Health & Nutrition
Margarita Restrepo of Naked Food Magazine and WFPB.org on Losing a Loved One to Cancer and Building a Whole-Food Movement | Ep 015 | SoFlo Vegans Podcast
Naked Food Magazine founder Margarita Restrepo joins SoFlo Vegans, alongside guest co-host Jackie Tarleton of The Plant Chicks, to describe how her boyfriend's stage-four glioblastoma diagnosis pushed them toward a whole-food plant-based diet from his hospital bed, and how that experience became a magazine, a cookbook, and a nonprofit, WFPB.org, built around certifying truly whole, plant-based products and hosting large-scale community health expos.
Topics Covered
- How switching to a whole-food plant-based diet from the hospital slowed her boyfriend's aggressive brain tumor's growth by 25% at a three-month follow-up MRI, and reversed her own fibrocystic condition
- Launching Naked Food as a digital magazine in 2013 and a print publication in 2014 after losing her job, built entirely around whole, unprocessed plant-based recipes rather than vegan junk food
- Co-writing the Master Plants Cookbook with her husband, chef and director Michaela, featuring 33 plants and their overlooked histories, including that tomatoes and bell peppers originate from the Americas, not Italy
- Founding the nonprofit WFPB.org (Whole Food Plant-Based) around the idea of "wholism": that human health and planetary health, including regenerative agriculture, are inseparable
- Creating a WFPB certification for brands, restaurants, doctors, and products that meet a strict whole-food, oil-free, sugar-free, plant-based standard to cut through misleading food marketing
- Running the first Hull Expo, a three-day, 4,500-person community health event in Bogota, Colombia bringing together farmers, doctors, teachers, children, and parents around plant-based living
- Developing universal science-based guidelines covering human nutrition, physical activity, stress reduction, and environmental sustainability, plus a forthcoming plant-based medical curriculum for students and clinicians
- Her advice for finding purpose: follow whatever you feel passionate about doing for someone else, your community, or the planet, and go strong, because a small group of people can change the world
About the Guest
Margarita Restrepo is the founder of Naked Food Magazine, co-author of the Master Plants Cookbook, and founder of the nonprofit WFPB.org, which certifies whole-food plant-based products and hosts community health expos internationally.