Dr. Holly Lucille is a licensed Naturopathic Physician graduating from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, AZ where she received the prestigious “Daphne Blayden Award” for her “Commitment to Naturopathic Medicine, academic excellence, compassion, perseverance, a loving sense of humor and a positive, supportive outlook”.
Holly is the past president of the California Naturopathic Doctor’s Association where she worked to ensure the availability of safe naturopathic health care by spearheading a lobbying effort to have Naturopathic Doctors licensed in the state of California. She has worked with the LA Free Clinic providing health education, promotion and prevention in the public health system and recently was awarded the “SCNM Legacy Award” for her “contribution to the advancement and development of the field of Naturopathic Medicine.
Dr. Lucille is on the clinical staff of Renaissance Malibu, an addiction and recovery center, where she applies the principles of Naturopathic Medicine to serve people in recovery and is also on the faculty of the Global Medicine Education Foundation, a teaching organization aimed at understanding the common threads of spirituality, ecology, culture, relationships and community inherent in all approaches to healing. Dr. Lucille is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of both Enzymatic Therapy and Integrative Therapeutics, Inc. and has a private practice in Los Angeles called Healing from within Healthcare where her focus is comprehensive Naturopathic Medicine and individualized care.
Dr. Lucille lectures throughout the nation and has been featured on Lifetime Television for Women and the Discovery Health Channel as well as being a guest on a number of radio and television shows. In 2007 she was listed in the Time Magazine’s Alt List as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People”.
She is the author of Creating and Maintaining Balance: A Women’s Guide to Safe, Natural, Hormone Health. (IMPAKT Health, 2004) and recently joined forces with Jon Benson, the author of Fit Over Forty to develop “NaturaPause” an informational audio program focusing on nutrition and exercise to optimize normal hormonal transitions including menopause and andropause. Dr. Lucille has been promoted as an expert in her field and has a heartfelt passion for the individual wellness of all people.
At age 30, Gail Davis became acutely aware of how her lifestyle affected her chances for a long and healthy life. Two weeks after her father died of lung cancer in 1986, she quit her 3 pack-a-day smoking habit...cold turkey. Admittedly the most difficult thing she had ever done, she hoped that this decision would prevent her from suffering the same fate as her father.
A year later, when her pepperoni pizza-loving 31 year-old best friend suffered a near fatal heart attack, Gail took a closer look at her own eating habits. 35 lbs. overweight and lacking energy, she wondered why she didn’t feel better after giving up cigarettes. Then a colleague suggested she read John Robbins Pulitzer-Prize nominated book, Diet for a New America. Gail learned how the foods she ate affected not only her health, but also the environment. She changed her diet forever and that decision changed her life.
As she slimmed down and gained new energy, amazed friends and even a few strangers approached her and asked her what she was doing differently. She began explaining the benefits of adopting a vegetarian diet, and while all listened, most did not change their own eating habits. Then over the next few years, she watched in horror as one friend after another succumbed to diseases caused in great part, by the foods they continued to eat. A 32 year-old friend had her gallbladder removed. A 34 year-old business associate suffered a paralyzing stroke. Three close friends, ages 27, 35, and 38 were each diagnosed with breast cancer. At the funeral of one friend, Gail vowed to be ever more diligent in educating people about the hazardous effects of our Standard American Diet.
She began lecturing to diverse audiences about the high fat, cholesterol, and protein content of our meat and dairy-based diets. She recommended her favorite vegetarian cookbooks, but later learned that most of these ended up collecting dust in kitchen cupboards. While people were willing to make dietary changes, most felt intimidated by the prospect of learning a whole new way to cook. And many others feared that eating healthier meant feeling deprived.
So Gail changed strategies and began lecturing in her home. There she would empty out her own kitchen cupboards turning her audience on to delicious plant-based foods that closely resembled the taste and texture of their animal-based counterparts, but without the fat and cholesterol. She introduced many hard-core carnivores to vegetarian burgers that taste and smell like real hamburgers, chicken-free nuggets, fishless tuna, and dairy-free milk, sour cream, cheese, and yogurt.
With rates of heart disease, stroke, obesity, osteoporosis, and cancer on the rise, Gail realized the need to introduce these great tasting, vegetarian foods to a wider audience. Two years of research and taste-testing resulted in the ground-breaking book, So, Now What Do I Eat? The Complete Guide to Vegetarian Convenience Foods. With this book, Gail hopes to help many more people learn how to stock their own kitchens and enjoy heart-healthy, delicious, and nutritious fare that requires no more preparation than a TV dinner!
Visit her two websites at:
http://myspace.com/peacelovevegan and www.vegsource.com/davis
With a focus on healthy eating, compassion for animals, and environmental consciousness, her vegan journey led Zel Allen to partner with her husband, Reuben, to publish Vegetarians in Paradise. Their online publication is read by more than 125,000 visitors monthly www.vegparadise.com. In addition to her articles, the e-zine spotlights her humorous illustrations and her innovative recipes. Zel’s interest in the powerful health aspects of nuts resulted in her one-of-a-kind cookbook, The Nut Gourmet<, which features 150 innovative, totally nutty recipes.
Presently, Zel spreads the message of a healthy vegan lifestyle by teaching vegetarian cooking classes at libraries, churches, and at Glendale Community College in Southern California. She lives in Granada Hills with her husband and her cat Fuzzy, once a homeless kitten.
Alan Roettinger has been a private chef to the stars for 28 years, serving clients in the United States, Europe and Australia. Raised in Mexico City, he acquired a taste for exotic food and culture early on - a passion for flavor and beauty that drives his culinary expression.
He has cooked in private homes, catered parties and provided specialty desserts for a broad spectrum of high profile clients, from entertainers to presidents. A world traveler, he absorbed elements from many cuisines to synthesize a unique creative style of his own.
Throughout his years as a private chef, he developed a reputation for working within the limitations of restricted diets to create delicious food tailored to the specific tastes of each person. His new cookbook, Omega-3 Cuisine, showcases his ability to bring health and flavor together, offering a wide range of dishes that are simultaneously exotic and accessible to the home cook. His second book, “Speedvegan,” will be out in March 2010.
