“I don’t mind dying. I just don’t want it to be my fault.”

These memorable words were spoken by Kim Williams, current president of the American College of Cardiology, outspoken advocate of a wholefood, plant-based diet, and keynote speaker at the 3rd International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference.

Yes, we are all going to die, some day. But as Dr Williams and the other speakers emphasised, we have the power to not just delay that inevitable event (by preventing or reversing chronic disease), but also to vastly improve the quality of life that we enjoy in the mean time – all by making healthier dietary choices.

This message was echoed by all the other speakers – pioneering researchers and clinicians including many who have inspired me since I was a naturopathy student in the early 1990s: Dean Ornish, T. Colin Campbell, Alan Goldhamer, Caldwell Esselstyn, and Hans Diehl. By choosing to make minimally-processed plant foods the backbone of our diet, we restore our bodies’ innate capacity to heal from illness and injury… even conditions believed to be ‘incurable’.

And, as the culinary team who supplied conference delegates with 3 delicious plant-based meals per day brilliantly demonstrated, we get to do all this without sacrificing the enjoyment of eating!

One of the aspects of the conference that I enjoyed most (apart from chatting with Dr Michael Greger, the man behind Nutrition Facts, one of the most valuable nutrition resources on the web, who was very chuffed to learn that his was the first voice my family hears each morning, as I play his daily video as soon as I get up ;-)) was getting to know the other conference delegates.

Over 600 doctors, nurses, dietitians, health coaches, personal trainers, interested members of the public – and 1 lonely naturopath, yours truly – from over 15 countries, attended the conference. Some were just beginning their plant-based journey; others wanted to know how they could transform their current disease-care practices into health promotion practices by teaching others how to adopt a wholefood plant-based diet.

Over the next several blog posts, I’ll be summarising the conference lectures for you. But I just wanted to leave you with a thought from Dr Dean Ornish, one of the giants of plant-based health research:

“The more you change your lifestyle, the better you feel… at any age.”