I recently decided to start a transition to a 100% plant-based diet. I’ve seen more than enough evidence in its favor. Below is an article with my reasoning. I initially wrote it for my blog but thought it might help a few of you here who were perhaps on the fence about this.

Natural vs. Pharmaceutical Healthcare
Dain Supero

There is no denying that, compared to many parts of the world, we are extremely fortunate to have the healthcare system that we do. From broken bones to car accidents to burn victims, our emergency response and urgent care are second to none. There is, however, one area of our healthcare system that I believe needs a checkup: disease management.

A Magic Pill for Everything

The problem begins with a false perception that runs to the deepest ends of our social fabric. We as a race, the human race, are quite convinced that there is or that we can invent a pill magic solution to every conceivable problem. The irony here is that we have literally conceived or created many of the health problems we are currently attempting to cure with existing healthcare practices.

To be fair, there are indeed many magic pills out there: from painkillers to antidepressants to stimulants. But let’s not forget the definition of magic, that it is simply the temporary redirection of attention to hide the underlying trick. The magic pill solution is no different. It is simply the temporary redirection of our attention (via symptom management) to hide the underlying cause or disease.

If you are okay with this sort of magic pill solution, then you are part of the reason why pharmaceutical healthcare is big business, far bigger than it needs to be. There has to come a point when the strategy changes from managing one more symptom to just uprooting the cause of the disease. But wait, that wouldn’t be good for business, would it?

The One and Only Solution

I won’t call it a magic pill, because this isn’t magic. It’s not make belief. This is real. Truth pill would be more accurate name. For anyone suffering from obesity, heart disease, cancer, or age-related disease, this should come as comforting news: there is a solution with a much higher (and permanent) success rate, and that solution is a plant-based diet. The evidence is overwhelmingly behind this.

My personal investigation and research over the past year and the work of internationally renowned doctors points to the same road with the same rules: no animal food products, plant sources only. I suppose I could quote and cite a bunch of scientific sounding evidence here, but you would all do yourselves more justice and have a better time if you simply watched a documentary called Forks Over Knives. You can hear it from the doctors themselves and hear some statistics that just might floor you.

Cancer, obesity, heart disease high blood pressure, horrific cholesterol, chronic fatigue, and depression are some of the conditions a plant-based diet can address, manage, and reverse. Yes, that last part applies to many types of cancer. Even if you suffer from none of these and are in good overall health, a plant-based diet provides numerous benefits such as increased energy, elevated mood, better focus, heightened mental clarity and drive to achieve.

I’m not saying that our healthcare system isn’t required. It is absolutely mandatory. But it isn’t required nearly as frequently and by as many people as it currently is. The existing, pharmaceutically driven healthcare system becomes a necessity only when natural, diet-based healthcare is ignored. Please read that sentence again, because that pretty much sums up the whole article.

Enter LPA

Ever been to a fitness or self-improvement website only to find conflicting articles and advice from day to day. As in one day they’re all for one system or praising fat-burners and the next day it’s a new system and no fat-burners? I decided on day one that we would not go down that road and publish articles simply for the sake of having something new and “trending” up here. We live and follow everything we have so far advised, from a functional take on fitness to a holistic and all-encompassing approach to self-improvement. This time it’s no different.

I believe that it is our duty to question existing norms and practices and be ready to change them when they do not hold up under the magnifying glass of objective investigation. Therefore, as soon as I’m done eating what’s in my fridge, I will be switching to a vegan, all plant-based diet.

I train multiple times a day and also participate in client sessions, and I currently intake 200-250g protein from animal sources, which means this will be quite difficult. But difficult is often a matter of perspective, and mine, like most of yours, is socially conditioned to believe that our existing diet is sound. This social conditioning is something must scrutinize, because this scrutiny on our parts is the first step toward a lasting solution.

The task ahead is monumental, to change the way half the world views food and diet. But it must be done, one person and one attempt at a time. Enter the Learn Plan Act (LPA) approach: break big task into much smaller sub-tasks, then learn about, plan for, and act on every sub-task. For my first sub-task, learning meant finding enough evidence from credible sources to convince me to attempt a plant-based diet. Planning meant weighing the situation, the associated challenges, and a time-frame to act. Acting meant telling myself to commit to the plan.

LPA, Second Loop

The logical next step would be a thorough look at my diet so that I can determine an initial point of focus and decide how to slowly phase out the animal food sources. My meal schedule consists of four large meals (700-1100 calories each for the numerically inclined), the first of which is already 100% plant-based. The remaining three are at least 55-60% or more plant-based. The sub-task here is to make just one more meal 100% plant-based.

Learning for this sub-task requires further research into vegan diets and also a look at new recipes to learn. Once I feel comfortable with my slightly expanded vegan knowledge-base, it will be time to hatch another plan. It’s hard to tell at this point, but that would probably mean deciding what meal I can most easily convert to all plants without overly upsetting the existing equilibrium. For psychological reasons, this would probably be the third meal since that would yield a plant, hybrid, plant, hybrid meal pattern.

Then it will be time to act on that plan and move on to converting the next meal. I would of course have to monitor myself quite carefully to ensure that the absence of animal protein isn’t taking a toll on exercise performance. I’m confident it won’t. If it does, then I suppose I will deal with it then. For now I am happy with and hopeful because of the first sub-step I have taken to making this drastic change in lifestyle and diet.

On an unrelated note, I think vegan restaurants that serve meat-like or animal-looking food should all be shut down. If you’re plant-based, be proud of it. Don’t try to look like the thing you’re telling people not to eat. Good day to you all.