Have you ever considered changing your diet radically? The most important step is finding the conviction to do it. There are many compelling reasons to look at vegetarian and vegan diets, and in the paragraphs below, you may find a reason that speaks to you. One thing is for sure, it can be the healthiest decision you ever make.
My own interest began two years ago, when a friend recommended that I read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. Campbell, a retired professor of nutrition at Cornell University, looked at the diets of two large populations in China, urban and rural. Genetically, these people were identical; they differed only in what they ate. The rural population ate mostly vegetables, while the city population ate like Westerners do—a varied diet with meat, fish, and fats. Findings: the rural population had almost none of the commonest diseases that we in the U.S. die of daily. No heart disease, no strokes, no cancers, no obesity, no diabetes, no autoimmune disease, no dementia. Campbell is a scientist, and the epidemiologic data were irrefutable. The second half of the book deals with the incredible obstacles he dealt with in attempting to implement his recommendations back in the U.S., dealing with the meat and dairy industry, and all those who profit from perpetuating our unhealthy and ultimately lethal diet.
I then read a book by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, provocatively titled Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Esselstyn, a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, made the dramatic discovery that a strict vegan diet can not only prevent but actually reverse advanced coronary disease. Many of his first patients were true cardiac cripples who, after two heart attacks and five stents, were written off by their doctors and basically sent home to die. Dr. Esselstyn’s diet has not only kept them alive but actually reversed their coronary disease. A remarkable angiogram in the book documents that atherosclerotic plaques dissolve and coronary arteries reopen after only a few months on a vegan diet.
How can this be? Vascular insufficiency and inflammation is at the root of most of the fatal illnesses in the West. Dr. Esselstyn claims that the endothelial cells lining the arteries are not just a passive covering layer, but an active tissue that keeps the arteries open. They fail to do so only when overwhelmed by excessive fat and toxins in our diet. And, he claims, fat is fat, whether its source is plant or animal. Certainly animal fats are worse, but even plant oils are potentially harmful. So, although the much vaunted Mediterranean diet, full of olive oil, is certainly more healthful than a bucket of chicken wings, it is not really healthful, only less harmful. Unsaturated fat is less harmful than saturated fat, but not as good as no fat. It is for this reason that the Esselstyn diet also avoids plant oils in addition to all dairy and eggs. In this way, his vegan diet is more restrictive than the usual vegetarian diet. But, based on years of clinical experience with thousands of patients, Dr. Esselstyn is able to make a unique claim: you can avoid—yes, avoid—all of these diseases by eating a diet that doesn’t contain fat or oils and is low in inflammatory factors.
Without doubt, oil and fat are the main culprits for heart disease. By illustration, a population has been studied in Papua New Guinea. These tribes are heavy smokers, and everyone, including the children, is chronically exposed to second-hand smoke. Their diet, however, is completely vegetarian, consisting exclusively of a variety of yams. The result? Lots of pulmonary disease, to be sure, but no heart disease. If we now consider all the toxins (hormones, antibiotics, heavy metals) that are in the tissues of animals, the mercury and cadmium, the garbage dumped into the oceans, substances that are not detoxified but accumulated and concentrated up the food chain . . . well, you get the picture.
As a physician, I found the scientific evidence convincing. You are what you eat, and all you really need to do is to not sabotage your body in order to allow your cells to do their daily chores of cleaning, repairing, and maintaining.
Others may choose a vegetarian diet for moral reasons. If this is more your style, you will not need to delve too deeply into the horrific details of how animals are raised, how fish are farmed, and how these living and sentient beings are slaughtered to convince yourself that a vegetarian/vegan diet is the right choice.
And here is yet another reason: vegetarian/vegan cooking is not only healthy for you, it is also cheaper! Your grocery bills will plummet once you start cooking using legumes, fresh fruit, and vegetables instead of meat, fish, and dairy. These foods cost less to grow (did you know that salmon is a carnivore, and it takes more protein to raise a salmon than the fish ultimately gives as part of your dinner?), is filling, and healthy.
Still not convinced? Then consider this: on top of everything else, you may even lose weight on this healthier diet. How can this be? You will certainly eat more carbs, but these are complex carbs with a low glycemic index, which are nourishing, not fattening. Consider also that when you fill your stomach with fatty foods such as meat, you are taking in more calories per gram of food than when you eat vegetables. With a vegetarian or vegan diet, you will have more energy, concentrate better, and the sense of mindfulness—which now includes your diet—will pervade your other daily activities.
Without a doubt, this is an enormous change in your daily life—one that, at least initially, may require a daily pep talk between your brain and your stomach. After all, we usually eat without thinking. Furthermore, how, when, and what we eat is deeply tied to our upbringing and to social, cultural, and habitual behavior. As a Hungarian, the thought of giving up Wienerschnitzel filled me with deep sadness and a sense of loss. But the thought of living, fully living, to the end with no heart disease, stroke, or cancer, unimpaired and fully engaged with life—well, the tradeoff makes sense. And it might also make sense for you.
