Turbocharging the body's healing efforts

@thumpeprguy Don, I totally disagree with you that this has nothing to do with Bronchiectasis and MAC because I believe what you're saying about your diet, no oils, COULD lead to helping us all out with this disease. I also follow the doctors you follow plus Dr. Furhman, Dr. Greger, Dr. Hyman....Dr. Furhman reverses diabetes and heart disease all the time with his patients and he believes in no oils. If you notice you NEVER hear of reversing lung disease and I truly believe it's because it really hasn't been tested with these ways of eating and we're just not there yet. I mean look at Dr. Terry Wahls who reversed her MS with her diet. (I don't know that it totally reversed but she sent it into remission) And my closest friend, who is a doctor and has an autoimmune disease (Excema) and had been given steroids for TWENTY years by DOCTORS went on the Terry Walh's diet recently after going to a functional medicine doctor (she apparently has three diets, one being stricter than the others) and she says her excema is almost 95% BETTER! Think about that. FOOD. It was food that was the medicine. So I'm a huge supporter of what you say. I so want to try that diet just to see what would happen but it's ALOT of vegetables...six cups a day. My problem is the sweet tooth. I just can't give up chocolate or any variation thereof. And look at Daniel Pecaut. He did it. I've tried a lot of the things he did. No complete success yet but I'm not giving up. I believe that all you're writing is very helpful. You're a smart guy. You will not become a persona non grata on this discussion board in my eyes. It only helps people become healthier. Nan

Shari, You're probably gonna think I'm the Grinch who took the enjoyment out of eating. At that risk I'll tell you that since 2007 I've been eating an exclusively low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet. It was prompted by reading a remarkable book by Emeritus Cornell Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry, T. Colin Campbell who authored a book with a regrettably misleading title called The China Study which The New York Times deemed to be the most comprehensive study of human nutrition ever undertaken. Campbell is of a mind with a comparatively small cadre of like-minded physicians, dieticians and hangers-on like me who champion this way of eating. At least two of those physicians have conducted research which yielded angiographic evidence that this way of eating, strictly pursued, can actually not only arrest, but reverse heart disease: Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. and Dean Ornish.
In my "down-home" way of thinking I figure if this way of eating can reverse heart disease it's probably good for me too, even though I don't have heart disease. Now here's the part you're probably not gonna like. The "low-fat" element is no where near the "anything below 30% of calories from fat the the USDA considers "low." The diet that Esselstyn and Ornish consider low-fat is at or below 10% of calories from fat. It's difficult, perhaps impossible, to achieve that level without jettisoning cooking oils from one's diet. Here's a section from a plant-based nutrition blog I used to write which explains the rationale.

My Early Light posting last time included the following verbiage, “…Cornucopia of seven or eight colorful vegetables steaming in a Wok with a splash of water…” There’s a stealth health message in them there words, drawing so little attention to itself that you may have missed it. It involves a significant departure from the Standard American Diet (SAD) and it’s the fact that I used no oil in cooking the vegetables. Truth to tell,I use no oil in any of my food prep. Not even olive oil one might ask? Correct. Not even olive oil. And here’s why.
To begin with olive oil isn’t a food but a highly refined, processed food extract. It has no protein or essential amino acids, it has no carbohydrates, it has no fiber, it has no minerals and almost no vitamins except a little vitamin E and some phytosterols. So if it’s not a food, what is it? Well, it’s pure fat, and nothing in your food pantry or on the planet is more calorie-dense. Most oils are low in Omega 3 fats (which we need more of) and very high in Omega 6 fats (which most American need less of) It’s true that both of these fatty acids are “essential,” but most American diets are heavily unbalanced in favor of Omega 6’s which is undesirable.
A convenient definition of a junk food is a food that’s calorie-dense (high fat, high sugar and usually high salt) and has little or no nutrient value. Assessed in this way cooking oils, including olive oil, are checkmated.
But if you really feel you need olive oil, why not go for the gusto. Eat a few olives and have the benefit of the WHOLE FOOD with its marvelous symphony of interacting nutrients, not just the processed extract of pure fat. Stay tuned.

This post, other than being about an increasingly popular and healthful way of eating, has nothing to do with Bronchiecstasis and MAC which arouses concern in me that I'm at risk of becoming persona non Grata on this discussion board. Don (Thumperguy)

@thumpeprguy Don, I totally disagree with you that this has nothing to do with Bronchiectasis and MAC because I believe what you're saying about your diet, no oils, COULD lead to helping us all out with this disease. I also follow the doctors you follow plus Dr. Furhman, Dr. Greger, Dr. Hyman....Dr. Furhman reverses diabetes and heart disease all the time with his patients and he believes in no oils. If you notice you NEVER hear of reversing lung disease and I truly believe it's because it really hasn't been tested with these ways of eating and we're just not there yet. I mean look at Dr. Terry Wahls who reversed her MS with her diet. (I don't know that it totally reversed but she sent it into remission) And my closest friend, who is a doctor and has an autoimmune disease (Excema) and had been given steroids for TWENTY years by DOCTORS went on the Terry Walh's diet recently after going to a functional medicine doctor (she apparently has three diets, one being stricter than the others) and she says her excema is almost 95% BETTER! Think about that. FOOD. It was food that was the medicine. So I'm a huge supporter of what you say. I so want to try that diet just to see what would happen but it's ALOT of vegetables...six cups a day. My problem is the sweet tooth. I just can't give up chocolate or any variation thereof. And look at Daniel Pecaut. He did it. I've tried a lot of the things he did. No complete success yet but I'm not giving up. I believe that all you're writing is very helpful. You're a smart guy. You will not become a persona non grata on this discussion board in my eyes. It only helps people become healthier. Nan

Well...I had been an ovo-lacto vegetarian since the 70's and gradually became a vegan in the past twenty years. But guess what? The amount of food that one must eat to be a healthy vegan, completely goes against my own experience with bronchiectasis. Whole grains and beans, nuts and seeds eaten in the quantities one must eat them to be healthy created so much mucus in my system once BE set in that I started having hemoptysis on a regular basis. Now I can only eat soups if I want to avoid these episodes, and my weight declined dramatically b/c of the smaller quantities of food that my lungs could tolerate. Now I have to put bone broth in my soups in order to get the 70 grams of protein I need, and I eat sardines maybe once a week, and no dairy. Salmon occasionally too for the protein hit. I know a TON about vegan nutrition--followed the Food Revolution Network for a few years and still get their daily email, which is full of great information. But one has to eat A LOT to be a healthy vegan and my lungs no longer can tolerate it. A strange case, I know. But I have documented every last thing I eat and the quantity and this is irrefutable. I am very sad that I have not found the way to revert to my vegan diet. Maybe something will change.

I'm also curious to know whether fresh produce carries MAC and what one should do to minimize the load of that. I eat a ton of pureed organic greens and vegetables: dandelion greens, collard, kale, bok choy, broccoli rabe, rutabaga, parsnips, etc. --all coming from my local farmers in northern california--do you know about any preparation and washing tips? I only steam the vegetables before I puree them for my soups, so wonder if MAC from the dirt can be lurking on the vegetables themselves. Thanks for any insights you may have.

@paxmundi are you intolerant to soy and gluten? I have been vegan for over 30 years and have never had a problem with getting sufficient nutrition (other than D which is not a diet based issue for me), and I strength train so generally eat 25% of my daily calories (2500) in protein. But I do think that those intolerant to soy and/or gluten would have a more challenging time getting adequate protein as a vegan. There are also so many alternative protein sources available these days (pea, rice, hemp), but if you also don’t do protein powders that is less helpful for you. I have BE but little to no mucus but of course we are all different. My suspicion is that there is something specific in what you were eating large amounts of that you are sensitive to, or perhaps you were not eating small enough meals and the volume created a GI issue. I am surrounded by non-vegans and I certainly don’t find that I need to eat any more quantity wise than my non-vegan peers. You are clearly tracking what you are eating but it might be interesting for you to meet with a vegan nutritionist to see if there is something you are missing in your approach, maybe they can help work through your data and find a way to get you back to your desired vegan diet. My experience is so different from yours I suspect this may be possible for you with the right resources but of course you know yourself best.

@paxmundi are you intolerant to soy and gluten? I have been vegan for over 30 years and have never had a problem with getting sufficient nutrition (other than D which is not a diet based issue for me), and I strength train so generally eat 25% of my daily calories (2500) in protein. But I do think that those intolerant to soy and/or gluten would have a more challenging time getting adequate protein as a vegan. There are also so many alternative protein sources available these days (pea, rice, hemp), but if you also don’t do protein powders that is less helpful for you. I have BE but little to no mucus but of course we are all different. My suspicion is that there is something specific in what you were eating large amounts of that you are sensitive to, or perhaps you were not eating small enough meals and the volume created a GI issue. I am surrounded by non-vegans and I certainly don’t find that I need to eat any more quantity wise than my non-vegan peers. You are clearly tracking what you are eating but it might be interesting for you to meet with a vegan nutritionist to see if there is something you are missing in your approach, maybe they can help work through your data and find a way to get you back to your desired vegan diet. My experience is so different from yours I suspect this may be possible for you with the right resources but of course you know yourself best.

Many thanks for your response.

It’s complicated. I can’t get up to 70 grams of protein a day on three bowls of soup a day without bone broth and that’s the right level of protein I need given that my BMI is so low. I now weigh 97-98 pounds and when I first became intolerant of ordinary vegan solid food meals in October of 2023 and had to experiment with what would not cause me to spit up bright red blood, it was soups with carefully measured portions of ingredients so I could keep myself nourished. I know how much protein there is in every legume, whole grain, vegetable and fruit under the sun. I went down to 89 pounds and once I got in a groove where I could supplement with bone broth, which is clear, and one tb of nutritional yeast, I managed to get up to 98-99 pounds. I pour avocado or olive oil into my soups for calories, though I never had much oil in my diet. Last night I weighed 97. Yes, thanks to many plant-based eating summits I’ve attended, I got beyond my intolerance to tofu and beans. Dense tofu is now the mainstay of my protein consumption. I break up a slab of high protein tofu twice a day for my morning and evening soups. I have a half a cup of bean puree in my afternoon soup. I put 1/2 a cup of quinoa, millet or buckwheat in every bowl of soup and soak a piece of Ezekiel sprouted multi grain bread. No intolerance to wheat, luckily. And a cup of puree steamed vegetables. I only eat organic.

Avocados started creating excessive mucus. Now I dare not eat more than a slice at a time. I no longer can tolerate nuts, seeds, nut butters, which were a huge mainstay of my previous diet. They all give me a crazy amount of mucus, though none of this used to be the case. In short, I can no longer have an ordinary plate of food. I am just hoping that as I become further versed in airway clearance techniques this situation will change. I am also facing the newly-diagnosed MAC challenge so a lot to learn and integrate. Airway clearance is helping!

I have mild to moderate BE in both lungs, with worst in upper right lobe and second worse, middle right lobe. I have a history of devastating TB at age 19 contracted in India, and in 2012 had a massive hemoptysis that almost killed me. So I know my case is unusual.