Rip Esselstyn TED talks on Plant-Strong & Healthy Living (Transcript)

Rip Esselstyn

In this TED talk, Rip Esselstyn, a former firefighter and author of The Engine 2 Diet, advocates a plant-strong diet to combat chronic diseases. Esselstyn inspired his fellow firefighting crew at the Austin Engine 2 station to follow a plant-based diet and dramatically heal their health. In 2012, Engine 2 and Whole Foods Market unveiled the Engine 2 food line.

Listen to the MP3 Audio here: Rip Esselstyn TED talks on Plant-Strong & Healthy Living

TRANSCRIPT:

So I’m wearing my shirt inside out and a lot of you have pointed that out to me. And I do this from time to time, and when somebody says it, I say: “I know… I’m wearing my shirt inside out. I’m doing it on purpose and I’m doing it to help people turn their health around.

And they say: “Well, how do you do that?”

And here is the story. So, I became a firefighter to help people, to save lives, and to slay dragons.

Now, obviously, we are not slaying real dragons, but that’s our term for slaying fires. And a fire is really a living, breathing entity, and it’s hell-bent on creating all the destruction and devastation that it can. And so, we as firefighters have to use all of our wit and we have to outwit, outsmart it and outlast it, and whether it’s an offensive fire or a defensive fire, there are certain tactics.