And I'm and Welcome to Food for Thought. My name is Colleen Patrick Gudreau from Compassionate Cooks. I founded

compassionate cooks to empower people to make informed food choices and

to debunk myths about vegetarianism and animal rights. You can learn more about who we are and what we do by visiting

our website Compassionate cooks.com.

Because we have been taught to be a culture obsessed with single nutrients. I'm asked questions on a regular

basis about protein, calcium, B12, other single nutrients. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to eat as many whole

plant foods as possible and not worry about counting micrograms of single

nutrients. Eating a whole foods plant-based diet gives you the best shot at consuming and absorbing all the nutrients

that give us optimum health.

And just to clarify, when I say whole foods, I'm referring to foods as close to their natural state as possible.

So for instance, whole wheat is a whole food, but white rice and white bread

are not because the wheat and the fiber have been removed.

So we're taught by the industries, basically,

who have the most to gain from the lessons we learned,

that the nutrients we need most are most readily available

in animal flesh and animal secretions, right?

The milk and meat and eggs of animals.

The meat, dairy, and egg industries have done such a good job at promoting and marketing this

concept that it's rarely questioned by the media or by health professionals

and certainly the public. I'll show you how effective they've been with this little exercise.

Now you can answer these questions out loud or in your head.

What's the first thing you think of when someone says calcium? Calcium. Milk, right? You're probably thinking

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