Cardiologist urges physicians to promote plant-based diets: ‘We owe it to the profession, our patients and the planet’
![doctor fruits vegetables vegetarian diet. Embracing a plant-based diet can improve a person’s cardiovascular health, according to a new commentary published in the American Journal of Cardiology.[1] The article, titled “Are We What We Eat? The Moral Imperative of the Medical Profession to Promote Plant-Based Nutrition,” also highlights multiple reasons that choosing plant-based nutrition over animal-based food can be viewed as being better for society as a whole.](/sites/default/files/styles/top_stories/public/2022-12/microsoftteams-image_12.png.webp?itok=RWBskBIY)
Embracing a plant-based diet can improve a person’s cardiovascular health, according to a new commentary published in the American Journal of Cardiology.[1] The article, titled “Are We What We Eat? The Moral Imperative of the Medical Profession to Promote Plant-Based Nutrition,” also highlights multiple reasons that choosing plant-based nutrition over animal-based food can be viewed as being better for society as a whole.
“Animal-based foods promote the mechanisms that underlie chronic cardiometabolic disease, whereas whole-food plant-based nutrition can reverse them,” wrote lead author Sarah C. Hull, MD, MBE, a cardiologist and echocardiographer with Yale School of Medicine, and colleagues. “Factory farming of animals also contributes to climate change, antibiotic resistance, and the spread of infectious diseases. Finally, the current allocation of nutritional resources in the United States is unjust.”
Hull et al. wrote that cardiologists and other healthcare providers can help push for a “societal shift toward more whole-food, plant-based patterns of eating.” They also explored some of the most common arguments people make against plant-based diets—taking the time to deconstruct each one.
For example, one common argument in favor of eating meat is that man evolved to eat animal-based foods and has always eaten animal-based foods—that it is “only natural.” The popular Paleolithic diet—often referred to as the Paleo diet or caveman diet for short—is built around this very principle. The authors pointed to multiple issues they see with this line of thinking, noting that early humans actually predominantly ate plant-based diets.
“Furthermore, whereas the strict evolutionary imperative is simply to live long enough to allow one's offspring to survive, modern life goals typically entail living well past one's reproductive years while maintaining a robust functional status,” the authors wrote.
Another common argument in favor of eating meat is that people need nutrients found in meat to be healthy. Again, Hull and colleagues explained why they disagree with this perspective, noting that the recommended amount of protein a person needs can “be easily obtained through eating a variety of protein-rich plant-based foods including soy, legumes, nuts and seeds.”
Vitamin B12 is the one nutrient that is not included in a well-balanced plant-based diet. While this is an issue, the group noted, “vitamin B12 supplementation is safe, inexpensive and readily available.”
The authors also detailed some of the health issues that have been linked to animal-based diets over the years.
“Animal-based foods tend to promote the inflammation, oxidative stress, gut dysbiosis, and endothelial injury that underlie chronic cardiometabolic diseases such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, obesity, and coronary artery disease,” they wrote. “Aside from saturated fat and cholesterol, which have strong and well-documented links to cardiovascular disease, animal products contain numerous other harmful compounds that are linked to chronic diseases, such as the sialic acid N-glycolylneuraminic acid, trimethylamine N-oxide, heme iron, and advanced glycation end products.”
A well-balanced plant-based diet, the team added, “has the potential to prevent, treat and reverse a host of cardiometabolic chronic diseases.”
What physicians, and health systems, can do to promote plant-based diets to patients
The authors looked at the role physicians can play in promoting plant-based diets. Fewer and fewer physicians smoke, they wrote, but red meat is still regularly served at medical meetings throughout the United States and elsewhere.
“Physicians should hold themselves to a higher standard of commitment to heart-healthy lifestyle behaviors, as role modeling sets a powerful example in patient care,” the group wrote, adding that health systems can also make an impact by working to see that healthier, plant-based options are served to hospitalized patients.
The group also looked at how policymakers can make an impact by taking steps to make healthier foods more readily available and even pricing animal-based foods higher.
“The medical profession can help to move the needle by embracing radical change when possible—especially within our own ranks—and incremental change when necessary to promote harm reduction,” Hull and colleagues concluded. “We owe it to the profession, to our patients, and to the planet we share.”
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.