SB Plant Based Nutrition Support Group was honored and privileged to have Dr. Ted Crawford, who promotes plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine, speak to our group. Dr. Crawford adopted a plant - based lifestyle over six years ago. He suffered from several chronic medical issues himself including hypertension, reflux condition and a weight problem. Within six months of adopting a plant-based diet, he had lost over 30 pounds and was able to discontinue four of his prescription medications he was taking. He experienced more energy and felt like a new person.

Dr. Crawford pointed out that the Mayo Clinic performed a review and learned, for example, that food like bacon, salami, beef, pork and lamb causes cancer. He also pointed out that dairy food is one of the worst things to put in our body because it has 20,000 cells of live bacteria. He stated that when older people drink dairy, in particular, it becomes a fuel for cancer and that cheese is two and half times worse. He stated that those men who regularly used dairy had a 34% chance of prostate cancer.

Plants give us all the protein we need, and legumes have been associated with Improving our gut and reducing the risk of heart diseases. We all walked away from Dr. Crawford's talk with new knowledge that we never had before. Dr. Crawford works for NW Allied Physicians in his office in Oro Valley, not far from SaddleBrooke.