20 Quotes from Experts on Eating a Plant-Based Diet

Are you thinking about eating more plant foods or switching to a plant-based diet?  Do you need a little reinforcement or refocusing?

Sometimes eating a plant-based diet is challenging, but it gets easier when you continue reading information about why the diet you choose for yourself is so beneficial.

Here are 20 quotes from experts that I found from around the web that will help reinforce the changes you are making and have made.

Quotes from Experts

1.   “Genetics loads the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.” – Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., MD

2.  “They say that vegetable food is not sufficiently nutritious.  But chemistry proves contrary.  So does physiology.  So does experience…And again:  the largest and strongest animals in the world are those which eat no flesh-food of any kind – the elephant and rhinoceros.”  Russell Trall, MD

3.  “It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in prevention and treatment of certain diseases.”  ADA Position on Vegetarian Diets 2009

4.  “Your choice of diet can influence your long term health prospects more than any other action you might take.” – Former Surgeon General C. Everett Coop

5.  “You cannot buy health;  you must earn it through healthy living.” – Joel Furhman, MD

6.  “We have science to suggest that if you can make three changes – give up meat, all dairy, and refined foods including free oils – you can avoid dying form cancer and heart disease.”  Mehmet Oz, MD

7.  “People feel poorly because they are nourished by foods you wouldn’t feed to your dog or cat.  The rich western diet is full of fat, sugar, cholesterol, salt, animal protein — all the wrong foods for people.  Look around the world and see where people are thin and healthy — they live on a starch based diet — rice.” – John McDougall, MD

8.  “Heart disease is a food-borne illness.” – Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., MD

9.  “In this diet you’re never hungry.  You never have to count calories.  Its like quitting smoking, you don’t eat meat for a while and it’s hard for the first day or two, but (it’s easier) after you focus on the new foods you’re eating.” – Neal Barnard, MD

1.   “A plant-based diet is more likely to produce good health and to reduce sharply the risk of heart problems, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, gallstones, and kidney disease.” – T. Colin Campbell, PhD

11.  “An important fact to remember is that all natural diets, including purely vegetarian diets without a hint of dairy products, contain amounts of calcium that are above the threshold for meeting your nutritional needs…In fact, calcium deficiency caused by an insufficient amount of calcium in the diet is not known to occur in humans.” – John McDougall, MD

12.  “We should all be eating fruits and vegetables as if our lives depend on it – because they do.” – Michael Greger, MD

13.  “…in switching over to a plant-based diet, most people are able to reverse their heat disease, cure type II or significantly improve type I diabetes, effortlessly reduce their weight, eliminate their chronic and nagging aches and pains.” – Alona Pulde, MD and Matthew Lederman, MD

14.  “I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic while it is medically conservative to cut people open or put them on powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs the rest of their lives.” – Dean Ornish, MD

15.  “We believe that if people focus on what they’re eating and not how much they’re eating, they will have weight loss with a plant-based diet.” – Neal Barnard, MD

16.  “In the next ten years, one of the things you’re bound to hear is that animal protein is one of the most toxic nutrients of all that can be considered.  Quite simply the more you substitute plant foods for animal foods, the healthier you are likely to be.” – T. Colin Campbell, PhD

17.  “Medicines cannot drug away the cellular defects that develop in response to improper nutrition throughout life.” – Joel Furhman, MD

18.  “Poor nutrition trumps tobacco, alcohol, and sedentary lifestyles as the primary cause for the development of chronic illnesses.  We cannot ignore the reality that what we eat is totally within our control, and our choices are what determine the level of risk we have of becoming ill.” – Baxter Montgomery, MD

19.  “The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined.  If beef is your idea of “real food for real people” you’d better live real close to a real good hospital.” – Neal Barnard, MD

20.  “Numerous research studies have shown that cancer is more common in populations consuming diets rich in fatty foods, particularly meat, and much less common in countries with diets rich in grains, vegetables, and fruits.” – Neal Barnard, MD

Bonus:  “The fat you eat, is the fat you wear.” – John McDougall, MD

Eat more plants!

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