The purpose of this cookbook and ingredient index is to simplify the reasoning behind eating a plant based diet--including how it can be beneficial to your health, and what benefits each ingredient provides. These recipes have been cultivated and modified over time to provide nutritious meals that are also tasty. I was introduced to healthy eating at a young age, and have been fascinated by it ever since. The recipes and information conveyed about a plant based diet have come from the many books read and research I have done on the subject. This paper will walk you through how I started this journey, and go on to show a basic overview of what makes up the foods we consume and why we need them. The cookbook portion of my Thesis contains recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, sauces, and dessert. Following the cookbook is an ingredient index that goes through the majority of ingredients used in my recipes, and what health benefits they provide. I hope that by reading this, others will be inspired to use more plant-based whole foods in their diet, and realize the healing that can come from them.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder categorized by symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and/or hyperactivity. The onset of ADHD symptoms begin to appear in childhood, tend to be persistent into adulthood, and are associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes (Caye et al., 2016; Yoshimasu et al., 2018). The current study examined the effects of health-promoting behavior (i.e., diet and physical activity) on ADHD symptoms in middle childhood. The sample consisted of 670 twins (30.1% monozygotic, 36.5% same-sex dizygotic, 32.3% opposite-sex dizygotic) from the ongoing longitudinal study, the Arizona Twin Project. The twin’s (51% female) diet, physical activity, and ADHD symptoms were assessed at age 8 (M = 8.45, SD = 0.69) and ADHD symptoms were assessed again at age 9 (M = 9.70, SD = 0.92). Mixed model regression analyses revealed that aspects of diet (i.e., protein, carbohydrates, and fiber) at age 8 negatively predicted ADHD symptoms at age 9. Similarly, sedentary behavior at age 8 negatively predicted ADHD symptoms at age 9, whereas moderate-to-vigorous activity at age 8 positively predicted ADHD symptoms at age 9. Univariate twin analyses revealed that certain aspects of diet (i.e., sugar, vegetable, and fruit consumption) were influenced by environmental factors whereas other aspects of diet (i.e., protein, carbohydrates, calories, fat, and fiber consumption) were influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Both children’s sedentary behavior and moderate-to-vigorous activity were influenced primarily by genetic factors, with the remaining variance being attributed to non-shared environmental factors. Additive genetic influences explained the majority of the variance in ADHD symptoms. Future research should examine bidirectional effects of activity and diet on ADHD symptoms across childhood.

An autoimmune disease is a health condition in which the immune system attacks your body due to the inability to differentiate between foreign cells and your own cells. There are over 80 autoimmune diseases that affect the human body, but we specifically want to focus on three diseases: Crohn’s Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). These three autoimmune diseases affect young adults the most and impact three integral parts of the body – the GI tract, musculoskeletal system, and the central nervous system, respectively. We would like to further research how nutrition and diet can affect individuals with these autoimmune disorders. We want to better understand the role diet plays in maintaining both the physical and mental health condition of an individual with an autoimmune disease. Stress has been hypothesized to be a factor in the triggering of an autoimmune disease and we have noticed how stress can be a major factor on a person’s daily food choices and intake. We are also interested in how we can incorporate this knowledge of the benefits of nutrition into routine patient care. Within the healthcare setting, we have both witnessed first-hand how patients were able to improve as well as maintain their physical health condition via their diet. For example, through an appropriate diet, patients were able to show improvements in their lab work and/or maintain and prevent health conditions such as autoimmune disorders. Therefore, we would like to better understand how diet can control and/or manage autoimmune disorders.