Books like Food is Your Best Medicine — picked by fans

A former Catholic, raised in the restaurant business, becoming a Franciscan, and with a passionate love of art, they collectively integrated and came to define my life. I was sent to culinary school. Suffering from a chronic lung condition and obesity, I learned that an animal-based diet was the primary cause and became a vegan in October 1976, regaining my health. Vegan culinary art, as my life’s passion, led me to compete in the International Culinary Olympics five times in Germany, winning Seven medals, including gold, writing for magazines, authoring four books, and working with the United Nations to help humanity improve its health with a plant-based vegan diet.

A former Catholic, raised in the restaurant business, becoming a Franciscan, and with a passionate love of art, they collectively integrated and came to define my life. I was sent to culinary school. Suffering from a chronic lung condition and obesity, I learned that an animal-based diet was the primary cause and became a vegan in October 1976, regaining my health. Vegan culinary art, as my life’s passion, led me to compete in the International Culinary Olympics five times in Germany, winning Seven medals, including gold, writing for magazines, authoring four books, and working with the United Nations to help humanity improve its health with a plant-based vegan diet.

A former Catholic, raised in the restaurant business, becoming a Franciscan, and with a passionate love of art, they collectively integrated and came to define my life. I was sent to culinary school. Suffering from a chronic lung condition and obesity, I learned that an animal-based diet was the primary cause and became a vegan in October 1976, regaining my health. Vegan culinary art, as my life’s passion, led me to compete in the International Culinary Olympics five times in Germany, winning Seven medals, including gold, writing for magazines, authoring four books, and working with the United Nations to help humanity improve its health with a plant-based vegan diet.

A former Catholic, raised in the restaurant business, becoming a Franciscan, and with a passionate love of art, they collectively integrated and came to define my life. I was sent to culinary school. Suffering from a chronic lung condition and obesity, I learned that an animal-based diet was the primary cause and became a vegan in October 1976, regaining my health. Vegan culinary art, as my life’s passion, led me to compete in the International Culinary Olympics five times in Germany, winning Seven medals, including gold, writing for magazines, authoring four books, and working with the United Nations to help humanity improve its health with a plant-based vegan diet.

Since I started raising chickens almost 20 years ago, I have slowly reduced the amount of meat I eat. That means that vegetables have become a larger part of my diet. I also love to garden, so I grow all different kinds of vegetables and am always looking for new ways to cook them. I’m not a vegetarian - I do eat meat a few times a week - but vegetables are definitely taking up more space on my plate. It’s so easy to get into a rut with vegetables and just throw them onto a sheet pan and roast them, but there are so many other options and so many great vegetable recipes.

Since I started raising chickens almost 20 years ago, I have slowly reduced the amount of meat I eat. That means that vegetables have become a larger part of my diet. I also love to garden, so I grow all different kinds of vegetables and am always looking for new ways to cook them. I’m not a vegetarian - I do eat meat a few times a week - but vegetables are definitely taking up more space on my plate. It’s so easy to get into a rut with vegetables and just throw them onto a sheet pan and roast them, but there are so many other options and so many great vegetable recipes.

I’ve been a fan of vegetables as long as I can remember, I went plant-based as a young girl and have never looked back. I love to celebrate vegetables in their wholesome, vibrant goodness and put them at the center of your diet. I love nothing more than pairing different flavours and textures to create feel-good food that tastes as good as it does for you and the planet. I have been running my blog – Rebel Recipes for over 6 years and have four plant-based cookbooks with fans from across the globe!

Veronika Sophia Robinson has eaten a plant-based diet for forty-eight years and knows what healthy and delicious vegan and vegetarian food should taste like. She has had extensive experience in cooking for others whether around her kitchen table or in a yurt with no electricity feeding up to fifty families for five days (for many years). The Mystic Cookfire is a tome of over 400 pages. It is an expression of her deep love and respect for food, conscious cookery, and intentional eating. Her second recipe book Love From My Kitchen is a collection of vegan, gluten-free recipes based on the four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. She’s delighted that her granddaughter is a fourth-generation vegetarian.

I’m a cookbook and children's book author and co-owner of Brown-Bag Publishers, a small independent publishing company since 2007. I love good food, and I have a passion for creating (and using!) recipes that are easy and result in delicious, healthy meals that appeal to the whole family. I’m the author of the bestselling Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's which was the first in the popular 10-book Trader Joe's cookbook series. I live in a small surf town in California with my husband and four kids.

I’ve been living a semi-nomadic lifestyle and traveling the globe for all my adult life, and travel has truly shaped who I am. In 2014, when I learned about the many advantages of a vegan lifestyle for my health, the planet, and the animals, I felt compelled to make the change. There was one thing holding me back, though, which was the fear that being vegan would ruin travel. Fortunately, I gave it a trial run anyway during a three-week trip to Greece and discovered that being vegan actually made traveling even more fun! Ever since, I’ve been sharing my global vegan discoveries on my website, the Nomadic Vegan.