Esselstyn Jane - Be A Plant-Based Woman Warrior

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Copyright 2022 by Jane Esselstyn and Ann Crile Esselstyn

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Photographs by Karin McKenna

ISBN 9780593328910

Ebook ISBN 9780593328927

Cover design by Ashley Tucker

Cover photographs by Karin McKenna

Illustrations by graphixmania/Shutterstock

Book design by Ashley Tucker, adapted for ebook by Estelle Malmed

The recipes contained in this book have been created for the ingredients and techniques indicated. The Publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require supervision. Nor is the Publisher responsible for any adverse reactions you may have to the recipes contained in the book, whether you follow them as written or modify them to suit your personal dietary needs or tastes.

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To Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr., MD, Essy, Daddywhose steady hand and persistence in the plant-based arena have helped forge the path for strong, fierce Plant-Based Women Warriors toward a delicious future.

And to every Plant-Based Woman Warrior out there swinging from limb to limb. Keep moving forward; the best is yet to come.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION:

HEAR US ROAR

We are Plant-Based Women Warriors and this is our front line.

A call to arms for vitality and uncompromised health.

A rallying cry for booming energy and rejection of disease.

Join us as we press onward with plants, love, and each other.

Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior.

Live fierce.

Stay bold.

Eat delicious.

The fiercest person I know is my mother, Annand how lucky that we live next door to each other. Anns energy and hop-to are my daily dose of hell yeah. Try to keep up with her at eighty-six years oldit is exhausting! In a single day, it is not unusual to see her run, lift weights, sweep, rake, do yoga, haul brush, plant gardens, cook, and shop. She does not stop: Activity and engagement are Anns perpetual states.

We attend a Wednesday yoga class together, and even though she prefers to be in the back row, she still catches everyones eye. There she is, balanced in half-moon on one leg, holding a side plank without shaking, and flipping her downward dog like a gymnast. People always ask me after class, How old is your mom?! and hastily add, I want to be her when I grow up! Ha, I do, too! She has completely redefined aging and stayed in the game. Sometimes, Im asked if my mom and I are twins. What a compliment! I can only hope to have Anns energy and spunk as I grow older.

While trail running, Ann once impaled her lower leg on a branch. Around this time, she had been reading a book about Genghis Khans unruly, violent upbringing, and so she figured she could handle a branch piercing her calf. She arrived at home looking fresh from a battle on the Mongolian steppes, with blood streaming down her leg. The ensuing IV antibiotics and gaping wound had her bedbound for a day. Point being, it takes a lot to momentarily impede this Plant-Based Woman Warrior.

What is the secret to Anns way of life? What stokes her furnace every day? The answer is simplea plant-based diet. And daily, she feasts on more food than most other humans!

My parents say they eat a plant-based diet because they want to live long and die fast. My father, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., has been researching the link between a plant-based diet and heart disease for decades. His intense interest was our familys initiation to this way of eating. At first, Ann learned to create healthy, simple, plant-based recipes for my fathers heart patients. But soon, her motivation became stronger when patients reported other lifestyle-related diseases falling away. Along with plummeting cholesterol and normalizing blood pressure, eating plant-based leveled their blood sugar, reversed erectile dysfunction and autoimmune disease symptoms, and sent their energy levels skyrocketing.

We should all accept the challenge to live long and die fast! The effect would be staggering: less medication, disease, and long-term care, and more living, activity, andflat outmore quality time with those you love. You may be thinking, How can the answer to the many faces of lifestyle-related diseases and suffering be plants? It seems too simple. But we have seen the power of this way of eating too many times not to share and shout this message over the garden wall and from the mountaintops. There can truly be boundless health and hope ahead with a whole food, plant-based diet.

Ann is fierce! When it comes to plant-based eating, we are three generations strong, due to Anns love and delicious persistence. She has charmed every single one in our family of twenty to be plant-based. She is a role model for giving things a go. Shell challenge grandchildren to eat their sweet potato skins, shell harvest tall unknown weeds from the garden when out of greens, or shell serve up witches brew (as the grandchildren call it) for breakfast (see Anns Warrior Oats, ) on Christmas morning. Ann is completely unapologetic about sticking with this way of eating. As my husband, Brian, says, Ann is a bully for good. Always ready to roar at anyone about eating plants.

Here is how Anns ten grandchildren feel about being plant-based:

GEORGIE, age eight.

Without being plant-based, I cant imagine how Id live. Id open the refrigerator and see things like chicken wrapped in plastic and just feel like, WHAT HAPPENED?

ZEB, age twenty.

It checks every box: not killing anything, great for the planet, not burdened by being sick, you feel good. Its the future.

GUS, age twenty-five.

Plant-based makes me feel forever strong, forever capable, forever grounded, and excited about a healthy tomorrow.

HOPE, age seven.

If you eat meat, you die.

CRILE, age twenty-two.