28-Day Diet Makeover Starts This Week at SoBe Whole Foods

I feel for people who have a genuine desire to improve their diets and get healthy - really healthy, not like Jenny Craig or Slim Fast healthy - but who have no clue where to start. There's a lot to learn, and for the many who have graduated from the USDA's school of misguided food recommendations, there's a lot to unlearn.

But if you live in South Beach or any other town that has a Whole Foods, you might be able to simplify your journey to health. Many of the stores have adopted Rip Esselstyn's book, The Engine 2 Diet, and made it into an interactive free program that meets for cooking and nutrition classes once a week during the 28 days of the course. The South Beach Whole Foods had its intro class yesterday, but the actual challenge doesn't start until next week, so it's not too late to link up with the group if you're interested in turning your diet around.

The program aims to eliminate animal products (meat, dairy, eggs), extracted oils, refined sugars, and processed foods from challengers' diets and to replace all those with "plant-strong" whole and minimally-processed foods. This "nutritarian" approach to eating has been shown in patients of Dr. Fuhrman and Dr. Esselstyn (and in "self-vegucated" private citizens) to not only help people lose massive amounts of weight, but also to reverse heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, auto-immune diseases, and other ailments.

Camille Lamb

Healthy Eating Specialist Jordan Wolfe and 28-Day Challenger Jined Lamata at yesterday's intro cooking class

Jordan Wolfe, Healthy Eating and Green Mission Specialist at the South Beach Whole Foods, explained all this and more at the intro class last night.