Plant-based Archives - Dr. Monica Aggarwal

Deep Dive into Plant Based Protein (and debunking some myths along the way)

Blog, Podcast, Seeking Voices: Exploring the Science of Health and Healing / July 12, 2023

I had a great time speaking with Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina. They are fabulous dietitians who are very well known in the nutrition field. They took me on a deep dive into the world of protein. We discussed a number of topics such as plant-based vs animal proteins, protein needs for children/seniors/athletes, and we knocked over a few myths along the way. All this info is in their new book, “Plant Powered Protein“, and well worth picking up.

Big 3 Episode Takeaways

You can easily get enough protein from plant-based sources without the negative health consequences of animal products.
There are key differences in protein needs for children, seniors and high-performance athletes.
Tofu and soy products have long been thought to increase the risk of breast cancer. Turns out this is false and soy actually provides a level of protection.

Topics Discussed

0:40 – Introducing Brenda & Vesanto
2:41 – What is protein and why is it important?
6:35 – Essential amino acids
8:13 – Animal vs plant sources of proteins
13:14 – Disease reduction with plant based protein
17:49 – Plant fiber impact on the absorption of protein
19:26 – Getting enough plant based protein
22:18 – How much protein do I need?
24:23 – Example meals to get enough protein
31:20 – Fear of tofu and soy
37:22 – Simple way for kids to get protein
42:05 – Protein intake for athletes
53:54 – Do medium chain triglycerides (MCT) improve endurance or support weight loss?
57:38 – Protein needs for seniors
1:03:34 – Thoughts on plant-based “meat” products
1:08:57 – How vegans are close to the Paleolithic Diet

About Brenda and Vesanto:

VESANTO MELINA, MS, RD

Vesanto Melina is an internationally known nutrition consultant and speaker, academic instructor, registered dietitian, and writer. She was the recipient of the prestigious Ryley-Jeffs Memorial Award in 2016, the highest recognition that the Board of Dietitians of Canada can bestow on a member. Vesanto, with co-author Brenda Davis, RD, has written nine classics on plant-based nutrition. Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition (2014) and Becoming Vegan: Express Edition (2013 are classics that were referred to by the American Library Association as “the go-to books” on plant-based nutrition. Their latest books are Plant Powered Protein (2023) and The Kick Diabetes Cookbook (2018). Vesanto has taught at the University of British Columbia and at Seattle’s Bastyr University. Her nutrition books have been used as college texts and as the foundation of continuing education courses. She is lead author of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics latest Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets. As a speaker she has given presentations in 10 countries to dietetic organizations, health professionals, and vegetarian societies. She is a regular consultant for the Government of British Columbia and does private consultations. Vesanto in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. More information can be found at https://nutrispeak.com

BRENDA DAVIS, RD

Brenda Davis is one of the world’s leading plant-based pioneers and an internationally acclaimed speaker. She is widely regarded as a rock star of plant-based nutrition and VegNews referred to her as “The Godmother” of vegan dietitians.

As a prolific nutrition and health writer, Brenda has authored/co-authored 13 books with nearly a million copies in print in 15 languages. Her most recent works include Plant-Powered Protein (Melina, Davis, and Davis, 2022), Nourish: The Definitive Plant-based Nutrition Guide for Families (Shah and Davis, 2020), Kick Diabetes Essentials (Davis, 2019), The Kick Diabetes Cookbook (Davis and Melina, 2018), Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition (Davis and Melina, 2014) and Becoming Vegan: Express Edition (Davis and Melina, 2013). Nourish won gold in the 2020 Nautilus Book Awards and was also a Canada Book Award winner. Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition won a 2014 REAL Best of 2014 Book Award and Becoming Vegan: Express Edition won the Canada Book Award and was a finalist and received honorable mention in the Foreward Book of the Year Award. Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive and Express Editions have also received a star rating by the American Library Association as the “go-to books” on plant-based nutrition.

Brenda has been a featured speaker at medical, nutrition, and dietetic conferences in over 20 countries on 5 continents. With colleague, Dr. John Kelly (founding president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine), she was the lead dietitian in a diabetes lifestyle medicine trial in the Marshall Islands, and a lifestyle intervention demonstration project for the medical community in Lithuania.

Brenda has co-authored numerous professional and lay articles. She is a past chair of the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association. Brenda has been promoting plant-based diets since making the transition herself in 1989. Her personal and professional life goals are one in the same – to make this world a more sustainable, more health supportive, and kinder place. Brenda’s work focuses on ensuring that everyone who wishes to be plant-based can succeed brilliantly. In 2007, Brenda Davis was inducted into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame, and she was the 2022 recipient of the Plantrician Project’s Luminary Award. Brenda lives in Calgary Alberta with her husband, Paul, and has two grown children and 3 grandchildren.

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How to Stop Yo Yo Dieting Forever and Never Diet Again

Blog, Podcast, Seeking Voices: Exploring the Science of Health and Healing / January 14, 2023

Today Akash Vaghela joins us to share How to Stop Yo Yo Dieting FOREVER and live a healthier lifestyle without dieting.

What Akash Vaghela shares will leave you feeling healthier, less hungry and in the best shape of your life without having to spend hours a week in a gym.

Big 3 Episode Takeaways on How To Stop Yo Yo Dieting:

Even if you’re not completely plant based, the majority of your diet should be plant based. If you can’t be completely vegan, eat a bit of chicken or fish, but based on research ensure your diet is made up of a plant based foundation at the core. Be plant forward!
You can build muscle on a plant based diet. You can get stronger, you can get more lean and you can build muscle mass. Research shows there is no difference in muscle gain with a meat diet or plant diet, but with a plant diet you’ll live healthier.
We all have nutrient deficiencies (meat eaters and vegans). Supplements aren’t harmful and in-fact are beneficial.

Here’s a minute by minute of How to Stop Yo Yo Dieting:

0:00 Vitamin B12 deficiency

0:33 About Akash Vaghela

2:55 Akash Vaghela background

7:58 Optimal diet and lifestyle

9:24 Ultimate Nutritional lifestyle

12:40 Plant Based Diet or Not

14:08 Can Athletes Build Muscle as a Vegan

18:19 Gaining Muscle Mass as a Vegan

20:08 Is eating healthier more expensive

21:11 Best Protein for Vegans

24:09 Scrambled Eggs as a Vegan

24:31 Why most People have a B12 Deficiency

26:58 Does plant based diet make you feel more hungry

28:53 How long does it take to adjust eating as a Vegan

29:38 Transition vegans

31:01 Vegan or Not (gray area)

33:07 Staying fit in under 3 hours a week

35:06 How much cardio should I do

36:32 Transform your body transform your life

Who is Akash Vaghela

Akash Vaghela is an author, entrepreneur and coach, with 12+ years experience in the health and fitness industry.

In 2017, he founded RNT Fitness, the world’s leading online body transformation program for high performers that’s impacted 3000+ lives in 25+ countries.

His big vision is to see a world transformed, one life-changing journey at a time. To help spread the word, his work has been featured in the likes of Men’s Health, The Daily Telegraph and BBC. Akash is also the author of the Amazon best-selling book Transform Your Body Transform Your Life and host of the RNT Fitness Radio podcast.

To see more of his life-changing work, go to:

Website: www.rntfitness.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rnt_fitness/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RNTFitness1

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Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior Review with Ann & Jane Esselstyn

Blog, Podcast, Seeking Voices: Exploring the Science of Health and Healing / November 9, 2022

Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior Review!

Today Ann and Jane Esselstyn dive deep into the creation of this plant-based bestselling cookbook. This plant-based cookbook is filled with over 125 delicious recipes for those who are on the go.

Though the title is, Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior, as we discuss in this review, this is made for both men and women.

Big 3 Episode Takeaways (outside of all the recipes discussed):

The biggest obstacle most people have in changing their diet and lifestyle for the better is the mental obstacle! When patients are forced to change for health reasons, it’s one thing, but when they just want to be healthier, most are faced with the mental obstacle that causes problems.
Weaning yourself off of foods you’ve traditionally eaten is much harder than just ripping the band-aid off and doing it.
We all need to find places to find joy in our lives. Though we are all faced with friction at different times in our life, we won’t see the rainbows without that rain.

About Be A Plant-Based Woman Warrior:

Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior includes more than 125 recipes made for women on the go, from Apple Flax Flapjacks and Black Ramen Bowls, to Portobello Sliders with Green Goddess Sauce, to Mint Chip Outta Sight Brownies. And it includes big-flavored dinners like Sweet Potato and Cashew Ricotta Lasagna and Plant-Based Pad Thai, sure to tempt even the most reluctant vegetable-focused eaters.

Full of life, captivating energy, and delicious food, this cookbook brings readers to the Esselstyn family table, where plants and joy are at the center.

About Ann & Jane Esselstyn:

The Esselstyn family is three generations plant-based strong.

Encouraged to create recipes without dairy and meat when her husband’s research pointed to the impact of diet on reversing disease, Ann Esselstyn began feeding her family creative, plant-based meals more than thirty years ago.

She and her daughter, Jane Esselstyn, are bolts of energy from the same strike of lightning and have become fierce, big-spirited advocates for a plant-based lifestyle, reaching hundreds of thousands of fans through their previous books and their popular YouTube channel.

Learn more Ann and Jane Esselstyn: https://www.dresselstyn.com/site/about/about-ann-jane-esselstyn/

Here’s a minute by minute of Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior Review with Ann & Jane Esselstyn:

0:00 Ann & Jane Esselstyn Introduction

1:46 Why Be a Plant Based Woman Warrior

4:50 Is Plant Based Woman Warrior for Men Also

9:40 Dr. Esselstyn and Food as Medicine

12:23 What are 3 Staple Foods to Start With

17:10 What Stops People from Changing their Diet for Good

19:50 Is Beyond Meat healthy

21:14 What are your favorite recipes

30:00 Few easy ways to start a plant based diet

41:34 How can someone feel more Joy

45:00 Nighttime journaling process

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Episode 7: Moving Medicine Forward with Dr. Michael Klaper

Podcast, Seeking Voices: Exploring the Science of Health and Healing / June 25, 2022

In this episode of “Seeking Voices of Health, Healing and Hope” I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Michael Klaper.

It was a true pleasure to speak to Mike about his transition to eating plant based. He talks a lot about how he made his transition—that it took some time to change completely, reminding all of us that change is hard but change in good. Perhaps, because he took some time to transition himself, it makes Dr. Klaper a better doctor—teaching future physicians to meet people where they are. We had a lovely conversation about transition, but also talked about judgment, time and patience. We ended the conversation about Mike telling us all about his initiative to move medicine forward. He now spends his time educating future physicians about the importance of nutrition in healing. Cant wait for you to hear it!

Michael A. Klaper, M.D. is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He has practiced acute care medicine in Hawaii, Canada, California, Florida and New Zealand and for the past 35 years has been focusing upon health-promoting food and lifestyle choices to help reverse disease and prevent the need for hospitalization and surgery. A long-time radio host and a pilot, Dr. Klaper has served as nutrition advisor to NASA’s programs for space colonists on the Moon and Mars. At his website, DotorKlaper.com, visitors can find practical insights into nutrition and healthy living through his numerous articles and videos as well as subscribe to his free newsletter, “Medicine Capsule.” Along with an active telemedicine practice, Dr. Klaper’s passion and professional focus is his “Moving Medicine Forward” initiative to incorporate the teaching of applied nutrition into medical school education worldwide.

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Episode 1: Plant-Powered Olympian Dotsie Bausch

Podcast, Seeking Voices: Exploring the Science of Health and Healing / March 18, 2022

In this episode of “Seeking Voices of Health, Healing and Hope“, my guest is the amazing Dotsie Bausch. Dotsie has been a pioneer in the plant-based movement and runs an amazing campaign called Switch4Good that focuses on eating more plant based and the “ditching dairy” movement. She has caught national news with her campaign against companies that don’t allow milk alternatives or charge extra for them. Dotsie has been remarkable in every step of her life. She was once a journalism major, a New York runway model and an Olympian cyclist who won silver! I marvel at the images of Dotsie on the Olympic podium. She is beautiful and a lovely human being. I have had the pleasure of talking to her about so many things: about plant-based nutrition, health, removing dairy and she has even given me amazing makeup tips which I have yet to do by the way! Sometimes when we see people, we only see those beautiful parts, but Dotsie has had hardship too. Some people might not realize that Dotsie suffered from anorexia/bulimia, attempted suicide twice and had a cocaine dependency. I hope to talk about some of these important parts that make up the amazing Dotsie Bausch.

Some of the highlights we talked about:

How do you describe yourself?
What makes you happy?
How do you keep the joy in your life?
You had anorexia. Can you speak to this?
- Why do you think you developed this?
- What advice do you have for me, a mother of two girls, who want social media, have kids talking about calories.
You comment in your TED talk that you were loved as a child and that maybe you didn’t have some grave moment that made you go down the path you did. Can you speak to this?
What’s it like to be addicted to cocaine?? How did this start and how did you stop?
I have worked with many addicts and at times, have been jaded by seeing the same face in the ER after they had overdosed. How do I start seeing the human behind the addiction?
Why did you stop? What made you do it? What does one need to do to get someone out of this state?
You attempted suicide two times. What do you remember about those moments?
What was it like to be an Olympian at near 40? Did you feel like you had to compete with the young people? How did you?
Do you have down moments now? What do you do to get out of your funk? How do you stay out of your dark places? Is that the goal? To stay out of the dark places.
You have become so passionate about plant-based eating and in your TED talk, you show pictures of how seeing slaughterhouses impacted you. You talk beautifully about the benefits of plant-based eating. What two things would you like to say about this?
Hope is a hard thing to have sometimes. What would your message be to offer other people hope? How would you use your voice to impact others?

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How to Implement a Plant Based Menu into a Hospital

Event / January 14, 2022

I had the pleasure of talking to the DC hospital association along with PCRM’s esteemed Dr. Neal Barnard. Our goals were to talk about how to start a conversation with hospitals about healthy food options. During that hour, I spoke about our experience at the University of Florida with instituting a plant-based menu for our patients. We talked about the barriers that we encountered and how we overcame them. Dr. Barnard talked about universal meals which is super important because allows for one meal plan to be offered to every person—removing all potential allergens and cultural concerns. He showed the financial costs and went through all of the benefits. There were so many good questions. Was really fun to participate in and as always, I am honored to work on these important topics with PCRM and with the DC hospital association. Take a look at the link: https://dcha.org/advocacy-policy/healthy-hospital-initiative/

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Is Plant Based Nutrition just for Hippies and Liberals?

Blog / November 19, 2018

When people think of veganism or vegetarianism, they often think of Liberals and Hippies.

My name is Monica Aggarwal and I am a cardiologist in the deep South.

Practicing cardiology is really interesting here. The patients are lovely, kind, interested and curious. Often my patients are gun-toting, conservative, Trump loving people.

I have a prevention clinic here where I see many people from all over South Georgia and Florida. Patients often tell me that they grew up eating meat and potatoes and never really ate vegetables.

In my clinic, I focus on plant based nutrition, meditation, yoga, stress management. I talk to patients about the importance of plants and why eating plants increases their fiber, brings down their cholesterol, opens up their blood vessels, reduces their blood sugars, brings down their blood pressure and decreases their risk of dying.

I don’t focus on getting people to go vegan because I don’t care so much about that. That isn’t as important as getting people to just eat more plants. There are people who have had bypass surgery or stents put in or who have so much chest pain that they can’t get around their yards without discomfort. There are those who are 30 years old and have poorly controlled diabetes. My youngest stent patient….31 years old. My youngest bypass patient…36 years old. No longer is eating meat and refined foods a life choice. We have to remember that the people who are eating red meat, high saturated fat, processed foods and the “Standard American Diet” are getting more obesity, diabetes, heart disease and are dying. I often tell people this. I also tell them there are choices to change their course, change their outcome. I also ask people how much eating the same way and doing the same thing that they have been doing for years is worth to them? And how sometimes just small changes can open up their worlds. I spend hours teaching patients about how to eat. I make them grocery lists. And do you know what? People change. Because no one wants to be sick. NO ONE. So people are changing and the South is changing.

We have a plant based menu at University of Florida where I work that I created. The dietary staff resisted this movement for months. They told me that I didn’t understand the South because I am from the North. They said that people in the South don’t want to change. They like the foods that they like. I said and continue to say that “they underestimate the South. The South will change like everyone changes because no one wants to be sick.” It took over a year to turn the hospital administration to my side. Since we have debuted our menu, we are getting so much press. Patients are demanding the menu. Since our debut of plant based menu items into our hospital cafeteria over the last week or two, we have had over 65 orders of just one of the plant based menu items.

So to those who think plant based nutrition is for Hippies and Liberals. Think again. We in the South are changing and healing. We in the South are not looking back. #Justeatmoreplants

Monica Aggarwal, MD

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American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) features Our Plant Based Menu

Blog / November 10, 2018

This summer I had the pleasure of spending time with Martin Tull at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) who wanted to do come learn about what we are doing at University of Florida in prevention. Namely, we have an incredible prevention clinic that focuses on nutrition and lifestyle. We have medical student, resident and fellow nutrition education and we have changed the whole discharge education experience for hospital patients to include education on lifestyle tools and a new plant-based menu.

Martin and the team at Full Sail did really nice footage of our work.

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A Better Hospital Menu

Blog / August 1, 2018

It took us a year to get there…but it is done! The plant-based menu is now available at the University of Florida/Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida for cardiac and vascular patients.

Usually, patients come onto the cardiac and vascular floors and get treated for their illnesses with medications and surgical procedures which are important and often life-saving. However, in most hospitals, there is limited to no education on lifestyle changes patients can make to be healthier after they leave the hospital-to empower people to help in their healing process. At Shands Hospital, patients will now receive education on lifestyle changes they can make to heal their bodies. Changes such as more activity, stress reduction, need for sleep and importantly, proper nutrition will be discussed. Multiple modalities of education will be provided; namely, the new plant-based menu, an education packet will be given to patients providing practical tools to make changes, patients will meet educators, and shown educational movies. So excited about all of these changes!

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