Hi, my name is Steven Valkenstein. I´m 47 years old and I´m very happy to offer you this online course, which will be a part of a course series, powered by Healthy by Nature.

Healthy by Nature is a community of health-conscious people who have set themselves the goal to support finding the real causes of human health problems, showing solutions to achieve natural health and helping everyone who is interested to a sustainably healthier and happier life.

The task of Healthy by Nature is to offer you a path to natural health through natural nutrition, mental balance and physical strength.

Healthy by Nature is a philosophy, for developing awareness in life and live in harmony with your own body, mind, and soul.

During my studies, I had the chance to work for a research project at the University of Maryland. The projects' goal was to find classification patterns of artery profiles for stroke prediction and prevention. This was my first point of contact with cardiovascular diseases, where I learned a lot about the processes involved in the development of stroke and other arterial diseases.

After finishing my studies, I started as programmer and project manager for a large Tier-1 supplier in the automotive industry. Later, I was responsible for building up a new division from scratch as operational manager. During my work in the industry, I always continued my self-studies in health-related nutrition, sports, and meditation. I incorporated the gathered knowledge in my daily routine and conducted self-experiments by trying many different diets, workout routines and meditation practices.

I was always very active in sports, including a lot of gym workout, martial arts, playing basketball, mountain biking, hiking, and swimming. My daily nutrition consisted of everything an athlete requires for optimal supply of the body with carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. This included various meat and fish menus with rice, dairy products and eggs, as well as fruits and vegetables. Nevertheless, until my early 30s, I was suffering from constant tiredness and exhaustion, had regular headaches and trouble sleeping, often had digestive problems, and was ill multiple times per year. I went through dozens of medical examinations at many different physicians, which unfortunately could not help finding the root causes, but only eliminated some of the symptoms for a short while.

After I realized, that only a few people around me (including family, friends, and acquaintances) were really healthy, but some even suffering from serious diseases, like diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, allergies, bone and joint problems, dementia and cancer, a question came to my mind: What if we are all on a wrong diet? Following the statement “You are what you eat !”, I started a long-lasting research, reading many books and scientific studies in order to find out what is the best diet for improving health and physical well-being.

During the last 10 years, I have put the acquired knowledge into practice by trying different diets, from keto including a lot of meat, to vegetarian, to pescatarian, and finally to pure vegan food, which appeared to be the key for curing my health issues and transforming my body and mind to a much healthier state.

Since almost 7 years now, my diet is strictly restricted to natural vegan food, and I can truly say that this is the best version of myself so far.

Today, I weigh 165 pounds (75 kg), I am 6 feet tall (183 cm) and have 12 % body fat. I am much stronger and have more energy compared to other people in my age or much younger people in my weight class. My immune system can easily cope with viruses and I´m very rarely sick.

These facts have proven to me that I´m on the right track and I wish to share my gathered knowledge and experience with as many people as possible.