Several amazing young women, profiled below, lead by example and have families that are thriving. In addition to reading their stories, try their recipes and ideas yourself. Visit their social media spaces. Do your research, and then get on board the Plant-Powered Train!

Webster heard so much about my vegan cooking class on campus, that she registered for it. Hearing my cancer survival testimony, she saw the power of teaching others to live healthfully! In 2008, after an intensive health retreat for 10 days out in the Berkshires (MA), Webster believed God was healing her own chronic health issues. While in grad school she met her husband, who wasn’t a vegan, but became one six months after they started dating because, according to him, the food was delicious and he wasn’t missing anything!

Webster fell ill in 2012. According to the doctor, her lab work revealed “leukemia-like activity in her body.” The young nutritionist took the additional step of eliminating highly-processed food from her diet. Today, she is raising a healthy son and daughter, is a certified health coach, certified personal trainer, and a certified holistic nutritionist. I love her recipes, including this one:

Preheat oven to 375° F. Line a 9×9 baking dish with parchment paper. In a food processor, pulse half of your oats briefly (about 30 seconds). Pour the pulsed oats into a large bowl, and mix with the other half of the oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Now add applesauce, almond butter, and ⅓ cup of maple syrup until the mixture is wet. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the dish lined with parchment paper. Add a tad more for a thicker bottom. In a large bowl, mix your berries, lemon juice, chia seed, arrowroot powder, and 3 tablespoons of maple syrup and spread on top of your crust. Add date sugar to the rest of the wet oat mix, and crumble on top of your fruit layer. Press the mix a little so your top is mostly even. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool before slicing. Top it off with yogurt (or vegan ice cream for dessert).

Joy Norman Cesar (@itsreallyvegan on IG) also embraced plant-powered living while a college student, and was very diligent in making sure she made good choices. Today, she is a wife and mother of four plant-powered babies, and in business with her husband, Terry, selling vegan pancake and waffle mix (https://itsreallyvegan.com).

When she and her husband found out, a week after her birth, that their second child—their baby girl Heaven—had sickle cell disease, type SS, they were heartbroken. But God saw, heard, and guided them on a path of true healing and wellness for their daughter. Nearly four years later, Heaven is thriving, with minimal pain, through the wise application of God’s medicine cabinet—a regimen of herbal extracts (including Codonopsis, White Peony and Dong Quai), probiotics, quality supplements such as B-complex, zinc and quercetin, and a whole foods vegan diet. (See more information about vegan living and sickle cell at Vegan Living and Sickle Cell https://www.ucheepines.org/sickle-cell-anemia/.)

What Joy and her husband know is that it was never God’s will for human beings to be sick. God loves us, and He is pleased when we are balanced, clear-minded and strong. But should we suffer, it may be that the path to health is not an instantaneous miracle, but rather the steady application of the laws of nature, all while trusting God. They have seen it for themselves! God’s word is true!

All four of Joy’s breastfed, vegan babies are thriving!! Here’s her Homemade Coconut Whipped Cream and Vegan Belgian Waffles recipe, using It’s Really Vegan Pancake Mix.

Chill coconut cream overnight. Separate the solid part into a bowl (no liquid). Add a few pinches of vanilla extract powder and cinnamon (or as much as you’d like). Whisk the solid until a whipped consistency forms.

Combine one cup of mix with the half cup of water and stir until a batter forms. If adding rolled oats for a boost of fiber, gauge how much additional water may be needed. Pour batter into a belgian waffle iron and cook according to waffle iron instructions.

Layla Green (@blackconsciousmama on IG) was reared in a plant-powered home. I have watched her stay committed before it was popular. She decided to leave an abusive marriage for safety, as well as for the mental and emotional health of herself and her girls.

Violence leaves its impact on us in ways that are uncovered over years. “In addition to changes in biological systems, stress exposure in early life can affect children’s dietary, physical activity, and other health behaviors, increasing their risk of overweight and obesity” (Robert Wood Johnson). If you are in a domestic violence situation and need help, go to www.thehotline.org www.nami.org.

Today, Green is raising her two beautiful girls as a single mom, and proving that plant-powered living is doable and won’t wreck the bank (as many falsely believe). Both of her girls were birthed from plant-powered pregnancies, and are thriving (https://www.ucheepines.org/vegetarian-diets-for-pregnant-and-nursing-women/). She involves them in meal prep and they love it. Layla also gardens with her girls, and she preserves food and herbs.

Donna Green-Goodman, MPH writes for MESSAGE Magazine from Huntsville, Alabama where she and her husband operate Lifestyle Therapeutix, A Lifestyle For Better Health Center www.lifestyletherapeutix.com. She is a health educator who is a 25-year breast cancer survivor. She’s been a college professor and a national ambassador for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Circle of Promise Campaign. She is author of Somethin’ to Shout About! (Orion Enterprises, 1999), Cookin’ Up Good Health, (Still Shoutin’, 2008), Still Cookin’ Up Good Health (2017), and executive producer of her own cooking show, Cookin’ Up Good Health!, which aired on HOPETV. Cook Up Good Health with her on Donna’s YouTube Cooking Channel.