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Home » Diet » Neustatter: Film pitches plant-based diet pluses – Fredericksburg.com

It is something when the CEO of the biggest health care operation in town admits that his industry has much less of an impact on our health than other factors, such as the environment, income, education, family history, health habits and, especially, diet.

The health care industry accounts for only about 20 percent of what controls our health, noted Mary Washington Healthcare CEO Mike McDermott in his introductory remarks for a recent showing of a rather controversial movie, Forks Over Knives.

The film claims many of the illnesses we suffer from can be stopped, or reversed, by adopting a diet that is exclusively vegetable based.

The screening was sponsored by Mary Washington Healthcare; the Fredericksburg Food Co-op, a group trying to bring affordable and healthy food to the area (fredericksburgfoodcoop.com); and The Dr. Yum project, Dr. Nimali Fernandos pediatric operation that provides cooking and healthy eating classes to kids (doctoryum.org).

The movie focuses on the research of Drs. Colin Campbell and Caldwell Esselstyn. Both are pioneers in promoting a plant-based, unrefined, whole-foods diet.

It follows the case histories, and miraculous turnaround, of several people suffering from diseases like high blood pressure, vascular and heart disease, diabetes and elevated cholesterol.

It explores the belief by Campbell especially, drawn from his work on The China Study (which he wrote about in a book of the same name) where illnesses in different regions of China were correlated with diet.

This convinced him that animal protein, and casein in milk in particular, is responsible for a lot of illnesses, especially those mediated by our immune system (many so-called autoimmune diseases). He also believes that it promotes cancer.

The problem is, the diet the film urges is pretty radical. No meat, no dairy, no eggsas well as largely avoiding fats and refined carbohydrates (which includes sugar).

Very like a vegan diet you might think, which prohibits meat, eggs and dairythough the cynics point out in theory a vegan could live on potato chips and CocaCola and not break the rules.

I have tended to be skeptical about claims I have heard from euphoric evangelists of this or that diet, claiming it has cured them of their multiple sclerosis, depression, liver and kidney failure, cancers, Alzheimers. Whatever.

Even if not completely on board with these more radical ideas, I am certainly convinced that the standard U.S. diet, with large amounts of meat, dairy, fat, and, in particular, sugars (usually as high fructose corn syrup) and refined carbohydrates (usually white flour) is killing us.

Look for yourself at what people are buying in the grocery check-out line.

This is what is accounting for many of the dismal statistics the movie cites, such as:

More than two-thirds of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese.

Diabetes is running rampant.

Our kids will be the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

The most prescribed drug in the U.S. is for treating high cholesterol (Lipitor).

This awful diet has come about primarily because thats what people have been taught to eat. Its the culture. And reversing it is going to take re-education.

Opportunities and Challenges

It always seems a golden opportunity is missed when patients are hospitalized. They have to be fed, but so often hospital food is not the model diet. (I have worked in hospital where I could describe the food only as gruesome.)

Perusing this idea, I, somewhat facetiously asked Mike McDermott when Mary Washington Hospital was going to go to a vegetable-based diet.

Probably not any time soon, he told us, but the veggie proponents have an ally in McDermotts wife, Chrissy, who stumbled in to veganism five years ago.

She was also one of several great cooks who made a vegetable-based dish to show what can be done. In this case, she served up a tasty noodle concoction with cheese sauce made from cashew nuts.

There are challenges to introducing such a ridged diet, which I know I would have a hard time following. But there werent any comments from the subjects in the movie about how hard they found it.

Also, the USDA, who are the arbitrators of what is considered a healthy diet (including in our schools), are accused in the movie as being an advocacy group for interested parties in the food industry that are pushing meat and dairy.

Still, it is very encouraging when the bigwigs of a large healthcare corporation, like Mary Washington Healthcare, are promoting the idea of healthy eating.

Patrick Neustatter is the medical director of Lloyd Moss Free Clinic in Fredericksburg and the author of Managing Your Doctor: The Smart Patients Guide to Getting Effective Affordable Healthcare. Visit managingyourdoctor.com.

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Neustatter: Film pitches plant-based diet pluses - Fredericksburg.com

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Home » Diet » Neustatter: Film pitches plant-based diet pluses – Fredericksburg.com