Read Food Over Medicine Online
Authors: Pamela A. Popper,Glen Merzer
GM:
So these have been examples of people who look better and feel better and get their lives back. Another bragging point you make for the diet is clarity of mind …
PP:
Okay, I’ve got a story on the subject. I love this story. The man’s name is Barry Small, and I’ve been friends with his wife, Elisabeth, for twenty-two years. I met Barry because one of my best friends married him. I was at their wedding and I’m a frequent guest at their house. So over the years, their diet has changed some as a result of my influence; they never were McDonald’s-eating people or anything like that, but they also never ate optimally; I think they always looked at me as an extremist. They took the more moderate road to health and were able to do pretty well. They never were very sick or obese or anything. They never consulted with me much about health issues. When I was in their house, we always ate the low-fat vegan food, but I knew from what was in the freezer that they weren’t really on our diet. And these people, by the way, adopted a boy and a girl from Russia. Barry became a parent again at the age of sixty, which is a keen motivation to stay healthy.
One day I got a call from Barry and Elisabeth; they’re really worried. Barry’s concern was that a couple of times he was on a conference call for work and his mind went blank. He said, “I completely skipped out and I couldn’t even get words out of my mouth. It took a couple minutes for me to come back to the present and I’m very concerned because I felt like an idiot.” It also happened once when he was talking in front of a group. He told me he had been going to the Cleveland Clinic; Barry has good insurance and boy, will these high-end hospitals use it up. He explained that he’s got high cholesterol and blood pressure, so immediately it’s clear this is a cardiovascular issue. He overnights me his files; they were so extensive that they had to come in a box. I sat down one night and I read through the patient files; it was test after test and image after image. They spent $10,000 to $20,000 on all this imaging and testing and it all said the same thing: he had high cholesterol and high blood pressure, he had gained weight over the years, and he had cardiovascular disease that had been progressing for decades.
I got Barry and Elisabeth on the phone and told them what I thought. I said, “What’s wrong with you is very simple: you have high cholesterol and high blood pressure—it’s a marker for coronary artery disease. You’re having impaired oxygenation to the brain. These moments when you check out and it takes you two minutes to come back, I think it’s all vascular.”
We went through the low-fat vegan diet, and he listened hard because he was scared. He said, “I’ve got kids, I’ve got to get myself squared away.” Fear can be a really good motivator. He said, “I promise I will do everything starting with the next morsel I put into my mouth. You’ll get my complete cooperation; I’m going to do this thing.” It didn’t take very long. He went back to his doctor after about three months. He had lost twenty-five pounds. He said he had to go out and buy all new clothes. All of those thought and speech symptoms he was having totally disappeared. Within three months, he went back to the doctor at the Cleveland Clinic and went off all his blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering meds. His cholesterol dropped like a rock and his blood pressure was healthfully low to normal. The doctor did the brachial artery tourniquet test on him and told Barry, “I think there’s a mistake. Last time you were in here you had advancing coronary artery disease and now, my God, it’s like you have the arteries of an eighteen-year-old.” And so they did the test again and it was exactly the same result. Barry completely reversed his coronary artery disease.
And he tells me that every time people see him now, they say, “Oh my God, what did you do? What happened to you? You look fabulous!” And Elisabeth was never really overweight, but because the family converted to the diet, she’s also dropped a few pounds. They look like a Hollywood couple now. They’re just in phenomenal shape and, of course, they’ve got kids in high school and want to stay young and healthy and see their kids graduate from high school and college and get married and all of that good stuff. In fact, they’re thinking of adopting some more children now because they’re feeling so great. And his cholesterol is so low that he gets the usual response from the people in the medical field, “Oh my gosh, Barry, that cholesterol is so low it’s probably dangerous.” He laughs. He read Rip Esselstyn’s book and he trusts me. So he laughs. He says, “Yeah, yeah, four months ago my cholesterol was high like you think it ought to be. I was a candidate for bypass surgery. Now you’re telling me you want me to go back there?”
GM:
He sounds like a good case of someone who’s seen too many doctors.
PP:
Yeah. While I don’t discourage people from seeing doctors, many just need to be taught the diet. What Barry needed was not more doctors; he needed to get the salmon and the olive oil out of the house and to stop fooling himself. He just needed to stop all that stuff; it’s amazing how fast people get better if they do. One of the reasons why that’s a favorite story is because everybody in our field wants to help the people close to them, but it can be very frustrating when people who are complete strangers listen to you and heal, while the people who are closest to you are harder to reach. You’d like to say something, but you don’t want to lecture them every time you see them. I love these people. I’ve known Elisabeth for twenty-something years and I’ve known Barry for half that time; it would be devastating to me if something happened to either of them. So, you know, these are close, close friends. Now he’s better, and that makes me very happy. But sometimes you have to wait until the time is right.
BARRY SMALL IN HIS OWN WORDS
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I am sixty-three years old. I have had high cholesterol, hypertension, and weight problems for several years and they had been getting worse. In August 2010, my total cholesterol was 264, my LDL was 186, and my triglycerides were 147. I was being medicated for these conditions, but my health was continuing to deteriorate.
In September 2010, I was told that I was getting close to needing bypass surgery. This was not something I was willing to do; I have a great wife and two great kids who need their dad. My health risks had to be addressed, so I decided to look into other options.
My wife, Elisabeth, and I have known Dr. Pam Popper for many years; Pam’s a close family friend. She had influenced our eating habits over the years. We talked often about how powerful diet could be in preventing and treating disease. But we had never really made the great leap to being vegan or near-vegan. Now, though, faced with the prospect of worsening health and a surgery I did not want to have, I decided to talk to her about my health.
I sent her my blood tests and other medical information and on December 2, 2010, she called me to give her recommendations. I’ll never forget what Pam said to me: “Are you ready to do what it takes to get better?” I respected her opinion, so when she said, “Never let another bite of animal food, processed food, or oil pass your lips again,” that was when I immediately became an oil-free vegan.
Only ninety days later, I went to my family physician to get a lipid profile blood test. A few days later, he called me to come in and review the results. In his office, the first thing he said was, “Hippocrates was right! Food is your medicine.” My cholesterol went from 197 (on medication) to 157. He also did an arterial elasticity test, and it showed that I once again had flexible arteries. He said it was completely different from my test a few months earlier.
The weight loss was also impressive. After ninety days, I had trimmed down from a size 38-inch waist to a 33-inch waist. I am now the weight I was in college forty-five years ago. I now take no medications, and people constantly tell me I look twenty years younger than I used to.
It was amazing to me that a problem that I had been dealing with for twenty years vanished in only ninety days on a plant-based diet.
PP:
I met Patty Yeager in Las Vegas a few years ago; when we first met, she was very overweight. After my visit, she became a Wellness Forum member and learned our eating plan. I was in Las Vegas the following year for a
Forks Over Knives
screening, and Patty was there. She had lost so much weight and changed so much I walked right by her and did not recognize her. Patty was always attractive, even when she was overweight, but when she lost the weight, she became drop-dead gorgeous.
PATTY YEAGER IN HER OWN WORDS
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I took the Wellness 101 class about a year and a half ago, and my eating habits started changing as soon as I started taking the classes. One of the first things I did was to get rid of all processed foods in my pantry. I had already stopped eating most meat, but after only two weeks, I decided to eliminate fish, too. The last thing I gave up was dairy. I was a frozen yogurt addict, but was really surprised when I decided to treat myself to it a few months after giving it up—it tasted awful! It was the same for so many things that were a part of my regular diet, like soda pop, cheese, yogurt, and other foods. I had heard over and over that your taste buds change, but I really didn’t believe it until it happened to me. I am now so attuned to my body that when I have that occasional treat, like a candy bar, I can immediately feel my body turning into a sugar-craving machine for the next few days. In fact, I used to feel that way ALL the time and I’m so glad I no longer live feeling that way! Usually after the sugar craving, a feeling of sluggishness would follow, and I found myself not wanting to do much of anything. I am SO happy not to be in that cycle anymore!
Probably the most surprising thing I learned in the Wellness 101 class was that I could eat a significantly larger quantity of the right foods and still lose weight. By learning the RIGHT things to eat, you never really overindulge and you feel satisfied. In fact, I feel like I eat all the time and I’ve never looked better or felt healthier.
I was fortunate that I did not have any pending “medical health problems” and that I was doing this for prevention purposes for my kids and for myself, but I was concerned about extra weight I had put on. I definitely have lost weight, I am never tired, and I feel good all the time. It is interesting that when you feel this way, you notice even more how many people around you are always tired, complaining, have a negative attitude, and are always running to their doctor to have prescriptions filled for every little ache and pain. I KNOW that a change in nutrition would turn ALL of that around. My mind feels clearer and my body feels healthy. I am never sick and I am never ever tired. I want everyone to feel the way I do, which is why I am headed down the path to share this lifestyle with as many people as I can! I feel very blessed to have learned this information before I was in the sick care system and I feel doubly blessed that my children will live their whole lives with these healthy habits!
When I was asked what is my favorite dish or food, I can definitely say it’s a tie between my morning smoothies and a big brown rice bowl, both of which are amazing and SO filling! Did I mention——I’m never hungry!
Being a single mom with four children, I do make an effort to get at least seven hours of sleep and I work out at least five to six times a week. I hike, bike, run (well more like a slow jog, but at least I try), attend yoga classes, and lift weights. The better you start to feel, the MORE you want to do physical activity and you actually see and feel the difference in your mind and body when you don’t get the workout in.
When asked how my family and friends have responded to my new habits, I can honestly say, “Some have and some have not.” Sometimes, as we know, the people who need the help the most are the most resistant. I have learned that strong-arming someone into this lifestyle, if they are not ready to hear the information, will never work. I have chosen instead to live by example. I think people who meet me and feel the energy and happiness that I exude——largely because of this plant-strong lifestyle——will get people who want a change to ask for the help and get educated and make the change. I know for sure that if I CAN DO IT, anyone can!
Finally, when I was asked what advice do I have for other people who are considering becoming Wellness Forum members, I can say without hesitation there is nothing to lose. Get the education, then decide, make small changes, make big changes, DO something. If you continue to do what you have always done you will continue to get the same results. Why not try something that WORKS?
I am very fortunate to have come in contact with The Wellness Forum and Dr. Popper. Everyone should take advantage of the opportunity and make a life-altering decision to not only “look” healthy but BE healthy!
PP:
Martin (his name has been changed) is a restaurant manager in his fifties who lives in California. He has hepatitis C and was advised to undertake interferon therapy because his viral load was very, very high and escalating. His liver enzymes were up. If you look at the track record for interferon therapy for hepatitis C, it’s effective about 40 percent of the time, and the side effects are horrible. So you’ve got a 60 percent failure rate and you’re stuck with the side effects. Martin decided that he didn’t want to do it and called me.
We put him on a low-fat vegan diet, to which he has been faithfully compliant. Martin’s really good about it. Long story short, even his traditional docs leave him alone now because nothing’s changed; his disease hasn’t progressed at all. This is an instructive story not only because the diet worked so well but also because it reminds you that the disease can kill you only if it progresses. Even if your enzymes are still elevated and your viral load is a little high, it’s not going anywhere; you’ll probably live to ninety-five and die of something else. Martin will not die from liver failure.