“If it wasn’t for my wife Shari, I probably would’ve died.”
Doug Schmidt is a 61 year old elementary school teacher in Rochester, New York. Together, Doug and Shari, have six adult children. In 2017, Doug was named PETA’s Sexiest Vegan Over 50, was featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, and started Eat Plants Love.
Tell me about your health journey and what motivated you to transition to a whole-food, plant-based, no oil lifestyle.
I was the typical 40-something year old carrying a few extra pounds. Each year I would add a little more weight, but I thought I was in a better place (health-wise) than most of my friends and colleagues. In 2008, at the age of 49, I suffered a widow maker heart attack, and had a stent put into my lower anterior descending artery. All of a sudden, I became a heart patient with heart disease. There was no family history of heart disease.
I found Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s book and just thought it was too extreme to give up all this stuff (meat, dairy, eggs, and oil). Instead, I decided to follow the American Heart Association Diet. Almost to the day, one year later, I wasn’t feeling well at school and I was rushed to the emergency room and they went in and suspected that I experienced a blockage that passed, and the other blockages weren’t bad enough yet to warrant another stent. That started my wife, Shari, and I to look more closely at Esselstyn’s book.
But it still took us a couple of years to get full-on the Esselstyn plan. Shari took the eCornell online plant-based nutrition course to educate herself and to help me. Every week, I would come home from work and she would say, “We have to give up this…” and I would complain, “What do you mean I have to give up this…? Oh okay.” For me, it took longer to move to the Esselstyn plan (i.e, a whole-food, plant-based, no oil diet). I officially made the full transition in September 2014 after I cut out the oil, and for the few years leading up to that I was gradually eliminating meat, eggs and dairy.
What do you think was the tipping point for you to make the change to your new lifestyle?
It was the statin drug I was prescribed. The first statin drug caused me to get plantar fasciitis. My doctor put me on another statin, and that one caused my toes to splay like someone was pulling them apart. The third and last statin he put me on caused generalized muscle weakness. I was walking around with a hiking pole. I felt like I was 90 years old, not someone in their 50s.
My general practitioner physician informed me that 10% or more of the population is statin-sensitive, and I was one of those people. He said to me, that there are two options. I could either go on another statin or do it all with diet. That’s when the rubber hit the road, and it was entirely up to me.
Why do you think it’s so difficult to change?
Change is hard. You’re trying to change a lifetime of eating habits that are tied to family, memories, and all those things. For me, I used to be a baker before I was a teacher. I would make croissants, pastries, wedding cakes, and more. I have memories of my mom, and apple pie on Thanksgiving, so not eating baked goods was hard for me.
In general, most Americans don’t know what to do with vegetables. It’s either baked, fried, boiled or steamed and has always been the side, and never the main course. Most people don’t know how to put combinations together. Even as a baker, I didn’t know how to prepare vegetables, and it took some training and learning. Once you make the change and learn a few things, it becomes second nature. If you get a few recipes under your belt, start with Meatless Monday and then add another meal or more that caters to your taste buds. As you start to feel better, you’re more inclined to add more plants to your diet.
What do you eat on any given day?
We used to eat three meals a day, now we eat two. I’ll have breakfast around 11am. For breakfast, I’ll have a bowl of cold (uncooked) rolled oats with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, hemp seed, walnuts, flaxseeds and almond milk. I’ll have a side of greens with it – either salad, broccoli or kale – and another fruit like an apple. For dinner, it’ll be casserole, or soup and salad. We may snack on hummus and crackers, guac and oven baked (no oil) tortilla chips. On weekends, we’ll eat Engine 2 sweet potato waffles or tofu frittata for breakfast.
What changes did you notice after you made the transition?
After I stopped consuming oil, things really came into line for me. I started out at 225 pounds, now I weigh 170. As soon as we stopped consuming oil, I lost 5 pounds by the next week. I noticed my body was shifting – I was losing weight in places that was never thinner before. When I settled into my (normal) weight, I went to buy a pair of jeans and all of them were very baggy in the butt. Then I tried on a slim pair of (skinny) jeans and they fit perfectly. I laughed because when I grew up, I always wore husky size clothes.
Let’s talk about the 10-day plant-based challenge. Tell me how that started and how it has evolved.
In 2016, we did a plant-based challenge with 30 people at school. I was asked to be the school district’s health and wellness coordinator. I wanted to share this lifestyle change with others. For this first group of 30 people, we got before and after biometrics. It was successful in that all participants said they’d do it again and that they changed their eating habits because of it. I did it again the next year with 63 people. I was then asked to do the challenge for all the other districts, and the group grew to 1,300. My hope with the challenge was and continues to be to help people by giving them a short cut to a new way of eating, so it doesn’t take as long as it did for me.
What were the before and after results of the challenge groups?
With the first two challenges, it was more controlled in terms of having before and after biometric data. With the first group of 30, we bought participants the Plant-Pure Nation Cookbook and Plant-Pure Nation frozen meals, so participants had to take care of their own breakfast, but dinner was covered with Plant-Pure Nation foods. By the end of the 10 days, many participants saw 30-50 points drop in total cholesterol, blood sugar levels improve to the normal range, blood pressure improved, weight loss was 3 to 10 pounds, with one guy losing 15 pounds. Then we switched to the Engine 2 Rip Esselstyn protocol with the second and third groups.
How have participants been able to sustain the change beyond the 10 days of the challenge?
For some, it’s a permanent lifestyle change. One nurse, who was profiled in Forks Over Knives lost a ton of weight and was able to get off the ADD medication she was on. For others, they look at it as an annual challenge, but still eat more vegetables and fruits than they used to. In a few cases, people go back to what they were eating before. But mostly, participants do change some of their eating habits by adding more vegetables and fruits than they would have otherwise.
Also, the Facebook page offers a community to help answer questions. We’ve built the membership slowly and we’re almost at 3,000 members. More recently, we added plant-based coaches that complete a one-day training to help within their school districts. We have over 60 coaches and they serve as the semi-resident expert to promote getting their colleagues to join the challenge and encourage them along the way. Schools are micro-communities and when you get two to three people within the school to do the challenge together, they become their own support network and they feel connected.
Tell me about the cafeteria menu at school. What whole-food, plant-based options are available?
They are trying. My ulterior motive with the challenge was that if I could get teachers to change what they’re eating, then they will struggle teaching the USDA My Plate Guidelines, they’ll start questioning things and demanding things. Hopefully make an impact on the kids and then make an impact on the community. It’s a slow-go.
A few years ago, we got a new food services director. She is a nutritionist and dietitian by degree. And I asked her, do we really have to have chocolate milk for breakfast? There’s 22 grams of sugar and our most needy children are getting that breakfast, and you know they’re getting it for lunch too. Her response was, “Well then they won’t drink the milk.”
However, last year – she and the chef approached us offering to cook whole-food, plant-based meals for the participants. It wasn’t something that I asked for or pushed, it was offered, and well received by the staff. Then I learned that they attended a workshop at Tisch Food Center at Columbia University talking about schools going more plant-based, and now they’re talking about implementing Meatless Monday across the district. The chef has 30-40 plant-based recipes, but due to USDA requirements, the recipes do contain fat (oil). They recently had a baked potato bar at school where they sold out, and a meatless sloppy joe that was also very popular. The chef created plant-based wraps named after the school principal and the athletic director – those have been fun for the students to order and try.
Tell me about Eat Plants Love.
A few years ago, I won the distinction of Sexiest Vegan Over 50 and as part of that, my wife and I went on the Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise. Shari had already started a Facebook group called Eat Plants Love. I didn’t really like the name because it was too much like the movie, Eat Pray Love. While we were on the cruise, we met Julieanna Hever and Ray Cronise. We shared what we were doing, and Ray loved the name and saw the Eat Plants Love Facebook group being one that could encompass and welcome everyone. When we returned from the cruise, Shari and I wrote up the Plant Based Manifesto which is included on our Facebook group page.
We have a new cookbook, Recipes for a Good Life, that goes with our 10-day challenge. We hope that when people try these recipes, they want to keep eating this way well after the challenge.
After I retire as a schoolteacher, we hope to travel and hold these challenges at schools and small businesses around the country.
What advice do you have for someone in their late-40s looking to take control of their health?
This summer, a parent of one of my former students, called me up and said that he talked to his cardiologist and nephrologist. His nephrologist told him he had to go on a whole-food plant-based diet and that I was the only guy he knew. So, I gave him some resources and books, but my advice was to start with dairy – cut out all dairy. We talked about what he could eat in a day – for breakfast and whatever he cooks for dinner, he can have for lunch the next day. I followed up with him a couple times a week and when he went back to his nephrologist, his numbers were much better, and she was thrilled.
I typically guide people to the movie, Forks Over Knives. I keep DVDs of Forks Over Knives, Eating You Alive, and What the Health, but also point people to Netflix. People will come to our Eat Plants Love Facebook group. If the health condition is severe, we encourage people to make the change to a whole-food, plant-based no oil diet immediately. For others with less severe conditions, we encourage people to start with meatless Monday and cut out all dairy.
Finally, anyone that’s interested in signing up for the next challenge to be held January 13 – 22, 2020, they can sign up using the form on our Google drive.
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