Episode #150: Weight Loss With a Plant Based Diet with Guest: Dr Amanda Adkins

In this week's episode of the Conquer Your Weight podcast, you'll hear from Dr. Amanda Adkins. She is a internal medicine and lifestyle medicine physician who teaches how a plant-based diet can help with improving health and wellness. 

You will learn:

• What is a plant based diet and how it can improve your health
• Common misconceptions, like fears about not getting enough protein
• Easy ways to get started with a plant-based diet

If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Amanda Adkins or working with her to introduce a plant-based diet into your own life, you can visit her website https://www.dramandamd.com/

Ready to get started on your weight loss journey? Dr. Sarah Stombaugh is enrolling patients now for in-person visits at her Charlottesville, Virginia office and for telemedicine visits for patients in the states of Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Visit www.sarahstombaughmd.com to learn more and get started today!

Transcript

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
This is Dr. Sarah Stombaugh, and you are listening to the Conquer Your Weight Podcast.

Announcer:
Welcome to the Conquer Your Weight Podcast, where you will learn to understand your mind and body so you can achieve long-term weight loss. Here's your host, obesity medicine physician and life coach, Dr. Sarah Stombaugh.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's episode of the Conquer Your Weight Podcast. I am really excited to have with me today a friend and a guest, Dr. Amanda Adkins. She is an internal medicine physician who focuses on helping people to live well, to learn how to connect with a plant-based diet. And this is a conversation that I get from people all the time about, you know, what is a plant-based diet? How can that be helpful from a weight loss perspective? I think there's a lot of misperceptions, especially in this world of being really high protein focused. I feel like recently our society has been like, you must eat animal protein in order to meet your protein goals. So that's something I'm really excited for us to dive into. Dr. Amanda Adkins, thank you so much for joining us today.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Thank you so much for having me. I am very excited to talk to you about this subject today.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah, it's such an important one, and I think will be really enlightening for my listeners. Tell me, as we're diving in, but before we do, tell me a little bit more about yourself, your own personal and professional journey, and how you've come to be interested in sharing the plant-based diet with others.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes, so this story goes back decades. I tell people that my own weight loss story I was an obese teenager. At the age of 14, we had to do what they called a presidential physical fitness test, and I weighed 199 pounds as like a 14-year-old. And I was like, oh my gosh, I cannot let this continue on. So I was like, what can I do? So I actually first started exercising because I was 14 in the middle of Indiana with nothing going on, don't know anything. I was like, I'll just start moving my body more. But something funny happened when I turned 16. I decided to become a vegetarian. And it is very interesting because at the time my father was a meat delivery truck driver. So all we had in our house basically was animal meats and all sorts of things of that nature. So for me to go, again in Indiana, to say I'm not going to eat meat anymore, because I really wanted to lose more weight. And I was like, what can I do? And so that was the first start of my like weight loss journey. And I've been able to continue to learn more as I went through like medical school residency. And then after I was done with residency and started my own practice really learning about what is now known as lifestyle medicine and actually learning more about plant-based eating. And like, oh, I've been doing most of this my whole life. And now I just want to go deeper into it and been able to really dive in deeper and become even lose even more weight and just maintaining the weight loss with a plant-based diet. So it's just been decades in the works. I tell people, so most of the time, people at this time, they just see me and they're like, there's no way you weigh that much. And then I show them pictures and they're like, oh, okay. And I was like, yeah, so I understand what you're going through. It's not just talk it's not just medical knowledge. It is actual personal hard struggle of actually going through this with you.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Oh my gosh. And I can only imagine the experience, you know, as a 14-year-old and as a 16-year-old telling your parents, I grew up in rural Illinois, actually. So I feel like a very maybe culturally similar in certain ways. But for the daughter of a you know, meat delivery truck driver, like, what do you mean you're going to be a vegetarian?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Right, yeah. So people asked me, they're like, well, what did your parents say at the time? I was like, I don't remember. Um, it must not have been something that was gonna deter me because I was like, whatever. I'm sure they didn't say, “Oh yeah, well, go ahead, we'll buy anything you need.” No, I'm sure that wasn't the case. Like they were like, you're gonna figure it out. You decided not to eat what we have here. So figure it out from here. And I tell people my first actual vegetarian meal was some canned peas and canned corn. So it can be, you know, very simple. It's nothing extravagant, even to this day. I do not cook a lot. It is always something that's very simple because um, as you know, busy physician, wife, a mom. So it's just like I'm gonna make it work.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think hearing you say that even as a precursor to our conversation, I think sometimes people hear plant-based diets and they think of, you know, all the stuff they see on Instagram. And it's like these beautiful decadent salads with 15 ingredients, and there's roasted this and shaved that, and it took, you know, 30 minutes to prepare a salad that you're going to have for lunch. And they're like, I don't have that kind of time. And so I love that preface. It can be easy to do a plant-based diet.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes, because if it was something that takes that many times. Like I'll tell people, like, I'll follow a recipe probably to the T once if it's like long and intense, and then I modify it to where it still tastes good, but takes me like less than half the time, probably only a fourth of the time. Because I'm not about to do that every single time. Otherwise, I won't keep it up.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Totally. Absolutely. Well, let's dive into some definitions because I think we hear a lot of these different terms, and I want to be clear for our listeners what we mean when we say them. So we're going to be talking about a plant-based diet. I'd love for you to describe what that is, compare it to people who hear words like vegetarian or vegan. Tell me, sort of define those for the listeners.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes. So vegetarian. I start there because that's where I started. But it actually means you don't eat any meat, but you still eat some animal products. So like cheese and eggs. So some people even include fish with that, but I didn't eat fish, but that's more like a pescatarian, but that's gonna go too deep. Anyway, so eggs, basically eggs and cheese that you still eat or milk that you still have a vegetarian diet. Now, veganism is a different level. And some people take that even beyond the foods that you eat. So there's no type of animal products. They don't even are they're not even involved in any type of, like sometimes clothing or anything else that caused harm to an animal. So they're more even like honey, right? Yeah, yeah. So I had that issue too. Like I actually didn't think of honey, but they're like, it is a bee, it is an animal, and they're like, it's an insect, but it's not a plant. So it's in the animal category. If we go back to like second grade science or whatever. So technically it is an animal product. So they would not even have honey or anything that has honey in there. Anything that the animal produces, they take out. But that's not always healthy. So that's why we try to decipher between the plant-based and veganism. So sometimes the terms can be used interchangeable, but I tell people that Oreos are vegan, but not plant-based. So we want to look at it like that. So when we look at the benefits of a plant-based diet, or even sometimes in the literature, it may say a vegetarian diet, they're really talking about whole foods. So things that do not have to be modified at all, that you can actually get straight from the garden that doesn't have to be processed in any way. So, like grains, fruit and vegetables, anything that doesn't have to be transformed, that you can actually look at it and you'll know exactly what it is. So you know an apple when you see it, but you may not know necessarily I say apple juice, right? Because it may be just in a container, but you wouldn't be able to tell like that's juice, apple juice, unless it actually was labeled, because it can be a different type of juice. So that's the difference between that. But the benefits for actually changing your diet really comes from a whole food plant-based diet, not just veganism, because like I said, you can you can eat Oreos on a vegan diet.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Well, and actually, thank you for sharing that. Because I think, you know, when we think of veganism, I think a lot of people think of that as maybe the most extreme or you know, the most aggressive form of dietary plan. But just because it excludes animal products, like you said, an Oreo is vegan. And there are certainly people within the vegetarian world, even within the vegan world, who make that choice and aren't always choosing things that are going to be most in line with their health goals, things that are helping them to lose weight or support, you know, reduction in blood pressure, reduced risk of heart disease, cancer. And when we look at a lot of the literature, it is the plant-based diet that is associated with some of these health improvements. So tell me when we think about some of the health improvements that we can see from a plant-based diet, what are some of those? And, you know, why is that the case?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yeah. So I'll start with why first. Most of the time it's because it decreases the inflammation that's going on in our body. So, it has a lot of the antioxidants and a lot of nutrients that we are usually lacking in any other diet. So we want to look at what it can do. So it can actually help stabilize our blood sugars better. It helps actually reduce our blood pressure. It can help with, you know, aches and pains in our joints. It can help us to not feel so foggy in our mental clarity. It can help us to sleep better, it can help our skin, you know, be brighter. Um, there's so many different things. And you don't even have to wait, you know, months or years to actually see these changes or feel these changes. Most of the time, in as little as five days, people feel these changes when they make a change to eating more of a whole food plant-based diet. So it's not, it doesn't take forever, I should say.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
That's I mean, that's pretty impressive because I think a lot of times, you know, we think of the effect of a diet or even the effect of a medication. And, you know, there's certain things it's like you have to have many months or years or decades on before you have the cumulative benefit of it. And it can be hard to know, you know, I'm doing this thing. Is it making any difference? And so getting that pretty quick feedback. I thanks for sharing that.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes. And the people are barely, very surprised because I usually just have some of my clients do like a five-day cleanse where they're eating all whole food plant-based. And even when the first time that I like gave that out, I'm like, okay, we'll see how well it does. But I mean, sometimes by day three, they're like, oh my gosh, it's like I come out of this mental fog, you know, and it's just amazing and it gives that positive reinforcement that people need because we don't see results immediately. Sometimes people are like, this didn't work, and we're just going away. So I really am so excited that you can get that positive reinforcement in so little time.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Absolutely. Well, and I think one of the things that really stands out for me about a plant-based diet is just the fiber that we're going to find in the diet. And we look at the standard American diet, which I'm sure I've said on the podcast before, but is abbreviated as SAD, the Standard American Diet which is, you know, just kind of a fun and sad acronym there. But with the standard American diet, we know that there are many people who are not meeting their fiber needs and not even coming close to their fiber needs. And a diet that's going to be really in line with that is one that really emphasizes whole foods, particularly something like a plant-based diet. So tell me a little bit about that, the role of fiber, what that looks like, how you talk to your patients about the fiber peas.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes. So I'm glad you said that because usually I always mention fiber first. And I was like, yeah, I didn't do that. But yes, we are definitely a fiber deficient country. And like you said earlier, most people focus highly on protein. But if you get the actual fiber, it actually helps. It's a good thing, like with the gut. I know we're talking more about now the gut-brain connection and how that actually works. And getting in fiber is very easy on a plant-based diet because fiber comes from plants. So the more plants you eat, the more fiber you're gonna have. And that's why I usually have people add in more vegetables at every single meal because most of the time you're not gonna overdo it on fiber too much. Now, you can get a little bit of like cramping and things like that when you start to eat more and more plants. And people think that it's a negative thing, but that's just like the old bacteria that's not really the healthiest there, being replaced with the good bacteria. So, again, when you clear that all out, and then it actually helps you to digest food better, and then you're able to lose weight easier once you replace that, you know, not so good bacteria in your gut with the healthier bacteria.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh: 
Absolutely. And like that role of fiber as a prebiotic, you know, I think over the last couple of decades, there's been so much language about probiotic, you know, what are the bacteria in our guts? What are the bacteria that we can replace? But then prebiotic of what is the substance by with which our bacteria are feeding on, which is which is the fiber. And so having more and more of that to support the growth of, you know, sort of air quotes here, the, you know, the good bacteria. And as you said, that gut-brain connection, it's wild how much you know, we have these trillions of bacteria living in our GI system and they signal to our brain, and different bacteria can even then make us crave different foods. And so I feel like sometimes I hear people say, like, oh, after, you know, a period of time, you know, I'm either craving sugar now or I'm not craving sugar now when they've changed diets in certain ways. And a lot of that is even gut bacteria driven.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Right, exactly. And I think that it's so good because I had an actual client that went to eating more plant-based, and she's like, now I crave fruit, like and I want instead of the candy, because she needs to be a candy addict, but now she's like, I want the fruit, so I make like a fruit cup instead. And so when you actually change what you're eating, you'll start to have different types of cravings. And people never thought that they would actually crave, I would say, healthy foods, you know. So that that is so mind-blowing that that actually that change goes on. And it's actually been proven, like you said. So I just love to see that. But when you said that, that just made me think of her when she said that. And I just kind of chuckled when she said that to go from candy to like loving fruit. Yes.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And getting that like nature sugar, which is really what fruit is, right? Mm-hmm. Amazing. So let's, I mean, let's talk about this protein piece because one of my biggest things is I'm always talking to people about like, you know, there's this, okay, it's important to get protein, but there's been this huge focus on protein in the last couple of years. A lot of it has been with the popularization of the GLP medications. People are on a weight loss journey. We do know it's important that we prioritize protein. And I certainly, I have met people who were having next to no protein in their diet, and there's ways, there's ways to do that. And so we do want to make sure that we're getting adequate protein. But what's also true is that you can get adequate protein from a plant-based diet. I think, you know, we know that beef, we know that poultry are really protein-dense sources. So it's a very dense way to get a lot of protein really quickly. But you can also get protein from a plant-based diet. And so I'd love to hear when your patients probably raise this concern of like, well, Dr. Adkins, how am I going to get protein? There's no meat here. How do you answer them?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
I just kind of laugh and I say, plants have protein. Like I just start there. I have a shirt that I wear sometimes and it says that. And I think it's because we've been, for a lack of better terms, brainwashed to think that protein equals meat. And that does not necessarily have to be the case. Like protein is found in a lot of plants. And I always tell people to look at the whole picture of like what you're getting when you actually have food. So the reason why I really promote more plant-based proteins is because it has the other things in there, like the fiber, the antioxidants, and other nutrients that you get. Whereas in the more of the animal-based proteins, you get the protein, the fat, and the cholesterol. So, I mean, you may get more protein in a smaller aspect, but you're going to get the other things that you may not want. Okay. And they're really surprised when they say, oh, plants have protein. And I'm like, of course they do. Of course they do. And so that usually opens people's minds to like, okay, well, maybe I can get enough protein with eating plants. Now I tell people that you you're not going to get like huge amount of protein, which even in some studies, it shows that large amounts of animal blushed protein can lead to other chronic illnesses like cancer. So we want to kind of balance that. And that's more the reason why we push towards a plant-based diet in chronic illnesses that people have. So you can get plenty of protein, you can get the right amount of protein. Because people also were concerned about the protein being inadequate, not enough to have there, and not the right amino acids and trying to put together certain foods together when you eat at the same time that you had to do that for you to actually absorb the protein. And that's actually been shown not to be true because our bodies are very smart. It knows how to pull different things from different foods and put them together. So you're not going to be lacking anything there. You just want to make sure that you eat variety and plenty of colors, and you will be perfectly fine with getting in your protein.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Absolutely. When I think this is too like we get very focused, I think, sometimes on having a single source of something or just the ease of, oh, let me grab a protein shake, for example. And then if we choose a plant-based protein shake, like let's say we get a pea protein shake, for example, that is not going to be a complete protein source, right? That'll be an incomplete protein. And that's where when we start to shift the focus away from just, you know, let me choose a protein drink to let me actually build a meal that's going to have peas, but it's also going to have maybe nuts and seeds and whole grains. You start to pull in the different, you know, the different essential amino acids from each of those different. So no one thing may have it, but you can certainly build it within a meal or of course multiple meals. You don't need every single protein at every single meal.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Exactly, exactly. And that's why we want variety. And I think that the plant-based world brings so much variety because most people think, well, what am I going to eat? There's nothing I can eat on a plant-based diet. I'm like, have you seen all the different types of vegetables that are out there? You know, you can you can eat almost something different every single day. Like it is just wonderful. So you don't have to limit yourself. But again, you can put together different meals that will bring together the amino acid that you need, and your body will be fine. You will function fine. 

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
And I think we have to do like a little addition, right? In that if you eat, you know, let's say a chicken breast and some Brussels sprouts, it's like most of your protein there would come from chicken and you'd get, you know, let's say three or four grams of protein. I don't know the exact, I have to look it up, but a couple of grams of protein from a Brussels sprout, maybe even like two grams. It's not a huge amount. But if we were to shift and look at, okay, I'm going to build a salad and I'm going to have some whole grain and I'm going to have some nuts and I'm going to have, let's say, some broccoli and Brussels sprouts, and I'm going to start pulling in all these pieces, all of a sudden it's like, oh, I get eight grams from this whole grain, and I get six grams from these beans, and I get, you know, two or three grams from my broccoli and Brussels sprouts, and maybe a couple grams from this nuts and seeds. And so it doesn't sound like a lot in any one thing. You're like, oh, six plus eight plus two plus, but then all of a sudden you're like, oh, there's 20, 25, 30. It adds up, you know, it's just the same sometimes.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Exactly. Exactly. And you feel more satisfied because those foods are lower in calorie density, but lots of fiber. So the fiber plus the protein helps you feel more full and you're likely to eat less, especially with caloric intake, especially when we're talking about weight loss. And you're like, oh wow, I can really just eat this and be fine instead of, you know, just this handful of, you know, piece of chicken and the little bit of broccoli, and I've already met 500 calories and I can't eat anymore, type thing. That restrictive thing that people feel like. And so I really talking about with weight loss, I really emphasize that for people. Like, we don't want to go into restriction mode when we're eating a whole food plant-based diet because you're not gonna eat enough and you're gonna feel tired. And that's usually the downfall that I hear for people when they're like, oh, I had to go back to eating meat because I felt too tired. And I'm like, well, more than likely you weren't eating enough. You weren't giving your body the energy that it needed to sustain the activities that you were doing. So you probably need to eat more. So whenever we're trying to lose weight, we always think restriction. I shouldn't say always, but most people think restriction is the standard culture, yeah. So that that's something that I really try to emphasize for my patients and clients, like abundance. You want to look for abundance. What can you eat to really make you feel satisfied, but there's also nourishing your body and that will actually support your weight loss goals.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Absolutely. I love the word nourishing, actually, is a word that I use with my patients all of the time. And that when we think about what is the role of food in our body, and when we're choosing foods, you can choose foods for other reasons. You could choose foods that nourish your body, nourish your soul, right? That could be a choice as well. But this nourishment, I love it because it feels it feels very wholesome. It feels really loving, really caring, where that traditional diet culture a lot of times is this restriction or a cutting out of. And so it's instead a choosing of and a leaning in towards the things that really feel good and fuel your body and nourish your body.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes, yes. And that was key for me because initially I was like, I'm just gonna cut out what I can because I just gotta get this weight off. But as I transition, I'm like, but I have to make sure that now I'm not just losing weight, but now my focus is preventing chronic illness as I get older. And I gotta make sure that I'm feeding my body what it needs. I need to have the energy to actually keep going and get out here and do these podcasts that, you know, make me nervous and stuff like that, but it's still okay. But yeah, but I just think that that's the that's the key. Like we have to shift from that. And a lot of people are more satisfied, like they actually feel more satisfied when they know that they can have more of the abundance mindset than the restrictive.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Well, and tell me, you know, when we think about that as well, and we think about as we're building a diet-based plan, when patients, when you're talking to patients about it, when they're having, when they're raising concerns, when they're having challenges, what are some of the tips that you give them for how do you practically implement this day to day and make it feel, make it feel doable? Because it can feel like a really big shift, especially if you've been eating a standard American diet.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes. So the first thing is to just, like I said, add in more vegetables to every single meal. So if you do that, then that usually shifts for people. And we look at our plate and start to add in more and more veggies, more and more colors, and that'll start to push things away. Then the next step, after they like gotten used to eating more vegetables, then I say, what are we now gonna take away? And I can tell you that for most people that I deal with, it is bacon. I was like, there's nothing good, there's nothing nutritious about bacon, except for sometimes people on their tongue. And they always come after me. They're like, Dr. Amanda, what is it with you and this bacon? But I just tease people and I say there's usually something in your in your actual eating plan that is not healthy for you that we can start to wean off. I'll say that. So that that's usually how it's more sustainable for people when they just start to add in more veggies at every single meal and then just slowly take away those things that they know are not healthy for them. and then they feel like they feel so much better, and then they're like, oh, okay. And then they're like, then I try to eat that bacon again, and I felt so horrible and I know that that wasn't good for me. And so then that negative reinforcement comes in for them that they're like, I don't want to feel this way anymore. So I'm gonna, you know, not eat that unless I'm gonna just have it this little bitty piece, and then go on from there. And um, that really helps people to continue on. So the more positive reinforcement and then that that negative reinforcement that keeps them away from feeling that way, once they start to feel good, they don't want to go back to feeling bad again.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
nd it's kind of amazing, you know, sometimes we get used to like we just get used to how we feel, and how we feel every day is just how we feel. And I think what's really powerful is that as that starts to shift, we when we bring back an old pattern, you know, maybe we go through a drive-thru of a certain restaurant, we eat some of those highly processed foods, and it's like, oh wow, like did this always taste like this? Did I always feel this badly after eating it? And the answer is yes. And you were just used to always feeling that badly. So it didn't stand out compared to what is now out of the norm.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
That that is so true. That's why I say, like, because people are like, oh no, it's not that bad. I didn't feel that bad. Until you till you start to feel good, you don't know how bad you feel. And that's usually the words I give them. They're like, that is so true. Like just coming out of that fog, like I said, with just doing those nourishing foods, and like you're just coming out, and you're like, oh, I feel so good. And then sometimes you forget that like what you did to feel that good, and you and you try to go back to those other habits, and then like you're like, oh gosh, I need to go back and eat my whole foods again.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Negative reinforcement, right?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yep, yep.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah. And tell me, you know, the feeling good is great, but we know that there's other more significant wins that can come up. And so as you're working with patients and navigating through other health conditions, maybe stopping or weaning off of certain medications, seeing changes in labs, what are some of the changes that you see maybe over, let's say, months of working with a patient?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
So, for actual numbers, blood pressure can definitely be good. But if it's like blood sugars, like usually we follow the A1C. So that takes, you know, three months for us to see a difference. So someone that really goes in fully on a plant-based diet, we'll see that A1C start to come down. And more importantly, I think for people, it's like they get to actually start to come down off medications because they're like, oh, you know, I'm taking this medication and I feel like my blood sugars are dropping too low because I'm like eating, you know, more leafy greens. And so having not only see their A1C come down, but to say, okay, well, we're gonna decrease this medication or we're gonna stop this medication, that's like a more positive reinforcement for them. They're like, oh yeah, this is what I'm talking about. But I still will not underestimate the power of feeling good because even with medication, like sometimes people stop taking the medication because it makes them feel bad. So the absolute opposite to where you're actually eating good foods that make you feel good actually can help you also. So knowing that you are eating good foods that help helping you feel better, and then to take away medications that were helping you feel bad that continues you to go on and on and on. So blood sugar A1C, you can see that usually like three months, because that's the three-month average. But blood pressure you may see quicker, especially if you're a person that has been on multiple medications for blood pressure and eating a lot of leafy greens that can actually naturally dilate those blood vessels to kind of help relax that. Some people are like, oh, I gotta call my doctor, you know, sooner because I need to come down with the medication because I'm starting to feel dizzy because my blood pressure is really dropping. And again, these are just in weeks’ time frames that you can actually see those differences for people. And again, that positive reinforcement of, oh, yes, I get to come down off medications is just so wonderful to see for patients. I just love that.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah. Oh, it's really powerful and being able to a lot of times we think about the trajectory of the rest of our lives, right? Because we talk about blood pressure and cholesterol and you know, even diabetes as these chronic conditions, which they certainly can be. And it's amazing to see that there's often some reversibility there. And so it's really powerful to work with the patient through that. Amazing.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes, that that is the biggest thing because so many people want to know like what else can you do besides medication? And again, I tell people like that's what kicked off my own journey to find more about lifestyle medicine, because um, in internal medicine, you know, we're trained to diagnose, treat, and treatment is usually a prescription with some type of pill. And just to know that people were looking for so many different things, and I'm like, okay, well, what if, you know, food was your medicine instead of me prescribing this pill? And I was like, I can always prescribe this pill for you, but when you actually take charge of your own health and start to eat healthier, then you actually will feel better and do better long term. And it is amazing to see you because they're like, yes, I want I want food as medicine instead.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Absolutely. Well and I'll say too, you know, sometimes people are like, oh, why are why are doctors always, you know, just prescribing this medication? And it may make sense, right? You know, we see someone, let's say someone comes in and their blood pressure is 200 over 120. I am not going to go tell that person, like, hey, go work on your diet. We're going to, but you also like, we have to give you a blood pressure medication if those are the type of numbers we're seeing. And we can do a medication plus then start to work on the lifestyle things. And then then maybe the medications come down or come off eventually. And so it can also be a both and with the medications being a bridge to the long-term lifestyle intervention.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 
A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Because I tell people sometimes you need the medication to make sure it doesn't go any further. And then as we work on these lifestyle changes, I'm like you, yeah, we're not letting you leave out of here with the blood pressure that high because I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you end up with a stroke because your blood pressure's that high. Like that's stroke range. That's not something that we're going to wait and see type of thing. And like you said, there's definitely room for medication. And I always like to tell patients like I'm not anti-medication. Like I that's my training. I know where medication is appropriate. But like you said, it's not in place of making lifestyle changes. It's in addition to and even when we actually look at most of the studies with medications, it usually says in conjunction with lifestyle, these things happen. But most of the time we glance over that statement and go straight to the medication and people don't make the lifestyle changes. And I also like to point out too that like we give medications and some patients unfortunately they choose that route. I'm like well we can do this we can increase your medicine or you can do this. Now like just give me another peel. And I'm like no that's not the answer. But sometimes people are just not ready at the time and sometimes we just need to plant those seeds and let them know you know what can actually be seen and what can actually be how powerful food is medicine and just to keep working with them.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
So I have I have both sets yeah well and being able to support people where they're at right because you can you can know the benefits you can preach the benefits but if in if someone is not ready as you said to make those changes there's no amount of you convincing them that is going to make the change. And so you meet them where they are you plant those seeds and it's powerful to see where those seeds can grow in the future.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
Yes. And I've seen them grow for some people because some are like oh I don't know and then I get you know a few months later when they may come back they're like well you know the last time I tried to eat bacon I just kept hearing you say don't eat that bacon don't eat that bacon so it's so funny to hear you know like you're in my mind I can hear you saying stuff and it's like okay well that seed was there. So at least it got you thinking about should I eat this or not? So hey it was it was a win.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah I love that. Well I feel like Dr. Amanda we could talk I think we could talk all day long. This has been a lot of fun. But as we're coming towards the end of the episode I would love to hear from you for someone who is thinking about a plant-based diet they want to learn more about that what where could they go to learn more if they wanted to get started what are some easy ways that someone could get started so easy things people can do the lifestyle medicine actual website which I am a member of that has a lot of patient resources there.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
They even have what they call like jump start to plant-based eating you can get resources there that's very good usually I actually had printed some out for my patients sometimes and like gave them to them to actually get them some more information and it has like different books that they can read with different authors that really hone in on how plant-based eating reverses chronic illness and just for this this one little chuckle that you probably get a kick out of I actually told one of my patients that was diagnosed with diabetes to read one of the books just a chapter of a book of how not to die and she said she was not going to come back to see me because who what kind of doctor tells a patient to go read a book that's what she said. So she but she said but I was curious so I went ahead and listened to it. Like I got the audible and she's like oh my gosh it is definitely life-changing. So I just thought that was funny that she was not going to come back to me at all because I told her to read a book I got a homework assignment yes but that it actually changed her life and how she actually looked at food was different. But anyway that that's a different case but you know there's several resources out there and then also point people to my website www.dramandamd.com where I specifically focus on women who have high blood pressure and diabetes to help them actually make these lifestyle changes and to help them even reverse these illnesses. So all those resources that are so much available.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah absolutely and anything else that we haven't yet had a chance to talk about that you think is really important for my audience to know.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
One quote that changed my life that I always like to point out even in the midst of lifestyle medicine is that you cannot out exercise a bad diet. And that was huge for me because like I said in my own story I started with exercise and then changed my eating habits but that definitely need to know that we can't just like eat anything we want and then just go exercise it all off. It definitely takes a toll on the inside of our body especially our arteries and things there. So you want to make sure you're nourishing your body well in addition to exercising because sometimes when I say that people think I'm anti-exercise then when I say that but you cannot out exercise a bad diet. So make sure you actually nourish your body with good food.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:Yeah I love that. Thank you for sharing that because I think that's it's such a common misconception especially in the calories in versus calories out oversimplification that we often see and there's so much more to it and I think the plant-based diet is a really nice answer to some of those gaps in that equation. And so thank you for sharing that quote I love it. Yes thank you. Amazing well Dr. Amanda thank you so much for joining us today. I know you did give us the information about your website any other places on social media where else can we find you?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:
So yes I'm on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube but if you go to my website you'll be able to connect with me from to all those places. So it's Dr. Amanda Adkins I always spell my last name A-D-K-I-N-S that's totally different than the other Atkins that you may hear.

Dr. Sarah Stombaugh:
Yeah so it's like opposite you know all sort of like all meat all fat versus all plants that's funny the opposite I love that so we'll definitely link we'll link all of that in the show notes we'll have all the information for your website thank you so much for joining us today this has really been a pleasure to get to talk about a plant-based diet I know it's something my listeners are really going to appreciate thank you so much I love talking about it and sometimes I overly excited so hopefully you all still got something from it. Oh I absolutely know they did. To everyone thank you so much for joining us for today's episode you can find all the information for Dr. Amanda Adkins in our show notes. So definitely check her out there and if you are looking for weight loss support in Charlottesville Virginia or throughout the states of Illinois Tennessee or Virginia I would love to connect with you as well SarahStombaughmd.com you can find that in the show notes we'll see you all next week.