Presentations
To add value to your next conference or association meeting, email vesanto.melina@gmail.com to book this best-selling author, award winning speaker, and Registered Dietitian for an informative, compelling, and entertaining seminar. Presentations are continually updated, and are adapted to suit specific audience interests. Each is typically one hour long, followed by questions and discussion. However the length and range of topics are adjusted to suit specific events.
Speaker Biography
Vesanto Melina is an award winning speaker whose invitations have inspired audiences from Barcelona to Reykjavik and from Dresden to Honolulu. She teaches at the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute in California and has been on the faculty of the University of British Columbia and of Seattle’s Bastyr University. She is co-author of ten bestselling books on plant-based nutrition and foods; now in twelve languages and with over 750,000 copies in print. She is author (with Brenda Davis) of the award-winning Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition and Becoming Vegan: Express Edition, and of Becoming Raw, and The Raw Food Revolution Diet (also with Cherie Soria) Vesanto is lead author of the current position paper on vegetarian diets of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Websites: www.nutrispeak.com and http://becomingvegan.ca
1. Plant-based Nutrition for Superb Health
Join award winning Registered Dietitian Vesanto Melina, co-author of bestselling books: Becoming Vegan: Express Edition, Becoming Vegetarian, The New Becoming Vegetarian, Becoming Raw, Becoming Vegan, Raising Vegetarian Children, The Raw Food Revolution Diet, The Food Allergy Survival Guide, Cooking Vegetarian, and Cooking Vegan, for a comprehensive overview on how to keep yourself in superb health on a plant-based diet. Enjoy an update on protein power from plant foods, bone building without a drop of dairy, getting reliable sources of vitamin B12, including the good fats in your menus, and keeping your blood sugar level between meals without resorting to vegan junk food.
2. Update on Vegetarian, Vegan, and Raw Nutrition
Enjoy recent highlights in the world of vegetarian, vegan, and raw food nutrition and a few of the topics people wonder about. These include, on a plant-based diet:
- Where will I get my protein?
- What are iron rich plant foods for babies, children, (and everybody else)?
- Are carbs good or bad?
- Is soy good or bad?
- Will a vegetarian diet make me healthier?
- Can I get tasty food?
3. Staying Healthy: Plant-based Diets to Protect Against Chronic Disease
Can a plant-based diet help you live longer and in good health? Yes!
In this presentation we review current evidence regarding how plant-based diets can protect against, and in some cases reverse:
- Overweight and Obesity
- Cardiovascular disease
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- And (briefly) other conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, cataracts, diverticular disease, endocrine disorders, gallstones, and renal disease
4. Raw Food Diets: What`s True; What`s Not?
Join award winning Registered Dietitian Vesanto Melina, co-author of bestselling books: Becoming Vegan: Express Edition, Becoming Vegetarian, The New Becoming Vegetarian, Becoming Raw, Becoming Vegan, Raising Vegetarian Children, The Raw Food Revolution Diet, The Food Allergy Survival Guide, Cooking Vegetarian, and Cooking Vegan, for a comprehensive overview on how to keep yourself in superb health on a plant-based diet. Enjoy an update on protein power from plant foods, bone building without a drop of dairy, getting reliable sources of vitamin B12, including the good fats in your menus, and keeping your blood sugar level between meals without resorting to vegan junk food.
5. Surviving and Thriving Despite Food Allergies
In this informative, engaging presentation, Registered Dietitian and best selling author Vesanto Melina presents research and practical tips related to food sensitivities. Learn about: improving intestinal health; meeting nutritional requirements (adult and child) despite one or multiple sensitivities; recent research on diet and arthritis, asthma, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Candida, depression, dermatitis, digestive disorders, fatigue, headaches.
The Food Allergy Survival Guide, by Dietitians Vesanto Melina and Dina Aronson and chef Jo Stepaniak gives 180 pages of delicious recipes that are free of the top eight allergens (dairy, eggs, soy, wheat/gluten, fish, shellfish, peanuts, and tree nuts), including outstanding baked goods for those with gluten sensitivity.
6. Cohousing: Living in Community
Across North America, cohousing communities, the 21st century version of the village, are providing a new and heart warming way to live. These communities express many ideals such as trying to leave a lighter ecological footprint, share meals (vegetarian and non-vegetarian), learning to live with compassion for other beings, and finding safe and happy ways to live in community.
In this beautifully visual presentation, Vesanto Melina will introduce you to the concept of cohousing, touch on existing communities and present features of WindSong Cohousing Community near Vancouver, British Columbia, where she lived for almost 2 decades and Vancouver Cohousing, where she and Cam are part of the community.