And that's going to really benefit them in the long run.

Good points.

Yeah.

I'll say I've had some experience because I, of course, I've had a long time, 62 years as a dietician.

And at menopause, I gained 10 pounds.

And my doctor said, well, everybody gains 10 pounds at menopause.

and i wanted to lose that weight i didn't want to keep it on there and and i've explored and i went up a bit more when i was working really hard i'd eat a little bit too much and so some of the things i've found and i find it different with different clients i have what works for them but some people need to restrict calories by having a time window and they don't eat outside that time window some people need to eat only two meals a day and they people find the different thing that works for them and one of the things that i did was go to true north and do the fasting and there everybody loses a pound a day it's really interesting so i lost my 10 pounds and um but i also i did a dexa scan before and after when i went and i found that i also lost two pounds of muscle So I was interested in that change.

Vesanto?

salt.

not the fancy salts like Himalayan and pink and all those kinds.

They're not iodized.

And you just need like a quarter teaspoon on top of the bits you'll get from food.

But we find that I once did a nutritional analysis on True North and their SOS-free fasting program and then the food, and I found it was only 300 milligrams.

So you do need a little bit of salt.

if you're eating really, really clean, whole plant foods, or you could need a tiny bit.

Where there's lots of sun.

Yes.

Oh, okay.

Well, one of the things, this is a real change for me from, like, 30 years ago, I thought vegan was where it's at, you know, 'cause it's better for animals and it's, can be healthy and all that.

And we're s- really seeing that you've gotta do it right, whether it's with kids or with adults or whatever.

So there've been these different ways of rating plant-based diets and other diets, and, um, one of them is the, the plant-based diet index.

And that shows with plant foods, you get a higher plant-based index.

If they ate healthy plant-based foods, you get a HPDI, um, scores for just the healthy plant foods.

Do they still have nutritional gaps? Or, um, yeah, do they still have nutritional gaps when they, when you test them, when they're tested, and what should they do about that? So do, you know, do they take supplements? Which supplements? So if d- do whole food plant-based people get enough protein, get enough vitamin D, get enough iodine, or are there nutritional gaps, and if so, which ones?

So why don't you tell us about – uh how our needs do change after the age of around 50 or so like what are the things that most people aren't aware of and um what sort of things do they need to yeah what what is it that we need to consider as we get older

Okay, I'll start on that.

We're finding that as people get older, about 93% have one or more chronic conditions.

And we've detailed these in the book, and I think Sharlyn will talk a little bit about that more lately.

So we've both got conditions happening to most people, and we want to avoid the tragedy of medications and all that when we get older.

But as we get older, We need fewer calories.

People don't exercise as much.

Tell us about what we need for bone health and what can we do to improve our bone health if it is needed? I guess, not doing so well.

And thanks so much for letting me be part of this.

So this is all about protein, a really big interest for lots of people.

The pictures you see here are from some of our books, our nutrition books, but they have lots of recipes too.

And we've kind of specialized in how to make food really, really tasty.

And I like making things simple and my co-author Brenda Davis likes making things gourmet and elegant.

So between us, we come up with some pretty good ideas and kind of include both directions.

Is it gelatin?

Gelatin.

went to

University of London England for a year because my dad was doing cancer research over there and then Toronto after that so I got my BA and master's degree from University of Toronto and and then taught at UBC, University of British Columbia.

And then I wasn't vegetarian or vegan at that point, but I did go to India for four years.

It was kind of a thing we were doing in the late 70s, early 80s.

I just wanted to see a really different part of the world.

And of course, India is very good at vegetarian.

and has wonderful food.

Yeah,

And I would like to ask you what you think are the most common mistakes seniors who are already plant-based are making when they think about their health and their nutrition?

Well, here's an evolution I went through.

I used to think that vegan was the way to go.

Just go vegan.

You'll be healthier.

Now I think well-planned vegan is the way to go.

And so I've really been watching.

Approach others' skepticism with empathy and just demonstrate, model this wonderful lifestyle rather than telling people what to do.

Okay.

So we need a, a well-planned plant-based diet, and that's where-- the research is really interesting.

It's moving along a mile a minute, and we watch it for vitamin D, what's recommended for calcium, for omega-3 fatty acids.

And it's moving so fast that the official recommendations don't even always keep up.

So everybody needs vitamin B12 that's on plant-based, but it's even recommended for everybody on any kind of diet when they get to be a senior over 50, uh, because we don't, we don't absorb it very well if e- even if you eat animal products.

We need more vitamin D, and I was speaking in Maui and Honolulu earlier this year, and the cancer research people there told me that a lot of people in Hawaii are low in vitamin D.

And, uh, you know, and the reason is that they still just go into their garage, they drive to the shopping mall, drive to work if they're still working, that kind of thing, and they cover up.

What is it? What, what, what, what is it, uh, comprised of?

Oh, that's right.

I did a cooking vegan book with a chef from the Four Seasons.

And he said that he worked there as a restaurant chef and for some really good hotels.

And he said they just started with, you know, big block of butter or oil, like huge amounts.

And of course they make it salty so people will, it'll appeal to them.

And his dad had heart disease.

That's why he was interested.

And when I say here, what forms of activism do you personally engage in and what do you find the most effective? I think one of those we can definitely say is your recipes by the sound of it is definitely your kind of activism to make gorgeous vegan food for people, isn't it?

So can you share with with the listeners and the viewers what that means? Okay, well,

so by the way, we're quite a lot using the word plant-based now.

Right.

And you're using plant-powered.

Inclusiveness.

Yeah, and plant-powered, of course, because power.

Yeah.

And when does it actually get published? Oh,

For our viewership, what are-- You don't have to give away the whole story from the book, but what are a couple of these general approaches or adjustments that you might recommend to the senior population out there who maybe have eaten the standard, you know, American or Canadian diet for decades but now recognize they want greater health and less stability? What are some kind of general approaches, right, of adjustments that you guys recommend?

recommend?Okay.

Well, we suggest that people go towards whole food, whole plant foods, and these are really, really helpful.

And you can go gradually.

It's okay.

And we advise against all these ultra-processed foods, except that doesn't mean never eat something processed.

I mean, tofu's processed, and it's a good food.

In your book, are-- give us one or two things that maybe you point out to seniors about lifestyle changes that can help their bones.

And I wanna talk about what you consider the most responsible earth diet and the most responsible health diet that we can do.

Well, we're finding, uh, from the EAT-Lancet report, uh, which, uh, it was 2019 and then, then one recent one, 2025.

I think they've got 60 authors.

The main people around the planet that care about environmental sustainability and diet and health.

They're finding that if you want health of people and health of the planet, you really need to move more plant-based.

That doesn't mean you have to be 100% vegan.

I've been vegan for 33 years, and I've really changed my concept about it over time, because I used to think like, "Hey, vegan's the way to go, like it really works for health." And what I realize now is that well-planned vegan is the way to go.

How do you think it has affected your life, your life trajectory, made you a different person?

If you're chatting after or have questions, you can certainly send in things, either your solutions or questions about affordability and accessibility.

We'll see what we can come up with.

And I'm also doing a presentation on April 17th with a doctor who's originally from New Zealand, but we'll be talking about diet and disease prevention.

I won't have my throat tickle in the end, too.

And why the plant-based advantage? Well, we know that plant-based diets minimize pathogenic dietary components and maximize protective.

And these are some of our books that are well-known all over the place and are online.

And the permanent removal of our trees, it not only impacts our water cycle, right, because trees take in water through their roots and releases it through their leaves in a process called evapotranspiration, which increases atmospheric moisture, and even the cross-continental transport of that moisture, which fuels regional and global water cycles, right, and so can contribute to drought the more deforestation we see.

Can I just say something with some of our comments that have come in? Like one woman, Jennifer, wrote about Scenic Valley Farm has done research in vermicompost.

And so if everyone's doing something completely different from what we're trying to do, it's difficult to swim against that.

Oh, another thing, this Becoming Vegan Comprehensive is one that really helps people.

It's a fat, big fat book, but it tells people exactly what to do in terms of all the different nutrients.

And so that's a textbook in Taiwan, in the US, in Canada.

And it can really help with the questions that people have.

And then the protein, this book, This one got to number one for sustainability, but it also has really good recipes, including the one that my friend that didn't want me to tell her about nutrition, you know, her recipe's in here for, what's it called? It's a tofu marinade anyway.

So if you just get some good recipes and people only need 10 recipes, like they don't need to be a real gourmet.

What gives you hope for the future in the context of bringing health about? So Basanto, do you wanna go first?

You should start because you've got a whole slide on this.

OK, well, interestingly, Canada has changed its food guide and they actually used our becoming vegan comprehensive while they were developing this food guide, because I had done a major talk and the director of Nutrition for Health Canada was there and I gave him a copy of that book and they used it while they were developing the food guide.

Well, his name's Sebastian Joy in Germany.

just sent me a little PowerPoint that was about countries and their food guides and how it affected health.

Well, Canada developed a food guide that doesn't even have a meat group, no meat group, no dairy group.

It's got the protein foods and they're all squished in there.

And it turns out that the Canada food guide is 88% plant foods.

And hopefully there will be some positive outcomes coming out of this kind of interest in nutrition, rather than just the, you know, adding beef tallow back in, which is kind of a, well, taking us back to the 50s, really, isn't