Are You Killing Yourself at the Dinner Table?

Modern America is plagued by preventable chronic diseases including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity. As a society, we have developed countless medications to battle these problems. However, despite these new drugs, thousands of people continue to die every year. According to the CDC, seven of the top ten causes of death in 2010 were chronic diseases. The research conducted during this project focused on finding an alternative method to treating these diseases beyond prescribing medications. A focus was placed on researching how a whole foods, plant based diet affected the outcomes of chronic disease patients. The website ForksOverKnives.com, which grew out of a documentary featuring prominent researchers in the field, defines a whole foods plant based diet as a diet based on fruits, vegetables, tubers, whole grains, and legumes; and it excludes or minimizes meat (including chicken and fish), dairy products, and eggs, as well as highly refined foods like bleached flour, refined sugar, and oil. The research of scientists such as Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn is included in this project. Both scientists have linked these diseases to the absence of a whole foods, plant based diet in America today. Research shows that proper nutrition may be a better first line treatment for disease such as hypertension, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Extensive literature review concluded that a whole foods diet consisting mostly of organic plants was the best choice for optimal health.