My Plant Based Diet - How Did I Get Here?

Lots of mistakes, lots of bad information, lots of food... Pretty much my story of how I got to the Plant Based Diet. Let me tell you my story of what brought me to avoid animal products and enjoy a more vegan eating regimen.

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[stephaniejoy]

My WFPB journey: father died at 53 after 3 heart attacks, high blood pressure, diabetes and poor circulation (his legs looked dark blue/black). All three brothers had heart attacks, one died of a brain tumor at 46, the other bled to death at 63 from the blood thinner coumadin. Third brother had 5 heart bypasses and half his foot amputated from diabetes complications. My grandparents were diabetic. I'm surrounded by family history of ill health! I became vegetarian at 15, intuitively understanding it was our very meat/dairy menu causing all these health issues. I became fully WFPB/vegan 18 years ago. I'm now 62 and still have very low blood pressure and no health issues whatsoever...I credit the menu I've created based on all the books I read over the years from the top plant-based doctor's recommendations. My husband is 65 and has been following the same menu and he's in excellent health as well. Our blood work proves our excellent health! I'm proof that we don't inherit disease from our families...we inherit a very unhealthy menu! (btw -- gotta balance it with regular exercise and avoiding stress).

[rozchristopherson]

I’m 63 and vegan for 8 years. I take no medications. I follow Dr. McDougall’s and Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s recommendations. My best friend’s husband cowrote some portions of Dr. Fuhrman’s “Fast Food Genocide .” I was a caregiver to my elderly parent’s and my grandmother for 17 years. I moved back into the family home to care for them. I had been vegetarian during college and graduate school. But after moving back home as a caregiver, I slipped back into the Standard American Diet. But I started realizing that my parents and grandmother had been on daily high blood pressure medications from about age 40 for the next 30+ years. All suffered from clogged arteries (arteriosclerosis). My father had leg artery bypass surgery at age 62. At 72, he had a major stroke (5 smaller strokes had gone undetected) and suffered a total of 8 strokes before passing at age 78. My mother suffered from congestive heart failure and passed at age 80. My grandmother had TIAs, kept falling, and eventually had to go to a nursing home, passing at age 92. During this time, my mother’s closest friend suffered from diabetes. She cooked big for the holidays (roasts, turkey, ham, mac n cheese, etc).and would promptly land in the hospital after holidays. She had her daughters bringing her pizza and hoagies into the hospital. Eventually she ended up on dialysis. She eventually changed to a diet of rice and vegetables but by then, so much damage had been done to her body that she had to have her leg amputated. I mention all these cases to say that doctors have a standard protocol that they follow—prescribing medication. The dietary advice given to my relatives was to eat a banana daily for potassium and limit salt. Doctors told them their illnesses were hereditary. My mom’s friend started eating rice and vegetables just because she felt better on that diet but not because any doctor advised her to avoid animal products. Many people are put on medications around age 50 when the effects of a diet of animal products starts catching up to them with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. But these medications cannot stop the inevitable. By the time people are in their 60s, 70s and beyond, they become debilitated by these illnesses AND by the effects of taking medication for decades. Even over-the-counter medications like Tylenol state to not take them for an extended period of time due to liver and/or kidney damage. But people gladly take doctor-prescribed medications daily for decades and never think about the long-term damaging effects these medications are having on them. Kidney failure is on the rise and not just from dietary illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure, but because of the effects of taking prescription medications for decades. Eventually, the SAD diet and prescription drugs will cause irreversible damage to the body.

[EvenSoItIsWell]

In 2006 I had a health scare, I was losing my ability to walk. They thought MS but weren’t sure. I started making diet and lifestyle changes including eating vegetarian. In 2017 I was diagnosed with MS and made even more diet and lifestyle changes to help manage my symptoms. I now eat a whole food plant based diet. I feel great! It is amazing how the body responds to good fuel!

[isky]

Did McDougall(🙏) in early 2000s and felt amazing. Family didn't enjoy it, so returned to SAD for years. Started low carb in 2018. Lost 50 lbs, but health got much much worse. Returned to WFPB this new year and all bad labs are now reversed.🙌🙌🙌

[GardenofEydie]

I reversed my 20 years of super high blood pressure, 178/115! on a pill, no less. Went on 8 day water only fast at True North and stayed on Whole plant food diet, Salt, oil, sugar years later my Blood pressure is 98/60----NO PILLS! just plants. Now I help others do the same with my recipes. Congratulations to you and yours. low fat makes a huge difference when it comes to healing.

[PlantBasedBistro]

Thanks to all of you for watching our show. We truly appreciate it. What's your PB story?

[hidden]

I was following a Chef AJ diet, WFPB, sos free, for about 5 years. And before that I was low fat vegan for at least 10 years. I’m 69. I have a family history of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. I have a low bmi, 18. My cholesterol had come down from 270 to 220 on chef AJ’ diet, but my triglycerides were 600. My A1C was high normal. But my blood pressure was borderline high. I was walking about 3 miles a day. I was always worried about my heart, but I really didn’t want to take any drugs. But everything came crashing down last June when I had a heart attack and 4 stents. Not fun I assure you. Now I understand that I have genetic hyperlipidemia, and even the best diet wasn’t going to be enough. I have a type of cholesterol that’s small and sticky, perfect for making plaque. So now I’m taking all the drugs, and my lipids are crazy low. I’m on blood pressure medications and blood thinners. It’s not what I wanted, but I’m happy to incorporate these medications into my life to prevent another Heart Attack and live longer. If you are like me, and genetic’s aren’t on your side. Don’t feel like a failure. I’m still WFPB, but I needed extra help. And we are fortunate to live in a time where there is help. That’s the one message from some of the plant based doctors that I wish would be taken more to heart. Don’t make your patients feel bad when they need the medication as well as diet. Not our fault ❤

[bw-dude]

Hey Brian,
I just watched this video and here is my "journey" in a nutshell.
First off, I am a bit older than you but for many years I was into "good" eating already. Meaning mostly homecooked meals, but back then very omnivore. I never liked and ate cheese, but all other kinds of dairy and lots of meat.
I still was rather healthy and my bloodwork was ok, but I was always prone to put on weight due to my sweet tooth.

Over 13 years ago, I did the best thing ever for myself. A friend recommended me a "diet" to lose some unwanted weight because a colleague of him was very successful with it. It has a fancy name, but it is actually just intermittent fasting. This very flavour is eat one day (basically whatever you want) and fast the next one (nothing but water basically).
I tried it and lo and behold lost weight pretty quickly and without any "suffering" once I adapted to the change.
After about 3 or 4 months I had reached my desired weight, but decided to continue the regimen, because I felt great and I already was used to it.
I continue doing it to this day and don't intent to stop. Ever since, I was (almost) skinny and my bloodwork is not just fine but excellent.

A couple of months after starting this, I watched "Forks over Knives" by accident and became vegan the very next day. You have the book in your screenshot, you will know they have very good arguments that resonated with me.
This time, nothing really "changed". I was healthy already, I did not "feel" any physical changes, only felt way better for doing the "right thing". This change will be 13 years in November and I am also planning to keeping that up.

Last change was about 7 years ago when I decided to cut sugar(s) out of my diet and NOT replace it by sweeteners.
Since I almost entirely cook myself from fresh ingredients, hidden sugars were not a problem.
Chocolate, Cookies and Cakes were an entirely different animal though. It was really HARD to push through with it and it took weeks until I did not desire them pretty much constantly.
Without planning to do so, I lost a bunch of weight again and was actually too skinny. Took me months to gain it back too by just eating food without sweets.

So here I am now, vegan, sugarfree and fasting every other day.
It might seem a lot to some people, but like you I have found out what is good for me little by little.
Unlike you, I have no problem with fats or oils. I use my EV Olive Oil quite liberally and never noticed any ill effects.

To me - and this is just my personal opinion - the intermittend fasting is the actual "superpower" that did the most for my health. I guess you could eat pretty much anything you like, as long as it is always followed by a day of fasting.
This has gotten way longer than I intended, hope you find the time to read it and find it interesting.

Cheers from Austria!

[Ms.Mandy]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We all have individual journeys. But when others with similar stories share their stories it means the absolute most. Former smoker, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, over weight. I so get you. One more thank you for good measure. 😀

[mattrenaud]

I'm glad that you've found a solution which works for you.  Congratulations on your successes. I look forward to many more years of fun cooking and brewing videos.

I had a similar journey over the last couple of years. Once I learned about how cellular metabolism is affected by diet (with a couple of months diversion into recent endocrinology research) I managed to lose almost 100#, and get my BP, lipids, and blood sugar all back close to the normal range. Probably the most important thing I learned is that everybody's metabolism is slightly different and you have to tailor your solution to how your own body chemistry works.

[stevemann]

61 year old plant based bodybuilder here. When I gave up meat 25 years ago. Everyone said you will shrivel up. You cant build muscle and strength without meat. Im stronger at 61. Than I was at 31. The ignorance out the perpetuates.

[LashusJourney]

Thanks for sharing your story! In 2019 my platelets were high and doctor couldn’t find anything that was causing it, so in 2022 I decided to go to a lifestyle center. When they did my blood work at the center, everything was high, blood pressure, cholesterol, insulin and no vitamin D, so they put me on 3 day water fasting. I spent 17 days there no sugar, no meat, just WFPB, water and herbs. I have been eating that way ever since, when I went back to my doctor they asked me what I have been doing differently.

[surf-metrics-travel]

Like others... compelled to join in with a "this was my journey" story. Almost to a tee except my A1C did not get as high. But it was a shock to even hear pre-diabetes. A Keto phase that only masked insulin resistance. I actually enjoyed it at the time minus cramping issues mostly because I got addicted to various homemade nut butters. Did not catch whether Keto blew up your LDL-C. My near 180 LDL on keto freaked out my doc. Like you, had me reeling... digging through all the various diet camps. It was the Mastering Diabetes guys and my wife that watched a plant-based advocate movie. She said these doctors were suggesting saturated fat was a cause of insulin resistance, not carbs. I laughed. Could not conceive how that could be true. High blood glucose has to be too much sugar or carbs. The Mastering Diabetes guys on Rich Roll blew my mind with this idea that overloading cells with lipids from too much saturated fat down regulates insulin receptors keeping blood glucose high as fat is prioritized.

So I did the same test as you. Went high carb and super low fat overall (10-20%) but almost no saturated fat. No meat except some fish I catch. It was wild. At first I did have glucose spiked up to 180. But after a few weeks those spikes came down to 130 or 140 at most. Then after about 6 weeks a bowl of oatmeal and protein shake for breakfast all the sudden only pushed blood glucose to 110 or 120 at most and fasting levels dropped in the 70s and 80s overnight. I got my bloodwork that indicated my LDL dropped from 180 to 60. And fasting insulin was as low as can be measured. Sitting here about 14 months later loving this near-vegan diet. Having the blessing of a sizable veggie garden that produces year-round makes it even better.

[darinkagolob]

Great video thanks for sharing. What is my PB story? Well when the Engine 2 diet book was released, my sister wanted me to do the challenge with her. It was only 28 days but I wanted to know what it was all about. She said just get the book and then let her know start date. I pressed wanting to know what it was about. No meat, no dairy, no eggs. I said what am I supposed to eat? Got the book, read it in record time and we did the challenge. We supported each other from a distance. It was awesome. There is so much more to the story. Yes I have fallen off the diet but I am back on it now and feel great! Looking forward to your future videos!

[nicholaschiazza]

Just so you'll know, I'm in the same boat with you and my glucose has gone from 240 to 96 after I've been vegan for a month. I miss my pierogies and your recipes will help (I have the same cutters you've got believe it or not.)

[SheriAnne]

Watched your video while eating a huge salad with quinoa, black beans and Hawaiian sweet potatoes. Congrats on your success with the SS!!!

[Delighfullyplantbased]

It has been close to five years that I have treated my type 2 diabetes solely through a plant based diet. I don’t count anything or measure an any food. Just eat plants, whatever I want that has zero oil and sugar. Keep processed foods to a minium. Lost 50 pounds and have kept it off effortlessly. No finger pricking for me. Test my A1C’s every 3 months to verify the disease is still reversed. Feel so good after feeling so unwell for so long, it does not even cross my mind to return to a western diet. The whole plant based diet treats the cause not the symptoms. Welcome friend sounds like we are journeying on the same road.

[mountaingirl]

Good for you!. We found the Starch Solution eleven years ago....will never go back to the SAD and I each lost 40 pounds and are so happy we found the plant based community here on you tube.

[afri-cola]

Great video! I haven’t had the same struggles as you, but after switching to a WFPB diet my acid reflux was gone, the few extra kilos melted away and my mood has been more stable than I can last remember! It really is such a simple and health-promoting way to eat - glad I discovered your channel! Keep it up! ^^

[ronthebulletguy]

Glad to hear your feeling better. Making progress in better health one step at a time.