on a personal note this is a picture of
me taking around the time that my
grandmother was diagnosed with end-stage
heart disease and sent home to die she
had so many bypass surgeries basically
run out of plumbing confined to a
wheelchair crushing chest pain her life
was over at age 65 but then she heard
about this guy Nathan Pritikin one of
our early lifestyle medicine pioneers
and what happened next is actually
detailed and Pritikin biography my
grandma was one of the death’s door
people francis gregor my grandmother
arrived in a wheelchair
mrs. gregor had heart disease hands into
claudication her condition so bad she
could no longer walk without great pain
in her chest and legs within three weeks
though she was not only out of her
wheelchair she was a walking ten miles a
day here’s a picture of my grandma at
her grandson’s wedding 15 years after
doctors had abandoned her to die she was
given a medical death sentence at a 65
but thanks to a healthy diet
I was able to enjoy another 31 years on
this planet till he’s 96 to enjoy her
six grandkids including me that’s why I
so years later when dr. Dean Ornish
published his landmark lifestyle heart
trial proven with something called
quantitative angiography that indeed
heart disease could be reversed arteries
opened up without drugs without surgery
just a plant-based diet and lifestyle
program I assumed this was going to be
the game team I mean my family it’s you
know with her own eyes but here was in
black-and-white publishing some of the
most prestigious medical journals in the
world yet nothing happened so wait a
second
if effectively the cure to our number
one killer could get lost down some
rabbit hole and ignored what else might
there be in the medical literature that
could help my patients but just didn’t
have a corporate budget driving its
promotion well I made it my life’s
mission to find out for those who are
familiar with my work every year I redo
every issue of every English language
nutrition journaling the world so busy
folks like you don’t have to I think
Apollo the most interesting most
groundbreaking most practical findings
two new videos an articles that blood
every day – my non-profit site
nutritionfacts.org everything on the
website is free there are no ads and no
corporate sponsorship strictly
non-commercial not selling anything just
put it up as a public service as a labor
of love as a tribute to my grandmother
new videos and articles every day on the
latest in evidence-based nutrition what
a concept
so where did Pritikin get his evidence
from one network of missionary hospitals
set up throughout sub-saharan Africa
uncovered what may be one of the most
important medical advances according to
one of our most preeminent medical
figures in the last century dr. Dennis
Burke of the fact that many of our major
and communist diseases were universally
rare like heart disease in the African
population of Uganda for example
coronary artery disease was almost
non-existent wait a second our number
one killer almost non-existent what were
they eating well they’re eating lots of
vegetables and grains and greens and
their protein almost entire
from plant sources and they had the
cholesterol levels to prove it very
similar to what one sees in kind of
modern-day a plant-eater you say wait a
second maybe they were just all dying
early never lived long enough to get our
disease no here’s age match heart attack
rates in Uganda versus st. Louis 632
autopsy you’ve gone to only one
myocardial infarction at 632 age and
gender matched autopsies in Missouri 136
mile Karen Parsons board that 100 times
the rate of our leading killer in fact
they were so blown away went back did
another 800 autopsies you’ve gotta still
just have one small healed infarct I
mean it wasn’t even the cause of death
out of 1427 pages less than one in a
thousand whereas here our disease is an
epidemic atherosclerosis hardening the
arteries is a disease that begins in
childhood by age 10
nearly all kids raised on the standard
American diet I already have what are
called fatty streaks building up inside
of their arteries the first stage of the
disease these streaks then turn into
plaques in our 20s get worse in our 30s
and then can start killing us off in our
heart it’s called a heart attack and our
brain the same disease can cause a
stroke so if there’s anyone here today
older than age 10 then the question
isn’t whether or not to eat healthy to
prevent heart disease it’s whether you
want to reverse the heart disease you
likely already have whether you know it
or not but is that even possible you and
researchers took people with heart
disease put them on the kind of
plant-based I’d followed by populations
that did not get epidemic heart disease
their hope would say maybe we could slow
the disease down a little bit maybe even
stop it but instead something miraculous
happened as soon as people stopped
eating artery-clogging died their bodies
were able to start dissolving some of
that plaque away opening up arteries
without drugs with
out surgery suggesting their bodies want
to be healthy all along but which is
never given the chance that remarkable
improvement in blood flow to the heart
muscle itself was after just three weeks
of plant-based nutrition the human body
is a self-healing machine unless you’re
sticking with a folk fork three times a
day now sure you can choose moderation
and hit yourself with a smaller hammer
but why I beat yourself up at all this
is nothing new American Heart Journal
1977 cases like mr. FW here heart
disease so bad couldn’t even make it to
the mailbox started eating healthier a
few months later he was climbing
mountains no pain now there are these
fancy new classes of anti internet drugs
on the market now cost thousands of
dollars a year but at the highest dose
may be able to extend exercise duration
as long as thirty three and a half
seconds it does not look like those
choosing the drug route are gonna be
climbing mountains any time soon
see plant-based diets aren’t just safer
and cheaper they can work better because
you’re treating the underlying cause of
the disease now normally I’d go into
cancer talk about the other 15 leading
causes of death talk about the world
diet may play in preventing arresting
reversing each of our top 15 killers but
what more do you need to know there’s
only one diet ever been proven to
reverse heart disease in the majority
patients a plant-based out so anytime
someone tries to sell you on some new
diet do me a favor ask one simple
question we say is this day I’ve been
proven to reverse heart disease you know
number one reason me and all my loved
ones will die I’m the answer’s no why
would you even consider if that’s all a
plant-based I could do reverse the
number one killer of men and women
shouldn’t that gonna be the default
dying to proven otherwise and the fact
that can also be useful in preventing
wresting reversing other leaning killers
like type-2 diabetes and hypertension
would seem to make the case for
plant-based eating simply overwhelmed
most deaths in the United States are
preventable and related to nutrition
according to the global burden of
disease study largest study of human
disease risk factors in history funded
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
the number one cause of death in these
United States
it’s our diet the number one cause of
disability in the United States it’s our
diet
now bumping tobacco smoking – number two
cigarettes now only kill about half
million Americans every year whereas our
diet kills hundreds of thousands more so
if most deaths of preventable related to
nutrition then obviously nutrition is
the number one thing taught in medical
school right I mean I mean obviously
it’s the number one thing your doctor
talked to you about it every single
visit right how could there be a this
disconnect between the science and the
practice of medicine let’s do a thought
experiment imagine yourself a smoker
back in the 1950
as this the back in the 1950s the
average per-capita cigarette consumption
was four thousand cigarettes your being
the average person walking around smoked
half pack a day on average the media was
telling people to smoke famous athletes
agreed even Santa Claus wanted you to
smoke I mean look you want to keep fit
and stay slender so make sure to smoke
and eat lots of hot dogs to stay trim
and lotsa sugar to stay slim and trim a
lot better than that
Apple there I mean sheesh right though
apples do connote goodness and freshness
Reid’s one internal tobacco industry
memo which brings up many possibilities
for youth oriented cigarette they want
to make apple flavored cigarettes for
kids shameless
for digestion sake you smoke no curative
powers claimed by Phil Morris but hey
better be safe than sorry n smoke blow
in her face and she’ll follow you anyway
no woman ever says no they’re so around
so firm so fully back after all John
Wayne smoked them until they got lung
cancer and died you know back then even
the paleo folks were smoking and so were
the doctors now this is not to say there
wasn’t controversy within the medical
profession sure you know some doctors
smoke camels but others preferred lucky
so there’s a little disagreement there
the leader of the US Senate agreed who
would want to give their throat a
vacation not a single case of throat
irritation how could there be
when cigarettes are just as pure as the
water you drink maybe up in Flint
Michigan but don’t worry if you do get
irritated your doctor can just write you
a prescription for cigarette this is in
the Journal of the American Medical
Association so when the AMA is saying
smoking on balance is good for you and
the American Medical Association is
saying that where could you turn back
then if you just wanted the facts what’s
the new data advanced by science well
she was too tired for fun and then she
smoked a camera Babe Ruth spoke of
proof-positive medical science that is
when he still could speak before he died
of throat cancer you know by some
miracle back then there was a smoking
faxed at our website that could
delivered the science directly by
passing commercially corruptible
institutional filters you would have
become aware of studies like this
there’s an Adventist study out of
California published in 1958 showing the
non-smokers had at least 90% less lung
cancer than smoker right but this wasn’t
the first when famed surgeon Michael
DeBakey was asked why his studies back
in the 30s linking lung cancer smoking
were simply ignored here to remind B
was like back then we were a smoking
society it was everywhere was the movies
airplanes medical meetings were one
heavy haze of smoke smoking was in a
word normal okay so back to our thought
experiment if you’re a smoker in the 50s
in the know what do you do
I’m with access to the science you
realize the best available balance of
evidence suggests you’re smoking of it
not so good for you sit do you change or
do you wait if you wait until your
doctor tells you
between puffs to quit you’d have cancer
by then if you wait until the
powers-that-be officially recognizing
like the Surgeon General did in the
subsequent decade it could be dead by
then it took more than 7,000 studies and
the deaths of countless smokers before
the first Surgeon General’s report again
smoking came out you’d think maybe after
the first 6,000 studies could give you a
little heads up or some powerful
industry maybe we should have stopped
smoking after the 700th study like this
as a smoker in the 50s on one hand you
had all of society the government the
medical profession itself telling you to
smoke and on the other hand all you had
was the science if you’re gonna wear of
studies like this all right well let’s
fast-forward 55 years you know there’s a
new Adventist study out of California
warning Americans about something else
that may be putting in their mouths of
course it’s not just Wednesday put all
the studies together mortality from all
causes put together many of our dreaded
diseases significantly lower among those
eating more plant-based diets so instead
of someone going along with America’s
smoking habits in the 50s
imagine you or someone you know going
along with America’s eating habits today
what do you do I mean with access to the
science you realize the best available
bounds of evidence yes our eating habits
not so good for you Sid do you change or
do you wait if you wait into
your doctor tells you between bites to
change to be too late in fact even after
the Surgeon General’s report came out
the American Medical Association went on
record refusing to endorse it why
couldn’t have been because they were
just handed a ten million dollar check
from the tobacco industry
maybe so we know why the tobacco
industry was sucking up why the AMA was
sucking up to the tobacco industry why
weren’t more individual doctors speaking
up there were a few gallant souls ahead
of their time speaking up against
industries killing millions but why not
more maybe it’s because the majority of
physicians themselves just like the
majority physicians today continue to
eat foods that are contributing to our
epidemics of dietary disease what was
the Aimee’s rallying cry back then
everything in moderation extensive
scientific studies have proven smoking
moderation oh that’s fine sound familiar
the food industry used the same tobacco
industry tactics twisting the science
misinformation the same scientists for
higher paid to downplay the risks of
cigarettes and toxic chemicals are the
same paid for by the National
Confectioners Association to downplay
the risks of candy and the same paid for
by the meat industry to downplay the
risks of meat wears animal foods and
processed foods maybe killing us off at
least 14 million people every year so
those of us involved in this kind of
evidence-based nutrition revolution
we’re talking 14 million lives in the
balance maybe you know plant-based
nutrition should be considered kind of
the nutritional equivalent of quitting
smoking how long do we have to wait
before they the CDC says don’t wait for
open-heart surgery to start eating
healthier as well until the system
changes we need to take personal
responsibility for our own health for
our family’s health we can’t wait until
society catches up to the science again
because it’s a matter of life and death
you know a few years ago dr. Kim
Williams became president of the
American College of Cardiology
he was asked in an interview why he
himself falls the same day recommends
Davos patients a strictly plant-based
diet I don’t mind dying dr. williams
replied i just don’t want it to be my own fault thank you