and berries, and cooked almost all family meals from scratch. Nowadays, when Deb isn’t teaching plant-based nutrition or trying out a new recipe, she puts her plant-powered energy to use leading an active life outdoors and spending time with family and friends.

Find Deb & Planted Platter Online!

• Planted Platter website: https://plantedplatter.com/

• Upcoming classes: https://plantedplatter.com/classes/

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlantedPlatter

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantedplatter/

After working with Americorps and a wholesale food distributor, Zoë Geller realized there was a huge gap in both knowledge about and access to nutritious food. It wasn’t long before she did something to address the problem—by founding Fire Ox Foods.

Fire Ox is using delicious flavors inspired by world cuisines to make vegetables attractive and simple to prepare so that people can easily incorporate more whole plant-based foods into their diets.

Zoë and her co-founder, Jason, drew on their mutual love for dishes from around the world as inspiration for their products and are bringing these meals to consumers in a convenient frozen format.

She points out that the average person is still wary of eating their vegetables: “I think a lot of Americans have this really poor relationship with vegetables because they know they’re supposed to eat them, but they don’t really like them.”

That’s why Fire Ox focuses on taste first to make their meals both enjoyable and nourishing. And Zoë keeps her ears open to customer feedback to continue improving Fire Ox products. Whether it’s increasing the amount of food in each meal or calling out the number of vegetable servings on the package, she’s all about staying flexible.

Because, she says, there’s a difference between driving trial and getting repeat customers. “You can get a lot of people to try your product, ... but you need them to keep coming back.”

The secret lies in paying attention to sales data, talking to customers and being willing to stay nimble as the brand adjusts its messaging. And Zoë has some great insights into what to look for and how to make those changes to get products in front of more people.

🥗 Episode Highlights

• Bringing novelty to a specific category like frozen food to excite consumers and give them a chance to explore new foods without friction

• Seeking opportunities to bring unique products to market by identifying gaps where your passion could fill a need

• Supporting brand goals by staying consistent in every area—from naming to ingredients to packaging to messaging

• Using customer feedback to differentiate your products from others in the market

• The importance of split-second differentiation: letting customers know immediately what they’re getting and why they would want it

• Why gathering consumer insights need to be approached intentionally

• The importance of being open to learning more about your customers and how they use or consume your product

• Tips for testing messaging before and after coming to market

• Using sales data, customer data and feedback to hone in on the problem you’re solving for consumers

• Going beyond product to educate and empower consumers through content

About Zoë & Fire Ox Foods

Zoë Geller founded Fire Ox to create a more sustainable food system. Her time at Americorps and Common Market taught her how to grow food and opened her eyes to how the unjust industrial food system shapes our diets and bodies, and this sparked her passion to create good, nourishing food that is better for people and planet.

Zoë is in charge of sales, marketing, and fundraising at Fire Ox. Before creating Fire Ox, she was the third employee at a local food distributor startup called Common Market MidAtlantic, where she helped grow sales of local food significantly. She has an MBA and Masters of Environmental Management from Yale University.

Fire Ox Foods

Fire Ox is on a mission to help people eat better for themselves and the planet by making delicious, vegetable-based foods accessible to all. Their line of vegetable-based frozen meals is inspired by cuisines from around the world—like Braised Ethiopian Greens and Provencal Ratatouille!

Find Fire Ox on the Web (and try the food!)

• https://fireoxfoods.com

• Instagram: @fireoxfoods

• Facebook: FireOxFoods

• Email: hello (at) fireoxfoods (dot) com

‍

Elysabeth Alfano, David Benzaquen and Irina Gerry are no strangers to the plant-based space. Their collective experience spans from hosting a plant-based business podcast to investment and advising to marketing roles at some of the most well-known plant-based companies.

And they have a ton of insight into how brands can position their products and attract consumers in today’s growing plant-based market. With sub-niches spanning from cultivated meat to unprocessed plant foods, there’s plenty of room for innovation.

One of the biggest areas of opportunity for brands? Fresh and minimally-processed produce.

“I think there’s a tremendous degree of innovation opportunity in the produce aisle,” Gerry says, particularly in the area of “owning” the conversation around nutrition. Whereas meat and dairy camp out on protein, Gerry believes produce brands could win by centering their marketing on unique nutrients not found in animal products.

Benzaquen, however, advises focusing on removing barriers like peeling, chopping and extensive cooking time.

“People already know that fruits and vegetables are healthy,” he points out, “And they’re not consuming them now even though they know that.”

With whole food plant based becoming its own category, it’s more important than ever for brands to understand who they’re marketing to, what those consumers need and the best ways to deliver it through products and messaging.

🥗 Episode highlights

• The broad spectrum of plant-based food and consumers’ perceptions of health

• How brands play a role in plant-based diets—including encouraging consumers to eat more produce

• How plant-based products are helping consumers make more conscious food choices for their health and the environment

• The importance of taking a balanced approach to the plant-based movement and avoiding rigid, purist guidelines

• Getting super specific with marketing to position plant-based products in ways that reach unique market subsets

• The need to understand what words like health and sustainability mean to specific groups of consumers

• Defining and positioning animal-free, plant-based and whole food plant-based products

• Recognizing and overcoming barriers to people incorporating whole plant foods into their diets

• Using branding and marketing campaigns to help consumers understand how to choose, use and prepare whole plant foods

The key takeaways from this discussion? The plant-based (and animal-free) space has a lot of sub-categories that appeal to different consumer groups. From people who are more concerned about sustainability than health to whole food plant-based purists, brands need to understand who they’re talking to and tailor both positioning and marketing to appeal to their unique audiences.

Understanding barriers to adoption—like lack of time or knowledge—can inform product development and marketing to better address specific consumer needs within each category. The more specific and targeted, the better; trying to go too broad runs the risk of the marketing message meaning nothing to anyone.

Gerry sums it up well: “You’ve gotta understand who you’re talking to and what you’re saying. That’s the fundamental principle of marketing: Do not try to be all things to all people.”

About David, Elysabeth and Irina

David Benzaquen is one of the world’s leading experts in the plant-based food industry. He invests in and advises plant-based and alternative protein food disruptors through his firm Mission: Plant. He is also the co-founder of consumer insights firm Moonshot Collaborative and plant-based ecommerce grocery store, PlantBelly.com.

Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of VegTech Invest, which advised the VegTech Plant-Based Innovation & Climate ETF (EATV). She is also the Founder of Plant Powered Consulting and the host of the Plantbased Business Hour. A respected thought leader and international speaker on trends in plant-based business, Elysabeth speaks globally on the state of the industry, including recently at the United Nations.

Irina Gerry is a Chief Marketing Officer at Change Foods, a precision fermentation food tech startup, creating animal-free dairy products. Irina has over a decade of experience in consumer marketing space with global giants, Procter & Gamble and Danone, as well as business strategy and operations with Deloitte.

Prior to joining Change Foods, Irina spent 5 years working on two of the best-known plant-based food and beverage brands, Silk and So Delicious. She is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and marketing leader, on a mission to transform the food system and drive widespread adoption of sustainable ways to feed the world. Irina holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Get more from today’s panelists

• David’s LinkedIn

• Elysabeth’s LinkedIn

• Irina’s LinkedIn

• https://changefoods.com

• https://elysabethalfano.com

• https://vegtechinvest.com

• https://moonshotcollaborative.com

• https://missionplant.com

• https://plantbelly.com

• Elysabeth Alfano on S1E4: Doing It All For the Plant-Based Cause

• David Benzaquen on S1E28: Advancing Plant-Based Brands for Maximum Impact

It all started when Faiez went vegetarian for 10 days to impress a girl.

That girl was Heather, his (now) wife and co-founder of Prep to Your Door, a whole food plant-based, zero-waste food delivery company that’s bringing fresh, healthy food to people’s doors throughout Austin and Houston.

But Faiez has a much bigger vision than that.

“The supply chain is not designed to get fresh food into our bodies,” he points out. Through Prep to Your Door, he’s looking to change that—and make eating whole food plant-based meals just as easy and convenient as buying packaged food at the grocery store.

His passion for sustainability (and self-proclaimed food system nerdiness) has led Faiez to create a food delivery model based on regional distribution. This allows him, Heather and their team to prepare a wide variety of healthy meals using organic, seasonal ingredients and get them to people’s doors within just a few hours. Everything is delivered in glass containers which are then collected, cleaned and reused.

🥗 Episode highlights

• Prep To Your Door’s history and whole-food, zero-waste premise

• How Faiez’s wife inspired the business with her mason jar salads

• The power of iteration in implementing and improving a business model

• Importance of sticking to brand values in customer retention

• How fresh meal delivery using a closed-loop system differs from other popular meal delivery services

• Rethinking the way people shop for food

• Why friction is the enemy of mass whole food plant-based adoption—and what to do about it

• The logistics of regional fresh food delivery vs. shipping processed food across the country

• Using a diverse and rotational menu to introduce consumers to new foods

• Listening to customers to determine how best to serve unique segments

• Using tech to bring fresh, healthy food to people’s doors instead of to create new food products

For Faiez, this is food tech: leveraging today’s high-tech systems to remove friction, improve access to nutritious food and cut down on single-use plastic waste.

It’s been a wild ride of learning about food and the food system, and Faiez is putting it all into practice with the goal of taking Prep to Your Door national.

“My personality is always such that, when I learn new things, I need to do something with it,” he explains.

By listening to what customers want and always improving on their processes, the Prep to Your Door team is doing much more than delivering meals—they’re changing the face of “convenience food” and redefining what it means to shop for groceries.

About Faiez and Prep to Your Door

Faiez met his co-founder (now wife!) Heather in class at Harvard University. They paired their passions for social entrepreneurship and sustainable business to build Prep To Your Door. Born in Heather's studio Manhattan apartment, the first PTYD jars were mason jar salads that Heather used to nourish herself in the city.

When they moved back to Austin, Faiez pushed for the couple to start a business. Slowly, the pair began perfecting meals in jars with help from their very first customers. Always plant-based, organic, locally sourced and ready to eat, PTYD meals are made without cutting corners or compromising on ingredients.

Since 2017, Prep To Your Door has grown to a team of 40 team members. In 2020, the company served 77,000 meals using less than 3,900 jars – that’s zero single use plastic!

Faiez believes addressing our food chain has the power to reverse several crises of our time: healthcare, climate change, and economic inequality. And he's working with Heather and their team to make organic, sustainable and fresh food at scale the REAL new normal.

Follow Faiez (or try Prep to Your Door!)

• https://preptoyourdoor.com

• Instagram: @preptoyourdoor, @faiezrana‍

• Facebook: PrepToYourDoor

• LinkedIn: Prep To Your Door, Faiez Rana

‍

But that’s exactly what they did with their line of colorful burgers.

When Jason stopped eating meat for his health, he couldn’t find an alternative to his favorite meat, the beef burger, that met his standards. Although he recognizes plant-based meats as a tasty and helpful “next step” for people transitioning from a standard Western diet to a plant-based diet, he and Hailey wanted to go the next step and offer healthier options.

“It’s crazy to us that you can call it a plant-based product, but there’s not many plants in it,” he says of the many plant-based meat replacements on the market.

🍔 Episode Highlights

• Jason and Hailey’s experience of growing a brand in a category dominated by big names that aren’t whole food plant based

• How making a whole food plant-based product colorful and attractive can drive adoption across demographics and into the mainstream

• Retailers’ and consumers’ increasing demand for healthier plant-based products

• How you don’t need to scream “healthy” to sell products when you have something tasty and attractive

• Innovative ways Actual Veggies is broadening their concept beyond the burger category

• Why customer feedback is critical in product development

• The “plant-forward” trend that’s taking plant-based food to the next (healthier) level

• The changing narrative around plant-based eating and whole food plant based in particular

• Walmart’s potential role in advancing the plant-based movement into the mainstream

• How having advocates who can positively influence the public toward plant-based can help brands in the space grow

Their philosophy is simple: Make something from 100% whole plant foods that looks good, tastes good and is easy to prepare. Without compromising on these principles, Jason and Hailey worked with their team to create a line of burgers in a rainbow of colors—all crafted using veggies, beans, grains and spices.

To their surprise and delight, everyone liked the product. Customers from all across demographics—adults, kids, omnivores, flexitarians, vegetarians and vegans—embraced the burgers and offered feedback that helped Jason and Hailey iterate and make their burgers even better.

Jason encourages other whole food plant-based brands to stick to their principles and persevere through the ups and downs of business.

“Don’t compromise on your foundation or on what you set out to do,” he advises. That’s how he and Hailey turned their passion project into a business they love and that’s making a difference in the plant-based movement—and the world.

About Actual Veggies and Co-Founders Jason & Hailey

Founded in early 2020 and headquartered in New York City, Actual Veggies is redefining what retail and food service consumers consider a plant-based burger with its four different varieties of its ¼-pound, chef-crafted veggie burger patties made with only fresh, actual vegetables, grains and spices. Actual Veggies can be found at Sprouts, HungryRoot, and online at ShopVejii.com and www.actualveggies.com.

A serial entrepreneur by nature, Jason Rosenbaum co-founded Actual Veggies in March 2020 after he personally revamped his diet and realized that “better for you” imitation meats and veggie burger options were highly processed, frozen, bland or loaded with preservatives. He set forth on a mission to create a brand that offers better, healthier and real plant-only veggie burgers.

Jason on LinkedIn

Hailey Swartz is an accomplished digital strategy and partnerships leader who is tapping into her passion for connections and relationships for Actual Veggies. Along with Jason, Hailey is managing the marketing, visibility and partnership opportunities to help grow and expand the reach of the company to other channels.

Hailey on LinkedIn

Find (and Follow) Actual Veggies

• https://actualveggies.com

• Instagram: @actualveggies

• Facebook: ActualVeggies

• Twitter: @actualveggies

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/actual-veggies/

• Where to buy: https://actualveggies.com/pages/where-to-buy

‍

When her daughter decided to go vegan, Paige Parsons Roache couldn’t have imagined how much her own diet and life would change.

It started with education: reading books, listening to plant-based doctors, watching documentaries and trying vegan food from local restaurants. Pretty soon, Paige was experimenting with recipes and becoming a “chef in her own kitchen” for the first time in her life.

After meeting Jane Velez-Mitchell at a vegan event, Paige found herself inspired to get more involved and more vocal about the plant-based cause. Documentaries like Cowspiracy and What the Health had opened her eyes to the environmental and social impacts of animal agriculture, and she became committed to helping end the suffering connected to the industry.

“If I knowingly was contributing to the harm of another,” Paige says of her realization, “I knew I had to make the change.”

🌐 Episode Highlights

• Paige’s background in the environmental movement, including what inspired her to go plant-based vegan

• Insights from Paige’s journey from a “frozen food vegan” to someone who loves experimenting in the kitchen

• The importance of educating yourself about food, health and the environment

• How UnchainedTV is advancing the vegan and plant-based movements through the resources they provide

• Easy ways to swap whole plant-based foods in place of animal products

• Caring for your body holistically, not just through what you eat

• How to minimize the environmental and social impacts of factory farming

Paige’s passion for the environment, health and animals shows in her words and actions. Through UnchainedTV, Clubhouse and other initiatives, she’s inspiring and encouraging others to get educated about plant-based eating, make the switch away from animal products and take back power for health and wellbeing.

About Paige

Paige’s daughter went vegan at age 13, and Paige joined her 6 months later. Today, she’s committed to bringing environmentally conscious vegan living to the forefront and reports on all the latest animal rights’ aspects, including Animal Save Movement’s vigils, various PETA protests, VegFests, vegan conferences and more.

She’s an active member of Clubhouse and can be found in numerous rooms throughout the week, contributing her knowledge to the plant-based conversation from a variety of angles and offering tips and encouragement to anyone seeking to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Connect with Paige and UnchainedTV

• https://unchainedtv.com

• LunchBreakLIVE: https://janeunchained.com/shows/lunchbreak-live/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paigeparsonsroache/

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paigeparsonsroache

• Clubhouse: @paigepr

For further watching

• Sam on Lunch Break LIVE: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=608455253681750

• https://nutritionfacts.org

• Cowspiracy

• What the Health

‍

Eating plant based is a journey. For some, it starts with an all-in commitment to eat nothing but whole plant foods. But most of the time, the transition to new eating habits is supported by a range of plant-based products that replace meat, dairy and eggs.

Tyler Mayoras is helping the next generation of these products come to life through his brand, Cool Beans. With their portable whole-food wraps, Cool Beans is making healthy eating convenient—and delicious.

🎙️ Episode highlights:

• Market insights from Expo East 2021, including the increasing number of products made with whole-food ingredients

• Advice for brands that want to launch whole food plant-based products, including categories with the biggest opportunities

• Gaps in the market where plant-based and whole food plant-based entrepreneurs can solve unaddressed consumer pain points

• How to bring out maximum flavor in whole plant foods so that they’re more appealing to customers

• Appealing to families with whole food plant-based options

• Beans as the next generation of plant-based protein

• The need for more nutrition education—particularly plant-based nutrition—in medical schools

• Why clarity is important when communicating the whole food plant-based message to the public

According to Tyler, it’s all about taste.

“So many people in the general consumer market are moving toward cleaner and healthier ingredients,” he says. But “it’s hard to build a trend if the stuff doesn’t taste good.”

By complementing the naturally delicious flavors of vegetables, beans and grains with a range of spices, Cool Beans is proving to consumers that eating whole food plant based can be just as delicious as—or even more delicious than—eating processed plant-based products.

Of course, the typical plant-based journey doesn’t just involve food; it’s also a journey of discovery. Information is plentiful, but not all of it is accessible. Tyler believes one of the best ways to educate the public is through avenues like documentaries that communicate the health and environmental benefits of eating whole food plant based. Add in more detailed nutrition education in medical schools, and it creates a winning combination to help everyone pursue true health.

About Tyler

Tyler is the “Cool Executive Officer” of Cool Beans and serves as both an angel investor and mentor to several other plant-based and sustainable brands. He has more than 20 years of experience in private equity investing and consulting with a focus on sustainable food and agriculture. He has personally experienced the benefits of plant-based diets and wants others to join him on the journey!

Connect with Tyler & Cool Beans

Tyler on episode 33 of The Modern Health Nerd, Season 1

• https://www.eatcoolbeans.com

• Store locator: https://www.eatcoolbeans.com/pages/where-to-buy

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eatCoolBeans/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luvcoolbeans

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/eatcoolbeans

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eatcoolbeans/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylermayoras/

‍

What if we could break the cycle of disease and premature death just by changing what we eat? Dr. T. Colin Campbell believes it really is that simple.

After decades of studying nutrition's effects on health and disease, Dr. Campbell is convinced that eating plants in as close to their whole, unrefined forms as possible is the best thing we can do to support optimal health.

In fact, he's the one who coined the term "whole food plant-based diet!"

Since first discovering the correlations between plant-based diets and disease reduction, Dr. Campbell has written several books, including The China Study, Whole and The Future of Nutrition.

He has also appeared in several documentary films, including Forks Over Knives, Eating You Alive, Food Matters, and PlantPure Nation and has delivered hundreds of evidence-based nutrition lectures around the world.

In the final episode The Modern Health Nerd Podcast, Season 1, we discuss:

• How the common reductionist approach in nutrition and healthcare supports a system designed to make money instead of create health

• How the current food system negatively impacts health, vulnerable populations and the environment

• The research that changed Dr. Campbell's mind about animal protein's role in health

• Dr. Campbell's thoughts on the growth of the plant-based and alternative protein movement

• Why eating whole, unrefined plant foods is more powerful than focusing on single nutrients

• Why a holistic view is important when interpreting nutrition research results

• Why policy change, particularly relating to dietary guidelines, is necessary to shift the food system toward one that supports health

• The need for better public nutrition knowledge and civil debates between proponents of differing opinions

About Dr. Campbell

T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. has been dedicated to the science of human health for more than 60 years.
His primary focus is on the association between diet and disease, particularly cancer. Although largely known for the China Study, Dr. Campbell’s profound impact also includes extensive involvement in education, public policy, and laboratory research.

His life's journey has taken him from growing up on a dairy farm to obtaining a master's degree and Ph.D. in nutrition, biochemistry and toxicology at Cornell University and MIT. After 10 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech’s Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, he returned to Cornell in 1975 where he presently holds his Endowed Chair as the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry in the Division of Nutritional Sciences.

Dr. Campbell has received over 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding (mostly with NIH), served on grant review panels of multiple funding agencies, actively participated in the development of national and international nutrition policy, and authored over 350 research papers, most published in peer-reviewed science journals.

Dr. Campbell is also is the founder of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and the online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate in partnership with eCornell.

Connect with Dr. Campbell's Work

• Center for Nutrition Studies

• Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate

• Plant Forward Workshop (October 13-November 17, 2021)

• Plant Pure Communities

• Dr. Campbell’s books

How much control do we actually have over our food choices? According to Michael Moss, it's not nearly as much as we think.

Decades of research and reformulation have given the ultra-processed food industry ("Big Food") the upper hand, but we don't have to be victims of manipulation. We can regain control—and Michael Moss provides the ammunition we need in his detailed food system exposés.

In this episode, we explore:

• How the concept of the "bliss point" has caused sugar to invade nearly every type of product in the grocery store

• How the processed food industry's formulations and marketing tactics to hijack human biology and create addictive eating patterns

• Three main qualities that attract consumers to ultra-processed food

• How the processed food industry insinuated itself into the diet food industry

• How product reformulations can trick consumers into thinking ultra-processed foods are becoming healthier

• Using the processed food industry's own tactics to steer consumers toward healthier food choices

• How it's possible to shift our food preferences simply by building new habits

• Why changing the food system requires a multifaceted approach

• The power of changing the way people value food to consider factors beyond instant gratification

About Michael Moss

Michael Moss is the author of “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” an expose of processed food and #1 New York Times Bestseller published in 2013 by Random House, and “Hooked: Food, Free Will and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions,” a New York Times Bestseller published in 2021.

He is a former investigative reporter with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2010 for his work on contaminated meat. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their two boys.

Connect with Michael & read his books

• https://mossbooks.us

For further listening

• Michael Moss on Chef AJ

As you walk down the grocery store aisles, colorful images entice you with promises of delicious treats and meals. Some of these foods make it home to your fridge and pantry, where they tempt you every time you open the door. And don't forget the workplace.

From the donuts your coworker leaves in the break room to the overflowing buffet in the corporate cafeteria, there are endless opportunities to grab food without ever leaving the office.

It's all part of the foodscape, which can affect what you choose to eat, how much you eat and whether you stay on track with your health goals. If you can’t remove yourself from its pull, what can you do to take back control of your food choices?
‍
Many initiatives and ideas exist to make the modern foodscape more conducive to healthy outcomes. Because the human brain naturally gravitates toward calorically dense food instead of nutritious food, these initiatives seek to change fundamental elements of the foodscape by harnessing behavioral psychology.

Simple shifts in environment, presentation and language can have powerful impacts on the way you perceive food—and, as a result, point you toward choices that better support long-term health.

There are also changes you can make to transform your own immediate foodscape from a labyrinth of tempting (but unhealthy) foods to an environment where healthy eating becomes second nature. I recently got together on Clubhouse with a few of the most innovative and influential minds working on these problems to unpack the best ways to tackle current foodscape challenges and change institutions, brands, the marketplace and the home for the better.

Foodscape in the Home

• Theresa "Sam" Houghton, Chief Nerd, The Modern Health Nerd

Home is often where you face the biggest barriers to healthy eating—but it's also where you have the most control. With more people choosing to continue to cook and eat at home even as COVID-19 restrictions are eased, crafting your "home foodscape" to encourage better food choices is more important than ever. As a trained health coach, these are my recommendations for creating a healthier space for yourself and your family:

• List nutritious swaps you can make in your favorite dishes, such as replacing refined grains with whole. Do the same for your favorite snacks and prepared foods. If you're not sure what substitutes are available, do some Google research!

• Do a pantry cleanout. Replace all tempting, triggering and addictive ultra-processed foods with healthier options like fruit, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

• Pick a day or two during the week to prep fresh vegetables and fruits for meals and snacks. Wash and chop the foods you use the most, and store them in airtight containers in the fridge.

• While you're prepping other foods, batch cook whole grains and dry beans in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot.

• Make your own healthy snacks. Hummus, trail mix and energy bars or bites are all convenient options.

• Remove barriers that prevent you from making healthy choices. Store nutritious snacks and prepped foods within easy reach, and keep whole foods like fruit in plain view to grab when you need something quick to eat.

• Plan your major meals in advance—not when you're hungry or in a hurry. Cook large batches, portion the leftovers into containers and store them in the fridge or freezer to eat throughout the week.

To put these changes into practice, you might need to learn some new cooking skills. Check out community groups and kitchen supply stores in your local area for free or low-cost classes, or learn online!

Restaurant & Institutional Foodscapes

• Gerard Pozzi, Research & Engagement Specialist at World Resources Institute

Outside the home, there are numerous places where you may order or be served a meal. Here, control over the foodscape extends only to making a selection from what’s readily available. These areas of the foodscape include workplaces, educational institutions, hospitals and restaurants.

In each case, you have to rely on someone else to offer healthier and/or more sustainable choices. Subtle differences like what a dish is named on a menu or where the vegetables appear in a buffet line can influence what ends up on your plate. The World Resources Institute is working to make positive changes, particularly through its Cool Food initiative.

Cool Food looks at annual food procurement data and performs diagnostic surveys to identify interventions that workplaces, restaurants and institutions can implement to guide people toward plant-rich diets. These include:

• Blending plant-based foods into meat-heavy dishes

• Changing the language on the menus to emphasize the origin, flavor and texture of healthier options

• Highlighting healthier, more sustainable foods as special and/or exciting

• Offering table cards to display information about involvement in Cool Food

• Adding Cool Food Meals certification to dishes that help people reduce their carbon footprints

Participants in the Cool Food initiative also have access to a solution provider directory as part of the planning process for implementing behavioral changes. The directory includes startups offering a variety of plant-based products, as well as organizations that provide training in climate-friendly eating and cooking for both chefs and staff members.

Because climate-friendly meals tend to be more plant-forward, following Cool Food guidelines can help participants create a foodscape that emphasizes the healthiest choices for both people and planet.

Foodscape Efforts from Brands

• Tyler Maoras, co-founder & CEO, Cool Beans

If you've started looking at food differently as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, you're not alone. Demand for healthier foods with plant-based and functional ingredients has increased—but with the world slowly opening back up and more people resuming their pre-pandemic routines, convenience is still a key factor.

As a result, brands have been shifting their strategies. In-store demos disappeared during lockdown (for obvious reasons) and haven't quite regained momentum.
‍
This gave rise to digital alternatives like Social Nature and Field Agent, where you can browse lists of products that align with your dietary preferences and choose the ones you want to try. Brands provide coupons for freebies via the platforms, which you can redeem at local stores.
It's a great way to find new products to help you lead a healthier lifestyle—and for brands to get more visibility. Plus, it gives you an opportunity to enjoy new foods without stretching your grocery budget.
‍
These digital demos are key for brands that want to succeed in the better-for-you category as competition heats up. But, to make a real impact on the foodscape, brands need to start putting more thought into fundamentals like ingredients and portion sizes. Ultra-processed treats that come in "mega" packs and "family-sized" bags only serve to encourage overconsumption at the expense of nutrition.

The current "bigger is better" approach to portions has fueled the increase in obesity around the world. Brands have the opportunity to help reverse the trend by creating products that emphasize nutrient-dense ingredients like whole grains, beans and vegetables.

These high-fiber foods make products more satisfying at smaller sizes while delivering more nutrients per calorie.

Brands can also take steps to make healthy eating more understandable and accessible, including:

• Forming partnerships and collaborations with high-profile celebrities and influencers who can publicly demonstrate the benefits of making healthier food choices

• Providing engaging, educational content centered around the importance of eating a diverse range of plant foods

• Making it as easy as possible for consumers to put more plant-forward foods in their carts—and on their plates

You can help brands out by participating in digital demos, sharing your favorite new finds on social media and asking local stores to start carrying more better-for-you, plant-forward products.

Choice Architecture in the Foodscape

• Sweta Chakraborty, president, US operations & executive board member at We Don't Have Time

"Choice architecture" is defined as "the practice of influencing choice by 'organizing the context in which people make decisions'.” This means the way food is presented, named or arranged can affect your food choices without you being conscious of the influence.

Consider those candy bars and trashy magazines at the cash register in the grocery store. You don’t really want either of them, but you find yourself buying one (or more) anyway. When the menu at a local restaurant presents you with a huge picture of the "daily special" at a low price, you go for the burger with fries and a shake instead of the vegetable-rich dish you were planning to have.

Even the order in which foods are offered at a buffet or in the company lunch line can send you walking away with a plate full of everything you know you shouldn’t be eating.

But all is not doom, gloom and dietary disasters. Changes can be made both by people who set up these environments and in our own minds. One involves rearranging food environments to make positive changes easier and more accessible. The other requires us to be more aware of hidden influences in our surroundings.

Changing Food Environments

There are several actionable steps that those working in foodservice, hospitality and corporate environments can take:

• Rework menus and buffet offerings to provide better choices by default

• Encourage selection of plant-based and climate-friendly foods by giving dishes interesting and exciting names

• Use positive, engaging messaging to reframe the conversation around food and healthy eating

• Find creative ways to transform innate biases and perceptions related to food and health

• Collaborate on solutions to spark collective movements that go beyond single organizations

You can encourage your school, employer and local businesses to start making these changes. Find out who's in charge of making decisions about food, and let them know you'd like to see healthier options and smaller portions. It's hard to guess what people want, so hearing from you gives businesses and organizations both insights and direction they can use to reframe their foodscapes.

‍

Change on a personal level requires taking a step back and looking at your own perceptions. Pay attention the next time you’re shopping or eating out. Look for cues in your environment that may steer you away from making choices aligned with the changes you wish to see in your own health and in the world.

If building a mental framework to help yourself default to healthier choices seems overwhelming, don’t try to go it alone. Leverage communities and technology to connect with others on similar journeys and advance your own movements.

Apps like We Don’t Have Time can help you band together with others seeking to make an impact and influence larger organizations to make positive changes.

Together, these individual and organizational efforts form a chain of tangible next steps toward improving the food system.

‍

Combining Efforts At and Away From Home

• Jack A Bobo, CEO, Futurity Food; author of Why Smart People Make Bad Food Choices

The biggest foodscape changes may, in fact, begin with subtle shifts—both at home and in external food environments.

In his book, Why Smart People Make Bad Food Choices, author and speaker Jack Bobo reveals the role of consumer psychology in foodscapes. Choice architecture plays a big part, creating environments that nudge us toward or away from healthy, climate-friendly choices.

This in part explains why America's obesity rates went from being the same as or lower than those in Europe to the current level of approximately 42% in the span of about 50 years. Despite having access to more healthy food—and more information about that food—than ever before, making healthy choices still evades a significant portion of society.
‍
The trick is not to provide more information; time and experience has revealed that this doesn’t work. Instead, those responsible for crafting choice architecture within the foodscape can harness behavioral science to support better food choices across the board.

Small changes like re-designing store layouts to make healthy foods more prominent and appealing or changing unit sizes to emphasize quality over quantity can make a big impact when implemented collectively. Consistency is key with any of these changes; the more often consumers interact with healthy food in reasonable portion sizes outside the home, the more likely they are to develop mental guidelines they’ll continue to follow at home.

Starting an Uncommon Movement

Some of these changes may seem counterintuitive to restaurants and brands. After all, society has conditioned the vast majority of consumers to equate size with value. This may explain why posting calorie counts on restaurant menus may actually cause people to order—and eat—more: More calories for less money creates the illusion of better value.

It's possible consumers may feel gypped when presented with smaller portions.
‍
But by restructuring food landscapes—including how much food is provided in the context of a meal—it’s possible to create the expectancy of satisfaction from a lower volume of higher-quality food. For change to actually happen, though, there needs to be a shift from talking about health, nutrition and sustainability to doing something about it.
‍
Individual influence can make an impact—meaning you have the power to facilitate such a shift on both a community and national level. It starts by telling organizations, institutions and brands that you want a better food environment with healthier options:

• Inform the people in charge of food at your workplace or school about options like WRI's Cool Food initiative or the Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine's Universal Meals program.

• Use social media and website contact forms to ask your favorite brands to institute changes that make healthy, sustainable food more affordable and accessible.

• Enlist the help of others in your community—start a movement!

Bringing efforts together into a collective whole can prompt changes in the foodscape wherever people are consuming food. Over time, small adjustments can add up to make healthy food the easy—and preferable—choice.
‍
‍Thanks to Foster members Katherine Canniff and Jeremiah Ajayi for their insights on and help with finishing this piece!

Can some of the smallest living things on the planet change the future of the food system—and create a better world? According to Eugene Wang, microalgae has that power.
‍
Through his company, Sophie's BioNutrients, Eugene and his team are fermenting and extracting unique microalgae proteins suitable for a creating a variety of plant-based food products. Their proteins are sustainable, affordable and can be grown anywhere.

We cover a ton of ground in this super-nerdy episode, including:

• Eugene's unique background in plant-based food manufacturing

• How using fermentation to grow microalgae increases the protein's sustainability and lowers costs

• How quickly and prolifically microalgae grows compared to animal and plant proteins

• How microalgae protein can provide for increased protein demands at a lower financial and environmental cost than common proteins like soy

• Unique products Sophie's BioNutrients has been able to create using its microalgae proteins

• Nutrient profile of microalgae protein vs. soy

• The properties that may make microalgae versatile enough to withstand extreme climate conditions

• Overcoming consumers' innate resistance to change to help them embrace new food categories and flavors

About Eugene

Eugene Wang grew up immersed in the vegetarian food business. Since 2010, his vision for launching Sophie’s Kitchen, the first Plant-Based Seafood Alternative, has manifested into a viable innovation.

Sophie’s Kitchen had won numerous recognitions from companies like PepsiCo and Chipotle.In 2019, Eugene took alternative protein to the microorganism level and started another venture: Sophie’s BioNutrients Singapore. He won $1 million SGD at The Livability Challenge 2019 with this project and started protein fermentation facility in Singapore.

About Sophie's BioNutrients

Using a proprietary strain of microalgae grown in a fermentation tank, Sophie's BioNutrients is creating a new, sustainable plant-based protein. This results in a product that's 60% protein and has a high-quality essential amino acid profile that exceeds the WHO requirements for protein products.

Sustainability is inherent in the process.

The growing system can be set up near metropolitan areas to cut down the needs for agriculture and transportation, improve food security and reduce risks associated with supply chain disruption. The 3- to 10-day production cycle creates protein in a fraction of the time required for soy or beef and can be fueled entirely by industrial food waste.

Sophie's BioNutrients microalgae require very little water and only the land needed to set up an indoor production facility. With no need for fertilizer, herbicide, antibiotics, or growth hormones, it's truly healthy for both the environment and the human body.

Connect with Eugene & Learn More About the Company

• https://www.sophiesbionutrients.com

• LinkedIn: Eugene's profile, Sophie's BioNutrients company page

Being at the head of "the world’s leading source for APAC alternative protein industry news and reporting" gives Sonalie unique insight into many of today's biggest climate, food and sustainability issues.

In this episode, we touch on:

• How Green Queen grew out of Sonalie's own journey to a healthier lifestyle

• The unique characteristics of the alt protein/plant-based movement in Asia

• How Sonalie's early experiences with the new generation of plant-based products led to a shift in focus for Green Queen

• Why Green Queen covers innovations in packaging, fashion, beauty and more in addition to alt protein

• How the lack of transparency in the food industry places the unfair burden of due diligence and label reading on consumers

• How governance, transparency and accountability can have a positive impact on the food system and the climate

• The importance of developing products and policies that address food, ethical and sustainability issues from multiple angles

• The sweeping positive changes that could occur if factory farming was eliminated

About Sonalie and Green Queen Media

Serial social entrepreneur and  trends forecaster Sonalie Figueiras is the founder and editor-in-chief of Green Queen, an award-winning impact media platform advocating for social and environmental change through inspiring and empowering original content and one of the world's leading outlets for alternative protein news.

She is also the founder & CEO of Ekowarehouse, the global sourcing platform for certified organic products and the co-founder & CEO of SourceGreenPackaging.com, the world's first global marketplace for sustainable packaging with a mission to fight single-use plastic waste.

With over a decade of experience in publishing, digital marketing, organic trade, sustainability, alternative proteins and green packaging.

She is an eco wellness industry veteran with a keen eye for market trends and a sought-after international speaker and moderator, sharing her expertise on stages across Asia and beyond, including Harvard Business School and two times at TEDx.

Further, Sonalie is a global advisor at Social Ventures Hong Kong, an Impact Purpose Organization committed to re-imagining Hong Kong as a purpose-driven city, an advisor at The Remedy Project, which revolutionizes access to justice for migrant workers globally, a cause close to her heart, and she is an avid home cook and published cookbook author.

Find (and read!) Green Queen Media Online

• https://www.greenqueen.com.hk

• LinkedIn: Sonalie, Green Queen

• Facebook: Green Queen HK

• Twitter: @GreenQueenHK

• Instagram: @greenqueenhk

You may also like:

Red to Green, Season 2

Can simple changes make a big difference in diet and health—not just on an individual level, but across the food industry?

Mike Fata is living proof that it's possible. Mike has dedicated over 25 years studying and practicing natural health, starting in 1995 when he made the life-changing decision to lose over 100lbs.

In 1998, he founded Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods and spent the next 18 years growing the company, finally selling it to Tilray for $419 million in 2016.

In this episode, we dig into:

• How Mike's own health journey sparked the founding of Manitoba Harvest

• The history and growth of Manitoba Harvest

• Mike's involvement in other plant-based and functional food companies

• Hemp's health and environmental benefits

• Hemp's unique—and sometimes tumultuous—history

• Using science-backed education to overcome barriers of misinformation

• The importance of choosing fresh, organically grown foods over ultra-processed products

• The trend toward brands showing more personality and realism in marketing

• How individual companies can spark widespread positive change in the food system and consumer health

About Mike

Mike is passionate about sharing natural health with the world. He's a keynote speaker and has been featured on various media countless times regarding natural health, nutrition, hemp foods, organic agriculture, sustainable business and entrepreneurship.

Mike has won numerous awards, including Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2004), Top 40 under 40 (2008), OTA Organic Rising Star Award (2016) and Top 100 Health Influencers (2017). He's currently Chief Executive Officer of Fata & Associates, Chairman of the Board of Sol Cuisine, Director (Past Chairman) of the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) and investor/advisor to a portfolio of companies.

Mike is a homeschooling father👨‍👧‍👦, certified holistic health coach and avid backyard organic farmer. In his free time he enjoys coaching and mentoring natural products industry entrepreneurs, which he does frequently on Clubhouse.

Find Mike & Manitoba Online

• Tasty recipes from Manitoba Harvest

• LinkedIn

• Clubhouse: @mikefata

What can today's eco-conscious companies, including plant-based businesses, do to increase their impact on the world?

Emma Osborne of Citizen Kind would suggest hiring a team of people committed to living out a shared set of values.

Whether you're looking for fulfilling work or building a company dedicated to changing the world for the better, this episode has some fantastic gems. Here's a peek into what we dig into:

• Emma's early entry into vegetarianism and what finally got her to go vegan

• How impactful companies can make better hires

• Tips for finding "top talent" employees who share company values

• The importance of considering diverse perspectives when hiring—particularly when aiming to build a better future

• Why an amazing, committed team is crucial for startups that want to get established and grow

• The importance of vision and values in building a successful company

• The power of building community around a business—internally and with customers

• Why the values a company markets must be reflected in their internal relations and operations

• The importance of developing and adhering to a core value system in business and all of life

About Emma & Citizen Kind

Emma Osborne is the founder of Citizen Kind, a consultancy designed to help accelerate the growth of companies that are creating the future of food, materials and energy.

Through her expertise in talent, business strategy and creative flair, she has been helping solve problems for global startups from her base in London, UK, since launching in 2018. With 17 years recruitment experience, she has worked with large MNCs, agency groups, and SMEs to identify the commercial talent they need to thrive in the modern world. She is on the board with not-for-profits KindEarth.

Tech and Vegan Leaders and is a passionate vegan, foodie and animal advocate.

If you are a conscious consumer or value-based employer, connect with her here and transform your career or invigorate your business!

Connect with Emma

• https://citizenkind.com

• LinkedIn

• Instagram: @citizenkind

• Facebook: Citizen Kind