Intro & Purpose

I was five years old when I started telling my relatives that I wanted to become a doctor. My father had just passed away from a heart attack at the age of 38 and I believed that I could prevent this tragedy from happening to other families as a physician. While in medical school, I considered specializing in cardiology. However, I later realized that it would be more impactful to intervene before a person develops heart problems, long before they need to see a cardiologist. As a result, I completed an internal medicine residency and became a primary care physician. After ten years of practice, it became apparent that simply optimizing a person’s blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels with medications was not enough to prevent early deaths from the various diseases that have become common in recent decades. I’m now in my 40’s and I am witnessing these tragedies happening to friends and relatives in my own generation despite their receiving top notch healthcare.

In 2012, I watched the documentary “Forks Over Knives,” which introduced me to the China Study. After reading the book, I realized that modern medicine often puts a Band-Aid on chronic illnesses without addressing the underlying cause: poor nutrition. I was astonished to learn something that I hadn’t been taught in medical school – the Standard American Diet (SAD) is killing us. By eating more plants, less highly processed foods, and fewer animal products, we can reduce our risk of not only cardiovascular disease but also many types of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and various autoimmune disorders. It was difficult to believe at first, so I decided to educate myself further and apply my medical knowledge to the scientific evidence so I could determine which claims to believe and share with my patients, friends, and family.

There’s a lot of noise on social media, misleading news headlines, confusing science, and passionate individuals advocating for all sorts of diets. Making sense of the science and understanding which claims are supported by scientific evidence can be a daunting task. That’s why I decided to organize what I have learned on this website. I hope that it allows people to digest the information at their own pace when they are ready.

The purpose of this website is to empower you to learn about healthy nutrition by directing you to reliable resources and providing plenty of options. That way, you can “choose your own adventure” based on your preferred learning style. If you enjoy listening to podcasts, I recommend listening to the ones I’ve suggested, particularly the episodes featuring interviews with physician experts. My hope is that this website motivates you to gradually shift your diet towards consuming more plant-based foods, reducing your intake of highly processed foods, and consuming fewer animal products.

Udai Jayakumar MD, MBA