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Politician Eric Adams has written a book about plant-based diets to tackle chronic disease in the African American community.
The Brooklyn Borough President says African Americans are heavier and sicker than any other group in the U.S. At this time, nearly half of all Black adults suffering from some form of cardiovascular disease.
Eric Adams describes this as ‘one of the most stubborn health problems in the’ United States.
Health
The title of the book is Healthy at Last: A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses.
Adams’ own journey to good health inspired him to write the book. This started in 2016, when he woke up with severe vision loss one day in 2016.
As a result, he discovered he was one of the nearly 5 million Black people living with diabetes. And, his doctor said, he would have it for the rest of his life.
Eric Adams’ diet
After working as a police office for more than 20 years, Adams had eaten lots of fast-food dollar menu food. Fast food, he says, was ‘easy, cheap, and comfortable’.
As he says, ‘like so many Americans with stressful jobs, the last thing he wanted to think about was eating healthfully’. After continuing his unhealthy diet as a state senator, then as Brooklyn Borough President, it finally caught up with him.
But Adams was ‘not ready to become a statistic’. Instead of opting for medication and shots of insulin, he decided to tackle his health issues with food.
“Within three months of adopting a plant-based diet, he lost 35 pounds. In addition, he lowered his cholesterol by 30 points, restored his vision. He also reversed his diabetes,” says a release about the book. “Now he is on a mission to revolutionize the health. Not just the borough of Brooklyn, but of African Americans across the country.”
‘Hard science and real-life stories’
The book features ‘hard science and real-life stories of those who have transformed their bodies by changing their diet’.
“Adams shares the key steps for a healthy, active life,” says the release. It adds that the book shows readers how they can make healthy swaps. These include avoiding processed food, cutting salt, increasing fiber, and replacing animal meat with plant-based alternatives.
“In the process he explores the origins of soul food-a cuisine deeply important to the Black community, but also one rooted in the horrors of slavery-and how it can be reimagined with healthy alternatives.”
Healthy at Last: A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses features more than 50 recipes from celebrities and health experts, including Paul McCartney, Queen Afua, Jenné Claiborne, Bryant Jennings, Charity Morgan, Moby, and more.
