Blog - Plant Based Nutrition Movement

Letter from Our CEO-PBNM is One Year Old!

We are proud to celebrate one year of whole food plant-based (WFPB) service to the community. On behalf of our Board of Directors, I want to thank everyone that has supported PBNM in its infancy.

Here is what we have been up to this past year:

We held our very first event in August 2018, a potluck picnic at Busse Woods, Elk Grove Village. We had about 100 participants who were thrilled to find so many other people who were excited about the plant-based way of eating.

October and November 2018 were busy months! In October, Dr. Steven Lome spoke at the Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva as part of the “Kane Health Counts” program. The presentation focused on chronic disease prevention, management, and reversal using plant-based nutrition. Also in October, 15 members made a positive public demonstration to thank Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora for adding plant-based options to its hospital patient menus.

The Lost Art of Cooking

How many times have you heard people say, “I hate to cook,” or “I don’t have time to cook,” leading to dependence on fast food or unhealthy food choices. I’m here to tell you that cooking plant-based oil free meals can be soothing and relaxing and will contribute to your overall good health and well-being. All it takes is a little bit of time and planning and you can have recipes ready to eat right out of your freezer for the entire week.

So let’s get specific. Make it simple and stick to your plan. The plan is everything. Start off with thinking about breakfast. One of the most healthful breakfasts you can make is steel cut oaks. I make enough on Sundays to last me 3-4 days, storing left-overs in the refrigerator and then reheating them. Top your oatmeal with 1 tablespoon of flax seed (need those Omega-3’s!), some frozen blueberries that you can quickly defrost (much more economical), and if you really want to go healthy, add some greens like kale or spinach, ¼ teaspoon of turmeric, and for fun, I top with cinnamon. It’s delicious and easy to prepare. Instead of coffee, try some blueberry hibiscus tea. I drink two cups a day as it has been shown to lower blood pressure naturally.

The Vision of Plant Based Nutrition Movement – Manifesto

Plant Based Nutrition Movement (PBNM.org) aims to organize a combined effort of healthcare providers and community members to promote lifestyle changes to improve the health of America fighting the current epidemic of chronic disease with whole food plant based nutrition.

Chronic disease rates in America are astounding despite clear scientific evidence that a vast majority of these disease states such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and many cancers are preventable with lifestyle changes including a healthy eating pattern focused on whole plant foods. Despite this knowledge, millions of Americans continue to succumb to these chronic illnesses.

Positive change in our eating pattern toward a whole food plant based (WFPB) diet is strongly hindered by culture and industry influence. Thus, the main driving force for change needs to come directly from the people in a grassroots effort.

You Have the Power

A young Cardiologist in Florida, Koushik Reddy MD, tweets “Paradigm Shift: During rounds today, I saw a man with congestive heart failure, on IV diuretics. His lunch plate had beef, mashed potato with gravy, 2 cups of whole milk, and a cake. He reasoned, “doc, it’s my birthday.” I reasoned, “I want you to have more of them””

The landscape IS changing. Well regarded physicians from around the country have been beating the drum, against overwhelming power and money trying to silence the message (primarily the meat and dairy industries and pharmaceutical companies concerned more with corporate profits than human health) and their message is seeping through to young doctors!

While it’s true that each of us has the power, and arguably the responsibility, to take control over our own health, with the confusing messaging from media, and corporate control of government institutions that we’ve relied on for health messaging, separating the wheat from the shaft for the average consumer is really challenging. After all, which “authority” should we believe? And much of the messaging is so distorted so as to muddy the waters and further confuse us. After all, when you hear “carbs make yo

Our First Plant Based Potluck!

What a day! It was in the planning for weeks, securing the site (which turned out to be awesome, by the way, located in the South Branch of beautiful Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village), getting the word out, and planning, to some extent, the food. We knew it would be a great event…IF people came and IF they brought food. But here’s the kicker. The original plan was to have a Picnic/Potluck, which sounds simple enough, everyone loves to eat and share their favorite foods, right? But OUR potluck was different than most. But we had two requirements. The first was that this was to be a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) potluck. In other words, there was to be no meat, no fish, no cheese, no dairy, just whole plant based foods. And the second requirement was that the dishes must be prepared without using any added oils. No olive oil, no coconut oil, no canola oil, none, nada, zilch!

So with those stipulations in place, we changed our “invitations” to read Picnic / (Voluntary) Potluck because we were concerned that if people were “required” to bring a dish and we “required” that they be WFPB-NO (Whole Food Plant Based-No Oil, they might decide not to come at all. Personally, I was having panic attacks…LOL. I literally had nightmares that we’d have a big event with lots of people…and NO food! We did decide to supply a “build your own tacos” section with lots of fixin’s, but you can’t have an entire event on just build your own tacos, can you?

Healthy Hospital Foods – Plant Based Options

The number one cause of death in America is NOT heart disease like many people believe. Yes, about 600,000 American’s died from “heart disease” last year which is about the same as the number of American soldiers that died in ALL wars in American history combined. However, we need to think about the cause of heart disease…diet and lifestyle.

According to the Global Burden of Disease Study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the number one cause of preventable death in America is the American diet.

AMA Resolution 203

This past weekend I had the pleasure to support American Medical Association resolution 203 to remove the requirement for a child to have a physician‘s note to receive a non-dairy milk alternative in school and to reword the Dietary Guidelines for Americans stating that meat and dairy are “options“ but not necessary or required while supporting whole plant foods as sources of protein, calcium and iron. As a plant based cardiologist I find this absolutely crucial.

I stood along side Dr. Neal Barnard of PCRM, Dr. Kim Williams, Dr. Michael Klaper, and Dr. Terry Mason among others as I represented Chicagoland’s Plant Based Nutrition Movement.

The AMA Board approved the resolution paving the way to a stronger recommendation towards a plant based diet.

At the meeting, so many physicians approached the microphone to speak in support of the resolution that the chairman had to cut off “pro” statements and asked for “con” statements…no significant “con” arguments were presented. GO PLANTS!

PBNM PlantPure Jumpstart

The Plant Based Nutrition movement would like to share with the community one of the many initiatives of the group called “Jumpstarts”. As seen in the well known documentary PlantPure Nation which can be viewed free online here, a jumpstart brings healthy plant based meals into underserved communities or those with high rates of chronic diseases and then documents the dramatic health impact they have in a short period of time.

The PBNM has applied for its first grant throught the PlantPure Oasis Jumpstart program. This initiative through PBNM is spearheaded by Sandra Meister, A Registered Dietitian with the School-based “Tomcat” Health Center at East Aurora High School (EAHS) in IL.

She attended the very first Plant Based Nutrition Movement meetup in May and was introduced to Dr. Steven Lome for the first time. She was captivated by the details of his health journey as a Cardiologist, initially focused on fixing hearts through procedures and medication to promoting heart disease prevention through nourishing plant-based whole foods.

Welcome to the PBNM Blog!

This is Steven Lome, founder of the Plant Based Nutrition Movement. Thank you for being a part of this growing community of whole food plant based diet enthusiasts. We know the power of plants to solve America’s healthcare crisis. Now we need to put our passion into action and make significant changes in how American sees food.

Making America’s diet plant centered will require a dramatic change in culture. While the food/pharmaceutical/healthcare industries’ multi-trillion dollar influences may be difficult to overcome, a grass roots movement can and will defeat these superpowers and it starts right here with PBNM.

Originating here in Chicagoland, we strive to give our communities the support and resources that they need to help as many people as possible transition to whole food plant based diets. With free or reduced cost cooking/transition classes, seminars, events an

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