Ep. 331: Chuck Carroll - What Happens When You Do Everything Right… and Still Get Sick?
PLANTSTRONG Podcast
Rip Esselstyn
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rip welcomes Chuck Carroll — once a “fast food junkie”- now a beloved voice in the plant-based movement and host of the Exam Room Podcast.
While plant-based eating helped normalize his blood pressure, stabilize his weight, and restore his vitality, Chuck also shares a vulnerable part of his story: despite doing everything right, he’s now navigating a complex chronic illness with no clear diagnosis. His honesty underscores a truth many people quietly carry — that health journeys aren’t linear, and sometimes illness arrives without explanation or fairness.
Still, Chuck shows that healing isn’t just physical. By talking openly about his struggles, he has found community, connection, and strength — and has created space for others to feel less alone in their own uncertainty.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- How fast food addiction shaped Chuck’s early life — and how he broke free
- Why gastric bypass surgery was only a temporary solution
- How a whole food, plant-based lifestyle helped transform his health
- What it’s like to face chronic illness even when you’re “doing everything right”
- How sharing your story can lift the emotional and mental burden of illness
- Why Chuck remains committed to advocacy, transparency, and hope
Need support for your chronic illness? Sign up for Chuck’s newsletter: https://chuckcarroll.kit.com/newsletter
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ray Besselston, and you're listening to the Plan Strong podcast. |
| 0:05.0 | We know Chuck Carroll as the weight loss champion and as the host of the popular |
| 0:11.3 | Examrum podcast. What you may or may not know is that for the last couple of years, |
| 0:17.5 | Chuck has also been battling some major health issues and a still unresolved chronic illness |
| 0:23.7 | that has taken a massive, massive toll on him both physically and emotionally. |
| 0:29.7 | Today, he opens up and gives us an update on his current health status |
| 0:34.3 | and lets everybody know that even when we're seemingly doing everything |
| 0:40.1 | right, chronic pain and illness can affect anyone. His honesty and resilience highlight the power |
| 0:48.4 | of vulnerability and community, making this episode a compelling mix of inspiration, reality, and hope. |
| 0:57.6 | Coming up right after this message from Plan Strong. |
| 1:05.2 | Before we launch into today's episode, I want to give you a heads-up about an incredible year ahead for our entire |
| 1:14.1 | Planned Strong community. |
| 1:16.4 | 2006 is going to be our biggest year yet. And if you've been waiting for the perfect moment |
| 1:22.4 | to immerse yourself in real food, real learning, and real transformation, this is going to be it. |
| 1:30.1 | We are hosting four of our signature Plan Strong events next year. |
| 1:35.4 | The first one on the docket is our Plans Strong retreat. |
| 1:39.8 | It's in April. |
| 1:41.1 | It's going to be six unforgettable days in Black Mountain, North Carolina, where you get to |
| 1:46.2 | learn, move, eat outrageously good meals, and reconnect with what matters most. Next up is our vital |
| 1:55.4 | signs in June. This is our brand new Food is Medicine Conference. It's going to take place at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. |
| 2:04.7 | If you want to understand how real food can change lives, this is the place to be. |
| 2:10.7 | Next up, our 15th annual plant stock. |
... |
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