The Greenprint. Marco Borges

– unless you want to! You have that option. Over the years, I have worked with thousands of people to successfully change their diets and their health, but what I realised on my own journey is that no single plan will work for everyone. An all-or-nothing proposition can be a recipe for failure, depending on your personality. That’s where the Greenprint is different.

      The Greenprint programme shows you how to make small changes – the twenty-two most effective ones – to make a difference in your body, your health and the planet. The programme meets you where you are on your journey, and helps you improve your personal greenprint for the better, whittle your waistline, achieve superior health and drain your carbon stream.

      In Tier 1, you’ll eat one plant-based meal a day for eleven days. In Tier 2, you’ll enjoy two plant-based meals each day for eleven days. And in Tier 3 – voilà! – you’ll be ready to fully transition to 100 per cent plant-based eating. Tier 3 includes a forty-four-day plan with specific, easy and delicious meal suggestions, recipes and tips for stocking your pantry.

      This stepwise approach makes it easy to experiment with delicious meals, allowing you to incorporate the foods you love. By initially focusing on just one or two meals at a time, you’ll gain the confidence to fully embrace plant-based eating for a lifetime. With the Greenprint, you’ll take the time to get it right.

       THE HOLY NAME STUDY AND THE GREENPRINT

      To put the Greenprint to the test, my team and I worked with Holy Name Medical Center, ranked one of the top hospitals in New Jersey by US News & World Report, to study the benefits of plant-based eating on the body.

      The study was born from a conversation between Holy Name Medical Center’s Director of Cardiac Catheterization Dr. Angel Mulkay and President and CEO Michael Maron. Mr Maron wanted to compare a vegan versus vegetarian lifestyle and the impact it could have on overall well-being and clinical markers. From there a study was developed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

      This trailblazing clinical trial measured the effects of three different diets over twenty-two days. More than 200 participants were recruited and randomised into one of three cohorts: 1. Western diet (animal-based); 2. vegetarian diet (dairy and plant-based); and 3. plant-based diet (no dairy or animal products). Each participant signed a consent form and kept a food diary.

      In addition, the plant-based group received, at their homes, prepackaged vegan meals from my company for twenty-two days. The vegetarian group received meals prepared in-house for them by their food and nutrition department. The Western diet group simply followed a typical Western-type diet that included animal foods.

      All participants had the following tests prior to and after the twenty-two-day test period:

       STYKU body scanning

      This is a very high-tech scanning system that extracts waist, hip, bust and hundreds of other body measurements and calculates them with less than 1 per cent error. You simply stand on a turntable and hold still for 30 seconds while the platform spins. With its sharp high-resolution infrared images, this technology captures millions of data points in a matter of seconds in a fast, noninvasive process.

       Blood work

       • Complete blood count (CBC)

       • Lipid profile (including total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides)

       • B₁₂ (for the vegan cohort)

       • HgA1C (a blood sugar measurement that determines risk of diabetes)

      After twenty-two days, the blood work results were astonishing when vegans versus vegetarians were compared:

       5% decrease in BMI (a decrease greater than five times more than the vegetarians)

       19% decrease in LDL (a decrease of 85% more than the vegetarians)

       13% decrease in cholesterol (a decrease of over 400% more than the vegetarians)

       A decrease in body fat of over 400% more than vegetarians (as measured by STYKU)

       An average decrease in weight of 3.5 kilograms lost (almost five times more weight loss than the vegetarians)

      The participants in the vegan cohort reported:

       Feeling more energetic

       Improved skin and hair

       Better digestion

       Improved sleep quality, including needing less sleep

      Two participants who suffered from migraines reported not having headaches while on the diet, and they no longer needed to take their preventive medication. Others reported decreased use or elimination of cholesterol and blood pressure medication.

      The same can happen to you! Throughout this book, you’ll meet several people who benefited from 100 per cent plant-based eating. They did it easily, with amazing results, and they’ll inspire you to do the same. In fact, after doing the Greenprint programme, expect to:

       LOSE WEIGHT – up to a pound a day – as you focus entirely on plant-based foods and rid your body of preservatives and additives. Week by week, you will undoubtedly have more energy and feel lighter on the scale, while stamping your own greenprint on the global warming crisis. If you’ve tried to lose weight in the past, you may think it’s as simple as taking in fewer calories than you burn. Yet not all calories are the same; the Greenprint proves this. When you eliminate meat, dairy and processed foods from your diet, you also eliminate the primary sources of unhealthy fat and slash your caloric intake as well – without suffering from hunger pangs or sugar cravings.

       ACCELERATE WEIGHT LOSS. You will harness a strategy known as intermittent fasting, or going without food for specific amounts of time, typically overnight. Research has shown that intermittent fasting not only speeds weight loss but boosts metabolism, reduces inflammation and improves cellular function while promoting longevity.

       EXPERIENCE AMAZING, SATISFYING TASTES – which is what makes this programme so remarkable. You’ll learn how to enjoy an astonishing array of vegetables, fruits, grains and plant-based proteins. People have said to me, ‘I can’t eat plant-based . . . I’m too much of a foodie.’ Well, guess what? I am a huge foodie. Trust me, food never tasted as good as the dishes you will discover here. Even a die-hard meat-and-potatoes person can make the switch without too much adjustment.

       SAVE YOUR HEART. You no longer have to worry that you’re eating a lot of artery-clogging saturated fat as you