The Vegan / Vegetarian Mastery Program offers relief from all of your dietary and social frustrations, and the chance to spend the rest of your life thriving on a plant based diet.

It’s a series of 50 lessons that take you by the hand, and transform you into a thriving vegan or vegetarian. 43 of the 50 lessons are the same for both programs. 7 lessons differ, depending on whether you choose the vegan or vegetarian program.

From October 7-13, 2009, we’re offering you a free 15-day trial.

As a student, you’ll get an email each week with a special link for that week’s lesson. And each of the 50 lessons includes an assignment, so you’ll come one step closer to mastery each week.

The assignments don’t have strict deadlines, so if you go on a long vacation, you can catch up when you return. But we encourage you to report back weekly.

To see the curriculum, visit:

http://thrivingvegetarians.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/the-vegetarian-mastery-program-1st-26-lessons/

Here’s one advantage of our program over books. When you read books, nobody knows or cares. But you can proudly tell our whole community each time you complete an assignment.

Our private site has a place for you to post your experiences. Then you can get congratulations, suggestions, and feedback.

What’s more, our weekly Q&A call will answer your questions. All students get password access to recordings of these fascinating calls. That means you can listen or download at your convenience.

If you’d like to participate live on our calls, or submit your questions in advance and listen afterwards, note that we have a limited number of spaces for live participants. So be ready at 3pm EST on Wed, October 7. That’s when we open enrollment.

When you graduate from the Mastery Program…

* You’ll get a certificate from The Vegetarian Health Institute, and a wallet-sized card certifying that you’re a Master Vegan or Master Vegetarian.

This will boost your credibility when educating others. You’ll command more respect. Fewer people will have the nerve to challenge or hassle you. And it’ll give you a credential when applying for a job (or teaching) in the health and nutrition world.

* You’ll be whipping up delicious meals in 10-30 minutes, using everyday produce, and ingredients you’ll find in the Natural Section of most large grocery stores.

* You’ll be making crowd-pleasing meals from PURE ingredients. You’ll be liberated from packaged and processed foods made with fillers, preservatives, animal byproducts, white sugar, and high fructose corn syrup!

* If you’re like most vegetarians who eat the whole foods diet we recommend, you’ll have more energy, bright clear eyes, and a great complexion. You’ll radiate health and age slower.

Won’t it be great to move freely in your old age, without aches or pains? Won’t it be great to enjoy gardening, dancing, or other hobbies when you’re 80 years old?

The first 200 students to enroll will receive this early bonus package:

Super Bonus #1:
Charter membership in The Association Of Thriving Vegetarians.

Super Bonus #2:
Restaurant Survival Guide For Vegetarians and Vegans

Stop letting restaurants sneak animal fat, stock, and gelatin into your meals. Besides the usual culprits – chicken stock, lard, and oyster sauce – discover the 39 other restaurant foods often made with animal byproducts.

Super Bonus #3:
Vegetarian and Vegan Menu Items At 21 Chain Restaurants

Discover which menu items are cruelty-free, and which restaurants top the list for veg friendly meals. This ebook will be a Godsend the next time you’re at an airport, or on a road trip, and you’re at the mercy of fast food restaurants.

Super Bonus #4:
Easy Vegan Sources of Protein, Calcium, Iron, Omega 3, and Vitamins A, B12, and D

Now you can get these nutrients from whole food sources, and save money on synthetic nutritional supplements. Plus, you can cut down on soy and tofu because you’ll discover eight other complete proteins!

Super Bonus #5:
All Vegan Holiday Recipe Collection (ebook)

Ten mouth-watering recipes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Passover, and more!

We will announce pricing next week. But if you’re on a budget, don’t worry. To accommodate all budgets, we offer three levels of participation: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

2,967 people have signed up for our priority email list so far. And thanks to several cookbook authors and newsletter publishers,  the word is going out by email to another 53,000+ people.

However, only the first 200 students will get the early bird bonus package. If you want to qualify for the early bird package, plan to be at your computer promptly at 3pm EST (12 noon PST) on Wed 10/7 — or soon afterwards.

Remember, our program comes with a 15-day free trial. And even after your first 15 days, you can cancel at any time.

We will email you a link as it gets closer. If you have questions, please click the blue link below that says “Leave a comment”.

The main reason the plants are genetically modified is so they can handle higher amounts of herbicide. Bacterial genes are inserted that allow them to survive doses of herbicide that would otherwise kill them.1

What to do?!

If you live near a health food store, it should be pretty easy to buy organic soy milk, tofu, tempeh, cornmeal, polenta, and canola oil. (By definition, Certified Organic food cannot be GM.) The challenge comes with packaged foods!

Most packaged foods contain fillers like soybean oil, soy protein, and high fructose corn syrup. Those produced by healthy brands like “Eden Organic” and “Arrowhead Mills” may have all organic ingredients. But many do not.

That’s a big reason why health-conscious people like you are returning to their kitchens and making recipes from scratch from whole foods… without fillers and preservatives. It’s the surest way to protect yourself from eating denatured foods.

It’s also why we’ve enlisted five amazing chefs to contribute to The Vegan / Vegetarian Mastery Program. With our combined recipes and cooking secrets, you’ll be whipping up quick delicious meals like a pro.

Here’s a rundown of the chefs you’ll get to learn from:

Jo Stepaniak, MSEd, is the author and co-author of sixteen books on compassionate living and vegetarian cuisine, and has been a contributing author to many other books, pamphlets, national publications, and magazines. She was inducted into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame at the 2008 NAVS Vegetarian Summerfest. Her award-winning column Ask Jo! appears on her Web site, “Grassroots Veganism”. http://www.vegsource.com/jo

Meredith McCarty’s most recent cookbook won the Versailles World Cookbook Fair Award. It’s called Sweet and Natural – More Than 120 Naturally Sweet and Dairy Free Desserts. Formerly the associate editor of Natural Health magazine, Meredith directed The East West Center for Macrobiotics for 19 years. She’s also worked with Drs. Benjamin Spock, Dean Ornish and John McDougall. www.healingcuisine.com

Jill Nussinow, R.D., authored the award-winning cookbook, The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment. She’s a Registered Dietitian who writes and edits for Natural Food Network magazine and Vegan Culinary Experience magazine, She’s also been a nutritionist and cooking teacher at the McDougall program for the past 7 years. www.theveggiequeen.com

Nomi Shannon is widely known for her best selling book, The Raw Gourmet — which has sold over 150,000 copies. In 2008, she received three awards for Best Educator, Favorite Chef, and Favorite Recipe Book. She’s been featured in Alive magazine, Get Fresh, San Diego North County Times, and Galveston News. Nomi is not only a Certified Hippocrates Health Educator. She actually ran The Hippocrates Health Institute’s certification course! www.rawgourmet.com

Elaina Love’s recipes have been published internationally, and she’s been teaching worldwide since 1998. She’s the creator of the Amazing Nut Milk Bag, and a Chef/Instructor at the renowned Living Light Culinary Arts Institute, where she’s been on staff since 2000. http://www.purejoyplanet.com

There are three ways to break down these sugars *before* making your bean recipe…

1) Soak beans overnight in a large bowl or pot, then pour off soaking water. Add fresh water and cook as usual. Soaking overnight begins bean germination and promotes enzyme release. The germination process  breaks down the complex bean sugars

2) Several hours before making your recipe, submerge beans in plenty of water and bring them to a boil for two minutes. Next, remove from heat and let the beans soak for 2-6 hours. Then pour off the “soak water” and cook as usual with fresh water.

3) Sprout the beans before cooking them. We’ll detail this approach in The Vegan / Vegetarian Mastery Program, in the lesson called “How To Skyrocket the Nutrition in Nuts, Seeds, Beans, and Grains.”

1) Pre-wash all of your produce before putting it away. Having to wash your vegetables for each meal is time consuming.

2) When you make a salad for dinner, make enough to use for lunch the next day. Here are three ways to keep the salad fresh and crisp overnight:

(a) Only pour dressing on the portions you serve for dinner, not the salad left in the serving bowl.

(b) Squeeze lemon juice over the leftover salad.

(c) Store in an airtight container.

3) Keep your shelled nuts, seeds, grains, shredded coconut, dried fruits, dried herbs and spices in your freezer. That will keep them fresh longer.

4) Keep packets of stevia in your car or pocketbook. That’ll save you from resorting to white sugar at conventional restaurants and coffee shops. Just remember to use stevia in VERY small amounts; it’s 200 times sweeter than sugar!

5) Keep a lemon in your car if convenient. Then you can sneak it into a restaurant and squeeze it over your salad — when you’re skeptical about the purity (or vegan-friendliness) of their dressing. Even vegetarians need to be careful, as anchovies are sometimes used in Cesar salad dressings!

6) Most oil can go rancid when stored for too long at room temperature (except coconut oil). So when you buy a bottle of oil, pour a fraction into a smaller jar or bottle. Keep the small jar at room temperature, and the original bottle in your fridge. Then as you use up what’s in the jar, refill it.

7) When buying grains, ask your store manager to check the date on the packing. Be sure to get this year’s crop, preferably not more than three months old. And buy just what you can eat within a month or so. Grains stored for more than 90 days can ferment.[1]

Keep a running list of the groceries you need and take it with you whenever you leave home. Then if you pass the grocery store, health food store, or Farmer’s Market in the course of doing other errands, you won’t forget what to buy.

By the way, in the Vegan / Vegetarian Mastery Program, we discuss the pros and cons of several natural sweeteners — stevia being one of them. We also explain which oils are healthiest for cooked vs. raw dishes.

In these cases, it’s important to know which “conventional” fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues, and which have the least.

The website www.foodnews.org calls these two groups “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Clean Fifteen”.

Most contaminated: THE DIRTY DOZEN

FRUITS:
Peaches
Apples
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Imported grapes
Pears

VEGETABLES:
Sweet bell peppers
Celery
Kale
Lettuce
Carrots

Least Contaminated: THE CLEAN FIFTEEN

FRUITS:
Avocados
Pineapples
Mangoes
Kiwi
Papayas
Watermelon
Grapefruit

VEGETABLES:
Onions
Sweet corn
Asparagus
Sweet peas
Cabbage
Eggplant
Broccoli
Tomatoes
Sweet potatoes

To download a PDF guide, or an iPhone application with the above list, visit www.foodnews.org

If you don’t have the budget to buy “all organic”, you can save money by buying conventional avocados, onions, and other items from the CLEAN 15 list.

In The Vegan / Vegetarian Mastery Program, this is one of many tips we discuss in the lesson called “How To Save Money On Health Food And Organic Produce”.

In that lesson, you’ll learn how to save big by shopping at the right places, get discounts of 33% – 67% at Farmer’s markets, and get “expired” organic food for free. You’ll also discover the cheapest Internet sources of staple health foods and specialty ingredients.

If money isn’t a problem, how do you cope with availability problems? For example, what if you want to make peach pie, but local peaches aren’t organic?

One solution is to plan your menu based on the organic produce that IS available.

For example, peaches aren’t in seas0n in November — but pumpkins are. If you can buy organic pumpkins, you might consider making pumpkin pie instead. Then when peaches are in season again — next summer — you can buy organic peaches again.

If you have other suggestions, please post a reply to this blog.

1. You’ll have time between lessons to practice what you’ve learned. Each of the 50 lessons includes an assignment, so you’ll come one step closer to mastery each week.

2. Each lesson builds on the previous ones. Early on, you’ll learn nutrition basics that affect all subsequent lessons. For example, how to maintain a healthy Ph balance. Next you’ll learn to whip up delicious meals rich in calcium, iron, Omega 3s, and Vitamins B12, A, and D. From there, you’ll learn practical tips, substitutions, and much more.

3. We’ll warn you about risks that may not even be on your radar yet. Having watched unhealthy vegetarians heal themselves over the past two decades, we can warn you about all of the health risks you face. Without our guidance, how will you know which health concerns to research?

4. Our weekly Q&A call will answer your questions. All subscribers will get password access to recordings of these fascinating calls. And those who join at the GOLD level will be able to to participate live, or submit questions in advance.

You can get most of the recipes we discussed here:

http://www.rawgourmet.com/recipes.html

However, she described two recipes that are not on her website. So we’ve posted them below.

Creamy Vegan Corn Chowder

4 cups fresh corn kernels (approx 4 large ears)
2 cups of your favorite “milk” (Nomi suggests almond milk)
1 avocado, cut in chunks
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons finely minced onion
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Corn kernels
Sunflower sprouts (optional)

In a blender, combine the corn, “milk”, avocado, cumin, minced onion and salt. Blend well. Pour the soup into serving bowls and garnish with a handful of corn kernels and sunflower sprouts. Serves 4.

If you are not accustomed to eating raw food, or if you have a delicate digestive system, take just a small serving. This soup contains a great deal of roughage.

Original White Sauce Recipe (also called Seed Cheeze)

Nomi uses this recipe to make a sour cream-consistency white sauce or “seed cheeze”. Use less water for a thicker consistency to which you can add herbs of your choice for a soft spread cheeze.

2 cups raw macadamia nuts
2 cups raw cashews
1 cup raw pine nuts
2 cups water (start with 1 cup for a thicker, spreadable cheeze)
4 lemons juiced (start with 3 lemons for a thicker, spreading cheeze consistency)
3 Tablespoons Nutritional yeast (optional but gives it the “cheesy” taste)
1 tablespoon nama shoyu or a 1/2 teaspoon of salt or more to taste

Soak the macadamia nuts, cashews and pine nuts in water to cover for 2 hours. Drain, rinse well and drain again.

Place the  soaked nuts, 1 cup of water and the remaining ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate 2-3 hours until thickened. Using 2 cups of water the sauce should be the consistency of sour cream, if it’s too thick, thin it with a small amount of additional water. Start with 1 cup of water for a thicker, spreadable cheese.

Herbs /seasonings or veggies to add: finely minced basil, garlic, rosemary, shallots,mushrooms fresh or dried,  red pepper, spinach, tomato, onion, or add an Italian seasoning mix and allow some time for the cheese to absorb the flavors and the spices and herbs to soften.

Hummus, baba ghanoush, guacamole, cheese, and nut butters are dense foods. When you eat them with bread, bagels, chips, or crackers, they’re  hard to digest. After all, these carbs are dense, dry, and refined. (And those made with white flour are little more than empty calories.)

By contrast, fresh fruits and vegetables are high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water content.

So instead of smearing cheese or nut butter on dry carbs, try smearing them on acidic fruits like oranges or apples.

(But don’t combine them with sweet fruits like bananas or raisins. You’ll find out why in the lesson called “How To End Indigestion With Proper Food Combining”.)

Likewise, when you eat dips like hummus, baba ghanoush, or guacamole (or cheese or nut butter), eat them with sliced vegetables, instead of bread, bagels, chips, or crackers.

Mineral-rich vegetables like celery and cucumbers are alkaline and high in water content. That makes the combination easier to digest.

(You’ll learn about the importance of eating alkaline foods in the lesson called “How To Maintain A Healthy Ph Balance”.)

Cream cheese tastes great smeared on celery sticks. We have one friend who served us celery sticks smeared with almond butter and agave nectar (a low glycemic sweetener). It was delicious!

Restaurants that serve hummus generally serve it with pita bread. However, when we ask them to substitute sliced cucumbers for the pita bread, almost all of them accommodate our request!

This habit has a double benefit: it helps you get more greens in your diet. Feel free to post a reply to this blog, or add suggestions of your own. And if you’re new to this blog, scroll down for more samples of what’s to come in the Mastery Program.

I’m writing this post to answer these questions. I’ve been a vegetarian for 22 years, and a vegan for much of that time. In college, I got good at making quick tasty meals and thought I knew it all.

But then in 2002, I learned that I was hypoglycemic. Worse, the bottoms of my teeth, once surrounded by bone, had become exposed. As a result, one of my teeth became lose and fell out. When I mentioned this to vegetarian friends, a couple of them had dental problems too.

Danny Polanco was vegetarian for a year, and then vegan for four years. One morning, he woke up to find the top halves of two upper cuspeds gone. Apparently, he swallowed them in his sleep. He had to have the roots pulled.

Another friend (who wants to remain anonymous) was vegan for 20 years and relied heavily on soy products. One day during her 20^th year, half a tooth fell off while chewing nuts. She subsequently lost bits of her other teeth and needed several crowns. What’s more, her hair started falling out in clumps and she was diagnosed with a low thyroid.

These experiences forced us to re-examine our diets, identify which nutrients were missing, and determine how to get them.

Alarmed, I began flying to vegetarian conferences, and learning from nutrition experts like Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Michael Klaper, and Dr. Doug Graham.

I discovered that my diet — and that of most vegetarians — was deficient in some key nutrients. And meals that appeared healthy were actually making my blood sugar problems worse.

Gradually, I learned the RIGHT way to be a vegetarian.  But I didn’t want anyone else to make the mistakes I did.

So in 2004, I began teaching vegetarian cooking classes. Here are testimonials from a few of my students:

“Following your simple food combining guidelines, I have alleviated many symptoms of gastric distress (indigestion, bloating, GERD, etc.)”

– Lisa Books Williams, Pleasanton, CA

“I already know tons about nutrition since i’ve been studying it for years…..but i was pretty stoked on learning about agave nector and unsweetened cocoa! that night i made a ‘chocolate shake’ with coconut milk, silken tofu, unsweetened cocoa and stevia….it was soooooo great. i haven’t had a chocolate anything in forever!!!!! i’m hooked!”

– Marsha Vernoga, Chico, CA

“Thanks… I came home with more depth of understanding of how I can bring more zest into mealtime for myself and my husband, without compromising healthy eating.”

– Alexandra Theard, Mill Valley, CA

“Your class is the only one that has not only talked about food combining but also implemented it in the kitchen.”

– Selenia Mason, Los Angeles CA

It was a good start. But teaching 6-8 people at a time, I could only help a small fraction of the people who needed help. So at Thanksgiving dinner, 2008, I resolved to create The Vegetarian Health Institute and show vegetarians around the world how to stay healthy — using the Internet.

Ever since, I’ve been hard at work developing a Mastery Program for vegans, and another for vegetarians. I’ve also enlisted respected chefs like Jo Stepaniak, Meredith McCarty, Elaina Love, and Nomi Shannon to collaborate with me — as contributing writers and guest experts on our Q&A calls.

Feel free to post a reply to this blog, and tell me about your story.

A GI ranking of 70+ is considered “high” and causes blood sugar spikes. In some people, too much blood sugar can lead to hypoglycemia or even diabetes.

That’s why I’m listing these six ways to protect yourself from sugar rushes:

1) Replace sugar and honey with agave nectar or stevia. Agave nectar is a delicious alternative to honey and maple syrup, and has a glycemic rating of just 10. You can find it in most health food stores, or on Amazon.com .

Stevia has a funny aftertaste, but it’s glycemic rating is 0 (yes, zero!) So if you already have (or you’re at risk for) diabetes, it’s worth experimenting with stevia. I’ve found it most palatable in hot tea and lemonade.

2) Replace fruit juice with whole fruit. The fiber in fruit slows down the absorption of sugar into your blood. The problem with juice is that the fiber is removed, so you get a sugar rush.

3) Replace dried fruit with whole fruit. Drying fruit concentrates its sugar to an unnatural level that your body isn’t designed to handle.

4) Combine fruit with lettuce or celery. The added fiber in lettuce and celery further slows the absorption of fruit sugar into your blood.

So when you make a bowl of chopped fruit (or fruit salad), chop some celery or lettuce into the bowl too. As you’ll learn in Lesson 17 of the Vegan / Vegetarian Mastery Program, lettuce and celery can safely be combined with fruit. That lesson is called “How to end indigestion with proper food combining”.

5) Eat nut butter, tahini, or cheese with acidic fruits.  These fatty foods further slow down the absorption of fruit sugar into your blood. As you’ll learn in Lesson 17, they combine best with acid fruits like oranges and strawberries, and second best with subacid fruits like apples and peaches. They do NOT combine well with sweet fruits like dates and bananas.

6) Combine high glycemic starches with fat. Potatoes, parsnips, rutabagas, pumpkin, and millet all have glycemic ratings over 70… that’s higher than most fruit! Limit these foods, and when you do eat them, combine them with fat. That’ll slow the absorption of sugar into your blood.

This article will get you started in the right direction. For the complete lowdown on this topic, look for Lesson 16 of the Vegan / Vegetarian Mastery Program.

That’s where I’ll elaborate on this topic and provide you with the most up-to-date version of the Glycemic Index, ranking the impact of every conceivable carbohydrate on your blood sugar. That lesson is called “How to protect yourself from sugar rushes, hypoglycemia, and diabetes”.

If you have any other suggestions related to blood sugar, please click “Leave A Comment” below. Thanks!