“Given the right conditions, the body can heal itself” (How Not to Die).
Pioneering physicians in lifestyle medicine, Nathan Pritikin, Dean Ornish, and Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. took patients with advanced heart disease and put them on the kind of plant-based diet followed by Asian and African populations who did not suffer from heart disease. They were hoping that placing their patients on this diet would stop the disease from progressing.
What they found happening, instead, was a miracle. Their patients’ heart disease started to reverse. These patients were actually getting better with the prospect of not just living with the disease, but ridding themselves of it. As soon as they stopped eating an artery-clogging diet, their bodies were able to start dissolving away some of the plaque that had built up. Arteries opened up without drugs or surgery, even in some cases of patients with severe triple-vessel heart disease.
“…their bodies wanted to heal all along but were just never given the chance” (How Not to Die 27).
In a recent conversation with my friend, he mentioned something that I’ve observed as well. People are becoming more and more educated about the benefits of a plant-based diet. They have the “why” figured out. Now, we’re beginning to see a demand to make the connection to the “how”. Whereas the question was once, “Why should I go plant-based?” the question has evolved to, “How do I make the change?”
These are my suggestions:
- Reach out to someone already thriving in their plant-based lifestyle. Most people who have adopted a plant-based diet are more than willing to educate and share their journey.
- Join social media groups that advocate for the plant-based diet. Hundreds of thousands of people in these groups may be asking and answering the same questions you have and can’t wait to partake in your journey.
As we look forward to 2019, let’s actively seek a newer, better lifestyle, filled with fruits, nuts, legumes, beans, vegetables, leafy greens, plenty of water and exercise. In this manner, we place ourselves in a position to present our bodies to God and reap the promise to live an abundant life.
Although we may not able to attain physical perfection in this life, I was moved by this quote from one of my favorite writers:
“After man has done all in his power to ensure health, by the denying of appetite and gross passions, that he may possess a healthy mind, and a sanctified imagination, that he may render to God an offering in righteousness, then he is saved alone by a miracle of God’s mercy, as was the ark upon the stormy billows. Noah had done all that God required of him in making the ark secure; then God performed that which man could not do, and preserved the ark by His miraculous power”. (Councils on Diet and Foods 49.4)
Interested in learning more about how to go plant-based this year? Life & Health’s cookbook, From Plant to Plate shares over 100 easy and delicious plant-based recipes for you to try this year. Buy it here.
