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Issue 9 — Oct. 16, 2015

 

PLANTPURE NATION UPDATE

I am in Florida today, getting ready to board a plane for home. Over the last two days, I met with a group of people from a prestigious health care organization, Lee Memorial Health System. This company includes four acute-care hospitals, the soon-to-be-completed Golisano Children’s Hospital, and a large outpatient network. The system generates about $1.5 billion in revenue. I met physicians, executives, board members, and community leaders. Included in this group was the person who manages one of their hospitals and, as such, reports directly to the chief operating officer of the entire system. 

As we all know, our approach to health care in America is focused on disease management, and as our population ages, we are finding that this approach is unsustainable. The people I met understand that, by necessity, change is coming, and they see how plant-based nutrition will drive this change. So they are thinking proactively about how their system can benefit from this change.

At the conclusion of our meetings, we agreed we would collaborate on a long-term basis to develop and validate models that enable their organization to earn self-sustaining income as they promote the message of plant-based nutrition in surrounding communities.

When I started out making PlantPure Nation, I said over and over that I did not want to make a film in the style of a Michael Moore documentary. I did not want to simply rail against “the system,” demonizing institutions and people along the way and offering no solutions. Instead, I wanted to make a film to explain the problem honestly, and then through an inspirational story create a platform upon which we could offer a solution founded on inclusion and love.

You see, there are many honorable people who work in agribusiness, in the pharmaceutical industry, and in our health care system. All those companies that are part of the status quo employ good people who have families and communities they help to support. As I say over and over in interviews, we need to tell the story of plant-based nutrition to help individuals gain their health, but also to help those organizations that are involved in our existing system of food production and health care. We need to help their leaders see the change coming, and work with them to develop creative strategies that enable them to benefit from this change.

I met some amazing people this week. As I sit here in the airport typing this letter, I have chills. These are people who are taking risks to do the right thing, who want nothing more than to help heal people. I already feel great affection for them and their mission, and we will do whatever we can to serve them as they work to find ways that their organization can benefit from the transition to a plant-based world. We have lots of ideas, many of which I shared with them. Importantly, as we develop and validate ideas that work, we will communicate these ideas to other health care systems across the country, and even around the world.

Our country is losing its democratic spirit as we descend deeper into an autocratic system dominated by rich and powerful interests who pull the levers of government to shield themselves from change. I see this opportunity with our new friends in Florida as an opportunity to demonstrate how an industry can embrace change and benefit from it. I appreciate change because it makes the world interesting, and as many innovators understand, change is the origin of new opportunity. 

So stay tuned; we will have more to share on this later. And if you haven’t seen it already, check out the video on our Facebook page summarizing our recent trip to the University of Cincinnati Medical School. We have had over 30,000 views in the 24 hours after releasing this video on several sites. 

We also will do some wonderful things with the University of Cincinnati, beginning with a couple of research projects we have discussed. And I anticipate as well connecting this medical school with the folks I just met with in Florida.

This is how real change happens. Antagonizing, demonizing, dividing—this doesn’t work. Love, inclusion, connection—this is the approach we must take if we want to transform the world.

— Nelson Campbell


FROM OUR PLANTPURE POD DIRECTOR

As fall approaches, we are quickly coming to the end of the PlantPure Nation screenings. It has been a whirlwind tour, and we really appreciate all of the support we have received from our awesome City Rollout Team volunteers! They are the unsung heroes who have made the movie premieres such a success.

Here is a list of screenings through October:

Savannah, GA — 10/19 The Charles H. Morris Center
Alpharetta, GA — 10/22 Studio Movie Grill Holcomb Bridge
Buford, GA — 10/22 Regal Mall of Georgia
Columbia, SC — 10/22 Regal Cinemas Columbia Cinema
Meridian, ID — 10/22 Village Cinemas
Louisville, KY — 10/22 Baxter Theater
Hilton Head Island, SC — 10/27 Park Plaza Cinema
Pompano Beach, FL — 10/29 Carmike Broward 18
Gainesville, FL — 10/29 Regal Royal Park Stadium
Dallas TX — 10/29 Angelika Dallas
Fairfax, VA — 10/29 Angelika Mosaic

For more theater information and ticket links, visit plantpurenation.com.

 

PlantPure Pods

The PlantPure Pod program is really starting to blossom (no pun intended!). We now have over 150 Pods and groups started around the world. Additionally, over 100 people have stepped up and volunteered to be group leaders. They are starting to hold their first group meetings over the next several weeks, which is very exciting. PlantPure Nation has also added three regional managers to help the groups get started and to answer questions along the way. If you are already part of a Pod or group, you will probably get the chance to chat with one of them (Katya Trent, Alex Brown and Kirsten MacKay) over the next several weeks. All three of these folks bring a lot of enthusiasm and experience to the Pod Team.

We are looking forward to creating a global PlantPure Nation with you!

— Laura Dietrich


FROM THE EDITOR

The film PlantPure Nation has been seen in over 100 cities across North America, often in sold-out theaters. A high point of this journey was at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, the first such screening at a medical school. The response suggests that many medical practitioners will open up to the idea of plant-based nutrition if shown evidence of its healing power. A new video produced and directed by John Corry captures a special announcement from the school and the experience of Dr. T. Colin Campbell and his son Nelson, who were in attendance. As Nelson recounts, his father was maligned for decades by many of his colleagues in academia. This special journey to Cincinnati gives us a glimpse into a different future. 

The video is available on YouTube, and it's also been uploaded to our Facebook page.

Please take a few brief minutes to watch this new video. You’ll be glad you did!

— Lee Fulkerson


FEATURED PLANTPURE RECIPE

From Kim Campbell

 

Carrot Hummus

This is a bright, savory hummus that is perfect for a dip or sandwich filler.

carrothummus

 

Ingredients

4 carrots, sliced and boiled

15-ounce can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

2 garlic cloves

4 tablespoons water

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons tahini

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

 

Directions

Cut the carrots into bite-sized pieces and place them in a pot of water just covering the carrots. Cook over high heat until boiling. Turn the heat to low and cook until tender. Rinse and cool. 

Place all of the ingredients, including the cooled carrots, into a food processor and process until smooth and creamy.


FROM FRIENDS OF THE NATION

Contributed Article

By John McDougall, M.D.

A physician and nutrition expert who teaches better health through plant-based nutrition, John A. McDougall, M.D., has been studying, writing, and speaking out about the effects of nutrition on disease for over 30 years. A graduate of Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, Dr. McDougall performed his internship at Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and his medical residency at the University of Hawaii. He is certified as an internist by the Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners.

*The event that motivated Dr. McDougall’s article (Angelina Jolie’s preventative double mastectomy) happened in 2013, but since women are still making this radical choice, I believe the subject remains timely. —Ed.

 

Angelina Jolie’s Double Mastectomy—People Are Desperate for Change

I have no intention of criticizing the famous actress Angelina Jolie for her decision to have both breasts removed in an effort to improve her chances for a longer life. (National headlines on May 15, 2013.) I have treated nearly a thousand people with breast cancer over my 45-year career in medicine. From my experience, I can safely say that she has agonized over this decision. Her radical treatment may have helped her; time will possibly tell.* All we know for sure is that Jolie has made a great sacrifice today for a theoretical benefit in the very distant future—say one to five decades henceforth.

*If she develops breast cancer then we can assume this prophylactic treatment failed. If the cancer never appears, there are two possibilities: One, she may never have been destined to grow, or die of, breast cancer—in this case, a double mastectomy would not have been necessary. The other possibility is that the treatment saved her life. Neither disease-free outcome can be proven for her as an individual.

Some important lessons can be learned from her story:

1) Women (and men) are willing to make almost any sacrifice to avoid premature death and suffering. This tells me that the effort required to eat a better diet is no real obstacle. Switching from braised beefsteak to Mary’s Tunisian Stew (found in The Starch Solution) is no sacrifice at all—especially when compared to a double mastectomy. Breast, prostate, and colon cancer are due to an unhealthy diet—and so are type 2 diabetes, obesity, and coronary heart disease. Unfortunately, few people are given the information needed to take advantage of a simple, cost-free, dietary solution.

2) Profit drives health messages. One woman’s double mastectomy generates more than $50,000 in medical business. Dietary change cuts the food bill in half. People do not save themselves with a healthy diet because no doctors are prescribing it, no hospitals are serving it, and no Fortune 500 companies are selling it.

3) Left unchecked by a few honest doctors, scientists, and politicians, profiteering would lead to medical recommendations to cut a smoker’s risk of lung cancer in half by having one lung prophylactically removed (rather than cost-free smoking cessation). Prostate cancer occurs in nearly 100 percent of men by age 80. So why not recommend total prostate removal on every man’s 30th birthday?

4) Sexism is rampant in medical businesses. Conservative treatment (including a “doing nothing” approach, called “watchful waiting”) has been a standard recommendation for men with prostate cancer for more than 20 years. Mutilation has been, and still is, universally recommended for women, even with the slightest hint of pre-cancer of the breast (DCIS). Even those women fortunate enough to avoid breast amputation (a mastectomy) are universally harmed. They are all persuaded into receiving breast-, lung-, and heart-damaging radiation, when a simple (and in most cases non-deforming) lumpectomy alone would suffice (even for women with invasive breast cancer).

5) Celebrities have great influence. Jolie’s experience may cause many women to choose radical surgical treatments, but former President Bill Clinton’s experience with reversing his poor health (and heart disease) by changing his diet sent millions more people toward a very conservative course. We need more positive examples.

6) Shining light on a subject will reveal the truth. With mastectomy back in the headlines, stories should again be told about how more than 60 years of medical research has unarguably shown no survival benefits of mastectomy or lumpectomy with radiation over a simple removal of the lump. As a result of this science, more than 18 states in the U.S. have “informed consent laws” that force physicians to tell women facing breast cancer tests and treatments the facts about the failure (and benefits) of breast cancer treatments. In the state of Hawaii, where I helped get the third informed consent law passed in the U.S., women have also been told by state law since 1982 that they need to change their diets.

I applaud Jolie for making her story public. I do hope her life has been prolonged by this radical surgery. I would, however, discourage this approach for my patients, because I believe the harms far outweigh the benefits. 


START COOKING WHOLE-FOOD, PLANT-BASED RECIPES!

As the film’s official companion book, The PlantPure Nation Cookbook brings this powerful, science-based approach to nutrition from the big screen to your kitchen with some of the same mouthwatering recipes that kick-started the film, promoting the health benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet.

ThePlantPureNationCookbook_WEB

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