The Plantrician Project

Back in the spring of 2013, Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest managed care organization came out in support of plant-based diets.

In an article entitled “Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets”,  published in the Kaiser Permanente Journal in the Spring of 2013,  Philip J. Tuso MD and colleagues provide a convincing case for WFPB diets to Kaiser’s physicians. (1)

Here is how the authors summarize the article’s purpose:

“The purpose of this article is to help physicians understand the potential benefits of a plant-based diet, to the end of working together to create a societal shift toward plant-based nutrition. There is at least moderate-quality evidence from the literature that plant-based diets are associated with significant weight loss and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality compared with diets that are not plant based. These data suggest that plant-based diets may be a practical solution to prevent and treat chronic diseases.”

The authors end the article with this hopeful statement:

“The future of health care will involve an evolution toward a paradigm where the prevention and treatment of disease is centered, not on a pill or surgical procedure, but on another serving of fruits and vegetables

Dr. Tuso has teamed up with the likes of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr and Dr. William Li to establish a movement called “The Plantrician Project”.

They envision:

“ a nation — world—in which the vast majority of physicians and healthcare professionals have experienced the dietary paradigm shift, enthusiastically embracing the health-protecting power of plant-based nutrition, in turn, effectively promoting patient and client adoption of a predoiminantly whole food, plant based (WFPB) lifestyle”.

This project is in its nascent stages, but one of its goals is to:

“develop print and technology-based, educational, implementation and behavior change tools and resources that are patient-specific and can be easily and cost-effectively integrated into the emerging healthcare model that is both value and outcome-based”.

This is an exciting development! I hope you take the opportunity to check out this site and pledge to “Save EC”. You’ll have to watch the short animated film to learn what :”Save EC” means.