Lāʻau Nohona

Lāʻau Nohona - Lifestyle Medicine
ʻAi Holoʻokoʻa, Kuapapa Lāʻau - Whole Food, Plant-Based

Keokani earned a Bachelor of Science degree in--carnistic and reductionist--Community Nutrition (in 1999) from the University of California at Davis, and a Master of Science degree in Exercise Science (in 2004) from California University of Pennsylvania

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Nā Kumu no ka Papaʻai Lāʻau - Rationale for Plant-Based Eating

Health - Reduce lifestyle diseases and foodborne illness.
Environment - Reduce environmental degradation and the carbon footprint of humanity.
Animals - Reduce suffering of sentient beings and expand our compassion footprint.
Hunger - Reduce starvation by breeding less animals for food, so grains can be fed directly to people instead of livestock.
Antibiotics - Reduce emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria developed by factory farming.
Pandemics - Reduce emergence of zoonotic diseases from wet markets, factory farms, and land deforested for livestock.
Economics - Reduce taxpayer subsidies to animal agriculture for artificially lower prices of meat, eggs, and dairy.
Cost - Reduce spending on food since produce and other plant-based whole foods are cheaper than animal-based foods.
Taste - Maximize flavor since plant-based food science has caught up to the texture and flavor of animal-based foods.

No nā Kumu Olakino - For Health Reasons

Personal Health - Prevent, treat, and reverse lifestyle diseases and foodborne illness
Public Health - Prevent zoonotic pandemics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria produced by factory farming
Mental Health - Prevent mental health problems caused by lockdowns resulting from zoonotic pandemics
Economic Health - Prevent economic devastation caused by lockdowns resulting from zoonotic pandemics
Population Health - Prevent hunger caused by feeding the majority of agricultural grains to livestock instead of humans
Environmental Health - Prevent environmental damage and climate change driven by human demand for animal protein
Animal Health - Prevent harm to farm animals and wild animals driven by human demand for animal protein

In short: eat well, move more, stress less, love more. That’s it. Boom!

Here’s the bottom line: the only diet that has been scientifically proven to reverse heart disease, to slow, stop, or reverse early-stage prostate cancer, and to reverse aging by lengthening telomeres (among other benefits) is a whole-foods plant-based diet low in both fat and refined carbohydrates.

People who feel lonely, depressed, and isolated are three to ten times more likely to get sick and die prematurely from virtually all causes when compared to those who have strong feelings of love, connection and community.

-- Dean Ornish, MD

It is ironic that eating unhealthy foods damages us in a way that makes healthy eating unappealing.

99 percent of the time that humans have existed on this planet as a distinct species, they did not have the tools needed to hunt and kill big animals for food—they were eating mostly fiber-rich plants.

For a diet to be considered healthful, at least 90 percent of its calories should come from vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and intact whole grains.

The average age of death should be 100 years old, not 80. Most people should live between 90 and 110 years, and they would if they ate super healthfully and avoided exposure to dangerous carcinogens.

The key to living healthfully to 100 years of age is to eat a nutrient-dense, plant-based diet that is rich in lifespan-enhancing, anticancer superfoods.

-- Joel Fuhrman, MD

The ideal human diet looks like this: Consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible ("whole" foods). Eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added salt, oil, and sugar. Aim to get 80 percent of your calories from carbohydrates, 10 percent from fat, and 10 percent from protein.

Unlike a vegan diet, which is also disruptive to the meat and dairy industries, the WFPB diet threatens to disrupt the most pervasive characteristic of the status quo in nutrition today: confusion. In the simplicity of its message and the strength of its supporting evidence, it offers clarity.

-- T. Colin Campbell, PhD

The fear surrounding carbs is appropriately placed with the refined carbs in processed foods, but completely misplaced with the unrefined carbs found in whole plant foods.

-- Will Bulsiewicz, MD, MSCI

Any natural diet, as long as it contains a sufficient amount of calories, will always—I repeat, always—fulfill your body’s need for protein.

-- John McDougall, MD

Yes, there is calcium in cheese, protein in pork, and iron in beef, but what about all the baggage that comes along with these nutrients—the dose of dairy hormones, the lard, the saturated fat?

To this day, the nutrition and dietetic professions remain focused on what nutrients we may be lacking, but most of our chronic diseases may have more to do with what we’re getting too much of.

When the Guidelines tell you to eat less added sugar, calories, cholesterol, saturated fat, sodium, and trans fat, that’s code for eat less junk food, less meat, less dairy, fewer eggs, and fewer processed foods.

I think of oil as the table sugar of the fat kingdom.

Every time you put something in your mouth, it’s a lost opportunity to put something even healthier in there.

In general, the dividing line between health-promoting and disease-promoting foods may be less plant- versus animal-sourced foods and more whole plant foods versus most everything else.

A more plant-based diet may help prevent, treat, or reverse every single one of our fifteen leading causes of death.

I don’t advocate for a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet. I advocate for an evidence-based diet, and the best available balance of science suggests that the more whole plant foods we eat, the better—both to reap their nutritional benefits and to displace less healthful options.

This is why I prefer the term whole-food, plant-based nutrition. The best available balance of evidence suggests the healthiest diet is one that minimizes the intake of meat, eggs, dairy, and processed junk, and maximizes the intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils), whole grains, nuts and seeds, mushrooms, and herbs and spices—basically, real food that grows out of the ground. Those are our healthiest choices.

What do I mean by whole food? I mean a food that is not overly processed. In other words, nothing bad has been added, and nothing good has been taken away.

Discriminating shoppers make it a priority to read ingredients lists, but the healthiest foods in the supermarket don’t even have them.

On average, plant foods contain sixty-four times more antioxidants than animal foods.

Because meat is less nutritious and costs more, vegetables net you forty-eight times more nutrition per dollar than meat.

It’s really the day-to-day stuff that matters most. What you eat on special occasions is insignificant compared to what you eat day in and day out.

Try to make sure as many of your calories—whether from protein, carbs, or fat—are encased in cell walls. In other words, get as many of your calories from whole, intact plant foods.

Glancing at my plate, I can imagine one quarter of it filled with grains, one quarter with legumes, and a half plate filled with vegetables, along with maybe a side salad and fruit for dessert.

Plant-based nutrition is the only diet that’s ever been proven to reverse heart disease in the majority of patients. If that’s all a plant-based diet could do— reverse our number one killer— then shouldn’t that be the default diet until proven otherwise?

There is only one way of eating that’s ever been proven to reverse heart disease in the majority of patients, a diet centered around whole plant foods. Anytime anyone tries to sell you on some new diet, ask just one simple question: “Has it been proven to reverse heart disease?” (You know, the most likely cause of death for you and everyone you love?) If it hasn’t, why would you even consider it?

Why are beans, nuts, and whole grains so health promoting? Maybe it’s because they are all seeds. Think about it: All it takes for an acorn to explode into an oak tree is water, air, and sunlight. Everything else is contained within the seed, which possesses the entire complex of protective nutrients required to mature into a plant or tree. Whether you’re eating a black bean, a walnut, a grain of brown rice, or a sesame seed, in essence you’re getting the whole plant in a tiny little package.

The best way to survive a pandemic is not to have one in the first place.

We may be one bushmeat meal away from the next HIV, one pangolin plate away from the next killer coronavirus, and one factory farm away from the next deadly flu.

Most of the human infectious diseases that exist today originally came from animals.

The diseases we contracted through the domestication of animals may have been critical for the European conquest of the Americas in which as many as 95 percent of the indigenous peoples were decimated by plagues the Europeans brought with them.

The reason the plagues had never touched the Americas is that there were far fewer domesticated herd animals.

-- Michael Greger, MD, FACLM

NutritionFacts.org may be the best nutrition science website on the planet.

-- Terry Shintani, MD, JD, MPH

If you are only reducing the amount of animal products you consume, rather than going entirely vegetarian or vegan, the most effective way to reduce animal suffering is to stop eating chicken, then eggs, then pork.

-- William MacAskill

Carnism is the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions people to eat certain animals.

Carnism is such a powerful force in our relationships that it turns a partnership into a triangle—a relationship between us, the other, and carnism.

Carnism is an invisible intruder in “veg/nonveg” relationships, triangulating them and distorting both parties' perceptions.

Carnism can undermine the well-being of otherwise secure and connected relationships if it remains undetected.

Parents who raise their children vegan are seen as imposing their veganism on their children, while non-vegans are never seen as imposing their carnism on their children.

If we believe in veganism but are not yet ready to become fully vegan, we can commit to reducing our participation in carnism over time. Often, where we are on the spectrum of carnism-veganism is less important than where we are heading.

I have little doubt that one day, veganism will replace carnism as the dominant ideology. The question, to me, is not whether, but when.

-- Melanie Joy, PhD

Being vegan isn’t about personal purity or about moral superiority. It’s about making a conscious choice to widen your circle of compassion by avoiding animal exploitation, as far as is possible and practical. It’s about becoming more other-centered and less self-centered. If you strive to avoid animal products and activities that exploit animals, you already are vegan, even if you slip on occasion. There are no vegan police scrutinizing card-carrying vegans. If there were, our numbers would rapidly diminish.

-- Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina

We teach our clients to use 'rare and appropriate' (R&A) in place of cheat days. R&A is based on people and places, not the time between events. When people commit to a cheat day every week or month, the timing often drives the cheat. With R&A, you might find yourself in a small temple in China with a local who's offering not only an impassioned piece of their culture, but something you likely won't experience again. Treasure these moments and deviate. If every meal is a celebration, no meals are celebrations. Moderation is a worn path to living with old habits and often hides all the amazing foods and flavors you've yet to appreciate.

-- Julieanna Hever and Ray Cronise