Who’d have thought Bill Clinton would become a vegan role model?

Yes you read that right, Bill Clinton is now vegan.   Junk food loving Bill has replaced the McDonalds with beans, veggies, fruits and grains…and he’s loving it!

In an interview with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta Bill says he’s healthier than ever and has more energy on a whole foods plant-based diet.  He adopted this way of eating after serious heart disease required him to have a quadruple by-pass and later, stents.  His doctor, Dean Ornish, said eating foods in moderation wasn’t going to work and recommended he cut out all animal products.

Dean Ornish isn’t the only doctor who recommends this diet for patients.  Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease found in his patients that a whole foods plant-based diet with no extracted oils (not even olive oil) could actually reverse the build up of plaque in the arteries.  Patients who were given a very poor prognosis by their cardiac surgeon have gone on to live many more healthy years after adopting a plant-based diet.

The movie Forks Over Knives details the research of Dr. Esselstyn, as well as fellow plant-based diet advocate, Dr. T. Colin Campbell.  In his book The China Study, Dr. Campbell shares the results of decades of research covering both animal and epidemiological studies.  His research is the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever undertaken and the findings were clear – the diseases of affluence (including heart disease, cancer and diabetes) found in most Western countries today can be prevented with a whole foods plant-based diet.

So it seems Bill Clinton is definitely on the right track.  He’s back to his ideal weight, he feels awesome and the cherry on the plant-based, oil-free cake is that he is also enjoying his new diet!

CNN’s Dr Sanjay Gupta has been passionately promoting the plant-based diet in recent weeks, after a year of research into heart disease.  CNN aired a one hour special featuring Bill Clinton, Dean Ornish and Dr Esselstynn and posted several articles and blogs on the subject.  You can watch the one hour special, “The Last Heart Attack” online here.

To learn more about plant-based diets and health, and hear more from Dr Esselstyn and Dr Campbell watch this year’s must-see movie Forks Over Knives, which is now available from their website, Amazon, iTunes and Netflix.

~Hayley Ingman, 09/25/11