“Common Ground”—5 MDs

Chapter 1 of our book features five pioneering medical doctors who promote chronic disease prevention and reversal with a simple shift to a whole foods, plant-based diet. While some of them may disagree with some of the others on a few minor points, they all share common ground agreement with this statement by Dr. T. Colin Campbell:

The closer we get to eating a whole foods, plant-based diet, the better off we will be.

How simple is that? But most people are not aware of that simple fact—and that includes most medical doctors. Like almost everyone else, most medical doctors truly believe that we “need” to eat animal protein to be healthy.

But these five pioneering physicians have proven that “protein myth” to be just that. In fact, all of them have reversed chronic disease in their patients by harnessing the power of the whole foods, plant-based diet.

In addition to Dr. Campbell, four of these five have also endorsed our book. I have met all but one of these great men and have become good friends with a few of them. Here they are—my five medical heroes of plant-based eating, listed in alphabetical order—with a short video of each one:

Neal Barnard, MD. I’ve followed his work for many years but didn’t meet him in person until 11-20-12. In this 2-minute video, he takes a few minutes to talk about reversing diabetes with a whole foods, plant-based diet.

Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. After meeting Ann and Ess in 2005, they have become good friends. In this 3-minute video, he reviews his landmark heart disease study at The Cleveland Clinic where he successfully reversed heart disease in all 17 of his terminal patients.

Joel Fuhrman, MD. I know this pioneering physician very well and know that he has reversed all kind of chronic disease in thousands of patients. Further, in his book, Eat to Live, he has reached millions more. In this video, he talks about something that we don’t hear very often, but it’s very important. He talks about the natural “detox” that will begin taking place when one moves quickly from the toxic western diet to a health-promoting, whole foods, plant-based diet. A quick Google search will locate many other videos of Dr. Fuhrman.

John McDougall, MD. After studying John’s work for many years, I finally met him in 2007 when I attended one of his Advanced Study Weekends in Santa Rosa, CA.In this 2.5 minute video from the Forks Over Knives movie, he discusses the health-promoting, disease-reversing, whole foods, plant-based diet style.

Dean Ornish, MD. Dean is the only one of this esteemed five that I have not met in person. But, as the “most famous” real doctor in America, I am delighted to have his endorsement on the front cover of our book. In this 3.5 minute video (TED Talks), he provides a concise summary of how most of our chronic diseases are preventable and reversible in 95% of the cases—with simple diet and lifestyle changes.

Also, in alphabetical order, I have featured all of these trail-blazing physicians in earlier blogposts:

• Neal Barnard, M.D., part of foundation of “4-Leaf” Program
• Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr….a true American hero
• Joel Fuhrman, M.D., an enlightened physician
• John McDougall, M.D. — a “trail-blazing” physician
• Dean Ornish and Bill Clinton; from burgers to whole plants

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

• The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD 
• Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
• An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
• Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

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