The discussion of which diet is optimal for human health has been ongoing for centuries. What foods are good for me? What foods should I stay away from? Everybody knows smoking cigarettes is bad for your health because it’s a class one carcinogen. This means that cigarettes are directly known to cause cancer in humans. However, people still smoke. Processed meats are also a class one carcinogen. Meat is also associated with heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, acne, and Alzhiemer’s disease. High amounts of dairy consumption are correlated with the current childhood obesity epidemic, and the exponential rise of breast cancer in women. This information could be found anywhere, but like how smoking is bad and people still smoke, consuming animal products have negative health impacts, but people still consume meat.

Before I went vegan, I read a book called the China Study, where I learned about Dr. Dean Ornish, who I will be focusing on for this speech. Before I get into his research, I’m going to give some background information. Dr. Ornish is a physician and researcher who studied at the University of Texas, Baylor College of Medicine, and Harvard Medical School and has been conducting landmark research for over 40 years. He is the president and founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California. 

Dean Ornish and his colleagues at the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, and other leading academic institutions, have conducted a series of research studies showing that comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle can often reverse the progression of many of the most common and costly chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease. His Ornish Lifestyle Medicine is the only scientifically proven program to reverse heart disease without medication or surgery. His 9-week online program is reimbursed by Medicare, BlueShield of California, and Aetna

To prove this, I’m going to describe his most famous research: the lifestyle heart trial. Before I get into this, I’m going to describe what coronary heart disease is, and how people get it. Conorary Heart Disease is caused by plaque buildup in the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart, called coronary arteries, The plaque is made up of deposits of cholesterol and other substances in the artery. Eating a lot of meat raises cholesterol levels in the blood, because it’s saturated fat, and having high cholesterol raises your risk of coronary heart disease. 

In Dr. Dean Ornish’s Lifestyle Heart Trial, 28 heart disease patients were placed on an experimental treatment plan and 20 additional patients on the standard treatment plan consisting of animal proteins and dairy products, the basic omnivorous diet. Over the course of the trial, he tracked both groups and measured several health indicators such as artery blockages, cholesterol levels, and weight. For a minimum of one year, the experimental group of patients were placed on a diet that restricted their consumption of calories from fat to that of 10 percent or less. The group was allowed to consume as much food as they wanted, as long as it was on the acceptable food list, which consisted of fruits, vegetables, and grains; no meat. Dr. Ornish and his research team did not use any drugs, surgery, or technology to treat those patients. On average, their total cholesterol dropped severely. After one year, the frequency, duration, and severity of their chest pains plummeted. In addition, the blockages in their arteries diminished by over 4 percent. In contrast, the patients on the standard treatment plan experienced a 165 percent rise in the frequency of chest pain, and their cholesterol levels were significantly worse, as well as the blockage in their arteries. His study, in addition to the many others his foundation has conducted, has shown that in regards to the prevention, treatment, and reversal of chronic disease, a vegan whole-food and plant-based diet reigns superior to the standard American diet filled with animal proteins and highly saturated fats. I don’t know about you, but I would rather be one of the people in the experimental plan, who went vegan and saw significant health improvements that the normal medications and surgery couldn’t have fixed. So, if you are considering changing your diet, start making healthy decisions, plant-based decisions. For more, I’ve made a QR code for Dr. Dean Ornish’s website.