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A doctor has told the USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee about how she reversed her lupus by following a plant-based diet.
Dr. Brooke Goldner, the creator of the Healing Protocol for Lupus Recovery, is known globally as the bestselling author of Goodbye Lupus.
USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee
She told her story while testifying to the Advisory Committee, which is comprised of nationally recognized nutrition and medical researchers, academics, and practitioners.
The committee updates the Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years. It invites experts to speak and share current scientific and medical evidence in nutrition.
Sharing a video of her speech on social media, Dr. Goldner wrote: “Today I testified for the 2020 USDA Dietary Guidelines Committee. I was honored to give my testimony and to fight on behalf of the American public to encourage the USDA to stop giving into pressure from industries and instead do what is right for human health.”
Lupus
During her talk, Dr. Goldner talked about how lupus – an autoimmune disease that sees the individual’s immune system become hyperactive and attack healthy tissue – affected her life.
“Before I became a doctor, I was a patient,” she said. “I was diagnosed at 16-years-old with lupus. I had stage 4 kidney failure, I had blood clots, I had mini-strokes. I endured years of chemotherapy and steroids just to survive.
“All I’ve ever learned never helped me with my health. It was always about survival. I did three years of genetic research at Carnegie Mellon, I went to medical school, I was chief resident. And yet I still needed medicine to survive. 12 years I was sick.”
Plant-based diet
Dr. Goldner then revealed that 15 years ago, she adopted a plant-based diet, and ‘within three months the lupus was gone’.
“I have been healthy for 15 years, with no sign of disease…over the last decade, I have helped thousands of people reverse lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, heart disease…all by getting them to stop eating meat and dairy and eggs and focus on high nutrient plant foods. The results are consistent, and they are profound.”
The physician added that doctors are chasing an ‘epidemic of disease’ – which they can’t hope to catch up to or overtake because ‘people are getting sicker with every meal they take. She called on the Dietary Guidelines to advise people to focus on plants – and give them advice based on ‘what’s good for human health’ rather than what’s ‘good for industry’.
Plant-based evidence
Dr. Golden is not the first plant-based doctor to speak to the 2020 Guidelines Committee – others including Dr. Michael Greger and Dr. Milton Mills and more shared evidence about the health benefits of ditching meat and dairy.
Dr. Mills outlined to the committee why its dairy recommendations are racist, saying: “”The vast majority of people of color in this country are intolerant to the lactose that’s in milk. Yet because they think they have to eat this stuff, they go out, eat it, get sick, and think they have some sort of intestinal problem. When I encourage them to stop eating dairy, their problems clear up.
“It’s really outrageous to encourage people to eat foods we know will make them sick, particularly when the number one reason advanced for dairy foods is its calcium content. But African American women are genetically protected against getting osteoporosis. So we’re making them sick for no good reason…Get the racism out, get the dairy out, please do your job.”
