Personal story: Forks Over Knives Changed My Health and How I Treat My Patients (2013)

Interview with Dr James Loomis:

(A) The first part is a candid personal narrative by Dr James Loomis (Internal Medicine) - how did he adopt WFPB?

He became overweight, with high cholesterol, sleep apnea and metabolic syndrome. Doctors prescribed him medicines; no doctor asked him about his diet and lifestyle.

Luckily, he chanced upon Forks Over Knives documentary on NetFlix. That was a turning point. He immediately browsed through research papers and within 2 days was convinced of WFPB!

Within 3 months of WFPB adoption, his cholesterol dropped from 260 to 150, sleep apnea went away, he lost 30 lbs, metabolic syndrome went away, a-fib went away.

(B) The second part narrates challenges that Dr Loomis has faced in educating both patients and other clinicians.

Dr Loomis laments that we have a 'sick care system', not a 'health care system'; doctors are trained to dole out medicine after medicine, thereby not necessarily treating the root cause of the sickness. He narrates an anecdote: when his diabetic patients started getting better, their endocrinologist would ask them, "your numbers look better, what are you doing?" When the patient would say, "my internal medicine doctor (Dr Loomis) told me to adopt WFPB", a concern emerged: "isn't that malpractice?" Such concerns arise largely because physicians have very little exposure to nutrition education in medical schools today, and clinical guidelines don't emphasize WFPB adoption.

Another interview with Dr James Loomis: