Compare that to:
• 🧀 Cheese: ~$0.75 per 100 cal
• 🍗 Chicken breast: ~$1.20 per 100 cal
• 🥩 Beef: ~$1.60+ per 100 cal
Not only are staples like beans, rice, oats, and potatoes some of the cheapest calories you can buy, they also come loaded with fiber, vitamins, and disease-fighting phytonutrients… things animal products simply don’t provide.
So no, plant-based isn’t more expensive. Just the opposite… it’s one of the most budget-friendly ways to eat!
What’s your favorite low-budget plant based meal?
08/30/2025
🧂 Iodine + Your Thyroid
Your thyroid needs iodine to make hormones (T3 & T4). Too little can cause goiter and sluggish metabolism.
BUT too much is just as harmful. I see it all the time… people rushing to take iodine supplements thinking it will “boost” thyroid health. In reality, excess iodine can trigger or worsen thyroid problems.
Too much iodine can actually overstimulate or damage the thyroid, sometimes triggering hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, or autoimmune thyroid disease instead of improving thyroid health.
🌱 Most people get enough from iodized salt or a little seaweed, no megadoses required.
👉 More iodine ≠ better thyroid health. Balance is key.
08/29/2025
Lots of live and virtual events coming up! Mark your calendars.
- Prescribing Plants: The Role of Plant-Based Nutrition in Cardiovascular Disease
- Provider Tools for Implementing Lifestyle Medicine in Clinical Practice
- Lifestyle Medicine: Adding Years to Life and Life to Years
📣 See you there!
(Throwback photo from ACLM 2019!)
08/29/2025
🍇 A Healthier Birthday Treat!
For a recent birthday, instead of bringing in cupcakes loaded with sugar, we in brought a big bowl of cotton candy grapes.
The kids loved them!
It doesn’t have to be junk food to be a treat.
Many people assume that these are GMO, but they are not! They were developed by traditional cross-breeding to bring out the sweet flavor.
Have you bought these before? What did you think?
🍐
08/28/2025
For my podcasters out there… this is a good listen!
Talks about the protein mania that has developed since 2020.
My favorite point… what are you missing out on if your sole focus is protein consumption?
The answer… whole, plant-based foods that are nutrient packed and loaded with antioxidants. We don’t just need protein. We need a whole symphony of macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals in order for our body to function optimally.
And don’t forget, protein bars are ultra-processed foods. Protein products aren’t magically exempt from this group.
Taking bets on how much longer the protein craze will continue? What’s the next fad going to be?
Cheese feels impossible to quit because it’s not just food, it’s chemistry.
When we digest casein (milk protein), it breaks into casomorphins, opioid-like compounds that trigger the brain’s feel-good receptors. That’s why cheese cravings feel so real.
👶 This effect was designed to calm nursing calves, not adult humans.
🧀 It takes 10 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of cheese, so casomorphins and fat get super-concentrated.
❤️ Cheese is also the #1 source of saturated fat in the American diet, driving heart disease.
👉 It’s not just a craving, it’s biology. Though once you ditch cheese, the cravings fade and your health improves.
What’s your favorite plant-based cheese swap?
08/27/2025
🌊 Are you a “wade in the water” type… or a full-on cannonball person?
When it comes to making lifestyle changes, whether it’s diet, exercise, or daily habits, people tend to fall into one of these camps:
✨ The Waders
They ease in slowly, testing the waters. Maybe it’s adding an extra serving of vegetables, walking 10 minutes more, or cutting soda before tackling bigger changes.
Pros: Gentle, sustainable, less overwhelming.
Cons: Progress may feel slow, and momentum can stall.
💥 The Cannonballers
They dive right in.
“I’m going plant-based starting Monday,” “I’m quitting sugar cold turkey,” or “I’m hitting the gym 5 days a week now.”
Pros: Fast results, high motivation, clear momentum.
Cons: Risk of burnout, harder to maintain if the plan isn’t realistic.
Both approaches can work. It depends on your personality, your support system, and what feels sustainable for you.
👉 The key isn’t whether you wade or cannonball… it’s that you get in the water.
Which one are you? Why? Has have you been successful with this approach?
08/26/2025
Curious about intermittent fasting?
It’s one of the hottest topics in health right now, but does it really work for weight loss? And what does the science actually say?
Join me tonight for a virtual lecture on Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss.
We’ll cover:
🌙 How intermittent fasting works in the body
⏱️ The most common fasting methods (16:8, 5:2, etc.)
💡 Benefits and limitations based on research
❓ Live Q&A so you can get your questions answered
📅 Tonight
🕖 7p EST / 6p CT / 4p PT
🍐 Join inside the Pear Down Community
👉 www.skool.com/pear-down
See you there! 💚
08/26/2025
Throwback 📩
I once asked my kid’s after-school program if they would consider swapping out the candy and junk food for healthier snacks. The response was a “no” followed by crickets.
When filling out forms for my kids, I always note “please no candy or junk food” under dietary restrictions.
But these days, avoiding it feels almost impossible.
When I was a kid, junk food was an occasional thing, at birthdays and special occasions.
Now it’s the default. Everywhere. All the time.
How can we expect to our kids to learn good eating habits when this is the environment they live in?
Meanwhile, my kids are made fun of for eating real identifiable food. 🙄
Who here has the solution? 🤔
08/25/2025
🌱 PLANTSTRONG Retreat with the Esselstyns 🌱
📍 Black Mountain, NC
📅 November 9–14, 2025
Ready to recharge, reconnect, and recommit to your health? Join the Esselstyns and the PLANTSTRONG team for a transformative retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
What’s Included:
• Inspiring lectures on plant-based nutrition and heart health
• Hands-on cooking demos and workshops
• Daily movement and mindfulness sessions
• Incredible whole food, plant-based meals
• A supportive community of like-minded people
💚 Let me know if you’ll be going! I’ll be popping in, but not there the whole time.
🌿 Cortisol: The “Stress Hormone” Everyone’s Talking About
It seems like everyone wants their cortisol tested these days… many are convinced they have a “cortisol problem.”
But in medicine, cortisol isn’t a test we order often unless we suspect something very specific (like Addison’s disease or Cushing’s syndrome). Those conditions are rare.
So why the disconnect?
Public Perception:
Social media and wellness culture talk about cortisol as if it’s the root cause of every issue, like weight gain, fatigue, anxiety, poor sleep. Cortisol gets cast as the villain.
Medical Reality:
Cortisol is just one piece of a very complex stress system. Levels naturally fluctuate throughout the day. One random blood test tells us very little about whether stress is harming your health. We focus more on patterns of symptoms and root causes (sleep, lifestyle, inflammation, mental health) rather than single lab values.
What Actually Helps:
• Prioritizing sleep 💤
• Movement you enjoy 🏃♀️
• Plant-predominant eating 🌱
• Stress management (breathing, mindfulness, boundaries) 🧘♀️
• Social connection 🤝
You don’t need a lab slip to know your stress is real. Instead of chasing a number, focus on habits that bring your stress response back into balance.
Have you ever had your cortisol tested, or thought about it? What were you hoping to learn?
08/23/2025
Looks fancy, but it’s actually a throw-it-together lunch for the kids today.
Mediterranean wrap 🥙
- whole wheat pita
- hummus
- lentils (used canned ones here — a nice pantry staple to have!)
- lettuce 🥬
- tomato
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I am a Family Medicine/Lifestyle Medicine physician with Greenville Health System in Greenville, SC. Originally from Acton, MA, I was a figure skater growing up, and became interested in nutrition as a means of optimizing performance. I then moved on to study biomedical engineering at University of Virginia. It wasn’t until my medical training that I made nutrition my main focus, and dedicated my elective time to working with various Lifestyle Medicine doctors around the U.S., including John McDougall MD, Neal Barnard MD, Ron Weiss MD, and Caldwell Esselstyn MD. After these experiences, I had no doubt that Lifestyle Medicine is the key to addressing our chronic disease. I thought I was giving up engineering when I switched to medicine, but in fact, Lifestyle Medicine is engineering. We are reframing the question. Rather than asking “how do we treat the symptoms?”, we must ask why the disease state developed in the first place, our root cause analysis. I am a clinical assistant professor at USC School of Medicine Greenville, a leader of the Lifestyle Medicine Education Collaborative, and an active member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
WHAT IS LIFESTYLE MEDICINE?
Lifestyle Medicine is the medical subspecialty focused on using lifestyle modalities to prevent and reverse chronic disease. Why, today, is healthcare so focused on "controlling" disease and treating symptoms, rather than addressing the root cause of disease, and reversing the process entirely? Heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are all prime examples. Lifestyle changes - in particular, a move to a more plant-based diet - are far more powerful than any pharmacotherapy for managing chronic disease and ensuring long term health. We don't "need more research"; we need to start applying what we already know to our communities.
WHAT IS A WHOLE FOODS PLANT-BASED DIET?
“Whole foods” means unprocessed or minimally processed foods, as they exist in nature, i.e. single-ingredient foods. Strict individuals will avoid added salt, sugar, and oil as well.
“Plant-based” in its broadest interpretation means >95% of calories coming from plant-based foods: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. However, most individuals who follow a plant-based diet aim for 100% in order to maximize potential health benefits.
This diet has been shown to prevent, slow, and in many cases reverses chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, etc.
APPOINTMENTS
Dual board certified in Family Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine, with a focus on dietary prevention and reversal of disease. If interested in the latter, please specify that you are a "Lifestyle Medicine" patient when calling.
GHS Greenville Family Medicine
2A Cleveland Ct.
Greenville, SC 29607
We accept insurance. Appointments: 864-271-7761, option 1.
