How does one become a truly healthy vegan?

• Attend a vegan cooking class.

• Buy a good vegan cookbook (Simply Heavenly: The Monastery Cookbook, the Real Food Daily Cookbook, the Native Foods Cookbook, the Candle Café Cookbook and any of the Millennium cookbooks are my personal favorites).

• Look online for vegan chefs who offer good, solid recipes (avoid the free recipe banks; many of them are full of recipes that don’t work).

• Move beyond American cuisine and look at other cultures that have a plethora of vegan dishes with exciting, healthy ways of preparing fruits and vegetables.