Kaiser Permanente has now recommended a plant based diet for ALL people! (Yes, I’m excited!) Kaiser now encourages its 15,000 affiliated doctors to recommend a plant-based diet to all patients, “especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity.” The article titled Nutritional Updates for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets reflects an atypical approach within the modern Western health care system, but one long past due: it encourages HEALTH care, rather than disease management. Hypnosis for weight loss can give you the desire and discipline necessary to make the choice to go against the flow of obesity in America. I encourage you to read this article and share it with your family and friends.

Nutritional Updates for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets

Research shows that plant-based diets are cost-effective, low-risk interventions that may lower body mass index, blood pressure, HbA1C, and cholesterol levels. They may also reduce the number of medications needed to treat chronic diseases and lower ischemic heart disease mortality rates. Physicians should consider recommending a plant-based diet to ALL their patients, especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity.

A healthy, plant-based diet aims to maximize consumption of nutrient-dense plant foods while minimizing processed foods, oils, and animal foods (including dairy products and eggs). It encourages lots of vegetables (cooked or raw), fruits, beans, peas, lentils, soybeans, seeds, and nuts (in smaller amounts) and is generally low fat.

A healthy, plant-based diet requires planning, reading labels, and discipline. The recommendations for patients who want to follow a plant-based diet may include eating a variety of fruits and vegetables that may include beans, legumes, seeds, nuts, and whole grains and avoiding or limiting animal products, added fats, oils, and refined, processed carbohydrates. The major benefits for patients who decide to start a plant-based diet are the possibility of reducing the number of medications they take to treat a variety of chronic conditions, lower body weight, decreased risk of cancer, and a reduction in their risk of death from ischemic heart disease.

A plant-based diet is not an all-or-nothing program, but a way of life that is tailored to each individual. It may be especially beneficial for those with obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, lipid disorders, or cardiovascular disease. The benefits realized will be relative to the level of adherence and the amount of animal products consumed. Strict forms of plant-based diets with little or no animal products may be needed for individuals with inoperable or severe coronary artery disease. Low-sodium, plant-based diets may be prescribed for individuals with high blood pressure or a family history of coronary artery disease or stroke. A patient with obesity and diabetes will benefit from a plant-based diet that includes a moderate amount of fruits and vegetables and minimal low-fat animal products. Severe obesity may require counseling and initial management with a low-calorie diet or very-low-calorie diet and the supervision of a physician’s team. Patients with kidney disease may need a plant-based diet with special restrictions, for example fruits and vegetables that are high in potassium and phosphorus. Finally, patients with thyroid disease will need to be careful when consuming plants that are mild goitrogens, like soy, raw cruciferous vegetables, sweet potatoes, and corn. These patients should be informed that cooking these vegetables inactivates the goitrogens.

Physicians should advocate that it is time to get away from terms like vegan and vegetarian and start talking about eating healthy, whole, plant-based foods (primarily fruits and vegetables) and minimizing consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products. Physicians should be informed about these concepts so they can teach them to staff and patients.

We cannot cure chronic diseases, but we may be able to prevent and control them by changing how we eat.

Too often, physicians ignore the potential benefits of good nutrition and quickly prescribe medications instead of giving patients a chance to correct their disease through healthy eating and active living. If we are to slow down the obesity epidemic and reduce the complications of chronic disease, we must consider changing our culture’s mind-set from “live to eat” to “eat to live.” The future of health care will involve an evolution toward a paradigm where the prevention and treatment of disease is centered, not on a pill or surgical procedure, but on another serving of fruits and vegetables.

(I urge you to read the entire article and print it out for your family and friends.)

Read Nutritional Updates for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets

This is an excellent, exciting, unexpected and reasonable article with extensive data citations and research review. Article authors conclude that a plant-based diet offers real, tangible, and cost effective intervention for preventing and treating (distressingly common) health problems and should be recommend to ALL patients. They also thoroughly address frequently-held misconceptions about protein, iron, and calcium that most doctors and their patients may have.

The real question here is are you willing to go against the flow of obesity in America? Is that piece of steak or chicken or the cheese or ice cream really worth being fat and sick? Is disease what you really want for your children?

Hypnosis for weight loss can help you and your family (young children too) easily adapt to a plant based lifestyle. We cannot cure chronic diseases, but we may be able to prevent and control them by changing how we eat and weight loss hypnosis can help you do that. My book, Becoming Slender For Life and it’s hypnosis CD set can help you and your family live plant strong. No matter where you live, together we can create sessions to support you and your family.

Obesity and it’s related diseases is a choice. What choice are you making for you and for your family? Think about what you are really doing when you butter your toast or put that piece of cheese or carton of yogurt in your child’s lunch. You do have a choice.

Download Nutritional Updates for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets

Check out Slender For Life™ and call (206) 903-1232 or email for your free consultation.

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