Welcome
Hello and welcome to my blog where eating plants doesn’t suck…it is actually awesome! My name is Dr. G and I am a family medicine doctor. I created this blog to help people start eating a healthier, more sustainable, cheaper, and (most importantly) whole food plant based diet. A whole food plant based diet, by the way, is one that consists of mainly whole (unprocessed) plant based (fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes) foods. Food lovers of all kinds are welcomed and encouraged to check out my recipes, but I am especially after those of you who are eating platefuls of meat and dairy products on the regular. Food is the best preventive medicine. If no one ever developed heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cancer, etc ever again, I’d be out of a job as a doctor, but happy as a pig in…well you know.
Doctors don’t learn much about nutrition in medical school. Sure, we learn about vitamin deficiencies that lead to disease and and about gross malnutrition, but not much else. I was lucky enough to have a nutrition professor in medical school who ate a plant based diet and after she taught us what she was obligated to (what we would be tested on on the boards) she showed us “Food, Inc.”. At the time it got the wheels turning in my head, I made some dietary changes, but I didn’t take the plunge and completely change my diet. Fast forward a few years, and in the midst of my crazy residency training program I noticed that I was becoming overweight, tired, and generally unhealthy. Although I would have always described my diet as “healthy” before, clearly something just wasn’t working for me anymore. The long work days, lack of sleep, stress, and less time to exercise didn’t help either, of course. Those things all come with the job though, so I started to look for things that I could change. Enter: Netflix binge watching of food documentaries. I watched “Forks Over Knives”, “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead”, “Vegucated”, re-watched “Food, Inc.”…. I started thinking and talking about trying a whole food plant based diet with everyone who would listen. Another family medicine doc that I was working with suggested I read The China Study…so in all of my “free time”, I did. From there, I did what any good scientist would and went back and read as much of the primary literature as I could. When there was just too much information to digest about a specific topic I turned to Dr. Michael Greger who breaks down and summarizes primary literature in online videos (NutritionFacts.org). After I was thoroughly convinced, I finished the last of the milk in my fridge and never looked back. When I first started to change my diet I realized that I had to learn to shop, cook, and eat differently. That was this inspiration for this blog. It is intended to share what I have learned to make your journey to better health through food a little easier.
A quick disclaimer: While I am a real doctor, please keep in mind that I am not your doctor (except those of you who are actually my patients…you know who you are). There will be some general health related discussions in this blog, but it is intended to be about food. If you are looking for medical advice please consult your own doctor. And if I am your own doctor please see me in the office 🙂
A few other things you should know about me:
1. I am not a professional chef or photographer. This is all done in my kitchen…which will be obvious. Sorry, I’m not sorry.
2. I sometimes use foul language. Sorry mom (really sorry this time).
3. There is a pretty good chance that I work way more than you do, so if I can find time to eat well, you can too…so I don’t want to hear your BS excuses.
4. Most of the recipes on this blog are my own, some have been adapted from various cookbooks and other blogs. Appropriate credit will be given when necessary.
5. I really like tacos.
Happy Eating and Best Health,
Dr. G
