Brain Power with Dr. Eko

EP. 25 | The Power of Plant-Based Nutrition: A Journey to Health and Balance with Dr. Amanda Adkins

• Dr. Hokehe Eko • Season 1 • Episode 25

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Discover the transformative power of a plant-based lifestyle with Dr. Amanda Adkins, a double board-certified lifestyle and internal medicine doctor whose personal health journey will leave you inspired. After struggling with her weight as a teenager, Dr. Adkins made the life-changing decision to embrace a healthier way of living, eventually becoming a staunch advocate for plant-based nutrition. She shares her story of overcoming nearly 200 pounds to become a passionate supporter of sustainable lifestyle changes, particularly for Christian women battling weight and medication dependency. Dr. Adkins’ insights into exercise, nutrition, and personal commitment offer a compelling guide to achieving a balanced and healthy life.

In this episode, Dr. Adkins demystifies the often misunderstood world of plant-based diets. She highlights the critical differences between whole food plant-based nutrition and the often misleading vegan or plant-based marketed foods that can be highly processed. With clarity and expertise, Dr. Adkins addresses common misconceptions and emphasizes the health benefits of minimally processed, naturally plant-derived foods. She also provides practical tips for parents on incorporating plant-based foods into their children’s diets, particularly for those with autism and ADHD, encouraging involvement in food choices and gradual introduction of new foods. Tune in to unlock the secrets to a diverse, nutritionally superior diet that promotes overall well-being for you and your family.

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Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Welcome, parents. Welcome to another episode of Brain Power with Dr Eko. You're in for a treat today. I have the amazing Dr Amanda Adkins Wow, all A, Amazing Dr Amanda Adkins here with us today, and she's a lifestyle doctor as well as an internal medicine doctor, so she's double board certified and she's a woman full of wisdom on how you can live a life like a full life, right, a well-rounded life, and so I'm going to let her introduce herself, because you're going to want to hear her story and it's going to really inspire you. So, without further ado, welcome to Brain Power with Dr Eko. Dr Adkins.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

T hank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk with you today. So, yes, like you said, I am double board certified in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine. I also am the owner and CEO of Enlightenment Health and Wealth, where we help women Christian women who are overweight, get off their blood pressure and diabetes medicine safely through lifestyle changes.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

When I say that people are like, oh, I blood pressure and diabetes medicine safely through lifestyle changes. When I say that people are like, oh, I don't want to change anything, but we talk about you know what you can do in your own time to actually help these changes. So I'm just so excited to talk with you about this and tell you about my journey and why I'm here, because it started back when I was a teenager. So you never know what God has in store for you. I was a very shy young lady and to be out here talking to you today is just a testament of like what God can do.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

My family will all say oh, my gosh.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

They're like, oh my gosh, you're out there talking Because I still would just sit in the corner, read a book or something. But my health journey started back when I was a freshman in high school. I was like 13 or 14 years old and I grew up in Indiana in the 90s and at that time we had to do what they called a presidential physical fitness test and we had to actually step on the scale and weigh ourselves. And you know you can look in the mirror and see that you're overweight. You know I could tell I was tired all the time. I always loved to sleep so I didn't think much of that. I was always tired. But when I stepped on the scale I weighed 199 pounds as a 13, 14 year old girl. And you know, in teenage years you're already self-conscious and everything there. And then you see that number on the scale and that was life-changing for me. Because I tell people, if it was like 197, it probably wouldn't have been that bad, if it was 203, it wouldn't have been that bad. But because it was right there on the edge of the next step, I vowed then and there that I would never let two be the first number of my weight and I knew I had to change something. And the first step I did was start exercising. And I was like that's easy enough, but I would actually go as far as saving my lunch money. So back in the day, you know, much was only like $2. I would save that and buy exercise equipment. I was an infomercial queen. I would say I would buy like the ab roller, the thigh master, this little gadget that would decrease the fat around your abdomen. I mean, I was getting it all. It wasn't the normal equipment that people do, like just go run or walk. No, I had to do something extra. So I did that and lost some weight, started exercising.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

But then, at the age of 16, I decided to become a vegetarian. And the reason this is crazy is because at the time my dad was a meat delivery truck driver. So we had bologna, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, all sorts of things, ham that was what we ate, because they would give that to their employees when it would almost expire. So you know, my parents were like okay, we're going to eat this free food. And at the age of 16, I told them I wasn't going to eat it anymore and they're like well, I don't know what you're going to eat, right. So I remember my first vegetarian meal was peas and corn canned and I was like I'm just going to see how this goes Right. And I'm a person that likes to challenge myself and see what I can do, and so I just like, let's see how long I can do this. And now I would say, almost 40 years later, 30 years later, I'm still doing that not eating meat and was able to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off. And then later on, through med school and residency, I was still vegetarian, but I was a junk food vegetarian. So I love all things Doritos, I love Coca-Cola. My favorite meal was a Big Mac with no meat.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

You know coming up with things because you know, like I said, indiana in the 90s, arizona, because I wasn't willing to learn a lot about nutrition in med school. So I was like, oh, I'll go here. I always wanted to go to Arizona and one of the doctors there said you cannot out exercise a bad diet and he was talking about plant based nutrition and I didn't know that at the time but I was like that sounds interesting. And then one of my patients actually told me about Dr Joel Furman, who was like one of the fathers of lifestyle medicine. And you know plant-based nutrition and he's a nutritarian, he calls himself, so just learning information about that. And then when I learned that actually eating plant-based helps with chronic illnesses, I was like, oh my goodness, this is what I've been looking for my entire life. And so that's what I decided to become board certified in lifestyle medicine.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

And initially it was all for myself. I just wanted to learn it because I wanted to be healthy. I didn't want medication and I didn't want all my illnesses that ran in my family, like high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. I said, well, I'm going to do this for myself. But then you know illnesses that ran in my family, like high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. I said, well, I'm going to do this for myself. But then, you know, when you do things, people start to notice. Patients start to ask I don't want to be on medications, what else can I do? And this kind of propelled me to go on to do health and wellness coaching, because in a you know, internal medicine practice, you have 15 minutes in the exam room and that's not enough time for lifestyle changes to be discussed. So that is the condensed version of my long story of health and wellness to get to this point in time Wow.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

I like what you said. Like there's been a few points where you made a decision, first when you were, you were I, and then when you were 16, and then you've continued to make that decision. So talk to parents about that, because I think that might be a big issue for people. Or parents is making that decision or they feel like it's too hard to go plant-based, and if you can just address those concerns, questions they may have.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

So the decision would come with a conviction. So that's what I usually tell people Without the conviction, the decision doesn't matter, because there will be so many things in life that tries to push you or pull you backwards to what you were doing before and because, like I said, I had that point where I was like I'm not going to let two be the first number of my weight. That was a conviction that I had within myself. Nobody gave that to me. Nobody said Amanda, you're too overweight, you need to change something to do this. It came from within. And then the same thing when I decided to become a vegetarian. I was like I want to lose weight and again, nobody was telling me that I need to do that.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

No-transcript, definitely just try to focus on positive things for your child so you don't feel like you're shaming them, because I never want her to feel bad, that she's maybe choosing something that I wouldn't necessarily choose for her at the time, but just start to direct her and make her make her own decisions, because I feel like that way she will continue that more lifelong than if I try to force something upon her and then she will resist as soon as she's like out of the house and then go the total opposite way. And I think that's with almost anything, not just healthy lifestyle eating, but with you know schoolwork, with you know my spirituality, you know with just parenting in general and how things would go, but just to try to guide them instead of actually forcing things upon yourself. And I also try to be that example for her. So if she, you know, because kids always want to do what you're doing for the good or the bad, and so I try to always eat healthy, especially around her, with certain things, so that she will actually see, oh, mommy's eating that, so that should be good for me. And like even today she yelled down to me it's like mom, I need some fruit, I need some blueberries. So I was like, yay, you know, instead of I want a cupcake, you know. So so just being the example and not trying to force a change.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

And another example is a pastor tried to ask me, you know, oh, you know my daughter, you know, when I saw your picture of what you were like in high school and that's like her now, how can I get her to change? I'm like you can't get her to change. You wouldn't want to actually live out that example and then not have her feel ashamed, not force her into doing certain things, and she eventually would follow. It may not be as soon as you would like, but the more you put you know, healthy choices in front of them, the more likely they are to pick up and actually take that on on their own lifestyle. So don't force it upon them. Just be the example.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Yes, absolutely right. I have a few questions. Is there a difference between vegetarian and plant-based eating?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

It is. So vegetarian, vegan, plant-based I get this question a lot. So vegetarian with the real definition some people a guy yesterday is like, yeah, I'm vegetarian but I still eat fish. That's pescatarian. So vegetarian mean you eat no meat at all, so no fish, chicken, pork, turkey beef, nothing like that. But you would still eat some animal products like eggs and dairy would be vegetarian. And then vegan means you have no animal products at all and that would include honey, which was later on discovered to me because I was thinking bee, insect, that's not the same, but it's an animal Technically. If you go plant animals, so everything anything that would come from an animal that would cause harm to an animal that you're doing, then that would consider that you're not in the vegan category.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

Plant-based works really more whole food, plant-based because you can have plant-based and vegan. That actually interchange in the marketing world. So you may see a lot of like plant-based ice cream. That's not whole food plant-based but that's more like vegan. But they're using that plant-based because they hear yeah, they hear information how plant-based is, you know, the healthiest that you can go. It prevents and reverse chronic illnesses. So I tell people to really be alert with that. So if you think plant-based is something you know that can be grown fully plants and you can actually look at it and know what it is. It hasn't been transformed in its whole form and probably doesn't need a label or it did not have a mom.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Okay, well, let me see. I want you to please clarify that what you want parents or people to watch out for, that difference between the vegan and the plant-based.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

Yeah, so the labels, if it needs a label that says it's plant-based, so like ice cream, even the plant-based substitutes, like the impossible meats or the beyond the plant-based, like chicken, all those types of things. So those would not necessarily be the plant-based, like chicken, all those types of things. So those would not necessarily be the plant-based that actually helps reverse chronic illnesses.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

That actually is the plant-based that helps environments, okay. It's not using up all the resources there to make a hamburger or, you know, kill the chicken and all that ferding and things like that. So that's the difference. Um, when we actually talk about plant-based for nutrition and actually helping with health and wellness, we're talking about the whole food. But because you know, I said the marketing, people know about plant-based and how that actually helps with chronic illnesses, they're actually putting that on labels now because people are like, oh, I'll eat this because it says it's plant-based.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

But then that goes back to my why. I tell people I was a junk food vegetarian, because that's what that is. So we have to be very careful. It can be a possible healthier option, but if you look at it, it's probably still high in sugar and high in salts, which is not good for us. I tell transparent people. I tell them, yes, we still do, because I was vegetarian and vegan first before I went plant-based that I still would do some of those plant-based substitutes type things, especially for my daughter to have her like kind of fit in where she feels like her chicken strips look like other kids' chicken strips but they're the vegan kind. So it's not where you say oh, it's 100% bad or 100% good. It could be a transition point for kids to actually have a slightly healthier option, but still we want to look at eating whole foods as the most healthiest option.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Got it. Thank you for breaking that down some more. So how do you address the question of how am I going to survive? Just eating plant food or, like people, think that their options are limited? How would you address that?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

So there are probably over 400 fruit and vegetable species out there. So I start there. You will not get bored. I tell people, most of the time, when you eat, you pretty much eat the same thing. So people that love chicken, they're going to eat chicken, whether it's, you know, baked, fried, grilled, you know they're going to eat similar things. So the same could be true for plant-based eating.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

Like I love lentils, there's several different types of lentils, like red, green and brown are my favorite, and the red ones are softer. The green and brown ones are more firm, so you can use that. I love, you know, mexican, american, mexican food. So like tacos, burritos, enchiladas, so you can use lentils as a substitute for meat for that. So you can do a lentil meatloaf if you like that. You can do just lentils itself. You can do lentils in a salad so you can put, you know, your different plant-based foods in different cultures of food. So whether it's like Mexican-based, indian-based, italian-based, you know, whatever you like you can actually, because it's using the herbs and spices that you put in there, so you can make it all different, so you can have a different meal every day even if it's the same base, just like you do with meat.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

So I tell people that that argument doesn't stand up to me because I do very different things. And then, getting onto that, people ask about if they're going to get the nutrients that they need. And actually you get more nutrients if you eat a whole food, plant-based diet, because there are more nutrients in plants than you get in animals, especially in meat. So meat may be protein, cholesterol and sodium, and that's about it, but as plants you get all the sorts of different vitamins, nutrients, phytonutrients that help decrease cancer, decrease inflammation, nutrients, phytonutrients that help decrease cancer, decrease inflammation. You get protein also, which people think they cannot get protein from eating plants. So there's so many different things you can try, different combinations, different vegetables and fruits that you probably never tried, that are good in different countries. So I just tell you, just be open to eating new things. That's all you have to do and you'll be fine, okay.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

How can they introduce their kids, say? The parent says okay, fine, I listened to Dr Atkins and I'm going to make. I've decided how are they going to get their kids, because I specialize in taking care of kids with autism and ADHD. Do you have any advice for parents of how they can introduce foods like this to their kids?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

So one, you want to get the child involved if they're early enough to kind of see what they would like and have them try, you know, small amounts of something new. My nephew actually has autism. So I'm trying to, you know, tell my daughter not my daughter, my sister of you know just introducing certain things. Because, to you know, tell my daughter, not my daughter, my sister of you know just introducing certain things. Because eating, you know, more plants actually can help decrease some of the inflammation, especially like with the brain and things too. And instead of doing a lot of processed and sugary foods. And she was surprised that when, when, when he's not with her, like with my parents, that he would eat more vegetables because that's what they would have available. But he knows that he can get away with it with her sometime.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

But now that if you're just trying to introduce like, oh, I saw when you were with you know, dg, that you ate, you know, more broccoli, so let's try to get that there. And again, it's not trying to force them, it's just trying to introduce things to them to say, here, try a little bit of this, try a little bit of that. You never know if you may like it or not, you know, different fruits, put them in different ways. Sometimes you may do it like in smoothies or something like that. They like things of the such. So you just, you know, want to, you know, be open with your child and see what the hiccups are for them and then just try to work it in with that. So I think, mostly just getting them involved in the decision making, especially if you have a little bit older kids, like late elementary or teenagers even yes, because the kids feel a sense of ownership and they're more likely to eat the food that they make right.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

So, not being scared to let your kids try something new, even if they're picky eaters, because you'll be surprised. Thank you for those tips. So for someone who's asking yes, I hear you about the reversing of chronic disease and all of that, but are there any other benefits to eating plant-based food that you can tell us about?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

So I mean, it depends on all what you want, so you can get a lot of things. One, energy. A lot of people nowadays just feel tired all the time, so actually eating foods that have a lot of nutrients in there actually fuels your body correctly, so that's good. A lot of people notice a change in their mental capacity. So they don't feel as much like a fog. They like there's something that's lifted when they actually start eating more whole food, plant-based, they actually sleep better, so that actually helps. They're more productive at work or at school, so you're actually not feeling like you're not getting things done.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

You're just kind of going in a circle. You have better skin, you have less joint pains. I know some of them. People may not notice that when they're younger, but as you get older you'll start to learn those things that may occur and then even for women it can actually decrease some of their cramping that they may feel during their menstrual cycles. So teenage girls that have a lot of problems with that they may actually notice a difference with that too. So it's not the chronic things that you have to worry about later on. It's like you feel good now, even younger.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Amen to that. Yeah, I mean in all honesty I'm not plan B's, but yes, I know it does. It does help. I've trained my kids. My six-year-old says blueberries, god's candy, because that's all she sees. Yeah, no candy at all. So, just making those changes, it is possible to live a life where your kids are not consuming all the process and all of that and just teaching them, because really, like you said, children learn from what we are modeling, not necessarily what we say. And so, for the parents, or for the moms since I know you said you talk, you help moms for the moms who are interested in learning more about what you do, where can they find you?

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

Yeah, so I usually lead people to my website. It's DrAmandaMDcom, and I actually do free wellness calls, so if somebody wants to book that, just to kind of see if we would work well together, they could definitely do that. And then I'm also on Instagram and Facebook and my last name is spelled A-D-K-I-N-S. A lot of people want to change that around, but that's how you can easily find me online. Yes, yeah, because it's totally, totally different than the other Atkins.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

I learned about that. Yeah, okay, because it's totally, totally different than the other Atkins I learned about that diet, yeah, so like, you're totally the opposite of what they were saying.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

Like, yeah, that's just interesting Again how God works. Like and that's my married name, that's not my maiden name, so I happen to marry an Adkins, all right.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Yeah, it's amazing how he works, so that's wonderful. So we'll definitely have all your information in the show notes. And can I ask you for one last brain power tip for our parents, and even tips for kids.

Dr. Amanda Adkins:

I think that we are amusing deficient in doing that. Sometimes our breakfast is, you know, very brown and tan and we don't add in color. So if you can add in those blueberries and green leafy vegetables at every single meal, I think we'll actually all be a lot better, especially here in the US where we eat mostly processed food, and it actually gives you a lot of brain power. We need those blood vessels open. So berries and green leafy vegetables open up those blood vessels that actually nourish our brain and it will do a lot better. So thank you Yay.

Dr. Hokehe Eko:

Thank you so much for coming on. Such an honor to have you today. And parents, I hope you were taking notes and please go check out Dr Adkins so that you can get on your journey of being a healthier, happier you from the inside out. So until next time, have a wonderful day.