Extract from Plant Paradigm by James Wilson
As I lay in the intensive care unit, sucking oxygen into my inactive lungs after surviving a pulmonary embolism and an out-of-body near-death experience, I thought to myself – perhaps this moment will change my life? A few months into recovery, I was disappointed to observe that none of my hedonistic and selfish ways had been reversed.
Good things take time and perhaps I am a slow learner, but some twenty years later my ways and philosophies of life changed dramatically when I was struck by a second minor pulmonary embolism, leading to the medical pronouncement that I was to be dosed with warfarin for the rest of my life. If I failed to follow this regime, I would die.
I clearly remember the day I heard Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, the American physician and author, being interviewed by Kim Hill on her Saturday morning radio programme in which he eloquently explained how he could reverse and cure heart disease by having people modify their diet. Given that the effects of warfarin were extremely unpleasant and that I also used it to poison rats, Esselstyn’s words were music to my ears. I bought and read his book and immediately adopted a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) diet and lifestyle.
Preferring not to die, I have followed this highly regarded surgeon’s recommendations for the past eight years. I now thrive by eating only plant-based whole food. I continue to read extensively on the subject and in so doing make the inevitable comparisons between the effects of being a vegan and being a carnist (one who includes meat and dairy in their diet).
I have now reached an age, my late seventies, in which so many of my friends and acquaintances are dead or dying from cancers, vascular diseases, diabetes, MS, Parkinson’s, dementia and other afflictions of the elderly. I mourn that so few know or accept the reality that what we put into our body is important. As Hippocrates said centuries ago, “Let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.”
Before going vegan but after a lifetime of farming, growing, harvesting and eating meat and milk products, I was particularly scathing of vegans. I am mortified to now admit that more than once I have been heard to say, “The only good vegan is a dead one.”
Having made the dramatic decision to change my lifestyle, I persuaded my wife Barbie to join me in this new lifestyle.
We cleared the house of all forbidden products and I set out to re-learn cooking without the use of processed, meat, milk or oil products. Following the WFPB recipes that are freely available, I quickly adapted to the new regime.
The positive results were spectacular. Both of us lost 20 per cent of our body weight – a totally unexpected consequence – the side effects of warfarin vanished, my energy levels shot up and I did not die!
Good things take time and perhaps I am a slow learner, but some twenty years later my ways and philosophies of life changed dramatically when I was struck by a second minor pulmonary embolism, leading to the medical pronouncement that I was to be dosed with warfarin for the rest of my life. If I failed to follow this regime, I would die.
I clearly remember the day I heard Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, the American physician and author, being interviewed by Kim Hill on her Saturday morning radio programme in which he eloquently explained how he could reverse and cure heart disease by having people modify their diet. Given that the effects of warfarin were extremely unpleasant and that I also used it to poison rats, Esselstyn’s words were music to my ears. I bought and read his book and immediately adopted a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) diet and lifestyle.
Preferring not to die, I have followed this highly regarded surgeon’s recommendations for the past eight years. I now thrive by eating only plant-based whole food. I continue to read extensively on the subject and in so doing make the inevitable comparisons between the effects of being a vegan and being a carnist (one who includes meat and dairy in their diet).
I have now reached an age, my late seventies, in which so many of my friends and acquaintances are dead or dying from cancers, vascular diseases, diabetes, MS, Parkinson’s, dementia and other afflictions of the elderly. I mourn that so few know or accept the reality that what we put into our body is important. As Hippocrates said centuries ago, “Let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.”
Before going vegan but after a lifetime of farming, growing, harvesting and eating meat and milk products, I was particularly scathing of vegans. I am mortified to now admit that more than once I have been heard to say, “The only good vegan is a dead one.”
Having made the dramatic decision to change my lifestyle, I persuaded my wife Barbie to join me in this new lifestyle.
We cleared the house of all forbidden products and I set out to re-learn cooking without the use of processed, meat, milk or oil products. Following the WFPB recipes that are freely available, I quickly adapted to the new regime.
The positive results were spectacular. Both of us lost 20 per cent of our body weight – a totally unexpected consequence – the side effects of warfarin vanished, my energy levels shot up and I did not die!