Stuff Vegans Ask Me

One day last week, I had three plant-based vegan patients on my schedule.  As a managed-care employed cardiologist, that's a lot!!

And, my vegan patients tend to have very interesting questions.  So in my next few posts, I'm going to address a few of them.

First question:  "Caldwell Esselstyn doesn't permit nuts in his diet.  Do you eat nuts?"

source: nutstop.com

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer:  Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, in his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, put his patients on plant-based diets with no oil and no nuts.  Through that diet, he demonstrated reversal of coronary disease and a lack of cardiovascular events over the course of five years.

I tell my patients, "I don't tell you to do anything I don't do.  When I tell you to exercise, I am exercising almost every day.  And a plant-based diet, I follow that."  But, I do eat nuts, in moderation.  As a young woman who exercises 10-15 hours per week, and does not have coronary artery disease, I don't need to restrict my consumption of nuts, other than to make sure that I don't consume too many calories.  Nuts are an excellent source of protein, fiber, and many different vitamins and minerals.  But they also have a lot of calories and fat, so in any diet, they should not be consumed in large quantities.