Helping you Thrive on healthy whole plant foods!
Hello and welcome! Here you’ll find delicious and nutritious whole food vegan recipes as well as articles explaining how foods affect us.
My name is Venny and together with my husband Andy, we create all the recipes, articles and photography on WellnessDove.
I am a medical doctor and currently I’m doing a residency in clinical nutrition and dietetics. I am also certified in clinical homeopathy and aromatherapy.
Andy has a master’s degree in psychology and is passionate about the connection between our mind and food choices!
I believe that diet is the foundation of great health and whole plant foods are the way to get there.
It’s become my passion to apply my medical knowledge into creating great-tasting, healthy recipes that nourish the body and have the power to heal!
Personally, eating completely whole food, plant-based has given us so much more energy and vitality and helped us regain our health.
Andy stopped treating his seasonal allergy with medication and lost 40 lbs of weight. His chronic stomach pains, diarrhea and vomiting issues disappeared as well.
My autoimmune hypothyroidism has also improved significantly. We also get sick almost never as well!
Our goal is to help you achieve great health by sharing nutritious, tasty recipes and explaining how foods affect our health so profoundly!
Our Story
Discovering the power of plant-based nutrition
I’ve always been passionate about prevention and helping people achieve better health.
In medical school, I learned that most of the chronic health problems people are suffering from are preventable through a better diet and lifestyle.
Slowly, I started to dig deeper and deeper into the realm of nutrition and the effect of diet on our health.
The more I learned, the more astonished I was!
It’s scientifically proven that high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and many others can be improved or even reversed with something as simple as the food we eat.
A simple whole plant food diet with no processed and animal foods was the way to achieve better health!
Even more, the latest nutritional research shows this is the most complete, anti-inflammatory, and healing dietary approach.
Putting my knowledge to the test
As I was learning this new and exciting knowledge, Andy was trying to lose weight (again).
He had been overweight since he was a child and had tried to lose weight many times with no success.
That winter, though, he was determined to find a way. Together, we researched the best weight loss approach for him.
We discovered a fast weight loss method that involved drinking solely the juices of fruits and vegetables.
It promised healthy and fast weight loss, which he decided to try. He felt that by seeing fast results, he would stay motivated and lose the weight for good.
And he did!
We adapted this approach, making it way less labor-intensive, easier, and simpler (read more here).
To make sure he stayed healthy during this journey, he did regular blood tests. We saw his cholesterol and liver markers gradually improve and go within the healthy range.
Enjoying the benefits of eating plant-based
After he lost weight, we started eating a healthy whole food, plant-based diet.
Spring came along and we were expecting him to start suffering from his pollen allergies.
I had read that plant-based eating could alleviate allergy symptoms but I didn’t have high hopes. After all, I had learned in medical schools that allergies were practically uncurable.
That spring, though, he showed almost no symptoms at all!
I have to say, I was astounded and unbelievably happy!
I had witnessed such a beautiful transformation! I felt so empowered!
Meanwhile, I went on a routine blood test for my autoimmune hypothyroidism.
Honestly, I didn’t expect to see any difference. That day, though, the blood test showed that my MAT antibodies were 4 times lower than before and my TAT were within the healthy range!
Basically, my condition was getting better!
Not only that but all my and Andy’s blood markers were within range!
There was no iron deficiency, no calcium deficiency, everything was normal.
Inspiring others
Needless to say, I wanted to spread the word and help everybody, starting with my parents.
They were a bit skeptical at first but my mother decided to give it a go and start cooking plant-based as well!
Within a couple of months, my parents’ blood pressure normalized and they stopped taking medication!
My mother’s arthritis improved as well.
She’s been eating plant-based for years now and she feels so much better and more energetic.
Learning to eat whole food, plant-based
The health benefits we saw motivated us to continue eating whole plant foods.
Initially, we had the problem every beginner has, we didn’t know what to eat!
We searched for recipes on the internet, bought cookbooks, and spent our days in the kitchen.
In the beginning, we thought that we were going to starve. Many recipes were difficult, time-consuming, and weren’t satiating at all!
Slowly and steadily, though, we learned about calorie density and how to create complete, satiating, and healthy meals.
Leading by example
I love to experiment in the kitchen and soon I was cooking delicious salads, hearty meals, and irresistible desserts everybody around us loved.
Our friends and family, who initially thought we were crazy and we couldn’t live this way, started to praise our food.
I discovered that healthy, delicious meals were all that was necessary to help people change their diets and improve their health.
This is why we created WellnessDove, to share our easy, simple, and satiating recipes with you.
We hope that they inspire you to eat more whole plant foods and be the healthiest you can be!
ABOUT THE RECIPES
Healthy and tasty.
The recipes here are whole food, plant-based. The great majority of them are oil-free and without refined sugars.
Simply put, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fruits with some nuts and seeds. No dairy, eggs, meat, and highly processed ingredients. Here’s why you should eat whole plant foods and here’s how they keep you healthy.
No outlandish ingredients, though. I try to cook with everyday, simple ingredients that you can find in your local supermarket.
When I tell people we are plant-based, they assume that we must be getting all of our food from the health food store. We go there once a month at most!
Every recipe is homemade, tested, simple and truly healthy!
THE ARTICLES
Unhealthy foods seem to have the uncanny ability to charm us under their spell and have us eat them!
It isn’t magic, though, it’s simply the unnatural world we live in.
A century ago people didn’t have access to cheap and super accessible sugar, oil or animal foods.
They were expensive and prized, to be eaten on special occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving. Today, because of technology, these are ubiquitous.
We hope that our articles will help you understand why we are attracted to these foods and why they are so unhealthy for us.
By combining my medical/dietetics expertise and Andy’s knowledge of psychology, we want to explain why unhealthy foods can call you by name sometimes and how to resist them!
ARE WE VEGAN?
Technically, we are, although we do eat some honey. We don’t like calling ourselves vegan, though since there is too much stigma.
Personally, we have experienced substantial health benefits by eating exclusively plant foods and we try to avoid animal products as much as we can.
Actually, we don’t want to eat animals now. When you feel that much better and you are so much healthier, animal foods just lose their appeal.
And we honestly believe that we should since it’s better for our health, our planet’s health, and the wellbeing of the animals.
It’s a win-win-win situation really.
That said, we don’t blame anybody for whatever they are eating.
Trying to be 100% vegan in such a non-vegan world can be tough. It’s way better to eat mostly plants with some animal products instead of deciding that veganism is too hard and not trying at all!
That’s why we just want to help you be healthier by eating more plants. One vegetable at a time!
