D Anthony Evans found out at age six that he had a rare disorder (Neurofibromatosis) that caused painful tumors to emerge at random all over his body. And things just got worse from there.
His doctors explained that this disease generally leads to a highly aggressive form of cancer, MPNST (Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors). So he spent his youth wondering when and where the cancer would strike.
Read More
Valter Longo, PhD, is my bet to be the first Nobel Prize winner on the Plant Yourself Podcast.
He’s a longevity researcher at the University of Southern California whose broad vision and ability to focus on the details of scientific enquiry over a 30-year career may provide the data we need to extend the human lifespan by decades.
Read More
Fraser Bayley’s arc of transformation is long and inspiring. Growing up in Auckland, New Zealand, Fraser was a poor student who struggled in school despite putting in the effort. He felt stupid, like something was wrong with him. His social anxiety was so severe, he dropped out of college but managed to keep a crushing load of student debt.
When an after school job at a local supermarket offered him a chance to learn about butchery, Fraser jumped on the opportunity to apprentice himself in the grueling trade. It didn’t require smarts, or much reading, or sitting still.
Butchery was (and still is) a male-dominated field, where toxic masculinity is both a prerequisite and outcome of the brutal, repetitive, soul-numbing work. Fraser suffered from bipolar episodes, which he self-medicated through alcohol, drugs, and the company of other alienated, emotionally scarred, alpha males.
Read More
Bethany Stec Janicek grew up on a Nebraska pig farm, on a diet of meat and dairy and cheese and butter. Always bigger than her peers, she began dieting in elementary school, and suffered the anguish that came with always failing, always giving up, and always feeling disappointed in herself.
She was deeply disconnected from her true self, and masked her sense of inadequacy with a bubbly exterior and various coping mechanisms: food, cigarettes alcohol, clothing, and makeup. Everything in her life was literally or figuratively sugar-coated.
Read More
I’ve been thinking a lot about my junk food habit.
I liken it to the passenger window on the old Chevy Chevelle. One day I open that window and the damn thing won’t close. I try and try, but you end up having to dismantle the entire door panel to get the window back on the track. It’s a pain in the ass. And I am very aware of this window not working – for a few weeks.
Read More
Darren Morton, PhD, is a Fellow of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine, which means that not only is he wicked-smart about how to live a long and healthy life, but also he shares his insights in a cool Australian accent.
His latest book, Live More Happy, is a treasure trove of theory and practice of How to Live a Happy, Healthy Life.
Read More
Cyrus Khambatta and Robby Barbaro are the co-creators of Mastering Diabetes, an online program and support network for people living with all forms of the disease: type 1, type 2, type 1.5, prediabetes, and gestational diabetes.
And both have been living with type 1 diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes, for most of their lives. Type 1 can’t be reversed or cured through diet and lifestyle, so they must take synthetic insulin in order to remain alive.
According to mainstream diabetes protocols, Cyrus and Robby should limit their carbohydrate intake significantly, and get the majority of their calories from proteins and fats. Certainly the last thing they should do is live on a high-fruit raw diet.
They not only live on such a diet; they thrive on it. And they’ve taught thousands of others with diabetes to combat the condition with a whole food, plant-based diet.
Read More
David Donohue is a primary care physician in Wilmington, Delaware, and one of only 280 board-certified lifestyle medicine specialists in the United States. As David points out in our conversation, that’s fewer than one for every million Americans.
I wanted to talk with David about the successful and innovative Cure Diabetes program that he’s run over the past year, but we quickly started egging each other on to describe our pet peeves about the current medical system.
Read More
Kassi and Derick Harrington grew up in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where they grew obese and ill and miserable on the Standard Cajun Diet.
Derick’s life revolved around food: hunting and fishing and then frying whatever he caught. Kassi was overweight her whole life, as was her entire family.
Derick suffered from hypertension, high cholesterol, an auto-immune disease, and was on the fast track to type 2 diabetes. He had no energy, no passion for life outside of the gustatory, and in his own words, was “just existing.”
Read More
From the moment his parents’ marriage fell apart, Bryan Falchuk turned into the fat kid. In a world out of control, food was the one thing he could control, and the one thing that could soothe his deep hurts and anxieties.
Every day Bryan woke up and was determined to lose weight, and twenty minutes later he’d be elbow-deep in the foods he’d sworn to give up, or at least moderate. He experienced himself as someone untrustworthy, someone who lacked agency, someone to whom life happened.
Read More
