I never considered myself an unhealthy eater before going plant-based. When I was a kid, my family lived in France for many years, and my mother would cook spectacular fresh meals. We rarely had junk food or sweets. As an adult, I kept that habit up, eating few highly processed foods but a decent amount […]
I started gradually picking up weight in my 20s and 30s, reaching around 250 pounds by the time I was 35. At five-foot-eight, this put my BMI in the “obese” range. I tried different diets, favoring low-carb ones that allowed me to eat steak. My weight continued fluctuating through my 40s, peaking at 270 pounds. […]
I didn’t expect to improve my health at age 80, but that’s what happened. It started in 2018, when my daughter became convinced that she should follow a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet. Since we live and eat together, I agreed, reluctantly, that when it was my turn to cook, I would try to make those […]
Before finding the whole-food, plant-based way of eating, I had high cholesterol (280 total), and my husband, Jim, had to have quadruple bypass surgery due to coronary artery blockages. After the bypass surgery, he had to have stents placed twice. In an attempt to get healthier, we adopted a low-carb, high-fat diet. Then, in November […]
People go plant-based for lots of reasons: Weight loss, a desire to feel more energetic, reducing the risk of heart disease, and decreasing the number of medications they take are just a few of the motivators for ditching animal products. But what really happens when you stop eating meat? The healthiest, happiest version of yourself […]
I started lifting weights as a freshman in high school in 1974. I was a decent high school and college athlete, and I found that I could enhance my performance on the football field and basketball court through strength training. Weightlifting lit me up, and I learned everything I could about it. Inspired by the […]
My dad is a physician, and we kept fairly healthy habits at home growing up. In high school, I was an athlete and straight-A student. But once I got to college, my healthy lifestyle was derailed. I started living off fast food, beef jerky, and instant noodles. I stayed out late partying and slept in […]
As a young schoolteacher in the 1980s and early 1990s, I completed several Olympic-distance triathlons. I stopped competing in these events when my wife and I had twins in 1995. At that time, I was reasonably trim and fit at 185 pounds. Life was busy with school and raising the kids. Eating became a way […]
My family was self-sufficient on our small Iowa farm in the 1960s and ’70s. We raised, butchered, and packaged cattle, pigs, and chickens for our freezer and canned all our garden produce. It was hard work but very rewarding. Growing up I was never accused of being skinny, but my weight wasn’t much of a […]
Positivity is contagious. That’s probably why Success Stories—first-hand accounts from people who have conquered diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, obesity, and other conditions by adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet—are some of the most-shared posts on our website. Read on for the 10 most-shared Success Stories we published in 2019, and prepare to be inspired. I […]
Marjorie Leon lost weight on a low-carb diet, but she ended up with high cholesterol, anemia, a stomach ulcer, and other health problems. I used to eat a fairly typical standard American diet. Then a tragedy turned our family upside down. My brother-in-law Dan—only in his 20s—died suddenly, leaving my youngest sister a widow at […]
In recent years, there has been a growing perception that eggs and dietary cholesterol aren’t as bad as we once thought. But a March 2019 study calls this into question. The study, published by renowned medical journal JAMA, included 29,615 people who were followed for a median 17.5 years. The authors evaluated whether egg intake […]
