On my 80th birthday, I was dealing with a host of medical problems. I had been a Type 2 diabetic for over 20 years, and I’d had high blood pressure since I was 35. One doctor called it “resistant” high blood pressure, because the standard medicines failed to bring it down. It took five medications at full doses to keep my blood pressure under control. I think it’s hereditary; my father died at 31 from repeated small strokes because they couldn’t control his blood pressure, and both his sisters were diagnosed with high blood pressure, one of them when she was in her teens. I counted myself lucky that there were medications to help me avoid suffering my father’s fate.

On top of high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, I had high triglycerides and high cholesterol. And now, on my 80th, I was dealing with the latest bad news from my doctor: I had chronic kidney disease, stage 3C.

Surprising Improvements

Much to my surprise, after only a couple of months of eating WFPB dinners—only dinners!—my A1C improved enough that my doctor started stepping down my diabetes medication, and before long, without fanfare, I was off of all of it.

I watched the Forks Over Knives documentary and felt my objections to eating vegetables weakening. Then, while browsing my health care provider’s website to see what it had to say about my latest diagnosis, chronic kidney disease, I saw that the advice for CKD patients was to avoid animal protein. Here was my medical team saying pretty much exactly what the documentary said. That was it. I was on board. I said goodbye to my beloved bacon-and-egg breakfasts. My daughter happily started making us both steel-cut oats every morning.

My health improvements accelerated. My cholesterol dropped enough that my doctor was able to take me off statins. My limp, thinning hair plumped up, and one day, while going through the motions of putting on makeup, I realized I had eyelashes again; the mascara was actually coating something. My splitting fingernails toughened up. My age spots lightened. My BMI had been in the “obese” range for decades, and I began to lose weight, with ease, at a healthy rate. My kidney numbers turned around. I began to look forward to going to the doctor, knowing my weight would be lower and my blood work would be better, not worse.

Undoing a Family History of Disease

It’s been five years since I made the switch. My A1C has been lower than my daughter’s for years now (and she’s never been diabetic). My total cholesterol is consistently 170 or lower. My kidney numbers continue to look better at each checkup.

Most amazing of all is the improvement in my blood pressure. I didn’t think anything could affect my blood pressure this much! Even my skeptical doctor commented, “Your plant-based diet is doing well for your blood pressure.” One by one, she has cautiously taken me off medications. I’m down to two, from the five I’d been taking for decades, and my blood pressure is so good that I wouldn’t be surprised if she takes me off the final two. It’s almost incredible. If only my father had known.

My lunch is often homemade soy yogurt, dressed up with raisins and orange slices. Our favorite dinners are bulgur-wheat pilaf; orange tofu; black bean tacos; bean chili; and a lot of variations on brown rice and beans. We also like to do potato bars, where we make baked potatoes and set out different toppings. For holidays, one favorite is a lentil shepherd’s pie. We use Forks Meal Planner and cookbooks by plant-based doctors.

My friends are interested in my successes, and at least two of them have started their own plant-based journeys. Now I’m 85 and in better health than I was at 45. I know I’m not immortal; something is going to take me out eventually. But eating a WFPB diet has given me the chance to enjoy good health until then. I’m so grateful.

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.

The post It’s Never Too Late: How I Improved My Health at Age 80 with a WFPB Diet appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

The pain of losing so many family members took its toll. I became bogged down in grief. At the same time, I was going a mile a minute in my professional life, attending the Culinary Institute of America and becoming a chef. Between the grief and stress, I stopped taking care of myself. My health began to deteriorate until one day I woke up and weighed 679 pounds. I remember looking in the mirror and thinking, “Who is this person?” At just 34 years old, I had Type 2 diabetes, liver disease, and kidney disease so severe that my kidneys had shrunk down to the size of walnuts. My blood pressure was so high that anytime I went to the doctor, they sent me to the emergency room after seeing my blood pressure.

The Spinal Injury

One day in 2016, I was out walking my little dog. He was playing and getting into something he shouldn’t have been, so I bent over to grab him. When I did, I felt and heard a pop. I sat down on the curb and thought, “Something is wrong.” The left side of my body started to quickly go numb. Luckily, I live across the street from a city hospital, so I staggered my way over there. By the time I got seen by the desk nurse, I’d lost almost all feeling from the neck down. I weighed almost 700 pounds and couldn’t lift myself, couldn’t help the hospital staff help me. It was an awful feeling.

Once they had me stabilized, I learned that a disc had slipped so violently out of the side of my spine that it pulled my spinal cord out of place. The doctors told me that I most likely would never be able to walk again, and that I’d need to prepare to live in a wheelchair and need 24-hour care.

Life-Changing Reading

I spent many months in the hospital, working with occupational therapists and eventually getting some feeling back in my hands. After about five months, I was able to go to the hospital library in a wheelchair to look through books. That’s when I came across The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn, which outlined a plan for transforming your health, starting with a 28-day diet focused on unprocessed plant-based foods. I’d heard about plant-based diets before, back when my mom was going through cancer treatment and I was looking for things that might help her. At the time, I was reluctant to really consider overhauling the way I thought about food. But now, in the hospital and desperate to regain more function and mobility, I knew that I had to give it a try.

The hospital had few plant-based options, so my lovely wife would come to visit and bring me fruit and quinoa and things like that. I ate a lot of apples and grapes every day. And I saw changes almost immediately. The dark circles under my eyes began to recede, and color returned to my skin. My legs had been like balloons; they were just so puffy that I barely even had discernible toes. But after a few weeks of this new way of eating, the puffiness in my legs went down so much that I finally had toes. And I was able to start wiggling them. After a routine scan, my doctor told me that he didn’t know what I was doing but that the amount of inflammation in my spine, midsection, and legs had significantly gone down.

Surviving Setbacks

I continued to regain more movement in my arms. But because I was still unable to get up and walk, I was at a higher risk for blood clots. My mom was a nurse, and I knew the symptoms, so when I started experiencing tightness in my chest one day, I knew immediately that I was experiencing a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot that traveled from my leg to my lungs). I technically died and was revived by the doctors twice that day. I was very grateful to have survived that ordeal.

Afterward, I continued focusing on eating plant-based, and continued shedding weight. My blood pressure went down so significantly that my doctors took me off my blood pressure medications. They were over the moon.

In January 2017, after nine months in the hospital, I was finally discharged. A month later, I was hit with another health crisis when I noticed a large lump on the side of my neck—something my excess weight and beard had probably camouflaged until that point. I thought, “Here we go.” And sure enough, it turned out to be cancer: stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The new diagnosis gave me even more motivation to eat as healthy as possible, so that my body would have the best chance to heal itself.

Thriving Today

Five years later, I’m still here. My cancer is in remission. My liver and kidney disease are in full remission, and I haven’t had diabetes in more than four years. I still have some neuropathy in the left side of my lower half, but with the help of occupational therapists, I’ve been able to regain function in my upper body and right leg, and I’m able to walk. I’ve lost more than 400 pounds. When I first got out of the hospital, I had to take 22 pills a day. Today, I take three vitamins. That’s it.

I still eat a lot. In fact, I eat more now than I ever did before, in terms of volume. I eat bags of greens a day, and a whole lot of fruit, quinoa, and beans. Every morning, I enjoy a smoothie made with greens, peaches, or berries. I try to keep it very simple because I’m a creature of habit. I choose not to eat vegan imitation meats and cheese, as I try to avoid highly processed foods. But I do tend to refer to myself as “vegan” rather than “plant-based,” because I’m definitely in this for the animals, too. Eating meat never quite seemed right to me (especially after having to visit a slaughterhouse floor when I was working as a chef).

I was unable to return to work as a chef directly, because of the neuropathy in my leg. Instead, I develop plant-based menus for gyms and help them to set up plant-based educational workshops. I also help other people who are transitioning from being an able-bodied person to being a disabled person. I’m passionate about fitness and work out daily, doing almost two hours of bodybuilding and adaptive CrossFit, which is for people who have disabilities.

People are always asking me how I made this miraculous health transformation, thinking there must be some secret trick, and I tell them to just try this diet for themselves. I’m a Puerto Rican dude from New York who never thought I would be plant-based. If I can do it, you can. Give it a chance. See how your body responds. What you put into your body either feeds sickness or helps fight it, plain and simple. I’m living proof.

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.

The post I Lost 400 Pounds, Reversed 3 Chronic Diseases on a Whole-Food Vegan Diet appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

More Bad News

I was referred to a nephrologist who told me that I had chronic kidney disease (CKD). My glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was 42, which was not good. He said that CKD was irreversible and the best I could hope for was to slow the decline. 

Over the next year, I developed mild atrial fibrillation. I was becoming a poster boy for the effects of the Western diet. In early 2020, I started to look for dietary solutions to my health problems. I discovered keto and thought that it would suit me perfectly, because I wouldn’t have to give up meat. So in early March 2020 I started a strict keto diet, and within a couple of weeks I had lost about 5 pounds. But I wasn’t feeling great. So I decided to get more blood work to check on my kidney function. My estimated GFR had deteriorated to 33! The doctor said that if I went below 30, I should discuss dialysis and transplant options with the nephrologist. This came as a real shock.

Discovering the Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet

Around the same time, I got an email from Netflix that the Forks Over Knives documentary would be removed from the streaming platform soon, so I decided to watch it. The film, which showed that a whole-food, plant-based diet could prevent and reverse many chronic diseases, was a revelation for me. I thought, “Here is the solution to my metabolic problems.” 

I then bought the book The China Study, on which much of the information presented in Forks Over Knives was based. I was convinced. Over Easter weekend, I became a whole-food, plant-based eater, literally overnight. I followed the whole-food, plant-based diet religiously.

Wowing My Doctors

Earlier this month, after 12 weeks of WFPB, I had additional blood work done to see how my new lifestyle was working so far. When I called for the results I spoke to the manager of the clinic, who started reading the results to me then stopped and said, “This is amazing. I want to show the doctor.” A few minutes later, my doctor called. “This unbelievable,” he said. In just three months, my eGFR had increased from 33 to 50, and my uric acid, creatinine, and triglycerides were all normal. He said that he’d never seen such dramatic results.

Now I’ve gone from four blood pressure medications to two, and I’ve cut the dose in half for those two. My average blood pressure is now 112/70. I haven’t had atrial fibrillation since I started the diet. To cap it all off, I’ve lost 28 pounds. 

I’ve been enjoying lots of delicious foods, as well. When it comes to breakfast, I’ve changed from an eggs-and-bacon guy to an oats-and-fresh-chopped-fruit guy. For lunches and dinners, I eat a lot of what I call “chopped bowls,” with grains such as quinoa and buckwheat; veggies such as cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and green beans diced into bite-size pieces; and flavorful dressings such as soy yogurt curry sauce. They’re tasty and completely plant-based. My wife and I also enjoy making homemade flatbreads. Our favorite is topped with hummus, tomato, and bell pepper. I also eat quite a lot of apples and pears every day. 

My daughter, Emma, was so impressed with my rapid weight loss and health improvements that she, too, is now a WFPB eater. This transformation has truly been a miracle for me!

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.

The post I’ve Normalized Sky-High Triglycerides and Begun Reversing Kidney Disease in Just 12 Weeks appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

My wife, Kymberly, who has spent her life as a researcher, went to work. I was the proverbial lab rat and she the scientist. She began researching all of the benefits of a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle and what sick people do in countries with little or no medical support.

My doctors said there was no hope, my dialysis center said nothing would work and no one ever came off of dialysis without a transplant. We were set to prove them wrong.

Enacting a Plan

Kymberly formulated a plan that involved completely changing what and how I ate. We literally journaled and charted everything I ate and drank. She had created a modified whole-food, plant-based lifestyle plan that gave my body what it needed. And slowly, improvements began. The improvements were small at first, and still my medical team was not very supportive of my addressing chronic kidney disease with diet. However, after a few months, the improvements were enough to start getting their attention.

At a visit with my nephrologist he asked us, straight up, “What are you doing?” At that point, we began a lengthy dialogue with him about the benefits of whole-food, plant-based eating, and he slowly started to think we might be onto something.

Eventually, he began to reduce my dialysis time, and then he began to reduce my days in dialysis. All the while, my labs kept improving.

Finally, the call came on a Saturday afternoon in February 2017. The order had come in to remove me from dialysis. I was free from the chair.

Dialysis-Free

It goes without saying that we were ecstatic. We started a small Facebook group to try to get the word out as to what we were accomplishing. 

Today I have been dialysis-free for over a year and a half, my labs continue to improve, and our little Facebook group has grown to over 7,000 members in over 100 countries. Countless people have had the same success I have had. 

The plant-based living lifestyle seems so foreign to most people, yet has the ability to change lives.

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.

The post From 3 Percent Kidney Function to Dialysis-Free on a Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Eight years ago, I had a heart attack and triple-bypass open-heart surgery. Even that wasn’t enough to scare me into changing my lifestyle permanently. Sure, I made some short-term changes, but after a few months I was right back to my old ways—drinking a 12-pack of beer every day and eating loads of junk food. 

I had heart disease, alcoholism, and painful arthritis in my shoulders, in addition to struggling with obesity. I was a sick puppy. I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff, about to fall over. 

On the Edge

On Nov. 29, 2017, I woke up with my left arm completely numb. The numbness didn’t go away. Also, there was a big black spot obscuring part of the visual field in my right eye. I thought that I’d had a stroke. I went directly to the emergency room.

I had dangerously high blood pressure (228/137), an enlarged liver, stage 3 kidney disease, and neuropathy. I told myself that I had some serious health issues and I needed to make some major changes. I hoped it wasn’t too late. 

Embracing the Effort

Fear and sickness hadn’t been enough to motivate me in the past. My secret to success this time around was to get myself excited about making these changes. After several false starts, I found these 12 points to be key:

1. Sobriety: I couldn’t follow any health program when I was drinking. I could talk a good story, but I couldn’t put it into action. I had to quit drinking.
2. Healthy eating: I adopted a whole-food, plant-based diet.
3. Mild exercise: For me, it is hiking.
4. A positive expectation: I believed from the beginning (without a doubt) that this program would work and I would achieve my goals. I accepted setbacks as part of the learning process.
5. Educating myself: I learned about nutrition and health by watching documentaries and reading books.
6. Embracing the effort: I had to recognize and embrace the idea that this would take some effort. I learned to view the hard or boring parts as just part of the process.
7. Emotional involvement: Intellect alone doesn’t do it. Emotional involvement drives these lessons deep into your being.
8. Stress management: For me, stress management consists of relaxation, visualization, and prayer.
9. Staying away from the edge. If I think about an unhealthy behavior long enough, I’ll end up doing it. So, I have to plot a course that keeps me far away from the edge.
10. Learning to treat myself as if I matter: This was a tough lesson for me because feelings of inferiority were part of my personality, but people can change.
11. Gratitude: No matter what your religious beliefs, you probably believe in some kind of Higher Power. I wake up each morning grateful to mine for the opportunity to live another day, and that sets the tone for the entire day.
12. Share your journey: Trying to help others (without being obnoxious or overbearing) is very motivating to me. That’s why I wrote this article.

A Greater Purpose

What I thought I could accomplish in six months actually took more than a year. I made some slip-ups, but instead of getting discouraged I always got back on the program right away. It paid off. 

By adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet, maintaining sobriety, and exercising moderately, I have been able to:

• Bring my blood pressure down to normal without prescription medications.
• Lose 65 pounds, overcoming obesity.
• Eliminate the neuropathy in my feet and arthritis in my shoulders.
• Start walking again and even do strenuous hikes without any pain in my legs.
• Bring my lab numbers back into the normal range, with no indication of kidney failure.

Also, I discovered a greater purpose for living.

Today I live pain-free and enjoy many activities that I hadn’t been able to do for years. My hope is that reading this will inspire you along your own journey. Stories of amazing life-changing recoveries usually come from younger people in their 40s and 50s, but at this writing, I am 75 years old, and I’m telling you: You can do this!

Ready to get started? Check out our Plant-Based Primer to learn more about adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet.

The post At 73, I Went Plant-Based and Said Goodbye to Obesity, Heart Disease, Kidney Disease, and Arthritis appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

With plant-based foods being so beneficial for the prevention and treatment of so many other diseases, it should come as no shock that they are also good for your kidneys.

WHAT IS KIDNEY DISEASE?

Kidney disease, or CKD (chronic kidney disease), refers to any process that damages the kidney. The kidneys are the body’s filter and regulator for many of the contents in the blood. When the kidneys are damaged, their ability to regulate the amount of water, electrolytes, and toxins in the blood and urine becomes impaired. This often leads to too much water, sodium, and toxins in the blood and not enough in the urine. In other cases, people have too much protein or blood in their urine. In severe cases of kidney disease, people need a kidney transplant or long-term dialysis to replace their damaged kidneys.

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WHAT CAUSES KIDNEY DISEASE?

The most common causes of kidney failure are diabetes and high blood pressure. Both conditions cause changes to the blood vessels and internal structures of the kidneys, reducing their function over time. The more uncontrolled your blood pressure or diabetes is, the more damage can be done to your kidneys. Less common causes of kidney disease include autoimmune diseases (like lupus), medications, infections, and cancers.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

Unfortunately, there are no symptoms of early kidney disease. Even with moderate kidney disease, a person may not realize anything is abnormal. For this reason, it is important to have your physician perform blood and urine testing if you are at risk for kidney disease. People at risk include those with conditions that can cause kidney disease (such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases including lupus) and those with a family history of kidney disease. Some signs and symptoms of kidney disease include high blood pressure, leg swelling, foamy urine, fatigue, changes in appetite, and trouble sleeping.

PREVENTION

The best treatment is prevention, and nowhere is that truer than in kidney disease. Once your kidneys are gone, they are gone forever, leaving dialysis or transplant as the only options—and neither is as good as holding onto your own kidneys, which work to filter out excess water and toxins from the body to form urine.

BEST DIET FOR PREVENTING CKD

If you already have high blood pressure or diabetes—two of the most common causes of CKD—it is not too late: They can be controlled and even reversed by eating a plant-based diet. Foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and lentils can treat diabetes and high blood pressure and thereby prevent damage to your kidneys.

Plant-based foods are rich in fiber and antioxidants that can directly lower your blood pressure, improve glucose levels, reduce total body weight, and lower inflammation—all of which play a role in kidney disease. There is even evidence that meat-based foods cause the production of a compound called TMAO, which has been shown to directly cause CKD. Animal-based foods often are rich in other components that can be harmful to kidney function, such as sodium, fat, acid, phosphate, and excess protein.

How a Plant-Based Diet Treats Kidney Disease

If you already have kidney disease, adopting a plant-based diet is one of the best things you can do, because it targets three important health issues that contribute to the disease.

WORRIED ABOUT PROTEIN?

Many patients worry about getting enough protein on a plant-based diet, especially those with CKD. However, multiple studies have shown that people eating a plant-based diet that includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes have no trouble getting enough protein or amino acids. Patients only run into problems if they rely solely on a limited number of foods for their calories (for example, eating just apples and nothing else, day after day).

A WORD ABOUT POTASSIUM AND KIDNEY DISEASE

High potassium levels can be fatal in patients with kidney disease and are a concern for patients eating plant foods, which are often rich in potassium. However, not all foods raise potassium to the same extent. For example, dried fruit and plant-based juices and sauces can raise potassium levels quickly and should be avoided or used with caution. Eating whole fruits and vegetables is generally safer, as they contain fiber, which helps eliminate potassium from the body with bowel movements. Plant foods also contain natural alkali, which can blunt the rise in potassium in the blood.

If you have kidney disease and are considering transitioning to a plant-based diet, it is important to have your blood checked to monitor for high levels of potassium, at least initially, and to have physician supervision. If you have high levels of potassium, you may need to adjust your diet (reducing the use of tomato sauces, for example) or your medications to help with the transition. However, many patients with CKD have safely tolerated the transition to a plant-based diet and, more importantly, have greatly benefited from it.

CKD SUCCESS STORIES

If you’re wondering whether diet can really have such an impact on chronic kidney disease, read these firsthand accounts from real people who have dramatically improved their CKD prognoses since going plant-based.

• At 73, I Went Plant-Based and Said Goodbye to Obesity, Heart Disease, CKD, and Arthritis
• How I’m Beating CKD on a Plant-Based Diet
• From 3 Percent Kidney Function to Dialysis-Free on a Whole-Food Vegan Diet

The post What Is Chronic Kidney Disease and How Do You Prevent It? appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

In 2010, I was tired all the time. I went to the doctor and was placed on a high blood pressure medication because I “was becoming older,” as told by the physician’s assistant. I was only 55, and I didn’t understand what he was talking about. I considered myself pretty healthy. I didn’t eat red meat; I ate lots of chicken, turkey, shellfish, and fish, along with some veggies and fruit (though not much). The news was a blow, and this was my first prescription medication. 

Three years later, I found that I had difficulty working six days a week to run my used bookstore due to fatigue. At a doctor’s appointment, another physician’s assistant told me that my chronic kidney disease was getting worse. This was the first I’d heard that I had CKD. I told her to have the physician call me. I found out that my high blood pressure was a sign of kidney disease, but no one had told me before. Then I was diagnosed with gout. 

Getting the Facts

A friend and I decided to do research ourselves, embarking on a huge fact-finding journey. We found accounts online from people who had healed from different ailments by changing their lifestyles. Our research eventually led me to eliminate excess sugar, excess fat, and sodium nitrates, and to reduce my consumption of shellfish. Although I ate plenty of whole plant foods, I still ate meat such as turkey burgers and chicken.

I’d known that going plant-based would be best for my health. I’d just always been afraid to go all in because I didn’t know what I would eat. But I finally decided to take the plunge on April 11, 2018—my birthday. 

Radical Results

At a doctor’s appointment three weeks after I’d gone plant-based, my GFR (glomerular filtration rate, a marker of CKD) levels were greatly improved, and the doctor took me off my gout medication! Within six months the arthritis in my hands was gone, and I had more energy than I’d had in a while. 

Since going plant-based I have changed in so many ways. I have lost 20 pounds, reversed my chronic kidney disease, eliminated my gout, lowered my high blood pressure, reduced my arthritis inflammation, improved my eyesight, and completely changed my lifestyle. 

My favorite things to eat now are sweet potato enchiladas and veggie pizza. I make Forks Over Knives recipes all the time. I drink a lot of herbal teas. 

There have been challenges, and I have faced some concern and skepticism from people who don’t agree with eating plant-based. America is getting sicker, but many people aren’t willing to hear the solutions. Admittedly, I get a little over-zealous sometimes, because I’m so excited to tell others of my health improvements. 

Currently, I am helping my husband to adopt a more plant-based diet, as well as my daughter and her three sons. I became certified in nutrition and wellness and started a business teaching others how to change their lives. I’m not giving up! 

Ready to get started? Check out our Plant-Based Primer to learn more about adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet.

The post Reversing Chronic Kidney Disease with a Plant-Based Diet appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Before beginning this journey, I was scared to get a physical. I used to be a long-distance runner, but two years of severe sciatica had led to quite a bit of weight gain: First the pain prevented me from exercising, eventually landing me in a wheelchair; then I got back surgery, which relieved the pain, but left me semi-sedentary. After my surgery, a doctor told me I could never run again. 

I decided that I still needed to do something about my weight, so I visited a nutritionist. She told me that the first thing I had to do was get a complete physical. 

I went home that day and, for some reason, my intuition directed me to the Forks Over Knives site. I read everything I could about a whole-food, plant-based diet. I decided then and there to give it a try. I picked out some recipes from Forks Over Knives, bought groceries, and dedicated myself to this new way of living. 

Diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease

I got my physical the day after I started the diet, and a week later was the follow-up appointment to review the results of my blood work. That’s when my doctor told me some bad news: I had stage 3 kidney disease. 

When I asked my doctor if there was a cure for kidney disease, she left me with the impression that there wasn’t much I could do about it—that it was an inevitable march toward dialysis. She sent me to a nephrologist. 

The nephrologist was very somber about my test results. He said that I had only 44 percent kidney function. I asked him what I might be able to do to cure the disease, if I could turn it around. He only said, “We shall see.” What I took him to be saying was: “Don’t get your hopes up.” I told him that had recently switched to a whole-food, plant-based diet. He seemed unimpressed but said that it wouldn’t hurt. 

Committing to a Plant-Based Diet for CKD

As soon as I got home from the nephrologist I got online to do some research. Everything I read stated that stage 3 kidney disease would steadily progress toward kidney failure, dialysis, and death. I was three months away from turning 70, and the statistics were even worse for someone my age. I found a study of a number of people in my age group with stage 3 kidney disease. The report said that about half died within three to five years and that the rest lived about 10 years before they died. I also read that by the time my kidneys failed, I would be considered too old for a transplant. Nevertheless, I still was convinced I could at least slow the progression down with my diet. 

Fortuitously, in my online research I also came across a success story from a young woman who completely cured her stage 4 kidney disease with a plant-based diet. I knew then that I, too, could beat the odds. 

I continued eating what I thought was the yummiest diet I have ever been on—a way of eating that regardless of what doctors told me about my health, I would continue forever. I loved the freshness of everything. I could really taste the flavor of the food and found the variety of greens and other salad ingredients tasted so much better than I had experienced, ever. I never missed the meat or dairy products, and I faithfully took my B12 supplements. 

Stunning My Doctor

Though I was eating well, I still was dreading seeing my nephrologist again, fearful he would say that my new test results indicated my kidney function had dropped even more. I had also gotten an ultrasound and I was scared to see what the results of that might be.

So at my next appointment, when my nephrologist brought out his laptop, I had trepidation. He pulled up a chart of my kidney readings over the last 12 years. To my surprise, it showed that most of that time I had been in stage 2 kidney failure, with my kidneys functioning at around 50 percent. No doctor had bothered to mention this to me before. Then he showed me the severe drop on the chart when my kidneys dipped into 44 percent functioning—stage 3 kidney failure.

But then, with a smile on his face, he showed me the results of my most recent blood tests. My kidneys were functioning at 62 percent! In 12 years, my kidneys had never functioned that well! He said kidneys functioning over 60 percent were healthy, and that when he looked at my ultrasound, it, too, displayed totally healthy kidneys.

I mentioned that I had planned to again ask his opinion on how to beat stage 3 kidney disease. He responded by saying, “You already have!” Though happy for me, he was completely puzzled over how this could happen, especially in less than two months! 

The biggest surprise for me was when he said I didn’t have to see him again because I was cured.

I told him those good results had to be from my going whole-food, plant-based. He said that my diet could not have made a difference—but I knew in my heart of hearts that it had.

Recently, I went in for more tests and found out that my kidneys were functioning at 67 percent!

My physician said that I could run again, and I’ve started an exercise program of walking now. I am soon to be running long distances once again.

Ready to get started? Check out our Plant-Based Primer to learn more about adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet.

The post From Stage 3 Kidney Disease to Healthy Kidneys in 2 Months on a Plant-Based Diet appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

It’s the latest entry into a growing body of evidence of plant-based diets’ potential to prevent  CKD, including a 2017 study that found significant reduction in CKD risk when one daily serving of red and processed meat was replaced with plant sources of protein.

“Our findings are consistent with previous studies, in that higher consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes and lower consumption of red and processed meats are associated with a lower risk of kidney disease,” says Casey M. Rebholz, PhD, who served as the study’s lead author. Hyunju Kim, a Johns Hopkins postdoctoral fellow, led the research.

Notably, Rebholz and Kim’s research team didn’t just compare the outcomes of plant-based and non-plant-based diets; they distinguished between types of plant-based diets. Healthy plant-based diets—which the study’s authors defined as being high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes—were associated with the greatest reduction in risk of CKD. High adherence to less healthy plant-based diets—defined here as consisting of high amounts of refined grains sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, potato or corn chips, French fries, and fruit juices—was associated with an elevated risk of CKD.

In assessing why healthy plant-based diets are associated with a reduced risk of CKD, the study cites fiber intake as a likely contributing factor.

“Our results showed that increasing consumption of healthful plant foods is important—for example, choosing whole grains instead of refined grains and choosing whole fruits instead of fruit juice,” says Rebholz.

The post New Study: Healthy Plant-Based Diets Associated with Significantly Lower Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Then, last year, my doctors told me that my glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was 18—stage 4 of chronic kidney disease, the last stage before kidney failure—and that it was time to consider a kidney transplant. Their data stated that the average transplanted kidney lasts between 10 and 20 years. I’m 49 years old, so simple math dictated that if I hoped to live to 80 years old, I would likely need two kidney transplants over the rest of my lifetime. I felt that the gift of an organ was just too precious for me to ask anyone to donate more than once.

I pored over books and medical publications (such as JAMA) looking for clues to help me better my situation. I devoured educational materials designed for kidney patients and never saw a glimmer of hope. My outlook was bleak at best. I was tired, depressed, anxious, and worried about how my family would cope without me after my death.

Not only was I dealing with kidney disease; I was also diagnosed with paralytic stomach (gastroparesis), which made my stomach hurt terribly after each meal. And on top of all that, my cholesterol was 493.

Another Option
A friend of mine who also suffers from kidney disease mentioned that his doctor suggested a vegan diet. I began to research the vegan lifestyle, diving in full-force: I watched documentaries, read nutrition book after nutrition book, and began looking at recipes. Ultimately, I decided to try a whole-food, plant-based diet as a last resort before saying yes to a kidney transplant.

Before I made the switch to a whole-food, plant-based diet, I enthusiastically subscribed to the standard American diet: I gobbled up chocolate, pie, french fries, and potato chips as often as possible, but I told myself that since I cooked my meals from scratch each night that I was negating any harm french fries, burgers, and take-out chicken sandwiches might do.

Despite how drastically different a WFPB diet would be, I decided to give up animal products and highly processed foods cold turkey. I know myself too well: A taste becomes a bite, and a bite leads to a serving, and a serving leads right back into old unhealthy behaviors. So I made the switch overnight and started my new lifestyle on January 1, 2019.

Rapid Rejuvenation
I was shocked at how quickly my energy increased after going WFPB. I went from being a couch potato to having trouble sitting still. I couldn’t believe how quickly I lost weight, and my cholesterol fell over 100 points by day 17.

Over the past three months, I’ve lost 30 pounds, lowered my cholesterol to 281 (without statins), and raised my GFR to 23. I no longer qualify for a kidney transplant! My stomach is completely healed; I no longer experience pain after meals.

I have always exercised some, but now I exercise with more regularity, and I look forward to my morning walk before I go to work. I am full of energy, and as an added bonus, my depression and anxiety have faded. I’m living life to the fullest! My first 5K race of the year is coming up in May.

Planning for Success
Forks Meal Planner has been an amazing asset to me. The planner makes food interesting, and I look forward to picking out my menu each week, along with reviewing the predetermined menus presented. Each recipe, start to finish, takes only 30 minutes. How great is that?

My favorite Meal Planner recipe is Veggie Fajitas, which are made with portobello mushrooms and peppers. Another favorite is the Portobello Pot Roast. I have always loved to cook, and the Meal Planner really keeps me interested in cooking, trying new ingredients and flavors. I now savor fresh pineapple; it’s so sweet! I highly recommend the Meal Planner to WFPB newcomers.

Some of my coworkers have joined me in eating WFPB. I try to post updates on the Forks Over Knives Official Plant-Based Group on Facebook as often as I can, because I want to help spread the word about how healing this way of eating has been for me.

I never “cheat” by eating non-WFPB; I just can’t risk going back to my old eating habits. I value my newfound health too much to cheat myself!

Update (6/29/2021): In February 2020, I developed a presumed case of COVID-19 and became very ill. I survived, which my physician attributes to my healthful plant-based diet. Unfortunately, the illness severely impacted my kidneys and my eGFR fell to 10 percent, at which point I decided to pursue a kidney transplant. My brother donated to me in April 2021, and we are both doing well.

This article was originally published on April 9, 2019, and has been updated.

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