"My parents ate predominantly plant-based but they were vegetarian. They had some meat periodically. My dad went through some sickness and so when I was a board certified interventional cardiologist, he got sick. And that was pretty devastating."

"Around that time, patients started asking me, "Hey doc, what should I eat?" And as we all know, we aren't taught this in med school. So I kind of sat there and I just went to Barnes Noble. I didn't go to the science library. I went to Barnes Noble's — just started picking up books with doctor's names on it."

"But it was after my dad passed away from his illness that I really started delving into it hard. It was around that time that I stumbled on Caldwell Esselstyn's book that struck me in terms of preventing reverse heart disease. The chapter that really jumped out at me in that moment was "Moderation Kills! And I thought to myself, "you know, this is my dad."

"If you were to sit and look at his lifestyle: he didn't smoke, he didn't drink, he wasn't obese, he liked sweets, he didn't eat a ton of meat at all — pretty rarely. But for him, that moderation was enough to kill him!"

"[His food choices] perpetuated his diabetes that led to the onslaught on various organ systems and so that just resonated with me. I knew in that moment that I had to make his memory last and I had to apply those principles from his life to my patients and to people who are willing to listen to me.

"I like the way Neal Barnard talks about it. He says, "you know, you don't want to do moderate drugs or your kids doing moderate bad things, only moderate good things" and that really resonates with me."