It all started with my husband Zygmunt’s struggle with a seemingly invincible enemy – the threat of a heart attack or stroke due to propensity for cardio-vascular disease (CVD).  Virtually all his immediate family members who passed away did so “by the hand of” this disease.  Zygmunt’s prospects were not very good either.  In spite of losing 40 pounds in at the age of 47,due to a restrictive diet and in spite of regular intensive exercise and what is considered a “healthy” life style in the following years, his calcium score and other indicators of CVD went up every year, and 10 years later, in 2009 (at the age of 56) he scored in the 80th percentile of his age group for risk of a cardiac arrest or stroke.  That year, a cardiologist told him that he was doing everything right in managing the risk, but that the progression of his condition was just something he would have to live with (and likely die from), the only possible way of slowing this down being use of statins to lower the cholesterol, which hovered in the range of 210 to 215.  Statins brought the cholesterol down, but he began to experience a side effect, a gradual loss of memory. 

I continued to reject the notion that there was nothing else that could be done to arrest or reverse the progression of his condition.  I mean, how can you just live each day knowing that something other than old age will take your husband away and just accept it?  After a long search, I was directed by Zygmunt’s old friend, Stefan, to two books, which changed our lives:  Dr. Campbell’s The China Study and Dr. Esselstyn’s Prevent and Reverse the Heart Disease.  Based on the most comprehensive public health study, Dr. Campbell demonstrates that there is a strong direct correlation between the incidence of the diseases that plague the more affluent developed societies (heart attack, stroke, diabetes, various forms of cancer, etc.) and consumption of animal proteins; this means that the vegan diet is the most effective antidote against those killer illnesses.  Dr. Esselstyn’s message is particularly relevant for those with propensity for, or with advanced CVD – i.e., CVD can be arrested, and its effects can actually be reversed by strict adherence to no-fat/no-added-sugar plant-based food.

And so we started the “Esselstyn vegan” way in March 2012, and Zygmunt went off statins. In September of the same year, Zygmunt underwent extensive testing, and the results were nothing short of miraculous:  His cholesterol was 136, and his risk of a cardiac arrest or stroke was now rated at less than 5%.  His condition improved dramatically in only 6 months (!!!) after we went no-fat/no-sugar vegan!

We tread the Earth lightly (literally, as the non-fat/no-sugar plant-based food stabilizes the weight at an optimal level) and happily, in good health and with awareness of a healing force that is so powerful in our lives.  I say “we” because I became vegan alongside my husband and cannot stress enough how amazing I feel because of it.      

We constantly run into skeptics who say they would like to try this way of life but that they cannot imagine living without cheese, or eggs, or milk or meet, and, besides, that it is impractical in light of the difficulty of finding vegan food when dining out and of the limited ingredient options when cooking at home.  

Eating out is a separate subject for another time (and we have managed surprisingly well in this regard), so I want to debunk the myth of limited options for, and monotony of, cooking vegan at home.  In fact, options for recipes are virtually unlimited, and the abundance of tastes is surprisingly vast!  My first little book, The Taste of Well-Being, provides recipes that offer tasty and nutritious no-fat/no-sugar vegan fare for approximately one full week.  Those recipes provide a starter kit for the menu for this lifestyle.  Those of you who have strong imagination, and who like to experiment and put a personal stamp on cooking, will get the gist of this culinary approach of The Taste of Well-Being and, by improvising, can build on it to create for themselves enough dishes to serve the table for the entire month, without repetition, each meal being a separate and distinct creation.  Those who prefer to stick to the recipes can begin with The Taste of Well-Being, supplement it with the menu in Dr. Esselstyn’s book, and await the publication of The Taste of Well-Being 2 (which will be a collection of the recipes developed by our friends who have followed the same path).  We envision an “avalanche” of Taste and of Well-Being that will sweep along the path of good natural health countless people who want to attain and maintain excellent health and quality of life. 

Incidentally, being vegan has brought us fuller awareness of the, all too often, inhuman treatment of animals that are raised for food in industrial conditions, and we are strong advocates of initiatives designed to improve our four-legged, feathered and finned friends’ lot before they make their way onto non-vegans’ tables. 

We’ve been eating like this for a little over 4 years now, and there is not a day where we do not wish we had made this diet change earlier. I invite you to try and experiment with vegan recipes in my book. I hope that their taste, combined with our testimony and testimony of countless others who have tried this way of life will help you see being vegan in a different light and experience the good feeling that comes with it.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have you any questions at all!