This is a goosebumps episode! You're going to LOVE this conversation with Victoria Moran, a vegan icon for over 41 years, author of 13 books, and a recent inductee into the Vegan Hall of Fame. It's an honor to have Victoria in my kitchen to share her fascinating journey from being a solitary vegetarian in the 1960s Midwest to leading the Vegan Main Street Academy. We go deep into her connections within the vegan movement, her upcoming 14th book 'Age Like a Yogi: A Heavenly Path to a Dazzling Thi...
Sep 06, 2024•52 min•Ep. 59
How difficult is vegan and sustainable eating, travel, and living in Japan? Come in and listen as Brigitte discusses the topic with sustainable travel expert and Hiroshima tour guide Joy Jarman-Walsh, one of the forces behind Japan's sustainable travel improvements. In this episode, we cover: - Joy's journey in discovering that it was possible to be vegan and thrive in Japan - Sustainability in Japanese tourism: What are positive trends in the industry? - Cultural insights on eating habits: Why ...
Jun 03, 2024•39 min•Ep. 58
Do you want to avoid suffering from swollen, achy, hot joints, feeling fatigue, or struggling with mobility? Or decrease your risk of cardio-vascular events? Those issues often associated with aging are not inevitable! Join Brigitte in conversation with Linda Tyler, author of The Plant-Based Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook and creator of GraciousVegan.com. Linda explains everything you need to know about what inflammation is, how it's related to the food we eat, and how a different way of cooking can...
May 24, 2024•43 min•Ep. 57
This is a can't-miss episode! Join me in conversation with Elaine Perlman, Executive Director of Waitlist Zero, an advocacy group committed to ending the kidney shortage in the United States. In this episode of the Vegan Family Kitchen Podcast, Elaine shares her deeply personal journey from embracing veganism and healthy plant-based living to becoming a kidney donor, gifting an organ to a stranger. Her transition to a plant-based lifestyle not only transformed her health but also fueled her pass...
May 04, 2024•51 min•Ep. 56
In this episode of the Vegan Family Kitchen podcast, host Brigitte Gemme talks with her guest, Deborah McNamara - a Vancouver-based counselor who is fascinated by the relationship between food and our connections with each other. Deborah discusses her experiences with helping adults make sense of their relationships with food and children, giving insights on treating food issues through the lens of relationships. As the author of the book 'Nourished: Connection, Food and Caring for Our Kids (and...
Feb 10, 2024•42 min•Ep. 55
Learn about plant-based baking from the professionals! In this episode of the Vegan Family Kitchen Podcast, Brigitte Gemme interviews Natasha and Ed Tatton, owners of Whistler's BReD Bakery and authors of the newly published book BReD: Sourdough Loaves, Small Breads and Other Plant-Based Baking . We talk about: Replacing dairy and eggs with whole plant ingredients (no need for the middle bird!) Natasha and Ed's separate journeys toward veganism How the sourdough business grew organically Learn t...
Dec 14, 2023•47 min•Ep. 54
Most people could cook faster, waste less money and time, and be less stressed if they handle their grocery haul differently. In this podcast episode, Brigitte shares strategies for reducing food waste and cooking faster by properly storing groceries. Listen to the episode and try Brigitte's tips to get more organized in the kitchen, cook more efficiently, waste less food, time, and money, and find joy in cooking. LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Book: Flow in the Kitchen: Practices...
Dec 04, 2023•16 min•Ep. 53
Can there be such a thing as a blissful menopause? Every woman's experience will be different, but certain lifestyle and mindset shifts will make it a smoother ride. Brigitte's guest on the Vegan Family Kitchen podcast today is Anna Pelzer, a vegan menopause coach. She has some gentle guidance to help. In this thought-provoking conversation, Anna shares: Her journey from food photography to menopause coaching What she means when she suggests menopause can be a time of opportunity Actionable phys...
Nov 28, 2023•33 min•Ep. 52
Brigitte explores the idea of cooking as a form of spiritual nourishment and shares her current five rituals for a deeper and more meaningful cooking experience. These include expressing gratitude before cooking, deeply understanding the origins of ingredients, staying fully present during the cooking process, cooking with a community, and sharing the food with love. Brigitte also shares how these practices help her manage stress and appreciate the process of meal preparation. If you'd like to j...
Nov 21, 2023•11 min•Ep. 51
With the charismatic Jean-Philippe Cyr, delicious and comforting vegan dishes are served with a side of self-deprecating humor... or is it the other way around? Jean-Philippe, a.k.a. The Buddhist Chef, just published his most recent English-language cookbook, The Buddhist Chef's Homestyle Cooking , and we chatted about: How being from a big Quebec family influenced his cooking journey What triggered his transition from restaurant chef specializing in meat to vegan YouTuber How to make tofu and t...
Oct 18, 2023•36 min•Ep. 50
How to stay connected with our culinary heritage without sacrificing health? Let's talk about it with Karla Salinari, a.k.a. The Latina Health Coach and author of the recently published cookbook Abuela's Plant-Based Kitchen: Vegan Cuisine Inspired by Latin & Caribbean Family Recipes. Diving into Karla Salinari's inspiring journey, we learn about her Puerto Rican roots, growing up with a strictly vegan father at a time when plant-based diets were practically unheard of. As Karla navigated bet...
Sep 15, 2023•30 min•Ep. 49
Veganic gardening is an approach to growing plants organically without any animal inputs. In other words: plant-based gardening! If you already have a garden, listen in to learn from Meg Kelly how to transition to a kinder and safer approach. If you don't already grow your own veggies, be prepared to get inspired by her hot tips to get started! Meg Kelly has been gardening veganically for 15 years in backyards, on balconies, and in the countryside. She co-founded the Veganic Agriculture Network ...
Jun 21, 2023•46 min•Ep. 48
Why not try something different, pay attention to the results, and take it from there? This Vegan Family Kitchen Podcast episode's guest, Helen C. Giles, is a colleague, cooking friend, and meal plan subscriber whose stories will encourage you to embrace experimentation and give thanks for the life and body you have now. In this conversation, we explore: The beginnings of Helen's journey into vegetarianism, which started in a high school Animal Science class, and how she took her parents along f...
Jun 13, 2023•45 min•Ep. 47
Get inspired to cook more healthy vegan Italian food with Antonia Ricciardi! Antonia trained in physics and worked in the publishing industry, but her roots in the family restaurant in Southern Italy stayed strong. In our podcast conversation, you'll learn more about: Antonia's inspiring shift from the sciences to the culinary world, ingeniously weaving Italian flavors into her vegan dishes. Her favorite substitute for meat in vegan Bolognese sauce - and how the people of Bologna actually make i...
Jun 06, 2023•50 min•Ep. 46
How to deal with having to go down to the air raid shelter in the midst of cooking dinner? Is there even something that's good to eat when you are under threat of bombing? And how can we make cooking and eating a more meaningful experience, even under a prolonged state of emergency such as war? In this can't-miss episode of the Vegan Family Kitchen podcast, I am honored to talk about all this - and more - with Oksana Spoliak, a Ukrainian food blogger who lives in Lviv. Oksana Spoliak is a Ukrain...
May 16, 2023•45 min•Ep. 45
In this episode of the Vegan Family Kitchen podcast, I sit down with Dr. Jules Cormier, a family physician, plant-based nutrition advocate, and ninja sports athlete who shares his inspiring story of transformation, healing, and performance. In his 20s, Dr. Cormier suffered from cholinergic angioedema, a severe condition that caused anaphylactic-like symptoms and swelling when exercising. After a flare-up that sent him to the hospital (as a patient!), he was encouraged to try cutting out dairy to...
May 04, 2023•53 min•Ep. 44
Most people believe that they'd cook better if they had a bigger kitchen... but is that so? Kathy Davis, who runs the Eat More Plants Academy and published three cookbooks, lives in a RV and her story challenges conventional views. It's all about intention. Kathy Davis is the CEO of VegInspired and a plant-based lifestyle and mindset coach for female entrepreneurs. I was surprised to hear that, eight years ago, she came to plant-based eating kicking and screaming after her husband read an articl...
Apr 26, 2023•44 min•Ep. 43
Nic Bathurst, a dietitian and nutritionist, and mom of four kids, thought of herself as a healthy and fit person with good habits. Then, at age 48 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy and started digging into the literature about breast cancer. What she found out was not what she had learned in school. That was 10 years ago, and she has turned her life around since, in addition to changing the way she works with her clients. I had the pleasure of sitting with her for ...
Apr 19, 2023•44 min•Ep. 42
The food we eat isn't neutral: every bite has the potential to nourish and heal us, or harm us. So says Leah Cooper, my friend Down Under who teaches yoga and whole food cooking in the macrobiotic tradition. In our conversation, we talk about: Why the connection between yoga and food isn't always made in conventional yoga classes What therapeutic yoga can be a better choice for those of us whose bodies aren't in perfect shape How we can eat according to the seasons And how to make veggie-rich mi...
Mar 30, 2023•44 min•Ep. 41
"When we uncover who we are, and we are willing to show up as that person, a lot of barriers just fall away." Those are the wise and inspiring words of my guest, Kimberly Winters. Kimberly is the host of the Did You Bring the Hummus? podcast, where she gently guides those who wish to adopt a vegan lifestyle through their transition. In addition to coaching, she supports others - vegan or not - as an energy guide and reiki practitioner. I wanted to bring Kimberly on the show to talk about the spi...
Feb 15, 2023•36 min•Ep. 40
Charlyn Black trained as a family doctor more than forty years ago, but most of her career has been as a scholar dedicated to understanding the social determinants of health for over three decades. She is now a Professor at the UBC School of Population and Public Health, and an enthusiastic advocate for the power of predominantly plant-based diets for prevention and vitality. I am grateful that she is also a Vegan Meal Plan subscribers, using them in her own way as she'll explain in the intervie...
Jan 05, 2023•43 min•Ep. 39
Today on the Vegan Family Kitchen Podcast I meet with Crystal Bonnet, raw vegan chef and author of the just-published beautiful book The Art of Raw Desserts . Crystal is a graduate of the Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy and of the Pure Joy Academy. She develops unique and delicious all-vegan raw recipes and now teaches everything she knows to home cooks and professionals chefs alike. You can find her courses on her website https://crystaldawnculinary.com and connect with her on Instagram . In th...
Dec 14, 2022•34 min•Ep. 38
How can the principles of mindfulness and compassion support a transition away from overeating and food addiction? I had the pleasure of exploring this topic with Karen Steiner in conversation for the Vegan Family Kitchen Podcast . Karen Steiner is a Weight Loss Coach, Food Activist and Meditation Teacher. Professionally, she has Master’s degree in Counseling and Educational Psychology, has trained as a Life Coach through The Co-Active Training Institute and the eCornell Certificate in Plant-Bas...
Dec 03, 2022•44 min•Ep. 37
My first book Flow in the Kitchen: Practices for Healthy Stress-Free Vegan Cooking is available for pre-order in ebook format from Amazon (compatible with all mobile devices)! (Paperback and Kobo coming soon.) It's not a cookbook! Instead of feeding you recipes, I offer you the seeds you can plant to grow your own versions of standard vegan dishes based on your preferences, ingredients you have at hand, and seasonal produce. Listen on to find out what's in the book and head over to Amazon.com to...
Oct 24, 2022•9 min•Ep. 36
Do you hate cooking? You are not alone. My guest today, Gemma McFall, used to feel just like you, but then she found a way to leverage her strengths to improve her kitchen reality. Listen on to find out what she did. Gemma McFall is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach and also a Vegan Meal Plan subscriber. Her work is to help women reduce stress and heal chronic pain so they can get back to enjoying life. After struggling for years with back pain herself and trying everything, she discovered that...
Sep 21, 2022•45 min•Ep. 35
Cooking really good food for myself and my loved ones isn't a sprint. It's an ultra-endurance event. It has to be attended at least 3 times per day (more like 6 when counting snacks for growing and/or active people). It's not like I can deal it once for the year or a few months and be satisfied. It's one of those cyclical things that repeats every day. And having some weekly routines for it also helps a great deal. Here are my top 5. -- Do you need a bit of help with meal planning? Download one ...
Sep 14, 2022•8 min•Ep. 34
Babita Shresta thought she had landed on another planet when she first visited a grocery store in Minnesota. Coming from rural Nepal, where as a child she learned to cook fresh vegetables and simmer lentils alongside her grandfather, she had never seen packaged processed food. Pre-cooked tortillas and roti sold in plastic bags blew her mind. She could not have imagined that frozen meat would one day become part of her diet, yet it did. As a busy college student, she was too busy to think it all ...
Sep 12, 2022•58 min•Ep. 33
This question has been settled scientifically for a number of years but it still keeps on coming up, so I thought I would review the recent scientific evidence about the link (or rather, the lack of link) between soy and cancer risk for your convenience. Spoiler: soy certainly does not cause cancer and in fact may be preventive. You will find the reference and links to the publications discussed herein on my web site here . I make sure to include tofu or some other soy food once per week in my V...
May 20, 2022•9 min•Ep. 32
Can fertility improve with a plant-based diet? Research certainly seems to be on the side of a reduction in meat intake having a positive effect, while health plant-based diets focused on whole foods have the potential to improve many of the factors that influence fertility. To talk about it, I invited Dr. Jenny Lee on the podcast. Dr. Jenny Lee is a board-certified physician in both Internal Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine, in addition to serving as a wellness coach. Through her work as a physi...
May 19, 2022•31 min•Ep. 31
Iron is a common concern of well-meaning friends and relatives, upon learning that a loved one is going vegan or committing to eating more plants (and fewer animals). Since most people still think of meat as the source of the most abundant and easiest to absorb iron, isn’t forgoing animal products putting you at risk for iron deficiency? Unfortunately, many medical professionals contribute to spreading this outdated belief, despite ample scientific evidence to the contrary. As someone who decide...
May 16, 2022•17 min•Ep. 30
