We that live on a plant-based diet are regularly asked how we have the discipline to resist foods we once loved. It’s super hard to explain that we don’t feel deprived and are happy with our choices. Most think the lifestyle I live is radical, yet I don’t really feel it is, at all. I know I speak for most vegans/vegetarians I know when I say we really, really enjoy eating and there actually seem to be MORE food choices when our minds are open to the rainbow of fruits and veggies we can choose from as well as the assortment of grains…many that we never even knew existed. Often, I am frustrated when friends and students feel they are doing their very best to manage their heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol, inflammatory conditions and cancers, but haven’t given a plant-based diet a chance, when that might be the very change that would make everything turn around. I totally realize that for some that might seem very extreme…and then this quote always comes to mind….
“I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.”
― Dean Ornish
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