Sample a Taste of Health

Vancouver’s healthy food festival, Taste of Health, has become a welcome September tradition and reflects the vegetarian festivals that are increasingly popular across North America. It’s a fun, inexpensive way for families to spend a day or weekend. It’s also a great way for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike to sample healthy foods and discover how small, dietary changes will impact climate change.

Earthsave Canada’s 10th annual food festival includes cooking demonstrations, seminars and a veggie food court. Visitors can hear informative lectures, ask questions of food experts, attend demos, sample tasty foods and browse the book fair.

Speakers include cattle rancher turned vegan activist Howard Lyman (www.madcowboy.com); David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University; Brenda Davis, RD, a dietitian and my co-author (www.brendadavisrd.com) and I’ll be there too so please come by and say hello.

The following authors will give cooking demonstrations: Rose Vasile (www.rawrose.com), Victoria Laine (www.healthbychocolatebook.com), Dreena Burton (www.everydayvegan.com) and Nyala’s restaurateur Assefa Kebede (www.nyala.com).

Here are summaries of my and Brenda Davis’ presentations:

Rx for Healthy Eating
Vesanto Melina

Did your medical doctor give you a prescription for healthy eating? Would you like to live an extra 10 vibrant years? Can food be good for you and also be delicious and easy to prepare? How do you cope when some of your dear ones are vegetarian, vegan or eat raw foods while others can’t imagine a meal without meat? In this presentation, you’ll learn simple tips for preparing meals and snacks throughout the day. You’ll learn to keep your blood sugar level and your energy high. You’ll get ideas for feeding children, grandchildren and spouses food that will tickle their fancies and tingle their taste buds. You’ll discover how to fare well at restaurants and while travelling.

The Raw Revolution Diet
Vesanto Melina

A trend that is sweeping North America is the raw foods movement. Some people are motivated to go raw by a concern about bulging waistlines, others by the abundance of protective antioxidants and phytochemicals in raw plant foods. Are raw diets nutritionally adequate? If so, what does a day’s intake look like? How do we create a raw menu that meets recommended intakes for protein, calcium, iron, zinc, vitamins B12 and D? Is it okay to be partly raw, rather than 100 percent? Can a raw diet be the basis for a successful weight loss plan?

Cutting Edge Vegetarian Nutrition
Brenda Davis

There is no more powerful tool than your own example of great health. While there is overwhelming evidence that a vegetarian or near-vegetarian diet is as healthy as you can get, plant-based diets are not foolproof. This presentation will guide you through common concerns and questions about plant-based diets and provide you with authoritative answers and detailed information on protein, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and essential fatty acids. Learn about the far-reaching benefits of a vegetarian diet.

Defeating Diabetes – lessons from the Marshall Islands
Brenda Davis

Type 2 diabetes is sweeping North America. Once primarily a disease affecting people over age 45, it is now common among young adults and increasing numbers of teens and children. Though often believed to follow a downhill spiral, research demonstrates that the disease is highly treatable and, in some cases, completely reversible. The author of the bestseller Defeating Diabetes will guide you through the reversal diet and lifestyle and provide tools to improve, and possibly defeat, your disease. Brenda Davis brings her experience of working on diabetes reversal in the Marshall Islands, where nearly half of those over 35 years of age are affected. Her story is riveting and inspiring. Don’t miss this presentation.

Vesanto Melina is a dietitian and author based in Langley, BC. Call            604-882-6782       for a personal consultation or visit www.camd58.sg-host.com 

TASTE OF HEALTH, www.earthsave.ca

Also see www.healthyschoolfood.org to get a year’s worth of daily Wakeup Wellness Messages for schools for a $50 donation.