Hello friends!
I wrote a post last year about the top 7 Life changing plant-based documentaries that changed my life, which you can find here. They all discuss diet as the main cause of disease and how the Standard American Diet is causing 70% of disease in America. They also provide an answer: a whole foods plant-based diet.
When I was deciding whether or not I wanted to go to medical school, I watched a documentary that would end up completely changing my life forever: Forks Over Knives. It’s about how adopting a plant-based diet can radically change the picture of health. I watch it every time I need reminding that this is the way to live.
It opens with this quote that Hippocrates, the Greek physician thought to be the father of western medicine, once said:
“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food”.
Hippocrates
The main principle is that switching to a whole food plant-based diet has the power to eliminate most diseases in this country. Diet is a huge factor in disease and there is plenty of evidence that proves it. Once I saw that, I knew I could not work in a healthcare system that did not acknowledge or change the main cause of disease in this country.
Our society, doctors included, refuse to believe in the power of plant foods. We are too attached to our meat and processed foods and are not willing to make a change, even it if might save lives.
So today I want to show you proof of what the WFPB diet can do. This may get a little science heavy, but it’s crucial that you to know how powerful this diet is and that you understand the wonders it can do for your health and your life.
Most disease is a product of your lifestyle
The majority of diseases are proven to be caused by poor diet. A history of poor eating significantly contributes to many of the health challenges people face today. The government’s website on health states that “About half of all American adults—117 million individuals—have one or more preventable chronic diseases, many of which are related to poor quality eating patterns and physical inactivity. These include cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and poor bone health”.
More and more doctors, dietitians, and other health professionals are advocating for a plant-based diet. This is because of the huge health risks associated with animal products. Evidence is growing that links meat consumption—particularly that of red and processed meats—with chronic illness.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in America today. Each year, about 647,000 Americans die from heart disease — that’s one in every four deaths. And the major cause of the disease is poor diet. Cutting out animal products plays a huge part in reducing the prevalence of this disease. Here’s a perfect example from Science Daily:
“In 1939, heart disease in Norway was sky high. As the Germans invaded the country, they confiscated all of their Norwegian livestock, which left the native Norwegians to subsist solely upon plant foods such as grains, beans, fruits and vegetables. World-renowned cardiologist Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., notes that corresponding with the decrease in livestock consumption, heart disease plummeted.
As soon as the Nazis left in 1945, livestock production returned to Norway, and immediately heart disease shot back up to prewar levels. Though there were other factors to consider, such as smoking rates decreasing and increased physical activity, this is one example that illustrates what an impact diet can have on heart health.”
Heart disease is very much preventable and, in the words of Dr. Esselstyn heart disease “need never exist and if it does exist, it need never progress.”
Type 2 Diabetes is another very dangerous disease that people who are overweight or obese are at increased risk of compared to those at a normal weight because, over time, their bodies become less able to use the insulin they make. The Center for Disease Control states that more than 84 million US adults—or 1 in 3 people—have prediabetes, and 90% of them don’t know they have it. In the last 20 years, the number of adults diagnosed with diabetes has more than doubled as the US population has aged and become heavier.
An unhealthy diet can also increase the risk of some cancers. According to the CDC, being overweight and obese are associated with at least 13 types of cancer, including endometrial (uterine) cancer, breast cancer in postmenopausal women, and colorectal cancer. These cancers make up 40% of all cancers diagnosed.
According to a study from Harvard Medical School, around a third of early deaths could be prevented with a meat-free diet. The Harvard Scientists said that approximately 200,000 lives could be saved each year by cutting out meat and emphasizing plants.
The problem with the Standard American Diet
One of my favorite documentaries, Hungry for Change, talks at length about the dangers of our western diet and its relationship with healthcare. The majority of people in this country eat a diet that is heavily made up of processed foods. We don’t eat real food anymore but instead consume chemically made food like substances.
The food industry has filled our diet with products heavy in two components that make food irresistible and highly addictive: sugar and fat. There is so much money to be made in keeping people fat and addicted. And the food industry titans have bought their way in with lawmakers who make decisions that keep people unhealthy. Bleached flour, refined sugar, and oil are a part of virtually every product people eat today. People get stuck in a pleasure trap; it is impossible to satisfy this low grade addiction which causes people to overeat and gain weight.
The obesity epidemic is a direct result of this obsession with processed foods and meat. In the early days of humanity, people could go days without finding food to eat. Therefore, their bodies were designed to store fat because they never knew when the next meal would be. Today our bodies still store fat in the same way (as they are designed to do), but it is for a famine that never comes.
In the early 20th century, meat was once considered to be a delicacy that was enjoyed a few times a week when it was available. Now it has become a part of every meal. And the portions one person consumes could feed whole families in earlier times. This is a direct cause of health problems today. The fat content in animal foods causes dietary fat (only found in animal products) to collect in blood vessels and is the primary cause of coronary heart disease.
The Standard American Diet is unbelievably unhealthy and has caused so much damage to our bodies. And the proof is the state of our healthcare system. For healthcare in America in 2017, the cost was $3.5 TRILLION. That’s even more than our defense budget. That figure has only gone up since then. Clearly this modern system is just not working. It’s time we all take a different approach.
The answer is a whole foods plant-based diet
Slowly but surely people are starting to see the light: the only answer to our health problems is moving to a plant-based diet. It is the only diet proven to provide natural, long-lasting healing in countless situations.
But what exactly is a plant-based diet? “The Center for Nutrition Studies explains that a whole food, plant-based diet “doesn’t include any meat, poultry, fish, dairy, or eggs. It’s not, however, the same as a vegan diet, which is defined only by what it eliminates”. A vegan diet still allows junk foods like Oreo’s, potato chips, white bread, sodas, and other non animal based foods. “A WFPB diet is defined also by what it emphasizes: a large variety of whole foods. The term “whole” in WFPB refers to foods that are minimally processed. In short, eat more plants in their natural, unprocessed state.”
“Whether you’re considering eating less meat or giving it up entirely, the benefits are clear: less risk of disease and improved health and well-being,” according to the American Heart Association’s website. Advantages include decreasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes and many types of cancer.
In an August 2019 study, researchers found that “to reduce cardiovascular disease risk people should eat more vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fruits, legumes and fewer animal-based foods. “ The lead researcher, Casey M. Rebholz, said it “ is one of the first studies to examine the proportion of plant-based versus animal-based dietary patterns in the general population.”
According to information gathered from Live Kindly, “A growing body of evidence indicates that a healthy plant-based diet can positively impact certain autoimmune diseases. In many cases, individuals report a significant reduction—or even total reversal—of autoimmune disease symptoms when they cut out meat and dairy”.
Dr. Saray Stancic, MD, says that adopting a plant-based diet helped her treat her own MS. After nearly a decade of other treatment, Stancic was dependent on a walking stick and several medicines that caused difficult side effects. Adopting a plant-based diet had such a positive impact on her that she founded Stancic Health and Wellness in 2012, to help others treat chronic disease holistically.
According to Plant-Based News, Dr. Brooke Goldner, the creator of the Healing Protocol for Lupus Recovery, is known globally as the bestselling author of Goodbye Lupus. She told her story while testifying to the USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which is comprised of nationally recognized nutrition and medical researchers, academics, and practitioners.
“I was diagnosed at 16-years-old with lupus. I had stage 4 kidney failure, I had blood clots, I had mini-strokes. I endured years of chemotherapy and steroids just to survive”. Dr. Goldner then revealed that 15 years ago, she adopted a plant-based diet, and ‘within three months the lupus was gone’.
She helped thousands of people reverse lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, heart disease…all by getting them to stop eating meat and dairy and eggs and focus on high nutrient plant foods. The results are consistent, and they are profound.
Healthline states that new evidence suggests that a plant-based diet could relieve — and possibly cure — Crohn’s disease, a form of chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects as many as 780,000 adults.
An example is a study done on a man that, though symptoms did improve a bit from medications, he continued to experience fatigue, bloating, and abdominal pain. However, after swapping out meat, dairy, and processed foods and eating a plant-based diet rich in grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruits, his symptoms began to improve and he eventually achieved clinical remission. Within six months of following a plant-based diet, the mucosa in his gut had healed and there was no longer any evidence of Crohn’s disease.
There are so many stories like these of people curing themselves of debilitating diseases by simply changing their diet. Changing to a plant-based diet has the power to save lives.
Eating a plant-based diet is not easy but is life changing.
The problem is that we are so used to eating the Standard American Diet that it is very difficult to fathom how one would go about making such a drastic change. Dr. Ashok Mittal a cardiologist at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, part of Baptist Health said “Food changes are hard to make because they’re ingrained in us, they’re a habit and it’s hard to change habits unless the drive comes from within. It’s hard but doable.”
As difficult as it might be, some would argue that adapting a more plant-based diet today is easier than years past when a vegan diet was considered a fringe movement. Thanks to celebrities, athletes, teens — and Instagram — plant-based diets have become more accepted and mainstream. It’s much easier now to find vegan options in restaurants, whether fast-food joints or fine dining.
The best part is “there really are no cons of a plant-based diet,” said Candace O’Neill, registered dietitian in the Huizenga Executive Health Program at Cleveland Clinic in Weston. “The only way there can be a potential negative outcome is a poorly planned diet or a lack of education about a plant-based diet. There’s a potential for nutritional inadequacies.” Different vitamins and minerals like vitamin B12, zinc, iron, and calcium have mainly come from animal components in the diet. However, with the right planning, it is very easy to make meals that satisfy all these needs.
Having a healthy body is truly a lifestyle commitment. Eating a plant-based diet is likely to reduce your risk for so many diseases. Whether you can do that or not is really based on your willpower and concern about your personal health. It may be difficult to start. But once you get into the groove and find some recipes you like, you will find that this is the best decision you can make for yourself.
Food for thought
The health evidence is mind-blowing. But there are other factors involved in animal agriculture. The food system has huge repercussions for the planet. And then there is the tragedy of the cruel fate animals face before they get to your plate.
Animal cruelty
It is estimated that 72 BILLION animals are slaughtered for food in America every year. That is an unbelievable number! That’s 10 times the number of people are this planet killed every year. And before that death they are abused and tortured every step of the way.
There are so many examples….Pigs are kept in cages so small they can’t turn around. For their whole lives they stand in the same position. Little piglets are castrated without any kind of anesthetic; they little rip the parts out of them while they scream. Dairy cows are kept pregnant their whole lives and each time a calf is born, it is ripped away from the mother immediately so their milk can be collected. Chickens are injected with so much growth hormones that their breasts grow so large they can’t stand and tip over.
Animals are fed corn, which is nothing like what their natural diet should be. They are injected with hormones and antibiotics and that all ends up in our food. And finally animals get lined up in the slaughterhouse and watch as one by one their friends are killed right in front of them. And they scream because they know what’s going on. Animals live in their own filth only to die much sooner than their average lifespan.
If you really let yourself think about it, you know how horrifying the meat industry is. Could you imagine a similar fate for your pets?! Given the toll these animal products take on our bodies, is that steak or those wings really worth it?
Environmental impact
Water is one of the most precious resources we have on the planet. Yet, up to 33% of fresh water is used for animal agriculture. Raising livestock for meat, eggs, and milk is the cause of 15% of greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for all transportation emissions combined.
Approximately 41% of land in America is used for feed and graze animals. Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of deforestation on this planet. 70% of the Amazon Rainforest has already been destroyed and is now occupied by pastures and feed crops. According to the World Animal Foundation, it takes 20 times less land to feed someone on a plant-based diet than to feed meat eaters.
According to the National Geographic website, only 55% of the world’s agriculture is used to feed humans. The rest goes to feeding animals an unnatural diet; they are not meant to eat corn! The amount of food produced on this planet could end world hunger, yet inside it is being used to raise livestock. If more people switched to a plant-based diet, their health, the animals, and the planet would be much better off.
How to switch to a plant-based diet
Switching to a plant-based diet is a lot easier to do today. And with the right changes you can easily incorporate more plants into your diet. You don’t have to completely eliminate these foods (though you should), but drastically reducing animal products in your diet would do wonders for your health and for the planet. To help you get started, here are some tips to help you make the switch.
Crowd out the bad by adding the good
Cutting animal products from you diet cold turkey is ideal in theory, but it is definitely more difficult in practice. Therefore, you shouldn’t focus on the things you have to give up. Instead, work on crowding out the bad stuff with the good. Focus on adding more and more plant-based meals and snacks into your daily diet. Start adding fruit and salads in place of a meal or two you’re used to. You can eat those other foods too, but learn not to turn to them or give in immediately. As time passes your taste buds will change and eventually you won’t crave those foods anymore. Don’t think of it as what you will lose but rather what new, amazing foods you’ll be introduced to.
Start with one meatless day, then increase the number of meatless days.
The best way to make the switch is one meal at a time. Start with Meatless Mondays because that is fairly painless. Then, add more and more plant-based meals until you can go a week the two without animal products. Start with giving up dairy, like switching to almond milk instead of cream in your coffee. As the days build, you will see how possible it it to make small tweaks that add up to great success.
Find some great plant-based recipes.
The best way to make sure you can do this is to find recipes you enjoy. There is a plant-based version of everything, so you can start there. Then branch out into exploring dishes you’ve never had but recognize the ingredients. Eventually, you will be inspired to try something completely new to you. See, when you get creative you will find out how much possibility there is in this way of eating. There are thousands of recipes out there to start with and eventually you will find it easy to create your own. This is an amazing opportunity to test your culinary gifts. You will find just how wonderful and guilt free this lifestyle can be.
Change things up regularly to avoid getting bored.
It’s really important that you get creative. There are so many ways to prepare your foods and make each dish different and delicious every time. You can blend, steam, broil, roast or sauté your ingredients. You can also add extra veggies, fruits and whole grains into soups, salads and snacks. You can switch up the ingredients, use a variety of spices, try new foods, and experiment with leftovers. There is so much you can do! It will not be easy to change your routine and you will need to put in more effort, but it will be so worth it!
So if you are struggling with one or more of a variety of chronic diseases, chances are switching to a plant-based diet is exactly what you need to heal yourself and completely change your life. It’s really important that you eat a large variety of foods so you get all the nutrients you need and also so you don’t get bored. You can get everything you need from plants, including protein! Nature provides everything we need to not just survive but thrive! There is so much evidence that this way of living works and I hope you are brave enough to step away from the crowd and give it a try. Give it a month, then two or three. You never know what kind of transformation you will experience!
Always remember, You are capable of amazing things and You are worthy of your wildest dreams!
Until next time friends!
XOXO
~~Valerie~~
