Category Archives: Whole Food Plant-Based Diet and Chronic Disease

Whole Food Plant-Based Diet can prevent and cure these diseases

Pre-Diabetes, Diabetes and a Plant-Based Diet

Here is the last part of my husband David’s story about his retreat from heart disease and pre-diabetic condition. He used a plant-based diet regain his health.

I was fat. My belly was distended and my body fat index was over thirty so I qualified. I was more than fifty pounds overweight.

My blood sugar was over one hundred and at one point above one hundred and fifty. My triglycerides were also higher than they should be in a healthy human being. My doctor told me that I was definitely in the pre-diabetic class. He warned if I didn’t change my diet and lose weight I would be a full-blown type 2 diabetic within 2-3 years.

He stressed losing weight because fat is an early warning sign for diabetes. Curing it is the main concern if you are showing early symptoms as I was six years ago. And yes, it is possible to cure type two diabetes no matter what any “expert” has to say. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on February 1, 2013
Posted in diabetes, sugar-free food, vegan, vegetarian, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Heart Disease, Diabetes and A Plant-Base Diet

Here is the beginning of my husband David’s story about his retreat from heart disease and pre-diabetic condition. He used only natural methods and diet to regain his health. Sit back and enjoy

imageLiving in a simple world is easy.  All you have to do is ignore reality, which is annoyingly complex most of the time. I am, in fact, guilty of using this coping method. I’m telling you this before Genene can take up the subject and tell on me.

I am the one in this household who after having a stent placed in my left anterior descending artery to my heart gained  thirty pounds of unneeded lard. Probably some of which was deposited in my arteries. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on January 29, 2013
Posted in diabetes, plant based diet, Supplements, Vitamins, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Whole Food Plant-Based Diet and The Human Ecosystem

imageSometimes it is hard to believe that we are totally dependent on the kindness of our internal and external biota. Everyone fears the dreaded Staphylococcus flesh eating bacteria that is methicillin resistant. Yet how many of us know that our sweat glands are occupied by a benign bacterial cousin? A cousin that aids our immune system in its constant combat with less friendly invaders.

Friendly skin staph bacteria is in fact very helpful to the immune system! The problems arise when they mutate into cousins that cause serious infections in open wounds. Current research indicates that our fascination with anti-bacterial hand cleansers can clearly have some harmful effects when used extensively and often, These cleansers often demolish our protective skin dwellers. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on January 24, 2013
Posted in GERD, IBS, Medicinal plants, weigh loss, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The War Within and Probiotics

bacteriaI’m sure you don’t have to be told that there is a constant war going on in your digestive tract. At one time or other you have eaten, “The Whole Thing,” and felt the wrath of your entire digestive system. It is a very uncomfortable warning that moderation is a wiser way to live.

We tend to think that the war inside us only pertains to our excesses or to our valiant immune system fighting off invaders. In fact it is more about us and our allies against invaders and their allies. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on January 23, 2013
Posted in GERD, IBS, Whole Food Plant-Based Diet Experts, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Plant Based Diets, Probiotics and You

Everyone has heard of the old phrase, “You are what you eat.”

Here is another one for you to think on. “You are who you carry around inside and outside your body.”

That’s right folks, for better or for worse you have some forty trillion bacterial and other single-celled riders on what you think of as your body. Some are dangerous if they are allowed to grow out of control. A lot of them are neutral or even beneficial. Some are even absolutely necessary if you are to strike the balance with your environment that we commonly call good health. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on January 22, 2013
Posted in GERD, IBS, Supplements, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

2013, The Obesity Epidemic and Plant-Based Nutrition

“This is another fine mess that you’ve gotten us into, Stanley.”

In case you were culturally deprived when you were young, that quote is a rather famous accusation voiced frequently by Ollie in the Laurel and Hardy comedies. About the only thing that I never heard Oliver Hardy blame Stan Laurel for in those movies was his weight. Obesity was not viewed as a national health crisis in the twenties thirties and forties, hunger was closer to home for a lot of our population.

The weighty have always been among us. They have never been as dominant in numbers as they are today. Along with the new fat epidemic comes symptoms of ill health that worry us (a lot) when we exhibit them. Added to that are diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes; all common problems related to the obesity. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on January 16, 2013
Posted in additive-free food, diabetes, excitotoxins, Food Additives, plant based diet, processed food, weigh loss, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Diet Dropout’s Guide to Natural Weight Loss by Stan Spencer

Reading recipe books and diet and advice books are part of my job these days. Thankfully, I get a lot of advance reader copies for review. Most of them I read or at least skim through, sigh and toss aside. Every now and then I actually find one I am wildly enthusiastic about. This is one.

At the end of last year when I received this very thin volume entitled The Diet Dropout’s Guide to Natural Weight Loss.  I rolled my eyes and tossed it aside. I mean really!  Who isn’t a diet dropout?!  And why the cutsie title? (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on January 7, 2013
Posted in book review, Stan Spencer, weigh loss, Whole Food Plant-Based Diet Experts, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

I Quit Sugar!

At least once a week someone asks me how in the world I  quit sugar. I can’t tell you how many people talk to me about quitting sugar in any given week. They have read Sugar Blues. They know it is an addiction. They can tell me all the reasons they should quit. But the actual quitting? That is a whole other thing! Most people try (and fail)  many times before they actually do it.

I know I did! I decided to quit eating sugar 30+ years ago. It was one of those obvious sort of decisions. I was in terrible and chronic pain and finally at the point I was willing to do ANYTHING to feel better. So when this very old chiropractor told me that my pain would be considerably less if I quit sugar, I did it. At least for a few days. . . then for a week and then a couple of weeks. You get the idea. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on December 19, 2012
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Plant-based or Plant-Strong with Rip

There is a marvelous video that my friend Elizabeth brought to my attention. She posted the link yesterday on Facebook. I took a look and decided it is too good to pass up.

Rip Esselstyn is a former All-American swimmer, pro-triathlete and retired Firefighter.  Inspired by his father (Caldwell Esselstyn), he persuaded his Austin Fire Department’s Engine 2 Company to adopt a plant-based diet. The story is written in his best selling book:  Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter’s 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on December 13, 2012
Posted in Caldwell Esselstyn, diabetes, Rip Esselstyn, vegan, vegetarian, weigh loss, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Journey From the Standard American Diet to a Whole Food Plant-based Diet . . .

Remember that old Alka Seltzer ad with the guy groaning that he couldn’t believe he ate the whole thing? To me it is a most graphic reminder that what we eat directly effects how we feel.

All of us are good at remembering the connection of food and feeling in the short run. The problem is come when remembering to connect the information to our overall dietary habits and quality of life. (more…)

by Genene Cote Posted on December 6, 2012
Posted in diabetes, diary-free food, gluten-free food, John McDougall, plant based diet, T. Colin Campbell, vegan, vegetarian, Whole Food Plant-Based Diet and Chronic Disease, Whole Food Plant-Based nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments