The 2nd most prevalent question I get about my new diet is “Why?”
Why would anyone eat only, okay ‘mostly’ plants? For me, the two primary catalysts are my friend Cathy and the author of The Perfect 10 Diet.
Cathy died almost a year ago: breast cancer. While she was living, I pretty much ignored looking at possible causes, but she didn’t. She had books stacked up next to her bed that only got higher as she got sicker. Each book purported to know the cause and the cure for her disease. I hated all those books. Looking directly at the reality of her disease was, well… I just wasn’t up for it.
Secondly, I had Dr. Aziz on my radio show. About halfway through the interview Dr. Aziz recommended that we, as Americans, eat a diet that is 40% fat. Yep, 67% of us are overweight but we should be eating a diet where almost half of our calories are made up of not vitamins, not minerals, but fat. The statement made me furious but I had absolutely no knowledge to refute his statement except that it just sounded insane.
I left the station that day determined to not find a diet book but a book about nutrition that was based on science. I looked at the author’s credentials: scientist or m.d.? Was the science related to nutrition? Next, I looked for references. Were there references to scientific studies? More than one? Was the author selling more than a book? Like diet food or supplements or services?
The book I ended up going home with was ‘The China Study’ by T. Colin Campbell, PhD in nutritional biochemistry. The book has 753 references to scientific studies. I was eating only plants by page 73. Dr. Campbell’s work was so utterly convincing about the health benefits and disease prevention of cutting waaaaaay back on animal protein that it just came together as extremely good timing for me and that is why I eat mostly plants. ‘Mostly’ because I still put butter on my toast and I will always eat whatever my grandma cooks.
Of course this post was about the number 2 question that I always get. The first? “Where do you get your protein?” That’s another post, though.
