Cheese is usually the hardest thing for people to give up when transitioning to a plant-based diet. It's no surprise, since casomorphines in dairy have an opioid effect. People are, quite literally, addicted to cheese!

Luckily, there are delicious cheese alternatives made from almonds and cashews. Praveena gifted me Julie Piatt's new book "This Cheese is Nuts" and two weeks ago, she used some of the recipes from this book and added her own twist. The results were mind-blowing. We will be debuting some of these cheeses at our next Revitalize Dinner on July 22nd! In the meantime, I highly recommend Julie Piatt's book so you can see how easy it is to make cheese using nuts, and enjoy a creamy treat that is free of saturated fat, casomorphines, and hormones.

The relationship between the dairy foods, the dairy industry, and government funding all have huge health implications. It was only after listening to this podcast with Dr. Neil Barnard that I understood the interplay between government funding, scientific research, and the parallel that exists between the tobacco industry: "Doubt is our product."

I encourage you to listen to this on your commute, during your workout, or when you have downtime at home. You are important. Your food is important. It's time to be fully informed and then make your decisions based on fact.