Ep.349: Food as Medicine - Dr. Elizabeth George and Chef Nick lula Share How Whole Food Plant-Based Eating Reverses Disease
PLANTSTRONG Podcast
Rip Esselstyn
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rip sits down with Dr. Elizabeth George and Chef Nick Iula, co-authors of Healthy Eating Adventure, to explore how whole food, plant-based eating can transform health and lives.
Dr. George helped launch the Healthy Eating Adventure program more than 15 years ago, helping hundreds of participants reverse chronic disease through nutrition. Chef Nick Iula joined the program after decades in professional kitchens and, after he changed his own diet, he experienced a dramatic health transformation — losing weight and eliminating multiple chronic conditions.
Together, they combine medical science and culinary expertise to show how plant-based eating can be both lifesaving and delicious.
In this episode you'll learn:
- Why doctors receive little nutrition education
- What chefs are taught that harms health
- How whole food plant-based eating reverses disease
- How taste buds adapt to real food
- The science behind food as medicine
- How Chef Nick lost weight and eliminated chronic illness
- Practical strategies for cooking without oil, salt, and sugar
- How to make plant-based food deeply satisfying
This conversation proves that real food is the most powerful tool we have to live longer and stronger.
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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 | Today, I'm sitting down with two incredible humans. |
| 0:09.0 | Dr. Elizabeth George and chef Nick Lula, who have come together to bridge the gap between medicine and the kitchen in a way that could truly change your life. |
| 0:22.6 | Their book, Healthy Eating Adventure, |
| 0:26.2 | shares what doctors aren't taught about nutrition, |
| 0:29.9 | what chefs aren't taught about health, |
| 0:32.9 | and what happens when you finally connect the dots between the two. |
| 0:37.6 | Imagine spending decades in professional kitchens, cooking with butter, cheese, salt, and oil, |
| 0:46.4 | only to discover that the very foods that you were trained to use were slowly destroying your health. That is exactly what happened |
| 0:56.8 | to chef Nick Lula. Today, alongside Dr. Elizabeth George, he shares how a whole food plant-based |
| 1:04.7 | lifestyle didn't just improve his health, it saved it. From reversing chronic disease to completely rethinking how we cook, |
| 1:14.6 | this is one of those conversations that just might change the way you eat forever. We'll have their |
| 1:20.7 | full conversation right after these words from Plant Strong. |
| 1:30.4 | Let's talk about cost for a second. |
| 1:35.3 | Because when people look at something like one of our retreats, the first reaction is, |
| 1:37.1 | that seems pretty expensive. |
| 1:38.8 | And I get it. |
| 1:42.0 | But here's the question that I will throw back at you. |
| 1:43.5 | Compared to what? |
| 1:47.7 | So, for example, if you have a stent put in, |
| 1:54.7 | the average cost is going to be $46,000, and that's for a drug-eluding stent procedure. |
| 1:59.3 | If you're going to have open-heart surgery, right, and open-heart surgery is anywhere between 100 to 200,000 depending upon the hospital. |
... |
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