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[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ - the average americannow carries 23 extra pounds. - heart disease and strokewill claim the lives of 460,000 american women. - 69 grams of fat. you could actually save12 grams of the fat and half the calories if you simply atean entire stick of butter.
- we're talking about diabetes and hypertensionand bone diseases, osteoporosis. - prostate cancer is nowthe most common cancer in american men. - doctors say we really need toeat less red and processed meat. - and arterial sclerosisand cancer and autoimmune disease. - we have unprecedented amount of type 2 diabetesin our children,
and we're startingto see hypertension in our childrenin grammar school. - in case you're wondering,2,120 calories. - clearly the western dietis taking a toll. this should serveas a wake-up call. we have a growing problem, and the ones who are growingare us. narrator lee fulkerson:food: it's centralto our lives and traditions.
every special occasion seemsto involve food and feasting. but could someof these same foods, including several that we thinkare good for our health, also be causing many of ourmost serious health problems? indeed, we're facinga massive health crisis. no less than 40% of americanstoday are obese, and about half of us are takingsome form of prescription drug. - the best known statin drug,lipitor, is the most prescribed drug everin the world.
- almost one in five americanfour-year-olds are now consideredto be obese. - though mexican-americansand african-american children are still more likelyto be overweight. - this could bethe first generation of children in the united states thatlives less than its parents. fulkerson: we spend $2.2trillion a year on health care, over five times morethan the defense budget. in fact, we pay more per personfor health care
than any industrialized countryin the world, yet we're sicker than ever. - you see, there's no moneyin healthy people, and there's no moneyin dead people. the money is in the middle:people who are alive, sort of, but with oneor more chronic conditions. - obesity, diabetes,heart disease, high blood pressure are all diet-relatedhealth issues
that cost this country morethan $120 billion each year. fulkerson: every minute,a person in the u.s. is killed by heart disease. 1,500 people a daydie from cancer. combined,these two diseases kill over 1 million americansevery year. cases of diabetesare skyrocketing, particularly amongour younger population. - diabetes.- diabetes.
- life-threatening diabetes. fulkerson: one out of threepeople born in the u.s. today will develop this cripplingcondition during their lifetime. millions of others suffer from a hostof degenerative diseases. millions more of usare so stimulated by sugar, coffee, and energy drinks that we've maskedour chronic fatigue. but could there bea single solution
to all of these problems? a solution so comprehensive,yet so straightforward, that it's mind-bogglingthat more of us haven't taken it seriously? - someone has to stand upand say that the answer isn't another pill. the answer is spinach. fulkerson: a growing numberof researchers claim that if we eliminate,or greatly reduce,
refined, processed,and animal-based foods, we can prevent and,in certain cases, even reverse several of our worst diseases. they say all we need to dois adopt a whole foods, plant-based diet. it sounds almosttoo simple to be true. fulkerson: you might not expectsomeone like me to explore the connectionbetween diet and disease. on my way over,i drank these two red bulls.
i also had a 12-ounce coke and another halfof a 12-ounce coke. fulkerson:i haven't always lived the healthiest lifestyle. and i've eaten morethan my share of fast food. but as part of my effortto learn more about the link between food and health, i visited two physiciansin los angeles, dr. matt ledermanand dr. alona pulde.
- hi.- how you doin'? - lee fulkerson.- lee, nice to meet you. - nice to meet you too. - this is dr. pulde. - hi, dr. pulde.pleasure to meet you too. fulkerson: both are m.d.s. dr. lederman was trainedin internal medicine and dr. puldein family practice. they incorporate a wholeplant foods nutrition plan
into the treatmentof their patients. - so let's getstarted on that, and then we'lldo some talking. - 142/82. fulkerson: i found outa lot more than i expected. like a lot of americans, i thought my healthwas pretty good. - let me see your hands. fulkerson: i had nomajor diseases that i knew of.
- hold them normal. fulkerson: but i hadn't hada thorough check-up in a while, so i decided to get one. when dr. lederman gave methe results, it wasa real wake-up call. i gotta sayi'm kinda shocked. i'm really worriedabout my blood work numbers. 240 and 241for my cholesterol is way higherthan it's ever been.
i got this six number. that, to me, isthe most worrying number i got. the six numberwas the result of something calleda crp test, which measures the inflammationin my heart and blood vessels. this put me in the high-riskcategory for a heart attack. so i committedto a 12-week nutrition program under dr. lederman'ssupervision. the plan was to treatmy health problems
by eating a whole foods,plant-based diet. the idea of using nutrition to promote good healthis nothing new. indeed, hippocrates, the ancient greek fatherof western medicine, said, "let food be thymedicine," over 2,000 years ago. yet it wasn'tuntil more recently that the sciencebehind this observation was systematically probedand applied.
two researchers who've madegroundbreaking contributions to this effortare dr. colin campbell and dr. caldwell esselstyn. born just a few months apartin 1933 and '34, they each grew up on farms. campbell's childhood farmis in rural virginia, where his family raised dairycattle and milked cows. my dad and mother moved herein 1943 when i was nine years old.
and during that time,we had a dairy of about somewheresbetween 20 and 30 cows, which in those days wasa modest, medium-sized dairy. fulkerson: at the time,milk was believed to be nature's perfect food. so perfect, in fact,that this u.s. government film from the early 20th centuryrecommended that infants who have just been weanedfrom their mother's milk should be switchedimmediately to cow's milk.
- that was the excitementof doing something, producing nature'sperfect food, if you will. fulkerson: established in 1675, the esselstyn's farmis in upstate new york. on these rolling hillsides, they grazed both beefand dairy cattle. this was sortof like the nerve center of the operation in a way? - more or less, absolutely.
this is sort of the epicenter,around these barns. this is the way farmingwas done in that era. - and so this issort of where you learned the craft--- the trade. - the trade of farming. how old were youwhen you moved here? - seven. i didn't startdriving the tractor till i was eight years old.
[laughing] - a late bloomer, right? - yeah, exactly. but i enjoyed it, and i really got a great kickout of doing the farm work. fulkerson: although they didn'tknow each other yet, farm life hada deep and lasting influence on both campbell and esselstyn. - to make it successful,you had to have persistence,
staying power,and tenacity of purpose. - i guess it's ironicin the sense that we're both now advocatingnot consuming the products that we were busy actuallyproducing with our families. fulkerson: during campbelland esselstyn's lifetimes, the american diethas changed dramatically. near the beginningof the 20th century, americans each ate about120 pounds of meat annually. by 2007,that figure had exploded
to no less than 222 pounds. in 1913,we ate about 40 pounds of processed sugareach per year. however by 1999, our consumptionof all refined sweeteners had risen to over 147 pounds. in 1909, americans consumed around 294 poundsof dairy products apiece. but by 2006,our yearly intake of dairy
had more than doubledto 605 pounds. by the early 1950s, campbellwas off to college at penn state while esselstyn went to yale. as part of yale's rowing team, esselstyn wonan olympic gold medal in 1956. during this same decade, the pace of american lifewas accelerating, even with our food. the late '50s was the heydayof the drive-in burger joint.
the supermarketwas just beginning to thrive in the newly built,post-world war ii suburbs. this was when the so-calledconvenience foods were born, like the legendaryfoil-wrapped tv dinner, not to mention a host ofother tasty processed delicacies devised to makeour lives easier and better. by now, colin campbell was in graduate schoolat cornell university, which had oneof the most prestigious
nutritional science departmentsin the country. his research was on animalnutrition and biochemistry. - but it was focusedmore on feeding animals for their abilityto be able to produce meat, milk, and eggs,protein containing. and so my own researchwas focused on protein, making sure we got enough. it was consideredto be the vital nutrient. it was one ofthe first nutrients discovered
and without protein,the animal would die, so it was a life force. in fact,in the even early 1900s, there were statements made that this is the stuffof civilization itself. fulkerson: proteinwas also nearly synonymous with animal-based foodslike meat. it still is todayall over america. - why do you think meat isimportant in our diet?
- protein. - protein.- protein. - protein.- a lot of protein in it. - we need protein, don't we? you can't livewithout protein. - the idea that plantshad protein also didn't come into play until maybe the late 1800s,early 1900s, and then it struggledthrough the years.
fulkerson: no matter what sourcethe protein came from, in the late 1950s,most scientists believed the world neededa lot more of it. - we had a lot of starving and malnourished childrenin the world. and so in my community,in the nutrition community, there were discussionsabout why so. you know, what could be done? and oneof the prominent thoughts
was to make surethey get enough protein. i certainly went alongwith this view. fulkerson:at about the same time, dr. caldwell esselstynwas just beginning his medical career at the world famous clevelandclinic in cleveland, ohio. surgery soonbecame his specialty. - there's somethingawfully satisfying about if you can remove the disease.
for instance, if a patienthad gallstones you could remove them. if it was a gastric ulceror a stomach ulcer, you directly couldtake care of that. if it's a hernia,the same thing. fulkerson: during the 1960s, heart diseasewas on the rise in the u.s. what doctors commonly call"coronary artery disease" is usually causedby a condition of the arteries
that supply the heartwith blood. what happens is that over time, a fatty substance in thebloodstream called cholesterol builds upin the coronary arteries, restricting the blood flowto the heart. this can ultimatelycause several problems, from severe chest pain,called angina, to heart attacks. cholesterolis a natural substance
produced by all animals,including humans, and it's an essential componentof our cells' walls. but when we consumedietary cholesterol, which is only foundin animal foods like meat, eggs,and dairy products, it tends to stayin the bloodstream. this so-called plaqueis what collects on the insideof our blood vessels and is the major causeof coronary artery disease.
in the late 1960s,a colleague of dr. esselstyn's at the cleveland clinicmade a major breakthrough in the treatmentof this condition. in fact, esselstynshared space with him in the clinic'ssurgical locker room. his namewas dr. rene favaloro. - rene really sparkledin the operating room. and in 1967, he didthis first bypass graft at the clinic--coronary artery bypass graft.
fulkerson: this revolutionarynew procedure was accomplished by removinga vein from the patient's leg, then stitching it on the heart'sblocked coronary artery to allow the blood to flowaround, or bypass, the blockage. today, over 500,000 americansgo under the knife annually for heart bypass surgery. costing around$100,000 apiece, these operations aloneconstitute a staggering total of nearly $50 billion.
joey aucoinlives in tampa, florida, where he owns and operatesa landscaping company. i tell everybody--the jokewith everybody with me is: i don't eat to live,i live to eat. and i--my whole life,i ate whatever i wanted. fulkerson: in 2004,doctors discovered joey had a dangerouslyhigh cholesterol level of 320 and a hazardousblood sugar level of 480. this not only made hima type 2 diabetic,
but a prime candidatefor a heart attack and a stroke. - this ismy daily pill regiment. um, i got two pillsi take for my diabetes. then i got one for cholesterol,one for high blood pressure, and then i take byetta,which is an injectable medicine, every morning before breakfastand every night before dinner. and that's what i've been doingfor almost four years now. and i know it makes me tired, and i just--i just don't feel normal.
i only sleepfour hours a night or so. i just hate takin' 'em. fulkerson: in the mid 1960s, dr. campbellwas in the philippines, trying to get more protein to millionsof malnourished children. to keep costs down, he and his colleagues decidednot to use animal-based protein. the program was beginningto show success.
but then, dr. campbell stumbledonto a piece of information that was extremely important. it centered on the more affluentfamilies in the philippines, who were eating relatively highamounts of animal-based foods. - but at the same time,they were the ones most likelyto have the children who were susceptibleto getting liver cancer. fulkerson:this was very unusual, since liver cancersare mainly found in adults.
- but just the mere factthat they occurred in children said, you know,there's something here. this is pretty significant. fulkerson:shortly afterward, dr. campbell came across a scientific paper published in a little-knownindian medical journal. it detailed workthat had been done on a populationof experimental rats that were first exposed toa carcinogen called aflatoxin,
then fed a diet of casein,the main protein found in milk. - they were testingthe effect of protein on the developmentof liver cancer. they used two different levelsof protein. they used 20%of total calories, and then they useda much lower level, 5%. 20% turned on cancer,5% turned it off. fulkerson: this indian paper, together withwhat dr. campbell had learned
about increased liver cancersin children eating animal-based foods, combined to createa decisive moment in his work and his life. - because we learnedthat animal protein was really goodin turning on cancer. fulkerson:during this same time, the way americans atewas changing, again. the number of fast-foodfranchises was exploding,
as more and moreoverscheduled americans began using themas a convenient way to feed themselvesand their families. while the fast-food revolutionwas sweeping the nation, the rate of cancer deathsin america was continuing to rise. as a result, in 1971, president richard nixoninitiated a program that was dubbed"the war on cancer."
- we are here todayfor the purpose of signingthe cancer act of 1971. and i hopethat in the years ahead that we may look backon this day and this action as beingthe most significant action taken duringthis administration. fulkerson: on the front linesof this new war was caldwell esselstyn. by 1978, he was chairmanof the breast cancer task force
at the cleveland clinic. yethe soon began to doubt the medical procedureshe was using. - no matter how manyof these operations i was doing for womenfor breast cancer, i wasn't doingone single thing for the next unsuspectingvictim. fulkerson: so dr. esselstynstarted investigating the global statisticson breast cancer.
one of the facts he discovered was that the incidenceof breast cancer in kenya was far lower than it wasin the united states. in fact, in 1978,the chances of a woman getting breast cancer in kenya were 82 times lowerthan in the u.s. dr. esselstynwas even more surprised by the numbers he discoveredfor some other types of cancer. in the entire nationof japan in 1958,
how many autopsy-proven deaths were there from cancerof the prostate? 18. 18 in the entire nation. that, to me, wasabout the most mind-boggling public health figure thati think i'd ever encountered. fulkerson: in the same year,the u.s. population was only about twicethe size of japan's, yet the numberof prostate cancer deaths
exceeded 14,000. dr. esselstynalso discovered that in the early 1970s, the riskfor heart disease in rural china was 12 times lowerthan it was in the u.s. and in the highlandsof papua new guinea, heart diseasewas rarely encountered. the link he noted between allthe areas he studied was simple. - virtually, the western dietwas nonexistent. they had no animal products.
they had no dairy, no meat. fulkerson: even more compellingto esselstyn was some historical datathat had long been overlooked. in world war ii,the germans occupied norway. among the first thingsthey did was confiscate all the livestockand farm animals to provide suppliesfor their own troops. so the norwegians were forced toeat mainly plant-based foods. now we look at the deathsin norway,
just antecedentto this period, from heart attackand stroke. 1927, 1930, '35. look at right up here. right at the very top, 1939. bingo! in come the germans. immediately, 1940, wow. '41, '42, '43, '44, '45. have we ever seen a population
have their cardiovasculardisease plummet like this from statins, from bypass surgery, or from stents? no. but look what immediatelyhappened. with the cessationof hostilities in 1945, back comes the meat,back comes the dairy, back comesthe strokes and heart attacks.
i mean, it's suchan absolute, powerful lesson. but, uh, we didn't get it. fulkerson: becauseof evidence like this, dr. esselstyn was makingthe same assessment that dr. campbell was dueto his work in the philippines, seeing a causal linkbetween animal-based foods and some ofour most deadly diseases. but they weren'tthe only researchers coming to this conclusion.
another wasdr. john mcdougall. in the mid 1970s, he began practicing ona sugar plantation in hawaii. - what i observed therewas the health of the people differed dramaticallydepending upon how longthey'd been in hawaii. people who were raised in japan,the philippines, korea, china, first generation who hadmoved from their native land, were always trim,never had heart disease,
prostate cancer, colon cancer,breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis,multiple sclerosis, never overweight. they were in their 80s and 90sand fully functional. their kids got a little fatter,a little sicker. their grandkidsin the next generation were just as fat and sickas anybody i'd ever seen. and what came through clearlywas the diet was the difference. the first generation had learneda diet of rice and vegetables
in their native land. but the kids, they startedto give up the rice and replace itwith the animal foods, the dairy products,the meats, and the results were obvious. they got fat and sick. so i knew at that pointwhat caused most diseases. fulkerson: at the time, however,campbell and esselstyn knew virtually nothingabout this other information.
even so, they ultimately reacheda revolutionary conclusion-- that many ofour most crippling conditions could be greatly reduced,if not completely eradicated, simply by eating what they calla whole foods, plant-based diet. this means consuming foodsthat come mainly from whole,minimally refined plants such as fruits, vegetables,grains, and legumes. it also means avoidinganimal-based foods such as meat,dairy, and eggs,
as well as processed foodslike bleached flour, refined sugars, and oil. campbell and esselstyn'sresearch in this field would changetheir lives forever. - so, i went throughyour preliminary form. the goals that i have--tell me if i missing any-- from you were: eliminateyour shots and medicines. you want to get offthis stuff. you want to sleep wellat night.
you're not doing that. you want to stop feeling tiredand run down. you want to lose weight. - that's it. you got it.- so those are your goals. the other complaints: you hadlow energy, ringing in the ears, sinus problems, post nasal drip,shortness of breath, wheezing, coughs,indigestion, and reflux, loose stool, diarrhea,bloating, black and bloody mucousy stoolwith meat consumption,
and difficulty walking,getting around, trouble losing weight, chronicand unpleasant hunger feelings, groggy after meals,strong food cravings, and anxietyabout food in general. all of that stuff--- sounds like i'm dead. - [laughs]so i don't mean to, you know, harp on the bad stuff,but, you know, that will all--most of that should get better. my goals, i'm adding in.
- which goals do you have? - i want you to reverseall your medical diseases, the ones that we can reverse, and most of yours, we could. i told youall the risk and benefits. based on what i told you,i would stop all these meds. and i would stop these,on top of all these risks. - okay, that'swhat i'm gonna try. you're gonna get my best--my best effort.
i can tell you that.- you'll do good. you'll do well. fulkerson: by 1975, dr. campbellwas at cornell university, investigating what he'ddiscovered in the philippines. - our workfrom the beginning was designed, in a sense,to do two main things. one, i wanted to replicate,if possible, the indian work, because it was so provocative. secondly,if this was really true,
i wanted to studyhow does it work? fulkerson: justlike the indian researchers, campbell fed half the ratsin his study a diet of 20% casein, the main proteinin dairy products. the other halfwas fed only 5% casein. over the 12 weeksof the study, the rats eatingthe higher protein diet had a greatly enhanced level ofearly liver cancer tumor growth.
on the other hand, all ofthe rats eating only 5% protein had no evidenceof cancer whatsoever. but dr. campbell decided to take these findingsa step further. this time,instead of keeping his test rats on the same dietthroughout the study, he kept them in one group and switched their dietsback and forth between 5%and 20% dairy protein,
doing soat three-week intervals. the results were astonishing. whenever the rats were fed20% protein, early liver tumor growthexploded. but when the same ratswere given 5% protein, tumor growthactually went down. - i mean, this is soprovocative, this information. we could turn onand turn off cancer growth just by adjusting the levelof intake of that protein.
going from 5% to 20% is within the rangeof american experience. the typical studies on chemicalcarcinogens causing cancer are testing chemicalsat levels maybe three or four ordersof magnitude higher than we experience. fulkerson:even more surprisingly, dr. campbell discoveredthat a 20% diet of plant proteinsfrom soy beans and wheat
did not promote cancer. however, there's a longstandingbelief among the public that animal proteinis important for human health. connie diekmansupports this position. ms. diekmanis director of nutrition at washington universityin st. louis, missouri. she's the past president of theamerican dietetic association, and an advisorto the national dairy council. - when you eliminate animalfoods from your eating plan,
you run the riskof inadequate protein content. animal proteins provideall the amino acids that we need for cell growth, tissue repair,and overall health. - eating whole foods,it's virtually impossible to be protein deficientwithout being calorie deficient. becauseeven if you take the foods that have the least amountof protein in it, let's say potatoes,for example, or rice.
you know, 8%, 9%. well, that's the figurewe more or less need. fulkerson: dr. campbell'sresearch led him to a conclusion about the way genes,chemicals, and nutrition interactto promote cancer. - cancer starts with genes. it might be geneswe're born with, it might be genes that areactually changed by a chemical, so those genes become capableof producing cancer cells.
whether we door don't get cancer is primarily relatedto how we promote those cancer cellsto grow over time. that's where nutritioncomes into play. they grow much more rapidly whenthey were fed animal protein. fulkerson: dr. campbell andother nutritional scientists have found that only a smallpercentage of cancer cases are caused solely by genes. - i think the general consensusin my field
is that probablynot more than 1% or 2% at most is attributed to the geneswe may or may not have. - and that's the most helpful and hopeful informationi give people. because if you go through life thinking thatwhat happens to you from a health perspectiveis based on your genes, you're a helpless victim. my dietwas pretty abominable.
i thoughtthe two principal food groups were caffeine and sugar. fulkerson: dr. pam popperis executive director of the wellness forumin columbus, ohio, and an expert in the areasof health and nutrition. the women in my familyare all overweight. i'm not. i don't eat and livelike they do, you know. so, i've changedmy health destiny by not engagingin the same habits.
fulkerson:over the next several years, dr. campbell initiatedmore extensive lab studies using variousanimal and plant nutrients. the results were consistent: nutrients from animal foodspromoted cancer growth, while nutrients from plant foodsdecreased cancer growth. yet campbell hadn't identifieda specific biological mechanism that caused the effectshe observed. - and it finally occurredto me
that there is no such thingas the mechanism. what we are looking at wasa symphony of mechanisms. we think that nutritionis attributed to individual nutrients. and that's the wayit gets marketed and that's the way the companiestell us, so forth. when, in fact, nutrition, all of it working togetherto create this symphony, the hundreds of thousands
of different kindsof chemicals in food, all kind of workingtogether nicely. i mean, the complexity is total. that's a holistic concept. and i had to say to myself,that's a very exciting idea. fulkerson:dr. campbell realized that his discoveriesin the laboratory were significant,but limited. how were these findingsrelevant in people?
how do different typesof foods affect cancerand other diseases? campbell neededa large-scale population study. he would soon finda perfect opportunity. - so mangoes are really good. they flavor thingsreally nicely. - okay.- that's something-- you wanna get a riper one. fulkerson: dr. matt ledermanand his wife, dr. alona pulde,
are among a small butgrowing number of physicians who use a whole foods,plant-based diet as a primary treatmentfor their patients. from shoppingwith patients to teach them how to read nutrition labels... - and i don't carewhat it says on the front,the back, or the sides-- both: look at the ingredients. - and that'sall i care about.
fulkerson: to showing patientshow to prepare meals, they arenot your typical m.d.s. doctors lederman and puldeuse food as treatment because they feel it'sthe best medicine available-- medicine that not only makestheir patients feel better but that truly improvestheir health. fulkerson: in 1973,the u.s. congress passeda new farm subsidy bill. among other things,it included incentives
that encouraged a massiveincrease in corn production. one of the major byproductsof this enormous corn surplus was a low-cost sweetener called"high fructose corn syrup". companies could addthis sweetener to anything from soda pop to hot dogs, and then make these productswidely available at low prices. processed sugarsand other refined foods are far more calorie-dense than the whole plantsthey're made from.
the dramatic increasein their use is a major reason whyour food has become richer. to evolutionary psychologistand author dr. doug lisle, the consumptionof unnaturally dense foods is the main cause for theepidemic of obesity in america. it isn't that peoplehave become more self-indulgent. it isn't because they're lazierthan they ever were. what's happening is thattheir mechanisms of satiation are being fooled.
fulkerson:the process starts with a range of receptorsin our stomachs that help us gaugehow much food we've eaten. these include stretch receptorsto help measure the sheer volume of foodin our stomachs. we also havedensity receptors, to help determinethe caloric density, or what we more commonly callthe richness of our food. for instance, 500 caloriesof natural plant food
fills the stomach completely, triggering both our stretchand density receptors to signal our brainthat we've had enough to eat. but 500 calories of unnaturallyrich or processed food fills the stomach far less, deceiving these receptorsinto telling our brain that we need to eat more. even worseis 500 calories of oil, which is almost pure fat
and barely triggersany response at all. - the problem withweight management in humans is that if you make these foodscompletely artificial, which we do today, you wind up with a problemthat people have to overeat just to be satisfied. fulkerson: but why dothese concentrated foods that are so harmful to usgive us so much pleasure? dr. lislesays the answer is related
to a system calledthe motivational triad. this is a trioof biological mechanisms that nature has designedinto every creature on earth so they can surviveto pass their genes on to the next generation. the first legof the motivational triad is pleasure seeking. - and, primarily, two thingsare the cause of that, and those two thingsare food and sex.
so in the caseof a great white shark, its basically got a neon signflashing across its forehead saying, "food, sex,food, sex, food, sex." unless it's a male, then itsays, "sex, food, sex, food," but it's pretty muchthe same thing. fulkerson: the other two legsof the motivational triad are avoiding pain and doing everythingwith the least amount of effort. - pleasure seeking,pain avoidance,
and energy conservation, that reallysums up animal behavior, whether we're talking abouta paramecium under a microscope or a great white shark. fulkerson: richer foodsnaturally excite our senses because it's nature's wayof telling us they will provide the highestamount of dietary reward with the least amountof effort. this helped our ancestors findthe most calorie-dense
and ripe foods available, which contributedto our survival. but in today's environment, we can artificially increasecalorie density well beyond what our ancestorswould have found in nature. the resulting foods give us ahyper-normal amount of pleasure, leading us into something dr. lislecalls the pleasure trap. what the pleasure trap isis an interaction
between our natural instincts, which are trying to tell usthe right thing to do, and some kind of artificial,modern stimulation that is piggybackingor hijacking that process. so the classic exampleof the pleasure trap would be drugsand drug addiction. the way drugs workis they hijack the existing pleasure circuits. when certain chemicalshit those areas,
they cause feelingsof euphoria and excitement. fulkerson: the samedrug-like effect happens when we eat highly concentrated,processed foods. - we've removed the fiber,we've removed the water, we've removed the minerals. we've done everythingthat we can to hyper-concentrate sugarand fat and add a bunch of saltas well into the food, and nowwhat the food has become
is it's becomea low-grade addiction. these things are drugs. they have other deleteriousside effects, not the least of which is addinga lot of empty calories. fulkerson: dr. terry masonis commissioner of health for the city of chicago. he's one of the few publicofficials in america who openly supportsa plant-based diet. - if it walked, hopped, swam,crawled, slithered,
had eyes, a mom and a dad--don't eat it. fulkerson: dr. mason contends that the less affluent segmentsof our population have difficulty makingthe best food choices. - well, first of all, the diets are calorie-richand nutrient-poor. this is the real problem. and, unfortunately, poor peopleare poor in everything. they're poor in health,they're poor in food choices,
they're poor in almost everyaspect that you could think of. fulkerson: this makesthe less prosperous particularly vulnerableto the low-grade addiction of highly processed foods. - people want stuffthat's fast, people want stuff that's quick, and they like the stuffthat's salty, and they like the tasteof something fried. and so thoseare the kinds of things
that you see in our community. fulkerson: san'dera nationlives in a quiet suburb in cleveland, ohio,with her five children. in october 2008, she wasstricken by a strange illness. - i wanna say something,but it's not coming out. i'm getting really shakyand sweats, and then i'm coldand i'm sick and i'm fatigued, and mystomach hurts and everything. so i went to the doctor,
and that's when he diagnosed mewith hypertension and diabetes. fulkerson: like joey aucoin, san'dera was treated withexpensive prescription drugs. - i was in denial for a while. i heard what they said,but i was in denial, like, mmm. i still ate thingsi shouldn't have. i didn't really getthe education that i needed to know, so i really dependedon that pill to save me.
fulkerson: then san'dera metwith dr. esselstyn, who recommendedthat she treat her illnesses with a whole foods,plant-based diet. - come on in,and we'll get to work. - i was a little nervous,but he made it real easy for me. i was real interestedin what he had to say and whathe was going to teach me and the new journeythat i would be taking with him. female translator: between chinaand the united states...
fulkerson: in 1974,chinese premier zhou enlai was hospitalizedwith bladder cancer. knowing that his diseasewas terminal, he decided to give his country a more complete understandingof cancer. so he initiatedwhat would become one of the largestand most thorough scientific studies in history. 650,000 researchers cataloguedthe mortality patterns
causedby several types of cancer for the yearsbetween 1973 and 1975. the study encompassedevery county in china and over 880 million people. zhou died in 1976, years beforehis study was complete. - okay, and you'llneed how many shirts? probably three? - yeah.- okay. fulkerson:zhou enlai's cancer study
would ultimately havea major impact on what dr. campbell himselfhas called the capstone of his research. - early 1980. - and you were therefor two or three months? fulkerson: dr. junshi chen isnow senior research professor with the chinese center fordisease control and prevention. he first met dr. campbellat cornell in 1980, when he was a memberof the chinese institute
of food and nutrition science. the cold warwas just beginning to thaw, and dr. chen was amongthe first senior scientists from chinato visit the united states. by then,dr. campbell had become oneof the most distinguished nutritional biochemistsin the world. when they discoveredthis book, a significant collaborationwas born.
- this is the atlasof cancer mortality in china. fulkerson: published in 1981,the cancer atlas was the result of zhou enlai'snationwide study. it showed a highly unusualgeographical distribution of different typesof cancer in china, which tended to be clusteredin certain hot spots. the same was truewith cancer after cancer. and the countieswith the highest levels were often far greater
than the countieswith the lowest levels. - so, for example,esophageal cancer, according to this cancer map, the mortality hasa 400-fold difference among different countiesin china. - that's huge.- yeah. - and in--i understood,in the united states, only several-fold difference.not even-- - maybe twofold or so,we see.
- yeah, yeah.so that caught our attention in term of, so, why? because they're all chinese. genetically,they are all the same. and the why they haveso much difference in single cancer mortality? so we believe it has to berelated to the environment. the bigger environment. and from ourprofessional perspective,
of course,it's diet and nutrition. - dr. chen and i said,you know, "why don't we just go thereand do a study?" fulkerson: for dr. campbell, it was the opportunityhe'd been looking for. among other things, he couldexamine how his observations about liver cancerin filipino children and the findingsfrom his lab studies applied toa large human population.
the project would consider 367 dietand health-related variables, making it oneof the most ambitious nutritional studiesever conceived. dr. campbelland his associates carefully chose 65 countiesscattered across china. these counties weremainly located in rural or semi-rural areas. - we used the rural counties
because they are stablein their residents, and they have beenin this lifestyle for at least20 to 30 years. fulkerson: more than 350 workerswere trained. they carefully surveyedthe diet and lifestyle of 6,500 peoplein the chosen counties. urine and blood sampleswere also taken. in 1983, doctors campbell, chen,and their collaborators began to analyzethe vast amount of information
that had been collected. the job would take years. after eight weeks eatingplant-based foods, joey aucoin was still offall his medications. - when i started this,i had all these side effects from medicationand from my being so unhealthy. but now i'm getting in betterand better shape every day. i feel more healthy. i very seldomget tired during the day.
i just feelso good all the time. this--this is the scalethat i weigh myself on. and it started about eight weeksago way up here around 218, 220. and now it's bouncingbetween 180 and 185. none of my belts fit. this one here,i actually had to have two new holes punched in,'cause i liked the belt so much. nothing fits.i gotta go shopping. it's just everything,all my clothes.
a good problem to have. - it's been fun for him, because i think he's learned in addition to the fact thathe's seeing such great results, that it's...he loves it. - i don't thinkhe'll go back to his old ways. he feels too good,and he likes-- even if he startedto go off a little bit, he feels too good, his energy'stoo good, he looks younger.
- and the factthat he would have to go back on all the meds,you know, if he did, i think that that'sa huge motivation for him to maintainthe lifestyle. fulkerson: in the mid-1980s,dr. caldwell esselstyn was struggling to organizea study on coronary artery disease. his plan was to puta group of patients on a dietof low-fat plant-based foods,
along with small quantities oflow-fat dairy products and minimal amountsof cholesterol reducing drugs. - and slowlyover the next, uh, 18 months, i got the 24 patientsthat i had asked for. but the ones they sent me [laughs] were a littlebit sicker than i had thought. these were patientswho had failed their firstor second bypass operation. they had failed their firstor second angioplasty.
and there were fivewho were told by their expert cardiologists they wouldnot live out the year. fulkerson: one of the mostgravely ill patients was a 59-year-old speechand communications teacher, evelyn oswick. - ate all the chocolate candyi could eat, ate every doughnuti could put my hands on. oh, i justlove things like that,
a lot of gravy. and then, um, i had my-- i have had two heart attacksbefore i met dr. esselstyn. when i hadthe second heart attack, the doctor said thati should prepare for death, really is what he said. and i looked at him and i said, "do you really meanthat what you want me to do "is buy a rocking chair
and just sit thereand rock away and wait?" and he just looked at meand he said, "yes, that's justexactly what i'm saying." fulkerson: anthony yen was bornand raised in china. - and we were eatinga typical chinese cultural diet. a very smallpiece of meat. but they sliced it,and so it was cooked for flavor rather thanyour american style, when you eat, you eat a large,great, big piece of meat,
which you could easily fedthe whole family in china. and we eat a lot ofvegetables in china. and we had soup. but once i cameto the united states, you find beginningto experience fast food. the hamburgersand cheeseburgers, pizza. and i noticed my weightbeginning to gain. fulkerson: when mr. yenwas 56 years old, he suddenly experiencedsevere chest pains.
- at that point in time,i had a open heart surgery. i have five bypass--five. but it was very interesting. about a week later, uh, i feltmy chest tighten up again. so myself and my wifewent to see dr. esselstyn. - i saw every oneof these patients myself every two weeksfor the first five years. and at that visit,we would get
a full cholesterol lipidprofile. we would getblood pressure, weight, and i would go overevery morsel they ate. fulkerson: by using simple foods as the main treatmentfor his patients, dr. esselstyn was buckinga high-tech, high-cost system that was deeply entrenchedin both big medicine and big government. - you know,behind my back,
i got to be knownas dr. sprouts. but i guess i'vealways liked a challenge. - we preheated the oven,got the water going. i just added some seasonings. and then we add the onionsand the spinach. - i've never beena morning person, my whole life. and, uh, but previousto this experience, um, it had probablybeen worse than ever. and that entailed needingto get up in the morning
and caffeinate myself with cokes and red bullsand stuff like that, uh, before i could even thinkor start to work. we didn't makethe rice noodles, but you can just boilthem real quick and then throw thison top of them. - right, right. he's actuallyeating more often, but he's eating the right foods,and he lost weight.
so he certainlyfeels much better that way. and you can tell it in his face,in his neck, you know, in his belly. it's all--he's losta lot of weight there. he also has a better energy. um, he's waking upearlier now. that's great, because we havethen some morning time together. - i don'thave to carry anything. - you're the doctor.
[both chuckling] fulkerson: 1990. following nearly a decadeof intense effort, dr. campbelland his colleagues finally publishtheir china study. it identified no lessthan 94,000 correlations between diet and disease. - those are big numbersfor any study. and inthe end of the day,
when we did all thesecorrelations in this book here, and we lookedat the number of them that were statisticallysignificant, it was betweenabout 8,000 to 9,000. when you have thatlarge number of correlations then you startanalyzing each one, if it works outas statistically significant, this meansthat if 19 out of 20 are pointingin the same direction,
it's highly significant and likely to be true. fulkerson: hundredsof detailed tables and charts were included in the study. each one presented the raw datathat was collected. then this informationwas cross-referenced in multiple waysto demonstrate its reliability and to show how it linkedwith the 367 variables the study examined.
- i think the major message we got out of allthese correlation analyses is only one message. the plant food-based diet, mainly cereal grains,vegetables, and fruits, and very little animal food is always associated with lowermortality of certain cancers, stroke,and coronary heart disease. fulkerson: the new york timescalled it
"the most comprehensivelarge study ever undertaken "of the relationshipbetween diet and the riskof developing disease." for dr. campbell, he finally hadlarge-scale data on people, and it was remarkably consistentwith his earlier discoveries. together, he found that thescientific evidence was clear: whole, plant-based foodswere beneficial to human health, while animal-based foodswere not. san'dera nation's journeyto better health
wasn't easy at first. - it was a little hard, 'causei'd been eating fatty foods and grease and everythingfor 38 years, you know,as long as i can remember, so it was kinda hardto go from that to changing the next daycompletely. i started a journalfor maybe the first three weeks, write down my feelingsand emotions, what i felt like...so that other people
could knowit's okay to feel that way. fulkerson: along the way, san'dera had strong supportfrom dr. esselstyn and his wife ann. - they keep in touch,and they're like, "we haven'tforgotten about you," and i know they haven't. i really feel herethat they haven't. "i went to wal-mart this day.
"i had wanteda subway sandwich, "and i said i'm gonnaget me that meatball sub. "i then received a callwhile i was at wal-mart "from mrs. esselstyn, "as if they knewi was weak at this moment. "she stated, 'promise me "you will not eat anythingfrom wal-mart.' "it gave me chills to knowthat she called at that moment. "therefore i left the store
without gettingthat meatball sub." - what do you see? fulkerson: while dr. campbellwas publishing his china study, dr. esselstyn was gettingsome powerful data from the researchhe'd started in 1985. he began with 24 patients, but 6 had dropped outin the first year, leaving himwith a total of 18. - at the end of five years,we had follow-up angiograms,
and 11 of the grouphad halted their disease. there was no progression. and there were four wherewe had rather exciting evidence of regression of disease. fulkerson:these results were astonishing. the diet produced somethingthat medication and surgery never had before: actualreversals of heart disease. the biological mechanismthat caused these reversals centers on the liningof our veins and arteries--
the endothelial cells. - they arethe absolute life jackets of our blood vessels. you're young, and you'rea teenager, you're healthy, you could spreadthose out one layer thick, and you'd have somethingthat would cover six or eight tennis courts. fulkerson: in 1988,scientists discovered that endothelial cellsmanufactured
the gas nitric oxide. - well,what did nitric oxide do? nitric oxide keepsour blood flowing smoothly without being sticky. fulkerson: it also helps todilate constricted blood vessels during physical activity and inhibitsthe formation of plaque. - and most importantly,nitric oxide is a powerful force for eliminatingthe inflammation
that seemsto go with this plaque. fulkerson: however, scientifictests have demonstrated that when we start eatingthe typical western diet, our endothelial cellsare damaged. - when you're getting to bein your 40s and 50s and 60s, and you've been slaughteringyour endothelial cells, you don't have those sixor eight tennis courts. you may be downto one and a half or two, and they can't protect you.
fulkerson: yet accordingto dr. esselstyn, when we begin eatinga whole foods, plant-based diet, the damage to our endothelialcells not only stops, it starts to reverse. about five yearsinto his study, esselstyn made a smallbut significant change in his patients' menu. it started in 1990, when he read the glowing reviewof dr. campbell's china study
in the new york times. - dr. esselstyn saw that, and he invited me to cometo a conference he was organizing in arizona. fulkerson:these two revolutionaries, who, up until then, had beenon similar but separate paths finally met face-to-face. - on the one hand, i'm comingfrom the scientific group, getting some ideas.
he's comingfrom the clinical route and doingsome dramatic research. here's the science,here's the clinical evidence. put the two together,it's amazing. fulkerson: when he learnedof campbell's research, esselstyn removed dairy productsfrom his patients' diet. the results of his ongoing studycontinued to be impressive, and in 1995,he published a paper detailing themin a noted scientific journal.
yet one of esselstyn'smost remarkable success stories involved a colleague of hisat the cleveland clinic, dr. joseph crowe. - actually i was,um, active, healthy, very busy, uh, mid-40s, absolutely,um, no risk factors at all for any heart problem. fulkerson: but dr. crowe, evenwith what was considered to be a healthy cholesterol level,
was actually ravagedby heart disease. this angiogram, taken after his first nearlyfatal heart attack in 1996, shows how badly damaged one ofhis coronary arteries was. this angiogram was doneafter less than three years of entirely dietary treatment. dr. crowe was fortunate. in 25% of cases, sudden death
is the first and only signof coronary artery disease. of dr. esselstyn'soriginal 18 patients, all survived the initial12 years of the study. today,14 patients are still alive over two decadesafter the study began. - the thing about essy, althoughhe's always very pleasant, when you said, "i'm goingto be on this program and i'm going to staywith this diet," you stayed with the diet,or there was the door.
you had no choice. i mean,his smiles are wonderful, but he is very stern. you know,that's why i'm still living. but, you know, he's just... he's just a wonderful man. - and i lookat the pictures... some of my pictures years ago,20 years ago actually looksolder than today.
the only thing isi lost more hair, you know? fulkerson: anthonyand the other male patients also noted another change. - when you're young, when you were teenager, you see a female or so on,it gets kind of excited. and the first reactionphysically, you know, it gets attention,you know? raise the flag, i call it.
this happened to us,all the other, uh, dr. esselstyn's, uh, i call 'emall the guinea pigs. the flag still rises. - talking to your doctorabout e.d. may be the last thingyou wanna do, but it's definitelya conversation worth having. - i'm a practicing urologist and have been sofor the last 25 years. and erectile dysfunctionis actually
the first clinical indicator of generalizedcardiovascular disease. it's the canaryin the coal mine. it's the thingthat lets you know that you havesome significant endothelial and vascular disease, much earlierthan will a heart attack or something like that. we haveto stop thinking of the body
like it's compartmentalized.it really isn't. the blood goes everywherein the body. and so if you havevascular disease anywhere, you have it everywhere. fulkerson: despite the apparentsuccess of the dietary approach, some critics say eatingthis way is extreme. - now, with the western diet, this guaranteesthere are gonna be what? a half a million peoplein this country this year
who will have to have the fronthalf of their body divided, their heart exposed, then veins will be takenfrom their leg and sewed on their heart. some peoplewould call that extreme. fulkerson: dr. esselstynhas now successfully treated over 250 patientswith heart disease, using almost exclusivelya whole foods, plant-based diet. - heart disease,as far as i'm concerned,
is an absolutelytoothless paper tiger that need never, ever exist. and if it does exist,it need never, ever progress. fulkerson: las vegas, nevada. at the extreme couture gym, we found an extraordinaryplant-based athlete-- ultimate fighter championmac danzig. in the mixed martial artsworld, strength, toughness,and endurance
are of paramount importance,and mac has them all. - i had cut dairy out of my dietwhen i was about 18 years old, um, because i had a, uh... ear, nose,and throat allergy to dairy, and i was gettinga lot of ear infections and things like that. so when i cut that out,really the only thing that was separating mefrom having a vegan diet was chicken and fish.
so i was just eatingthat for years, and i was eating it becausei thought that i needed to, because everyone tells you,you know, if you're an athlete,you need, you know, at least chicken and fishin your diet for protein. you know, somethingthat's just one of the myths that's been perpetuatedfor a while. all it took was me cuttingthe chicken and fish out, and i did it cold turkey.
i think a lot of people,stereotypically speaking, think someonethat's a vegan is, like, some skinny hippie typeof person, and, uh, you know,i'm not necessarily trying to breakthe stereotype. i just--i tried the dietfor my own personal reasons, and it worked for me, i feel like i have more energy now that i don't eatthe meat products.
and i also feel like i recoverbetter in between my workouts. i'm not trying to bepart of some exclusive club or anything like that. i'm just doing my thing,and, um, you know, don't planon eating meat or dairy or anything like thatfor the rest of my life. - this, uh, guide is calledthe type "a" planning guide. now, it includes foodsthat are found in the basic four food groups,
because we are concernedabout the total daily needs, and this is a part of it. - we must serve 1/2 pintof fresh fluid milk to provide calcium,riboflavin, and the other nutrients thatare needed for our children. fulkerson: for decades, the dairy industryand u.s. government have been saying that milkis good for our bones. while all whole foodscontain calcium,
an essential nutrientfor bone health, it is argued that we needthe higher amounts found in dairy. children and aging womenin particular have been singled out to drinkmore and more and more milk. - what do you thinkthe most important nutrient we get from dairy products is,like milk? - calcium. - calcium.- calcium.
- the science in termsof dairy's role in healthy bones is pretty strong, and, in fact, the nationalosteoporosis foundation, of course, utilizes that sciencein their recommendations. fulkerson: osteoporosis isa degenerative bone disease, which has been widely linkedto a lack of calcium. if this is true, nations witha high intake of dairy products, which are a major source ofcalcium in a westernized diet, should havelow levels of osteoporosis.
but according to a study done by a distinguishedharvard researcher, nations with high levelsof calcium intake tend to have high levelsof hip fractures, which is a key indicatorfor osteoporosis. - and so, in fact, the higherthe dairy consumption, the higher the rateof osteoporosis-- exactly the oppositeof what the dairy industry has been telling usfor so long.
one of the primary mechanismsfor that is that animal protein tends to create an acid-likecondition in the body called metabolic acidosis. fulkerson:to combat this condition, the body draws upon its mostreadily available acid buffer, namely calcium in our bones. as the calcium is extractedto neutralize the excess acid, our bones are weakened. in defendingthe health benefits of milk,
many national healthorganizations now recommend that we consumelow-fat dairy products. - it can be milk,it can be yogurt, it can be cheese, it can beanything made from milk. but again,the important message, it's a message that comes from the americandietetic association, the national osteoporosisfoundation, cancer, heart, we're all on the same page.
it needs tobe low-fat or fat-free. - so as the fat's taken out, the protein becomes a largerproportion of the total. so they become higherin protein, lower in fat. and when we comparethese high-protein, low-fat milk products,for example, with prostate cancer, the relationshipis as strong as it is for cigarette smokingand lung cancer.
- most of these animals hereare what we call heifers. - uh-huh. - they're the young females,not yet cows. - so they haven'thad their first calf yet. - haven'thad their first calf. - so they have to havetheir first calf before they can lactate. - and once they comeinto lactation, they almost keep them,these days,
they keep thempregnant continuously for three of four years. - why arethey eating grass now? - well, this is the last time,in their lifetime, they're going to see grass. after that they'rein the barn, they're standing upfor the rest of their life. - when i was young,we defended our product, promoted our product,
because it wasnature's most perfect food. and, uh, so i believed that. but it took a slightlydifferent twist as time passed. i mean, it's the most perfectfood for calves. and trying to switch the milk ofone species to another species doesn't make a lotta sense. fulkerson: only two monthsinto her treatment, san'dera was experiencingdramatic effects on her type 2 diabetesand hypertension.
since i've beenon a plant-based diet, blood pressure'sbeen wonderful. my blood sugarsare in the 80s. it shocks me, 70s. so i was alarmedwhen it was 60. i'm like, "aah!isn't that bad? it's 60?" you know, and i talkedto the diabetes educator, which is wonderful. she's like, "no,that's a normal blood sugar."
you're pancreas is working,it's reversing." fulkerson:ironically, san'dera works at an outpatient facilityfor diabetics. yet the treatment that was achieving successwith her diabetes came from outsidethe established medical system. the positive resultswent far beyond san'dera's chronic diseases. - mentally,not having the sluggishness,
the fearof the disease progressing. because i feel i'm in control and have power of takingit back the right way now. so, mentally, i feel great. i'm eatingthe things i should eat. the one thing that is truethat ann said to me, "you really start tasting the real tasteof what you're eating," cause i'd eat a peach,and you'd think...
[sighs] i was in heavenwith my white peaches. i get to eat, and that feels goodto be able to eat, bringing the sugar down, you're losing the weight, your wholeeverything changes. you know, i thinkwe're a little dependent on, you know, our doctorsand the medications. we should take a little bitmore responsibility
and check it outfor ourselves. fulkerson: and speakingof doctors and medications, how does san'dera'sregular physician feel about her new lifestyle? when i recentlyapproached her about my blood sugarsbeing so great, my question was, "should inot take my medication?" she said, "no, you still takeyour medications." and she said, "what isthat doctor trying to do?
take you offyour medications?" and i'm looking like, "yeah,i'm hoping that's the... the goal." so there's still peoplewe have to make believers, yeah. [laughs] - sally and jim eattheir breakfast at about 7:00. it's a good breakfastof good foundation foods. today, they're having milk,cereal, poached eggs,and sliced oranges.
they are startingthe day right. fulkerson:the key agency that sets nutritional guidelinesfor americans is the united states departmentof agriculture. the u.s.d.a. helps determinewhat foods are served to everyone from our soldiersin the field to our kidsin their school cafeterias. these guidelines arealso taught in our schools, influencingwhat our children will eat
for the rest of their lives. dr. david klurfeld isa nutritional scientist and national program leaderfor human nutrition with the u.s.d.a.'sagricultural research service. - we've made dietaryrecommendations since the 1890s,from u.s.d.a. and that was before we knewabout vitamins and minerals. subsequently, we'vehad different food groups, and we had the basic 4
and 5 and 7 and 12, and it variedas the science changed. fulkerson: perhaps thebest known of the food groups was the "basic four",introduced in 1956 in a leaflet called"food for fitness." the mainstay of nutritioneducation for over 30 years, the basic four defined what an entire generationof americans believed was healthy to eat.
the four food groupswas replaced in 1992 by the "food pyramid,"then updated by "my pyramid." these guidelines recommend three servingsof dairy products per day, and meat is stilla primary source of protein. in following "my pyramid,"a 15-year-old girl can eat a daily menuconsisting of a bowl of lucky charmswith low-fat milk and a glass of orange juicefrom concentrate for breakfast,
cheese-flavored crackersfor a morning snack, a cheeseburgeron a whole-grain bun with french-friesand a coke for lunch, chocolate pudding and grapesfor an afternoon snack, and chicken nuggetswith a biscuit and canned green beansfor dinner with low-fat ice creamfor dessert. - i see now what's happeningwith the way that we feed many of ourchildren in our school systems.
we shouldn't be surprised thatwe're seeing childhood obesity at the ratesthat we're seeing it. fulkerson: dr. neal barnardis a medical researcher and presidentof the physicians committee for responsible medicine. - well, the problem is,when a kid is pulling his tray down the school lunch line, you see federal policiesin action. there are burgerstopped with cheese,
the milkis heavily subsidized. but the vegetables and fruits,a little bit harder to find. and this is becausethe government contracts are going to particularlythe meat producers and other producers as well. it has nothing to do withthe health of the children. it has all to dowith the financial health of the big agribusinessentities. - what we havewith the u.s.d.a.
is it's reallya farmers advocacy organization. and, okay let's have one, but that same group cannotadvocate for farmers, help subsidizetheir operations, manage commodity foods, subsidize the priceof growing things, and then turn around and say, "okay, we're goingto tell people what to eat." they're going to tell peoplewhat to eat
based on their constituents, which are the farmers,not the american public. fulkerson: in 1998, barnard'sgroup sued the u.s.d.a. - every five years,the government reformulates the dietary guidelinesfor americans. that's the blueprint of whatamericans are supposed to eat to be healthy. and we looked at the panel thatpulled it together--11 people. 6 of the 11had financial relationships
with the food industry. so we said,hey, wait a minute. there are laws aboutwhat they're supposed to do and how transparentthey are supposed to be. they violated those. and we brought them to court, and it was a long trial,but we won. but that doesn't changethe fact that the policiesthey came up with
continued to favor industryas they always have. - i don't thinkthere really is a problem with industry connectionsbetween scientists and the food industry, primarily becauseif the beef industry has a questionabout their products, shouldn't theygo to the best scientists? and if the best scientists are consultingfor the food industry,
i still want the best scientistson these committees that make nutritionalrecommendations. financial conflictof interest is only one conflictof interest. you know, there are people who've spenttheir entire careers trying to prove that avegetarian diet is good for you or that red meatis bad for you. now, theymay not have industry ties,
but they too havea conflict of interest. - you know,we do develop biases personally. i had those biases, too. but i got to a pointin my career that i was getting resultsthat went against what i had thought was true. so i had to self-reflect,criticize my own bias, look at it really carefully, and i changed my views.
fulkerson: dr. campbell paida price for changing his views. he's been marginalized by key administratorsof his own university, this after beinga lead scientist and securing millions of dollarsin research grants for cornell's nutritionalsciences division. he hada popular nutrition course cancelledby the division director who had long beena major consultant
to the dairy industry. numerous observers feelthis was an arbitrary decision that violated the standardsof academic freedom. dr. campbell has also witnessedserious corporate influence over researchthat is used to develop the government'snutrition policy. one example he citescenters on the prestigiousnational academy of sciences. - the building behind me hereis perhaps
the singlemost important building in the area of sciencein the country. this is where scientistsparticipate in deliberations about issues of the day and determine how that sciencecan be used to affect policy. in the early dayswhen i was involved, those panels weremostly funded by public money. but on the other hand,in more recent years, i have seenmore and more corporate money
coming in to supportthese activities and more and more people beingallowed on the committees, especially the chairsof the committee. and, of course, they can pickthe kind of people they want to pick in order to get a certain kindof conclusion. it's not the wayit should be, and i'm sure thatif the public were to know how powerful is this influence,they would be surely upset.
- i had been a runnerfor 14 years, in fact, a marathoner. 47 years old,the top of my game. fulkerson: in 1982,ruth heidrich's running career came to a sudden stop when she was diagnosedwith breast cancer. after a mastectomy, her doctorsrecommended chemotherapy and radiationto treat the cancer that had by then spreadto her lungs and bones.
ruth decided to visitdr. john mcdougall instead. - and i said,"ruth, i spent my residency "collecting informationon diet and breast cancer. "it's all in these filesright here. "sit in my officeand read through it and see what you think." - he said, "these arethe studies that show-- "what i'm trying to prove is that dietcan reverse breast cancer."
- and she read it, and she comes out and she says"okay, i've changed my diet." she changed her diet. - so he showed mehow to eat. no added oils, lots of fruitsand vegetables, whole grains. fulkerson:ruth then started training for the ironman triathlonin hawaii, which combines runninga marathon with long-distance bikingand swimming.
- i became obsessed. kept up the running, of course,never stopped, and then added swimming,biking, and, for good measure,lifted weights. and people were saying,"you're crazy. you're a cancer patient.you should be resting." doctors told me this. i felt so good. i felt fit, and i wanted tomaintain that level of fitness.
and i felt sure thatif i had a healthy body and i was puttingthe right food into it that i could beat this cancer. fulkerson:at the ironman triathlon, ruth won a gold medalin her age group. - stuck with the diet. found outmy arthritis disappeared. my constipationdisappeared. my dandruff disappeared.
no sign of depression, which you might expectwith a cancer diagnosis. i felt renewed,invigorated, and out to show that dietis so much more important than anybody ever thought. mmm! - other womenget over breast cancer, colon cancer,prostate cancer. there are people who'vehad metastatic prostate cancer
all over their body who have gone through what wecall spontaneous remission. in other words,they've been cured. and it's notthe end of the world when you get this diagnosis.some people get over it. ruth did. - so i'm still racing. still daily training. now how many people in their 70sare doing triathlons?
not very many. so that gives hopefor all of us as we age that not onlywill you stay healthy and beat the degenerativediseases that most people get, but you can startcollecting medals. fulkerson:the food choices we make have profound global effects. it takes over ten timesthe amount of energy from fossil fuels to producea calorie of animal-based food
than it does to producea calorie of plant food. since the 1970s,20% of the amazon's rainforest has been destroyed. that's an areathe size of california. 80% of this cleared landis now occupied by livestock. the world's cattle aloneeat enough grain to feed 8.7 billion people, nearly 2 billion morethan the population on earth. with almosta billion malnourished people
across the globe, redirectingeven a portion of the grain used to fatten cattlecould feed every hungry mouthon the planet. for gene baur,factors like these, combined with a deep respectfor animals, helped convince himto adopt a plant-based diet. mr. baur is president andco-founder of farm sanctuary near watkins glen, new york. it provides a safe havenfor animals
that have been abandonedor abused. - i grew up eating animalslike most people in our country, but once i started consideringmy food choices i recognized thati didn't want to eat animals. and the more i learned,the more i saw that i was healthierif i didn't eat animals and that i had a muchlighter footprint on our planet. the livestock industryis a greater contributor to global warming than theentire transportation industry
accordingto the united nations. so by eating meat, milk,and eggs the way we are, we're harming our own health, we're slaughtering10 billion innocent animals every year in the u.s., and we're destroyingthe planet. fulkerson: statistics compiledfrom the united nations and the world healthorganization demonstratethe profound global effect
that diet has on health. these are the estimated amountsof animal foods produced in nine countries, a figure that's closely relatedto animal food consumption. these are the numbers of deathsdue to heart disease and cancer in the same countries. in the united states, the very same diseases continueto have a grave impact. even withthe billions of dollars
spent on cardiac treatment, heart disease is stillthe number one cause of death, killing over600,000 people a year. - and the elephantin the room, when we talk about stentsand heart bypass surgery, is the fact thatwhile it's no question in an emergency, these proceduresare absolutely lifesaving. but whenthey're done electively,
these procedures do not protectfrom new heart attacks. fulkerson:stents and bypass operations are used mainly totreat large arterial blockages. yet accordingto many research studies, only a small percentageof heart attacks are caused by the largestbuild-ups of plaque. the rest are caused by the morenumerous, newer blockages that are far more inflamed and much more likelyto rupture
than the larger,older, more stable plaques. and so this is whythose procedures don't treat the disease. they are treating symptoms. fulkerson: doctor esselstyn hasbeen eating the same foods that he has recommended tohis patients for over 25 years. one of his sons, rip esselstyn,used a plant-based diet to fuel a successfulten-year career as a professional tri-athlete.
when rip turned 34, he was readyfor a career change and trainedto become a firefighter. rip was assignedto engine company number 2 in austin, texas. we're incredibly competitivehere at the fire station, and we love making bets. so we were outon the porch one night, and we kind of madethis little bar bet to see who hadthe lowest cholesterol level.
so the next morning,we drove to a lab, got tested, and the results came back. and it lead to a discoverythat j.r., james ray, our resident redneck,had a cholesterol of 344. pretty much means you'reknocking at death's door. and so what we did,in an act of solidarity, is the next day we went abouteating a plant-strong diet, to basically save his lifeand save his arteries. fulkerson: the men agreed tochange their firehouse diet.
but in texas,old eating habits die hard. - meat's almosta sport in texas. i have several good friendsthat, they're barbeque teams. that's what they do. that's their sporton weekends. - texans are seriousabout their barbeque. - texas, kansas. [alarm beeping] [siren wailing]
- well, guys associate beingmanly with eating meat. and if you're a firefighter,it's exponentially so. last year, for example, therewere 133 firefighter fatalities in the united states. 52%were from heart disease. our number one killerof in-the-line-of-duty deaths for firefightersis heart disease. fulkerson: after justthree weeks on his new diet, j.r. testedhis blood cholesterol,
and it dropped 148 points,a decrease of 43%. his resultsinspired the others, who also sawtheir cholesterol drop and their energy levels rise. as firemen, they werenot only helping themselves, they were in bettershape to assist others. - one of the thingsabout being a firefighter is you don't have any ideawhat your next call could be. we may havea high-rise alarm,
where we have to goup 20 flights of stairs with air packs on, with allof our bunker gear on, with a high rise packon our backs. anybody can godown the poll, but not everybody can go up,especially without their legs. and right thereyou're talking about an additional 75 to 100 pounds that you have to carryup 20 flights of stairs.
you have to havean amazing aerobic capacity and strengthin order to do that. real...men...eat...plants. you know what,as firefighters, everybody thinksthat we fight fire, and we do. but over 70% of our callsare medical emergencies where we are respondingto heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes,rampant obesity. and so we see,up close and personal,
basically the destructionthat's being caused by the standard american diet. to me, the answer is just absolutely so simple,it's criminal. it's justpeople starting to take responsibilityfor their health and starting toeat more plant-based foods. it's that simple. fulkerson: after 13 weeks ona whole foods, plant-based diet,
it was time to getmy results from dr. lederman. - when you started, your weightwas 231, 231 pounds, now 211 pounds. - okay, that's good. - it's a 20-pound drop there.- wow. - your blood pressure was142 over 82 when you started. it's now 112 over 70. - wow.that's a big drop. - that's a nice drop.oh, yeah, that's--
that's great, and, uh,it'll just keep getting... it'll keep droppingas you continue to do this. your pulse was restingat 92 when you started. it's now down to 60,resting. - okay, cool. - your total cholesterol thoughwent from 241 down to 154. - what? - [laughs] yeah,that was pretty amazing. 241 down to 154.
- 154? - 154,yeah, that's really-- and your ldl,which is your bad cholesterol-- um, i thinkthis is the most impressive-- went from 157 down to 80. - no way! - yeah. that's amazing that itdropped almost in half. uh, we did c.r.p. last time, which is sort of the markerof the inflammation
in the heartand the blood vessels. and that went from 6.0down to 2.8. fulkerson:without using any medications, i significantlyreduced my chances of getting a heart attackand many other diseases. - tomorrow marks20 weeks on the program. i've lost 45 pounds. i've reversedthe diabetes. - you have to knowthat everybody
is so incredibly proudof what you've done. - i don't have to relyon the medication. i have a lot of energythat i didn't have before. my children love it. they're so proud of me,and they tell me all the time. i had a little sayingthat i've carried around for maybe the last two years. and it's "win the war. "do not let one lost battleend the war.
"if you do break down and giveinto temptation, do not quit. "just get rightback on track. not tomorrow,but right now." the diabetesis not coming back. i'm notgonna let it come back, nor the weight. the message is, you're incontrol of your life. fulkerson: joey aucoin hadover two dozen health problems, including type 2 diabetes.
but after 22 weeks eatingplant-based foods, his condition had changeddramatically. - hey, how you doin'? - back again.- and you're getting healthier. your weight is down 28 pounds. you feel betterthan you have. 26 out of 27 complaintsare gone completely. your marker of inflammationin the vessels is down tothat of a normal person.
uh, your blood sugarsare coming down. they continue to come downeven on a daily basis, which are gonna get better. your cholesterolis significantly lower than it waswhen you first started, before you ever startedtaking any pills. your blood pressureis normal now, compared to how it wasbefore while on pills. it was still elevated.
and you just--you know, you just said you've never feltlike this before. you look--look at how you lookin the pictures. you look healthier. so, you know,like i told you before, i explainedhow the numbers can affect-- can affect our judgmentof what real health is. and it's not just the numbers. it's overallthe entire picture,
and your picture looksfantastic. - i was takin' nine pills a dayand two shots. i was spending almost a 150to 200 a month on medication, above my insurance. just think about that:i've been doin' it five months. i've saved, you know,$800 to a $1000 already, 'cause i haven't takenone pill, one shot. so think aboutwhat that saved me-- not just me,the insurance company.
- the u.s. governmentwill give you figures that 75% of the dollarsspent in health care are due to chronic illnesses, and these are due to dietand lifestyle. let's get rid of the problem, which is the sicknesswhich is caused by the food. [cow moos] fulkerson:now well into their 70s, doctors campbell and esselstynare both vital and active.
they also continue to spreadtheir message. - if you carefully lookat our school children, already the arteriesto their brain, their carotid artery, is gettingsome intimal medial thickening. fulkerson: dr. esselstynlectures about his research all over the united statesand abroad. his wife annfrequently accompanies him to help council patients and to demonstratethe preparation
of plant-based foods. dr. esselstynis also director of the cardiovascular diseaseprevention and reversal program at the cleveland clinic'swellness institute. like dr. esselstyn,dr. campbell continues to lecturethroughout america and beyond. - dr. campbell, you believe thateven if animal-based proteins, meat, dairy, et cetera--are free from contamination, you don't thinkpeople should eat them?
- no, i don't. i think the closer we getto a plant-based diet-- i should say a whole-foods,plant-based diet, the healthierwe're going to be for all of us. fulkerson:in china, where dr. campbell did his large studya generation ago, the population has experienceddramatic increases in the amount of meat, dairy,and processed foods the average person consumes.
at the same time, the rates of degenerativediseases are skyrocketing. many chinese now sharesome of the same beliefs americanshave about nutrition. fulkerson: dr. campbell'smessage is resonating with growing numbersof concerned people around the world. - thank you.thank you. thank you. fulkerson: thanks to the effortsof both these pioneers
and their colleagues, thousands of peopleare realizing that profound improvements in health and quality of lifeare within reach. - you have two choices: you can eat yourself intopoor health and early death, or you can eat yourselfinto good health and a long, healthy life. and that road is on a plant-centered dietary pattern.
- you know, i knowof nothing else in medicine that can come close to whata plant-based diet can do. i can say this witha great deal of confidence, that our national authoritiesare simply excluding this concept of nutrition fromthe debate and the discussion in order to protectthe status quo. in theory,if everyone were to adopt this, i really believe we could cuthealth care costs by 70% to 80%. that's amazing.
and it all comesfrom understanding nutrition, applying nutrition, and justwatchin' the results. - the greatest giftthat you could possibly give to yourself and your family, not only thosein your generation, but your childrenand your grandchildren, if you can make thembe aware of the incredible powerthat resides within each of them to avoid life's most poignantlytragic and painful events,
you just don't have to havethose kinds of events. - i believethat with all my heart, if anyone listen to this, and they really shouldlook at their refrigerator, and look at their diet,and give a try. you lose weight,and you'll be healthier. nothing could lose if you just takefew weeks and try. you could see how easy it is.
- i'm not gonna sayit was difficult. again, i made up my mind,this is what i'm going to do. i never felt like i wasn'tgetting what i wanted. so i didn't have ice cream,so i didn't have the doughnuts, so i ate something else. - i can thank them in every wayi can think possible, and my doctor,especially matt, and they just can't understandwhat it's done to change my life.
and it really has. not just mine,my family's, everybody's. it gives me shiverstalking about it, because it's so serious. it's a life-changingexperience. - you can be in control, and i stress this,'cause there's so many things going on in my lifethat i'm not in control of. and that's my message.
you can controlyour outcome of your body. eat to liveand don't live to eat. - you better get that. you better getthe recipe. - [laughs]- this is good. [guitar chords] [chorus humming] ♪ sleep, don't visit ♪ ♪ so i choke on the sun ♪
♪ and the daysburn into one ♪ ♪ backs of my eyes ♪ ♪ of the thingsi've never done ♪ ♪ sheets are swayin' ♪ ♪ from the old clothesline ♪ ♪ like a rowof captured ghosts ♪ ♪ over dead grass ♪ ♪ was never muchbut we made the most ♪ ♪ welcome ho oh oh ah ah home ♪
♪ ah ah oh ah ah home ♪ ♪ ah ah ha ha ha ha home ♪ ♪ ha ha oh ah ah ah home ♪ ♪ ships ♪ ♪ are launching ♪ ♪ from my chest ♪ ♪ some have namesbut most do not ♪ ♪ if you find one, please ♪ ♪ let me know what piecei've lost ♪
♪ peel the scars from ♪ ♪ off my back ♪ ♪ i don't need them anymore ♪ ♪ you can throw them out ♪ ♪ keep them in your mason jars ♪ ♪ i've come ho oh oh ah ahhome ♪ ♪ ooh ooh ooh ooh ♪ ♪ ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ♪ captioning by captionmaxwww.captionmax.com
♪ ah ah, ah ah ♪ ♪ ah ah ah ♪