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Sep 1: Peace is Every Bite: How Food Choices Shape Personal & Planetary Health (Webinar)

Join Dr. Walter Willett, Cindy Leung, and Brother Phap Luu for a free global online conversation on mindful eating, personal health & planetary well-being.

September 1 / 9:00 am - 10:15 am

Tuesday, September 1, 2026
9:00–10:15am Pacific Time (75 minutes)

Featuring:

Dr. Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Cindy Leung, Moderator, Nutrition Scientist, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Brother Pháp Lưu, Deer Park Monastery

DHARMA TEACHERBrother Pháp LưuOrdained as a monk since December 13, 2003, Brother Chân Pháp Lưu (Brother Stream) received Transmission of the Lamp from Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh to teach in 2011. He helped start Wake-Up, the international movement for young people, as well as the Happy Farm, Plum Village’s organic farming community, and has been working with Wake-Up Schools since its inception in 2012 to bring mindfulness to schools. He has served as a monastic editor several of Thích Nhát Hạnh’s books including Happy Teachers Change the World, Stepping Into Freedom, Cracking the Walnut, The Admonitions and Encouraging Words of Master Guishan, and How to Focus. Brother Phap Luu leads mindful backpacking retreats in nature around Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California and recently co-authored a book with Brother Phap Xa called Hiking Zen.Brother Stream has been working lately with scientists at Dartmouth College and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to develop research on the effect of Plum Village mindfulness practices on children. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Thích Nhát Hạnh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.He is the 201st disciple of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and belongs to the 43rd generation of the Lâm Tế lineage and the 9th generation of the Liễu Quán school.Read

SPEAKERDr. Walter WillettWalter C. Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Willett studied food science at Michigan State University and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School before obtaining a Masters and Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Willett has focused much of his work over the last 45 years on the development and evaluation of methods, using both questionnaire and biochemical approaches, to study the effects of diet on the occurrence of major diseases. He has applied these methods starting in 1980 in the Nurses' Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Together, these cohorts that include nearly 300,000 men and women with repeated dietary assessments, are providing the most detailed information on the long-term health consequences of food choices.Dr. Willett has published over 2,300 original research papers and reviews, primarily on lifestyle risk factors for heart disease, cancer, and other conditions and has written the textbook, Nutritional Epidemiology, published by Oxford University Press, now in its third edition. He also has written four books for the general public. Dr. Willett is the most cited nutritionist internationally. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the recipient of many national and international awards for his research.Read

SPEAKER/MODERATORCindy LeungDr. Cindy Leung is an Associate Professor of Public Health Nutrition in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research focuses on nutrition, food insecurity, and health disparities, with the goal of understanding how social and structural factors influence diet quality and chronic disease across the lifespan.Dr. Leung earned her BA and MPH from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Doctor of Science (ScD) in Nutrition and Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As moderator for this conversation, she brings both scientific expertise and a passion for translating nutrition research into practical approaches that support the well-being of individuals, communities, and our shared planet.Read

Our food choices touch the well-being of our families, our communities, the Earth, and future generations. In the Plum Village tradition, Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh taught that we "inter-are" with all life—that nothing exists separately from anything else. When we eat with mindfulness, gratitude, and awareness, each meal becomes an opportunity to cultivate compassion for ourselves and for our planet.

We warmly invite you to join us for an online conversation exploring the profound relationship between mindful eating, nutrition science, and planetary health.

Together, Dr. Walter Willett, one of the world's leading nutrition researchers, Dr. Cindy Leung, a Harvard nutrition scientist and educator, and Brother Pháp Lưu, a senior Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, will explore how the food we choose each day can support both personal and planetary well-being.

During this free webinar, we will explore questions such as:

What has decades of nutrition research taught us about the relationship between food and long-term health?
How do our daily eating habits affect not only our own well-being but also the health of our planet?
What principles of healthy eating remain consistently supported by science amid so much conflicting nutrition advice?
How can plant-forward eating patterns contribute to a healthier and more sustainable future?
How can mindfulness help us transform our relationship with food from one of habit and consumption into one of gratitude, connection, and care?

The conversation will also invite us to reflect on how mindfulness and science beautifully complement one another. While research offers evidence for the health benefits of nourishing foods, mindfulness helps us cultivate the awareness, gratitude, and compassion needed to bring those insights into our daily lives.

Whether you are new to mindful eating, passionate about nutrition, interested in sustainable living, or simply curious about caring for yourself and the Earth in a deeper way, we hope you will join us for this inspiring conversation.

This webinar also marks the beginning of our new online course, Peace is Every Bite, which offers a deeper exploration of mindful eating through the wisdom of Thích Nhất Hạnh and contemporary nutrition science.

We look forward to practicing and learning together.

Registration

This event is offered freely as a gift to our global community. Registration is required to receive the Zoom link. If you are unable to attend live, all registered participants will receive access to the recording afterward.

We hope you can join us as we explore how every mindful meal can become an act of healing—for ourselves, for one another, and for our shared Earth.

Explore Online Courses

From time to time we offer multi-week courses related to mindfulness, the teachings and life of Thich Nhat Hanh, and a variety of similar subjects. Please see our schedule of upcoming courses.

Upcoming Courses

Plum Village App

Take the Deer Park Monastery and Plum Village community with you wherever you go. The Plum Village app is designed to cultivate mindfulness, compassion, and joy through guided meditations, deep relaxations, practice poems, bells of mindfulness, and other practices — all through a mobile device.

Open Plum Village Mobile App in the App Store

Open Plum Village Mobile App in the Google Play Store

Sep 1: Peace is Every Bite: How Food Choices Shape Personal & Planetary Health (Webinar)

Turn Your Inbox into a Dharma Door

Sep 1: Peace is Every Bite: How Food Choices Shape Personal & Planetary Health (Webinar)

Peace is Every Bite: How Food Choices Shape Personal & Planetary Health (Webinar)