7 Top Plant-Based Health Professionals
Listed below are 7 of the top plant-based health professionals leading the movement. Learn from them. Share what they have to say with others. There’s a health-focused plant-based revolution occurring, and it’s happening in large part because of these individuals who advocate a plant-based diet and lifestyle.
Colin Campbell, PhD – Dr. Campbell is the Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University who has spent the last few decades focusing on long-term health and nutrition through a plant-based diet. He has conducted extensive research on health. His expertise is in the relationship of diet and diseases, especially cancer. Dr. Campbell is a co-author of The China Study, a book the summarizes findings from over two decades of research in China on plant-based diets and disease.
John McDougall, MD – A long time plant-based advocate, Dr. McDougall is the author of The Starch Solution. He promotes a starch-based approach to a whole food, plant-based diet. Dr. McDougall emphasizes starches to make sure that people eat enough calories and don’t wither away on lettuce, thinking that a plant-based diet doesn’t work. The starch solution allows you to eat the foods you love, just keep it low fat. Potatoes, rice, corn, and beans make up the staples.
Caldwell Esselstyn, MD – Dr. Esselstyn brings the clinical side of plant-based diet research, and he shares his program for health through the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. He has conducted long-term studies on heart disease, helping his patients to overcome heart disease through diet and lifestyle. Dr. Caldwell is also the father of Rip Esselstyn, of The Engine 2 Diet which follows a very similar approach to Dr. Esselstyn’s guidelines, but with an emphasis on preventing heart disease by starting those diet and lifestyle recommendations younger, before disease sets in.
Neal Barnard, MD – Dr. Barnard is the founder and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Some of his books include: Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes, 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart, Power Foods for the Brain, and he is the co-author of The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook.
Michael Greger, MD – Dr. Greger puts out free daily videos and articles on his non-profit website NutritionFacts.org, where he provides nutrition advice on various aspects of a plant-based diet and healthy living in general.
NutritionFacts.org takes a very science-based approach to health. On the site you’ll find updates of current findings studies and the latest scientific news regarding health. He is also the author of the new book How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease. Dr. Greger has garnered quite a following, and for good reason.
Michael Klaper, MD – Dr. Klaper is a long time plant-based diet and nutrition advocate who recognised the link between diet and disease which led him to develop his own lifestyle programs. After following his own program he lost weight and considerably reduced his cholesterol levels. He has written Vegan Nutrition: Pure and Simple and Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet.
Joel Fuhrman, MD – Dr. Fuhrman has written several books including: Eat to Live, the Eat to Live Cookbook, and The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes. His approach to health and a plant-based diet involves eating nutrient-rich foods: vegetables; fresh fruits; beans; nuts, seeds and avocados, starchy vegetables; and whole grains. Keeping other foods to a minimum, there’s also an emphasis on raw foods. Dr. Fuhrman strongly promotes eating nutrient-dense foods, as he calls them “micronutrient-rich foods.”