Learn how the simplest change to what’s on your fork can profoundly impact your mental health.

In 2012, Adam Sud’s life was completely out of control. He was seriously overweight and struggling with multiple addictions and mental health disorders, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases. His life nearly came to an end when he attempted suicide by drug overdose. He checked into rehab and with the help of his parents and a plant-based diet, he began a journey that led to a remarkable recovery. 

“The reason I found myself in that situation wasn’t because there was anything wrong with me,” Sud says. “It was because it was a very reasonable and predictable response to the way I was living my life. If I was willing to radically shift how I was living my life, I could actually take charge of my health. Essentially, if I’m the problem, I get to be the solution.”

Within one year, he had overcome his addictions, reversed all of his chronic diseases, gotten off all of his medications, and lost 180 pounds. While Adam’s story centers around recovering from addiction and disease, it’s also about stepping away from shame and into self-love. 

“I think back and realize that I was always viewing myself as an adversary to my body,” Sud says. “My whole life I’ve had weight problems; I’ve never been the fastest or the strongest, and I always believed that my body wasn’t good enough. I remember being in my sober living house talking to my house manager about the day I survived suicide, and I realized, What if that story I had in my head about my body has never been true? What if surviving suicide was the ultimate expression of my body never giving up on me? My body has been my ally my entire life, and I just forgot it because somebody or something got me to believe that I had to be something other than what I was in order to be acceptable, and I believed it. When I look at my body as my ally, every choice I make is an act of care-taking.” To hear Adam’s full presentation, watch the video above.

Adam is the founder of the Plant-Based for Positive Change, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the research on diet and mental health and addiction. In 2020 he ran the very first controlled research trial to investigate the effects of a plant-based diet intervention on early addiction recovery outcomes. 

In this webinar, Adam Sud discusses:

• How a plant-based diet helped him overcome addiction and depression.
• What is addiction really? What is the role of nutrition in the disease?
• Never-before-seen insights from his clinical research study on plant-based nutrition and addiction recovery outcomes, which will be published this summer.

WATCH THE REPLAY

Originally aired August 11, 2021

The post Webinar Replay: The Role of Nutrition in Mental Health and Addiction Recovery with Adam Sud appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

I checked into rehab in August of 2012, and while I was there I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Interestingly enough, the diagnosis affected me more than coming to terms with my drug addiction did. Luckily, I had attended one of Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2 Immersions a year or so prior to rehab, so I knew that I could reverse my diabetes with a plant-based diet. There and then, I made that my mission.

Once I left rehab, I moved into a sober-living home in Santa Monica, California. While there, I put myself on a strict plant-strong diet and never cheated. I also started going to the gym four times a week. Within the first two months I had lost almost 40 pounds, and my blood sugar level had dropped from 300 to 120. What this showed me was that I am the one who changes my life! If I accept responsibility for my situation and do the necessary work to change it, my life becomes better (even if it’s uncomfortable at first). Recognizing that, I applied the same method to my emotional recovery, which for me was the hardest part, and I saw the same results. Becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable is the essence of recovery, whether physical or emotional.

I reversed my type 2 diabetes within six months, and I lost over 100 pounds in a year. I have since become a holistic lifestyle coach, and I teach nutrition as a tool for recovery and relapse prevention to recovering addicts. I have had the honor of being a speaker at Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2 Immersion and have been a guest on the Rich Roll podcast.

Today I am three years sober, I weigh 170 pounds, and I am in the best shape of my life. Plant-based eating has not only saved my life, but it has allowed me to create an entirely new one. Everything has changed: the way I see the world, how I perceive people, and how they perceive me. It’s an incredible feeling. I can say for sure that the struggle is real, but the rewards are immense. I love my life, and I look forward to every new day!

Ready to get started? Check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path. To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer.

This article was originally published on Oct. 26, 2015, and has been updated.

The post Type 2 Diabetes, Addiction, Depression, 130 Pounds—Gone in Three Years on a Plant-Based Diet! appeared first on Forks Over Knives.