Ep. 337: Jet Benitez - The Keto Diet Almost Killed Him. So, He Turned to Plants.
PLANTSTRONG Podcast
Rip Esselstyn
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2026
⏱️ 74 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Rip sits down with Jet, a 66-year-old husband, father, hiker, and former keto devotee whose health collapsed despite doing “everything right” according to low-carb gurus. After a terrifying calcium score, debilitating angina, and near-widowmaker blockage, Jet found himself out of breath, unable to hike his favorite mountains, and feeling an impending sense of doom.
A reunion — and one shocking scar from a friend’s open-heart surgery — jolted him into action. Jet pivoted from years of high-fat keto eating to a whole-food, plant-based, SOS-free lifestyle inspired by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. Within weeks, his symptoms vanished. Within months, he was summiting mountains he hadn’t touched in over a decade. Today, his cholesterol is stellar, his A1C is normal, and he’s hiking peaks he hasn't done in years.
Jet’s story is an inspiring reminder that the body can heal when given the right fuel — and that it’s never too late to turn your life around.
Key Topics Covered:
- Growing up in the Philippines on a fat and sugar-heavy diet
- The moment Jet realized keto was harming — not helping — his heart
- How a reunion wake-up call shifted his perspective
- The emotional and physical toll of worsening symptoms
- Why he finally chose a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle
- The shocking improvements in angina, energy, cholesterol, sleep, and mood
- His new life of hiking, strength, and vitality at 66
- Advice for anyone curious but hesitant to go plant-based
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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. |
| 0:06.1 | After several years on a severely strict keto diet, Jet Benitez watched his heart disease |
| 0:12.7 | worsen until a wake-up call led him to a Whole Food, Planned Strong lifestyle. |
| 0:18.8 | And the results? No surprise to any of you, were astonishing. |
| 0:24.9 | His angina disappeared. |
| 0:26.7 | He conquered personal best hikes, and his cholesterol numbers stunned even his cardiologist. |
| 0:34.9 | Listen, as Jet shares his raw, life-saving truth about changing his diet and subsequently |
| 0:42.0 | his life. We'll have his story right after these words from Plan Strong. I want to take a beat |
| 0:52.0 | to talk about what we're seeing at Plansstrong with Real 30 right now. |
| 0:57.9 | People are cooking more. Yay. Thinking less. And realizing that when your pantry is stocked with real |
| 1:08.5 | whole plants, eating well stops feeling complicated. That's why |
| 1:14.2 | real 30 participants get real savings on plant strong foods to make it easier to build meals |
| 1:21.9 | around whole plants every single day consistently without defaulting to the ultra-process shortcuts. |
| 1:30.1 | If you're listening and you're still curious, it's not too late to jump into the reel 30. |
| 1:35.3 | You can start where you are, and the link to join is always available at planstrong.com. |
| 1:41.7 | And for all of you clinicians and healthcare leaders out there and anyone |
| 1:47.0 | working at the intersection of food and medicine, I want to share what we're building next. |
| 1:53.0 | This June, we are hosting vital signs. It's a live event designed specifically for health care providers who are ready to move beyond theory and into real-world application of nutrition as medicine. |
| 2:09.5 | This is about evidence and implementation and giving providers all the practical tools that they can actually use with their |
| 2:20.4 | patients. Full details are available on our website, liveplandstrong.com, click on events. But if food |
| 2:29.1 | is medicine to you, vital signs is one to put on the calendar. I hope you'll join us, June 16th to the 18th |
| 2:38.2 | in Cleveland, Ohio at Case Western Reserve University. Plansstrong Cousins. Today's episode |
... |
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