Former President of ACC Recommends Veganism

In 2014, the (then) president elect for the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Kim A. Williams, published an article on MedPage Today that both explained his experience with veganism, and why he recommended the diet his patients suffering from hypertension and Type 2 diabetes (among other medical afflictions). The article brought on a great deal of backlash from the Cardiology community, as many medical professionals felt he was pushing a “radical” diet on everyone based on just his individual experience. Dr. Williams dismissed these claims as not being true.

Controversy aside, Dr. Williams’s article and experiences with veganism offer some interesting insight into (his experience) benefits of veganism.

Dr. Williams noted in his article that he became interested in the vegan diet after he learned that his LDL cholesterol numbers had increased by 60 points in just a few years. Dr. Williams noted that his exercise habits had faltered over those years, but he also had suspicions that his diet was also playing an active part in his cholesterol levels. The cholesterol levels found in food often has a negligible effect on blood cholesterol levels, but do have major effects on certain people, and Dr. Williams believed he was one of them.

Dr. Williams’s diet of no red meat, fried foods, and minimal dairy was clearly not doing the job at maintaining his health as he thought, so he switched to a “cholesterol free” diet, which was for all intents and purposes a vegan (plant based) diet. He found that in six weeks, his LDL cholesterol levels were significantly reduced and were a 90 at his next blood test.

Dr. Williams’s experience (and the results he saw) with his switch to a vegan diet were extraordinary, and definitely offered a glimpse of what veganism was capable of…for certain bodies. Even Dr. Williams acknowledges that the results from such a dietary switch can be variable.

In Dr. Williams’s article on MedPage Today, he also noted that the studies suggesting a connection between plant based diets and reduced heart disease are either “very large and observational or small and randomized” and “ larger randomized trials are needed. ”

Veganism continues to be a controversial topic, and research continues to look for solid links between plant based diets and overall health. While I always encourage a “healthy” diet, I continue to be interested in exactly what is truly considered “healthy”.

Is it a fully plant-based diet? Is it vegetarianism?

As this article published by Harvard Health Publications stated,

“there still aren’t enough data to say exactly how a vegetarian [or vegan] diet influences long-term health.”

It will be interesting to see what conclusions the medical field will be able to draw with continued research.

For additional sources for this post, please see the following articles: The New York Times and MedPage Today

Originally published at jamiestanos.net.