America’s Leading Cardiologist Advocates Vegan Diet

You know there’s something to a plant based diet when one of America’s leading cardiologists recommends it. Dr. Kim A. Williams, outgoing president of the American College of Cardiology, has been advocating a vegan diet for years to his patients.  In a 2014 interview with the New York Times, he said, “I recommend a plant-based diet because I know it’s going to lower their blood pressure, improve their insulin sensitivity and decrease their cholesterol.”

Dr. Williams has also personally experienced the positive benefits of a vegan diet. In 2003, his LDL cholesterol was elevated in spite of eating what he thought was a healthy diet, which included aquatic animals and chickens. After witnessing one of his patients with severe cardiovascular disease improve dramatically on a plant based diet, Dr. Williams looked into the connection between vegan diets and health. He found a wealth of positive data that linked plant based diets with lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and decreased death rates from heart disease. Dr. Williams transitioned to a vegan diet, and within months saw his LDL levels drop dramatically. At the 2016 ACC (American College of Cardiology) Scientific Session and Expo, Dr. Williams stated, “It’s very powerful. If people just understood how you could make hypertension just disappear in weeks to months by changing the diet, in a large number of people, they’d find it pretty amazing.”

Three thousand Americans have a heart attack daily, and nearly 2,600 Americans die every day of some form of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks, strokes, and blockages in the arteries, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Studies have shown that plant based diets have a positive effect on reversing cardiovascular disease and decreasing the risk of death from heart disease. As Dr. Williams jokes, “Wouldn’t it be a laudable goal of the American College of Cardiology to put ourselves out of business within a generation or two?”.

Read more about Dr. Williams’ thoughts on the connection between diet and heart disease here

Learn about eating a plant based diet here