JYL STEINBACK

JYL STEINBACK THE “WORLD’S HEALTHIEST MOM” DEBUTS NEW COOKBOOK

Author Jyl Steinback is best known among her peers as the “World’s Healthiest Mom.” Not only is Steinback the well-known author of several cookbooks, but she also works as the executive director of Shape Up US, Inc.—an organization dedicated to preventing obesity, empowering children and families to lead happier, healthier lives—and is a homeopathic practitioner.

Steinback began her career as many do, wanting to make a change in the world that could positively help others. Hers began on a personal note.

One day, back when she was a student at Arizona State University, she was walking to class when she noticed a group of male students with number cards “rating” the women who walked by. At the time, Steinback was overweight.

At first, she felt devastated. But later, Steinbeck would come to attribute that moment as one of her blessings in disguise, as BY MADI PAGE

it gave her a push in the direction of living a healthier lifestyle. “I didn’t want a diet, I wanted a new lifestyle,” she explains. “A way of life that made me feel good inside and out.”

From there on out, Steinback had a completely new outlook on her health, and in 1993, it inspired her to write her first cookbook. Called Fat Free Living Cookbook, it contains 275 fatfree recipes designed to be simple and convenient for anyone. Since then, Steinback has authored 12 cookbooks, which have sold over two million copies.

She created each of them with the hope that her readers would be inspired to learn more about health, and even possibly make changes to their lifestyle, nutrition and overall health. In 2011, Steinback was awarded a Community Leadership Award from the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition for exemplary service and dedication to improving

the lives of others by promoting and fostering opportunities for participation in fitness, sports or nutrition programs.

Having two children herself has inspired Steinback to be a voice for children’s health and wellness. She is passionate about bringing health and wellness programs to schools, in order to give kids the right education platform at a young age. She hopes that teaching them this information at these ages will ultimately help them to blossom both mentally and physically.

Steinback even recently started a program called Clap4Health! SM , which is being implemented in schools and other organizations. It is designed to bring wellness and mindfulness into people’s lives through clapping.

Steinback’s list of accomplishments is long, as she is such an amazing advocate to the community on health and wellness—but her most recent success story has to do with her newly published cookbook. Think Outside the Lunchbox is her newest cookbook, and it contains over 250 plant-based, nutritious recipes the whole family will love.

Each recipe in the cookbook was created by minimizing all processed foods and utilizing only vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and fruits. They also eliminate all animal products as an approach to a kinder and more gentle way of eating. Blonde Brookies

Sweet Potato Meatballs

Steinback was inspired to create her first-ever plant-based cookbook as a way to give others a new perspective on how a plantnutritious diet can be good not only for the environment, but as a way for people to truly flourish.

“To me, it’s changing your habits; it's a cultural change and getting educated,” she explains. “It is rolling out of bed on the other side in the morning (don’t knock it till you try it—it will change your whole day and you will think differently). It is clasping your hands, moving your finger; it’s different. It feels strange, possibly uncomfortable, but wonderful. I know I do it all the time. If you are a walker or biker and you always go on the same trail, go the trail another way and ‘think outside the lunchbox.’”

Key Lime Parfait

greenlivingaz.com For more information, visit www.americanshealthiestmom.com and www.shapeupus.org. The cookbook is available at www.amazon.com.

Madi Page is currently a senior at Arizona State University studying nutrition. After graduating in May of 2020, she plans to work towards her goal of becoming a physician's assistant. In her free time, Madi enjoys writing, spending time with her friends, family and dog Oliver.

Phoenix business owners Damon and Taisiya Jacobson were inspired to create a product that changed the way people view growing their own produce. With prayer and a newfound interest in farming, the couple created the company Pure Greens, LLC in 2015.

Pure Greens, a sister company to Southwest Mobile Storage and Fire Training Structures, manufactures and sells turnkey hydroponic container farms in refrigerated shipping containers.

“My husband’s expertise [is] the container and I have expertise [in the] food and nutrition,” Taisiya explains. “We combined them together.”

The refrigerator units are available in various layouts, and can grow leafy greens, herbs and micro greens year-round. In order to keep their produce healthy and flavorful, it is grown without soil, using recycled water, and in certain temperatures and lighting—which is all controlled through an app. According to Andrew Wise, head grower at Pure Greens, the LED lights used in the unit are not only a more sustainable option, but are also a cheaper alternative.

“As far as power consumption goes. Our LED grow lights are about 25%-30% more efficient than a fluorescent light. The LED grow lights also decrease maintenance cost (re-lamping) by upwards of 40% compared to a standard fluorescent light,” he says.

To give customers have a deeper understanding of how they can add vegetables into their everyday meals, Pure Greens also launched a YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/channel/ UCuIgcCQE0cULc5TQkFitytA), where Taisiya creates cooking videos with recipes they find on the internet.

So far, there are four recipe videos available—thyme and mushroom pasta, cucumber dill salad, caprese bruschetta and spring quinoa parsley salad.

“We want to encourage people to cook and incorporate greens and micro greens into their diet,” Taisiya says. CHANGING THE WAY TO GROW FOOD PURE GREENS OFFERS TURNKEY HYDROPONIC CONTAINER FARMS Photos courtesy Pure Greens

While the current units are limited to growing only specific items, the long-term goal is to build a different system that adds items such as tomatoes and strawberries to the indoor farm.

“Tomatoes and strawberries are more vertical and need more space,” Taisiya explains. “They need a completely different time set with the lighting and the temperature.

While Taisiya does not believe this form of farming will replace traditional farming, she said she believes it will definitely help farmers, since the main problems many farmers face are in regards to irrigation and soil.

“The key to a good crop is good soil,” Taisiya explains. “When all the minerals are taken out of the soil, then we have a problem.”

The Pure Greens owner said she sees a bright future for the indoor farming industry because how advanced both China and Europe have become.

“Asia is way advanced,” she says. “They have a whole community where everything is sustainable and vertical.” Taisiya adds that the industry is going to grow, and that America is only in the beginning stage of it.

In larger cities such as Chicago and New York, there are people growing gardens on their rooftops because of the rise of E. coli in vegetables due to the amount of produce that is being transported in a span of a week.

“People are not interested in eating that,” she says. “It is tasteless and full of herbicides and pesticides.”

As of now, Pure Greens sell its produce to local chefs, various other end-users, and can be found at farmers’ markets. However, they hope to expand their client base in the future. Taisiya shares that working with different schools is definitely on her list of future plans—not only to sell them their produce, but to also provide them with their own unit as an educational tool.

Pure Greens co-founder Taisiya Jacobson

She also added that she is interested in using Pure Greens to help challenged-climate countries such as Puerto Rico and Africa.

“It can be any place that is facing calamities,” she says.

Pure Greens has looked into partnering with bigger industries and farming experts, but they also want the unit to be available for people who simply want to grow their own produce.

The plan is to work with builders and include units in everyday homes. Depending on the client’s desires, Pure Greens can make a unit half the size, so a house owner can create their own leafy garden.

“I feel like America is becoming more aware and wants to lean toward the shift of locally grown foods,” Taisiya says.

For more information on Pure Greens, visit www.puregreensaz.com, on Facebook at @PureGreens, or on Instagram at @puregreensllcaz.

greenlivingaz.com Emily DiTomasso is a senior at Arizona State University, studying journalism. After graduation, she will work towards finding a writing or photography job. In her free time, she likes to watch movies, read, bake, and spend time with her friends, family and her dog, Toby.