Avatar: Patty, 28, Career Woman

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Patty leaned back in her chair, eyes narrowing as she scrutinized Joe across the cluttered office desk. “Whole food plant based? Joe, you know I’m already eating healthier than most. What’s the deal with this sudden push?”

Joe grinned, unfazed by Patty’s skepticism. He leaned forward, hands animated as he spoke. “It’s not just about ‘eating healthy,’ Patty. It’s about fueling your body right. You know we’re athletes, we’re supposed to set an example.”

Patty chuckled, shaking her head. “Since when did you become such an advocate for plant-based diets? Last I checked, you were the one bringing in leftover pizza after our late-night shifts.” She pushed a stack of papers towards him, smirking.

Joe ignored the papers, his gaze steady on Patty. “I’ve done my research. You should see the difference it’s made for me – more energy, better performance, and I sleep like a baby.”

Patty snorted, but Joe pressed on, undeterred. He pulled out his phone, swiping through photos of colorful, vibrant meals. “Look at these,” he said, sliding the phone across the desk. “I’ve been making all this stuff at home. It’s not as hard as it looks, and it tastes great.”

Patty picked up the phone, scrolling through the photos with a raised eyebrow. “It does look… impressive.” She paused, then met Joe’s gaze. “But I don’t have time to spend hours in the kitchen, Joe. You know that.”

Joe nodded understandingly. “I get it, Patty. That’s why I started meal prepping on Sundays. It takes an hour tops, and you’re set for the week.” He leaned back, arms crossed. “Give it a try. If you don’t like it after a month, I’ll eat my vegan hat.”

Patty laughed, handing him back his phone. “Alright, Joe. You’ve got yourself a deal. But if I end up looking like a rabbit with carrots sticking out of my ears, I’m blaming you.”

Avatar: Charles, 22, Bodybuilder

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Joe leaned against the counter, his arms crossed as he waited for my response. I was hunched over the stove, stirring a pot of ground beef that sizzled and popped, releasing an aroma that filled our tiny kitchen like a foghorn on a misty day.

“I don’t know, Joe,” I said, shifting the weight on my feet, “I’m used to this stuff. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s… familiar.” My spatula swirled through the meat, breaking up any lumps that dared form under its metal tines.

Joe pushed off from the counter, his body language as animated as ever. “But don’t you see?” he said, his hands dancing around like they were trying to catch something invisible, “That’s exactly why you should give this a shot. Your body is a temple, Charles – you shouldn’t be filling it with… well, stuff that looks like it was made in a lab.”

I scoffed, shaking my head. “You sound like one of those health nuts on Instagram,” I said, turning back to the stove. “Besides, I’m not just feeding myself here. You know how hard it is to find something that both tastes good and doesn’t have any weird plant stuff in it?”

Joe reached past me, snagging a piece of bell pepper from the cutting board. He crunched into it like an apple, his eyes never leaving mine. “That’s exactly my point,” he said around a mouthful of vegetable. “You’re so used to this, you don’t even realize how much better you could feel.”

I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck with my free hand. “I just don’t think I have the time for all that, Joe. Between work and the gym… it’s a wonder I even find time to eat, let alone cook something fancy.” My stomach growled in agreement, traitorous thing.

Joe clapped me on the shoulder, his grin wider than the Grand Canyon. “That’s what I’m here for, buddy,” he said. “I’ll help you. We’ll start with some simple stuff – lentils, beans, tofu… nothing scary, I promise.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, skepticism written all over my face. “Tofu?” I echoed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Joe just laughed, shaking his head. “Trust me, Charles,” he said, “you’re gonna love it. And if you don’t… well, at least you’ll have given it a fair shot.” He winked at me, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Fine,” I said, resignation in my voice. “But if this is all some elaborate prank, Joe… so help me…” My threat was cut off by his whoop of joy as he pulled out his phone to start researching recipes.

As I turned back to the stove, stirring the now-greyish meat with a renewed sense of trepidation, I couldn’t shake the feeling that my life was about to change. And for better or worse, it seemed like Joe was going to be the one steering the ship.

Avatar: Lucy, 24, Mother of 2

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Stacy leaned against the counter, her toned arms crossed as she awaited my response. Her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm for her latest culinary conversion, and I couldn’t help but notice the vibrant green of her smoothie stain on her otherwise pristine white apron. The kitchen, bathed in late afternoon sunlight, was a stark contrast to the chaos of my own, where Joe’s lunch box lay abandoned amidst yesterday’s cereal crumbs.

“I mean, Stacy,” I began, wiping my hands on my faded jeans, “I barely have time to shower, let alone experiment with plant-based gourmet meals.” I gestured towards the living room, where my two angels—if you could ignore their current state of feral, sticky-fingered wildness—were engaged in a battle royal with stuffed animals and plastic blocks.

Stacy followed my gaze, her lips twitching into a sympathetic smile. “Believe me, Lucy,” she said, turning back to me, “I was where you are now. But once I discovered the joy of plant-based cooking, it became a game-changer. It’s not about time or complexity; it’s about making simple swaps.”

She walked over to my pantry and pulled out a can of chickpeas, holding it up like a trophy. “This,” she announced, “is your new best friend. You can make hummus in ten minutes flat, use it for dips, sandwiches—even as a pizza base!”

I raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. “And what about protein? Joe needs his meat and potatoes after a hard day’s work.” I pictured my husband, muscles flexing as he wrangled pipes or hauled equipment, his appetite rivaling that of our two hungry babies combined.

Stacy rolled her eyes, but her voice remained patient. “Lucy, plant-based doesn’t mean no protein. Lentils, tofu, beans—even spinach has a decent amount of protein. And besides, Joe could use some heart-healthy meals too, right?”

Before I could respond, the back door creaked open, and in walked Joe, his hard hat tilted jauntily on his sweat-dampened hair. He grinned at us, oblivious to our culinary debate. “What’s cookin’, good lookin’?” he called out, pulling off his gloves.

Stacy seized the opportunity, pushing past me with a mischievous glint in her eye. “How about we show you, Joe? Lucy and I are going to make you dinner—and it just might change your life.”

And so, against my initial reservations, Stacy dragged me into the fray of plant-based cooking, our banter echoing around the kitchen as we chopped, sautéed, and stirred—all while attempting to keep up with the whirling dervishes in the other room. Little did I know that this impromptu cooking lesson would be just the beginning of our journey towards cleaner eating—and a healthier, happier family.

Tamales

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Tamales are Mexican steamed corn dumplings. Traditional for Christmas and parties. Very flavorful and not boring.

Potato Filling

  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 1 poblano chili, chopped
  • 1/4 cup corn
  • 2 cups mashed potatoes
  • 1/4 cup potato water, vegetable broth or other liquid
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Bean Filling

  • 2 cups black beans
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Wrapping

  • corn husks, soaked, or banana leaves

Dough

  • 1/2 kilo masa (from tortelleria) or 3 cups corn flour + 2-1/2 cups water
  • 1 guajillo chili, toasted
  • 3/4 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 tsp not chicken spice mix
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Soak and trim the corn husks, or banana leaves. Brown the onions and chilis until soft. Mash steamed potatoes and add cooked vegetables, spices with liquid to help mix spices into filling mixture. Blend whole beans with spices in blender or by hand.

Over comal or stainless steel pan or pot, toast chili with tongs. Allow to cool and cut into pieces. Into blender add toasted chili pieces, vegetable broth, spice mix and salt, and blend. Into mixing bowl or pot with masa, add wet mixture and kneed together by hand. The result will be smoother and wetter than tortilla masa, to be easy to spread onto corn husks or banana leaves.

Into bottom half of wrapper, spoon and spread tamale dough mixture. Add spoonful of any filling. Fold sides over middle and fold top half over bottom. Stand up in steaming pot. Steam low heat 35-55m, depending on moistness of tamale dough.

Tips

  • Make whatever kind of filling you want.
  • Taste it and make sure it has flavor. If you like the taste of the filling, you will like the tamale.
  • Tamales can be savory or sweet. Chilis are traditional filling. Try banana or mango tamales!
  • You can use a few ceramic plates at the bottom of a large pot to make your own steamer.
  • Put a glass or cup in the middle, and arrange the tamales around the outside, to help the tamales stand up while cooking.

Wealth Not Health

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Living a whole plant lifestyle benefits you 2 homes in your lifetime.

  • 1 home in food costs
  • 1 home in medical costs

Estimated for 1 person over entire lifetime. The earlier you practice, the more you benefit. Multiply by the number of persons in your family. The larger your family, the more your family benefits.

Start Early

Chronic disease and death is usually not a concern of young adults. But the accumulation of lifetime wealth certainly is. Who wouldn’t want 2 additional homes? The best time to adopt is a young couple starting a family. You have nearly your whole life ahead of you. And your children can start life with maximum advantage.

Cost of Living

Cost of living is primarily food and housing, and medicine later in life. Control your food costs, provide for your housing, and avoid medicine costs. Why two houses, instead of money amount? Because it’s a concrete and real world example. Independent of national currency, whether dollars, peso, euros or pounds. And independent of currency inflation and depreciation. It’s a good example and it’s true no matter when or where you live in the world.

Last Chance

Waiting until chronic disease is diagnosed, near end of live, is the last chance to adopt a whole plant lifestyle. The benefits are primarily in reduced suffering and longer life. But come too late for to save most food and medicine costs. And too late to pass on to family and children. While never too late, your last chance is nearly the worst time to adopt a whole plant lifestyle. The worst time is never.

Vegetables

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How Many Vegetables

  • How many fresh vegetables do you regularly use?
  • How may frozen vegetables do you use?

Weekly

  1. Onion
  2. Celery
  3. Carrot
  4. Cucumber
  5. Tomato
  6. Zuchini
  7. Lettuce
  8. Spinach
  9. Brocolli

I buy these every week. They are always in my refrigerator. They are used in everday recipes. Vegetables are primarily used for flavor. They make the base of soups (vegetable soup, tomato soup, split pea soup) and sauces (marinara sauce). Sometimes feature vegetable side dishes (steamed spinach, Chinese stir fry vegetables). Sometimes salads.

Occasionally

  1. Beet
  2. Cabbage
  3. Cauliflower
  4. Pumpkin-Squash

I buy these every couple of weeks for specific recipes (sauerkraut, root salad, white sauce, pumpkin squares).

Frozen

  1. Peas
  2. Corn

Keep these on hand for soups, stews, flavored rice and fillings (vegetable soup, Spanish or Mexican rice, tamale filling, samosa filling).

Starchy Vegetables

  • Potato
  • Sweet Potato

These are moderate energy staple foods, principally starch. I don’t consider them vegetables because of their use as staple foods.

Chilis

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Know your chilis. Chilis are foundational to Mexican foods. But have been adopted in many other cuisines, particularly Asian cuisines like Indian, Chinese and Japanese. All chilis come from wild ancestors in America, particularly central Mexico. Bell peppers are actually the mildest of chilis, and dried ground red bell peppers as paprika have been adopted in Middle Eastern, African and European cuisines like Spanish, Turkish and Hungarian. The English word for paprika comes from Hungarian. The Spanish call it pimenton. Before chilis, black pepper, originally from India, was the primary spice for adding heat. That’s why English chilis are called peppers. Chilis are one of the many culinary gifts of Mexico to world cuisine. How many chili types do you know and use? These are 10 common chilis that I use all the time.

FRESH

  • Pimenton (used as vegetabe for color and flavor, not heat)
  • Poblano (used as mildly spicy vegetable in Mexican vegetable dishes)
  • Jalapeno (used in mild salsas)
  • Serrano (used in spicy salsa)
  • Habanero (used in hot sauces)

DRY

  • Ancho (poblano)
  • Guajillo (key ingredient in enchilada sauce)
  • Meco Chipotle (extra smoked jalapeno, brown)
  • Morita Chipotle (smoked jalapeno, key ingredient in adobo sauce, dark red)
  • Arbol (used to add heat without much flavor in Asian dishes)

USES

  • Besides fresh and cooked salsa for chips and tacos.
  • Key ingredient in Mexican sauces like enchilada and adobo sauces.
  • Mix and match to make your own chili powder, or chili paste.

If you don’t live in Mexico, you can find these in Mexican groceries, or order online.

Tastes Better

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7 Reasons WFPB Tastes Better

  • Fresh local ingredients. Best ingredients. Know how to pick and chose for ripeness and flavor.
  • From scratch. Know what’s in and what’s out.
  • Whole foods. More complex flavors.
  • Time. Slow cooking. Develops flavors. Fermentation, etc.
  • Aromatics and vegetables. Vegetables are base of flavor. Know way more about vegetables now.
  • Herbs and spices. Depth of flavors. Know way more about spices now.
  • Aligns with personal tastes.

Made choice to make WFPB taste better than previous SAD (gourment junk). Invest time and effort into research and practice kitchen skills. Search, record, adapt and adjust recipes. Cook 3 meals a day from scratch, 1,000 meals a year, for more than a decade. Only so much taste range in biology of human nature. But amazing taste for good food. More enjoyment from food. Depth of experience of ingredients, recipes and health.

Spanish Vocabulary

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  • Must be fun to be sustainable.
  • Expect learning language to take years. Not months.

Language Parts

  • Vocabulary. Common words (depth).
  • Grammar. Complete sentences (accuracy).
  • Fluency: Speed, pause, memory (speed).
  • Accent: Pronunciation (clarity).

Vocabulary is one part of language learning.

Babies and Kids

  • 2 years: 300 words (vacation)
  • 3 years: 1,000 words (flashcards)
  • 4 years: 2,000 words (Duolingo: 2,000-5,000 words, A2 speaking)
  • 5 years: 5,000+ words (no frustration, B2)

It takes kids years, not months, to learn their mother tongue. Why should it be different for adults? Vocabulary learning is continual, occurs at every level, using every tool.

Adults

  • Native speakers 20,000-35,000 words (C2)

My Vocabulary

  • My Spanish Vocabulary is probably ~15-20k words. With different tests I’ve achieved 5,000, 17,000 and 20,000 words.
  • I’m watching TV series and reading novels in Spanish.
  • Comprehension reminds me of grade school, when learning to read, and I didn’t always know every word.
  • I don’t stop to look up words, unless they are reapeated, and seem important.

Vocabulary Tests

17 Minute Languages

  • https://www.17-minute-languages.com/en/Spanish-placement-test/
  • Good for beginners. Not very good for repeat tests.
  • Type of test: Yes-No Spanish (honor system). Basic, Intermediate and Advanced words.
  • My vocabulary: 5k words. Suggest C2, but suspect that’s an exageration.
  • Javier’s (8yrs) Spanish: 4,400 words
  • Violet’s (9yrs) Spanish: 3,800 words

ARealMe

https:/www.arealme.com/spanish-vocabulary-size-test/en/

  • Difficult test for beginners.
  • Type of test: Synonyms and antonyms. Spanish to spanish multiple choice. More uncommon and rare words.
  • My Spanish vocabulary: 17k words. Top 8%. “Professional white collar level”.
  • My English 30k words. Top 0.25%. “Shakespeare”. (Average US 20k)
  • Javier’s (8yrs) Spanish: 3,522, Last 39.35%, “Your vocabulary size is like that of a 4-year-old kid in Spain!”

Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (Spanish) and Ghent University (English)

  • http://vocabulario.bcbl.eu (Spanish) and http://vocabulary.ugent.be (English)
  • Difficult test for beginners. Good for repeat tests. New words each time.
  • Type of test: Real or fake words. Don’t guess yes. Wrong yes answers punished. Requires keyboard.
  • My Spanish vocabulary: 20,000 words. (36% of 60,000 words. Not as bad as it seems. 60,000 * 1/3 = 20,000 words) “Este es el nivel de una persona no nativa con un nivel alto.”
  • My English vocabulary: 45,000 words (76% of 60,000 words. Not as bad as it seems. 60,000 * 3/4 = 45,000 words) “This is a high level for a native speaker.”

Adults are better test takers than kids. We understand much better the rules and psychology of tests.

Food Causes Noncommunicable Diseases

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  • For many people, the cause of noncommunicable diseases is a mystery.
  • Assume future discovery or medical breakthrough.

Revolution

  • Cause already known. But not integrated into science and medicine.
  • Knowledge and practice is fragmented and uneven.
  • Reversal already practiced by small minority.

Discovery

  • Food dominates all causes. Proven reversal with food alone.
  • Multiple diseases reversed with common food.
  • Diseases share common biological mechanisms and pathways.
  • Small growing minority of clinics offer successful dietary interventions.
  • Small changes slow disease. Large changes stop or reverse.

Science of Reversal

  • Cardiovascular: Ornish (RCT) and Esselstyn (study)
  • Cancer: Ornish (RCT) and T Colin Campbell (lab)
  • Diabetes: Barnard (RCT)

Work of last 40 years. These people should recieve Nobel Prize. Commonly people have more than one condition and medication. Most common diseases and risk factors caused and reversed by food.

Sources

Dean Ornish, International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, 2022

A New Unified Theory of Lifestyle Medicine

  • Full references
  • Requires account (free).

Dean Ornish, Plantrician Project

Unifying Theory on Lifestyle Medicine

  • Video for professional audience.