Eat [real] Food.
Not too much. Mostly plants.

-Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food.

Whether you’re ready to make the switch to a completely plant-based lifestyle, looking for satisfying, low-calorie meal plans to help with weight loss, or just want to eat more fruits and vegetables—you’ve come to the right place!

As a plant-based nutrition consultant, I’ll help you discover simple, delicious ways to eat healthier—and feel better—by incorporating whole, plant-based foods into your diet.

Schedule a No-cost Consultation

Let’s Do this!

Hi! I’m Elizabeth Shah—whole food plant-based recipe author and plant-based
nutritional consultant. Together, we’ll create a personalized program that works for you
and helps you achieve your health and wellness goals.

A Bit About Me.
My husband, Hemant, and I have followed a plant-based diet since 2016.
Shortly after adopting this lifestyle, we both lost weight, watched our
cholesterol and blood pressure numbers go down,
experienced far few digestive issues, and had so much more energy.
I became so passionate about this way of eating, I knew I had to share it with others.

I started my WFPB-certified recipe website, Healthy Midwestern Girl, in 2018.
And now, through Verde Plant-Based Nutrition, I’m excited to work with people
on an individual basis who want to explore this healthy way of eating
and adopt it in their own lives.

Elizabeth Shah in kitchen.

Certifications

recipe website certification

It’s time to kick start a healthier lifestyle.

You’ve been vowing to eat better. Maybe for years. You owe it to yourself to do it. Why wait any longer, when a healthy new you is waiting!

Schedule a no-cost consultation

Personalized Plant-Based Nutrition Coaching & Cooking Classes

program & pricing

  • Coaching. Coaching sessions topics include: Whole food, plant-based (WFPB) education, foods to eat/avoid, hands-on cooking classes, how to cook without oil, reading labels, meal planning, grocery shopping, eating out/socializing, plant-based options for weight loss, and more.
  • Program. For best results to make lasting changes to your diet, I recommend committing to at least 6 sessions over about 8-12 weeks. However, there is NO minimum number of sessions required to work with me or benefit from coaching. I’ll work with you to customize a program to meet your needs.
  • Price. Your first 30-minute consultation is free. After that, each 45-60 minute session is $50. Please contact me for couples/small groups pricing.
  • Cooking Classes. If you’re not sure you want to change your diet, but you’d like to learn more about cooking with plants with a fun, hands-on experience, I offer à  la carte cooking classes for individuals or small groups starting at $39 per person (with a group of 4), or $89 for a private class. Please contact me for details or to schedule.

Evidence-based Eating

Working more fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans and legumes into into your diet is one of the simplest ways to improve your health, and reach and maintain a healthy weight. And once you know how to do it—unlike fad diets—it’s easy to sustain.

Because it’s a lifestyle, not a diet.

A wide body of peer-reviewed, independently funded research has demonstrated over and over again that a plant-based (or plant-centered) diet—especially one that minimizes processed foods—is the healthiest way to eat.

In fact, unlike with unhealthy fad diets or those that severely restrict calories, many people who participate in whole food, plant-based research studies choose to continue to eat this way—because they FEEL SO GOOD!

But even if you’re not interested in becoming a vegan or vegetarian diet, you can still benefit from learning more about making plant foods a key part of your diet.

This program is informed by the best available nutritional research.

With resources such as NutritionFacts.org and the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, which features a wealth of nutritional research, to the recipes on my Whole Food Plant-Based certified website Healthy Midwestern Girl, you’ll get the information and delicious recipes and cooking tips you need to be successful.

Learn More

Coaching

One-on-one coaching for individuals, and coaching for couples and small groups.

From meal planning and grocery shopping, I’ll show you how to set yourself up for success. Plus, you’ll have access to a library of shopping and meal-planning tools and resources.

Cooking Classes

In-person, individual and small group classes in my home or yours.

I’ll teach you how to make plants taste amazing through fun and interactive hands-on food prep and cooking techniques. We’ll get in the kitchen, roll up our sleeves and cook some fantastic plant-based meals.

Plant-based weight loss

Unprocessed plant-based foods tend to be naturally low in calories, so you’re off to a great start already! If you’re interested in shedding pounds and keeping them off, I’ll help you discover delicious, satisfying recipes you’ll love, along with healthy eating strategies for eating out and socializing.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is a lot of misinformation out there about nutrition, especially plant-based diets. I won’t share any information with you that has not been clearly demonstrated with solid, peer-reviewed, non-industry-funded research. I firmly believe in evidenced-based eating!

While I read and review a LOT of information from a variety of quality sources, you’ll find I lean heavily on the videos, articles, and books of Dr. Micheal Greger. Why? Because the mission of his organization, NutritionFacts.org, is to scour thousands of studies every year and present us with the best balance of available research on nutrition. He also donates the proceeds of his books and other income sources to charity to avoid bias himself.

No. A lot of people believe carbs are unhealthy or lead to weight gain, but this is not the case. Refined carbohydrates (think white food) aren’t health-promoting and are too easily converted into sugar (glucose) in you body. However, carbs like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes are very health-promoting. In fact, many studies show that increasing these foods can lead to losing weight and keeping it off over time.

Further, research shows that low-carb diets that are high in the consumption of animal products (like the Atkins diet, for example) can lead to an increase in cardiovascular disease.

On average, adults need as little as 40 grams of protein a day. But 97% of Americans get far more protein than they need—even when you include vegans and vegetarians.

So yes, it’s actually quite easy to get your protein from a well-balanced plant-based diet. (To roughly calculate your daily protein requirement grams, multiply your ideal weight x 4, then divide by 10.)

However, there is an important nutrient that’s significantly deficient in most Americans’ diets—fiber. Ninety-seven percent of Americans don’t get enough! Yet fiber feeds our microbiome (improving our immune system, along with other important benefits), helps control hunger and prevent weight gain/facilitate weight loss, and helps prevent disease while promoting longevity. And fiber is only found in plants, especially unprocessed, whole-plant foods.

There are countless studies that show adding legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.), soy, and vegetables to our diets prevents disease and contributes to maintaining a healthy weight. But what about gas?

Don’t despair! Research on beans and flatulence showed no increase in gas, or no increase after a short time of regular consumption. So it can be helpful to add new foods gradually, just like you might with any dietary change.

Soy products like whole soy beans (edamame), tempeh, tofu and soy milk containt a special type of plant estrogen called phytoestrogen. Not only are phytoestrogens safe, they can help promote improved bone mass and lower women’s risk of breast and ovarian cancers, among other. Soy has also been found to help improve symptoms of menopause.

It’s true that some people have soy allergies and should avoid soy, but this is far less common than many other allergies such as allergies to dairy.

This can be a confusing topic, as eating meat is a big part of our culture, and some research (frequently supported by industry) has often downplayed the harms of eating meat.

The answer is no, humans do not need to eat any animal products to be healthy. (Although vegans do need to take a few supplements like B12—generated by bacteria in the digestive tracts of animals like cows and found in soil—to avoid deficiency.) In fact, while there are some nutrients we need that are found in meat, we can get them from plant sources as well, without the same health risks associated with meat consumption.

*In case this leads you to believe this means that eating meat is natural and necessary for humans, you should be aware that our closest ancestors, apes, get their B12 from soil and eating their own feces. I prefer to take a supplement.

Large research studies have compared the diets of vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters, and on average, the less animal products consumed (meat, dairy and eggs), the lower one’s weight.

How this works is complex and multiple factors are involved. (I highly recommend Dr. Greger’s book, How Not to Diet if for a deeper understanding of this topic). But if achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is one of your goals, eating plants has been demonstrated to be effective.

No! With a few exceptions (B12 for example), people eating a balanced, whole food plant-based diets do not require supplements. We get our vitamins, minerals and other key nutrients from our food.

In fact, research shows that in most cases, isolated nutrients extracted from food don’t perform as well as those consumed in whole food form (as in taking Vitamin C tablets vs. consuming a whole orange, for example). Nature has ensured that our bodies are adapted to take advantage of many compounds working together symbiotically in whole foods–not by ingesting a single, isolate nutrient at a time.

Be wary of those who seek to improve your health by selling you pills, powders and shakes. These products are not well-regulated and are highly profitable for those who sell them. Spend your money in your grocery store’s produce section instead!

Just a few of my tasty
plant-based recipes

As the author of Healthy Midwestern Girl, I’ve been creating and publishing whole food,
plant-based recipes since 2018. The site features more than 100 healthy dishes, from main dishes
to desserts. Most are quick and easy, naturally low in calories, and so satisfying and delicious,
you won’t miss a thing!

My website has been featured in several vegan and plant-based
publications and sites and is certified by WFPB.org.

Pesto pasta bowl
Oil free, dairy free
Pesto sauce
GO TO RECIPE
mushroom bolognese pasta.
Mushroom Walnut Bolognese Pasta
GO TO RECIPE
turnip chowder bowl
Lemony Lentil Turnip Chowder
GO TO RECIPE
beet soup bowl.
Beet Soup
[chilled or hot]
GO TO RECIPE
lemon pound cake loaf.
Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon icing
GO TO RECIPE
carrot cake bites in mug
No-Bake Carrot
Cake bites
GO TO RECIPE

“I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.” –Dr. Dean Ornish

What Exactly is a plant-based diet?

Numerous studies have proven that eating a plant-based diet can lead to health benefits including prevention—and sometimes reversal—of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers; increased longevity; healthier weight; increased energy, etc. But what exactly is a plant-based diet?

With labels like vegan, vegetarian, whole food plant-based, flexitarian—the terms can be confusing.

In general, a whole food, plant-based diet is one that is centered around whole plant foods, and avoids (although does not necessarily complete eliminate) things like meat and processed foods.  

Dr. Michael Greger defines whole foods as “nothing bad added in, and nothing good taken out.”

Watch this video to learn about the risks and benefits of a plant-based diet.

You can read more about what a plant-based diet is—and isn’t—in my article, The WFPB (Whole Food Plant-Based) Diet, What the Heck is it Anyway?

Schedule a no-Cost consultation
Client Name
5 star rating
5 star rating
5 star rating
5 star rating
5 star rating
“testimonial here.”

Sign up for 8 sessions
And Get a Free copy of How not to die & How not to diet

When you purchase an 8-session package, I’ll include new, hardcover copies of both How Not to Die and How Not to Diet. This package is perfect for people who are ready to dive in and fully explore this lifestyle and the benefits it can deliver.

Value: $36

Sign Up!

How not to Die &
How not to Diet

By New York Times Bestselling Author, Dr. Michael Greger.

Both of these books are jam-packed with the latest nutritional science and share sound advice for avoiding America’s leading killers (heart disease, cancer, and more) and how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight for life with a plant-based diet.