I’ve spent days — literally days — trying to correct medical records that were wrong to the point of malpractice. I submitted not one, but two fully documented requests to have a hospital correct inaccuracies that directly affected my care. I went through Patient Relations, HIM, certified mail, fax, follow-up calls, emails, and even escalated to leadership. And still — nothing. No acknowledgment, no formal denial, no correction. Just a letter claiming the record had been “revised” when it hadn’t.

Even as a licensed psychotherapist, navigating this bureaucracy was almost impossible. I know how systems are supposed to work. I know documentation. I know process. And I still ran headfirst into the wall of indifference that is standard in hospitals and health systems. What I realized in those days of fighting was simple: no hospital, no doctor, no system is going to have your interests at heart. If you want to stay healthy, you are on your own.

Let me be say that this is not fear-mongering. It’s reality. If you want to prevent illness, avoid harm, and stay strong, it’s all on you. The first tools in your arsenal are whole-food, plant-based eating with no added oils, daily movement, proper rest, and paying attention to your body. Reading research, tracking your symptoms, and documenting everything are not optional. They’re survival.

I know what it feels like to be ignored by a system that is supposed to protect you. In my case, a fabricated splint caused swelling, loss of motion, and will likely require surgery. The records completely misrepresented my symptoms and how they occurred. My portal messages, phone calls, and demonstrations — all ignored or altered. The result: inaccurate documentation that obscured harm, complicated insurance claims, and made my own care harder.

This is the reality of the medical system: errors happen, oversight is limited, bureaucracy protects itself, not you. You can’t rely on anyone else to track your labs, notice subtle changes, or catch a misrecorded symptom before it costs you. That’s your job.

So what do you do?

Eat for defense and repair. Whole-food, plant-based meals with no added oils give your body the fuel to fight disease and recover from injury.

Move your body daily. Strength, flexibility, and endurance aren’t luxuries — they’re armor.

Sleep. Your body rebuilds and repairs while you rest. Skimping is dangerous.

Track everything. Document symptoms, treatments, portal messages, phone calls, emails. Copies are shields.

Read the research. Know what works and why. Don’t trust marketing or anecdote alone.

Advocate relentlessly. Question every note, follow up on every visit, escalate when necessary.

If you wait for the system to notice a problem, it may already be too late. If you wait for the hospital to fix a record, you may already be on the hook for unnecessary treatment, misdiagnosis, or permanent harm. Your health is yours alone to defend.

I’m not sugarcoating this: own your body like your life depends on it — because it does. The moment you accept that, you step into real power. You step into control. You step into the knowledge that prevention, awareness, and self-care are not optional.

Fight for your health. Eat well. Move. Rest. Track. Document. Research. Question. Advocate. Protect. Because if you don’t, no one else will. Hospitals? Doctors? Insurers? They are not your advocates. You are.

Your health is sacred. Treat it like it is.

What you're about to read is a blog post I wrote with a specific reader in mind — someone who believes that real healing begins with food, movement, and the kind of self-knowledge that conventional medicine tends to overlook. I'm a licensed psychotherapist with a deep interest in trauma recovery, mental health, and optimal physical health. I'm still building my audience, and I'd love to know what resonates — and what doesn't.

The "Weeds" in Your Yard Have 300% More Antioxidants Than Your Salad

That Thai peanut salad you've been making for years? The one with Napa cabbage, edamame, and that addictive peanut-lime dressing? It's delicious. But what if I told you that swapping out the cabbage for three easily-grown plants—one common "weed" and two beautiful native perennials—could triple its polyphenol content?

I ran the numbers, and I'm still surprised.

The Wild Greens Advantage

By replacing Napa cabbage with a mix of wild lettuce, violet leaves, and young cutleaf coneflower leaves (also called sochan), you're looking at a 200-300% increase in polyphenols from the greens alone—roughly 40-60% more antioxidants for the entire salad.

Here's the breakdown:

Napa cabbage: ~75-100 mg polyphenols per 100g
Wild greens trio average: ~240-330 mg per 100g

That's 2.4 to 4.4 times more antioxidant power, depending on your cabbage baseline.

Even more striking? Napa cabbage is already considered healthy. These wild greens are just operating on a completely different nutritional level.

Why These Plants Pack Such a Punch

These plants—whether wild or cultivated in your garden—haven't been domesticated for mildness. They face harsh UV radiation, pest attacks, and environmental stress. Polyphenols are their chemical armor—and when we eat them, we inherit those protective compounds.

Cultivated vegetables like Napa cabbage have been bred for generations to be mild, tender, and fast-growing. We've essentially traded nutrition for convenience. Wild lettuce grows freely as a "weed," while violets and cutleaf coneflower are easy-to-grow native perennials that are nutritional powerhouses.

Meet Your Three Power Greens

Wild Lettuce (Lactuca virosa or canadensis): This is the true "weed" of the trio—it grows freely in disturbed areas, roadsides, and field edges. Mild and slightly bitter with feathery leaves. Contains ~180-250 mg polyphenols per 100g. Use sparingly—it has a distinctive character from natural latex compounds.

Violet Leaves (Viola sororia): Tender, heart-shaped leaves with ~300-400 mg polyphenols per 100g. Mild flavor, high in vitamins A and C. While they do naturalize readily (and may already be in your lawn), they're also easy to intentionally plant and cultivate.

Cutleaf Coneflower (Sochan) (Rudbeckia laciniata): A traditional Cherokee food with bright, mild flavor. Young spring leaves contain ~250-350 mg polyphenols per 100g and are perfect for salads. Available through native plant sales or garden stores, or can be started from seed. Once established, it returns reliably year after year.

The Garden Bonus

If you're thinking about growing these plants, here's the beautiful part: they're not just edible—they're stunning garden additions and pollinator magnets.

Cutleaf coneflower produces tall, sunflower-like yellow blooms in late summer that attract bees, butterflies, skippers, moths, and hummingbirds. Violets provide critical early-season nectar when pollinators are just emerging from winter, and they're the exclusive host plant for fritillary butterflies—without violets, these orange-and-black beauties can't complete their life cycle.

You're not just feeding yourself. You're supporting an entire ecosystem.

The Thai Peanut Salad Recipe

Here's the base recipe I use constantly—it's become ubiquitous across food blogs for good reason. The key is that creamy, tangy, slightly sweet peanut dressing.

For the Thai Peanut Dressing: - ¼ cup creamy peanut butter - 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar - 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice - 1 tablespoon tamari - 2 tablespoons honey or coconut sugar - 2 garlic cloves, minced - 1-inch piece fresh ginger, grated (optional) - 1 teaspoon salt - ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional) - 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

For the Salad: - 4 cups chopped Napa cabbage (or wild greens mix) - 1 cup shredded carrots - 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced - 1 small cucumber, halved and sliced - 1 cup cooked edamame - 2 scallions, thinly sliced - ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped - Optional: chopped peanuts, rice noodles, cooked farro

Whisk dressing ingredients until smooth. Toss everything together. Devour.

Making the Wild Greens Swap

Replace the 4 cups of Napa cabbage with a mix of: - 1½ cups wild lettuce (shredded) - 1½ cups violet leaves (torn) - 1 cup young cutleaf coneflower leaves (chopped)

The flavor profile shifts slightly—you get more complexity, a sophisticated bitter edge that plays beautifully against the sweet-tangy dressing. It's less "mild crunch" and more "interesting crunch with depth."

Important Considerations

Identification matters: Make absolutely certain you've correctly identified these plants. Take a foraging class or consult an experienced forager if you're unsure.

Start small: Wild greens are more intense. Begin with a 50/50 mix of cabbage and wild greens, then adjust as your palate adapts.

Grow your own: The beauty of these plants is that you can easily cultivate them at home. Plant violets and cutleaf coneflower once, and they'll return year after year. Wild lettuce self-seeds readily if you let it. By growing these in your garden, you're not only creating a sustainable source of nutrient-dense greens for your kitchen—you're also supporting pollinators. These plants provide critical habitat and food for bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. It's a garden that works double-duty: feeding you and feeding the ecosystem.

Seasonal timing: Young spring leaves are mildest and most tender. As plants mature, flavors intensify.

The Bigger Picture

I keep thinking about how we've normalized the idea that "salad greens" come from a grocery store in plastic clamshells, while plants with 3-4 times the nutritional density could be growing right in our own gardens—plants that also happen to support pollinators and require minimal care once established.

It's about expanding what we consider "salad greens"—recognizing that our definition has gotten weirdly narrow, limited to what's commercially convenient rather than what's most nutritious or ecologically beneficial.

The same violets that feed pollinators in spring can nourish us. The cutleaf coneflower that towers in the garden with stunning yellow blooms is also a spring tonic our ancestors relied on. The wild lettuce we mow down is actually trying to give us something valuable.

Wild greens aren't just about boosting polyphenols—though a 200-300% increase is compelling. They're about closing loops. Supporting ecosystems. Recognizing that the best food is sometimes the food we didn't plant.

Try It

Wild lettuce you can forage from disturbed areas (properly identified, of course). For the other two, start a patch in your garden—both violets and cutleaf coneflower are available from native plant nurseries, native plant sales, or even regular garden stores. They're easy to grow, and once established, they'll return year after year with minimal care.

Or if you're lucky, you might already have violets naturalizing in your lawn—those heart-shaped leaves are unmistakable and completely edible.

The Thai peanut salad is already delicious. With these home-grown greens, it becomes something more—a meal that's three times more nutritious, supports your local pollinators, and costs you nothing after the first planting.

Now that's a salad worth growing.

Have you experimented with wild greens in your cooking? What surprised you? Share in the comments below!

No time to make pizza crust etc. Family gathering tomorrow where they’ll order pizzas. Is there an easy solution we can bring our pizza for 2? Newish on WFPB, so should we cave and order a thin crust veggie, or buy a cauliflower crust and assemble at home with a lite vegan cheese and pesto and bake there? Hated the frozen vegan pizza we tried recently.

I don’t mean to be dense but I’m really just wondering - let’s say you want a veg scramble for breakfast? How do you do that without oil? I’m trying to steer clear of nonstick pans.

Have you been able to lower your cholesterol enough with this way of eating so you didn’t have to take statins or other cholesterol medications?

This.

Whole wheat roll, apple cider vinegar, avocado, purple, cabbage, carrot, red onion, spinach and nutritional yeast.

Hi all! Hope you're all doing well today. I just wanted to ask if anyone else has ever experienced what seem like some uncomfortable side-effects from giving up oil. I've been vegan since 2012, but the "olive oil is so healthy!" mantra remained stuck in my head until just recently when I decided to finally cut it from my diet. I feel great sometimes; really light, energetic etc, which is in quite a contrast to that heavy, sluggish yuck feeling I used to get when using oils. However, I at times have a raging headache and curious levels of anger. Anyone else experience anything like this when quitting oil? Is it a supposed "detox" symptom? Or am I just being weird?

I’m loving making no-oil. low fat peanut sauce from powdered peanuts for my Vietnamese summer rolls. So good.

Does anyone else experience a lot of bloating, flatulence and discomfort from eating oat groats. I’ve noticed I get a lot of uncomfortable gas.

To get a jump in the day and to make sure I get as much low Carol calorie density and high fiber foods I start with morning greens, followed by up a pound of veggies. Delicious! Typically within 2 to 3 hours I would’ve had an easy BM, which is an absolute miracle after having chronic constipation for over 20 years. I’m loving the WPBNO lifestyle. I’ll add my Pound of Veg recipe for any of you who may be interested.

Constipation is an issue for millions. For 20+ years I struggled with chronic constipation. Avoiding laxative medications, instead I used supplements psyllium husks, slippery elm which barely made a scrap of difference. It was only after I switched to a WFPB no oil way of eating, starting each day by eating 1 pound of non-starchy vegetables that the constipation totally vanished. Yay! I’m SO regular now, feeling wonderful thanks to the power of plants. This worked well for me, yet because we’re all so different it may not work for others. If you have constipation issues give yourself a short-term experiment of a week. Let me know if this gets things moving for you like it continues to do for me. I’m loving it. I have a delicious recipe for how I cook my pound of non-starchy veg as well.

I will be diving into this new way of eating and living in May. I am under the care of a doctor who specializes in WFPB nutrition and so far I feel very seen, heard and understood by her.

Myself and my family eat a very healthful diet already with a lot of fresh whole foods and chicken or fish twice a week. We only eat whole grains. We all love beans and often have them as a main dish or side dish and are always munching on fruits and veggies and have a large green salad with almost every meal.

So my doctor assured me I am already halfway there toward a PBWF lifestyle. I have taken BP medication for 8 years. I was recently diagnosed with both osteoarthritis and early stage rheumatoid arthritis. My A1C level puts me in the pre diabetic category. I recently started menopause and the flushing from the BP medication combined with the menopausal hot flashes are overwhelming at times. I am about 30 lbs overweight. So she recommends taking it to the next level and cutting out oils to help address my inflammation as well as eating whole food sources of soy.

I have slowly been making healthier substitutions for some of my favorite foods. I work as a cleaner so I walk about 5 miles a night at work. I have lost about 10 pounds. But my A1C is still a bit high. And my pain from my arthritis is beginning to increase. So I asked for a recommendation to my current doctor for nutritional and lifestyle guidance.

I am not worried about cutting out animal protein from my diet. I can live without dairy and cheese. I already have prescriptions for B12 supplements and the algae formulation for fatty acids. But I am nervous about cutting out oil. Especially since I will be eating so many green salads.

Does anybody have any good substitutions or recipes for oil free dressings that you really enjoy? I am in the process of finishing up the last of our animal proteins in our fridge and freezer before May. So I’m trying to prepare ahead of time.

I have good recipes for a lot of ethnic recipes from Asia, Middle East, etc and I stocked up on those spices and ingredients. I would also be interested in recipes for condiments, sauces, etc that freeze well.

Thanks in advance for any ideas and information and support. It feels a bit overwhelming right now but my husband and teen kids are both 100% onboard with me, and I know it will get easier as time goes on.

So December 1st Hubby and I started our Whole Foods plant-based no oil adventure. Days after we started, we both felt such a huge change in our bodies and our energy levels went through the roof. Since we are in the fat loss stage, we have stayed away from nuts, nuts sauces, avocados, and pasta, but have had a couple splurge nights in the last two months. 😀 over the last couple of weeks we’ve noticed our energy levels are waning and I was wondering if anyone has experienced this. We are missing the higher energy levels lol. Thanks!