My name is Diane and I'm a certified plant-based nutrition expert, writer, photographer and recipe developer who's been helping people transition to a whole food plant-based lifestyle for the past nine years. My hope is to guide and inspire you to gain control over your eating habits, enjoy delicious meals, have freedom from worry and live a long and healthy life! Let's transform your health!
Here you'll find easy-to-make, plant-based recipes and important health tips, backed by nutritional science.
I’m thrilled you’re here because I imagine we’re a lot alike. We’re both trying to live a long, healthy life that we love. This means that we need to be serious about eating a diet that promotes health and even reverses disease.
JOURNEY TO HEALTH
In 2008, I was 30 pounds heavier and with the help of a registered dietician, I lost 25 pounds, but those pounds started creeping back on and my cholesterol wasn't great either.
I developed a heart arrhythmia and although I consulted with a cardiologist, I took my own path to heal. You can read more about my health journey here. I also had arthritis pain in my fingers with nodules starting to form...
By eating a whole food, plant-based diet, I lost weight, my cholesterol dropped 40 points my heart is beating regularly and the arthritis pain is gone! No medication for me and I couldn't be happier with the way I feel. That’s great now that I’m a sexagenarian...
I've learned - it's all about the food we eat. Thanks to movies like The Game Changers, What the Health, Forks Over Knives, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, and to "no meat, no dairy" pioneers like Dr. Fuhrman, Dr. McDougalland Dr. Esselstyn, I'm on board for a plant-based life!
Biking in Boulder
LOVE OF NUTRITION
In 2014, I earned a Plant-Based Nutrition certificate in and in 2019 I became a certified "Food Over Medicine" instructor, but my love of nutrition and healthy living started many years ago when I bought book after book on the subject and wanted to learn how to heal myself and stay well. After many bouts with sinus infections and rounds of antibiotics, I leaned on the advice of Dr. Andrew Weil, one of the first health gurus, who had wonderful tips for healing. I found that if I boosted my own body’s ability to heal, it would do it really well.
OUR BODIES ARE AMAZING AND WANT TO REPAIR AND HEAL. GIVE YOURS A CHANCE AND IT WILL REWARD YOU WITH VITAL HEALTH.
I love researching nutritional science and sharing the latest with you on what contributes to optimum health. Not only do l love cooking, creating recipes and researching nutrition science, I'm also in a gourmet group that has been going for over 25 years.
MY CREATIVE SIDE
I've been a graphic designer, a teacher working with children who have learning disabilities, and for the past 25 years, a watercolor artist. Now that we have more time, my husband, Charles, and I love to drive our 24' RV to the beautiful spots around the country with our dog, Abby, and our motorcycle. We have a goal of riding it through all of the national parks. I think we’ve been through 11 so far.
We are also involved in a wonderful non-profit that concentrates on saving the world's biodiversity, the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. We've had the honor of meeting Mr. Wilson since Charles is the co-founder and on the board. We even participated in the NOVA film, Lord of the Ants. Many of Charles' photos can be seen on their website's Biodiversity Photo Gallery page.
He is also on the board of Nature and Culture International who conserves ecosystems at large scale in Latin American, over 20 million acres to date.
We moved from Encinitas, California to Boulder, Colorado in 2014 and have two grown sons.
MORE ABOUT PLANTBASEDCOOKING.COM
10 THINGS ABOUT ME
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CONNECT WITH ME: diane@plantbasedcooking.com
Thank you. The lentil shepherds dish looks really good, id like to try that
Hope you enjoy it 🙂
The change in the recipes from imperial to metric doesn’t work for me. Is that a general problem or is it only with my computer?
I always see the recipes in imperial.
Hi Luca, I’m sorry you’re having trouble with switching the measurement system. The imperial measurement is set as the default and switching it does work for me, but it not really perfect. I see that it doesn’t switch some ingredients like the tsp and Tbl. I’ll have to check if an update would fix that.
I just found your site today and tried the roasted vegetable enchiladas. They were fantastic!! I am 10 days into plant based eating and I notice a difference in how how feel/ I hope I have the same improvement in my hands that you experienced. Thank you for the site.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the enchiladas and, that you’re already noticing a difference from eating a plant-based diet. It means a lot when someone gives me feedback. Fingers crossed that you have improvement in your hands, too!
Do you have a cook book? It would be FANTASTIC if you could make an app in kindle or audiobooks with your cool book! I want to navigate through your recipes etc faster from my phone in the kitchen. Please say this is a possibility! Thank you so much for all that you do, it is so well received by my family of 4❤️
Hey Angela, How did you know that I’ve been thinking about that!? I’ve been working on a couple of other recipe collection ideas, plant-based soups being one of them, and that will be out pretty soon. I’m taking your suggestion to heart and it’s on my list for 2018! ???? ???? ????
A cookbook please…
Yes, good idea! I am working on some meal plans that will have recipes but need to get the cookbook going, too! Thanks for the encouragement.
I found your page this evening and have bookmarked SEVERAL recipes to try. So many wonderful looking/sounding dishes.
Thanks, Deb, glad to have you stop by. Hope you enjoy the recipes. 🙂
Diane,
That is great to hear about your health journey and success; however, let’s be honest, whole food plant base lifestyle does NOT cure everything for everyone as people preach. Folks out there make it the panacea that will make everyone healthy, wealthy and sexy, and will definitely cure the world’s problems; it doesn’t, and I am a living example of that, even though I wouldn’t change a whole food plant base lifestyle for anything. Glad to hear that your cholesterol went down, mine did not; glad to hear that your heart palpitation subsided, my enlarged prostate condition is still there. Try to get medical help from some of the gurus mentioned on this website and you will here something like ‘we don’t accept any insurance plan or Medicare, but will be happy to supply you with a medical superbill’ . Further, when you investigate some of these guru websites you will discover that they sell their own (expensive) supplements, their ‘New York Bestsellers’ books, e-courses, a $15,000 medical retreat in sunny California…..ad nauseam, and they malign big pharma against which they are in direct competition. I would like to hire an investigative reporter to look into their wealth. The average, honest person need to go it alone .
I am new to this website, but you have done a great job here, thank you.
Hey Mike, I think you have some valid points and plan to get back to you with more when I have a minute to write it up.
You’ve made some excellent points and I agree with you. People don’t always recover from illness just because they eat a whole food plant-based diet. Recovery depends on several factors: how severe the health issue is, how long it’s been going on, an individual’s genetics and age, how long they’ve been eating a plant-based diet, what kind of emotional support they receive, what environmental conditions could be contributing, how well your immune system is functioning, and probably a host of other reasons. So statistically, some will not do as well as others.
I’m sorry to hear you haven’t responded as well as you’d hoped. I know for cholesterol, some people have genetically high cholesterol no matter what. And, I can’t speak to the prostate issue, except that high fat and dairy in the diet contribute to prostate cancer. Here’s an article related to that.
It can seem as though some plant-based gurus are just in it for the money. Unfortunately, the medical profession looks to drugs as a panacea for health cures and not to diet and nutrition. What money is in it for drug companies if people can be helped by food? It’s no wonder that insurance doesn’t cover “treatments” that involve diet. It’s a sad state of affairs.
I know of a few plant-based gurus who give money back into the system and only take a salary, for example, Dr. Michael Greger of nutritionfacts.org. He does sell books and give lectures as it gives credibility to his cause. However, I myself, don’t fault people for wanting to make money.
I also need to make enough to support my passion and in the near future, I’ll be offering courses on making the transition to eating a plant-based diet.
I do know that our cells need proper nutrition to function their best. Aren’t we lucky that mother nature imbued us with an ability to heal? And when we give them what they need they should be able to start the healing process given we are also getting the right amount of sleep, mental relaxation, and exercise.
I only wish that the medical industry, as a whole, would embrace diet and nutrition as a healing practice. Fortunately, some doctors are coming around and having great results with their patients. I only wish it was working better for you. I’m glad to hear that you’ll continue to eat a whole food plant-based diet and really hope that things start to turn around. As an off-the-wall question, have you tried meditation or visualization? A calm and focused mind and a vision of where you’d like your health to be could be just what the doctor orders.
I hope you know that you’re not alone. There are many enthusiasts and bloggers who support this way of life, including myself. There are fantastic plant-based Facebook groups that offer support, guidance, and a community of like-minded people. If you’re into Facebook, you could try that route.
I’m always here to answer your questions, as well, so please reach out if you need to.