Written in Partnership with Vishnu Chaudhari
Nafsika Antypas is a passionate, compassionate vegan—creator and host of the world’s first vegan lifestyle television series, ‘Plant-Based by Nafsika’. It is not, however, where her journey begins … nor will it end there.
For Nafsika is a woman of diverse passions within whom beats a heart of gold, and she is forever on the search for ways to make the world a better place. She wears a variety of hats in life, and has never yet shrunk from the challenge of adding to her growing, glowing collection.
Entrepreneur | TV Show Creator & Host | Author Mother | Health & Lifestyle Coach | Activist
A graduate of Concordia University in Montréal, Canada with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 2000, Nafsika began her career as a marketing director in her father’s Mediterranean food importing company, ‘Pilaros International Trading Inc.’
She received a series of post-graduate certificates in Advertising, Marketing, and Desktop Publishing from her alma mater, and then founded a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in both Canada and the United States in 2014.
‘People Against Violence’ was created to prevent violence and to assist its victims around the world. It works to raise awareness of domestic violence, and offers 24-7 counseling to victims through a dedicated help-line, live chat messaging, and a personal safety mobile app, ‘uAlert’, which acts as an emergency response system.
Two years later, she created, produced, and hosted her own television series, ‘Plant-Based by Nafsika’—the first ever TV show in the world entirely dedicated to the vegan lifestyle. In half-hour episodes, Nafsika talks to her guests and audience about plant-based, holistic living, and engages in cooking demonstrations. Her guests include doctors, nutritionists, and people from the worlds of entertainment and fashion.
It is a concept Nafsika hoped would help bring change to the world through food and compassion—and not only has the show sparked the interest of audiences around the world but it has also ‘planted seeds’ which help veganism become more mainstream with every passing day by reaching 70 million households on the FYI/A&E Network.
“It has been my mission to educate everyone to adopt a healthier, more sustainable, and compassionate lifestyle. I have been working to break the stigma, the negative stereotypes, and misconceptions about being vegan that persist among the minds of millions. A vegan lifestyle has helped change my life, and now I want to help change yours.” – Nafsika Antypas
An olive oil expert trained in Greece, Nafsika has always believed in the many health benefits offered by a plant-based nutritional plan. She promotes the idea to show people how veganism is more than a choice of diet—it is a way of life which can be as fun as it is healthy, and abstaining from animal products is a positive act which helps enhance both personal health and the planet’s future in sustainability.
On the next step of her journey, Nafsika became a certified health & lifestyle coach from the Health Coach Institute in 2017. She developed the online course ‘The Plant-Based Switch’, a six [6] week program which helps people make the transition to a vegan lifestyle.
Her television series and the online course are not, however, the only sources through which Nafsika helps people switch to a plant-based, holistic way of life. She is also the founder of ‘The Struggling Vegan’—launched in 2015—an online resource which shares news, events, recipes, and tips on health and wellness for a comprehensive vegan lifestyle.
In the course of helping people adapt, Nafsika discovered the challenges and obstacles they faced in an attempt to go vegan. One of the biggest, fortunately, was also one she knew could be effectively eliminated.
The problem: people absolutely, irrevocably love to eat cheese—and it is not usually a vegan product. The solution: Nafsika’s very own vegan cheese brand, ‘Nafsika’s Garden’.
It was launched in late 2018, hitting major retailers around Canada, and then in the United States in early 2020. Today, the hottest new vegan “cheese” in town is available in 13 countries [and counting] across North America, Asia, and Europe.
The complete range of dairy-free cheese, produced in Crete, Greece, is now available and includes such variety of flavors, styles, and textures as cheddar, edam, feta, gouda, mozzarella, provolone, Swiss, parmesan, and vegan poutine.
“My goal has always been to help make the world a more compassionate place. In order to do that, I believe that I need to help the world go vegan. And so everything I do is toward making veganism mainstream.” – Nafsika Antypas
More recently, Nafsika’s Garden has introduced ‘Greek Yogurt’, one of the world’s first Greek-style vegan yogurts. It is available in five [5] different flavors—of which ‘Plain’ and ‘Vanilla’ have no added sugars while ‘Blueberry’, ‘Peach’, and ‘Raspberry’ are made with real fruits.
For all she does as a business owner, television personality, activist, health coach, and a vegan lifestyle advocate, Nafsika’s first love has forever been the written word. She has always enjoyed the act of writing, be it for business or pleasure—and is rarely, if ever, found anywhere without a pen and paper.
Therefore, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and brought the world to a grinding halt, she decided to put her English Literature major to good use—and at long last, transform her dreams of being an author into tangible reality.
She began by transmuting her online course into a self-help/cookbook called ‘The Plant-Based Switch’—a comprehensive guide to a holistic vegan way of life. It teaches readers how to make the transition to a healthier, more compassionate lifestyle in six [6] weeks or less.
Included within are tips and tricks on how to prepare for the switch, the changes one needs to make to their thoughts and habits, comprehensive plans for diet, exercise, health, and lifestyle—and a whole host of vegan recipes for everything from appetizers to soups and salads, and from entrées to snacks and desserts.
Nafsika also took the time and opportunity to draft several novels which had been gestating quietly within the creative recesses of her mind over the years—the first two of which are ‘Ghosted’ and ‘Extraordinary’.
The three books will be published and available for purchase in the next few months.
In addition to her own series, Nafsika has made guest appearances on numerous television and radio shows. She has also been interviewed by, and contributed her writing, to a variety of online magazines, including PETA, EmpowHER, Health Digest, Insider, and VegNews.
Plant Based News, a UK-based website on veganism and plant-based living ranked Nafsika 63rd on their list of Top 100 Most Influential Vegans of 2017. She was also featured in the 2020 Top 100 Canadian Professionals Magazine.
The list of her accomplishments and achievements is long and distinguished already. Yet, one cannot help but feel certain Nafsika Antypas has a lot more to offer still—in a future which is all but guaranteed to be as bright as it will be brilliant.
For she is the rare kind of person who is determined to leave the world a better place than it was when they first graced it with their presence. They cannot remain idle but demand change, reform, and evolution—through their thought, word, and deed, and their many passions, obsessions, and their very compassion.
She is multicultural, a Greek-Canadian, and multilingual—English, Greek, French, and Spanish. In her free time, she loves playing with her two children, writing books, listening to music, hanging out with her besties, and of course, fighting for human and animal rights.
‘If You Plant It, It Will Grow’
“This is what inspired me for the show. It felt like what I had been doing all along was planting seeds. And now, I’m looking always to plant seeds with companies and people that hear my vision.” – Nafsika Antypas, speaking of her motto, and the trademark phrase from her show, ‘Plant-Based by Nafsika’.
For Nafsika, it has forever been the dream—her ultimate goal in life—to make a difference in the world, and now her stories and ideas are being published, she is ever closer to the objective. And …
… for her latest adventure, she will soon add a glittering, gorgeous new hat to her collection: a hot new TV series on which she has been working. It is based on one of her own upcoming novels, and she will play the lead in it.
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