All language subtitles for Eating.You.Alive.2016.he_auto1

The problem is
there is no known cure

and we probably
won't even treat you

because we have no hope.

I don't think it's an accident

that the information on this

has been known
for 15 or 20 years.

They told my parents
I was going to die.

No one else should have
died of heart disease.

We had the cure.
We've had it for decades.

It's gonna take
a radical shift in mindset.

We can't blame doctors,

they£re not trained
in this field.

You know, my genes
have already set my destiny.

What I thought I knew about

healthy eating
almost killed me.

Three fourths of
what we suffer from in America

is due to the food
that we eat.

It's not food to me,
it's torture.

I think we haven't
really focused

on the quality of food
that we take,

we're more interested
in convenience.

Food is medicine.

You got to put back
into the earth

in order to get back from it.

Changing what I put
into my body

can make me live longer.

Why doesn't
everybody know this?

About 19 years ago,
we were staying at the house,

getting ready for Easter
the night before,

dyeing Easter eggs
and making cookies

and setting the table.

And my father and my husband

were watching television,
this is hard for me, I'm sorry.

And in the wee hours
of the morning

I heard my mom cry out
that something was wrong.

And we raced up
to their bedroom

and he was gone.

He was 58 years old
and he was gone.

Everybody, everybody
knows suffering, it's there.

People are hurting
and it's a tragedy

and it's important to me.

Good evening, the news hit
around breakfast time

as a lot of Americans
were sitting down

in front of a plate of
bacon or sausage.

The obesity crisis is getting
worse in America not better.

We have to cut carbon pollution
in our own countries

to prevent the worst effects
of climate change.

This undercover video

shows chickens
being buried alive.

You want to tell the story
dramatically

and say you're in a hospital

and decide to change
your mind, you know.

And I don't believe anything
anyone says in a hospital,

on New Years Eve or during sex.

Those three times

are all information
is considered invalid.

Everybody that goes
to the hospital says,

you know, from now on
I'm gonna eat right,

I'm gonna exercise,
I'm gonna do all this,

they're always lying.

They say the same three things
actually during sex

and on New Years Eve.

So I was in the hospital
with bad hypertension

and I did not make any promises
to change my life.

I would say I was
probably 330 then,

got to get your weight
down to about 280

where we can control
your blood pressure with drugs.

And I said well it's 280
where I should get down to?

And then he said this sentence
that blew my mind.

And it was the first time
I'd ever something you know

anybody watching
this is very familiar with

but I wasn't familiar with it.

He said, "Well if you get
your weight down to 220, 230

you probably
wouldn't need drugs at all."

And I said, "What!

I'd thought that
my hypertension was genetic."

He says, "Well it is."

And I said, "Well no,

you're telling me that
the drugs that I'm taking are,

telling me
these are fat guy drugs.

I thought they were
generic drugs."

He said, "Well yes of course."

I said, "Well it can't
be both of course,

you can't say it's genetic

and yet if I get down
to this weight

I wouldn't have it."

And that just bugged me,

that just bugged me
tremendously.

We are eating ourselves
in the most overweight,

obese population

in the history
of the human race.

In this country
this year we£ll spend

over three trillion dollars
on health care,

Somewhere between
1 half and 75% of that

are lifestyle
related problems.

You get out of your health
exactly what you put into it.

And we have been putting
the wrong fuel in our body.

We really didn't learn much
of anything about nutrition

in medical school.

I was really angry.

I just could not understand
why I didn't learn any of this.

The system is set up
to reimburse,

kind of,
pills and procedures.

You get paid to do things

for patients. You don't get paid
if your patients get better.

We live in a pill popping
generation

everybody wants a pill
for this or a pill for that.

Big Pharma is

in the business
of us being sick.

They fund medical education,
that's what you learn about.

We've never had more pills
in human history

and yet we've never had
more chronic disease.

There's the food industry

which is a trillion dollar
industry.

There's lot of people

that are making money
off processed foods.

There are a lot of people
making money off meat,

lot of people making
money off dairy.

And it's a huge lobbying power.

Take away the supervision
from the USDA

and give it to another body.

They£re handing out subsidies
with this hand

and with the other hand
they£re telling

the American public
what to eat.

You know,
they don't look at meat

and say this is full of
saturated fat,

cholesterol, DDT,

environmental contaminants,
infection.

not part of the sales pitch.

Dairy is the most toxic thing
people put in their body,

I won't even call it food.

People that are eating
the standard American diet

don't understand, number one,

the scientific implications
of that in their body

but two, they often
don't understand

that food has enslaved them
by this addictive component.

Foods are the cause
of diabetes, of heart disease,

of many forms of cancer,
of hypertension

and if they are the cause
they can also be the solution.

What is on our plate is really
affecting our environment.

More global warming is caused
by livestock consumption

that all forms
of transportation combined.

Something's wrong
with this paradigm

and we need to shift paradigms
to find out what works better.

We're eating ourselves
into our graves.

Since a small child,
I've had a love of plants.

To have this living organism

within this
tiny little package,

a seed and you plant it

and it grows into
such beauty and potential.

I am a product
of the state of New Jersey.

I went to Rutgers,
the state university,

got a botany degree.

And then went on
to the state medical school.

I received a, you know,
standard academic training,

then went on to an internal
medicine residency

in Washington, DC
at George Washington

as a newly minted doctor.

My father who was an attorney,
69 years of age,

was suddenly diagnosed

with end stage
metastatic pancreatic cancer.

He was given a prognosis
of one to three months to live,

offered some standard treatment

and because there is
very little success

with that age, my father
decided to do nothing.

And just go home
and prepare for death.

I knew in my world
that I'd come from,

there was just
nothing available

and even still to this day,

there is very little available
for pancreatic cancer.

So I went to my local library

and finally came across
some books on food,

brought these books home
for my father.

The books were on
a whole unrefined plant food

way of eating.

He grasped onto it
and completely changed his diet

and a year later we went back.

When the doctor
saw my father walk in,

he looked a little bit shaken.

He asked my father,
what he was doing there

and why basically
why was he still alive.

My father started to tell him
about broccoli and brown rice

and the doctor lost
complete interest

in what my father was saying.

That was the point for me

that changed
what I would do as a doctor.

Our medical community
in general

has really focused
on symptoms of disease.

We see it throughout our whole
pharmaceutical industry

and our whole approach to care.

And you know,
we have this acute care model

in healthcare today.

And it was designed
a 100 years ago

to treat communicable
diseases and injury

and we're still trying
to treat chronic disease now

with that same
acute care model,

but it doesn't work.

We're trying to treat diabetes
and heart disease

the way we treat strep throat
with pills but it doesn't work.

I feel a little disenfranchised

if you will, to have
gone through

four years of medical school

and six years of training
after medical school

and never been introduced
to the idea

that your health is so closely
related to what you eat.

When I entered into practice,

I had patients
constantly ask me,

"What should I eat doc?

How should I exercise?
What should I do?"

I would throw out
a little arbitrary words

and say, "Ah, be good
the majority of the time."

Live by the four sevenths rule.

If you do well for seven days,
that's good enough.

I started to become trouble
by that. You know,

in that I was actually
giving advice,

professional advice
to individuals

when they're asking
without a fund of knowledge.

Everybody knows that doctors
don't get any really meaningful

education about nutrition.

Nutrition is really something
that maybe you get one hour,

maybe you get two hours.

Nutrition in the 1970s

in my medical school
was very, very limited.

I really still feel
that it's nearly criminal.

There really haven't been
many opportunities

to discuss nutrition in depth

because the topic
only comes up and passing.

Maybe they assumed
that we knew.

The average physician
in this country

has less than 20 minutes
of nutrition training period.

Nobody teaches you anything
about nutrition

in medical school.

What I was taught was nobody
changes their diet anyway

so just, you know,
do what you can.

I hate to say it

but your physician
probably knows

less about nutrition
than you do.

We're taught to treat diseases
after they occur,

we're not taught
how to prevent them

in the first place.

I think that people
that society in general

has a broken relationship
with food.

We're a society
that's chronically fed

from the time
we get up in the morning

until the time we go to bed.

When you think about it,
the only species

that are obese
and chronically ill are us

and the pets we keep
warm and fed.

And they get exactly
the same diseases.

If you eat the same things
that most Americans eat,

you're gonna get
the same diseases

that most Americans get.

I'm a steak guy.

- Fish.
- Sushi actually.

I like meat.

Anything protein based.

Steak, potatoes, greens.

Good cheese, I don't
really eat processed cheese.

- Lasagna
- Hamburgers, French fries.

Red Bull and a cigarette,
which I don't need neither or.

But you know what?

I'm so old now,
I'm just gonna do it anyway.

It's sad but I think I can
say this honestly

probably 95% of America
has no idea how to eat.

Who taught them? Grandma?

No, it's the television
that's teaching them.

Nutritious, delicious,
above all else, beef.

It's what for dinner.

Got milk?

Ahh, the power of cheese.

Eggs, incredible energy
for body and mind.

Well, I grew up in Texas eating
meat four, five times a day?

You know, and I liked it.

I ate a high salt, sugar,
fat, processed food,

pizza, ice-cream, candy
kind of diet.

I was pretty much a standard
cholesterolholic

that grew up on a dairy
and a beef farm.

We loved our cheese,

we loved our ice-cream
and yogurt, and

steaks, and hamburgers
on the grill.

Grew up on a dairy farm,
actually milking cows.

Believing along the way

that the good old American diet
was as good as it gets.

Certain foods are essential,

we must have them daily
for the sake of health.

Meat, cheese, fish, poultry.
Vegetables, green and yellow.

Fruits, two or more
servings daily,

at least one raw
citrus fruit or tomato often.

And eggs, three to five a week
but one a day preferred.

Cereal and bread,
rich golden butter and milk,

at least one quart
of milk a day.

I've come to see aging
in America

as a function of
accumulated abuse

of the human body.

And everybody gather around
and dig in to those

sizzly, juicy,
Armour star franks.

Hot dog diggity,
are they good?

Armour star franks.

Because wonder soft
whipped bread

is made from batter
not dough.

It has no holes,
get wonder soft whipped.

One of the main reasons

that we started
eating processed food

was it encouraged
the shelf life of the product.

We were taught that

this package foods
were healthier

and they were easier
and they made our lives better.

And many times it was
a white refined food.

But of course, refined means
about 97% of the fiber

is gone and enriched means

most of the nutrients
have been stripped out

but we've sprayed
a few synthetic chemicals

back on for you
and now we call it enriched.

Our parents, you know,
God bless them,

they didn't know any better.

The information
wasn't out there.

Meat and potatoes,
that's how you lived.

This summer try our

new grilled chicken
margarita pizza.

Who knew crab goes
with everything?

Whoever put crab on the salmon,
on a burger

and don't forget
the bacon and onions

seared inside fresh ground beef.

Introducing grill dogs,
flame grilled to perfection

and made with a 100% beef.

Get them now,
only at Burger King.

The standard
American diet is not working,

it's not good for us.

I think we haven't really
focused on the quality of food

that we take, we're more
interested in convenience.

I mean the whole fast food
thing on television,

you know,
all the pizza commercials,

burger commercials,

just fast food
that you make at home,

stuff that you take
off the shelf

and you pour it
out of the box

and put some water in it,
you got a instant meal here.

It's like oh, my God,
we're killing ourselves.

Early on in this process,
it was kind of confusing

because I would
read a study that would say,

this is good for you

and then other one
would say no,

that's actually bad for you,
something else is good for you.

So the industry just has to
keep the public confused

which they have been doing
a very good job at.

I was so misinformed
as a young adult

that I didn't know
how to eat properly

and I didn't know
how to balance my diet.

I was, you know, eating
what I thought was health food,

you know, salmon,
big hunks of salmon.

I think it can get confusing
to the general public

because all they hear

sensationalized
headlines about,

oh, this fat is good for you,
this fat is bad for you.

You want a high protein diet,
stay away from carbohydrates.

We don't need food like that.
We eat food.

All that we need
is enough confusion

and then people will
throw up their hands,

you know. Oh forget it, I'll
just do whatever I want to do.

Drink your milk
for strong bones and teeth

and it turns out to be exactly
the wrong way around.

And almost a
little betrayed

that we've been told
our whole lives

that we had to eat,

you know, animal protein
and drink milk

in order to be healthy.

But that's what we grew up
with us as a culture

so we can't be blamed for it

but we have to break
those habit patterns.

I wasn't born obese.

I was fit and healthy as a kid.

Up until I was 24 years old,
but from the time,

the age of 24 to the age of 30,

I got up as heavy as 518 pounds.

I would love to say that,
you know,

I know why or how but I don't.

All I know is that I got there
and it was extremely difficult.

In June of 2013,
my wife Iris and I

decided to take my
then six year old son

for his birthday to Florida.

Two weeks prior to the trip

my son and I
went through online

and looked at all the rides

and he decided
that the Harry Potter ride

was the most epic ride
in the history of rides

and he wanted me
to ride it with him.

And if you ever
been on the ride,

they have a sample
of the seating

as you approach
the ride platform.

One of the people
who worked there

asked me to step out of line
to try the seating.

As soon as I sat down,
it was apparent

that this wasn't gonna happen.
It was his birthday.

Sorry, he begged...

he cried but I couldn't fit.

My wife practically
drug him on to the ride

and in that moment I realized

that I couldn't
live like that anymore.

Eating to excess.

You've got far too many
sausages Billie

will you put some back?

There are fresh concerns about

our globally
expanding waist lines.

Experts had thought the obesity
rate had leveled off

and they don't know
why it's rising instead.

The new report also shows

women have a higher
level of obesity than men.

The reason people get fat
is because they eat fat.

You know, from my lips
to my hips

the fat you eat
is the fat you wear.

There is unfortunately
been a lot of articles

written recently

mostly by non physicians
and non scientists saying,

you know, Americans
have been told to eat less fat,

now they're eating less fat,
they're fatter then ever so,

you know, low fat has failed,
bring out the bacon and eggs.

Well, I went
to the US department

of agriculture database

and said I know that Americans
have been told

to eat less fat but what have we
actually been eating?

Well, that turns out
that every decade since 1950

we've been eating
more fat, more meat,

more sugar and more calories.

So not surprisingly
we're fatter.

The biggest portion
of Americans

are in the obese category now.

It's unbelievable,

There are a very small
minority of people that

Just goes, it goes
from the spoon

right to hips and belly

and actually it goes there
so effortlessly,

you can take a needle
and suck the fat out,

take it to the lab, analyze it

and you can tell
what people like to eat.

You suck their belly fat out

and is full of
monounsaturated fats

then they£re into olive oil.

If it£s full of trans-fats

they're into margarines
and shortenings.

If they£re full of
omega three fats then

People worry about
if their 10 pounds too heavy,

50 pounds too heavy,

but they're not thinking
about the impact of the weight

as it pertains
to their actual health

and well being
and their risk for disease.

I want to enjoy my kids,
enjoy my grandkids.

I cannot imagine
missing one thing.

Going into this
massive change,

of course I'd love
to lose weight,

but more importantly,
I just want to be healthy.

When they say, "Doctor,
I've tried everything,

I'm miserable."

I'll go, "Well, have you tried
eating something different

or tell me what you've done
with your nutrition?"

I'm changing
what I put in my body,

but that's what I've known
for 36 years.

So, it's very scary.

Up until recently, we didn't
really think of nutrition

as being a very strong force.

Eat a little bit less carbs
and nothing much happens

or you count calories
for a few weeks

and you lose a few pounds
then you gain it all back

and I think people
have gotten used to the idea

that food doesn't make
much difference.

My family surrounds
celebrations,

sad things, bad things,

everything
revolves around food.

You know, you go to a funeral

and after a funeral
people get together, eat

and they eat same
kind of things

that helped put the person
in a casket

in the first place.

So, it's really
part of who we are.

The thought of giving up sugar,

not being able to eat my waffle
with syrup

and a side of bacon that is,

I mean, that just makes
my stomach turn.

It's that nervous
feeling of like

when you are starting a new job
or you're going from

elementary school
to middle school.

That's how I feel about
changing my food.

Because food is something
primal.

It's the first bond and love
we create

after we've been born,

and looking into old age
for many of us,

it's the last pleasure
we are left with on this earth.

I think you could save
all the testing people do

by taking
a tub of movie popcorn

and putting it
under someone's nose

and saying
does that smell good?

And if they say yes, you need
to get them to the hospital

and save their lives.

And if they say no,
they're healthy.

I think that's
all you got to do,

that's all you got to do.

I think a lot of people
understand

fruits and vegetables
are good for you,

but they don't know
how good the good stuff is

and they have no idea
how bad the bad stuff is.

I think the addiction to food
is bigger

than the combination
of the addiction

that people have
to cigarettes,

alcohol, coffee, drugs.

I truly see how food

can completely control
someone's life.

That you literally
obsess over it

and it's understandable
when you get in your car

and you drive somewhere

how many fast food places
you go by?

How many billboards
do you see?

You are bombarded all day long

and just filled
with temptation.

It's like an alcoholic,
I can't have one drink.

I can't have
that one candy bar a week

because I didn't have
an off switch.

Most of the restaurants
have very easily figured out

that if you add
cheese and butter

and salt to everything,
it tastes good

and so you come back
over and over again.

And the same thing is true

for a lot of snack foods
and candies,

they're just perfectly
tweaked to be delicious.

So, if we just look at like
the average American diet,

when we put in sugar, fat
and salt into our body,

a couple of things happen.

First, it triggers
the reward system in our brain,

the dopamine reward system
just like nicotine,

methamphetamine and cocaine.

So they have the same effect
creating some dependence

or food addiction.

Drug addicts
often have this thing

where they call
"chasing the dragon."

it's the illusive first high.

No, other high is as good
as this first high

and so they're constantly
chasing it

and I've experienced
that with food

like the first bite
is so amazing

but the second
isn't as amazing

and the third isn't.

But I just keep eating it,
whether it's the Oreos,

or the chocolate chip
cookies or the ice-cream,

just trying to get back
to that first bliss.

What sweet out nature?
Sweet potatoes, berries fruit,

healthy foods, right?
And so but now the industry

uses that natural healthy urge
against us, right?

There are chemists
that spend their whole lives,

working on the bliss point.

The ripest peach
in the world

is not as sweet
as fruit loops, right?

Within just a couple of hours
of eating these foods,

it's absorbed
into the bloodstream

and then it
penetrates our cells.

Sugar causes
measurable inflammation

inside of our artery walls

causing damage
to the lining of the artery,

the endothelial cells,

making us more susceptible
to atherosclerosis

and even more susceptible
to inflammation

that can lead to cancer.

We also know that

within a couple of hours
of eating sugar,

it suppresses our immune system

and it's specifically
the natural killer cells

that help us
to fight infections

and that can suppress
your immune system

for four to five hours.

So, if we kind of
understand this,

you know, Americans having
sugar based breakfast,

sugar based lunch
and sugar based dinner,

they're suppressing
their immune system

throughout the
course of the day

making themselves
more susceptible

to these infections
that we encounter.

Realize, that we
are going to go

through a chemical
addictive withdraw

for probably
three or four days

depending on the food
and the frequency

and the quantity
at which you ate it.

If you feel a little bit bloated
or little gassy or a lot gassy

or you're going with more
frequency,

it's not to be
concerned about. Let it pass,

let your body sort of
work itself out.

I know, it's tough
in the beginning.

I know food addictions

and I call it toxic hunger
can make you feel bad,

when you're kind of like
breaking those addictions,

you could feel fatigue,

you could feel
weak and headache-y.

You could feel like

you're emotionally
attached to those foods

and having almost

a feeling of anxiety
giving up the foods

you've come to love.

Oh, I can't live without meat.

Well, yeah, I can.

I always say, go cold turkey,

even if it's just
for a short period of time.

Go cold turkey for 21 days,

because the whole
tapering off thing,

it doesn't work
with addiction.

We're addicted to meat,
we're addicted to dairy.

There are opiates in cheeses
and things like that.

Plus, we're just addicted
to our habit patterns

that we grew up with.

Imagine you're
back in the 1950s,

before the Surgeon General
report on smoking came out

and one doctor is telling you
to smoke camels,

the other doctor is saying no,
smoke luckys instead.

So in 1964,

when the Surgeon
General report came out,

they cited 7000 studies
about the dangers of smoking.

7,000, now look, 6,000
should have been enough, right?

But I mean,
it had to get to that point

before it could tip.

And how many people
had to die until that happened?

And so, I think

we're in a very similar
situation today.

My story starts
a long time ago,

with a lot of issues
with overeating

and it escalated
many, many times up and down,

lot of yo-yo dieting,
finally at 380 pounds

and diagnosed
with type-2 diabetes

and hypertension on medication,

I decided to make a commitment

to a completely different
lifestyle of eating.

I was, in my 49th year
and it occurred to me,

I wasn't gonna see 50.

It was a lot of
sitting on the couch,

watching a lot of television
and eating

and everyone didn't
always see the eating

because I did that

after they left for school
or before,

you know, in the car

there was a lot of
secretive eating going on.

You want to believe
that there is no addiction

that this is
a metabolic thing

and that, you know,
this can be fixed, but,

you know, when you start
to find

you know, the trappings
of wrappers

I knew, I mean, it's, you know,
I knew what was happening.

I knew about all the things
that they didn't know about.

You know, you say
to yourself, okay,

at this time maybe I'm 40,
something years old and,

you know, okay I'm gonna
have all these kids,

gonna have to do something,
you gonna take care of them

if she is not around.

Every day, I though that,

they we're gonna find me dead
in the parking lot,

because I was out of breathe

just walking from my car
to my office, every day.

There were lot of things
that I didn't know,

I didn't understand,
you know, I'm like,

oh, if I could just do
the math on this,

it'll be better
but there is no math to this.

I couldn't do many things
and I didn't do many things

because of the shame
and embarrassment,

I didn't want to embarrass
my kids.

People make fun of them,
like they don't exist, you know,

and they do exist.

I was morbidly obese
my entire adult life.

Being obese sucks.

You know that people
are looking at you.

You can only imagine

what they're
thinking about you,

even though they're too polite.

I was eating what
most American's consider

to be a healthy diet
with lean protein.

So, I was pretty much down
to chicken and salmon

as my protein.

But we were
cooking those proteins

in butter and olive oil

and obviously
it was not working.

I had tried every fad diet
that there was low carbs,

south beach, atkins, weight
watchers

to try to lose weight

and I discovered
what a lot of people have,

which is as long as
you're doing these diets,

they work great, the problem is
when you stop dieting,

all the weight comes back

and often more then
you were in the first place.

Wisdom is the process of
finding out

that your intuition is wrong.

It's not easy
to have to learn something

that goes
against your instincts.

For example,
people have the feeling

when they're sitting in a car

that they're not in danger

if they don't have
their seatbelt on.

That was sort of
the way people felt

in the 1950s and '60s.

So your intuition
doesn't understand

that you're sitting
in a two ton vehicle

going 50 miles an hour

and that you are actually
helpless.

I thought I ate super healthy.

The truth is that
I was completely wrong,

but the type of information

that I could find
available to me

said that these foods
were actually good for me.

I thought I was healthy

because I didn't have
meat in my diet,

I didn't have milk in my diet,
I didn't have eggs,

I didn't have cheese.

But I was eating
all this other junk

full of oil and sugar
and salt and all that.

I filled my body
with protein and calories.

Little did I know what it was
doing to my body at that time,

but I continued to eat that way
all the way up

through the '94 Olympics
when I was competing.

And thought nothing of going
to a fast food restaurant,

eating two hamburgers
and a couple orders of fries

and a chocolate milkshake.

I had the idea that it had
no consequences for me

to eat this kind of food
because I looked and felt great.

Well, I'm thin, I don't really
need to think about that.

I don't need to think
of plant based.

That's for someone who's,
you know, obese or over weight.

But the reality is that

it's not so much
about the weight

because the weight
is really a symptom

of what's happening
on the inside

and many times
that symptom goes unnoticed.

I was just kind of
your typical kid,

I was on the year book,

I played volleyball,
so we really had no idea

that anything
was coming or that,

anything was wrong.

When I was 16 years old,
I was told

that I had six months to live.

So the first clue

that something
was actually wrong

was one weekend I had gone
to the Jersey Shore

with my friends.

I remember we
went to a diner

and I had these pancakes

and I literally,
I could not get the pancakes,

to my mouth, it hurt so bad.
And the next morning I woke up

and this excruciating pain
that felt like

it would take weeks to heal
was gone.

But the strange thing was

that same exact identical pain
was in my left shoulder

and after a couple of days

it disappeared
from that arm too.

Not long after that
migraines started.

I had this huge rash
across my face

going from one cheek
across my nose

to the other side.

My blood test showed that
my kidneys were in trouble

so they sent me in
for kidney biopsy.

So next thing I know
I'm going in to surgery.

So it's just kind of,

it was just so chaotic
and then, you know,

the doctor told us
what happened and they said,

you know, you are in
stage four kidney failure,

and you got six months
if we don't do

something really, really
aggressive.

Six months,
you'll be on dialysis

or you'll be dead.

So I was put
on high dose steroids,

it was about
seven different pills

I had to take every day.

And I also was put on
experimental chemotherapy

to try to save my kidneys.

I was told
I couldn't have kids,

I was told I probably
wouldn't live past my 50s.

I'd probably be handicapped
by my 30s.

Well, with lupus

your immune system's
attacking your own body

and so my immune system
had suddenly stopped

recognizing my kidneys
as my own

and were attacking my kidneys
trying to kill it.

I'd also developed blood clots

that had happened
when I was in medical school.

And so I was taking
blood thinners

because I had experienced
a mini stroke,

a transient ischemic attack

and thankfully
I didn't damage my brain

but I was in a lot of danger
of dying at that point

if I didn't use
this blood thinner

for the rest of my life.

Otherwise, you know,
I was trucking through,

I was two months away
from graduating medical school

and then I met
this most amazing person,

Thomas Tadlock and he just
changed everything for me

and I went from only dreaming
about a white coat

to dreaming about
a white dress.

The hardest thing
I ever had to do

was to tell him
about my illness

and the fact that
marrying me was,

you know,
not going be long term.

And he, you know, it
was hard for him to hear

but he just said that

he'd rather have a short life
with me

than a life time
with someone else.

So he would take care of me.

If you need a surgery
or if you're in an accident

and you need diagnostics,

the United States
is the place to be.

But if you want to prevent
chronic disease,

we're near the bottom
of the list.

We are taught
to trust the medical field

and take the medicine
they prescribe to us.

Really, I grew up
thinking that drugs,

things like that
from the doctor

were the normal thing to do

and that, that's what
would cure you.

And unfortunately
the pills aren't the answer.

Because if they were the answer

we've never had more pills
in human history.

And yet we've never had
more chronic disease.

We need education
more than medication

and our doctors are not
getting this in medical school.

And if they are not,
then you're not getting it.

We are very focused
on procedures and medications.

Medical school is pharmacology.

In fact we even learned about
pharmacology during lunch.

We get take out, what are called
drug lunches

by pharmaceutical reps.

Pharmaceutical industry is like
any other industry in America.

They're there to make money
and produce profits.

They fund medical education,
that's what you learn about.

These medications,
you don't get them for free.

You pay a price
for using medications.

And they work
as a permission slip.

They enable people to think

because their numbers look
better they're okay,

while the underlying pathology
advances day after day.

So in a sense, they give people
a false sense of security

that leads them
to, give them permission

to keep eating the same diet

that cause the problem
to begin with

and the inevitable
consequences,

their disease gets
worse and worse and worse.

But don't take it if you
or if you and it might cause,

you know, rectal bleeding
and your eye might fall out

and hey, you might even
want to kill yourself.

It's kind of like, really?

But, it's gonna make me
feel better

but I might
want to kill myself?

I think I feel the way
I'm feeling, I'm okay.

Look big pharma is,

one of the most
profitable industries,

the reason they're not
researching to antibiotics,

things that we need

is because you take it
for ten days.

That's not useful.
No we want drugs

you take every single day for
the rest of your life, right?

And what are those? Those are
chronic disease drugs, right?

High blood pressure medications
for example, right.

You have to take them everyday
for the rest of your life

because they don't treat

the underlying cause
of the disease.

The pill companies
don't make money

when you're healthy.

They make money
when you're sick.

There is no profit in health,

they need to keep you in that
kinda zombie state,

in between where you're just

shoveling more and more meds
until you basically tap out,

that's how the game works

and that's whats
stacked against you.

I'm skeptical about
the medical community

because I know
they're pill pushers

and it's just
part of what they do,

the pharmaceutical community
has their hooks way to deeply

in the government,
in the regulatory system.

Approximately,
106,000 people die

from drug side effects.

And now that's just
in hospitals

and that's just one year

and these are drugs
that are properly prescribed

and taken as directed.

These are not medical errors,
these are not suicide attempts,

these are not mistakes.

These are drugs

that were prescribed
exactly right

and taken exactly as ordered.

And we're killing
106,000 a year

and that's a lot.

That's a million people
in ten years.

When you're young,
you think you're invincible.

You don't think
what you're gonna eat's,

gonna really hit you
down the road.

Really didn't start
thinking about that much

until my dad had a heart attack

and then had quadruple
bypass

and then, you know,
you start thinking well, uh-oh

you know,
he's got a problem so

So, today we're gonna see
Andre with high cholesterol,

his cholesterol report shows

that his total cholesterol
is 189 on medication.

With a whole food
plant based diet,

we can take that
cholesterol level

below a 150 without medication.

And that's gonna be
one of our goals.

I'm controlling
my cholesterol now

and my triglycerides
with medication.

But a lot of the research
I've done on the medications

I'm on is not very positive
and they have side effects

and I've suffered
some of the side effects.

If I'm going to be on this
for a long time,

is there a better way?

If I can do it through
a dietary means,

which would allow me

to get off of these drugs
completely,

that would be the optimal goal.

For me to change anything,

I'm gonna have
to have that proof

to where through this diet,

it will put me, my triglycerides
in the safe range,

my cholesterol
in the safe range

and hopefully

the cholesterol ratios
good to bad,

within an acceptable range.

I'm open minded
to see what happens,

give it a shot,
see if it works,

I mean what do you have to lose?

Pythagoras and Socrates
was talking about this

and Hippocrates 2,500 years ago.

The healthiest cultures
on the planet without exception

were plant based.

I don't think it's an accident
that the information on this

has been known
and is now just bubbling up.

Then you have to ask
the question, you know,

why are we so oblivious
to all of this?

That gets you to
questions concerning

obviously governance,

the US Department
of Agriculture

whose mandate is to promote
agricultural products.

I mean, that's what they do.

At the same time
we put them in charge

of protecting public safety
by meat inspections and,

you know, nutrition guidelines.

How the government
is telling us what to eat,

is through what they subsidize
and so that's what people eat

because people eat
what's inexpensive.

What foods are subsidized?

Well, we're going broke

so shouldn't we be subsidizing
healthy foods,

so are we making apples cheaper

are we out making
kale cheaper?

No subsidies to
the sugar industry

and goes to feed crops,
primarily to feed livestock.

So you can actually get kind
of a low cost of production,

thanks to our tax dollars!

We are giving
billions of dollars

to livestock industry,

so you can make
Dollar Menu burgers.

In 2014, I had the privilege
to be invited to testify

in front of the USDA
Dietary Guidelines

Advisory Committee
in Washington DC.

Out of the 46
speakers invited,

42 represented industry.

Americans who consume

the recommended
amounts of dairy foods

are better able to meet

key nutrient
recommendations

including calcium,
vitamin D and potassium.

In fact, it's difficult
for most Americans

to meet these
nutrient recommendations

without consuming at least

three servings
of dairy foods daily.

We know quite well that

a lot of these policy decisions
and political decisions

are being made through
financial considerations

with people with big money,
big companies, big CEOs

and big Washington connections.

And so, when it comes to eat
more messaging,

like eat more
fruits and vegetables,

they come out and say it.

When it comes to eat
less messaging

well, then there's a
conflict, right.

So what do they do?

They don't actually
mention foods,

god forbid, they say,

you know, eat less saturated
and trans fatty acids.

Now that's wink, wink,
nudge, nudge,

code for eat less,

you know, meat and
dairy. That's the sources

particularly cheese
and chicken in this country.

But they can't come out
and say eat less cheetos.

They can't come out and say
eat less meat, eat less dairy,

they would get hammered.

Dairy is one of
the strongest lobbies

as far as food production
in this country goes.

They have the most money

and they will use it
ruthlessly.

There is not an asparagus lobby

that I'm aware off.

There is no money
in telling people

to put the burger down
and have a broccoli spear.

The USDA had
a internal news letter

that promoted meatless Monday.

So, once a week
for your health,

for the environment
consider, you know,

reducing meat consumption

and there was
such a political firestorm

to that radical proposition

that it was retracted
within hours

and you know,

I think that was just a lesson
that you can't even go there,

doesn't matter
what the science says,

you know,
money talks in Washington.

The dogma in
the nutrition industry,

if you open up
the fitness magazine

and if you open up
the body building magazines

especially like you will
never succeed

unless you eat
as much animal products

as you possibly can.

So, I was terrified at first,
I was like,

okay, I wanna be healthy

but I don't know
what's gonna happen.

That's the first question
anyone asks when you tell them

that you're
a plant based athlete,

is like where do you
get your protein?

It's funny
that protein is an issue,

because number one,
people don't know what it is.

Number two, they don't
recognize it in food.

The whole protein thing
is such a myth,

it's a mainstream
propaganda thing

by these dairy
and animal companies

that throw this thing
out there that,

the amount of protein
you need in your body.

Standing in front of you
is obviously not a hindrance

in bodybuilding
to eat whole plant foods.

So what's the problem
with so much protein?

It can damage our kidneys.

Some even cancers will grow
or exacerbate

because of high levels
of protein.

And for somebody

who is absolutely
stuck on protein,

that's their big issue.

I'm not sure I'm
gonna get enough.

Get in your car,
go to the nearest rural area,

pick out the biggest bull
that you can find,

then go to the nearest
racetrack,

find the fastest, biggest,
most muscular stallion.

Go to the zoo,
look at the tallest giraffe,

the biggest elephant
and all those animals

with rippling muscles
are vegans,

they're getting
all the protein they need

entirely from plant sources
and you will too.

If you go back 10,000 years,

you look at old
skeleton's fossils,

people had no cavities,
people had these perfect teeth.

You go back, you think wait
a second,

they never brushed a day
in their lives,

no Listerine, no water pick,
no flossing.

Yeah, but no candy bars.

Before the invention
of the candy bar,

they had perfect teeth,
I mean...

you think,

our bodies would have
evolved to like

have our teeth fall out?
Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Okay, but so,

cavities are completely
preventable through diet.

We say, wait a second,

if they're completely
preventable

why do people continue
to get cavities?

Well, people like dessert
that kinda out weighs

the cost and discomfort
of the dentist chair.

And look that's fine, right.

Look, I enjoy
the occasional indulgence.

I got a good
dental plan, right?

All right, but what if

instead of the plaque
on our teeth,

we're talking about
the atherosclerotic plaque

building up
inside of our arteries, right.

Then what are the consequences
for you and your family?

Now, we're not talking about
scraping tartar anymore.

Now, we're talking
literally life or death.

If you had told me,

the stuff I know
now affects my health,

I would have thought
you were crazy.

I was 57, I thought I was
too young to have a stroke.

When Pam and I got married,
I weighed 140.

As I got older
that increased about,

I don't know,
10 pounds a year or so

when I had my stroke,
I was at 240...

almost 250.

He didn't know
how to do anything.

He didn't know me
as his wife.

According to my wife,

I had the mentality
of about a three year old.

Even to go
to take a shower or bath,

he wasn't sure what to do.

He'd just go in there and
he'd stand.

When I had my stroke

they diagnosed
that I had diabetes

and I was untreated
for approximately 10 years.

Pretty soon
the doctor set me down,

he tore off my chart

after my stress test
was going on and he says,

you see anything wrong
with that?

And handed it to the doctor.

When that was done,
they came out and said,

"We need to do
immediate surgery."

I was pretty high risk,

because I'd had a stroke
and the way I looked at it,

if I didn't have surgery
I was gonna die anyhow.

He came
through the heart surgery,

he did good but he...

he still never got any better.

I had a stroke,
I had to live with that.

I was diabetic,
I had to live with that

and I had a basket of pills
I had to live with that.

Every 34 seconds
someone in the United States

has a heart attack,

and in case you haven't heard
one in three women

will die of heart disease.

I didn't go into medicine

to help people get
a little bit better here,

little bit better there.

I really wanted
transformational change

and I was becoming
disillusioned.

It's the whole mindset
of our medical culture.

We're taught as medical
students and physicians

to treat the bad outcomes
of our horrific health habits.

I used to work
every Christmas and Easter.

Six to eight hours
after that big holiday meal,

we would see the strokes,
we would see the heart attacks.

It was just amazing.

Nobody puts these things
together

and says, "Dear Lord,

people are eating
themselves to death."

My blood sugar west 441,
I had five blockages,

two of 'em were 100 percent,

two was 80
and one was 70 percent.

I was on 13 pills a day
and two shots.

I had seven stents

in my original
right coronary artery.

They just kind of dismissed

that it was anything
to do with food

that it was more
family genetics

that I had a double whammy,
because I was diabetic.

Since the days of Hipocrates,

there's almost been
a basic covenant of trust

between the caregiver
and the patient

that were ever possible.

The caregiver is going
to share with the patient,

what is the causation
of the illness.

And today in Cardiology,

generally, that's just
not being done at all.

Not at all.

We cut people open.

We'd bypass their
clogged arteries.

We'd tell them they were cured

and more often
than not, they would go home

and do all the things

that had caused the problem
in the first place.

You know,
smoke and eat junk food

and more often than not,
the bypasses would clog up

and we would cut them open
again sometimes

two or three times.

And so for me,

we were literally
bypassing the problem.

We weren't really treating
the underlying cause.

If you had a nail

stuck in the bottom
of your shoe

and every time you stepped down
it hurt your foot

because that nail's
poking your foot.

I could give you some tylenol
or advil and say,

"Well, just keep going on."

Or I could say, "I believe
we've found the cause,

let's remove that nail
from your shoe

and you don't need
any medication."

That's the way it is

with the whole food
plant based diet.

As a youngster,

my own family
had a lot of health issues,

and as a kid I remember
my two favorite uncles

having to have
bypass surgery.

And these were people
who I loved

and they were never the same
after the surgery.

And then one day,
I start waking up

with the most severe pains
in the morning.

I jut knew
something was really bad

but I kept thinking,
maybe It'll just go away.

You know, I just wanted
to believe anything

but, oh, my goodness,
I've got some heart issues.

I went to the Cleveland Clinic.

I had a 100 percent
on my right artery blocked

and two at 65 percent.

I had a hardening

on the right side
of the artery.

I also had
left bundle block,

I had an enlarged heart,
I had leaky valves,

I was a real mess.

Even though we tend to think
of advances in medicine

as being a new drug
or new laser

or something really
high-tech and expensive.

In our studies over the last,
almost 40 years now,

we've used these
very high-tech expensive

state of the art
scientific measures

to prove how powerful

this very simple and low tech

and low cost interventions
can be.

And we found for the first time

that not only
can you help prevent disease,

but you can actually
reverse it in most cases.

What Ornish showed in 1990

in the most prestigious
medical journal in the world,

he could measure
and show that the arteries

were opening up without drugs,
without surgery

just, you know,
plant based diet,

and other healthy lifestyle
changes.

After that publication,

no one else should have
died of heart disease.

We had the cure.

We've had it for decades

yet hundreds of thousands
of people continue to die

from this preventable,
treatable, reversible disease.

The catheter is again in
the aorta now, in the left main,

an injecting dye
in the left main

and if you look very closely,
I'll slow it down,

you can see
there is a significant

narrowing of the vessel
right here.

See this is a normal
vessel here,

this is a circumflex vessel
and if you look right here,

it's very hazy and so that's
the cholesterol plaque,

that is limiting the flow
significantly down this vessel,

so the patient comes in
with a heart attack

or comes in with chest pain.

Most of what I do
are coronary bypass grafts

and Oklahoma is
number two in the nation

for death
from cardiovascular disease

and it's because
the way we eat.

There is no question about it.

About six years ago,
I woke up with left arm pain.

I went to my cardiologist,
my cholesterol was 494,

my triglycerides
were over 3200.

I had a stress test,
it was abnormal.

I had a 85 percent blockage
of my left anterior descending.

An 80 percent a little further
down stream

and a 70 percent of my
right main coronary.

And he said that
it was too big to stent

so he recommended
I have a triple bypass.

It was like a slap in the face

'cause it just
never crossed my mind

that that would happen.

So many of our friends had,

you know, had this happen

and they went in
and they had the stents

and they were fine

and that was what we were
gonna do, you know.

So, it was,
it was a real wakeup call.

One of my partners recommended
that I read the China Study.

I had read that the Saturday
before they arteriogram,

and in that book is mentioned

Prevent and Reverse
Heart Disease

by Dr. Esselstyn
and so I found that book,

read it literally that day,

called my cardiologist
and said,

"I think I wanna try diet
before I have bypass."

And it literally
scared him to death.

Don't let your culture
hold your heart hostage.

Hey, it's in the family genes,
I'm gonna get it,

I'm gonna die of something,

why not let me eat
what I wanna eat

and enjoy life.

I hear that all the time.

It's very common for people

who have a family history
of heart disease

to have a family history
of eating

a very poor, low nutritive
quality diet,

high in junk food,
high in salt, sugar and fat.

One of my sites that I work at
is a heart hospital.

I see patients that come in
there, not infrequently,

who are about my age,
built like me,

they come in
with heart attacks.

They're thin and healthy
on the outside

but on the inside
their arteries

are filled up with saturated
fat and cholesterol

and inflammation.

They're very surprised by it
when it happens

but I see how my friends eat
after a bike ride for instance.

Exercise is great
for many different reasons.

But exercise alone
is not enough

and a plant based lifestyle
is incredibly beneficial

because it reduces
the risk of so many diseases

that affect us.

The whole truth will come out
one of these days.

Truth cannot be suppressed
for too long.

Erectile dysfunction
to a urologist is ED,

but when a cardiologist
hears ED,

that's early death.

Erectile dysfunction is sort of
the bad boy in the block

'cause nobody wants
to talk about it.

But in general,

statistics are pretty
earth shattering, right.

Roughly, 40 percentage
of men at age 40, 50 at 50,

60 at 60 and then by the time
we are 100,

we're all in trouble.

The problem is
when person develops ED,

that's the first sign

that there is some problem
in the blood vessels.

The pathophysiology is the same
as coronary artery disease.

The obstruction
of the arteries

to the penis by plaques
that develop in there.

They're much smaller arteries
going to the penis