👋 I'm Gurmeet Manku. I feel fortunate to have learnt of Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) guidelines in 2012 🙏 I'm a computer scientist by training: here is my resume from 2007. And I also maintain gurmeet.net — some of my friends know me for 600 Hikes in Bay Area.

How did I get into food? Well, that's a long story … for another day. Fortuitously, I came in touch with Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) guidelines in 2012.

From 2012-2019, I had plant-only meals. Since I was not preparing all meals at home, processed foods, oil, sugar & salt would invariably trickle into my food plate.

In 2019, I shifted to 100% homemade plant-only meals with no-sugar, no-oil and no-salt! For a few months, I dabbled in raw foods but couldn't adopt it. I also experimented with juice fasts & water-only fasts.

In 2019-2020, I watched dozens of videos by Dr Greger's. And I browsed through WFPB docs' books & articles to get a better understanding of WFPB guidelines. Over time, my personal notes have expanded to 2,300+ articles, which I share with you via this website 🙂

In 2022, I finally adopted a raw vegan system successfully :) This is a difficult system to follow but I seem to have grasped how to follow it.

I have come to realize that food is fundamental! Our food choices have a profound impact on so many aspects of our existence!

• Our food choices impact our physical health 💪 and our emotional health 😇 in a big way! Many people don't seem to know this. The vast majority of articles at Thankful2Plants focus on physical health: chronic lifestyle diseases. The impact of our food choices on mental health is less studied in science; we don't know that much.
• Our food choices impact other sentient beings in a big way! If we choose to consume plant-only meals, then we need not raise millions and billions of animals on animal farms! That includes chicken 🐓 (and baby chicks 🐥), ducks 🦆, pigs 🐖, rabbits 🐇, turkeys 🦃, goats 🐐, sheep 🐏 and cattle 🐄. And we need not deplete our oceans of marine life. This means whales 🐋 and sharks 🦈 and fish 🐟 and octopus 🐙 and myriad other marine creatures could continue to thrive in our oceans, undisturbed by humans.
• Our food choices impacts our environment in a big way! Many people don't know that climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution of natural resources (land, air, water) — all of these are intimately connected to our aggregate food choices!
• What's the origin of emerging infectious diseases? Again, there is a deep connection with our food choices! And let's say we experience the misfortune of contracting an infectious disease. At that point, we need a robust immune system — our body's abilities to fight off infections. Our food choices impact our immune system in a big way!
• Finally, our food choices have a profound impact on our spiritual journeys. For progress in meditation, the simplest possible food plates are best. Along these lines, I'm inspired by the 'kand-moola, phal-phoola, patti-pani' system — the peaceful forest dwellers food system from India, which is the foundation for Nature Cure or Naturopathy systems.

Interestingly, what's good for our health — both physical and emotional — is also good for other sentient beings and good for the environment! I find this pretty amazing!

Please take care of your personal health! 🙏 We have too many chronic lifestyle diseases these days! Metabolic conditions like obesity, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension are alarmingly common. Gastrointestinal, autoimmune and hormonal conditions are surprisingly common. And then we have cancers. The vast majority of these conditions are called 'lifestyle diseases' in medical literature because our lifestyle choices — food, exercise, movement, stress management & exposure to nature — play a significant role in their onset & progression. Among the lifestyle factors, I have come to understand food as most important!

Sending everybody good wishes!
— Gurmeet