Santino’s life mission has always been to create something beautiful. In this pursuit, he turned to the world of fashion, establishing a career as an innovative and successful fashion designer. He made a splash as a finalist on the fifth season of Project Runway, starred in On the Road with Austin and Santino alongside fellow Project Runway alum Austin Scarlett, and has appeared as a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race. But one day Santino started to explore beauty on a far deeper level: “I thought to myself, does the world really need another dress?” Beauty, he came to understand, was far more than aesthetic, and found that what we put in our bodies is crucial to our overall health – and often, what we were putting into it wasn’t very good. Opting for a raw food vegan diet, Santino became a chef and co-owner of Wild Living Foods restaurant in downtown LA, creating beautiful dishes that are healing as well as delicious. Santino tells us how he has used food as medicine to heal various diseases. He also talks about the prejudices he faced growing up mixed race in Missouri, how he came to stand tall in his identity, and how any thoughts that aren’t aligned with love are misguided. TOPICS DISCUSSED · Santino’s journey from fashion designing to becoming a partner and chef at the Wild Living Foods restaurant · Tackling health struggles after exhausting traditional Western medicine options and turning to food as medicine · Opting for a living plant-based diet and how that can be the greatest healer · Santino’s experience with fasting · Striking the balance between being both an introvert and an extrovert · Success stories of people overcoming their health issues by adopting a healthy vegan lifestyle · Santino's experiences with racism and prejudice growing up in the Midwest · The importance of compassion and sharing appreciation for one other RESOURCES · Wild Living Foods · True North Health Center · Santino on Instagram