Dr. Neal Barnard Shares How Veganism Can Change YOUR Life!

[Guest guest]

Dr. Neal Barnard Shares How Veganism Can Change YOUR Life!http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/02/27/arff-exclusive-dr-neal-barnard-shares-how-veganism-can-change-your-life/Sure, we here at the Razz think veganism is the hotness, but we’re not M.D’s or anything! Dr. Neal Barnard, however, is an accomplished medical doctor and just so happens to share our opinion!Barnard is the President and Founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine — a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.This dietary rockstar has written about a trillion books on healthy living and will be attending the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida’s 20th Anniversary Gala on March 14th.Neal was gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule to sit down with Ecorazzi for a chat. Check out what he had to say!! Trust me — you’re gonna be healthier for reading it!Ecorazzi: You started the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine over 20 years ago. What inspired you to form an organization that promotes a healthy plant-based diet?Neal Barnard: Well, when I was in medical school there was no emphasis on nutrition at all! The population at that time was following a pretty unhealthy diet that was not just bad for animals, but also very bad for our coronary arteries. So I wanted to have an organization that promoted preventive medicine, conducted research on the power of diet to improve health, and also advocated for more ethical research.E: You mentioned your own medical training and the lack of nutrition education within those programs. How do you feel medical programs are doing these days in terms of nutritional training for future doctors?NB: We have been working very hard to bring nutrition back into medical training where it’s been neglected — and this is a very, very important area. Medical schools still neglect nutrition, and yet research has shown that when people switch their diet — particularly with vegetarian and especially vegan food – their risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, blood pressure diminishes dramatically. Doctors need to be able to use those tools.E: What do you think would be the most effective change somebody who follows a Standard American Diet could make to help improve their health?NB: The change is to take animal-derived products off their plate. If you make that a personal guideline then the health benefits are dramatic. But to make that practical, I break it into steps.The first step is: go shopping! If all the recipes you have, have meat and dairy products in them, try some new recipes and make them! If you tend not to cook but eat at restaurants, go to vegetarian or vegan restaurants and try out the menu items. Sublime, of course, is the most obvious example - the most elegant example. If you bring your family members and friends into an environment like that, you will see how eating healthy isn’t just good for your body, but a delight for your taste buds as well. So the first step is to get to know your options and go shopping.The second step is to take a three-week period and do it 100 percent – vegan all day, all the time. But only for a three-week period. That allows you to try on the shoes and sort of walk them around the room for a little bit, so to speak. If you like how you feel after three weeks you can stick with it. For most people they are healthier, they’ve lost weight, they feel better, their energy has improved, and also their tastes have changed so they like the new way of eating. So I break it into those steps and that makes it really doable.E: Do you have any recommendations for people out there who are already eating a vegetarian or vegan diet?NB: Well, they’re miles ahead! What you should do is make sure you are finding ways to encourage everybody else to follow YOUR good example.E: In the past few years we’ve seen an emergence of people following a raw food diet. What are your thoughts on raw foods?NB: I think raw foods are great! They’re terrific! For many people their transition is into vegan foods and once they’re into vegan food they start looking about incorporating more raw foods into their routine. That’s a good move!E: You mentioned Sublime restaurant earlier which is run by the groovy folks over at Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. I know you’re going to be attending their 20th Anniversary Gala on March 14th. How do you think this organization has helped make a difference throughout Florida and the country?NB: I think ARFF has not only been a voice for animals, but a voice for people across Florida and in the rest of the country who’ve felt they have no voice in how animals should be treated. So people could see a model of activism. Whether it was for dogs and cats who needed to be spayed or neutered, or animals in circus’, animals in roadside zoos, or legislative battles, ARFF has been there and has been a very strong voice for animals and activism. So I have been very, very happy to support ARFF and I really am looking forward to continue working with them in the coming decades.E: You’ve written a ton of books – most recently Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Resversing Diabetes. You mentioned previously how a plant-based diet can help improve general health. But specifically how do you think a plant-based diet can help reverse diabetes?NB: With regards to diabetes: it’s just a completely different view of the disease. The old fashion view was to avoid eating too many carbohydrates. The new approach says focus on healthy foods. You don’t need to worry so much about the quantity if everything your eating is vegetables and fruits and whole grains and beans – those are good for the body.We have found that the cause of Type 2 Diabetes—which is the common type – appears to be the build up of fat inside the cells of the body so that insulin can no longer affect the cell. It’s very much like having gum in your lock stopping your key from being able to open the lock. If there’s fat inside the cell the insulin key can’t open the cell membrane to allow glucose to enter. So our focus is on getting the animal fat out of the diet so that the cell can clean itself up.However, I want to say something else. We often focus on life-threatening conditions: diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But a vegan diet is also good for conditions that are minor but annoying and motivating. By that I’m talking about the principal motivation of any 16-year-old, which is not prostate cancer. A 16-year-old boy doesn’t even know he has a prostate, but if he’s got a zit it’s a tragedy. If you can show kids that by getting away from dairy products, animal products, and following a healthy diet that their acne might go away, it’s a much bigger motivator than the health concerns of later life.There are now several studies that have shown that dairy products in particular affect the skin. We are now in the planning stages of a clinical trial using a vegan diet for acne.For women or girls, menstrual cramps in some cases can be disabling. In the year 2000 we published a study showing that a very low-fat vegan diet was great for reducing menstrual cramps and PMS.For athletes, they often find that their recovery time after an intensive activity, like marathons or ultra-marathons, is dramatically shortened when they’re on a healthy vegan diet. Do you know Scott Jurek?E: I don’t.NB: Man, you should get to know him! Take a look at his website sometime! Scott is not just a marathoner, but one of these ultramarathoners and ultradistance runners. There’s something called the Badwater Ultramarathon,. It’s 125 miles and I’m not kidding – you’re going to think I’m making this up – they run 125 miles continuously. It takes more than a day to do it. The very first time Scott entered he won the race and he’s won it every single year — I think seven years in a row – and set the course record. It’s hard to even contemplate 125 miles – that’s a long drive – but to have a person actually run it. Scott is a vegan and says that there’s no way he’d be able to compete if he weren’t vegan. You think about a horse galloping along – that’s a vegan, that’s not a carnivore. I love to mention that when I’m talking to teenagers and young people who think this will just help them live better when they’re 85.Man, it revolutionizes your life NOW!E: Now you were recently on the Ellen show and we just LOVE the fact that she’s gone vegan. Do you think that celebrity ambassadors really help to create long-term change by advocating for a vegetarian diet?NB: Absolutely! Ellen is an honest and intelligent person that everybody respects because she speaks her mind with integrity. So if she says, “ You know, I’m setting aside the meat,” people know that she’s being honest with them. And when people see how a celebrity changes their diet and then looks younger, slims down and feels better, people know it’s totally honest. Also, sometimes celebrities will describe health problems that they have had – I’m not talking about Ellen now — but other celebrities will quite honestly discuss health problems they’ve had with other kinds of diets, or how other kinds of diets like an Atkins diet has let them down. So I think when celebrities describe their own diets and share their experiences it can motivate other people.E: Now I always end with the same question for all the famous vegetarians I interview. If you had the chance to meet one person who you’ve found specifically instrumental in the vegetarian community – dead or alive, past or present – who would it be and why?NB: Holy cow! I have to say there are a lot of people in the vegetarian community I respect. It’s a team effort and I’m happy to also say that I hook up with them a lot. So it’s not like they’re too hard to reach.I’ll tell you one person who I’d love to see again and that’s Benjamin Spock. He wrote Baby and Child Care and he was both a pediatrician and a psychiatrist. So he was very concerned about not only kids’ physical health, but also about their emotional health. He wrote Baby and Child Care to help people raise their children and teach them how to treat their children with respect and warmth and convey to them good values and habits to last a lifetime.In Baby and Child Care he wrote that kids need meat, eggs and dairy products. He had a second edition and a third edition and a fourth and fifth and sixth edition, and he said the same thing in all of them. And then he was getting up in years and his own health was not so good. His wife — Mary Morgan is her name – said that he needed to see somebody to talk about his own diet. And he got off of dairy products, and he got off of meat and he started following a vegan diet. His health rebounded, his strength approved, he felts years younger. And in the seventh edition of Baby and Child Care he wrote that he had been wrong in promoting a meat and dairy based diet, and that an ideal diet for kids left animal products off the plate completely. And I have to say that his courage, his straight-forwardness and his honesty really command respect. Ben died a number of years ago. He was a good friend and a member of PCRM. His strength of purpose and his abilityto say he had made a mistake and set things straight just shows what a great man he was!A huge thank you is in order to Dr. Neal Barnard for taking the time to share his ideas with us. Check out all his great work at PCRM.org!Live Simply So ThatOthers May Simply Live

lovelife...

 

colin sky

[Guest guest]

I was pleased to hear that Benjamin Spock now recommends a vegan

diet. I wonder if his book(s)are recommended by the GPs here in the

UK, or whether they ignore him nowadays!

 

Jo

 

, " colin sky " <colinsky wrote:

>

> Dr. Neal Barnard Shares How Veganism Can Change YOUR Life!

>

> http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/02/27/arff-exclusive-dr-neal-barnard-

shares-how-veganism-can-change-your-life/

>

> Sure, we here at the Razz think veganism is the hotness, but we're

not M.D's or anything! Dr. Neal Barnard, however, is an accomplished

medical doctor and just so happens to share our opinion!

>

> Barnard is the President and Founder of the Physicians Committee

for Responsible Medicine - a nonprofit organization that promotes

preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages

higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.

>

> This dietary rockstar has written about a trillion books on healthy

living and will be attending the Animal Rights Foundation of

Florida's 20th Anniversary Gala on March 14th.

>

> Neal was gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule to

sit down with Ecorazzi for a chat. Check out what he had to say!!

Trust me - you're gonna be healthier for reading it!

>

> Ecorazzi: You started the Physicians Committee for Responsible

Medicine over 20 years ago. What inspired you to form an organization

that promotes a healthy plant-based diet?

>

> Neal Barnard: Well, when I was in medical school there was no

emphasis on nutrition at all! The population at that time was

following a pretty unhealthy diet that was not just bad for animals,

but also very bad for our coronary arteries. So I wanted to have an

organization that promoted preventive medicine, conducted research on

the power of diet to improve health, and also advocated for more

ethical research.

>

> E: You mentioned your own medical training and the lack of

nutrition education within those programs. How do you feel medical

programs are doing these days in terms of nutritional training for

future doctors?

>

> NB: We have been working very hard to bring nutrition back into

medical training where it's been neglected - and this is a very, very

important area. Medical schools still neglect nutrition, and yet

research has shown that when people switch their diet - particularly

with vegetarian and especially vegan food - their risk of heart

disease, cancer, diabetes, blood pressure diminishes dramatically.

Doctors need to be able to use those tools.

>

> E: What do you think would be the most effective change somebody

who follows a Standard American Diet could make to help improve their

health?

>

> NB: The change is to take animal-derived products off their plate.

If you make that a personal guideline then the health benefits are

dramatic. But to make that practical, I break it into steps.

>

> The first step is: go shopping! If all the recipes you have, have

meat and dairy products in them, try some new recipes and make them!

If you tend not to cook but eat at restaurants, go to vegetarian or

vegan restaurants and try out the menu items. Sublime, of course, is

the most obvious example - the most elegant example. If you bring

your family members and friends into an environment like that, you

will see how eating healthy isn't just good for your body, but a

delight for your taste buds as well. So the first step is to get to

know your options and go shopping.

>

> The second step is to take a three-week period and do it 100

percent - vegan all day, all the time. But only for a three-week

period. That allows you to try on the shoes and sort of walk them

around the room for a little bit, so to speak. If you like how you

feel after three weeks you can stick with it. For most people they

are healthier, they've lost weight, they feel better, their energy

has improved, and also their tastes have changed so they like the new

way of eating. So I break it into those steps and that makes it

really doable.

>

> E: Do you have any recommendations for people out there who are

already eating a vegetarian or vegan diet?

>

> NB: Well, they're miles ahead! What you should do is make sure you

are finding ways to encourage everybody else to follow YOUR good

example.

>

> E: In the past few years we've seen an emergence of people

following a raw food diet. What are your thoughts on raw foods?

>

> NB: I think raw foods are great! They're terrific! For many people

their transition is into vegan foods and once they're into vegan food

they start looking about incorporating more raw foods into their

routine. That's a good move!

>

> E: You mentioned Sublime restaurant earlier which is run by the

groovy folks over at Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. I know

you're going to be attending their 20th Anniversary Gala on March

14th. How do you think this organization has helped make a difference

throughout Florida and the country?

>

> NB: I think ARFF has not only been a voice for animals, but a voice

for people across Florida and in the rest of the country who've felt

they have no voice in how animals should be treated. So people could

see a model of activism. Whether it was for dogs and cats who needed

to be spayed or neutered, or animals in circus', animals in roadside

zoos, or legislative battles, ARFF has been there and has been a very

strong voice for animals and activism. So I have been very, very

happy to support ARFF and I really am looking forward to continue

working with them in the coming decades.

>

> E: You've written a ton of books - most recently Dr. Neal Barnard's

Program for Resversing Diabetes. You mentioned previously how a plant-

based diet can help improve general health. But specifically how do

you think a plant-based diet can help reverse diabetes?

>

> NB: With regards to diabetes: it's just a completely different view

of the disease. The old fashion view was to avoid eating too many

carbohydrates. The new approach says focus on healthy foods. You

don't need to worry so much about the quantity if everything your

eating is vegetables and fruits and whole grains and beans - those

are good for the body.

>

> We have found that the cause of Type 2 Diabetes-which is the common

type - appears to be the build up of fat inside the cells of the body

so that insulin can no longer affect the cell. It's very much like

having gum in your lock stopping your key from being able to open the

lock. If there's fat inside the cell the insulin key can't open the

cell membrane to allow glucose to enter. So our focus is on getting

the animal fat out of the diet so that the cell can clean itself up.

>

> However, I want to say something else. We often focus on life-

threatening conditions: diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But a

vegan diet is also good for conditions that are minor but annoying

and motivating. By that I'm talking about the principal motivation of

any 16-year-old, which is not prostate cancer. A 16-year-old boy

doesn't even know he has a prostate, but if he's got a zit it's a

tragedy. If you can show kids that by getting away from dairy

products, animal products, and following a healthy diet that their

acne might go away, it's a much bigger motivator than the health

concerns of later life.

>

> There are now several studies that have shown that dairy products

in particular affect the skin. We are now in the planning stages of a

clinical trial using a vegan diet for acne.

>

> For women or girls, menstrual cramps in some cases can be

disabling. In the year 2000 we published a study showing that a very

low-fat vegan diet was great for reducing menstrual cramps and PMS.

>

> For athletes, they often find that their recovery time after an

intensive activity, like marathons or ultra-marathons, is

dramatically shortened when they're on a healthy vegan diet. Do you

know Scott Jurek?

>

> E: I don't.

>

> NB: Man, you should get to know him! Take a look at his website

sometime! Scott is not just a marathoner, but one of these

ultramarathoners and ultradistance runners. There's something called

the Badwater Ultramarathon,. It's 125 miles and I'm not kidding -

you're going to think I'm making this up - they run 125 miles

continuously. It takes more than a day to do it. The very first time

Scott entered he won the race and he's won it every single year - I

think seven years in a row - and set the course record. It's hard to

even contemplate 125 miles - that's a long drive - but to have a

person actually run it. Scott is a vegan and says that there's no way

he'd be able to compete if he weren't vegan. You think about a horse

galloping along - that's a vegan, that's not a carnivore. I love to

mention that when I'm talking to teenagers and young people who think

this will just help them live better when they're 85.

> Man, it revolutionizes your life NOW!

>

> E: Now you were recently on the Ellen show and we just LOVE the

fact that she's gone vegan. Do you think that celebrity ambassadors

really help to create long-term change by advocating for a vegetarian

diet?

>

> NB: Absolutely! Ellen is an honest and intelligent person that

everybody respects because she speaks her mind with integrity. So if

she says, " You know, I'm setting aside the meat, " people know that

she's being honest with them. And when people see how a celebrity

changes their diet and then looks younger, slims down and feels

better, people know it's totally honest. Also, sometimes celebrities

will describe health problems that they have had - I'm not talking

about Ellen now - but other celebrities will quite honestly discuss

health problems they've had with other kinds of diets, or how other

kinds of diets like an Atkins diet has let them down. So I think when

celebrities describe their own diets and share their experiences it

can motivate other people.

>

> E: Now I always end with the same question for all the famous

vegetarians I interview. If you had the chance to meet one person who

you've found specifically instrumental in the vegetarian community -

dead or alive, past or present - who would it be and why?

>

> NB: Holy cow! I have to say there are a lot of people in the

vegetarian community I respect. It's a team effort and I'm happy to

also say that I hook up with them a lot. So it's not like they're too

hard to reach.

>

> I'll tell you one person who I'd love to see again and that's

Benjamin Spock. He wrote Baby and Child Care and he was both a

pediatrician and a psychiatrist. So he was very concerned about not

only kids' physical health, but also about their emotional health. He

wrote Baby and Child Care to help people raise their children and

teach them how to treat their children with respect and warmth and

convey to them good values and habits to last a lifetime.

>

> In Baby and Child Care he wrote that kids need meat, eggs and dairy

products. He had a second edition and a third edition and a fourth

and fifth and sixth edition, and he said the same thing in all of

them. And then he was getting up in years and his own health was not

so good. His wife - Mary Morgan is her name - said that he needed to

see somebody to talk about his own diet. And he got off of dairy

products, and he got off of meat and he started following a vegan

diet. His health rebounded, his strength approved, he felts years

younger. And in the seventh edition of Baby and Child Care he wrote

that he had been wrong in promoting a meat and dairy based diet, and

that an ideal diet for kids left animal products off the plate

completely. And I have to say that his courage, his straight-

forwardness and his honesty really command respect. Ben died a number

of years ago. He was a good friend and a member of PCRM. His strength

of purpose and his ability

> to say he had made a mistake and set things straight just shows

what a great man he was!

>

> A huge thank you is in order to Dr. Neal Barnard for taking the

time to share his ideas with us. Check out all his great work at

PCRM.org!

>

> Live Simply So That

> Others May Simply Live

>

> lovelife...

>

> colin sky

>