Joel K. Kahn - The Plant-Based Solution: America’s Healthy Heart Doc’s Plan to Power Your Health

The Plant-Based Solution is dedicated to thousands of patients who have inspired me by their continual and successful efforts to overcome a medical system focused on mopping up the mess but not turning off the sink that is overflowing. The Plant-Based Solution is about turning off the faucet that leads to preventable chronic diseases. My patients have taught me so much over the years and have given me a reason to show up to my clinic with a bounce in my step and the knowledge that it is going to be another great day of progress and healing.

No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means.

MAIMONIDES (11351204)

Contents

Foreword by John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market

D r. Joel Kahn is a man with a mission and a message. His mission, like any good doctors, is to save lives. His message? Eat plants, and lots of them. The Plant-Based Solution is a call, by an esteemed cardiologist, to wake up to the best science and research about health, disease, and longevity. On page after page of this highly accessible and authoritative book, Dr. Kahn presents the overwhelming evidence that a whole foods, plant-based diet is unmatched in its capacity to prevent and reverse disease, revitalize our bodies, and extend our lives.

As cofounder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, I have watched from a unique vantage point as the movement toward healthy and organic eating has gathered steam. I have been tremendously encouraged by the millions of people who are taking back their health through the remarkable power of diet. I have seen lives transformed, families saved, and communities reenergized through the power of food-based medicine. Yet Americas healthy eating movement, while growing fast, is still relatively small. We are still losing the larger battle for our nations health. We are a population beset with chronic disease, most of which is a direct result of what we put on our plates. More than a hundred million people in this country are diabetic or prediabetic. Heart disease is our number-one killer. Obesity affects 36 percent of adults and 17 percent of children and brings with it a host of ills. These chronic conditions claim millions of lives and cost all of us billions in out-of-control health-care costs.

As Dr. Kahn declares in the following pages, much of this human toll is painfully unnecessary. We already know the solution. The word is out, he writes. Plants heal. Plants save lives. Plants reduce medical costs. Plants prevent disease. Even much-feared chronic diseases like dementia, Alzheimers, MS, and Parkinsons, he explains, are deeply connected to what we eat.

This is actually good news. It means that our long-term health is not merely dependent on our genetics. We have the opportunity to transform our health outcomes simply by changing whats on our plates. We need not wait for dramatic medical breakthroughs, new pharmaceuticals, or ever-better procedures. The power is our hands. But to use that power, we have to educate ourselves. Those of us who live in the developed world have an unprecedented opportunity and responsibility. We dont have to worry if we are going to be able to eat. Getting enough calories is no longer our primary problem. Indeed, for the first time in history, it is estimated that more people will suffer disability because of too many calories than not enough calories. Never before have we had access to the sheer variety of whole and healthy foods that are available in any grocery store. And yet, never has it been so easy to cheaply consume an endless supply of highly processed, unhealthy food-like substances, as food writer Michael Pollan calls them, that will break down our bodies and shorten our lives. In this era of endless options, we must make conscious choices to eat well. That starts with education.

Ive met Dr. Kahn, heard him speak to attentive audiences about nutrition and health, read his thoughtful writings on nutrition and heart disease, and had the pleasure of dining at his wonderful GreenSpace Caf in Ferndale, Michigan, where he is a gracious host. He is an example of a new kind of physicianpart medical doctor, part educator, and part health advocate. He has traversed the conventional medical world and understands that surgery and pharmaceuticals only go so far. What matters far more, especially when it comes to chronic conditions, are the simple choices we make every day of our liveswhat we eat and what we dont.

Unfortunately, the question What shall I eat? often seems to be a subject of great confusion today. Thats not accidental. Significant players in the food industry have a vested interest in keeping the general public in the dark about the best nutritional advice and keeping butter, meat, eggs, sugar, and oil at the center of our diets. Its to their advantage to make it seem like nutritional science is contradictory and confusing. That is why we must rely on trusted authorities like Dr. Kahn who have done the research and carefully sorted through the best science. He can save you from the misleading voices that tell you its all too complex, or its all a matter of individual genetics, or that bacon is good for you, or whatever the latest fad diet might claim. He can help save you from the illusion of confusion that has descended over our food culture in recent years. The truth about diet and health is actually quite clear: You just need to know whom to listen to.

The food industry is powerful, but it does change. And the engines of that change are shifting cultural preferences and consumer demand. Whole Foods Market is an example of this. Forty years ago, there wasnt much of a market for organic foods. Today, organic food is a growing, thriving, multibillion-dollar market, because more and more people have voted with their hard-earned dollars to make it that way. Hopefully, in forty years, we will be able to say the same thing about a dramatic shift to whole-food, plant-based eating. And by reading this book and following its advice, you can be a pioneer of that shift today.

This change in diet will impact much more than individual health. It will also transform our society in numerous ways, as Dr. Kahn lays out. Whole-food, plant-based eating is transformative to a health-care system that is ever more burdened by the cost of chronic disease. Its incredibly beneficial to an environment that is being damaged by the heavy footprint of animal agriculture. And eating a plant-based diet, as a recent New York Times article pointed out, may be the number-one thing that any single person can do to ameliorate the issue of climate change. Finally, its a compassionate choice. I have spent many years working on the ethics of eating animals, and trust me when I tell you that the killing fields of our factory farms are something future generations will look back on with disbelief.

Im a businessman, and theres nothing I like more than a deal in which everyone wins. Whole-food, plant-based eating is truly win-win-win-win. Rarely does one simple choice have such a far-reaching impact on our own lives, the well-being of our communities, the suffering of our fellow creatures, and the health of our planet. The Plant-Based Solution is that important. I recommend you read it closely, put it into practice carefully, and enjoy the benefits for a very long lifetime!

Preface

L et me tell you a bit about my upbringing and an important day in my life. I was raised in a home that observed kosher dietary laws of the Jewish faith. The meat we purchasedand yes there was meatwas bought at a special kosher butcher shop. We never combined milk and meat at meals. And there were some foods, like pork and shellfish, that were never in the house, as they are always prohibited.