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When friends and I get together for a veggie potluck, we always entertain ourselves with anecdotes of people asking what we eat. When I have gone to company dinners or banquets, I’ve always requested ahead for vegetarian fare and have to suppress giggles when people look enviously at the bright array of steamed vegetables and fluffy brown rice on my plate instead of the dead animal carcass, wilted vegetables and potatoes on theirs.

So, going back to this woman and her husband. First off, I would have suggested to her to lighten up. This man did not get to his condition in one day and I doubt it will change in that amount of time. The tension and dissension that is being created in that family will do more harm than continuing to eat animal products.

It has been my experience that change should be incorporated slowly. I’ve seen people dive into newness, whether it’s a relationship, a food program change, exercise, etc., and dive out just as quickly.

When making changes in a food program, I would suggest, instead of subtracting, add and substitute. I’ve noticed that people go on “diets” to lose weight. (When I sold pet supplies for my money, I use to tell people about cockatiel diet or parakeet diet, and they would tell me they didn’t want their bird to lose weight.) Alternative words for diet in this country are “deprivation” and “starvation.” Taken from the dictionary, the word “diet” means “food and drink usually and habitually consumed.” (Webster’s II)

People on diets to lose weight usually feel deprived. That’s why they go back to their former ways of eating.

In a country, especially in a state such as California, that has the quality, quantity and variety of produce that we have, how is it we have one of the highest rates of degenerative diseases in the world?

OK, going back to this woman. What do I mean by adding and substituting? Instead of a salad consisting mostly of head lettuce, how about romaine, spinach and/or butter lettuce. Add alfalfa, clover and sunflower sprouts. Throw in some grated carrot, chopped red or yellow bell pepper, sunflower seeds and raisins, and top that with a homemade avocado dressing. Make this salad the main dish and have a baked potato on the side and maybe a small baked fish.

Instead of the usual white rice why not try brown basmati, aromatic, jasmine, short or long grain brown, amaranth, millet, kamut or quinoa?

Add more good, “whole”some foods, and you won’t have room for the rest.

Make sure the urge for sweets is satisfied. I’ve found that root vegetables seem to take care of that. Raw, natural vegetable juices satisfy the urge for sweets, contain live enzymes, which help in the digestive process (as do all whole, uncooked, unmicrowaved foods) and also are very filling.

Be careful if you are not use to all this real food as it may have a cleansing effect. That may appear as more elimination through the usual orifices, but it also may eliminate through the skin. You may want to cut the juice in half with water at first.

(By the way, if you make juices using beets, you will probably have red stools and pink urine. Also, using a lot of carrot juice will often cause the skin to turn yellow/orange, not from the carrots themselves, but from the cleansing of the liver. If you continue with the juices, that will eventually, change. If you drink straight green juices, your skin will not turn green, so trust me, it’s not the carrots).

There are plenty of vegetarian books on the shelves as well as books on health in general. In my next column, I’ll discuss some of my favorites.