You've got questions...
Q: I just wondered what your thoughts are on soy.
A: Read this well written and researched article at Zen Habits "
Finally, The Truth About Soy
."
Q: I'm having a hard time losing weight even though I am plant-based. Is it because I eat a lot of nuts?
A:
I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist,
but I follow Dr. McDougall's advice.
He says "the fat you eat is the fat you wear," and in my experience that
has always been the case. Plus the more I think about it, the more it
makes sense. If I'm trying to lose fat, why should I eat more of it? Dr.
McDougall and Dr. Esselstyn both promote a low-fat/no-added-fat diet
for optimum health and weight loss. As soon as I started limiting the
amount of added fats in my diet — nuts, seeds, avocados, peanut butter,
etc. I lost weight and I've been able to keep it off. Any time I start
eating a lot of high-fat foods again, the weight creeps back on. For
more information, read
The Starch Solution
. Also, if
you're looking to lose weight, I can't recommend the
meal plans
enough. We have so many great success stories and testimonials!
Q: I've been faithfully following a whole foods, low-fat, plant-based diet since watching
Forks Over Knives
in April. Today I was looking forward to
my check-up with my endocrinologist to hear what awesome cholesterol
numbers I had. Come to find out, four months ago my number was 138,
today it was 152!!! I know that this is within "normal" range, but
still!!! My thyroid-stimulating hormone is also elevated to .1 of the
max. There has been no change to my meds, I take them every day at the
same time, the same dosage. So is it normal to have an elevation of
cholesterol AFTER changing to a plant based diet?
A:
I'm not a physician
so I can't really comment or give medical
advice
, especially since you're situation is complicated
(medication/thyroid removal) and not straight-forward. I recommend
talking to your doctor and perhaps a second doctor if necessary.
What I can say is I do know one other person whose story might shed
some light on your situation. She changed her diet, and her cholesterol
lowered so the medication was reduced. Then it was so low the doctor
took her totally off her medication — but saying she had to come back
in 6 weeks for a test, to make sure things were fine. Unfortunately, her
cholesterol had gone up and the doctor forced her to go back on her
medication. The woman was even more inspired to try to get off the meds and started trying different approaches and eating a 100% plant-perfect
diet. The same thing kept happening. She would qualify to go off, but
then once she was off the meds, her cholesterol went back up and she had
to go back on medication again.
After about a year of this (and her doctor being VERY supportive of
her diet and desire to get off meds), her doctor concluded that she
wasn't doing anything wrong. Her body just makes too much
cholesterol, so she'll have to be on medication no matter what, but the
plant-based diet had clearly helped her in lowering the numbers and
putting her on the lowest dosage. I think Dr. Essy says in his book,
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
, that there are some patients who will
never get off medication, no matter how plant-perfect their diet
because of genetics or other factors — but I could be remembering incorrectly. If you're not yet following Dr. Essy's program (it's a bit
more strict than what I or FOK recommends), I would also try that and
see if it makes a difference.
Here is a link to his
book
.
Q: My partner feels that she needs a certain amount of meat and
cheese to feel…stable and not spindly. Does this make any sense to you?
Do you have any advice for us?
A: Watch
Forks Over Knives
. Humans do not need meat or cheese and both products cause
a host of problems in humans (cancer, diabetes, hypertension), even in
small doses. Some people don't eat enough calories when they try eating
100% plant-based, because they don't realize that vegetables are so much
lower in calories, and that can make them feel a little off, but I find
as soon as they eat more calories, and include things like potatoes and
whole grains, that goes away and they feel much better than they ever
did on their previous omnivore diet.
Q: I don't understand why you designate "white" whole-wheat flour. How is this different from whole-wheat flour?
A:
It's a different type of wheat berries — much softer and better for
baked goods. See my post, "
Flour — White, Wheat or Gluten-Free
" for help.