Eating a Plant-Based Diet for Health
One of the observations I have made over the last few years after moving over to a predominantly plant-based diet is that many people (including myself) often consider changing their eating habits only after they discover they are facing a serious health issue. While eating for health is but one of the big 3 reasons for dietary conversion (animal ethics and the environment are the other biggies), yet it is the reason that is perhaps easiest to digest (forgive the pun). From the books I’ve read on the subject, the documentaries I’ve seen, the speakers I’ve listened to, and the people I’ve spoken with in the plant-based genre, giving up animal protein-based foods is often compared, albeit subtly, to ceasing your consumption of, say, arsenic. At least that’s how it comes across to me.
Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with using comparisons of this sort, but after hearing this message repeated over and over endlessly, it can wear on you a bit, I’ve noticed.
The Fear Factor
So let’s just take a deep breath and see if we can siphon off some of this fear that comes off like a life insurance salesman telling you you’d better buy his policy so you can protect your family when you die. Notice I didn’t say IF you die, but rather WHEN you die, because that is the message that usually comes across, although the insurance person who is trying to sell you a policy usually says something like, “In the event of your death.” After all, they are trying to SELL you a policy, so they have to sprinkle their sales points like seasoning over a more palatable meal of words (I’m bad, I know, but it’s true).
The age-old addage of eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die seems a good argument and a creedo for us when we’re young, but thankfully mellows as a way of life when we get a little older. Or at least it should mellow (you know who you are). And we all know, or should know, that if we abuse our bodies by imposing conditions upon ourselves that are not conducive to our health, then we will suffer for it. Experience proves this to us time and again. The suffering we experience usually comes in the form of a hangover (in the case of drinking or taking other intoxicants), or completely wearing ourselves out to the point of sickness, or getting a bad case of indigestion, putting on weight, or other problems from eating too much. But in some hidden recess of our minds we think we know our limits.
Do we? Or are we just fooling ourselves?
At the surface, the impetus for changing our diet because we want better health and want to live longer seems relatively simple. We’re told by the experts that if we eat a plant-based diet, avoid all animal protein foods (meat and dairy or anything that contains it) then we’ll have a better chance of avoiding chronic illnesses like cancer, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.
Simple, right? Better health, long life, no chornic disease. Easy.
Maybe.
Statistics Vs the Question
The statistics on eating a plant-based diet certainly do back up the contentions, but even with the results from The China Study and others, one still needs to find a place of comfort and balance in their approach to any major dietary change. This is especially true for such an extreme change to a plant-based diet from the animal-based one you probably have been living for an entire lifetime. Indeed, a change of this sort is not an easy prospect at all.
Putting that aside for just a minute, we return to the real question that is the subject of this post.
Can a plant-based diet save your life?
That depends on your perspective, I suppose. If you have been living high on the hog (I know…quiet!) by eating a diet heavy in animal protein your entire life and now have one or more chronic diseases, the answer is probably a resounding “NO.”
I think the original question should really be phrased as, “Can a plant-based diet PROLONG your life?” Then it’s clear from about any point of view you can come up with that the answer is “YES.”
Life and Death
Linda McCartney lived a very strict Vegan lifestyle from what I understand, which she followed for many years. And she chose to live this way long before being diagnosed with cancer. But it still didn’t save her in the end. This is true of others (Steve Jobs comes to mind) who have switched to a plant-based diet after being diagnosed with a chronic disease or condition as well. It may prolong life, perhaps even stave off death for many years in some cases. But it is not a cure for death, or an immunization against it. That would be great, but an anti-death serum just doesn’t exist. At least not yet, anyway.
That being said, I know people who have successfully fought cancer by changing to a plant-based diet. The personal sacrifice is great, and the struggle is ongoing, but it’s living proof to me, at least, that changing to a plant-based diet at ANY point in your life may, at the very least, buy you some time. What could you do with a few more years or even decades that you wouldn’t have otherwise?
Think about that for a minute.
A Powerful Story
When I heard Ruben Guzman speak in January, he recounted his story of working as an intern in the pathology department of a hospital (as I recall) when he was starting down a path in the medical field. He was responsible for weighing and cataloging people’s organs after they had died (bear with me, I know it’s a little gross, but it has a point.) Anyhow, he said that most people’s digestive tracts smelled absolutely repulsive and looked just a s bad (from eating an animal-based diet for an entire lifetime).
But one day, he came across one that was completely different. This one had no smell, and looked very clean. This person had lived into their 60s and had died suddenly of natural causes. This piqued his interest, and he investigated further. He found that the person had died of heart failure, and it was because of a defect that normally would have caused death at a very early age under normal circumstances. This person had committed early in life to eating a plant-based diet. It was apparent that the plant-based diet this individual had been on had kept them alive far longer than would normally have been expected or possible.
Ruben was astonished at this revelation, and it affected him so deeply that he changed his entire career path to become the Olympic, career and nutritional coach he is today because of it, as well as changing to a plant-based diet himself.
The Plant-Based Decision
Though I have no illusions about living forever, the more I hear stories like this, the more I become convinced that a plant-based diet can make a difference in your health, and though it may not SAVE you, it just may help you to live a longer life.
Further, you need not react in utter terror, at worst, or mild annoyance, at best, despite how the message of switching to a plant-based diet may come across (although a healthy bit of fear can sometimes be a good thing where motivation is concerned).
Anyway, I’m in, and I hope you will be too!
Happy plant-based eating and may you live a long and healthy life!
