officially the 2021 holiday season. We have come through an awful lot. I personally celebrated my partnership with Message and 25 years of being free from breast cancer!
(See Black Women, Breast Cancer and Chronic Disease: Beating the Odds on YouTube) Over the last 25 years, we’ve learned that health is something that cannot be taken for granted. And this year, I’m sure many of us are thinking differently about how to guard our health during the holidays. Nothing can take the place of good choices to impact your own health and the health of those you love.
So to celebrate the season, here are a few of my favorite things that you should add to your gift-giving list or put in your own stocking.
One of the greatest challenges about eating healthier is finding replacements that taste good. That’s why we work so hard to bring you delicious recipes. While we know that you never have to eat a meat replacement if you’re going plant based, sometimes—especially around the holidays—it’s great to have options. Enter my friend Chef GW Chew. I was introduced to his amazing plant-powered products and especially love the "vegan steak.”
Chef GW Chew has been a vegan food inventor and restaurateur for over 13 years. Chef Chew grew up in the “country,” in a family of very heavy meat eaters. He noticed his family struggled with diseases such as diabetes and cancer. After learning that a lot of those same diseases have been linked to malnutrition, poor diet, and an overconsumption of animal meat products, Chef Chew switched to a plant-based diet in 2001. He started experimenting with creating vegan food products in 2004, right in his mother’s kitchen.
After 15 years of trial and error, Chef Chew developed Better Chew plant-based proteins that are sold in the market today. You can get more information about his products and how to order them at www.somethingbetterfoods.com or @betterchew on Instagram.
Veggie Beef Stroganoff
Karla Montague-Brown, M.D., physician and wellness coach, shares her personal journey of being diagnosed with two autoimmune disorders: Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disorder [UCTD] and Inflammatory Arthritis.
She woke up one morning experiencing what she thought was muscle soreness due to lifting her nephew. However, she was sadly mistaken. Within days, this previously healthy physician grew steadily worse. She realized she was sick.
She transparently opens up about her pain and fear of dying, her aversion to prescribed/synthetic medications, and how she took control of her health for a victorious recovery. Overcoming Autoimmunity: One Physician’s Step by Step Journey to Victory Over Her Chronic Illnesses is available on Amazon.
Dr. Karla’s Green Drink
Helen Powell-Stoddart, M.D., is author of Reverse It: How To Reverse Type 2 Diabetes and other Chronic Diseases. If you have Type 2 diabetes, you may be under the false impression that it is a life-long, irreversible disease. This is not the case. Many studies have proven that Type 2 diabetes is reversible. Powell-Stoddart provides the tools to propel your health to optimal levels by jumpstarting your journey to reverse Type 2 diabetes. She launches you to the fast track through detoxification and hyper-nutrition. Her book is available here: You can also find her book, Reverse it! on Amazon.
Dr. Helen’s Healing Corn and Kale Salad
With the rise in people’s understanding about the role of lifestyle and disease, many are looking for health care providers who understand it, too, and whom they can trust! When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996, I began a diligent search for what are now known as Lifestyle Medicine Providers www.lifestylemedicine.org. Here are several that I recommend:
- Wildwood Lifestyle Center has ministered to individuals on all health levels, reaching people exactly where they are. Wildwood also cares for individuals on all levels: physically, mentally, and spiritually. Physicians and specialists introduce guests to a healthier lifestyle, one that helps them finally live the life they were always meant to live. Wildwood treatments incorporate modern medicine, nature’s remedies, and lifestyle change. Visit their website at www.wildwoodhealth.com.
- A Pattern Health Retreat offers a relaxed and peaceful rural setting for a revitalizing health vacation or personalized healing therapy. Dr. A. Scott Grivas, the physician presiding at the center, has practiced medicine for nearly 50 years. After graduating from Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, he worked in public health at the Center for Disease Control, completed his internal medicine residency at Emory, and practiced 12 years in Atlanta. It was then that Dr. Grivas transitioned to an integrative approach to his practice of medicine, combining lifestyle medicine with his internal medicine specialty. Find them at www.apattern.life
- At M.E.E.T. Ministry, more than 30 years ago, Dr. Thomas Jackson discovered the secret of health through his study of the Bible. He confirmed his findings scientifically as well as through his personal experience. For 10 years, beginning at the age of 17, he fought a seemingly hopeless battle against the number one crippling disease—arthritis. He was told, medically, there was no cure for his condition and the he would just have to live with it for the rest of his life. However, he began to apply the Bible’s secret of health to his own life, and, by God’s grace, he was freed from the devastating effects of arthritis. Our Home—the name of the lifestyle center—uses simple remedial agencies that God has provided for maintaining and regaining life and vitality. For amazing testimonies or to reach them, go to www.meetministry.org
- Uchee Pines Institute was established in 1970, when two physicians moved from Columbus, Georgia into a converted log cabin in the woods of rural Alabama. Dissatisfied with the results they had been seeing in their practices, they began to search for natural methods of helping the sick. By the study of God’s Word and the assistance of those more acquainted with natural methods, they opened a Lifestyle Center on a 200-acre farm they had purchased. Uchee Pines is dedicated to helping those suffering from the lifestyle illnesses of today that are killing millions of people in the western world every year. Their Country Life Restaurant is in nearby Columbus, Georgia. Patient counseling sheets are an amazing resource of scientific information about a variety of health conditions found on their website. Reach them at www.ucheepines.org.
If you are looking for a plant-powered health care provider (physician, nurse, dietitian) in your area check out www.plantbaseddocs.com or https://www.pcrm.org/findadoctor.
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.