April 21, 2026

390: What Is Actually Clogging Your Arteries (And Can It Be Reversed?)

390: What Is Actually Clogging Your Arteries (And Can It Be Reversed?)
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390: What Is Actually Clogging Your Arteries (And Can It Be Reversed?)

You've been doing what your doctor recommended. Why does your body still feel like it's working against your vision every day? The inflammation in your body, including your blood vessels, is fueling the low energy and lost productivity that keeps you from maximizing your revenue, reach, and Kingdom impact. Standard lab work does not capture the full picture, so your labs may have even come back normal while the damage quietly progresses. Once you see what is actually happening inside your blo...

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You've been doing what your doctor recommended. Why does your body still feel like it's working against your vision every day?

The inflammation in your body, including your blood vessels, is fueling the low energy and lost productivity that keeps you from maximizing your revenue, reach, and Kingdom impact. Standard lab work does not capture the full picture, so your labs may have even come back normal while the damage quietly progresses. Once you see what is actually happening inside your blood vessels, you will never look at your food, your energy, or your capacity to fully execute on your calling the same way again.

The science on reversing artery damage is older than most of the medications being prescribed to "manage" it. On this episode, we cover what animal-based foods do inside your blood vessels to drive inflammation at the root, and the enjoyable way to prevent and even reverse it.

If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, and ready to attack inflammation at the root so you can start fully living the life you were created to enjoy, press play now.

Your calling is too important for your body to keep holding you back.

Ready to love the meals that fully fuel your calling? Inside Accelerator, you’ll master our proven 5-Step Framework to fast-track yourself to steady energy, clear focus, and maximum impact in your mission. Join the Waitlist - doors open soon. Not yet inside Peak Performance Network? Join today for the faith-filled support + simple WFPB strategies that power your body optimally. 🥣 Craving maximum flavor? Grab our Cookbook Bundles and all the Bonuses where you'll discover how quick and delicious feeling good can be! Click here to get our favorite dried fruits and frozen berries shipped directly to your door.

00:00 - Food Choices And Silent Disease

01:44 - Why We Teach Lifestyle Medicine

02:57 - The Real Question About Cholesterol

04:11 - Inflammation Starts The Sticky Process

05:28 - AGEs From High Heat Cooking

08:10 - Grilling Compounds That Harm Vessels

09:52 - How Plaque Grows Then Ruptures

13:19 - Why Blood Flow Affects Everything

16:24 - Fiber And Cholesterol Clearance

18:56 - Why It Starts In Childhood

25:18 - Why It Is Not Just Genetics

28:53 - Normal Labs Can Still Mislead

30:39 - Proof That Plaque Can Regress

35:33 - Hope Plus Next Steps To Start

Food Choices And Silent Disease

Anita

stroke, heart attack, all these things that plague our societies. So you go in and you try to get help and you either get surgery or prescription instead of someone telling you, Hey, you know what, if you just change what's on your fork and learn how to do that in the way that simple and quick works with your busy schedule and actually tastes so great, you love it, guess what? You could reverse that. Not only halt it, but actually reverse it. We see these things happen on the regular. So it's not the genes. It's not the genes. It is what you're eating. so ask yourself this, if what I'm eating has caused it, is that good news for me or bad news It's actually great news for me. Why is that? If your body keeps costing you the opportunities you know God is sending, this episode is for you. Welcome to Power On Plants. I'm Anita Ruelle, a nurse and certified integrative nutrition health coach.

Jarrod

And I'm Jared Ruelle, a physician assistant certified in lifestyle

The Real Question About Cholesterol

Anita

Together. We've spent nearly five decades in healthcare, and we created this podcast because we kept seeing purpose-driven leaders lose ground to exhaustion, poor lab results, and the health struggles that none of the standard approaches were actually fixing at the root. We show you how to fuel your body with what it was designed to optimally run on so your energy skyrockets, your labs, move in the right direction, and you can finally show up fully for the calling God has for your life. No miserable dieting methods or white knuckling through diets that you were never going to enjoy, and so they were never going to last. if you want the step-by-step system that gets your body fully backing your mission instead of working against you, That's exactly what our accelerator program is built for. Learn more at power on plants.com/accelerator. That's power on plants.com/accelerator.

Jarrod

And today we are continuing our discussion on cholesterol. Now, I, before we get started I have a question. Are you feeling, confused and frustrated? By cholesterol. I mean, in one sense it's good for me, I need it, every cell in my body requires it. But then on the other hand, it's evil. It's the devil. It's clogging my arteries, it's causing me problems, and I need to get my numbers down. and I need medication.

Anita

Well, some of that frustration can be done away with. If you go back and listen to the episode right before this one, because on that episode we dug into cholesterol. It's going to answer a lot of those questions, but today we're diving even deeper because on a recent phone call, I got asked a question that we get asked on the regular, and that's what is actually clogging my arteries, and can it be undone?

Jarrod

and that is an excellent question. So now Today we want to talk about what is actually going on Inside your Blood, vessels when this whole process. happens. And another great follow-up question. Is there something I can do about it? Can it be undone?

Anita

Mm-hmm. That was a great question all around.

Inflammation Starts The Sticky Process

Jarrod

So to start with, with the whole thing about cholesterol, cholesterol is in our body, It doesn't just stick and the arteries. Something has to start, this process. something has to push that first domino. what is it? It's inflammation? What's causing that inflammation? Excellent question.

Anita

So you're saying cholesterol can be there without sticking.

Jarrod

Correct. If our bodies are healthy and our vessels are not inflamed, we're not eating animal based cholesterol that's been cooked at high temperatures. You can actually have cholesterol traveling through your blood vessels. And not sticking to the walls.

Anita

Imagine that. So God put something in our body that can be there and not cause damage.

AGEs From High Heat Cooking

Jarrod

exactly and that is the design. because Some of our cells will rely more on the cholesterol. they make, but Some of our cells rely more on the cholesterol that's circulating through our blood that's put there in large part, by our liver. Our Liver. does so many different things, very underappreciated. organ in our body, But also our intestines, so They make a lot of the cholesterol that we, use, but it's regulated. We touched on that in episode 3 89. but it's regulated. It's Regulated beautifully. Now, where do we get into trouble We get into trouble when we're eating a lot. of cholesterol in Animal foods, and sometimes it doesn't even have to be a lot. Sometimes it can be just little bits of cholesterol. from animal-based foods. But what happens? is we get inflammation, Her blood vessels Can be caused by cholesterol. That's oxidized, but there are other things that cause it as well That tend to travel along with that animal-based cholesterol. Examples would be, ags. these are advanced glycation end products. these are formed by sugars binding to proteins at high temperatures. Now we see a lot of that with animal products. Now It happens. sometimes without them. A great Example. Is when bread bakes, how it gets that brown color On top The name for that is the May yard reaction but that is a type of a GE.

Anita

I'm thinking about grilling out. I mean, summertime's coming up and we see this and people want char on their food, or Char on their pizza crust or char on their

Jarrod

Whatever char on their char. I mean,

Anita

Char on the

Jarrod

for some reason char has become a flavor enhancer for some individuals. but we know that animal-based foods, especially cooked at high temperatures like on a grill and a frying pan has significantly more a GS that are formed,

Anita

so it doesn't have to be charred to have the

Jarrod

doesn't have to be charred, but char, has the. ags in it. In animal products. I read in one study where they said it has 10 times the amount of ags formed than in vegetables. So let's say you're cooking vegetables in the oven. It formed some, but got in his wisdom. he put compounds within the plant foods that actually help to counteract those. go

Anita

Don't you find it interesting that we call them age, they age, you.

Jarrod

Age that didn't go

Anita

around that. It didn't go noticed. I thought you might have noticed that.

Jarrod

I, noticed it, but I didn't think to mention, it. so. Yes. a will a GE, you age, you

Anita

Yes, because they cause inflammation and a major part of the problem Of all the chronic diseases of our time, the root cause is inflammation. And so what Jared and I specialize in is getting to the root cause, getting out the things that are causing the inflammation like the ags, which Jared is saying it can cause it in the blood vessel. So once you get that inflammation, things can start sticking rather rapidly. And that can happen with animal products, especially because the level of ags in those when they are cooked is much higher than in whole plant foods.

Jarrod

it's Significantly. higher. one other thing I'll touch on with ags, it's known that they cause cross links with proteins within the body as a whole, within our vessels And when you get those, cross links, you get stiffness. so now the arteries aren't pliable, but marsh that out. What about our tendons? What about the rest of the connective tissue in our body? over time it starts getting stiff? And what happens when people get older? Oh, my back is aching.

Anita

It's just my age. There may be some truth in that now that we're saying ag. Right? It's not really your age. It's, it might be the ags

Grilling Compounds That Harm Vessels

Jarrod

Exactly. That's a great point. other compounds that, we see that come with animal-based foods are heterocyclic amines. these are compounds that are formed only in muscle meats, and they are known to have a link to cancers. They're carcinogenic. They cause DNA damage.

Anita

Wow.

Jarrod

You see polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These are compounds that are formed when you have incomplete combustion of things like wood or oil, um, even like tobacco. So we Find that in tobacco, smoke, when people are smoking. But when you look at things like grilling on a grill, whether it be charcoal, gas wood, you're getting those Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. They are also DNA damaging. They Are also known to cause, cancer, but they cause inflammation. Now that we've established some of the common causes for the inflammation and there are actually many other mechanisms, but we'll just touch on a few today. The lining inside the blood vessel gets damaged and it becomes leaky becomes broken down. It now gives a place for the cholesterol to stick, and so that gets underneath that inner lining.

Anita

So I think about a smooth lining of a hose. Let's say you have a water hose and it's smooth, but then let's say something goes through it and it makes it jagged. Now if you had things traveling through the hose, they would be more likely to stick or would not travel through as smoothly. So you start thinking about, I think a hose is a good thing to think about when you're talking about

Jarrod

and think a hose that's been sitting out in the hot sun and you get that UV damage over time and it gets cracked, it stretches in certain areas and if you were to have something, I don't know, mud or something greasy, flowing through it. It's going to stick in those little imperfections

How Plaque Grows Then Ruptures

Anita

Right.

Jarrod

And then it'll build over time and then it will get clogged. So now that we have places for the cholesterol to stick, it does so, but it gets underneath that inner lining that builds up over time. Now, initially, as this process happens, the artery stretch, so we don't see blockage of the arteries in the beginning, and that's what's so insidious about this whole process. People have heart attacks in their forties, fifties, sixties, and they think, oh, it's just what I've, been doing the last couple years. No, my friend, this is something that happens two, three and four, decades before.

Anita

even in childhood,

Jarrod

even into childhood, they have found. fatty streaks, which is what these Things are, it's the cholesterol and the saturated fats underneath that inner lining as young as age four for kids that are eating the standard American diet, eating the McDonald's nuggets, the dino bites, the lunch meat, all these different things. Things that we've always seen previously as just being innocent, These are just normal. foods.

Anita

Yeah. And you think it won't bother'em till they're older? But we know that that's not true and we have the research to back it up.

Jarrod

This isn't conjecture they've done high level research where they've done things like ultrasounds, even looking inside the vessels themselves, to see this process. happening. So as these plaques grow. initially, they don't block the blood vessels, but There's a certain tipping point where the plaque makes up about 40% of the artery wall, then it starts to. grow inward And it's starting to block the blood. flow. Now again, initially you're probably not gonna have any symptoms until it becomes much more pronounced Now during this whole process too, part of what makes that fatty streak is that our white blood cells, see this. they say, well, wait a minute. This isn't supposed to be there, guys We gotta take care of this. So they slip into the artery wall and they start trying to gobble up this saturated fat and cholesterol. And unfortunately for the macrophages, the white blood cells I'm talking about, they don't have an off switch, so they keep gobbling them up. Gobble, gobble, gobble, and more and more of them. And you may hear the term foam cells, that's what these are because under a microscope they're full of so much fat, they look clear in the middle and it looks kind of foamy. And again, this process is happening even as young as four years old.

Anita

And so here's our body, trying not to fight off something that's like a foreign invader that doesn't belong there, and it's sending in more and more of the cells and think about what that's doing to the lining of the vessels.

Jarrod

inflammation, further damage. So as this progress continues now, the muscles that are inside the artery walls start to get into the action, start actually migrating to the top surface, and they start laying down things like collagen. and elastin Creating a protective, cap. they call it a fibrous. cap. So it is trying to protect this. It's trying to protect us. from ourselves.

Anita

Trying to protect us from ourselves is a great way to put it.

Why Blood Flow Affects Everything

Jarrod

And then as this process continues over the years, even higher levels of inflammation. now the body starts to deposit calcium again. It's trying to protect us. But that calcium starts to weaken the fibrous cap, And at some point that cap can break free. Now, either that cap blocks an artery or the cholesterol that's inside that whole thing almost think of it almost like a pimple. If that breaks free in blocks an artery you have a heart, attack, you have a stroke. you have ischemic bowel disease, which is where the blood is cut off to The, bowels. I mean, there's no part of the body that's not affected by blood flow.

Anita

Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought, why do whole plant foods work to heal so many diseases? Why is it not actually a snake oil cure? Because you can be tempted to think, oh, they say it works for preventing and reversing type two diabetes and high blood pressure and high cholesterol and autoimmune disease and high and digestive disorders and cancers,

Jarrod

I mean, the list goes on The list is as lengthy as your imagination.

Fiber And Cholesterol Clearance

Anita

So why is it that it works for so many of these things? All you need to do to find the answer is ask yourself the right question. What area of my body is not affected by blood flow? And then you think about what is the purpose of the blood flow? Why is blood flowing to the cells in my brain, in my fingertips, in my toes, in my joints, in my bones, in my organs, in my digestive tract? Why is it going there? What is it doing? Well, two of the main things it's doing is carrying nutrients. Well, it either has nutrients to deliver or it doesn't. It has harmful things that may be in it that may be getting to places we don't want it. That's why We know we want the animal products out and more and more and more whole plant foods in because these are the foods that fight inflammation and that have the nutrients that our bodies have been crying out for for so long. So when you can get those nutrients by the blood that goes everywhere in your body to the cells, what is going to happen? There's going to be prevention and reversal of a lot of different diseases.'cause your blood flows where everywhere, And so then you have those nutrients that are being delivered. And what else does the blood do? It removes the garbage. So think about if you have a garbage can or even a sink. Let's say just picture. Picture both. the dishes in your sink haven't been washed for a while, and they're piling up and the garbage is piling up in there or in your trash can. Now the garbage is piling up. Let's say you've been outta town for a week and the kids have stayed at home and they forgot to take out the garbage. What's gonna happen? The garbage builds up, builds up, builds up. So now if you think about this happening in the cells because you have poor blood flow to all these different areas because it's clogged by the animal products you've been eating, and you don't have the things that are fighting the inflammation, like all of the different whole plant foods. Now your body's not getting the nutrients it needs to all these various areas. It is not having the garbage removed. So that's piling up. What do you think is going to happen in the different areas? that explains a lot about why whole plant foods help with so many different things. But when we're talking about the blood, whole plant foods have no cholesterol. Very little saturated fats. Some have some saturated fats, but a lot less saturated fats. And now you have different types of protein. A protein is not a protein. Your body handles plant proteins differently than it handles. Animal-based proteins. We're not even gonna go into all that today. There's so much we can unpack here, but you want to think about why are the different areas affected in this way? And the blood flow has a lot to do with it. So now you have the animal products. Bringing in the cholesterol, having zero fiber, animal products have no fiber in them. The fiber helps to carry the cholesterol out of your body, the excess cholesterol. But whole plant foods are filled with fiber and guess what? They don't have any cholesterol. And so you can see how very quickly if you're removing the animal products, which are filled with cholesterol and have no fiber, and you're putting in a lot of the whole plant foods. You're getting tons of fiber that's helping carry out the cholesterol. Plus you're getting zero cholesterol.'cause plant foods have none, and you're getting all that fiber again, just bringing fiber back up because it comes back to fiber. And so you can see how all this compounds on each other, either for the good or for the difficult. When you're eating a lot of animal-based products,

Jarrod

so if you're listening to this and you feel tired, you've had lab tests run, nothing really quite shows up as abnormal, do you think It could be that the blood flow to to your entire body? may be Somewhat restricted, restricting the oxygen, restricting the proper nutrients, getting to where it needs to. Yes. Now, one other mechanism. I wanted to mention real quick is that when you have that plaque that breaks free, You also can have a blood clot that forms'cause the body senses wait. There's damage to the blood vessel lining and we need to stop this'cause we don't wanna bleed out. And it can very, very quickly create a blood clot. And that's another way that you can have an issue like an acute heart attack. And there are times when people feel quote unquote, normal. And then boom. heart attack, and it's this process that can happen that contributes to that, that causes it.

Anita

on silently for years, and we wanna go over some of the research. I want you to mention some of the research studies that we've seen. It will blow your mind because you don't think about it happening so early, and this is why it's so important as you start eating more and more whole plant foods to get your children and your grandchildren involved. Let them try your food. Let them experiment in the kitchen. Get them to help you in shopping, pick out the ingredients, choosing the recipes, calling the broccoli trees, doing all these things. You're setting them up for their future that they're going to be able to have or not be able to have. And I hate talking about things like that, but somebody has to talk about it.

Why It Starts In Childhood

Jarrod

Whenever Anita, at the end of our episode, say, you are loved, we mean it. This is tough love. This is what is going on, whether you realize it or not, whether you feel it or not, whether you deny it. This process is happening and it happens and builds day after day after day starts as a young child before you are even in. control of what you are choosing to eat. Now that. we as parents and grandparents have a choice And we have an understanding of what's going on. Now we know better and we can do better even for our children.

Anita

Absolutely.

Jarrod

I heard Dr. Gregor Say not too long ago that the research shows that, and we've said as young as four, he said in research that he saw that anybody over the age of 10 eating a standard American diet, you don't need to eat a plant-based diet. to prevent cardiovascular disease. You need to eat a plant-based diet to reverse cardiovascular disease because these fatty streaks are already building up and they will continue to do so. even if we stick our head in the sand and say, I feel fine, I'm gonna keep eating my cheeseburgers. you feel fine now but it will eventually catch up with, you. and that's what everybody blames on what is it? Age. It's not that aging is a disease. It's we keep doing the problem for much longer and then eventually the hammer falls, and then we have health problems.

Anita

And wrap your mind around the fact that it could be as simple as what's on your fork. Our enemy is convinced us. These things are so complicated and they're so difficult and changing your food is not extreme. What if you change your thinking and your words around what you're eating? What if instead of saying this is extreme, that's hard. you started looking at what really is extreme and calling it extreme, like having your chest cracked open or vessels ripped out of your leg to put onto your heart.

Jarrod

Yes. If you've never seen it, they cut through your breastbone in the middle, They use a retractor to open the chest, to expose the heart. They take out a couple, two or three feet of veins from your legs and then sew that in place of the clogged artery

Anita

and they have to stop your heart from beating.

Jarrod

Yes. And then they have to, that's an Excellent point, They have to stop your heart And use a machine to circulate your blood. So this has been done and perfected, but that doesn't mean it's still normal.

Anita

but then the next question we need to ask is, what is going to happen if I don't address the root cause? And now I'm on the table and have had that surgery and now they've used the vessels in my legs. Now what's gonna happen? If I don't change what caused it, the root cause, which we know is the food, the animal-based products,

Jarrod

the very same thing

Anita

the very

Jarrod

and all the doctors have to offer are medications to slow the process. down.

Anita

And we're not just talking about processed foods here. Like when we were at our worst and I was hearing blood rush through my vessels because I was having clogging of arteries starting to happen. Guess what? We were eating clean, organic, free range, cage-free, going to the farm, buying, no going to the farm, buying the beef, standing there, looking over the labels, trying to do what was right, clean eating, but it was still filled with animal

Jarrod

And that's exactly why We understand where you are if you're, in that place, because We thought we were doing the right stuff and it turns out we weren't. But we didn't know, and that's why we're so passionate about sharing this So now that you know so you can make great. decisions,

Anita

So let's look at some of these studies. In 2005, a study was done that found fatty streaks in 87% of the aorta and 30% of the coronary. That's the heart arteries in children at just five to 14 years old.

Jarrod

The aorta is the large artery that comes directly off the heart, and then the coronary arteries, which supply the heart, come off the aorta just after it leaves the heart. So 87% of the aortas, 87. That's nine outta 10 children. From age five to, 14, and that's why we say this is something that starts very early on. So we're deceiving Ourselves saying, I'll worry about that later. I'm gonna just, I'm gonna eat what I love. I'm gonna live my life. And then when I turn in my twenties or my thirties, or if my doctor says I have a problem or if they check my calcium artery scores and it shows something, then I'll start making a change. Well, don't fall into that fallacy because the calcium, like I was saying earlier. It's a late, change. the process has been going on for 20 or 30 years before you, see those calcium. so if you have a calcium artery score, of zero. that doesn't mean you're out of the woods. It just means you're not in the late phases of this inflammatory process.

Anita

Yes. And then there was a study way back in 1953 where doctors autopsied, 300 American soldiers who were killed in the Korean War, their average age was 22 years old, 22 in 77% of their hearts, they found clear evidence of atherosclerosis. Some with arteries already significantly narrowed. This is just at 22. you. Let that sink in for just a minute. You would have looked at these people walking down the road. These men, if you had just met them walking down the sidewalk and otherwise you would've thought, oh, they're, they seem young, they're healthy, they're active men. We're not talking about elderly patients. In a cardiologist's office here, this is 22-year-old hearts, 77% clear evidence of atherosclerosis already there. Some arteries significantly narrowed from it. At 22,

Jarrod

two. This would be like if you have a son that's graduating college. that's their age, 22 years old already significant blockage in their arteries. mean, that's a very sobering thought. and this was over 70 years ago that they, saw this. so this isn't brand new

Anita

and it stirs me up because there's something that can be done about it and by and large, you're not hearing about it. That is why we're stirred up. That's why we're

Jarrod

why we're lit. We're lit.

Anita

Clogged vessels do not wait for retirement to build up. they're building right now in those who are regularly eating animal products in people of every age, including young children, every animal product, organic pasture raised, grass fed versions, they may feel like the responsible choice, but they carry cholesterol and saturated fat. And he is when they've been cooked, and the other things that we've talked about today and all the things we haven't touched on yet.

Why It Is Not Just Genetics

Jarrod

and this is why I'll tell patients and clients that this is not something you can just trim off of whatever cut of meat you have or that you can cook it out of it. The cholesterol is an integral bar of the cells within the meat. And then of course, like the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. that is when you're cooking muscle meat at high temperatures. Well, last time I checked beef, Lamb, pork, chicken, that's all, muscle meat. So it's not something that you can avoid.

Anita

Maybe you're thinking, oh, it's just genes. You know, it's just genetic. they're not even dealing with gen. Yes, we are gonna deal with genetics because what we know is we look at the cultures where people eat very little animal products. I mean, maybe once, twice a month, little slivers with something or none at

Jarrod

or even a few times a year,

Anita

a few times in a

Jarrod

and they're not eating a 32 ounce rib eye. They're eating a small portion. a few ounces as just a side of a dish, not the main.

Anita

Almost every single day, every single meal, it's all whole plant foods. You know, we're convinced, oh, I get sides of veggies with every meal I eat, but we're eating a lot of things on those veggies. So you might eat a baked potato, but you're loading it up like I did with sour cream and butter and cheese and all those things. Oh, but I have my potato. Oh, I have my salad, but it has the milk and the eggs and the oils and all these other things in there. It can be clogging your arteries

Jarrod

and dairy has cholesterol, high fat dairy products have even more cholesterol,

Normal Labs Can Still Mislead

Anita

and then you're having green bean castrol, but it has cream cheese or heavy cream, and it has bacon and it has all these other things in there. So you're loaning it down with animal products. When you learn how to make these foods where you can still have your creamy, cheesy casseroles, you are gonna feel like dancing.'cause you'll have these things you love that aren't just something you have instead, just because you can't have the good thing you love, it's gonna be the good thing you love.'cause it loves your body back. Not just because it loves your body back, because it tastes amazing and it makes you feel incredible. And if you think, Anita, I have no clue how to do that, just go right now and get the cookbooks. It's a no brainer@poweronplants.com slash cookbook, It's at Power on plants.com/cookbook. We have two cookbooks out right now. so we were talking about the cultures where they eat all, or mostly all whole plant foods. And what we see in those cultures is they don't. Have heart disease. It is non-existent. They do not have high blood pressure. Their blood pressure actually goes down as they age, which is normal, not going up, going down. Oh, but Anita, they probably just have much better genes. So they don't have the heart disease gene, right? No. Because when those same people now move to Alabama and they start eating the standard American diet, what happens to those exact same people? This has been studied. it has been proven. They eat the same sad foods. That's the standard American diet. Very sad for our health, sad for our legacy, sad for our opportunities. Sad for our productivity, When you start eating those things, that is when the cholesterol goes up, the blood pressure goes up, vessel, linings, clog, and now we end up with heart issues. End up with stroke, heart attack, all these things that plague our societies. So you go in and you try to get help and you either get surgery or prescription instead of someone telling you, Hey, you know what, if you just change what's on your fork and learn how to do that in the way that simple and quick works with your busy schedule and actually tastes so great, you love it, guess what? You could reverse that. Not only halt it, but actually reverse it. We see these things happen on the regular. So it's not the genes. It's not the genes. It is what you're eating. so ask yourself this, if what I'm eating has caused it, is that good news for me or bad news It's actually great news for me. Why is that? Because if what I've been eating has caused it, then it could also stop it and reverse it. If I change what I'm eating, if I change what's on my fork,

Jarrod

Now, one thing. I wanna touch on before we go into that, you may be saying, but Jared, Anita. I'm eating the standard American diet, but my cholesterol levels are normal. Well. maybe it is that your body has adjusted.'cause As we talked about in episode 3 89, our body can compensate to a certain degree by making less cholesterol, but we know that It doesn't really stop this whole process of building up fatty streaks and the cholesterol building up. Or maybe you're on a medication and you feel like, well, this is controlling my cholesterol, but all the medication does is it stops again, your body from making cholesterol naturally. So all the cholesterol that you're getting, or a majority is coming from your food, but your numbers are normal. Surely That must mean I'm safe, right? No, What we know Is that that process still goes on. It's subclinical, meaning you don't have symptoms. from it. But even if there's no change in your cholesterol numbers or maybe a slight, bump when you're eating those animal-based products, that process is still going on. I

Anita

by that process you mean everything we talked about today that builds up in the

Jarrod

the plaques forming. It's still happening. It is

Anita

that for a minute.

Proof That Plaque Can Regress

Jarrod

happening, And I see people where they say, oh, and they're in their twenties. They have regular cholesterol. They have, at this point anyway, normal cholesterol numbers, so they don't really think it's an issue. But the Research shows that this process goes on So don't be deceived by normal numbers. Alright, So now the good news like Anita said, if what we've been doing has been causing this, the great news is that now we have the power and what we, can do can help to undo it. Now you may be asking gimme the proof. Do you have proof, Anita? You have proof that this actually reverses clogged arteries.

Anita

Well, on our last episode, we talked about one of our most recent clients, but we have this happen on the regular. We have our clients regularly reversed high blood pressure, high cholesterol. We have research studies that show Imaging studies that have been done. Look at Dr. Ornish's study where he shows the vessels open back up. We will be posting these for you inside Peak Performance Network. That is our community. Get in there@poweronplants.com slash PPN. You can see this for yourself.

Jarrod

Now, was this study released a couple years ago? No. Dr. Ornish's study was. released back about 40 years ago.

Anita

So this has been known for over 40 years.

Jarrod

was before I even Started my medical training. It, it's just, it's, it's nuts.

Anita

Absolutely. And then you look at Dr. Eston and all the patients that were sent his way that their doctors, their cardiologists had given up on them. They said, these patients are gonna die. There's nothing more we can do for them. Five of them have been told that they had less than a year to live. one of those patients had such severe vascular disease that crossing a skyway to get into his clinic, he had to stop and rest five times from the leg pain caused by the blockages he had in his vessels. blood couldn't flow to his legs. His legs were hurting him.

Jarrod

The muscles didn't have what they needed, and in response. They had pain, they had weakness. So in that. situation, patients Have to sit down. They can only walk a couple of minutes or they can only walk about a hundred feet and then they have to. rest, let their body catch back up

Anita

After nine months of eating whole plant foods, every bit of that pain was gone. Follow-up testing showed double the blood flow compared to when that man had started eating whole plant foods. Can you see how this could change your life and the lives of those you love? In the eight years before that study began, those 18 patients Dr. Essel was working with had had 49 cardiac events combined, including bypasses, angioplasties, and heart attacks in the 12 years after switching to whole plant foods, not one patient who stayed with the plan had one single cardiac event that's 49 cardiac events before whole plant foods, zero. After switching to whole plant foods and over 30 years later, those patients are still thriving. Dr. Neil Bernard nailed it when he said, if you change your diet to whole plant foods and do it vigorously, you have enormous power. You can reverse heart disease, you can prevent it too. what if your blood vessels were opened back up, clean, flexible, flowing freely the way God designed them to? What part of your body do you think would feel better, would respond differently? Would be more energized, would be more productive for you? When you consider where the blood flows in your body, you know exactly what areas are going to be affected by making this change. Thankfully our body is not our enemy. It was created to support us. It's the vessel we are to live in to fulfill our calling, and it's doing its absolute best with what it has. But what if we give it what has been needing all along and we actually enjoy the process That is the winning formula. Be the body, what it was designed to optimally function on, and watch what gets unlocked. Numbers shift. Medications go away under your doctor's supervision. Energy returns, afternoon crashes. Stop. Your brain fog clears up. You're able to show up fully on stage in the boardroom for your family, for your friends, for your calling, not occasionally, regularly, and not as some distant future version of yourself now today. This can happen so quickly. You think, oh, this is gonna take years. No, we see people get results very quickly

Jarrod

Within a few weeks

Anita

depending on what's going on. It can be that quick

Jarrod

Blood pressure within a few weeks. Diabetes reversing within a few weeks, but the thing about our bodies is they were made to heal, and when we. give it the optimal conditions to do that, it will do it. I look at what a lot of people do. Not only are they, many of them eating a standard American diet, but they're drinking sometimes too. Excess smoking, and maybe even some other poor lifestyle choices. and the fact that these people live until their forties and fifties really is a demonstration of how robust our bodies are.

Anita

that's the miracle. That's the miracle.

Jarrod

And it's just sad. Yes. In scripture It says that man is appointed once to die. It doesn't say you have, to die early. I've heard Dr. Kim Williams he's a cardiologist and used to be the president of the American College of Cardiology. He said, I don't mind dying. I just don't want it to be my fault.

Hope Plus Next Steps To Start

Anita

Right, right, exactly. That is so good. And it's so very true. And we don't wanna just live long. We wanna live fully, we wanna live well completely. Leaving our legacy, not having our children, our grandchildren, taking care of us for 10, 15 years of our life not being fully present. We wanna live every day doing what God has called us to do, And the question you have to ask yourself is, am I sick of the enemy keeping me stuck? Ask yourself that and then you'll know whether you're ready to move ahead. And if you think, look, this is great and all, but I don't know where to start. Well first grab the cookbooks. Secondly, if you're ready and you think, you know what, I'm just ready for somebody to take me by the hand and walk me through. A five step system that when I plug into it, I am going to see results

Jarrod

a proven system, a proven formula,

Anita

and the results are going to last. You want something that's gonna last. You don't wanna just do something that's crazy that you are never meant to do. We walk you through our five step signature system that when people plug into it, they get results.

Jarrod

they do the work, they get the results. Absolutely.

Anita

You can learn more about that by going to Power on plants.com/accelerator today. That's power on plants.com/accelerator. We want you to walk away from this episode with hope. That's our desire for you every single week because there is something you can do. It's not just your age or just your genes. Look around you at all the opportunities God has for you. Take a stand and tell the enemy, you are not going to steal my life anymore. Get into the group, find your family, get involved, and before long you're going to see yourself in a whole new place. You're going to be dreaming even higher. Maybe you're already dreaming and you have plans mapped out for your business and your future. You're going to be able to accomplish those because your energy's gonna be through the roof. You're gonna be like me having to set your alarm to remind yourself to go to bed at night cause you have more energy than you did 15 years ago. That's the reality of these amazing God-given foods. Know that you are loved, you are prayed for, and we will see you soon.