The Big Tent and Dr. G

     For better or worse I'm a Big Tent guy. I'm not talking about my current shirt size.

     Whether it's politics, religion or, say, hog calling, I think all groups are made stronger by expanding the tent and inviting as many different points of view as possible.  Instead our fears drive us to set up small tents and purity tests.

     "You don't want to build a border wall?! You're a RINO! Out!"

     "You don't believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale?! Blasphemer! Out!"

     "You would allow whistles or electronic devices in a Hog Call competition?! May you boil in the fiery pits of Mordor!"

      I got thinking about this because of a conversation I had with Dr. Ben Gonzalez. (Dr. G as he's known by his patients.) Ben and I knew each other in high school a looooong time ago. (I ocassionally borrowed his abacus). In high school Ben was a skinny Student Government geek who played the violin. As time marched on he became a military doc who was awarded the bronze star for his service in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He's also a pilot. And he still plays the violin. Raconteur much, Ben?

     Here he is in a fitness challenge with a guy half his age. He's also a 1st degree black belt in Karate and Tae Kwon Do. (Big deal. My belts are way bigger and made from animals.)

     After a fifteen year stint on the emergency staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Ben started his own practice. Atlantis Medical Wellness Center in Silver Spring, MD. He wanted the freedom to make a real difference in the lives of his patients which meant spending more time with them and giving them the information they needed, especially about nutrition. Consequently, he gave up his relationship with insurance companies because they generally only reimburse doctors for prescribing pills and procedures. Sad but true. There's not a lot of money in preventing disease but there's mountains of cash to be made on people who already have a disease.

     Ben and I re-connected recently. He follows this blog. He's not a vegan, just interested. Or bored.

     He said something that got me thinking about big tents.

     "I consider myself a plant based doc."

     Now if I was a small-tent plant-based disciple I might cry "Hellish Carnivore! I shun you!"  And if he came to my house for dinner he'd have to shave his head and enter walking backwards and sit by himself at a separate table.

     But I'm not a small tent guy. So I asked why he considers himself to be a plant based doc. His explanation made perfect sense. He said he tries to get his patients to flip their dinner plate paradigm to include more plants. He wants them to see meat as a garnishment. Or at least as that small serving section of their plate. And he encourages them to fill the rest of their plate with raw fruits and vegetables.

     Now, that's not my food program. I'm a whole food plant based guy. No meat. No dairy. No oils. I've found it to be the best way to manage my diabetes. Who knows, I may make modifications in the future. But I'm not about to cast Ben's ideas in the dust bin because they don't adhere exactly to my chosen path. Imagine the health benefits if every American made the change Ben's advocating! In a few years we could reap a very powerful reward - we could start making fat jokes about people from other countries.

     I sigh when I read about plant based enthusiasts denouncing other plant based enthusiasts because they eat honey, for instance. Sheesh! We've got bigger tofu chunks to saute, people!

     So, I treasure my recent conversation with Ben. Not only because I re-discovered an old friend but because he expanded my understanding of what it means to be plant-based. He invited me to pull up my tent stakes and re-plant them a little further out. A tip of the hat Dr. G.

     That's all for today. Time to beatbox the hogs home for dinner.

Breaking Away

Breaking Away from Diabetes and Conventional wisdom

     I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 12 years ago. Since that time I have been evaluated by six or seven different doctors. Never, in all my conversations with all those doctors, was I told, "Brian, you can get off your medication and reverse the symptoms of diabetes by changing your diet." Not one time.

     If nutrition ever came up it was to say that a better diet would help the medication "control" my diabetes. Keep it from raging out of control. Other than that the sum total of my interaction with doctors has been an exercise in increasing dosages and adding new medications. This is a pretty typical scenario for diabetics in America.

     To be fair to everyone of those doctors - good, competent and decent people all - I was not a compliant patient. My diabetes was uncontrolled. I can well imagine the futility with which they regarded someone like me. Perhaps they did talk themselves blue in the face to several patients before I darkened their door. By the time I came around I was just one more hopeless case.

     But it's hard for me not to be a little angry at their lack of evangelizing. Did they just not believe I could do it? Did they want to avoid an uncomfortable conversation? Or did they, the doctors, those near demigods to most of us, just not know that eating a whole food plant based diet could reverse diabetic symptoms and eliminate the need for most it not all of my medicine.

     Perhaps its all of these things. But it's certainly the latter. I broached the subject with a couple of them. One told me he did not believe eliminating animal products had anything to do with lowering blood sugar. The other was incredulous. She asked what in the world I was reading and tried to set me straight. Medication was the answer, she said.

     There are reasons for these doctors' reactions which I won't get into in detail for now. Suffice it to say a) doctors get reimbursed for prescribing pills and procedures, not consultations. b) most docs are limited to 15-20 minutes with each patient.  c) Most medical schools in America teach nothing or at least very little about nutrition. And finally, d) many of those same medical schools are funded by pharmaceutical companies. (for more info on this read the books suggested below)

     But for those struggling with type 2 diabetes (or heart disease, or any life threatening disease), do yourself a favor. Go watch Forks Over Knives.

     Here's a powerful testimonial from a physician who was as unhealthy as his patients. All the major diseases ran in his family. He moved to a whole food plant based diet and changed his life.

     That's a good place to get started. Then you can read Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes. Put The China Study on your list and you'll see this is rigorous science not the latest health rage.

     Right now I'm reading "How Not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger. Get on his email list. You'll get his video series from nutritionfacts.org. He'll explain how a plant based diet can prevent and even reverse all the major diseases.

     This particular video is about the effect of a plant based diet on a group of diabetics who had elevated A1c numbers.


     Heres a little teaser.

 

These colors represent (from bottom to top) non-diabetic, pre-diabetic, and uncontrolled diabetes. The vertical numbers are the 13 patients A1c numbers. The horizontal numbers are the number of months each patient participated.

Here you can see where each patient was on the diabetic scale. A few are pre diabetic. Most are struggling with uncontrolled diabetes. A couple of guys and gals are way up there in the rarified air I once occupied. 

With an average of 7 months of eating a plant based diet every single patient left the realm of uncontrolled diabetes. Many actually got into the non-diabetic zone, including the two who were the worst off. (Dr. Greger is careful to mention that this graph only shows those who stayed on the diet. Some, evidently, found it to difficult. That's a topic for another time.)

But most of all, I'm here to tell you from my personal experience that it works. Everytime I undertake it in earnest, it drives my blood sugar down and I begin to shed pounds and medication.
And here's the biggest surprise of all. The food tastes great!  The food I use to eat was like a bad movie, loaded with over the top elements. Sure it was thrilling for the moment, but in the end it left me uninspired. Today my food is more like one of my all time favorites. Breaking Away. Everything about it inspires me. And if you're in the grip of uncontrolled diabetes or heart disease, the title is appropriate for what eating a whole food plant based diet will do for you.

Be a Cutter. Cut your medication in half. Cut it out of your life altogether. 

Dad: What is this?

Mom: It's sautéed zucchini.

Dad: It's I-tey food. I don't want no I-tey food.

Mom: It's not. I got it at the A&P. It's like...squash.

Dad: I know I-tey food when I hear it. It's all them "eenie" foods. Zucchini. Linguine. And fettuccini. I want some American food, dammit! I want french fries!

Why I Backslide

Jon-Erik (5'10ish") Emma (5'4ish") Ben (5'7ish")
Maria (5'3ish") Me (5'8ish") Simon (5'8ish")
Not pictured is Adam (5'8ish")

     We Nissens aren’t a tall lot. We're somewhere south of the national average and somewhere north of Frodo Baggins. 

     When our oldest was a child he told our pediatrician that he wanted to be six feet tall. Dr. Melaragno put his hand on our son’s shoulder and kindly broke the news. 

     “Jon-Erik. You don’t get a great dane from two chihuahuas.”

     Ouch. That hurt. I was so annoyed, I almost bit his ankle.  

     

     There’s a reason our family’s height, or lack thereof, is on my mind. 

     Every time I’ve embarked on a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle the results have been powerful. In a matter of a few months I've dropped thirty pounds, lowered my blood sugar and eliminated most of my medications. 

     But last night Maria asked me an important question. 

“Why do you think you stop doing it?” 

     I’m not sure I can identify the reason, but I can identify a certain healthy behavior I abandon prior to each backslide.

     I stop measuring. 

     Why? The answer can be found in the door jam of our first home.

     One of the hardest things to leave behind when we moved from our first home was the haphazard record of our children’s ever-changing height. There was something powerfully nostalgic about that door jam. It told a decade-long tale of our five children chasing down Mom and Dad. Sharpie scars noted each new milestone. But high above those crowded dates and numbers there was only one mark for Mom and Dad. Obviously. I mean, what’s the point of measuring something that’s stopped changing? 

     And there you have it. For me, once blood sugar drops to a consistent and acceptable level, the thrill is gone. Once your scale needle drops to your high school weight plus a respectable 10 pound “adjustment for inflation”, motivation grinds to a halt. You stop measuring. And once that happens it's like Gerald Ford stepping off of Air Force One.

     The fiber in apples and spinach is replaced by the fat, salt and sugar in enchiladas and the cookies. A few weeks later you don’t really want to measure anything. You begin living in that strange world in which the consequences of your behavior seem distant or unimportant. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Someday you’ll pay. 

     So this time I’m determined to keep measuring. I’m stubborn. I’m tenacious. We chihuahuas are like that.