Here is the full transcript of lifestyle medicine physician Yami Cazorla Lancaster’s talk titled “Chicken to Chickpeas: A 30-Day Experiment Changed My Life” at TEDxYakimaSalon 2019 conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Introduction to a Plant-Based Lifestyle
I am not what you would call an animal lover. I don’t like dog hair or cat hair on my clothes. I’m embarrassed to say I have never rescued a lost or wounded animal. On my car you won’t find a bumper sticker that says “save endangered animals” and I have a secret phobia of whales.
So you may find it strange that I consider myself a vegan and eat a plant-based diet. Six years ago I embarked on the 30-day health experiment sparked by curiosity. I decided to try out a plant-based diet after reading a book called “Born to Run.” This book is about a native tribe in the Mexican desert known as the Tarahumara or the running people.
They eat a predominantly plant-based diet. They are adept at running long distances and apparently they are super laid-back. Sign me up. The experiment was a success.
Personal Experience with Plant-Based Diet
After only a few days my lifelong supposedly genetic chronic constipation was cured and I effortlessly lost 12 pounds in four weeks. And as cliche as it sounds I felt amazing and full of energy. During that time I watched documentaries like “Forks Over Knives” and “Earthlings.” I read books like “Diet for a New America” and I studied the scientific literature.
But little did I know that after those 30 days my eyes and my heart would open up in ways that I will never forget. When I was younger I used to say I don’t care that much about animals.
Every week my grandmother would take a chicken by its neck and wring it. Then she would hang it upside down. I watched as the chicken flapped its wings vigorously and then it would slow down. Its eyes would roll back in its head and finally it would be still.
Childhood Experiences with Animals
I’ve also seen a pig slaughtered and believe me I’ll never forget that. My uncle was the president of a cow slaughterhouse for many years. You might say that killing and eating animals was ingrained into my family and my culture. But I also remember tender moments.
I remember that after I would help catch the chicken that we were going to eat I would sit at the back of the truck with its warm body on top of my feet. I could feel its heartbeat and its respirations and I imagined that somehow it knew its fate. That it would be part of my Panamanian chicken stew in a few hours. I also remember walking along the dairy farm and gazing into the gentle brown eyes of the dairy cows as they chewed on grass.
As I stared into those big brown eyes I wondered, did she know that the sole purpose of her life was to feed us? But as soon as I would start to feel uncomfortable I would shake it off. After all, I need to eat meat, right? Where else will I get my protein?
Challenging Preconceptions
And if I don’t drink milk my bones will disintegrate. It’s a necessary harm. After those 30 days I discovered something that I had not known in 32 years of life. 23 years of formal education, a medical degree, public health school, and a Master of Science.
And I admit it was a bit unsettling. When one encounters information that challenges their worldview it is natural to experience something called cognitive dissonance. This psychological stress is caused when one is confronted with information that contradicts the values, ideas, and beliefs that they currently hold. It was at this crossroads that I had the opportunity to grow and learn more, but only if I was open-minded and willing to change my perspective.
I discovered that not only is it not necessary to eat animals, but that we as humans can actually thrive. We thrive eating only plants. At that moment I felt like the earth shifted below my feet and I felt the burden of the enormity of the pain and suffering of billions of animals. In this country we kill 9 billion animals every year according to the Humane Society of the United States.
The Impact of Food Choices
That’s a big burden. But maybe you don’t connect much with animals and that’s okay. We all have different personalities. Let’s take it a step closer to home.
Are our food choices harming us? According to the USDA the average American derives 94% of their calories from processed foods and animal products. This standard American diet is deficient in fiber and antioxidants and high in salt, sugar, and fat. At the same time we are seeing a rise in the prevalence of chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia.
This is causing us increased suffering, increased years of debility, and shortened lifespans. Prominent research organizations like the CDC and the Harvard School of Public Health have estimated that at least 80% of chronic conditions can be prevented through diet and lifestyle choices with the single greatest contributor to premature death being our diets.
But what about our littlest citizens? As a pediatrician and a mother I care deeply about providing children the opportunity to grow up healthy and happy by preventing chronic disease.
Children’s Health and Nutrition
It’s my passion. It’s typical for us to feed kids friendly food like chicken nuggets, pizza, and hot dogs. Their meals are often laden with processed meats, cheese, and additives. We have known for quite some time that processed meats have the potential to cause harm.
In fact, the World Health Organization has classified processed meats as a group one carcinogen known to increase our risk of colorectal cancer. But maybe kids are different. Maybe they really do need meat and dairy to grow up properly. As a well-trained pediatrician, I spent years counseling my patients to consume two to three servings of dairy every day.
And this was despite seeing adverse effects of dairy in my practice daily such as cow’s milk protein sensitivity, lactose intolerance, chronic constipation, and chronic abdominal pain. After my 30 days of exploration, I started investigating whether it was safe for my own two sons to eat a plant-based diet. What I found surprised me. Again, not only is this way safe, but it provides benefits for little growing and developing bodies and brains.
Plant-Based Diets for All Life Stages
The American Dietetic Association has written a policy statement stating that “appropriately planned vegetarian diets including total vegetarian or vegan diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide benefits in the treatment and prevention of certain diseases.” They go on to say that “well planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals in all stages of the life cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and for athletes.”
We now have significant scientific evidence that eating a plant-based diet will decrease our risk of certain chronic diseases and may even reverse some diseases. According to several large Adventist population studies, we know that people who eat a plant-based diet tend to weigh less, have less years of debility, and as an added bonus you could add eight to ten good years to your lifespan because it’s not just about quantity but quality.
Environmental Impact of Food Choices
But maybe you’re not too concerned about your own health and maybe you don’t have children. Are our food choices harming the planet? Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, and habitat destruction. And according to the USDA, every minute in our country animals that are used for food produce 7 million pounds of excrement.
If you’re concerned about climate change, it’s important to know that according to the World Watch Institute, 51% of global greenhouse emissions are due to livestock and their byproducts. Physicians often quote the Hippocratic maxim, “first do no harm.” Well it’s a bit more complicated than that. Sometimes you have to cause harm for the greater good of a patient.
Weighing the Risks and Benefits
In medicine we often think of it in terms of risk and benefit. Whenever you elect to have a treatment or procedure, ideally the benefits should outweigh the risks or the harm. A good example of this would be a cesarean section. When we perform a C-section on a woman, we have to cut through several layers of her flesh.
It increases her risk of hemorrhage, damage to surrounding organs, pain, and scarring for life. However, we feel that the benefit of saving a baby and the mother outweighs the harm that it causes to that woman. It is in this same light that I now view my own food choices. If there is no necessary reason for me to eat animal products, then is the harm that it causes to animals, humans, and the planet worth it?
Is it worth the suffering, increased debility, and shortened life cycles that it creates? And then I ask myself, what are the benefits really? Temporary pleasure? Convenience?
Making Informed Choices
Being alive incurs risk. And we all, as far as I know, have a 100% chance of death at some point. But the great news is that we can make choices today that both reduce the burden of harm and increase the chances of health, joy, and longevity. And the answer is simple. A whole foods, plant-based diet.
And the best part is it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I’m going to pause here for a collective sigh of relief. Phew!
Okay, so where do you start? The key is simplicity. You don’t have to make it complicated. First of all, what is a whole food?
Understanding Whole Foods
A whole food is found in its most whole form, like that which is found in nature. The opposite would be a processed food, which is altered physically or chemically by grinding it down or adding ingredients, such as salt, sugar, and artificial colors. Some examples would be an apple versus apple juice, whole wheat berries versus white bread, or a potato versus fried potato chips.
And what are the plants that we as humans can enjoy? Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts and seeds. Whole plant foods are beneficial because they provide us with fiber, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that bathe all our cells and benefit our entire body. They also provide us with water, give us hydration, and that water combined with fiber leads to satiety for healthy weight management and great pooping. After 32 years of constipation, I am now proud to call myself a super pooper.
Starting Your Plant-Based Journey
So there are some of you out there that may want to jump in and go 100% plant-based, and to you I say go for it. If you need a recommendation for a resource, there are cards on the way out. I recommend the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart online, and it’s free. For the rest of you, the great majority, I invite you to start where you feel comfortable and work up to at least 75% plant-based.
If you just want to dip a toe in, start with Meatless Monday. What would this look like on your plate? How about for breakfast, oatmeal with fruit and walnuts, a veggie and bean burrito for lunch, and for dinner, a whole grain pizza crust loaded with veggies, hold the cheese. Once you start to get comfortable with one day a week, you can slowly continue to incorporate more whole plant foods into your diet.
Embracing Plant-Based Abundance
Focus on what you want to add more of. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts and seeds, instead of stressing about the rest. It’s not about deprivation, it’s about abundance.
Now to get to the 75% goal, I recommend two simple approaches. The first is the Weekday Vegan, where all of your meals, Monday through Friday, are plant-based, so you can be a little more relaxed on the weekends. Or perhaps the Vegan Before Six Method, where all of your breakfasts and lunches are plant-based, so that you can be more flexible for dinner. Either way, you will be significantly reducing the burden of harm, and I know you can do this. I see your faces, and there is a question that you are undoubtedly asking.
Addressing Protein Concerns
So let me just address the elephant in the room. By the way, did you know that elephants are the largest land mammal on earth, and they eat only plants? Where will I get my protein? I have one word for you.
Plants! Apples? Yep. Brown rice? Absolutely. Beans? Of course. Broccoli? Did you know that calorie for calorie, broccoli has the same amount of protein as steak? You will get sufficient protein from eating adequate calories from whole plant foods, because all whole plant foods contain protein. There is no special combining or counting necessary. And remember, along with protein, all whole plant foods also contain fiber and antioxidants.
Conclusion: Choosing a Plant-Based Lifestyle
So it’s a win-win-win. If not for the animals, then perhaps for your own health and well-being. If not for yourself, then for your children. If you don’t have children, then for the planet. It doesn’t matter which reason you choose. What matters is that it be meaningful to you.
Six years ago, I opted to continue to eat a plant-based diet with eyes wide open, and I have never looked back. So no, I do not identify as an animal lover, but I do choose to eat a plant-based diet and live a vegan lifestyle, because I wholeheartedly desire to reduce unnecessary harm to my body, our beautiful planet, and to other sentient creatures.
Today, I choose chickpeas instead of chicken, and maybe you can too. Thank you.
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