A plant-based diet is ideal for anyone who desires to maximize their health and longevity. This kind of eating plan emphasizes the transformative power of natural plant-based foods and is supported by a robust body of scientific research. The bibliography of the new book by Renee Ellison, Turbo-Charged Nutrition for Peak Performance, includes a list of a dozen renowned health professionals who recommend consuming natural, whole plant foods, with little or no meat or dairy. Each medical doctor brings a different emphasis to that equation.
What you are reading here is the preface to Renee’s book, and these thoughts (and many of the words) are mostly drawn from the work of one of those nutritional giants, Joel Fuhrman, M.D., in his 2017 book, Fast Food Genocide: How processed food is killing us and what we can do about it. He reports that “we now have on hand hundreds of thousands of studies with clear evidence that nutritional excellence can effectively prevent disease and extend the human life span.” (p. 69) He acknowledges that “Many books and nutritional gurus promote a high-protein diet with lots of animal products…[but] an increasing number of scientific studies have accumulated evidence that demonstrates the folly of this ill-conceived advice. Higher intake of animal products in the diet is associated with twelve different types of cancer…” (p. 70)
Dr. Michael Greger (How Not to Die, 2015, p. 5) concurs: “The pandemic of chronic disease has been ascribed in part to the near-universal shift toward a diet dominated by animal-sourced and processed foods—in other words, more meat, dairy, eggs, oils, soda, sugar, and refined grains.” Dr. Fuhrman notes, “For virtually every disease, studies have shown that people who eat the most vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains have the lowest risk, no matter what disease is being investigated.” (p. 74)
Dr. Fuhrman’s impetus in writing (as it appears to be for many health nutrition experts) is that “most people don’t truly understand the radical, detrimental life-altering and life-shortening effects of the highly processed, sugar-enhanced foods that they choose daily.” (p. 166)
Plant-Based Diet: Definition, experts’ validation, and flexibility
Dr. Fuhrman calls his eating plan (which he regards as the gold standard) “Nutritarian.” He describes it as an eating style in which most of the daily calories come from colorful, nutrient-rich, minimally processed plant foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds. (Note: Dr. Esselstyn and others add whole grains, especially when sprouted; Esselstyn eats a lot of whole oats and looks and acts far younger than his 92 years.) Dr. Fuhrman’s approach recommends minimizing or (ideally) altogether avoiding refined and processed foods and animal products. His diet plan adapts to the continually emerging scientific evidence to better protect human health and prevent disease. In his words, “I advocate for an evidence-based diet, and the best available balance of science suggests that the more whole plant foods we eat, the better—both to reap their nutritional benefits and to displace less healthful options.” (p. 10) That rationale can be a real motivator for moms who want their children to be getting the best nutrition possible.
Dr. Fuhrman and other experts cite hundreds of thousands of studies providing marked evidence of the effectiveness of nutritional excellence in disease prevention and life extension. (p. 78 and read pp. 69ff) For example, Dr. Greger’s book about How Not to Die (it’s all about what we don’t need to be dying from) includes a 132-page bibliography in fine print, citing innumerable studies that demonstrate the many benefits of a plant-based diet.
Some of these discoveries are long-standing. In the closing lines of his book (pp. 411-412) Dr. Greger cites the famous 20th-century pediatrician, Dr. Benjamin Spock, who, at age 94, in the final (1998) edition of his best-selling Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, advocated a plant-based diet with no meat or dairy. “Dr. Spock had lived long enough to see the beginnings of the childhood obesity epidemic. `Children who grow up getting their nutrition from plant foods,” he wrote, `have a tremendous health advantage and are much less likely to develop health problems as the years go by.’” (Greger quoted from Spock, “Good Nutrition for Kids,” in Good Medicine, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 1998, Vol. 7, No. 2.)
Childhood Nutrition and Long-Term Health: Lasting impact and generational effects
The focus in Renee Ellison's new book on Turbo-Charged Nutrition is on the children’s diets because what we eat when we’re young has the greatest and most profound effect on our overall health and well-being. Dr. Fuhrman reports that adult diseases, including most cancers, are strongly linked to overeating and excessive calorie consumption during childhood, particularly from foods high in empty calories such as processed meats, dairy, oils, and sweeteners. “Childhood diets with lots of milk, cheese, and meat as well as bread, oils, and sweeteners may be effective in producing big adults, but they also are extremely effective in producing sick adults who are prone to cancer.” (p. 89) He states, for example, that breast cancer is caused disproportionately by poor eating habits of young children and teenagers. (p. 91) In his previous 2003 best-seller, Eat to Live, Dr. Fuhrman stated that “There is considerable data to suggest that childhood diet has a greater impact on the later incidence of certain cancers than does a poor diet later in life.” (p. 22)
Perhaps most notable is that the prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the late 1970s, rising from 5.7 percent to 17.2 percent in 2013–2014. (back to Fast Food Genocide, p. 95; more on pages 17, 75-79) The USA ranks among the highest in the world for obesity. A 1/6/2026 Fox News online article reported, “Researchers at Mass General Brigham have proposed a major update to how obesity is defined, which would classify nearly 70% of U.S. adults as obese, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.” Dr. Fuhrman notes, “Today, in developed countries, most people die from conditions that arise because of overeating a low-nutrient diet.” (p. 141) The World Health Association has pronounced Americans as having “`one of the worst life expectancy’ scores of all modern countries.” (p. 77)
Adult obesity tends to be rooted in poor childhood eating habits. Dr. Greger links the dramatic rise in childhood diabetes to the similar rate of increase in childhood obesity (up by more than 100 percent in recent decades) and says that the obesity is “a powerful predictor of adult disease and death.” (p. 104)
Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D. (Eat Right, Live Longer: Using the natural power of foods to age-proof your body, 1995) has been sending this message for longer than most anyone. He reported on a Dutch study tracking how a group of young girls were eating. It included taking blood samples to measure their hormone levels and found that “the girls who ate more vegetables and grains had less estrogen in their blood and reached puberty later. The girls may not have noticed much difference, but cancer researchers are thrilled with it because a later puberty can mean lower cancer risk.” (p. 68)
Furthermore, maternal nutrition—both during pregnancy and even before conception—can influence the health, intelligence, and immune systems of future generations. Mothers’ poor food choices—even pre-birth—can pose negative repercussions for the children and even their grandchildren because (according to the mounting evidence) it seems “that an unhealthful diet, excess body weight, and especially overeating protein create adverse consequences that are imprinted on genes and passed on to future generations.” (Fuhrman, p. 130, and see pages 2-3 and 158-159)
Another aspect of how parents (and grandparents) can help to raise peak performance children is to take care of their own health. Setting a positive example through healthy eating not only supports children's development but may also prevent adults from becoming burdensome to younger generations due to diet-related illnesses—because eating improperly can make a person “sick, demented and debilitated.” (p. 149) Dr. Greger thinks childhood diabetes seems to be reducing life expectancy by about twenty years. He cites research showing that vegetarian kids are apt to grow up leaner and taller than meat-eating kids, whose growth tends to be more horizontal. (p. 105)
Family Meals and Social Energy: Building healthy habits together
Dr. Fuhrman explains that raising peak-performance kids is not only about improving their diet. The social environment in which families eat plays a vital role in shaping healthy habits and emotional resilience. Research he cites shows that regular family meals and positive social interactions contribute to better dietary quality, lower rates of eating disorders, and stronger family relationships, especially among the young. A European study confirmed that “People who ate alone ate fewer fruits and vegetables and were more likely to be lonely.” (p. 144) Lonely people have shortened life spans, are more prone to obesity and diabetes, and their brains suffer from an impaired ability to grow and to self-repair. Studies confirm that families who prioritize healthy eating together raise children who consume more fruits and vegetables and are better equipped for lifelong well-being. (p. 144)
Wise parents can promote good outcomes for their children, As Dr. Fuhrrman has written,
"We can surround our children with positive social energy; we can teach the importance of eating nutritionally superior foods. Undoubtedly, favorable social energy and the importance of eating nutrient-rich foods can be taught, and children given the opportunity to learn communication skills and good nutrition have greater opportunity for happiness and success in life. (p. 138) …enhanced social energy leads to healthier eating habits … It works both ways: Good nutrition leads to a healthy brain, which results in proper social functioning; but poor social functioning can make people susceptible to the attraction of addictive eating and poor nutrition. (p. 142) … Researchers found that the better the diet and the more the family ate healthfully, the better the children were raised." (p. 143)
Parents who already know this information and who choose a plant-strong diet for their children from at least age two (once they’re off mother’s milk) have found that their young tykes for the most part like to eat like this. Rip Esselstyn, a Texas firefighter, wrote in his 2009 book The Engine 2 Diet, “If you start them young, your kids will develop a palate that appreciates the subtleties of plant foods and will gain the healthy rewards that accompany this diet as they grow.” (p. 38) He should know; he learned that from his parents. His father Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., director of the Heart Disease Reversal Program at the Cleveland Clinic and author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (2007), has long advocated a low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet and recommends excluding all animal protein and byproducts. Rip’s sister Jane Esselstyn also took that advice; she launched a plant-based YouTube cooking class with their mother Ann that at last count had 165K subscribers and 363 videos.
Conclusion: Evidence-based recommendations and family empowerment
What can we as families do to reverse the long-term effects (including DNA damage and methylation defects) of poor eating in the early years? “The younger you [and your children] begin eating well, and the earlier in the process of cancer development that you initiate an anticancer nutritional protocol, the greater the probability that a disease process or cancer can be reversed.” (p. 93) Any middle-aged person who is changing course after decades of eating the Standard American Diet will have to make radical dietary changes. (p. 92)
Varieties of plant-based diets, supported by extensive research and expert opinions, offer flexible and effective pathways to improved health and longevity. By focusing on nutrient-dense plant-based foods, prioritizing healthy eating habits from childhood, and fostering positive family dynamics around meals, families can empower themselves to reverse negative health trends and promote lasting well-being.
You can take your family away from the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) and feed them food they love—and that their bodies need. This book explains why it is essential to get off the S.A.D., motivates you to get you moving into the paradigm switch of eating for how good you will feel. and gives you 80+ recipes to help you switch to eating for how good you’ll feel.
How would your car perform with ice cream in its gas tank? Children who eat junk struggle with brain fog, lazy energy, wild blood sugar swings, and obesity. It is time to depart from the herd and give your family a different fuel. Readers have commented that at long last they know how to change and are making strides toward it because the reasoning is laid out so simply.
Find in this book, at last, a short, to-the-point, succinct collection of nuggets of nutritional know-how that will make your family feel healthier and happier. Become nutritionally wise while saving time acquiring that info. With a little more knowledge, you can even exchange good food choices for great food choices.
Read about the book by Renée Ellison and see the formats for ordering it: https://homeschoolhowtos.com/collections/sale/products/turbo-charged-nutrition-for-peak-performance-kids
Also available on Amazon – the book, and in Kindle and Audible formats, too.
