- These arteries are being injured.
Meal after meal of fried animal protein,
and cooked vegetable oils,
and high fructose corn syrup
and phosphoric acid in cola drinks.
This constant chemical assault--
(hopeful music)
I'm Dr. Michael Klaper.
I'm a classically trained Western physician
with postgraduate training
in internal medicine,
surgery,
anesthesiology,
and obstetrics.
And I've been in general practice
for the past 47 years.
Like most of my colleagues practicing medicine
in the West, when we open up the door
of our waiting room
we see a large group of people
with a fairly small group
of grim degenerative diseases.
Obesity is rampant
and along with that we see clogged arteries,
high blood pressure,
type 2 diabetes,
a host of inflammatory diseases
from inflamed colon
to inflamed joints,
skin diseases.
These are the classic diseases
in Western medicine seen today.
Obesity's become very common
because we are not only eating tremendous amounts
of calories way in excess
of what our bodies require,
but the particular combination
of sugars and fats eaten at the same time
evokes what's called oxidative priority.
We burn the sugars
and store the fats for later.
So, when you eat something
like ice cream,
it is fat and sugar.
We burn the sugar and store the fat.
When you eat a cheese burger,
you're gonna burn the sugar
and the white flour bun
and then the sugar in the ketchup
and store the fat in the meat
and the cheese.
So, we're eating that sugar fat combination
pretty much all day.
From the bacon and eggs and toast
in the morning,
to the burgers and fries at lunch
and to the fried chicken and the milkshake
in the evening.
Even the boiled salmon
eaten with the grilled potatoes
is that fat and sugar combination.
So, the vast amounts of fat and sugar
that we're eating on daily basis
is making us grossly obese.
And it's more than just a cosmetic issue
because fat accumulates especially
inside the abdomen.
Intra-abdominal fat puts out an array
of molecules that sets off inflammation.
They're called inflammatory cytokines
and they set off inflammatory conditions
all over the body.
So obesity, basically,
is a state of inflammation.
People can say, "Well, I'm obese but I'm still healthy."
No, if you're obese you're fighting inflammation
and that sets the stage for diseases
in many kinds of organs.
These are inflammatory lesions.
These arteries are being injured.
Meal after meal of fried animal protein,
and cooked vegetable oils,
and high fructose corn syrup
and phosphoric acid in cola drinks.
This constant chemical assault
in our artery walls
tears up the inner linings
and that sets the stage
for atherosclerotic plaque formation.
So, because it all starts with the food we eat,
when we're eating a plant-based diet
of whole-foods of rice and potatoes,
especially green and yellow vegetables.
These are filled with antioxidants
that quench free radicals
and quell inflammation.
We are herbivorous eating creatures
and that kind of diet really maintains us
in a less inflamed state.
And that's really where we want to go
with our food choices.
They are all eminently reversible diseases.
Every one of us physicians who practices
a lifestyle medicine and gets our patients
on whole-food plant-based diets,
we witness this remarkable transformation
within days of a whole-food plant-based diet.
That's a breakfast of oatmeal and fruit,
or just water till you get hungry.
And lunches and dinners of big salads,
and hearty vegetable soups,
and big plates of steamed veggies,
and vegetable curries, et cetera.
This kind of food stream flowing
through the body
meal after meal, week after week,
produces wonderful effects within days.
The obesity starts to melt away,
and the arteries open up,
and the high blood pressure comes down,
and the joints stop hurting,
and the asthmatic lungs stop wheezing so much,
and the migraine headaches get better,
and the psoriatic skin clears up,
the inflamed intestines settle down
and people turn into normal, healthy people
with normal heights and normal weights
and blood pressures.
They don't need a lot of pills
and potions and procedures.
If people eat these,
they can eat to their heart's content.
It doesn't matter if you have a third bowl
of vegetable soup.
It's all fiber and water.
And the transformation begins.
So, I meet these people where they are.
I don't judge them.
I don't wag any fingers.
I welcome them and can paint a very optimistic picture
of that, yes, within days to weeks, certainly,
they're going to notice some wonderful changes
in their body and enjoy some delicious food
along the way.
(hopeful music)