Perhaps most interesting is how people in the Blue Zones are not only living longer, but better; that is, they remain active in their 80s and 90s, typically without the degenerative conditions that people suffer from in most of the industrialized world. In the United States, for example, the average lifespan is about 78 years (about ten years less than the Blue Zones), and almost 50 percent of adults have one of the three leading risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Having seen and studied these remarkable people, Buettner has a new passion project: Bring—and implement—the secrets of living long and well to willing communities here in America, and around the globe.

From Curious Adventurer to Longevity Expert

Buettner has a long history of traveling off the beaten path: he holds three Guinness World Records for transcontinental endurance cycling and has an Emmy award for his PBS documentary about his “Afratrek” expedition, which covered over 11,885 miles through Africa. He is also an intensely curious adventurer, which, along with being comfortable with long-term trekking, made him uniquely qualified to unlock the “secrets” of these far-flung places.

Along with his brother Steve, Dan founded an adventure company called Quest in 1995. A pioneer in ed tech, Quest connected thousands of classrooms with their explorations around the world as they tried to unravel some of the world’s greatest mysteries, including the fall of the ancient Mayan empire, mapping Darwin’s route through the Galapagos islands, and retracing Marco Polo’s trail over the Silk Road.

It was during these expedition years that Buettner learned that Okinawa in Japan had the longest disability-free life expectancy in the world. It was a mystery he wanted to unravel, so he went there to discover the hows and whys. In addition to students, many adults also followed his particular journey, which showed him how interested people were in the idea of aging gracefully.

Buettner decided this would be his next big mystery and adventure—to visit places in the world where people lived long and healthy lives. He wanted to see what they were doing right, what they had in common, and what they could teach the rest of us about health and longevity. He returned to the States and approached people at National Geographic, who were excited about the project. He then got a research grant from the National Institute on Aging and assembled a team of top demographers, scientists, epidemiologists, and experts.

Together, they started studying the long-living people of Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; and Loma Linda, California. His quest was to answer the question of what these far-flung people and places had in common, including a locale only an hour away from downtown Los Angeles.

The story, when it was finally published in National Geographic as the cover story, became a print and Internet sensation. It got coverage on all the major networks including Anderson Cooper, Fox, and CNN, and Oprah loved him.

Buettner wanted to go further and deeper for his book on the same subject, so he extended his research into other slivers of the world with centenarians who were living happy, healthy lives (low middle age mortality was also a factor). He added Costa Rica’s Nicoyan Peninsula and Ikaria, a Greek Island, to the list of official Blue Zones.

The Nine Principles (Pillars) of the Blue Zones

After years of study, Buettner and his expert group came up with the nine habits and practices at work in these far-flung locations and populations. He discovered it was an interconnected web with food at the center: Centenarians eat 95 percent plant-based foods focused around fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans. Meat is consumed in small amounts on rare occasions. Blue Zones residents also have a sense of purpose (family, volunteer work), have a strong community (friends, family), move naturally throughout the day (walking, gardening), socialize regularly, and regularly take some stress-relieving time to decompress. (See also: What do Do the Healthiest, Longest-Living People in the World Eat?)

Now that lifestyle medicine is a popular idea, some of these things seem like common sense. But Buettner’s team was ahead of the curve, and made the important point that overall health is determined by a number of factors. Even though what someone eats is a key element, all of the Blue Zones residents were doing healthy things regularly as part of their daily lives. Buettner describes it as a “combination of good habits.”

Buettner compiled the research and findings into The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest. It was a New York Times bestseller and made another big splash. He was on Oprah, gave a TED Talk, and was part of Bill Clinton’s Health Matters Initiative. People were hungry for more knowledge about how to live longer and enjoy their senior years.

With his team, he spent many months and years talking and meeting seniors who were enjoying happy, healthy lives. Every time he returned from one of his trips in the Blue Zones, he was saddened by the state of health in America. He went on to found Blue Zones as a company, and wanted to find a way to help people at home put the principles of longevity into practice.

NOW: Applying Blue Zones Best Practices to American Cities

His next quest was on home soil, as he sought to figure out a way to bring the “secrets” of the Blue Zones home. We recently spoke to Buettner about this huge mission, and about the difficulties in bringing back the Blue Zone lessons to American culture, rich with fast food, sprawling car-dependent suburbs, and one of the highest obesity rates in the world.

Since community was part of the reason that people in the Blue Zones thrived, Buettner knew he’d have to think big. He explains: “Health behaviors are contagious. If all your close friends are obese, there’s a 150-percent better chance that you are too. The reason 97 percent of diets fail in the long run is because you do them in isolation. Instead of just thinking about diet, we think of good health as an interconnected cluster of characteristics that connect and support each other.”

It’s not possible to create a community where there is none. So Buettner did the next best thing—he decided he needed to transform whole cities and communities to make healthy choices easier for residents. He met with Nancy Graham, editor of AARP magazine, with the idea of doing a city health makeover. She was on board. He then presented the project at the United Health Foundation, which was also impressed with the idea. They underwrote $750K toward the $1M project.

Transforming Albert Lea, Minnesota

With the funding secured, Buettner had to figure out where and how to start. He explains how he got the ball rolling on this exciting (and huge) undertaking:

“I asked a health behavior expert [Leslie Lytle] at the University of Minnesota to direct the project with me, and hired a former city planner [Joel Spoonheim] to run daily operations. Lytle and other experts at the University of Minnesota came up with the criteria. We wanted a town of 10-20,000 people with numbers that fit the national average for health conditions like cardiovascular disease and obesity. We also wanted it to be within driving distance to the Twin Cities.”

In 2009, Buettner, the AARP, and his team applied Blue Zones principles to Albert Lea, Minnesota. Buettner describes the impact it made at the time: “It was a huge success. The citywide health initiative raised life expectancy, lowered health care costs by about 40 percent, and residents collectively lost tons of weight.” The need is there, and other communities were eager to get on board after they saw that real changes could happen. “We’ve had over 300 cities contact us since we helped Albert Lea. About 70 percent of Americans are overweight and unhealthy; 87 million are suffering from prediabetes. People and communities know they have a problem, but they don’t know how to fix it. And we found great open minds in middle America.”

That was the beginning of the Blue Zones Project, the public health initiative that gets schools, employers, restaurants, grocery stores, residents, and leaders to work together to improve the health of everyone in the community. Buettner describes it as “transforming the places we live, work, and pray to support people in making healthy choices.” The effort is paying off, with tangible physical and economic benefits.

The Blue Zones Project: How They Do It

The public health initiative has what Buettner calls a “plant-slant” focus, which mimics the diet of people living in Blue Zones around the world (90-95 percent plant foods). But they go beyond just recommendations. He explains: “We have found that if you want to help people to eat plant-centered diets, there are some basic things that make it easy for them.”

These are:

1. Good plant food has to be cheap and accessible in your community.
2. You have to set up your kitchen so it’s easy to cook plant foods.
3. You need time-honored recipes that taste great (like these Mango and Black Bean Tacos, adapted from Blue Zones).
4. You need a social network of people who also enjoy eating plant-based foods.

The community aspect is at the heart of the project. Buettner explains, “It’s really hard to be a plant-based eater when all your friends and family meet up and eat ribs and BBQ all the time. It’s easier to fail if you constantly have to struggle or remember to do something. It has to be natural.”

To institute widespread change, the Blue Zones team sets up about 150 “nudges” in cities to make healthier choices easier. They start with community leaders: “We require that mayors, city councils, chamber of commerce, local CEOs, and superintendents of school understand and support what we’re doing. We have them sign a pledge to support the project to improve the health of their residents. And then we bring evidence-based ways to make healthy choices easier and unhealthy choices harder.”

The Blue Zones team works with cities to optimize ordinances and adopt food policies to make healthy food cheaper and more accessible. To do the latter, they make sure at least one-third of restaurants, schools, workplaces, and grocery stores work towards Blue Zones certifications.

“We give restaurants and schools certifications when they go ‘plant-slant.’ We recognize them when they offer some delicious plant-based meals and healthier options on their menu. They don’t have to be 100-percent vegan or vegetarian.”

At the community level, they work to set up networks and empower people to live healthier lives. They have found that if about 50 percent of the residents take up the pledge, the communities find success. “We set up Blue Zones potlucks where people can learn how to make delicious plant-based meals and taste them. From these, people build social networks around cooking and eating and enjoying plant-based meals. We teach people how to set up their kitchens for success and give them recipes we think they’ll love. We also set up and invite people to take purpose workshops to find volunteer opportunities that interest them. We encourage them to move, to connect, and to make their lives more meaningful.”

So far, the results have been inspiring. After Albert Lea, MN, the Blue Zones Project went to three California communities: Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Manhattan Beach. They’ve also brought the project to 15 cities in Iowa, Fort Worth in Texas, Naples in Florida, and Hawaii. In these communities, obesity, smoking, stress, and healthcare costs have decreased across the board. The quality of life has increased.

What’s next? According to Buettner, the rest of the country and then, the rest of the world.

(Photos by David McLain)

The post One Man’s Mission to Bring the Secrets of Longevity to Communities Everywhere appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

We had the chance to talk to Venus about her diet, her life, and her exciting new ventures.

Q: When you were diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, you switched to a plant-based diet. How did this help you manage the autoimmune disorder?

VW: The vegan diet was a big change for me and I am still adjusting. It is especially a challenge as I am constantly travelling and eating on the run. However, I believe it is the most sustainable way to eat and it really renews your body. The thing that has helped me most is high iron intake, along with eliminating cane sugar and corn syrup.

Q: How did you feel physically after changing your diet? Have you noticed other benefits?

VW: Amazing skin! Also low body fat but I am not really looking for any other results.

Q: It’s been reported you train for five hours a day—what foods keep you fueled and going before, during, and after your workouts?

VW: I am not a big eater. In the morning I mainly eat fruit. That gets me through my tennis practice. Lunchtime is normally my biggest meal, something like rice or carbs that will get me through my gym workout.

Q: What are your favorite foods to eat?

VW: I eat to live, not live to eat. At the moment I love anything that involves potatoes. ­­

Q: Most people don’t know that you’ve also become an entrepreneur—you are part owner of the Miami Dolphins and founded a clothing line. Why and how did you decide to create a clothing line called EleVen?

VW: I studied fashion design, so this was a natural progression. Every design student dreams of having their own clothing line! EleVen represents going past a ten, so its all ’bout turning it up to EleVen!

Q: What was the hardest thing about creating a clothing line? The most exciting thing?

VW: It’s definitely an adventure! What I love most is building an amazing team, collaborating with them, and then seeing them shine. The hardest part is all the risks you take as an entrepreneur—it can be a daunting experience but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Q: Which famous people would you love to see wearing your clothes?

VW: Let’s see, Serena Williams! Rita Ora and Lewis Hamilton when we launch the men’s line. Misty Copeland would be amazing too!

Q: You’re an inspiration to millions of kids, entrepreneurs, and people struggling with their health. Is there anything you’d like to encourage in the next generation?

VW: Yes, look into natural remedies as well as conventional, because they go hand and hand. Always continue to search for the solution that makes you feel better. It’s different for everyone! Most of all, chronic health conditions can be demoralizing and limiting. However, you have to see the glass as half full and always focus on what you can accomplish and not what you can’t.

Q: Do you have a personal mantra or motto?

VW: Better than a 10!

Q: I was in the stands at your first US Open appearance where you shocked everyone at 17 years old. At 36, you’re still shocking everyone now by the length and success of your career. Most people retire by their early 30s. What is the secret to your long career?

VW: You know, I’m asking myself that! It’s the love of the game that still lights my fire. I know I still have a lot to give. I also love a challenge, and last but not least, I love wearing EleVen on the court! I don’t know if I can give up walking out on center court in our cool gear!

Learn more about Venus Williams and about Eleven by Venus.

The post Food, Fashion, and the Future: Exclusive Interview With Tennis Great Venus Williams appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Whalen dreamed of becoming a professional football player. He didn’t get scholarship offers to any Division 1 schools, so he adjusted and applied to rigorous academic schools with strong football programs. He got into Stanford (no small feat in itself) and joined the football team as a walk-on. After two years, he earned that coveted football scholarship. He had a great college career and ended as starting wide receiver.

Despite proving himself on the field, the 5’11”, 190-pound Whalen was small by NFL standards and went undrafted out of Stanford. Again, he adjusted and signed on with the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent. After four years with the Colts and some time with both the Miami Dolphins and the San Diego Chargers, Whalen has just signed on to play for the New England Patriots.

While with the Colts, living his dream of playing professional football, Whalen injured his foot. Determined to come back as soon as possible, he started to research nutrition and health. His ex-girlfriend showed him Forks Over Knives and Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue, and he decided to try Engine 2’s 28-day challenge. After the 28 days, he felt so great so he continued with a plant-based diet. He eventually came back from the foot injury, better than ever, to make the Colts starting lineup.

We recently talked to Whalen about his diet, his life, and his football career.

Forks Over Knives: How was your diet before you went plant-based?

Griff Whalen: “Growing up, my diet was not good. I was so active and played so many sports that it didn’t make a difference with my weight. But I was a big meat and dairy eater, ate a lot of fast food, and also had a pantry full of candy, cookies, chips, and sugary cereals.

At Stanford, I did start learning more about nutrition and eating better. Our coaches and strength coach tried to educate the players—they tried to steer us away from deep fried foods, junk food, and fast foods and towards eating more real food. This usually meant grilled chicken and fish.”

FOK: How was your first month doing the 28-day challenge?

GW: “During the 28-day challenge, I felt surprisingly good! I just went cold turkey. After a few days, I really felt a difference in my body. I felt lighter and more energetic and just less sluggish overall. That first week motivated me to finish the whole 28 days and to also start thinking about a plant-based diet as a long-term thing. I decided to research if it was a viable option for an athlete.

I found some books to read. I initially added fish back into my diet for one month but after doing more research, I cut it out again. I felt confident that I could perform well on a plant-based diet.”

FOK: What foods helped you during the transition to a plant-based diet?

GW: “It was a huge change so there was definitely a learning curve. Everything you eat and cook is different! It was the off-season for me though, so I did have time to learn how to do it. One of the things that helped was cooking and eating different ethnic foods because they are easy to make vegan. Mexican food like beans and rice and Indian dishes helped a lot during the transition.

I also made many of the Engine 2 recipes. One of the easiest things I learned to do (and still make) is sauteed vegetables with pasta, grains, or lentils and some marinara sauce. It’s filling, tasty, and easy to make.”

FOK: How was training on a plant-based diet?

GW: “I noticed an immediate difference and so did my friends and teammates. My body composition changed—my body fat went down, my lean muscle went up, and I got stronger. I could also run faster and my recovery time improved.”

FOK: How did your team react?

GW: “I didn’t go out of my way to tell anyone. It came up often enough when people saw my plate. There was actually a lot of curiosity and interest in it because most of us don’t have much nutrition education even though it impacts what we do everyday. So many guys were interested in learning what I had to say and trying the meals.

Closer friends would poke fun at me in good spirits. And of course some guys thought it was totally bizarre and made no sense.”

FOK: What are your favorite foods?

GW: “Indian food. I also love tacos and Mediterranean dishes like hummus, falafel, and grape leaves.”

Learn more about Griff Whalen.

The post NFL Player Griff Whalen on the Perks of Being a Plant-Powered Athlete appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

ZOOM+Care Prime in Portland, Oregon, is taking a radical new approach to primary care. It incorporates many of the innovations already used in ZOOM+Care neighborhood clinics, including affordable transparent pricing, no-wait visits, and the ability to schedule visits via ZOOM’s mobile app. What sets Prime clinics apart, however, is its emphasis on food and movement as a way to prevent and reverse chronic diseases.

Using Food as Medicine

Dr. Craig McDougall, practice lead, says: “Traditional primary care in America is still focused on pills, procedures, and the prescription pad. Since we know that most chronic diseases are rooted in diet and lifestyle, we are focusing on food and movement as medicine.” Prime’s forward-thinking approach includes using technology to help with scheduling, billing, and even consultations—their telemedicine program includes the ability to chat online with doctors and nurses.

Besides general medical care, Prime offers a food-as-medicine program that includes personalized lifestyle and health coaching, cooking classes, yoga, and video and email support. It’s already had a huge impact on patients with type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and high cholesterol who have been able to get off or significantly reduce their prescription medications.

McDougall comments, “We provide people the education and support but also the practical tools they need like cooking, grocery shopping, and eating out.” McDougall acknowledges that change can be hard, so Prime personalizes patients’ transition recommendations. “Some of my patients are ready to get on the program and will dive right in. Others need to ease into changing their diet slowly,” McDougall says. “Lifestyle changes are not all or nothing.”

ZOOM+Care Prime encourages a plant-based diet for all patients because they believe it’s the most scientifically supported eating pattern. Nutrition studies clearly show that people whose diets include a large amount of plant foods have a much lower risk of chronic disease. McDougall notes, “Most of the American diet (over 80 percent of calories) comes from processed and animal-based foods. Less than 10 percent of calories in the American diet come from fruits and vegetables. So we need to shift the balance toward more whole-plant foods.”

Want to learn more? Get Dr. Craig McDougall’s Top Tips for Transitioning to a Plant-Based Diet

The post This Portland Company is Changing Healthcare With Tech, Transparency, and Plants appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Frozen Fruit Co, the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Michael and Victoria Philippou, started in London. The Philippous were big city lawyers when they came up with the idea. They both had sweet tooths, but were also health-conscious. Michael says, “We wanted to create something that tasted great but was healthy with a short and simple ingredient list.”

A great plan, but a big feat for two people who were not chefs and had never developed recipes before. They started recipe development in their London apartment in 2012, squeezing the R and D into their after-work and weekend hours. It took many months, and Michael explains how tricky the process was: “We were committed to doing it with only fruit and natural fruit sugars. People usually make sorbet with sugar syrup or fruit juice as the base and then add just a little bit of fruit. We didn’t want to do that—we didn’t want to water down the flavor at all.”

The Philippous eventually found a way to make their tasty soft-serve fruit, which is made from whipped layers of fruit mixed with some dates and/or natural fruit extracts. After they were happy with the product, they started slowly selling to local businesses, and their innovative product immediately got a lot of notice. They were featured in Vogue, The Daily Mail, and Jamie Oliver magazine. They even got a BBC Good Food award.

The pair quit their jobs and started the second part of their of their quest: to bring their soft-serve fruit to Los Angeles. They’d always loved LA, and they felt like the health-conscious city was the perfect place to debut their first storefront. It made good sense to start out in a place that loves health and wellness trends; frozen yogurt shops, juice bars, and yoga studios are an everyday part of the Los Angeles landscape. But for the Philippous, it was harder than it sounds to pull off: they had to get the right visas, sell their home and most of their possessions, move to a different country, and open their first store.

They opened their storefront in Santa Monica in July and have received a warm reception from locals and the press. Frozen Fruit Co. currently features four flavors: Mango, Raspberry & Orange, Strawberry, and Coconut & Cacao. They also have FroFru bowls (which they market as “dessert you can have for breakfast”) and optional toppings like fresh fruit, carob chips, and coconut flakes.

Frozen Fruit Co. is located at 729 Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, California and they deliver locally via Postmates, GrubHub and Doordash.

FroFru Bowls

The post NEWS: Frozen Fruit Co. Serves Up All-Fruit Ice “Cream” for the Masses appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

NutritionFacts.org, Greger’s science-based website, provides the latest in nutrition research for free as a public service. We recently talked to him about how his work habits, what he eats, and how he manages to accomplish so much in so little time.

Why did you start NutritionFacts.org?

There’s so much in the nutrition world that is commercialized and driven by business interests. I wanted to go to the original sources and present people with the best, most objective nutrition research. NutritionFacts is nonprofit and noncommercial.

When I was a child, my grandmother was told she didn’t have long to live. She had undergone several bypass surgeries and was confined to a wheelchair. She reversed her advanced heart disease with a plant-based diet and lifestyle changes (based on the work of Nathan Pritikin), and went on to live 31 more years to the age of 96. She also enjoyed great health—she was out of the wheelchair in just three weeks of switching her diet and began walking ten miles a day. It was just amazing and wonderful for us kids to be able to play with her again. Her health transformation was what made me want to be a doctor.

So I was familiar with the power of plant-based nutrition. Years later, Dr. Dean Ornish published his pioneering Lifestyle Heart Trial in 1990, which showed that heart disease could be stopped and even reversed without drugs or surgery. It was scientific proof of what I had witnessed with my own eyes. I also started eating a whole-food, plant-based diet at this time.

When I was in medical school, I was disappointed that we didn’t learn anything about using diet and lifestyle changes to treat chronic diseases. I couldn’t believe such a large body of evidence was being ignored by the medical community and that millions of people were dying prematurely for no reason. That’s why I’ve made it my life’s mission to get this life-saving information out to the public, who will never find or hear about the research in the medical journals.

I’ve heard that you review hundreds of scholarly articles per week. Is that a typo? How is it possible for you to read it all and transform the scholarly articles into your watchable, easy-to-understand videos? What’s the process for getting all of this done?

It takes a team. We have 19 researchers on the staff and about 80 active volunteers. Our team scans through every issue of every English-language nutrition journal. Every week, an army of volunteers downloads and categorizes nearly 2,000 papers on the subjects of nutrition and disease for the research team to analyze.

For process, there’s the research phase and the writing phase. During the research phase, volunteers download the studies and put them in topical folders. When I’m in this phase, I skim through the studies and pull out the groundbreaking studies (or collections of studies). I’ve always been a fast reader and am able to sort through dense material and pick out important points. If I see links and/or some kind of narrative arc [to the important points], I will later write a video or series of videos around the topic.

During the writing phase, I do close reads of the material, write the scripts, and give some direction to the video team. Our video team puts together the video assets. Every nine weeks, I read through the scripts and click through the presentations to create our huge library of NutritionFacts videos.

In the beginning, I was doing it all myself. If you look at the videos from 2011, they are pitiful. Now, thanks to the generous support of so many people, I have the luxury to go deep. We’re like the Bernie Sanders of the nutrition movement. Our average donation is under $30, but we reach so many millions of people that even if one in a thousand people donates we are able to survive and thrive. I don’t make any money from the site or the videos, but we do have to pay the people that work here and pay for servers and image and research download costs.

We’re trying to replicate the Wikipedia model where the information is totally free, but people donate because they feel they’ve benefited from it and want to support it to help others.

It’s obviously a ton of work and you seem to have a rigorous travel schedule. How do you stay healthy?

I practice what I preach and have been eating a whole-food, plant-based diet for about 25 years.

I also have a treadmill desk. I started with a standing desk when I read all the research about the dangers of sitting all day. Then I figured I could also move a little bit. I walk really slowly, about two miles an hour, but I walk about 17 miles a day on average when I’m not sitting on my butt in some plane somewhere.

What are the most popular topics on NutritionFacts?

Every year, I do a “best of” summary and a Top 10 list of the “most popular” videos. I don’t try to appeal to the masses or do trends, and I am often surprised at what people find interesting. People respond to the Paleo videos, which is no surprise. But there are surprises like the public interest in vinegar. Other popular topics include breast cancer, Splenda, and controversial topics like gluten.

You’ve read more medical literature on nutrition than probably anyone on the planet. What do you want people to eat?

I want everyone to eat a diet centered around whole plant foods. I also have a “daily dozen” list of all the things I try to fit into my daily routine. It’s available as a free app on iPhone and Android (“Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen). I go into [what to eat] in detail in How Not to Die. It includes beans, berries and other fruit, lots of veggies including leafy greens, whole grains, and flaxseeds. It also includes exercise and water.

When people are starting the transition to a whole-food, plant-based diet, what is the healthiest first step they can take?

For first steps that will make a big impact on your health, I recommend removing trans fats (i.e., donuts, Crisco) and processed meats and adding dark, leafy greens and beans to your diet.

Dr. Greger encourages everyone to go to your local library and grab a copy of How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease. All proceeds he receives from book sales go to charity.

The post What Acclaimed Author of “How Not to Die” Wants Us to Eat to Avoid an Early Death appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Weiss grew up in the 1960s in New Jersey and remembers the farms he visited every season to buy the state’s famous peaches, blueberries, and tomatoes. He also remembers how slowly, but surely, the farms started disappearing. As a child, Weiss loved nature, science, and the outdoors. He also dreamed of having a farm of his own one day in his beloved garden state.

As an undergraduate at Rutgers University, he chose to major in botany and also pursued pre-med and piano performance studies. He completed his residency at George Washington University and started working as an emergency room doctor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. It was there that Weiss received the call that would direct the course of his life. “I got the news that my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was given one month to live,” he said. “The cancer had spread to his other organs, so his doctor told him that chemotherapy had little to no chance of shrinking his tumors. So he opted out of treatment and went home to prepare to die. I quit my job in California and returned home to be with him.”

This was way before internet research was easy and accessible, so once he got home, Weiss went to the local library in Fair Lawn, N.J., to research alternative treatments to help his father. Weiss had one advantage—his botany training. He explained, “I was always studying the resilience of plants and their ability, given optimal circumstances, to fend off their own diseases.” Since over one-third of all pharmaceuticals are derived from plants, Weiss was always interested in how the full power of plants, rather than extractions, could reverse and prevent illness. “I was distraught and motivated, and I read everything I could get my hands on,” he recalled. “I then stumbled upon some first-person stories about how people had found success using a macrobiotic diet as an alternative and complementary cancer treatment.”

Witnessing Firsthand the Power of a Plant-Based Diet

He put his father on the macrobiotic diet promoted by Michio Kushi, a leader in the macrobiotic community and food-health movement. It was a plant-based diet with a focus on grains and vegetables. Dr. Weiss still talks about what happened with amazement:

“A plant-based diet doesn’t sound strange now, but it was shocking to people at that time. This was in 1991. On this diet, my father lived for 18 more months. He didn’t just survive, limping along—he rapidly improved and soon felt better than he had for most of his adult life. His severe abdominal pains vanished and a week later he was able to return to his work as an attorney. In another week he was back in the gym, and then started running every day. It was incredible. His doctors were shocked by his CT scans—he had a 50 percent reduction in tumor masses.

“That’s when I realized that the connection between food and health was so powerful, and that I wanted to do work that incorporated the healing power of good food. After my father died, I went back to work as an ER doctor and eventually set up a primary and multi-specialty busy practice in West New York, N.J. Plant-based nutrition was the foundation of my daily practice, but I knew that I eventually wanted to incorporate it into a broader lifestyle approach and get patients invested in how their food is grown.”

After 16 years, Weiss realized it was time to break free from the more traditional setting and create a new paradigm in medical care. “I envisioned a different type of health care—one that reveals to people the root causes [of] their suffering and strives to remove them.” He spent five years looking for the right farm, sold most of his assets—including his medical practice—and convinced his wife and children to go all-in on the dream of Ethos Health. It’s been a bumpy but exciting road for Weiss and his family with all the rigors of relocation, start-up struggles, running a working farm, and creating a new life from scratch. It’s hard to be the first.

A Year of Mindful Living, a Physician-Guided Lifestyle Program

Weiss says one of the most powerful programs at Ethos Health is “A Year of Mindful Living.” This comprehensive, physician-guided lifestyle program includes Weiss’ 30-day Challenge—a “detox” program of intensive dietary change that results in profound transformation. It also includes ongoing nutritional and lifestyle education and real-life application classes and access to a community; plant-based potlucks, sports days, and planting days are held so that patients can connect for support and just pure fun. There are patients from all walks of life with a wide variety of issues, from obesity to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases who seek out Ethos Health.

The local, regional, and even national media response has been incredible. The New York Times and the Today Show have featured the farm-based practice. These days, patients fly and drive from miles around to seek medical care from Weiss. They find the good doctor practicing primary care in an old wooden farmhand’s house smack in the middle of the 275-year-old working farm. His “waiting room” extends to the fields where patients can do thigh-building squats as they pick produce or fruit. One patient, 50-year-old Joyce Barrier, commented that: “It is a fitting location for holistic healing. When I go to other doctor’s offices, I am surrounded by reminders of the medications they use, and here at Ethos, I am also surrounded by their “medications” on the farm.”

In Just Three Months, Joyce is Pain-Free and Off Most of Her 15+ Medications

Barrier came to Ethos in March 2016. She suffered for many years with a multitude of chronic illnesses, including poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, severe ulcerative colitis, inflammatory arthritis, high cholesterol, hypertension, and asthma. In just three months at Ethos Health, she has transformed, losing 50 pounds and discontinuing almost all of her 15+ medications including very large doses of insulin. Her daily baseline pain, which was almost unbearable, is now about gone.

Joyce Barrier and Dr. Ron Weiss

When asked what she likes best about “A Year of Mindful Living,” Barrier explained: “I like that there is a real attempt to provide all that is needed for my success. The program anticipates information needed and provides education to change my whole lifestyle and make the needed alterations in thinking and behavior.” At the beginning, Barrier called Weiss three or four times a week to discuss blood sugars and get off insulin gradually. On a daily basis, she emails the practice manager, Asha Gala, her thoughts and feelings as she struggles with the challenges of making such a profound change. What inspires her the most are, she said, are the “high fives Dr. Weiss gives me. He says I am climbing the mountain of health and wholeness and he is sure I will get to the top. I believe it is possible with his encouragement.” One day soon Barrier, a nurse practitioner, who has been disabled by her ailments, hopes to go back to work and realize her dream to take her new whole-food, plant-based medical transformation and “spread the gospel.”

Because so few working farms are left, Weiss is committed to providing both patients and the public access to the healing properties of the farm. Every Saturday a “Doctor’s Farmer’s Market” is offered for the public and patients to purchase greens, pick varieties of strawberries, take classes such as mindful kitchen cooking or wildflower design, or go on hikes led by partners such as the New Jersey Audubon Society—the farm is home to over 100 species of birds, all of which are important to the sustainable ecosystem Weiss and his farmers are creating at Ethos.

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Study authors commented that “existing studies suggest a lower incidence of type 2 diabetes in people reporting a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and whole grains, and a higher incidence in those reporting consumption of red and processed meat,” but they wanted to go further by providing more clarification and detail on the types of foods associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The study, published online in the journal PLOS Medicine and funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, surveyed 200,000 health professionals for more than 20 years.

Researchers used a diet index in which plant foods received positive scores and animal foods and less healthy plant foods (sweet beverages, refined grains) received reverse scores.

Study Results

• Overall, a healthy plant-rich diet that was low in animals foods was associated with a 20 percent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.
• The most healthy plant-based diet (centered around whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts) was associated with a 34 percent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.
• A less-healthy plant-based diet (more refined and processed foods and sugary drinks) was associated with a 16 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
• Even a modest reduction in animal-based foods (from 5-6 servings to 4 servings per day) was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

“This study highlights that even moderate dietary changes in the direction of a healthful plant-based diet can play a significant role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes,” said lead study author Ambika Satija, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Nutrition.

Conclusions

Senior study author Professor Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard Chan School said: “A shift to a dietary pattern higher in healthful plant based foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and lower in animal based foods, especially red and processed meats, can confer substantial health benefits in reducing risk of type 2 diabetes.”

As to how a healthy plant-based diet could lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, study authors noted that such a diet would be rich with beneficial dietary fiber, antioxidants, and micronutrients, and low in saturated fat. Read more about the plant-based-diet benefits.

_{Sources:
Diet and diabetes risk: More (fruit and vegetables) is less
Healthy plant-based diet linked with substantially lower type 2 diabetes risk (LINK)
Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in US Men and Women: Results from Three Prospective Cohort Studies (LINK)}

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This new study, led by scientists from Imperial College London, was published in The Lancet and is the largest global dataset on obesity to date. Study authors, led by Professor Majid Ezzati, collaborated with over 700 public health officials around the world to collect data. They reviewed BMI data* from almost 20 million people in 186 countries between 1975 and 2014.

Looking at the data, study authors determined that the number of obese people in the world rose to 641 million in 2014, from 105 million in 1975. At the other end of the spectrum, the proportion of underweight people in the world fell about a third, from 13.8 percent to 8.8 percent of men and from 14.6 percent to 9.7 percent of women.

Some Highlights From the Study:

• For men, the obesity rate more than tripled over the past four decades, rising from 3.2 percent to 10.8 percent.
• For women, the obesity rate more than doubled over the past four decades, rising from 6.4 percent to 14.9 percent.
• The USA still has the highest number of severely obese men and women in the world.
• Japanese men and women have the lowest BMI in the high-income world.
• Average BMI is higher in English-speaking high-income countries than in non-English-speaking high-income countries, with American men and women having the highest BMI of any high-income country.
• The lowest BMIs in Europe are among Swiss women and Bosnian men.
• The country with the highest average BMI is American Samoa.

_{Change in female obesity rates around the world. Maps via NCD RisC.}

Battling the Global Obesity Epidemic

Professor Ezzati stated: “The number of people across the globe whose weight poses a serious threat to their health is greater than ever before. And this epidemic of severe obesity is too extensive to be tackled with medications such as blood pressure lowering drugs or diabetes treatments alone, or with a few extra bike lanes.”

Professor Ezzati calls for collaborative global initiatives to address what is now a worldwide obesity epidemic. “We hope these findings create an imperative to shift responsibility from the individual to governments and to develop and implement policies to address obesity,” he said in a statement. “For instance, unless we make healthy food options like fresh fruits and vegetables affordable for everyone and increase the price of unhealthy processed foods, the situation is unlikely to change.”

The statistics, trends, and predictions seem dire, but there are some high-income countries in which the rate of obesity has not increased over the last 40 years, including Switzerland, France, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Professor Ezzati told The World Today that these wealthy countries have avoided widespread obesity with a better overall “food environment.”

“It is more likely in continental Europe for people to be eating fresh and whole foods, and it’s a lot more likely in the English-speaking world for the food to be more processed and less … wholesome and fresh. So I think perhaps the food environment, especially for the lowest income groups who have the least ability to buy fresh food, must be a part of this story … and hopefully a part of the solution, if we think on it.”

_{Graphic via CNN.}

* What is BMI?

BMI stands for body mass index, and is the ratio of weight to height squared. Some individuals like professional athletes might have higher BMIs but not too much fat. For the vast majority of people, however, the BMI is a good way to gauge body fat. Risk of chronic health problems including heart disease and type 2 diabetes rises progressively as BMI increases.

_{Sources:
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_31-3-2016-22-34-39
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2016/s4435413.htm
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30054-X/abstract
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/tl-tlw033016.php
http://www.ncdrisc.org/map-obesity-prevalence.html}

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Organized by nutrition nonprofit Oldways, the goal of the conference was to gather the world’s top nutrition scientists into one place, let them discuss, and ask them to reach a consensus on good nutrition. Given the current climate of sensationalized media headlines, there couldn’t be a better time to cut through all the pseudo-science and nutrition confusion. This confusion helps sell diet pills, plans, and magazines, but it doesn’t offer any practical help to people.

It turns out there is a lot of agreement between the world’s top nutrition experts, even though they come from very different philosophies and methodologies. Co-chair Dr. Willett stated:

“The foods that define a healthy diet include abundant fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, legumes and minimal amounts of refined starch, sugar and red meat, especially keeping processed red meat intake low. When you put it all together, that’s a lot of common ground.”

Besides a plant-centered diet, the scientists and nutrition experts also agreed that sustainability is important:

“Food insecurity cannot be solved without sustainable food systems. Inattention to sustainability is willful disregard for the quality and quantity of food available to the next generation, i.e., our own children.” Even Boyd Eaton, one of the founders of the Paleo diet movement, stated: “Red meat is incompatible with environmental health in a sustainable world. We need a diet that equals the nutrition of our Paleo ancestors, but is sustainable.”

The expert group also agreed on some other key topics, including these core principles:

• Nutrition advice should be free of politics
• Finding common ground among experts is important for public health
• The basics of good nutrition don’t change every time a new study makes the headlines
• Accurate reporting by health journalists is important
• Food literacy is important

Learn more about the Common Ground consensus here.

_{Scientific Consensus Committee}

_{Steven Abrams, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Dell Medical School, University of Texas (Austin, TX)
Sara Baer-Sinnott, President, Oldways (Boston, MA)
Neal Barnard, MD, President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine (Washington, DC)
T. Colin Campbell, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University and Founder, T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies (Ithaca, NY)
Boyd Eaton, MD, Professor Emeritus, Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Alessio Fasano, MD, Director, Center for Celiac Research; Chief, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition and Associate Chief, Department of Pediatrics, Basic, Clinical and Translational Research, Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA)
Christopher Gardner, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine (Stanford, CA)
Frank Hu, MD, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)
David Jenkins, MD, DSc, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto; Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital; Director, Risk Factor Modification Centre, St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto, Ontario, CA)
David Katz, MD, MPH, Founding Director, Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, Yale University (New Haven, CT)
Tom Kelly, PhD, Chief Sustainability Officer, Sustainability Institute at University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH)
Miguel Ángel Martínez-González, MD, MPH, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain)
Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, Dean, Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (Boston, MA)
Malden Nesheim, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Nutrition and Provost Emeritus, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
Dean Ornish, MD, Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute; Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (Sausalito, CA)
Simon Poole, MBBS, DRCOG, Medical Practitioner and Commentator (Cambridge, UK)
Eric Rimm, ScD, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Director of the Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)
Joan Sabaté, MD, DrPH, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Loma Linda University School of Public Health (Loma Linda, CA)
Meir Stampfer, MD, DrPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)
Antonia Trichopoulou, MD, PhD, President, Hellenic Health Foundation and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Nutrition at the School of Medicine, University of Athens (Athens, Greece)
Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition; Chairman of the Department of Nutrition, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)}

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