Own Your Health: How to Live Long & Avoid Chronic Disease

"This is a fabulous book! It’s filled with life-saving information presented with crystalline clarity. And as hard as this may be to believe considering this is a book about nutrition, it’s also side-splittingly funny. I found myself laughing out loud on nearly every page. This book is for you if you want to be healthy for the rest of your life ― and if you don’t mind laughing a lot.” ―John Robbins, author of Diet For A New America; President, Food Revolution Network.

“Take Glen Merzer's wise nutritional advice, add Chef AJ's fabulous recipes, and you've got the formula for health.”―Dr. Neal Barnard, President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

"OWN YOUR HEALTH is one great book! It is engaging, thought-provoking, and persuasive. It’s different than a lot of vegan books―in a good way! The real hook for this book is Glen Merzer’s humor weaved through every page. As a special bonus, Chef AJ contributes an amazing set of recipes to live by. Glen and AJ are a dynamic duo, and the reader is the beneficiary!"―Brenda Davis, RD, co-author, Nourish and Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition; author, Kick Diabetes Essentials.

OWN YOUR HEALTH is the third book in a trilogy by Chef AJ and Glen Merzer. First, in UNPROCESSED (2011), CHEF AJ tells the personal story of her journey towards health, and makes the case for a diet of whole plant foods. Then, in THE SECRETS TO ULTIMATE WEIGHT LOSS (2018), Chef AJ, founder of The Ultimate Weight Loss Program, explains how to overcome food addictions and apply a knowledge of calorie density to create healthy eating patterns, enabling you to achieve your optimal weight. (Glen Merzer was Chef AJ’s writing partner for both books.) Now, in OWN YOUR HEALTH, Glen narrates his own journey to health, tells the stories of how his parents saved each other’s lives and how his wife Joanna overcame lupus, explains why the science of nutrition is more settled than you think, suggests the best way to deal with doctors, takes on some leading historic opponents of the plant-based diet, blows apart the silly and misguided attacks on “carbs,” and gives us an action plan to reverse the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, while obliterating demand for the kind of food-raising that risks future pandemics.

Like the other books in the trilogy, OWN YOUR HEALTH boasts more than 100 delicious, vegan, whole-plant-food, oil-free, sugar-free, salt-free, gluten-free recipes (in the case of OWN YOUR HEALTH, 75+ of those recipes are from Chef AJ and 35 from other contributors). Doctors are trained in treating illness with drugs and surgery. Most are not trained in how to keep you healthy. Medical schools ignore the subject of nutrition, implicitly sending the message to young doctors that it couldn't be very important. That's where OWN YOUR HEALTH comes in--to help you understand that the food you eat is likely to affect your health more than anything else.

Glen Merzer has worked as a stand-up comic, a playwright, and network television writer before turning his attention to writing books. He is the coauthor with Howard Lyman of Mad Cowboy and No More Bull!. Chef AJ is the host of the television series Healthy Living with Chef AJ which airs on FOODY TV. A chef, culinary instructor, professional speaker, and author, she is also the creator of the Ultimate Weight Loss Program which has helped hundreds achieve a healthy weight.