Is it possible to control and reverse degenerative diseases?
I was raised in a home where meat, milk, and dairy products were part of our regular diet. As an adult and parent, I’ve continued this way of living, with the idea that everything in moderation is more or less okay. This idea wasn’t based on science or research. It was based on the fact that my husband, our kids, and I were all basically healthy. Why fix what isn’t broken?
Here’s the deal, though: For the most part, I don’t actually like meat or milk (ice cream and cheese are a different story!). Filet mignon occasionally? Yes. But on a day-to-day basis, the preparation of raw meat and the texture of cooked meat is gross. And the more processed meat is (deli meat, chicken nuggets, etc), the more I want to vomit when I think of eating it. I’d rather be a vegetarian (or at least 95% of the time). However, I’ve encountered a problem every time I try to eliminate meat from my diet: I never feel full. It sucks to always feel hungry!
I’ve heard a lot of buzz regarding the documentary Forks Over Knives. I was skeptical, but Andy and I watched it last night (FYI, it’s available to watch on instant play on Netflix). According to IMDb, Forks Over Knives “examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods.” That’s quite a claim, but it looks like they have enough substantial evidence to prove it. I’m open to trying it, given that both of our families have a history of disease, especially cancer. I’m not really a fan of meat, anyway!
If you haven’t watched Forks Over Knives, I encourage you to watch it. Then come back to my blog and share your thoughts. (I mean this in a nice way, but until you’ve watched the documentary, your opinions on it are irrelevant. Watch before you comment!)
If you’ve already been eating a plant-based diet, what’s your experience been like? Have you seen any noticeable changes?
Also, I’d really like to have, say, two weeks of “go to meals” that are meat-free, yet make my belly feel full and satisfied. So, if you have any favorite plant-based recipes [that actually make you feel full], please share them below or link to them.
The key to feeling full in a plant based diet is whole grains. Also, you have to eat more and more often than you think. I have not seen the movie but I have eaten a plant based diet on and off for 20 years. I, unlike you, crave meat. That being said, I am very picky about the meat I do eat sticking with organic antibiotic free meats. With the exception of cheese, I stay away from dairy and try to stay away from gluten. I, personally, feel better eating more conscientiously.
Okay, so I loved the movie. I do think that how we eat can help us be disease free. Or at least limit the ones we get. For example, I would not have had gestational diabetes if my weight were lower. My weight would be lower if I ate more veggies and less meat and dairy. Not wonderful facts about myself, but true. Also, I know that other medicinal views account for food in healing the body. Ayurvedic medicine for one. I’ve always used herbs and spices medicinally. For example, ginger for upset stomach, chamomile to relax, peppermint for upset tummy, honey for a sore throat, garlic and lavender to help with infection. It makes sense that food could heal or reverse disease.
However, going vegan is simply not a family option for us right now. I am not entirely convinced that it is right for everyone all the time. We went grain free one time and my very fit husband lost 15 pounds that week – major problem! He doesn’t want to go meat free all the time. I do feed the kids and I mostly vegetarian meals except for dinner during the week. They seem healthy. One son won’t touch any veggie but broccoli, so that would be a problem. I have a friend who is into research and she said all the studies, even the China one, have flaws. What she did find in common was that healthy people were those that were happy.
So, if you don’t like meat, go Vegetarian. I mean, it’s about listening to your body right? In order to feel full, you’ll probably have to eat more quantity than you are used to, more raw foods, up your water, and eat more often. For example, 1/2 of a 10 inch plate piled high with veggies for salad, a piece of nut “bread,” and a potato. Or a huge salad, and then 1/2 of an acorn squash cooked with some of the flesh mixed with cilantro, cinnamon, nutmeg, pine nuts, beans, and rice then restuffed and baked until warm. Then probably some baked apples with cinnamon.
For your healthy family make sure you are getting enough MUFA too. Olive oil on the salad (more than a tsp.) Coconut oil etc.
Blog about how it goes. I’d love to read about it.
This is awesome! Cooking with meat has always grossed me out too! Humans are not naturally supposed to eat meat anyways- our digestive system is similar to plant eating animals whereas carnivores have a very short intestine- that explains why we encounter more problems eating meat because essentially it takes a lot of time to pass through our colon and ends up rotting along the way..gross!
The reason you feel full longer with eating meat is because it takes longer for even your stomach to digest which gives way to it being stored or rotting. The goal in essence is to get food out of your body the quickest. It should come in, be used as fuel, then exit, not stored, your body does not want to do more work than it has to which is why you feel so tired after eating a meal that takes your body a long time to digest. So you may have to eat more- but the good news is it is things your body needs to run more efficiently.
Shane and I both encountered the problem of not feeling full at first. But your body can be – it may take a couple weeks so be prepared and stay strong. But cooking with things like potatoes and incorporating a lot of starches like rice, quinoa, pasta maybe some flatbreads help that feeling. You will probably get hungry more but thats okay- it just means your body is using the food for energy instead of storing it.
Hope this helps!
It is a lot easier than you think. I have been a vegetarian for 17 years. I eat fish every now and then that is not raised on a farm. I am not-nor could I be a vegan as my taste buds know what good cheese tastes like! Grilled eggplant, tofu,tempeh, spinach and morningstar burgers and tomatoes are generally on my grocery list every week. We eat lots of salad, stir fry, veggies and pretty much the same types of meals as just about anyone else. I just use extra veggies or soy products, veggie broth, beans and various other yummy things in place of the meat!
Grilled portobello mushrooms with red onions are very filling. Add some avocado and lettuce-delish! Perfect burger substitute! Vegetarian chili, black bean soup, black beans and rice, grilled tofu, eggplant-all of these things can make a very hearty meal! I really only make pasta once a week and rarely make things with brown rice. Just be careful NOT to eat too much cheese and pasta-an easy trap many new vegetarians fall into. You don’t have to drastically change your menu-just find a good substitute for the meat in your favorite meals!
I’ve been trying to move my family towards a flexitarian diet… we eat a lot of beans! Of course we’re strictly gluten free, so cutting meat out altogether (and I take issue with soy substitutes) is just a mountain too high at this point!
We watched the movie last year and have cut WAY back on animal products. I have a couple of “go-to” vegetarian meals in our regular menu and I’ve noticed that they make me feel satisfied but not heavy.
My favorite lately is Kale & Gnocchi soup. Saute some garlic & onion. Add a can of fire-roasted tomatoes and veggie broth. Bring to boil, add gnocchi. When gnocchi is 95% done, add tons and tons of chopped up kale. As soon as it wilts, serve with a bold, stinky cheese sprinkled on top (romano, feta, parmesan…)
Also, we do quesadillas at least a couple times per week. Mulit-grain tortillas, cheddar, black beans and red peppers. Serve with guacamole.
I totally disagree! I think we were intended to eat meat.Certainly not highly processed meat that was fed GMO crops, but clean organic grass fed meats. At no point in human history can you find humans living on pasta and tofu and thriving. I’d be happy to share many many links to support this if you are interested! And I am sure you realize that scientific evidence can be found to support ANYthing! If you are truly concerned about your health and wellness, then only way to go is to eat REAL food, made by GOD.
I loved reading your blog and everyones comments. It really helps to feel like your not alone!
i also struggled not feeling full when I first started and I think it was partly due to breaking my body’s addiction to meat and dairy and partly due to the fact that I was still learning what to eat. Now I just feel “normal” hunger at the appropriate times of day. One quick fix food that is helping me bridge the gap ( so to speak) is getting a veggie sub from subway loaded with spinach and veggies with honey mustard on honey oat bread. Quick, easy, yummy and filling! My other top filling foods have been beans ( almost everyday!) potatoes, cous cous and cereal with almond milk, of course. 
another food I have been eating way more of while I transition to this lifestyle is pb and j. It’s a quick filler and something I can bring with me just in case or to curb the hunger. A Book I would recommend is The Kind Diet. You can borrow it from the library. Also the FOK companion book and The Happy Herbivore. HH has a really good choc chip cookie recipe that is completely vegan. I made them last night. Yum! Another healthy treat to curb the chocolate craving is Justins Hazlenut butter…it’s a healthy version of nutella and I think it tastes better! Keep us updated on your progress!!
Lori,
I watched “Forks Over Knives” about two weeks ago, and I have completely changed my diet. I grew up in a farming community in NC where it was not even an option to try a vegan lifestyle. Therefore, I ate meat and potatoes on a daily basis. I ate a lot of french fries, hamburgers, pork, potato chips, etc. Since I started watching what I eat, I have lost five pounds and still work out six days a week. Now I eat about seven to eight fruits and vegetables a day, and I have stopped drinking soda completely. I occasionally eat seafood and a little cheese. If I am honest, I have had one steak burrito from Moe’s in the last two weeks. That’s a pretty significant change from eating meat during every meal of the day. My goal is to completely keep it out of my diet or only eat it once a month.
I have more energy now, and I have had no side effects except for an occasional headache in the morning possibly due to low sodium, dehydration, or caffeine withdrawal. I am still trying to narrow it down, but I have not had a headache in over a week. I think I have crossed the hump.
After watching the movie and reading Esselstyn’s book, as well as books on diet and cancer, I am convinced our diets are destroying our bodies. The foods we eat have certainly contributed to most of the illnesses we have today, especially heart disease. Just about everyone in my community back home, including my parents have either contracted a serious illness or show symptoms of one. My mom takes medication for high blood pressure and my dad has Type II diabetes. My neighbors have had strokes, cancer, and heart attacks. A few of them smoked, but the most common denominator is their diet. It is the same that mine was.
I am not the type to push my beliefs or lifestyle on anyone else, but if asked the question, I will certainly share what has worked for me. I highly encourage anyone who has not seen the movie to do so, and I encourage you to read the other books out there on the same subject. This will soon catch on and will be further studied, because people will demand to know the truth. Money talks and when people decide to switch there lifestyles appropriately, it will cost businesses enough money to listen. I consider it the next scientific revolution, and I think it will sustain us for quite a bit longer than we are used to seeing.
Wayne
Wow, what a boring documentary. I’m surprised by some of the basic nutrition principles that they’re touting as breakthrough stuff. Dietitians for years have been telling Americans that they eat too much meat and refined sugars. That processed foods are bad. That whole foods are better. To eat a clean diet.
I think a lot of people are more apt to change the way they eat than to get out there and workout and handle these diseases by losing the extra weight they carry. I think people are fooling themselves into thinking they’re healthier just because they don’t eat meat. Almond milk, Morningstar products, etc are all very highly processed foods as well with additives and preservatives. Americans always go for comfort and convenience when it comes to food and they don’t always make the wisest choices, even vegetarians.
It is my job as a mother to adequately feed my children and I cannot do that with a good conscience when I’m not giving them any meat in their diet. Especially since I myself dealt with anemia and one of my children does as well. I’ve never been a huge meat eater. The recommended amount per adult according to the food guide pyramid is merely 6-9oz per day. Most Americans eat that per meal. I always say everything in moderation, but you have to truly understand what moderation is. There are plenty days that I don’t eat meat so I’m not saying this as a bonafide meat lover. I don’t even eat red meat, but I still feed organic red meat to my kids. I’m just saying animal protein is best. The protein you get from meat is always better absorbed into the bloodstream than any kind of plant based protein. And if you’re exercising regularly, nothing will ever “rot” in your intestines. Having an exercise regimen will always keep you regular.
Biblically, it’s unsound as well. God told Peter to not call things unclean that He has called clean. The Israelites went to the land of milk and honey! I don’t think God was setting them up for disease. God gave us dominion over animals so I will never feel guilty for eating them. There are bigger things to worry about in this world than a cow’s soul (which they don’t have). We need to be excellent stewards with what God has given us responsibility for by taking care of them and not mass producing them to feed the masses. By mistreating them and mishandling meat meant for food to save a buck or two. The food industry is absolutely disgusting but what else is there? Buy local, buy organic. Check out offthevine.org as it is the easiest way to do this.
Oh, and one more thing…gestational diabetes isn’t preventable. Emily, even if you were at a healthy weight, you can still get gestational diabetes. There are plenty of women (myself included) that are a healthy weight and still get gestational diabetes. It’s all about irregular hormone levels that the placenta is giving you that makes your sugar levels jump. Having had gestational diabetes will greatly increase your chances of having Type 2 later in life which is correlated to our weight, exercise and diet so we need to be extra careful about what we eat and make sure we get our workouts in.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
I do not live in a spirit of fear but I do live in divine healing. What mistakes I do make, I trust the Lord to cover them for me. And I strive to do the absolute best that I can. And if you want some vegetarian meal ideas, hit me with an email.
I have been toying with becoming vegan or vegetarian for almost a year now. Three years ago I stopped eating red meat, and saw an incredible difference in my energy. I was pressured to eat red meat, and caved two and half years later, with a five guys burger. I hated it. Don’t get me wrong the taste was AMAZING, but I will leave out the bathroom part after. It was awful. I continued to eat red meat all summer long, and every time I ate it, I felt the same. I ate red meat for four months, until I said enough!! I stopped eating red meat, pork, and even cut down on chicken. I feel great! So when I heard about this documentary I was interested. I had lived this, and wanted to get the facts behind it. Can I say WOW! Some of the information was common sense or has been preached before, however some points had me glued in. I 100% believe this is true. I know how different my body is when I do or don’t consume meat, and dairy products. After watching this, and hearing benefits I didn’t even consider, I feel even happier with my decision to live a plant centered diet.
Actually Gestational Diabetes is a lot more debatable a topic than it seems.
I have not watched the movie you viewed. I’ll have to check it out. However, I did do a plant based diet in 2004 called the Hallelujah diet (www.hacres.com) and did it to help improve my health. I gave up all meat, sugar, caffeine, white flour, no processed foods, and nothing from an animal. I ate 80% raw and only 20% of my plant-based food was cooked. I lost about 20 pounds eating this way and I did it for many months. My husband only gave up meat for one month and lost 20 pounds that month. Again, I did this to help improve my health.
Eating this way was hard, but I was totally on-board with it. Not one of my friends were eating this way. So it was very difficult when we went over to a friend’s home for dinner as I couldn’t eat the foods they were eating. Thankfully, they understood what I was doing and I had to bring my own food to eat. Now, I know a number of people who follow a vegetarian or vegan diet. However, at this time I am not eating this way.
There are a lot of studies that support this way of eating (plant based diet) to help your body heal itself from disease. Especially for those who have cancer. On the flip side, I can find a lot of studies out there that support diets like GAPS where it is shown how eating meat from your local farmer that is organic, hormone free, etc and making your own meat broth to drink daily and drinking fermented milk like Keifer milk can heal your body of diseases.
It’s not surprising that God made our bodies to heal themselves. And it’s not surprising to me that the foods we eat can help facilitate this. The standard american diet (aka “SAD” diet) is a terrible way to eat. Thankfully, we don’t have to eat this way! We can eat meat that isn’t full of hormones, antibiotics and are grass fed or not eat meat at all.
I found Forks Over Knives to be very compelling, especially after watching Food Inc. and reading extensively about our food supply and how food affects our bodies. As someone who is not quite a vegetarian but rarely eats meat, the point that leapt out for me personally was about protein. We do seem to have a cultural obsession with eating “enough protein.” I’m an avid runner and have long thought consuming less than recommended amount of protein hasn’t seemed to impact me negatively.
Something else that leapt out was the lack of discussion about nuts. We are a peanut and tree nut free household, so without eating meat, I feel like I struggle to, yes, feed my family “enough protein.”
I looked for some thoughtful, critical reviews of the movie and this one addressed the nut issue and made some other valid points: http://open.salon.com/blog/dr_ayala/2011/06/15/forks_over_knives_can_a_plant_based_diet_reverse_disease
While I think my family would struggle to give up dairy, I am making a big effort to move toward a whole foods plant based diet, especially in terms of expanding the amount and types of fruits and vegetables we eat. We attempt to minimize animal products, but I am not sure yet how I feel about eliminating dairy completely. In an effort to find that answer, I am giving up all animal products for a week to if I notice a difference. If I feel great, I might just keep going.