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Originally Posted by bfloyd4445
People that follow fad diets published to create cash flow are playing Russian roulette with their health. Black beans all legumes are great food but don't forget many of the vitamins in legumes and other food are fat soluble. Our bodies need and create some lipids because life cannot exist without them and many nutrients cannot be absorbed without them so are simply excreted from the body...If your living this lifestyle of fad diets I would suggest your blood be tested for all nutrient and toxic materials levels. This will give you a starting point to see what is going on inside your body. I get them done twice per year. You only get issued one body
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I honestly don't know how many more ways I can stress the fact that I get plenty of fat in my diet. I eat many foods that are rich in fats such as nuts, seeds, olives, avocados, plant milks, corn, and soy. Almost all foods, including grains and legumes, have fat in them. I get all the healthy fats I need. I just consume them in their natural packaging and not in extracted form. The only fats I strive to limit strictly are those that are saturated. Since the majority of saturated fat comes from animal sources this is not difficult to do on a plant based diet even without trying. This seems to be the first thing people pounce on when they want to denounce my diet. It's either that or the standard, "where do you get your protein?" I would challenge anyone to find a
single person on ANY type of diet in this or any other developed country that has actually been diagnosed with either a protein or a fat deficiency unless they are suffering from overall malnutrition due to either extreme poverty, neglect, or abuse of some kind.
As far as the whole-food-plant-based diet being a fad, I find that statement rather perplexing. Especially since it is really nothing more than a vegan diet with the elimination of highly processed junk foods like white flour, white rice, highly refined sugars, chemicals, packaged foods, and extracted oils. I also find it confusing why, if you are not a proponent of a vegan diet, you would be participating in a vegan thread? I do not live strictly on legumes and I feel completely confident in saying that I probably have much more diversity, and therefore balanced nutrition, in my diet than most of my omnivorous friends who think they eat healthy. I find those friends amusing sometimes. Especially the ones who tell me "they worry about the way I eat," and then they'll ask me if they can bring me back something for lunch from the local fast food place. I'll put my beans and rice up against their fast food burger for nutrition any day of the week.
The Swank MS Diet, which has been used successfully since the 1950's to treat MS patients with a low saturated fat diet, can hardly be called a fad after all this time. The Swank Multiple Sclerosis Clinic is still in operation today in
Portland Oregon and thousands of patient testimonials from the past 60+ years claiming long term success on the diet are more compelling to me than the claims for an injected drug that has dangerous side effects, limited success, and a short track
record. The miracle drug of today often ends up being the class action law suit of tomorrow. If you want to talk about giving out biased information based on a vested financial interest think big pharma.
The originators of the Forks Over Knives Diet are Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a renowned cardiac doctor and surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, and Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and the author of the
China Study, which is probably the largest and most comprehensive study of the effects of nutrition on disease ever undertaken. Dr. Esselstyn has been using this diet to treat his sickest cardiac patients since the 1980's with great success. Have you ever watched the Forks Over Knives documentary? If you have not, I suggest you do so and learn about the studies that have been done and the lives that have been saved before passing judgement on whether this is a fad. Most fad diets are focused primarily on weight loss. This diet is focused on health benefits. The weight loss is a nice side benefit but Dr. Esselstyn's original intent was to help a group of heart patients who had been diagnosed as terminal and untreatable.
Rip Esselstyn (Engine 2 Diet) is Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's son. He had been eating the WFPB diet that his father prescribes since the 1980's. He was a firefighter in
Texas and when some of his fellow firefighters (at the Engine 2 firehouse) started experiencing health problems he suggested they try the diet that his father prescribes for his heart patients. Their health improved drastically and the Engine 2 Diet was born.
Dr. John McDougall is a primary care physician who has focused his practice on treating people with diet and lifestyle as much as possible, but he does practice traditional medicine. He has devoted his career to studying the effects of diet on health. Dr. Roy Swank was one of his mentors so he is continuing that
work of studying diet and it's effects on MS. Dr. McDougall has been a doctor for over 40 years.
There are a number of other well respected
medical doctors who are now, and have been for years, endorsing this way of eating (I am reluctant to call it a diet, as it really is a way of living that has much farther reaching effects than just what we eat); Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Neal Barnard. Check out the website for the Physcian's Committee for Responsible Medicine and see what their recommendations are. I dare say that if this was a celebrity endorsed diet no one would bat an eye. Why is it easier to trust someone like Marilu Henner or Suzanne Somers because they found a way to get thin last week than it is a large community of well respected physicians and scientists who have been studying nutrition and health for half a century? I believe with all my heart that the only reason this hasn't become more widely accepted as the correct way to eat is because there is too much financial
power and pushback from the meat and dairy industry and from big pharma. There just isn't any
money to be made by telling people to eat their vegetables.
I get your point that these doctors are making some
money from it at this point, and they should, just like Dr. Esselstyn gets paid when he performs heart surgery, or scientists get paid when they are researching drugs to cure cancer, the physical therapist gets paid when she's working on rehabilitating someone, or you get paid for whatever it is you do. There should be nothing mutually exclusive about being able to make a living and having a goal to help people be healthier. I do believe however that they have all demonstrated a desire to help people that goes beyond just making money as every one of the doctors named above provide such a wealth of resources through their websites, Facebook pages, videos on Youtube, and online articles that you can learn everything you need to know without ever spending a dime. All of the recipes that are in the cookbooks are also available through their websites. I bought the cookbooks simply because it was easier to "browse" recipes and more convenient than having to look something up and print it out every time.
And, as a final note, I did have a complete physical in March. My doctor did a very complete workup, at my request; vitamin and mineral levels including D, B12, iron, and others; lipid
panels, blood sugar, thyroid, liver panel, EKG, and much more. Everything was perfect, blood pressure great and heart rate of an athlete (which I am certainly not but I do exercise regularly). He said I am healthier than most 30 year olds he sees. Not bad for a 61 year old woman with MS.
The only supplement I take is a daily B12.
I hope that this post can put to rest any further speculation or discussion on the state of my health or advisability of my particular diet and we can just focus on recipes and food ideas. If anyone is truly interested in
learning more or getting resources PM me and I will happily help. You can no doubt tell I believe in this with all my heart and believe that it is the road to better health and greater longevity. Since we, as cruisers, are definitely all interested in that I would love to help anyone who has a genuine interest.