Healthy at Last: A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses

Praise for

HEALTHY AT LAST

"I can personally attest to the truth Eric shares within the pages of Healthy at Last. This book exposes the injustices within our current food system and the evolution from slave food to soul food. It explains how what we eat is killing us and plaguing us with chronic illness, but not without offering a clear path forward toward eating to live and providing you with the tools necessary to take it. Eric’s book will empower you to change your life and the lives of those around you."

— Rev. Al Sharpton

Heart disease, type 2 diabetes, early-stage prostate cancer, hypertension, and other chronic diseases may often be reversed and prevented by changing diet and lifestyle. In this important and compelling book, Eric Adams describes how. Highly recommended.

— Dean Ornish, M.D., the father of lifestyle medicine and author of five New York Times bestsellers including UnDo It

"Eric Adams is living proof of the power that a plant-based diet has on the prevention, effective treatment, and even the reversal of type 2 diabetes. In Healthy at Last he delivers practical, life-changing, life-saving recipes for good health."

— Dexter W. Shurney, M.D., M.P.H., president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine

"Eric’s powerful story is so important and contains a message we all need to hear. Healthy at Last will motivate you and give you the tools you need to transform your relationship with food into one that is healing. I full-heartedly recommend this book. Never stop learning."

— Papoose, lyricist, entrepreneur, owner of Black Love clothing, and television star

"Healthy at Last furthered my appreciation of the power of plants and their ability to prevent and reverse chronic illnesses. The easy, healthy recipes included are amazing! Thank you, Eric, for this gift."

— Remy Ma, award-wining rapper

"To be healthy, we must educate ourselves on what’s harming us and what’s not harming us. Healthy at Last will educate and inspire you to take control of your health and change your life."

— Fat Joe, rapper and actor

This book will inspire anyone who refuses to surrender to battling diabetes and high blood pressure. Eric is a true example that you can conquer disease with plant-based cooking.

— June Ambrose, creative director and author of Effortless Style

Copyright © 2020 by Eric Adams

Published in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com®

Indexer: Joan Shapiro

Cover design: Jordon Wannemacher

Interior design: Nick C. Welch

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use—other than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews—without prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Adams, Eric, author.

Title: Healthy at last : a plant-based approach to preventing and reversing diabetes and other chronic illnesses / Eric Adams.

Description: 1st edition. | Carlsbad, California : Hay House, Inc., 2020. | Identifiers: LCCN 2020026112 | ISBN 9781401960568 (hardback) | ISBN 9781401960575 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Diabetes—Popular works. | Diabetes—Diet therapy—Popular works. | Diabetes—Exercise therapy—Popular works. | African Americans—Health and hygiene. | African Americans—Diseases.

Classification: LCC RC662 .A32 2020 | DDC 616.4/62—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020026112

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4019-6056-8

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-4019-6073-5

E-book ISBN: 978-1-4019-6057-5

To my mother, Dorothy Adams.

You gave me the gift of life, and

then I gave you the gift of health.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction: My Health Journey

Chapter 1: The Science of Plant-Based Nutrition

Chapter 2: The Real Origins of Soul Food

Chapter 3: Eric’s Guide to Becoming Healthy at Last

Getting Started

Create a Network of Support

Don’t Feel Like You Have to Go Cold Tofurky (Unless You Really Want To)

Smile and Laugh

Making the Switch

Eat a Plant-Based Diet

Avoid Processed Food

Unearth New Fruits and Vegetables

Eat Whole

Skip the Oil

Eat Your Fiber

Make Your Gut Happy

Drink Well

Cut the Salt and Sugar

Find Wonderful New Foods

Planning Your Meals

Learn about Nutritional Density

Don’t Confuse Vegan with Healthy

Search out Excellent, Tasty Recipes

Think Whole Foods, Not Junk Foods

Eat Good Fat. Don’t Eat Bad Fat.

Educate Yourself on Vitamins and Minerals

Forget about Protein

Eat Greens for Calcium

Pack Vitamins and Minerals into Your Diet

Fortify Your Body with Plant-Based Iron

Shopping

Shop Smart and Save Money

Learn How to Read Food Labels

Make Your Kitchen a Smart Kitchen

Eat the Spices of Life

Dine out Smart

Move Your Body

Redefine the Word Exercise

Take the Stairs (and Other Daily Tips)

Breathe

Keeping It Going

Find a Spiritual Practice

Never Beat Yourself Up

Ask for Help

Proceed at Your Own Pace

Watch Your Weight (Drop)

Don’t Brag (When You Start Looking Oh So Good)

Have Fun!

Get in Touch with Me

Chapter 4: Recipes

Endnotes

Index

Acknowledgments

About the Author

FOREWORD

I grew up in Chicago’s South Side during the 1960s, a time when most of my friends and family ate what today we call soul food. Think barbequed ribs, pickled pigs’ feet, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, and other foods that are deeply rooted in African American culture. These recipes have been passed down from generation to generation since slavery, and have been with us during the best and worst moments in our history. But the origins of soul food are more complicated: On the plantation, these foods were the scraps that white families refused to eat. Our ancestors were forced to make do with food like chitlins (pig intestines), ham hocks, and oxtail. It was up to ingenious Black slaves to find a way to survive.

I was fortunate enough to have a mother who came to see another problematic trait of soul food. When I was 11, she decided to enroll at the local junior college, where she took a biology class that would change our lives. Her professor had read about cholesterol and heart disease and their ties to diet. No one should be eating animal food, he explained, if they want to be healthy. My mom came home from class and announced that we were now vegetarians.

Thanks to that biology class, she learned what we all should have known: soul food is extremely harmful. And not just pork ribs and fried chicken, but all animal products. This is the source of so many African Americans developing premature heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other chronic diseases.

I embraced my mother’s beliefs while learning the rudiments of cardiac pathology in medical school during the 1970s, and then cardiology training in the 1980s. As I discovered the innerworkings of the heart, I learned just how right my mother was all those years ago. Cooking and eating animals—especially in the unhealthy ways of the soul-food tradition—has helped African Americans become the sickest demographic in the country.

By the early 2000s there was extensive medical literature about both nutrition-induced mortality and about health-care inequities and poor outcomes in African Americans, but little about the intersection of the two. In the United States, Black people have a 21 percent higher rate of cardiovascular death compared to white people. That’s due to several glaring underlying disparities: poorer access to care, lower levels of higher education and health literacy, and the implicit bias of some physicians and medical centers, to name just a few.

However, the usual diet of the African American community has become a nearly insurmountable burden on our health. Fried foods, refined grains, sweets, and animal products laden with saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium all contribute to the pandemic of hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity, which in turn lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, heart failure, and premature death. When combined with a lack of quality health care access, these underlying health problems also mean that African Americans are more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than white Americans.

After decades of diagnosing and treating heart disease, I’ve devoted much of my medical practice, leadership, and advocacy to helping people reverse their chronic diseases through plant-based nutrition. I’m proud to work alongside champions like Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who wasn’t as fortunate as I was to understand the dangers of animal products at an early age. He grew up eating soul food, and later, as a police officer, he ate its modern day incarnation: fast food. At the ripe old age of 56, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

His doctor said that his diabetes was permanent; he’d have to deal with the vision loss, nerve pain, and other debilitating effects for life. But Eric embraced the same plant-based philosophy that my mother did so many years ago. As you’ll soon read, within months Eric was able to completely cure his diabetes and feel healthier than ever before. What’s more, he was able to find easy and creative ways to honor our heritage by recreating traditional soul-food recipes with healthy plant-based alternatives.

In this wonderful book, Eric authoritatively intermingles history, nutrition, and the cultural practices that have had such profound consequences on the African American community. When he discusses the chains that the Emancipation Proclamation failed to remove, producing the Black package of preventable, diet-induced diseases, I think of my own mother, who so wisely understood the dangers of unhealthy food long before most did.

As you read Healthy at Last, you might think that Eric’s transformation is miraculous. You might think that his case is unique, and that you surely can’t achieve the same results. But to me, his outcome was business as usual. I see it every single day in my office, with patients even sicker than he was.

And so, I want you to keep this in mind as you read: You can do this, too. If you have a loved one suffering from heart disease or diabetes, they can do this, too. Please join Eric and me on this plant-based journey. Together we can cure the health epidemic that has so thoroughly devastated our community—one bite at a time.

Kim Allan Williams, Sr., M.D., MACC, FAHA, MASNC, FESC

James B. Herrick Professor Chief, Division of Cardiology

Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention

Rush University Medical Center

INTRODUCTION

My Health Journey

In March 2016, life was good. I had the best job in the world: representing Brooklyn as borough president. I had just turned 56. I felt healthy. Maybe I was a bit overweight, but so were most people my age. I exercised regularly, and like all New Yorkers, I walked everywhere. I even got on the basketball court now and then.

I looked and felt fine—that is, until the day I woke up blind.

Terrified, I blinked my eyes rapidly, willing the world around me to come back into focus. Finally, I could barely make out the outline of my alarm clock. I stumbled to the mirror and saw, to my horror, that my right eye was bloodshot. I couldn’t see anything out of the left. My stomach felt like I had swallowed acid. I had spent 22 years as a New York City police officer patrolling violent neighborhoods, investigating homicides, and raiding drug dens, but none of that prepared me for the fear I felt that March morning.

I immediately went to my doctor’s office. The stomach pain turned out to be an ulcer, he explained, but my vision would probably be impaired for the rest of my life.

Why? I asked.

Eric, he said grimly. I ordered an A1c test, the one that measures your blood sugar percentage. A normal level is between 4 and 5.6 percent. An A1c level over 6.5 means you have full-blown diabetes.

What’s my A1c level? I asked.

The doctor cleared his throat. Seventeen percent.

Everything seemed to go numb. The kind of people who had A1c levels like that were wheelchair-bound and were taking regular insulin shots, or so I thought. I weighed 210 pounds—how could I be like them?

Your high blood sugar damaged the blood vessels behind your eyes, my doctor continued. That’s what caused the vision loss.

There must be some mistake . . . I stammered.

He shook his head. With that A1c level, you’re lucky you’re not in a coma. He whipped out his pad and prescribed insulin along with a battery of other medications. Unfortunately diabetes is very common among African Americans, Eric. You’re going to have to get used to the meds. You’ll be on them for the rest of your life.

DNA OR DINNER?

All of a sudden, I had diabetes. It would define the rest of my life. Everywhere I went, everything I did, I would have to keep in mind: Is this safe with my condition?

At first I obeyed my doctor’s orders. What else could I do? After all, he went through four years of medical school, a residency, a fellowship, and many years of practice to arrive at his conclusion. If he said I’d need meds for the rest of my life, surely he was right.

And so I went about my normal business. I learned to live with my impaired vision. But then came the side effects from the medication: the upset stomach and general fatigue. Moreover, the pills didn’t help the general aches and pains I started having after 40. Whenever I saw a clock, I thought of my own life slowly winding down.

Like many Black people, diabetes runs in my family. We even have our own word for it: sugar. When I was growing up, it seemed that everyone in the family eventually came down with it. After my aunt Mary was diagnosed with sugar, she brought a colorful pill organizer wherever she went. I thought that was normal. After my mother was diagnosed with sugar, she had to get regular insulin injections. That was normal. When my aunt Betty died of sugar at age 57—that, too, was normal.

I remember attending a family reunion with my mother not long after Betty’s death. When we arrived, I realized Mom had forgotten her diabetes medication. We have to go back for them, I told her. But Mom rolled her eyes and yelled out to the family, Anyone have any diabetes medicine I can take? Nearly everyone in the room pulled out a plastic case and shook their pillboxes in unison.

My family had pills that were every color of the rainbow: metformin, sulfonylureas, statins, blood pressure medications, and many others. As a kid I watched my family rely on these drugs, and now, at age 56, it was my turn. When I left the pharmacy after my diagnosis, I thought: Is this really my future? I had put myself through college, worked my way up from a beat cop to a captain to the New York State Senate and then to Brooklyn Borough Hall. I had a plan to become mayor of New York one day. I stared at those sad little pills in that sad little box and thought: I’ve come too far to live out of a pillbox, man. There must be a better way. A healthier way.

When I asked my doctor about other options, he held up his hands. I’m sorry, Eric. There aren’t any. If you lose some weight and stay on your meds, we might be able to keep your diabetes from getting worse. That’s the best you can hope for.

That’s the best I could hope for? I wasn’t going to accept that. I wasn’t going to accept a bad situation and just live with it. I certainly didn’t do that after I was arrested for trespassing at age 15. It was a dumb thing to do, but the white cops thought it was appropriate to take me to the basement of the 103rd precinct, beat me up, and toss me into a juvenile detention center. Instead of accepting that this was how police officers would always treat young people of color, I vowed to join that same force and change it from within. As a police captain, I co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, an advocacy group focused on improving relations between police officers and African Americans. When I was elected to the New York State Senate, I fought vehemently against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy and other forms of racial profiling.

There are some things you just don’t accept, and bad health is one of them. My family and my doctor believed that sugar was genetic. It’s just something that happens when you get older, they said, especially for Black folks. As a former police officer, though, I knew better than to take anything for granted. I was going to evaluate the situation based on the evidence and come to an informed conclusion, just like I would at a crime scene. Was chronic disease and pain encoded into my DNA? Or was there something else going on?

The obvious place to look was my diet—one born from long hours on the beat. For many years I worked the midnight to 8 A.M. shift, so there weren’t many quality food options available. There was only fast food. I became a connoisseur of the dollar menu. I’d roll my patrol car through the McDonald’s drive-through at midnight for a double cheeseburger, swing by KFC at 2 A.M. for coffee and fried