The inaugural 2019 Australasian Nutrition in Healthcare Conference has officially wrapped up – and the unanimous judgment from all the conference delegates and speakers was that it was an unmitigated success!
Four years ago, I was with Dr Heleen Roex-Haitjema at the International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference in Los Angeles when she approached conference organisers Dr Scott Stoll, Tom Dunnam and Susan Benigas, and told them, “We need this in Australia!” Scott, Tom and Susan immediately offered to help her turn in the dream into reality, and the die was cast.
Little did Heleen know what she had gotten herself in for! Upon returning to Australia, she joined forces with Lucy Stegley from Raw Events, and the two of them have been working tirelessly since then to bring the message of food as medicine to the Australian health care scene.
The conference, held in Melbourne’s hip Docklands, opened on Friday 15 February with an inspiring keynote by none other than Dr Neal Barnard, one of the pioneers of plant-based nutrition.
Dr Barnard chastised his own profession for vastly underplaying the power of nutrition to prevent, treat and even reverse disease, and for giving patients either no dietary advice, or terrible dietary advice. He laid the blame squarely at the feet of the medical education system, pointing out that the majority of first year medical students believe that nutrition is an important contributor to health, but after 4-5 years of relentless bombardment by a curriculum dedicated to teaching the use of pills and procedures, only a small minority still hold this belief.
Heleen knows this only too well – her daughter Juliette graduated from medical school in 2017, having received roughly 2 hours of nutrition education in her 6 years of study.
Saturday morning’s agenda commenced with a Welcome to Country followed by a mindfulness meditation session led by the Gawler Foundation’s Maia Bedson, which put us all in the right headspace for a jam-packed day of learning. MC Clint Paddison kept us entertained between speakers with his trademark humour… and a very cute audio from his 2 year old daughter, who currently believes that every time he leaves the house, he’s going to the gym!
Drs Heleen and Juliette Roex then commenced the day’s lectures with a pithy summary of the ‘What’, ‘Why’, ‘Who’ and ‘How’ of a wholefood plant-based diet. They neatly summarised decades of research on the conditions that this way of eating has been shown to prevent, treat and reverse (for example, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity), and the mechanisms via which animal products damage our health, and plant foods do our bodies good.
I particularly appreciated their sound advice on how to get started on this way of eating:
- Know your ‘why’;
- Choose your approach to change – gradual or çold tofurkey’ – based on your own personality, level of motivation and prior history with behaviour change; and
- Anticipate pitfalls and prepare for them proactively.
Dr Andrew Davies took the stage next. I had the privilege of getting to know Andrew and his journey to being a plant-based doctor on the Whole Connection plant-based cruise last October. But I’m still moved to tears every time he tells the story of his father’s illnesses (two heart attacks, followed by cancer which eventually claimed his life), and his refusal to adopt the diet and lifestyle changes that could have saved his life.
It’s painfully reminiscent of my own failed struggles to persuade my father to mend his ways; like Andrew, I had to learn the hard way that not everyone is open to changing their diet, even if they believe that it would benefit them. We just have to love them and release them to live their own lives… even if they break our hearts with their choices.
Next came Dr Renae Thomas, who holds a special place in my heart. I met Renae at one of Dr John McDougall’s Advanced Study weekends, and was immediately captivated by her passion, verve and total commitment to transforming the practice of medicine into true health care. Renae studied medicine at Melbourne’s Monash University, and is currently undertaking a Preventive Medicine residency and Masters in Public Health at Loma Linda University in California. I interviewed her, along with fellow conference presenter Dr Malcolm Mackay, on her experiences in medical school in relation to nutrition education.
Renae spoke about her experiences of living and working in a Blue Zone – one of the five regions in the world identified by National Geographic explorer Dan Buettner as being home to people with outstanding longevity, and the only Blue Zone located in a fully Westernised country.
As Renae shared, the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) residents of Loma Linda are 10 times more likely than non-SDA Americans to make it to 100, and their life expectancy averages 10 years longer than the average American. Their extraordinary longevity – and their vitality at advanced ages – is attributed not to genetic factors, but to health promoting habits: extremely low rates of smoking and drinking, regular daily exercise, close community ties, a sense of meaning and purpose provided by their religious beliefs, and of course, a largely plant-based diet.
While not all of Loma Linda’s SDAs are fully plant-based, those who are have even lower risks of chronic disease and premature death than their meat-eating brethren.
Renae wrapped up her inspiring talk by pointing out that lifestyle interventions such as adopting a wholefood plant-based diet, getting regular exercise and good quality sleep, and stress reduction are often as effective, or even more effective, than the current gold standard of medical care, and should be offered to all chronic disease patients as the first line of treatment.
After lunch, the programme continued with a rousing presentation by Dr Scott Stoll, one of the co-founders of the Plantrician Project and the International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference (PBNHC).
Dr Stoll reprised his keynote presentation from PBNHC 2018 (which I summarised here), but it was no less gripping the second time around. As he told the stories of 4 hospital systems that have transformed from sick care systems into true health care and health promotion systems, all because of the efforts of a tiny handful of people who saw the need for change, lit a fire under their own butts and started pushing, I was reminded of Margaret Mead’s famous quote:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Dietitian Emma Strutt took the stage next, for a punchy presentation on optimising a plant-based diet. In a few short minutes she covered all the important issues that plant-based eaters need to be aware of, and laid out the benefits of the core food groups that should be included every day: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and a tablespoon of ground flaxseed.
After a sumptuous wholefoods plant-based lunch, it was time for Dr Neal Barnard to return to the stage, for an in-depth presentation on treating – and reversing – type 2 diabetes using a low fat wholefood plant-based diet. Dr Barnard summarised the results of his own studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in major medical journals, which clearly demonstrate the superiority of this dietary approach over conventional diabetes diets.
Dr Barnard summarised the mechanisms by which a low fat all-plant diet works to reverse the pathologies that drive diabetes, including improving insulin sensitivity and reducing the absorption of bacterial endotoxin from the intestines.
Conversely, high fat diets worsen diabetes by causing insulin resistance and inhibiting mitochondrial biogenesis and activity – the formation and efficiency of fat-burning organelles within each cell.
Dr Alan Desmond, the ‘Devon Gut Doctor’, then treated us to a fascinating presentation on the dietary factors driving the dramatic upswing in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the last decade or so. I had been in practice for over 10 years before I saw my first client with ulcerative colitis, yet now I’m seeing at least one new client a month who is living with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.
Dr Desmond summarised the research demonstrating the vital role of fibre in both reducing the risk of IBD, and helping to heal it once it has developed. For instance, fibre helps to maintain and repair the epithelial barrier that is breached in IBD; and soluble fibre is fermented by gut bacteria into anti-inflammatory short chain fatty acids.
Dr Desmond posed the question, “If we know that fibre helps to prevent and treat IBD, why are patients told to adopt a low fibre diet?” He pointed out that the only subset of IBD patients who need to limit the fibre are the minority who have developed intestinal strictures.
Next up were Shamiz and Shukul Kuchwalla, who stumbled across the low fat wholefood plant-based diet while Shamiz was doing battle with ulcerative colitis (UC). Shamiz was hospitalised in Japan for 6 weeks, passing up to 20 bloody movements a day, and fighting excruciating pain and dramatic weight loss.
Medical treatments were only making his condition worse, but fortunately his indomitable Mum unearthed evidence that – contrary to Shamiz’s doctors’ assurances – diet played a crucial role in UC and other forms of IBD. Shamiz began to recover as soon as switched to a high carbohydrate plant-based diet, and now, along with his brother Shamiz, helps other people afflicted with IBD to heal themselves.
One of those people is Tishani Grioli, who also took the stage to describe her dramatic recovery from debilitating IBD. My own experience with IBD is that is is highly responsive to plant-based nutrition, although the diet does need to be quite heavily modified in the acute stage of the illness, when excessive amounts of some types of fibre can be irritating to the inflamed gut.
Dr Luke Wilson wrapped up the day’s lectures with a thought-provoking presentation on the necessity of building community if we want to achieve long-term commitment to a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Luke, who was one of the co-authors of the BROAD Study – the most successful weight loss intervention that employed an ad libitum (i.e. all-you-can-eat) diet and no formal exercise component ever published in the medical literature – vividly described the health consequences of the decay of community ties that we’re witnessing throughout the developed world, and increasingly in developing countries.
Remarkably, self-reported loneliness is more prevalent in the US than obesity, and I doubt the situation is much different here in Australia. As I’ve described in a previous post, social isolation and loneliness are bigger risk factors for cardiovascular disease than obesity and lack of exercise, and on par with smoking.
Thankfully, aside from the inspiring and informative lectures, and the delicious and beautifully presented food, the conference gave all delegates a wonderful opportunity to build that very sense of community of which Luke Wilson spoke.
It was wonderful to finally meet in person, so many people whom I’ve previously only interacted with on Facebook, or online video chat. Like so many other delegates, I’ve come away inspired to build community in my own neighbourhood, through the formation of Plant Powered Gold Coast, and to provide a supportive in-person and online community for my clients, many of whom struggle to stay on track with a healthy diet and lifestyle due to lack of support at home, work and school.
If you’re kicking yourself that you missed it, and would like to attend next year, or if you’re interested in joining the movement to bring plant-based nutrition into medical education and practice, be sure to jump on the mailing list at Doctors for Nutrition.
Inspired to transition to a wholefood plant-based diet, but not sure where to start? Apply for a Roadmap to Optimal Health Consultation today, and let’s get you under way!
