The future of health care is plant-based

Thomas Edison wrote that

“The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

In my 10 day ‘conference bender’ in the US, which started with Dr John McDougall’s Advanced Study Weekend (see the amazing speaker line-up and purchase online access); continued with a study visit to TrueNorth, an amazing facility founded by Drs Alan Goldhamer and Jennifer Marano, specialising in medically-supervised water-only fasting for health recovery; and wrapped up with the 4th International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference in Anaheim, I’ve seen the future of health care… and it’s plant-based nutrition.

Some highlights from the trip:

• Dr McDougall introduced conference attendees to the next generation of plant-based doctors, just in case anyone had concerns that when the ‘old guard’ (himself, Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr Neal Barnard, Dr Joel Fuhrman and so on) passes, there’ll be no one left to champion the cause. His son Dr Craig McDougall, Professor T. Colin Campbell’s son (and co-author of The China Study) Dr Tom Campbell, Dr Anthony Lim, and Drs Alona Pulde and Matt Lederman (who were featured in the surprise hit documentary Forks Over Knives) all spoke passionately of their commitment to transforming the practice of medicine from ‘sick care’ to true ‘health care’.
• Even more movingly, 4 of the fathers of these young doctors – John McDougall, Steve Lederman (a non-invasive cardiologist), K.B. Lim (an obstetrician and gynaecologist) and T. Colin Campbell all spoke movingly of their admiration for their sons, in taking an approach to the practice of medicine that is motivated by commitment to patients’ well-being, rather than the pursuit of the almighty dollar.

• One of T. Colin Campbell’s other sons, Nelson, inspired the audience with the outside-the-box thinking on bringing ‘food as medicine’ to the coalface of patient care – the hospital system. His startup, PlantPure, has now signed agreements with 2 major hospital systems in the US (including one in Texas – who woulda thunk it?), to provide wholefood plant-based meals to patients with chronic disease, document the effects of their health, and then secure insurance coverage for meal provision. Many other hospital systems have expressed interest in participating… and this is just the first stage of Nelson Campbell’s ambitious plans to bring plant-based eating to patients, hospital staff, and the communities served by hospitals.
• I felt amazingly privileged to sit in on the weekly doctors meeting at TrueNorth Health Center, in which the health histories and progress of the current program participants were discussed. One remarkable story after another unfolded – a man who had entered the centre barely able to walk was striding around the place just 2 weeks later; several people who had been on a laundry list of drugs for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, migraines and a host of other maladies were medication- and pain-free, and had brought their biomarkers into a healthy range in just days to weeks; and many overweight participants had achieved remarkable weight loss. As TrueNorth’s co-founder and director Dr Alan Goldhamer pointed out, the odds of surviving stage 3 melanoma are better than the odds of losing 100 pounds (roughly 45 kg) and keeping it off long-term, but that’s exactly what many of TrueNorth’s ‘graduates’ have achieved.
• It’s really challenging to pick highlights from the International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference as every presentation was excellent, but T. Colin Campbell’s rebuttal of the criticisms that have been made of his research was a stand-out, as was Brenda Davis’ debunking of Paleo mythology and Robynne Chutkan’s in-depth discussion of the effects of medical practices and diet on the all-important human microbiome (did you know that even schizophrenia is linked with an unhealthy microbiome, which in turn is linked with the unhealthy Western diet and overuse of antibiotics and proton pump inhibitors?). Dr Liana Lianov’s presentation on the science of behaviour change gelled with my own observations of what it takes for people to switch to a wholefood plant-based diet and stay with it, and also gave me some fascinating new leads to follow up, so I can further improve my ability to help my clients get the results they desire.
• Oh yes, and the food was just incredible!!!! Anyone who fears that eating a wholefood plant-based diet with no added oil, sugar and fat means giving up the pleasure of eating, is just so, so, so wrong! Food from minimally processed plants is beautiful to every sense.

I’m bursting to share what I learned on my ‘conference bender’ with all my valued clients and EmpowerEd members. There is a plant-based nutrition solution to just about every physical and mental health problem. Click here to make an appointment.