Hi everyone thank you for joining us today for the webinar my name is Mary Galindo I am the registered dietician for Ornish lifestyle medicine and today we're going to be talking about creating a healthy lifestyle through nutrition if you have any questions please go on Twitter and you can use the hashtag UCLA MD chat or you can comment on Facebook so today I would like to talk about how Ornish lifestyle medicine has shown us how participants have become plant-based and been able to sustain it over a long period of time we'll talk about what the benefits are of going plant-based why it's important to include Whole Foods when you're going plant-based meeting protein needs and how to sustain this lifestyle over time so first Ornish lifestyle medicine is a program that aims to reverse heart disease through a plant-based Whole Foods diet along with other components like stress management love and support and exercise why I referred to our program is because our most of the participants who come into the program are not initially plant-based.
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So it's a very big transition for them most of them have come into the program having animal products as their main source of protein all their lives so through our program we've been able to see over 12 weeks adherence to the program but what's even more significant is after a year of doing the program the participants have been able to stay 87.9% adherent which includes the plant-based portion of the program now the benefits are that many of their labs have been able to improve so we see weight loss we see a decrease in total cholesterol specifically LDL cholesterol which is the kind that can cause plaque in your arteries a decrease in triglycerides blood pressure and if you have diabetes or prediabetes or have that in your family hemoglobin a1c which is a marker for blood sugar so this is really great news because if you like myself were were initially skeptical of going plant-based and trying to sustain it over time we're seeing that many people have been able to start this lifestyle and maintain it while reaping all the benefits so why plant-based before I dive into this I wanted to find what we mean by plant-based first so when we talk about a plant-based diet it's a diet that is mostly going to be based on fruits and vegetables whole grains nuts and seeds plant-based proteins as well and trying to decrease the amount of animal products that you're having or eliminate it altogether so a typical American diet is usually high in animal protein and with that comes some substances that can end up promoting heart disease for example saturated fat trans fat hydrogenated fat and cholesterol so this can promote heart disease and other chronic diseases and I just want to show you real quick in terms of heart disease we're taking a look at an artery here in our body and the arteries help your blood travel from your heart to your body and back so over here we have a very clear healthy artery but if you start to see an increase in your diet of some of these substances like saturated fat and hydrogenated fats and cholesterol eventually you can start to develop plaque in the artery which is what we're seeing this yellow part represent if you have too much of that eventually .
What can happen is that you can actually clog your arteries completely and that means that you're not going to get any blood flow or minimal blood flow to the heart and back to the body and that's where we see a heart attack now we used to think that it was only the fats that contributed to the plaque in the arteries but now we're finding that there is a substance called TMAO trimethylamine oxide that can also contribute so we find components in the actual animal protein so for example choline and egg yolks and carnitine in meats fish and poultry that get converted into TMAO and our body and when we have high levels of that it can actually contribute to some of this plaque formation in the arteries and also contribute to other chronic diseases so it's not just the amount of fat that's an animal proteins but it's also the actual animal protein itself so these substances like I said can lead to some inflammation endothelial dysfunction which just means that your artery the lining of your artery is not able to constrict or dilate properly insulin resistance and kidney stones and eventually will lead to some chronic preventable diseases so we have your heart disease type 2 diabetes renal disease cancer and some gastrointestinal disorders now what I want to mention now is it's one thing to talk about how to prevent diseases and get the proper lab values but it's another thing to know how it's going to affect you in your own life so one of the things that we've learned about the patients in our program who have already had a heart event maybe your heart attack or a stroke or have had surgery one of the things that they always talk about after having those events is quality of life so it's not just about preventing these diseases it's how am I going to be living with these diseases and how is it gonna affect me and my family I think it's important to think about that as a motivator for change because if it's just about labs and numbers you may not be as motivated to change but I'm hearing from the participant after they've had one of these events they want to be able to be around to play around with their grandkids or do things with their partner that they used to be able to do or go to their daughter's wedding and so this is very significant they came into our program and made these changes because they want to be able to get back to a good quality of living and so for those of us who have not experienced these chronic diseases or maybe might have a high risk for it it's important to think about these changes helping to not only increase our quality of living but also the longevity that we have and how we interact with people so why is it so important to be plant-based what is the benefit why are plant such a powerhouse so plants and plant-based and the plant-based diet is really important because plants contain fiber so fiber is such an important component and it has many different effects on the body so if we come back to our artery here fiber can actually help our body a specifically soluble fiber to maintain your cholesterol levels at a regular level but it can also decrease cholesterol levels if they're already high so through eating plant-based foods you can actually be at this point and start decreasing the amount of plaque in your arteries which is really great news because it'll help to decrease your risk of having a heart attack or stroke fiber also really helps to slow down the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream so if you're trying to watch your blood sugar levels it's really important to include foods that contain fiber.