From The Heart #17: From Fundraiser To Food As Medicine

A packed school gym, 250 tickets, and nearly thirteen thousand dollars raised set the stage for a bigger conversation: how everyday food choices can lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. We share what actually matters for prevention, cutting through hype to focus on the patterns that quietly shape your health over decades.

We unpack how atherosclerosis builds, cholesterol-rich particles slipping into artery walls, inflammation mounting, plaques narrowing flow, and why that “plumbing” model explains angina, heart attacks, TIAs, and strokes.

Then we translate the science into action: the Portfolio diet’s LDL-lowering power, the DASH diet’s blood pressure wins, and the shared core of effective eating styles. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds do the heavy lifting; fermented or lower fat dairy can fit if used thoughtfully; saturated fat stays low, especially if you already have cardiovascular disease.

We also get candid about cancer risk. Processed meat is a group 1 carcinogen, red meat raises risk at modest doses, and high-heat cooking can create harmful compounds. The antidote is not perfection, it’s proportion. We show how to build “super plates” instead of chasing superfoods, why legumes and nuts are reliable anchors, and how to plan a plant-forward pattern that works with your real life. That includes making room for protein powders or fortified shakes when you need convenience, recovery support, or higher protein without force-feeding endless tofu or beans.

If you want practical, sustainable steps that move your numbers and protect your future, this conversation gives you the blueprint: more fiber, fewer saturated fats, fewer ultra-processed calories, and meals you actually want to repeat. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs a nudge toward better habits, and leave a review with the one swap you’ll make this week.

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Peace, love, plants!
Dr. Jules 

Transcript

Community Fundraiser Recap

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Yo, Plumbies buddies. It was a big weekend, so I just want to talk about it to give you a little summary of what went on. So I was asked to do if to contribute to the fundraiser that would go towards financing parts of the school trip for the eighth graders of our local school. My daughter, my oldest daughter, Zara, is an eighth grader going to high school next year. So my wife joined the committee, the parent committee that runs and organizes these fundraisers. And I volunteered to give a conference at the school.

Top Killers Overview

SPEAKER_00 0:41

We talked about our top killers and what we could do to prevent it. And the event ended up ended up selling some something like 250 tickets. We raised almost $13,000. It was $12,834, if I'm correct. An amazing show of people and of generosity from the community. I talked about our top killers, cardiovascular disease, as well as cancers and how lifestyle medicine could help. So cardiovascular disease is unheard of in some parts of the world, but here in the developed countries, and Canada is amongst our top killers. In the world, cardiovascular disease is the top killer, with cancer being second. But if you zoom in to Canada, cancer is the first killer and cardiovascular disease is second. In terms of cancers, it's the big three prostate and colon in men, and breast and colon cancers in women. Now, we're great at screening and diagnosing and treating and investigating and testing, but we're not that great at preventing. Obviously, the goal is to catch it as early as possible, regardless if it's cancer or cardiovascular disease.

How Atherosclerosis Develops

SPEAKER_00 2:06

But the thing is, is that when it comes to cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, the progressive narrowing of arteries that then leads to blockages, it doesn't happen overnight. It happens over decades. And the way it happens is that cholesterol circulating in our arteries in atherogenic particles, that's particles that can enter the artery wall. They do that over decades and they progressively stimulate inflammation in the vessel lining, that creates blockages that we call atherosclerosis. Now that doesn't happen overnight. Cholesterol contributes to it, high blood pressure contributes to it, high blood sugars or diabetes contributes to it, as well as other things that make our arteries more susceptible to the cholesterol sticking to it. So when it comes to cardiovascular disease, it's a problem of plumbing and the blockages happen in the plumbing. And if it blocks in your heart, it's a heart attack or angina. And if it happens in your brain, it will manifest as either a TIA, a transient ischemic attack, neurological symptoms that go away within four hours, typically, or a stroke, permanent neurological dysfunction after that.

Lifestyle Risks You Can Change

SPEAKER_00 3:33

The thing is, is that the main factors for cardiovascular disease are the amount of cholesterol, your high blood pressure, high blood glucose, poor levels of physical activity, and other things that cause inflammation and the aligning, like smoking. So, what I'm saying here is that most of these risk factors are directly related to lifestyle.

Diets That Lower Cholesterol And BP

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Cholesterol has a definite genetic component, but studies show that diets like the portfolio diet can reduce cholesterol up to 30%, and that's as much as a lodostatin, like lovastatin. Blood pressure can absolutely respond to dietary approaches like the DASH diet. The DASH diet is the dietary approach for stopping hypertension, DASH, and has been shown to reduce blood pressure. Now, if you look at diets and their impacts on chronic disease, a lot of them have common themes. They're rich in fruits and veggies and legumes and whole grains and nuts and seeds, and they build the foundation of that diet. Now, regardless if you add animal products to that diet or junk food here and there, if the bulk of your diet and the foundation of your diet is made out of real whole plant foods from these food groups, you will likely get better outcomes. Your blood pressure, your cholesterol, your blood sugar, your body weight, your inflammation, everything will be better in general.

Shared Diet Principles Across Diseases

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Now, if you look at the recommendations in terms of cancer, they're actually quite similar. People who eat more fiber, less saturated fat, and a healthier diet all overall will get lower rates of cancer, regardless of type. So that means that the same recommendations that apply to cardiovascular disease, stroke, higher blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, inflammation are the same principles that apply to cancer. We want people to avoid ultra-processed foods making up too much of their calories. And we want people to minimize the amount of process and red meats in their diet because they're, well, processed meat is a group one carcinogen, meaning that it is dose-dependent related to cancer. And the increase in cancer is going to be shown at very low doses, like 30 to 50 grams, consumed on a regular basis. Whereas red meat is more higher doses, like 100 grams, which is about 3 to 3.5 ounces. So it's not that much. If you consume that regularly over time, it will increase the risk of cancer. Now, it will also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease because it's rich in saturated fat

Processed And Red Meat Risks

SPEAKER_00 6:28

and cholesterol and heme iron and other compounds that generate inflammation when they're cooked, like advanced glycation end products or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. What I'm seeing here is that when people ask me what's the best diet for hypertension or for cholesterol or for inflammation or for diabetes or for cancer and other chronic dis conditions, chronic diseases, typically these dietary patterns are very similar. If you look at the mind diet, the diet shown to reduce progression towards Alzheimer and maybe even improve cognitive function. Basically the same principles. If you're going to include animal products in your diet, make sure that is low

Choosing A Plant-Forward Pattern

SPEAKER_00 7:23

fat or fermented dairy. Consider reducing and minimizing saturated fat, which means you do not want to have more than 10% of your daily calories coming from saturated fat. Now, saturated fat is 9 calories per gram, which means that if your 10% of your diet has to be less than than that in saturated fat, well, a 2,000 calorie diet will be less than 200 calories from saturated fat. And at 9 calories per gram, you're at somewhere between 20 to 24 grams for most people, which is super easy to hit when you're eating a lot of animal products. So it doesn't need to be zero, just needs to be as low as possible. And for those of you who already have a diagnosis of either heart disease or cardiovascular disease, recommendations are to keep it even lower than 5 to 6% of daily calories. Basically, what we're saying is eat more fiber, eat less saturated fats, and that typically relates to eating a plant-forward diet. Now, whether you call it plant-forward, plant-predominant, plant exclusive, plant curious, plant-centered, what we're saying is that diets that are centered around fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, and make up the bulk of your calories, over 70 to 80% of daily calories, are anti-inflammatory. We need to zoom out and look at patterns of eating more than specific foods or specific nutrients. So when people ask me what my favorite superfood is, I really don't think there are

Superfoods Vs Super Plates

SPEAKER_00 9:09

great superfoods out there. There are super plates, super meals that you eat over time that lead to super dietary patterns. Now, if I am to single out a specific food because I am forced to, I'll probably say legumes, beans, chickpeas, lentils, or soybeans. I'll probably say something like nuts, right? Not this magical tropical berry that no one can access. Simple foods you can buy in bulk very cheaply, you can cook at home quickly, that contain complex carbs, healthy fats, fiber, and some protein, right? So, but I want to make sure that people understand that it's not single foods or single nutrients that will make you healthy, it is the overall dietary pattern. Now, if that overall dietary pattern is rich in fiber, minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals, is low in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, and rich in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated healthy fats, I mean, typically that's a healthy dietary pattern. And if that's your diet and you're eating mostly whole foods, you are basically on a plant-based diet. Now, plant-based simply is an umbrella term that means you're eating most of your calories from foods that are whole, that are minimally processed and come from a plant from a tree or grown the ground. So the term plant-based has been hijacked and is often used for marketing purposes to make something appear more trendy. But at the end of the day, if you're eating a flexitarian diet that just minimizes red meat, or you're eating a vegetarian diet or a pescatarian diet, or you're eating according to the food guide, you're eating a Mediterranean diet or a Daesh diet, these are all plant-based diets. They're all plant predominant.

Planning, Exceptions, And Protein

SPEAKER_00 11:11

So I think that what I want to make sure that people understand here is that a dietary pattern is what will kind of correlate with your risk of chronic disease. Now, for some people who have chronic disease that are more severe, more advanced, more longstanding, or that are associated with medical complications already. Sometimes we need that intervention to go plant predominant to be at a higher dose. Now, if you have more severe disease, you might want to follow that spectrum closer to more of your calories coming from whole plants. But if you do that, you need to plan more. Now, I advocate for a whole food plant-based diet for the majority of your calories on the majority of days. But I also understand that some people don't want to do that. And when some people go whole food plant-based and it's not well planned, you can run into nutrient deficiencies. If you are only eating specific foods, it's easy to eat a diet that is so low in calorie density that you'll actually have trouble gaining weight. Now, that means in most of my content is made specifically for people who want to prevent chronic disease, but I'll give you an example. If you break your hip tomorrow and at the hospital, they're like, you're gonna eat a whole food plant-based diet because that's what you ordered. If you have low appetite, if you are not hungry, if you're feeling nauseous, maybe difficult to get all of these calories through whole foods. You might want to consider processed, more calorie-dense foods if you're not able to eat a lot. And if you are after recovering from a surgery or from a medical condition, you might need to supplement with protein shakes or with Boost or NSHORE or other protein supplements because it could be very difficult for you to meet that higher protein requirement or protein need in a

The Big Takeaway: Patterns Over Time

SPEAKER_00 13:24

certain medical emergency or condition. So what I'm saying here is that in terms of primary prevention, preventing diseases before they happen, I absolutely advocate for eating most of your calories from whole plant foods that are minimally processed. But in certain situations, that can actually, if unplanned, can actually put people at a risk for more deficiencies, right? So my goal here is if you want to go on a 100% whole food plant-based diet, as I've done for the last 30, 12, 13 years, it is clearly possible to do it. But you need to have the good information. Now, my goal that was to reduce the risk of chronic disease to a minimum. But I still consume some processed foods like protein powders, for example, because I'm an athlete and I'm not trying to eat four cups of beans or to eat two cups of tofu every single day just to get protein. So I do rely on quick, convenient ways to increase my protein content. That's not a failure, that's me implementing a strategy that's been proven to help, and that's convenient and then I that I like, right? So I'd say, in that way, if you consider protein powder as like a processed food, I see 99% of my calories are coming from whole plant foods. Now I've had people message me saying, I cannot believe you use protein powder is so process. Do not let perfect be the enemy of being better. And if you look at the scientific literature, even though pro plant-based protein powders are processed, they're associated with beneficial outcomes. So just because something is processed doesn't mean that it's bad. But I've spoken at length about this topic on my podcast, and I've actually recorded a new episode this year to talk specifically about that. That wasn't the goal today of that video. The goal was simply to talk about patterns. Patterns over time are what are correlated with health and protecting you against chronic disease. So just keep that in mind rather than zooming in on specific foods or specific superfoods or nutrients. Focus on building a superplate that you can sustain over time. Cool.