We all know we should eat better.
That’s the standard message from health professionals, dietitians and nutritionists. A sedentary lifestyle paired with foods that are highly caloric, high in fat and loaded with sodium is seen as nobody’s friend.
Adopting a plant-based style of eating is gaining popularity as a way to live healthier.
For some, the idea of a plant-based diet means bland tofu blocks, dairy-free cheese and vegetables all the time. But others see it as a stepping stone to losing weight, getting off of or reducing medications or increasing endurance and better health.
It is obvious that the plant-based trend continues to be more visible given the appearance of vegetable burgers that actual “bleed” like beef to cheese and bacon alternatives and a plethora of nut milks.
Bloomfield-based vegan cardiologist Joel Kahn believes the tipping point toward more and more people adopting a plant-based lifestyle is happening now.
“Some enter it from the medical world, some from the environmental world, like James Cameron out in LA and some enter from the animal rights world, like the PETA group and others,” Kahn says.
And now, performance has come into play, as more athletes are touting the benefits of a full or partial plant-based diet, Kahn says.
“Athletes are going to make the case for plant-based better than anyone. There’s this explosion, even in our own town.”
For example, Theo Riddick of the Lions is the keynote speaker at this year’s annual VegFest, which will be held in Novi, Mich., on April 29.
Riddick said the things that influenced him the most to switch to a plant-based diet was watching the documentary “What the Health” on Netflix.
While he wasn’t completely vegan throughout the entire season, he says changing up his diet to include more fruits and vegetables helped make a difference in performance and other things.
“I think it was just like basic things, like bloatiness,” Riddick says. “I never felt bloated by any means and I felt like my body was more revved.”
Riddick also says his energy level was a lot higher than normal.
“Before I always had to drink coffee in the morning. And when I started plant-based, I kind of strayed away from coffee and no longer needed it to be attentive.”
Gone was also the fogginess he would start to feel in the second half of the season.
It was replaced, he says, by having the natural energy. “You’re never too high never too low,” Riddick says.
As additional confirmation, Kahn also points to the recent Nike ad featuring Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics showing off his dribbling skills. In the ad, he’s asked how he does it and he replies: “Simple. Plant-based diet.”
Tom Brady, New England Patriots quarterback is well-known to follow a mostly plant-based regime. He’s even developed a line of meals with TB12 Sports and in partnership with Purple Carrot, a plant-based meal delivery service.
David Booth plays left/right wing for the Detroit Red Wings. On Dec. 1 he made the switch to a strictly plant-based diet, eliminating all meats.
“I’ve always been curious about what’s goes into the body,” Booth says. “I wanted to be as nutrient dense as I could and I’ve always geared towards plants.”
Booth, 33, doesn’t have anything against good organic meats or wild game, he’s a hunter himself. But he thought he would try veganism.
“I was strict and am still doing it,” he says. “After one month I felt so good on it and decided do it for all of January too.”
Booth, a full two-plus months into going vegan, says he eats vegetables, whole foods, grains, sprouts, grains and legumes.
“I just started eating more of them and eliminated the cheeses and the creams,” he says. “I love cheese. It’s one of my favorite things, but I really haven’t had a super big craving for cheese or any kind of meat, since I stopped.”
Since going plant-based, Booth says he’s lost 8 to 10 pounds, feels great and lighter.
“Which has been a huge factor for me. I think the lighter you feel, the faster you’re going to be in the game,” he says. “The game is so fast right now. I think you need to be about as light and strong as you can and I feel both with what I’ve been doing lately.”
Kahn’s Center for Cardiac Longevity has locations in Bloomfield Hills and Grosse Pointe Farms. The centers focus is on reversing heart disease, and the plant-based diet plays a role.
When Kahn, 58, first sees a heart patient, he writes three things on his prescription pad for them: “On Netflix, you have to watch ‘Forks Over Knives,’ you have to watch ‘What the Health’ and you have to read one book.”
That one book Kahn is recommending is his latest “The Plant-based Solution: America’s Healthy Heart Doc’s Plan to Power your Health” (Sounds True, $22.95).
The book came out in January, a time when diet, exercise and health is on many minds.
What makes this book different than his others, he says, is that he’s never written a book to “make the case for a diet totally of plant origin on multiple health measures like heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.”
The book is also different because he believes he’s the only cardiologist to ever a write a book that covers other aspects. “It covers the medical, environmental and animal rights topics and then adds on recipes to make it practical so you have at least a place to start for a day, for a week, three weeks,” Kahn says.
The book is packaged with about 150 pages that dive into the medical points and research of the benefits of going plant-based followed by 21-day meal plan with recipes.
For each day, there is one recipe each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A sample day includes pancakes made with oat flour and applesauce, Soba Noodle soup and Mushrooms for lunch and a Quinoa Pizza for dinner. When it comes to eating plant-based, Kahn says most things haven’t changed.
“The core of a healthy plant-based diet is going to come from the produce department and at farmers markets,” Kahn says. It’s every fruit, every vegetable, every legume (which is thousands) and every whole grain (which is dozens).”
Beans factor in a lot in the recipes and in the book in general.
“Every place in the world where people live to 100 and beyond in a healthy manner, more than average, beans are the staple,” Kahn says.
He credits beans for their fiber which is filling and lowering cholesterol. The Easy 3 Bean Chili, Kahn says, takes about 10 minutes to prepare.
“Yes, it’s missing beef. But every time you put beans not beef you’ve helped the environment. Every time you got beans not beef you’ve helped your health.”Kahn’s heart and passion is not only in how being vegan is an all-around healthy lifestyle, but doing so can play a significant role in reversing chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.
Within the pages of the book, Kahn presents several case studies with profound successes in combating and, in some cases, reversing numerous illnesses including gastric issues, diabetes, heart disease and lupus.
One of the case studies was former college athlete Marc Ramirez of Clinton Township, Mich., who’s plant-based “aha” moment came after watching the documentary “Forks Over Knives.”
Ramirez was overweight and on several medications including twice daily insulin injections and oral medication to manage diabetes, which afflicted 7 siblings. Once Ramirez went plant-based, within several months he was off all medication and lost weight.
While following a plant-based lifestyle is something Kahn and his wife, Karen, have done for 40 years, it’s not all he’s done.
He owns, with his son Daniel and wife, the popular GreenSpace Café in Ferndale, which is devoted to an all plant-based menu. Kahn calls it his “401k café.” In March a second, GreenSpace to-go location is expected to open on Woodward at 14 mile in Royal Oak.
Kahn, says he works 18 hours a day and sleeps 7. He and his wife are nearing 60 and currently are on no prescription drugs, work out every day and he says their “weights are at an optimal level and we look fairly youthful.”
“I really give credit to just falling into this and then studying it when it became obvious there is some reason being on it,” Kahn says. “It not just coincidence.
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