About 12 years ago while in residency training at the University of Southern California (USC) in internal medicine, I was having lunch with my friend Sara, who was eating a plate of healthy food with a bunch of vegetables without a piece of meat on her plate. Sara always looked slim and fit with perfect skin, while I was always chubby and out of shape. I had a big greasy beef burger with melted cheese and grilled onions on top, which I was enjoying with other greasy stuff like the French fries on the side of my plate. The burger was bigger that the size of my head and I was planning to eat every bit of it. I looked over at Sara’s plate and asked, “Where’s your meat? Is that all you’re going to eat?” 

She looked at me and said “I’m a vegetarian.” I said “What? Why are you a vegetarian?” 

I was expecting a random answer and was planning to make fun of her diet shortly after she answered my question. She replied “Because I love animals and I can’t eat them.” 

Suddenly I paused and found myself speechless. To cut a long story short, as an animal lover who had a pet dog at the time, I suddenly made that connection and that was the last piece of meat I ever ate.

To cut a long story short, as an animal lover who had a pet dog at the time, I suddenly made that connection and that was the last piece of meat I ever ate.

I continued to live a vegetarian lifestyle until 3 years ago, May 2014 when I attended a seminar held by my brother where he spoke against dairy. He said “if you want to lose weight, stop drinking milk which is just sugar water and supposed to make you fat.”

At the time I was overweight, out of shape, extremely fatigued where I could barely get out of bed in the morning, demotivated, and depressed. My entire body used to hurt like the fibromyalgia pain people describe. I used to be covered with eczema lesions from head to toe and scratched my skin all day and all night. I used to even have a diagnosis of pustular eczema which manifested as ugly itchy pustuluar lesions on the palm of my hands. I used to go through several tubes of steroid cream to get through the day and took Benadryl to sleep through the night without itching.

At the seminar, I planned to give up dairy to lose weight, so I said to my cousin Mahsa who is also a vegan, “I’m so proud of myself for not having had meat for many years to help the animals, but now I’m going to give up dairy to lose weight.” She smiled and replied “well, if you’re doing it for the animals, you should know the dairy industry is far more cruel to the animals than the meat industry.”

I said “what? What do you mean?” She started going on and on about the cruel practices but she had me convinced after the first sentence which I can’t remember the specifics of. At that moment I made the full connection and decided to commit to a full vegan diet for life, not only for health, but also for the welfare of the animals.

She went on to say “as a doctor, you should watch Forks Over Knives.” She said “I think every doctor should watch that documentary.”

It wasn’t until later I discovered about the environment and child hunger etc…but as the result of the seminar and my conversation with Mahsa, many lives have changed and many people have escaped heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.

So I started eating an extremely healthy whole food plant based diet starting May 2014, and by January 2015 (8 months later) I was in the best shape of my life. I lost close to 30 pounds! I had always lifted weights and exercised, so I already had good muscle mass, but I was overweight and unhealthy from the inside. I entered a bikini competition January 2015 and stood on that stage in a bikini which was beyond my wildest dreams. I even have a trophy to show for it!

To my surprise, my eczema has completely cleared and I haven’t had a flare up for three years!!! I must have seen 3 different dermatologists for the problem and used a truck load of steroid cream and Benadryl to clear out my skin, and not once did I ever hear from a dermatologist to stop eating dairy. Since then, I have been educating patients with acne, and eczema regarding the dangers of dairy and helping them clear their skin holistically by eating a plant based diet. In a way, I’m glad I had health problems, because I’m in a position to influence millions of people, so better me than someone else I guess.