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5 Questions with Dr. Joel Kahn, Leading Cardiologist and Author of The Plant-Based Solution

Last April, I was in Denver attending the National Organic Standards Board meeting and went to dinner one night at True Food Kitchen.

Sitting at a community table, I struck up a conversation with a woman across from me and she proceeded to tell me that she had recently switched to a vegan diet.

“So, do you know Dr. Joel Kahn? The cardiologist from Detroit,” I asked.

Given that the plant-based world is a tight community and that Dr. Kahn is a social media star, I had a feeling that she might have known him.

“Do I know Dr. Kahn?” she responded with her face completely lit up. “He’s the reason I am a vegan today! Everything he talks about online and in his books convinced me to go plant-based!”

With the release of his excellent new book The Plant-Based Solution, Dr. Joel Kahn is looking to make a similar impact on many more people.

I recently caught up with my friend, and here is what he had to say.

Numerous cardiologists that I have come into contact with lately are vegans, yet many prominent functional medicine doctors that I know do not advocate for a plant-based diet. They think eating meat is important. In your opinion, what are these doctors not understanding?

The functional medicine world is often stuck in the concept that a plant diet is nutritionally deficient even though the USDA, AND, and other organizations say otherwise.

Animals eat plants, break down their proteins into amino acids, and incorporate those back into animal proteins. Plants are the source of these proteins, and they provide all amino acids and have the minerals, vitamins, phytonutrients, polyphenols, and fiber that animal foods do not.

Animals do not make B12. Animals are not made of fiber. Plants do not have cholesterol. These basic facts are crystal clear.

The love of animal products raised on grass or grain-fed is a dinosaur that will be soon be considered barbaric and primitive, like 8-track tape players. Slowly the functional medicine world will get it.

 

Why do you advocate for no added oils in our diet — olive oil, coconut oil, etc — and how do these oils, which we are so often told are healthy to consume, negatively impact our arteries?

If you study the history of nutritional cardiology, at least back to 1951, an internist in Los Angeles, Lester Morrison, MD, developed a diet free of added oils and other high-fat foods like creams and organ meats and recommended this diet to half of his large cardiac practice. The other half ate their usual diet.

The half on the no added oil program lost weight and lowered their blood cholesterol by 100 mg/dl. He followed these patients for 12 years, and none of the heart patients on the standard diet were alive while 50% were on the no oil diet. He published these data in a major journal.

This pattern was continued by Nathan Pritikin, Dean Ornish, MD, Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, Joel Fuhrman, MD and others with similar astounding results. No one has shown that a diet enriched with oils can reverse heart disease, so if the goal is a big one — heart disease reversal — oils are out.

Saying that, for the public free of advanced heart disease, the Harvard School of Public Health has shown convincingly that replacing animal fats, like lard and butter, with vegetable oils reduces the risk of heart disease.

 

One criticism of plant-based diets is that plants do not contain B12. How do you respond to that?

This objection to a plant-based diet comes up over and over.

At the trivial expense and inconvenience of taking B12 3 or 4 times a week, the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancers, hypertension, and other chronic disease is lowered.

Which is better? Taking a B12 supplement a day to support a whole foods plant-based diet or taking an oral diabetic medication, insulin, chemotherapy, gastric bypass, and other therapies?

The decision is easy, and the argument is hardly worth the response. Take B12.

 

What do you tell a Baby Boomer, who has blood pressure issues and takes multiple medications, when he or she walks into your office?

I discuss why they have high blood pressure and that it is unlikely to be genetic but related to lifestyle.

They are overweight, which raises their pressure. Because they are overweight, they snore and have sleep apnea, which raises their blood pressure.

Their waistline and visceral fat are increased, which raises their blood pressure.

Why are they overweight, snoring, and bulging at the waist?

Because they eat plenty of calorie-dense, animal foods and consume low amounts nutritionally-dense plant foods. Their Plant to Animal ratio is too low.

They need to raise it to 90-100%, throw in time-restricted feeding and fasting, and they will get back to that inner skinny person with normal blood pressure without medication.

 

How do you address the widely held belief that embracing a plant-based diet will leave a person deficient in protein?

Our movement has been assisted by the Nobel prize nominated science of Valter Longo, Ph.D. and others.

Dr. Longo is one of the world’s leaders in nutritional science and the study of aging on a biochemical, epidemiological, and clinical trial basis.

He has demonstrated that protein, particularly the amino acids found often in meat like leucine and methionine, trigger activity in pathways that age our cells at an accelerated rate and promote chronic disease including cancer. Plants do not do that.

He has recommended a protein intake until older years of about half of the usual amount. His longevity diet is almost entirely a plant diet with a few fish meals a week. This profound science of aging pathways is strong support, what he calls The Five Pillars of Scientific Support, for eating plants not animals.

I use his Fasting Mimicking Diet, a plant program, in my clinic with profound improvements in weight, visceral fat, inflammation, blood pressure, and pain control. It is an ultra-low protein program 5 consecutive days a month to trigger stem cell release, regeneration of tissues, and repair. Plants have that power.

Dr. Kahn is one of the most caring doctors that I have ever met, and his patients have no idea how lucky they are to have him. His concern is so strong and genuine that he opened a plant-based restaurant in Detroit, Greenspace Cafe, so all his patients and friends could have a healthy place to eat.

Be sure to check out Dr. Joel Kahn’s fantastic new book The Plant-Based Solution and find him online: Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

A message from Tradin Organic

How Tradin Organic is Helping Coconut Farmers in The Philippines

For more than a decade, Tradin Organic has been working with local partners in The Philippines to bring a diversified range of organic products to the market, such as coconut oil, tropical fruits and even cocoa.

The company is helping to support local farmers by assisting them with technical support and organic certification, in addition to paying Fairtrade premium on top of the organic premium.

Learn more.

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Living Maxwell

Better Choices

New to Organic? – Start with This Inexpensive Breakfast

One question that I get a lot is “How should a person get started with organic food?” One complaint I hear a lot is that organic food costs too much.

Let me both answer this question and address this complaint with a story.

Last week, Brian, a new friend of mine, came to me for some food-related advice. He wanted to know what he could be doing to eat healthier, as he was “crashing” in the middle of the afternoon. Brian was very concerned that his eating habits were negatively impacting his ability to perform at work, which would impact his ability to make money.

He did not know much about organic and was very concerned about the price. When I started talking about organic food, the first words out of his mouth were “Hey, I don’t make $20,000 per month.”

Brian went on to tell me about the fast-food breakfasts that he had been eating and he didn’t think it was the cause of his problem.

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A message from Tradin Organic

Why Tradin Organic is Prioritizing Regenerative Organic Farming

At Tradin Organic, we believe that regenerative organic farming is key to growing healthy and nutritious food ingredients — for now and for future generations.

And in Sierra Leone, we have grown the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified cacao.

Learn more.

Living Maxwell

Better Choices

Another Reason to Support Organic — Organic “Hotspots” Significantly Boost Local Economies

While there are many reasons why we should support organic food, we now have yet another one: organic boosts local economies.

In a new study by the Organic Trade Association called U.S Organic Hotspots and their Benefit to Local Economies, it has been found that organic food and crop production – and the business activities accompanying organic agriculture – creates real and long-lasting regional economic opportunities.

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Living Maxwell

Better Choices

Study: Organic Ketchup Has Higher Levels of Antioxidants than Conventional Ketchup

Last year, I wrote about a groundbreaking study from Washington State University that said that organic strawberries have higher antioxidant activity and concentrations of ascorbic acid than conventional strawberries.

This research was the subject of much conversation in the organic industry because now we could point to objective, independent research that validated the superiority of organic.

Well, for those who still don’t believe that organic is a better option, maybe a recently released report from Spain will make them think differently.

In a study performed at the University of Barcelona Science and Technology Centres and reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, ketchup made from organic tomatoes proved to have higher levels of polyphenols than ketchup made from conventional tomatoes. (Polyphenols are biomolecules with antioxidant properties and protective effects in the human body.)

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