SPEAKER_00: 0:00

But then the question is, isn't this just snake oil? I mean, I feel like you're selling me snake oil because how could it possibly work for all these different types of conditions? These are different, right? You think about autoimmune disease is different from diabetes, it's different from high blood pressure, it's different from cholesterol, it's different from low energy, is different from fibromyalgia. Like, how could it work for so many different things? And the first reason is, hey sister, welcome to the Power on Plants podcast. Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better? Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health? Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do? Hi, we're Sheridan and Eda Resel, Christ followers, healthcare professionals, parents of four, and big fans of great tasting food. We too tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes. And we weren't finding answers the traditional route, so we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon, sustainable plant-based living. The truth is you can eat more whole plant foods and it's not hard. You just need the way that's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived. If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place. So grab your favorite plant-based cup of happy, pop in those hair buds, and let's get started. Friend, if you've ever felt like your health is holding you back from fully living the life God put on your heart, you are in the right place. Whether you're ready to 10x your business or travel with your family and be able to completely enjoy it, what we know is this it's next to impossible to actively live your dreams when your body keeps holding you back. Now, in case you're new to Power on Plants, my name is Anita Roussel, and I'm a nurse with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing and also a certified integrative nutrition health coach.

SPEAKER_01: 2:12

And my name is Jared Roussel. I'm a physician assistant with over 20 years of experience, and I am a whole food plant-based champion.

SPEAKER_00: 2:20

And certified in lifestyle medicine. You forgot that part.

SPEAKER_01: 2:22

Certified in lifestyle medicine as well.

SPEAKER_00: 2:24

Love that part. Together we have nearly 50 years of combined healthcare experience. And the best part is that while we spent many years of our lives helping our clients to manage their diseases, today we happily get to spend our days helping them to prevent and even reverse the most common chronic diseases of our time. To sum it up, we absolutely love what we do now. I want you to imagine regularly waking up with a body that feels amazing, no longer physically held back in life by the body that was created to be your number one asset in this world, apart from God, of course. The truth is that many conditions you've been told are chronic aren't set in stone. They are regularly reversed with whole plant foods. How do we know this? Well, number one, let's start with our story. Jared and I, when we hit 40, neither one of us were doing very well. I hit a huge wall with my health. I was constantly exhausted. I had joint pain so bad that many of you probably heard my story of standing in the shower trying to wash my hair. And the pain was so severe in my joints and my shoulder that I was literally crying in the shower thinking, why is it that I'm sitting here trying to wash my hair and it's just so difficult when there are other people in the world washing their hair and not even thinking about it. And that's a terrible place to be, especially when you hit 40. I mean, no one should ever have to go through that. But at 40, it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01: 3:54

And the sad part is that leading up to that time, we really didn't think much about it.

SPEAKER_00: 3:58

No.

SPEAKER_01: 3:59

I think we weren't feeling our best, but we weren't feeling terrible until we did. But we didn't think anything about it because that's just the way that it was.

SPEAKER_00: 4:07

But you're led to believe it's because you're getting older or it's your genes that are at work against you. And those things just are not true because what we know is the large majority of chronic diseases today are lifestyle related.

SPEAKER_01: 4:21

And they're chronic because we keep doing the things that cause them. If you chronically had mold and mildew in your shower because your shower is constantly staying wet, that doesn't really seem like a mystery to us. It's because that environment is staying constantly damp that you would get mold and mildew. We were doing the same thing with our health, not even realizing it. And that was really the sad part. And that's what really gets us fired up.

SPEAKER_00: 4:47

Absolutely, because we know how hard it was. I even had difficulty doing just the daily things in life, like homeschooling my children, never mind wanting to grow a business or do something to help other people. It's like I was just treading water, trying to keep my head above water to survive. And it reached a point where I had so many diagnoses. They were piling up on each other. I was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease. And my doctor told me, oh yeah, don't worry about it. It's just a normal variant. It's not cancer, so it's okay. Meanwhile, your body's walling something off. That is a big red flag. When your body has something it's walling off, that's not normal. Okay. You need to understand and really think these things through rationally. But he told me, yeah, that's just something you're going to have for life. Well, guess what? I don't have it anymore. It's completely gone. And then there's the interstitial cystitis. That's another diagnosis I got. And what that means is inflammation of the bladder that is so constant and chronic that every day you feel like you have a urinary tract infection. Now, if you've ever had one of those and you know how miserable that is, you can start to understand what a horrible diagnosis this is to get. And they put me on steroids and these different types of things to try to manage this disease. Notice the words I'm using here to try to manage it. They weren't mentioning anything about this can be reversed. Well, guess what? Another diagnosis gone. I no longer have it. I'm free from that now. Thank God. I mean, I just think back on what my days were like when I had that. It was just constant misery and pain. And we don't want that for you. And maybe you're thinking, I don't have anything that serious right now. You know, I just want to maintain the health that I have and not get these problems, not develop these things down the road. Thank goodness you're thinking about that now because that's what you want to do. You want to prevent these things. And what we know is whole plant foods are the foods that prevent and even reverse the most common chronic diseases of our time. It's shown in the research. And we know that these are the foods that our bodies were originally designed to thrive on, according to Genesis 129. So we always say when you find the place where the reliable scientific research lines up with the Bible, you strike gold. That's the intersection where the gold falls out. Of course, we don't need the science to back up the word and make it true. But when you do have that, it's a no-brainer, right? I had other things going on. Like I would lay on my side, I remember, and I would hear the whooshing of my blood in my arteries, in my neck.

SPEAKER_01: 7:22

In her neck, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 7:23

I mean, just constant. I could hear it in my ears. I no longer have it. It's gone. Meanwhile, I was told these things were chronic, and it's just because I was getting older. So we can clearly see there's something wrong with what I have been told. And then there's Jared. He didn't have any massive diagnosis or things going on that we couldn't quite figure out because he just accepted the condition he found himself in.

SPEAKER_01: 7:49

I was getting older. It was just a part of that whole process. Or so we thought. Or so we thought. That was the mindset I had back then. So the achy shoulders with impingement syndrome, not severe, but every now and then you tweak it just the wrong way and it grabs you. Had aching in the side of my hips, which was trochenteric bursitis. So if you've ever heard of that, it can get severe. Mine was not, but still bothersome if I laid on my side in bed. After a while it would wake me up, I'd have to shift. And again, you just kind of accepted it as part of that process. Then also had even some symptoms of arterial occlusion. Again, you're a guy, you're getting older, you're just told that's the normal part of the process. Just accept it.

SPEAKER_00: 8:33

So that's just some of our personal proof that chronic quote, I'm putting air quotes around chronic conditions can be reversed. But we see this happen with our clients on the regular. For example, these are just some of the things that we see reverse regularly: type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, IBS, and Crohn's, severe headaches, reflux. One of our clients was on Nexium for 14 years. She thought she'd be on it for life and she is no longer on it. And she is thrilled about it. And then high blood pressure. We constantly see blood pressure come back down to normal and high cholesterol do the same. These are all examples of chronic diseases that we see reversed regularly as we start working with people and they start taking the simple steps and doing what we call plant stacking, finding their new favorites as well. It makes all the difference.

SPEAKER_01: 9:35

Yes, these changes don't necessarily take weeks or months to take place. Sometimes they can happen in the course of a few days. I just recently had a patient whose blood pressure was considerably elevated. I mean, not a, hey, let's just watch it for the next couple months and see what happens. This is a, we got to get this down, or you're gonna have to go see a specialist. And within just a few days, he was something like 170 over 110, dropping it down to around 140 to 130 for that top number. In just a few days. And I messaged him and said, What are you doing? He said, I'm changing what I eat. So I was just giving him a virtual high five. It's like, you are doing all the right stuff. Yes. Keep it up. We're gonna meet again soon and see how you're doing. I don't think he's gonna need medication.

SPEAKER_00: 10:19

I would not be surprised at all because you see this happen with your clients all the time. Jared still works seeing patients as well as working through our business with power on plants with our clients there. And both places, our patients and our clients are getting amazing results. These foods are incredible. I think the hard part is wrapping your mind around first what we're talking about today. This actually works. When you have the system and the framework that takes you step by step to know what to do first, what to do next, and how to make eating these foods simple, enjoyable, quick and delicious. When you love what you eat and you love how it's quick and easy, and it makes you feel amazing and you don't miss your old favorites, it's a no-brainer. I mean, just think about it. If you could wake up feeling great every day and you loved what you ate and you knew how to make it quick and easy, so you didn't have to waste hours in the kitchen. You could be out just living life, enjoying it, 10xing your business, being out with your family, doing all the fun things you want to do. Why wouldn't you want to do it? And why wouldn't you be able to stick with it? So the first thing is you don't even know that plant-based could work, right? That's the first awakening. Like, oh, whole plant foods can do this. And then the next thing is, wait, this could actually work for me. You know, this works for other people and it could actually work for me. And then you think, but I can't. And those I can't start creeping in. You have to get beyond that and start asking yourself, how can I? Because we know that we know that we know that this absolutely works. We've seen it in our own life. We see it with our clients on the regular. It's backed up by years and years of solid research. So once you know how to get these foods into your life in the way that you absolutely love and that love your body back, it's a happy place.

SPEAKER_01: 12:07

And if you do the work, you will get the results. Pure and simple.

SPEAKER_00: 12:11

Yes, there's work to be done, but I'll just tell you, it's not work like what you think. When you think work to get healthy, you're thinking about a diet, you're thinking about exercising 24-7. This is not that. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 12:22

All right. Well, let me rephrase this. If you take the steps, you will get results.

SPEAKER_00: 12:26

Yes, if you take the steps, you will get results. That's a great way to put it. I love that. But then the question is, isn't this just snake oil? I mean, I feel like you're selling me snake oil because how could it possibly work for all these different types of conditions? These are different, right? You think about autoimmune disease is different from diabetes, it's different from high blood pressure, it's different from cholesterol, it's different from low energy, is different from fibromyalgia. Like, how could it work for so many different things? And the first reason is how it affects your blood. I want you to answer this question. What area of your body does the blood affect? What area? Or better yet, what area of your body does the blood not affect? The answer, of course, the obvious answer is every area of your body is affected. Everything's affected by blood flow. So if you have poor blood flow because your blood is viscous, it's thick, which is what we know happens when you're eating animal products, saturated fats, things like that.

SPEAKER_01: 13:30

Pressed out oils.

SPEAKER_00: 13:31

Yes, pressed out oils. So your blood can get very thick and viscous, but very quickly when you start eating whole plant foods, we find that the blood thins. And I want Jared to share one reason why that naturally happens.

SPEAKER_01: 13:44

Well, there are many different aspects to it, but one commonly is that when you look at the blood of people who eat plant foods, they have the same aspirin levels as those who just eat the standard American diet, but take an aspirin a day. They have the same level of aspirin. Well, why is that? Because it's naturally found in plants. They actually first discovered aspirin from the bark of the willow tree. And what is the willow tree? It's a plant.

SPEAKER_00: 14:10

But you don't figure. But you don't have to eat the willow tree bark.

SPEAKER_01: 14:13

No, you do not have to do that. I mean, you can make a tea out of it, I suppose, if you have one. But no, you don't have to do that. But it's naturally present in plants. And interestingly enough, it's a protective mechanism.

SPEAKER_00: 14:24

Imagine God putting protective mechanisms, as Jared calls them, into the food that he created to help our bodies optimally thrive. It really shouldn't shock us. It really shouldn't. But it's so fun to learn about.

SPEAKER_01: 14:35

Well, it helps to protect the plant against bugs. You don't want to pick the prettiest produce. So when you eat produce that has little bug nibbles, the plant makes more of that aspirin to protect itself from the bugs, but that has a protective effect in the human body, but in a different way.

SPEAKER_00: 14:51

So think about that. Plants have something built into them by nature, by God, that naturally thin your blood, making it less sticky, and therefore it flows better through your vessels. Now, this change can happen literally within hours, even minutes, not just years. So, how would that affect all the areas that your blood flows to? Well, what's the blood doing? What is the function of the blood? It's carrying the nutrients to your cells in all parts of your body, and it is also transporting out the waste products, the garbage. So the blood is bringing in the nutrients to your cells and taking out the garbage. What happens when that pipeline is gummed up with thick blood? Well, now the nutrients cannot readily get to your cells and the garbage is not being carried out properly. And so you have the garbage building up and then nutrients unable to be delivered. And that can lead to disease in multiple areas of your body.

SPEAKER_01: 15:50

And then going beyond just the viscosity of the blood, there are plaques that build up from the cholesterol and the inflammation that happens along the lining of the blood vessels. So then what does that do? It further narrows that inner diameter of the blood vessel. They call that the lumen. Would be like you having pipes in your house that are clogged up by grease that you pour down the sink. Well, as that builds up, the water's not going to be able to flow through. Well, the same exact thing happens in our blood vessels. It increases resistance so the blood can't flow through normally. That then impedes the blood flow, but then that also secondarily makes your heart have to work harder, your blood pressure goes up. Then now several years down the road, you're having heart disease. It's just this progressive process. And research has even shown that blocked blood vessels contributes to dementia. Well, why would that be? We know that there's a neurologic component to it, but they've known for decades that there's also a vascular component. Because if the blood can't flow to the brain, the brain is very sensitive tissue when it's not getting the oxygen and the nutrients that it needs. Those neurons slowly die off. It's not always going to be immediately evident, but when you start losing enough neurons, grandma doesn't remember who I am like she used to. Yeah, I'd tell patients and clients if you were to take grandma at 50 and grandma at 70, at 50, she's vital, she's active, at 70, she can't even recognize you. And you remove those 20 years, you collapse the time frame. What would you say? You would say grandma had a stroke. It's like, oh my goodness. Well, when we see that over the course of years, we no longer say it's a stroke, we just say she got old.

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 17:27

Age is not a disease.

SPEAKER_00: 17:30

Oh, take that to the bank. Take that away today and do not forget that. Mark that in your memory. Age is not a disease. We were never meant to become diseased. We were always meant to live in good health. Disease happened when? It started happening at the fall. So it was a result of sin. We were never meant to live diseased, and God has placed things in these amazing whole plant foods that we know heal our body, that make the blood thinner, that help to open the walls back up, or help them to not get clogged in the first place, which is even better. And that affects what part of your body? Every part of your body. Why? Because blood flows everywhere in your body. And therefore, you're going to get disease in various parts if the blood is not flowing correctly. So that's one major reason why this works to help heal so many different diseases.

SPEAKER_01: 18:27

Our bloodstream is the original superhighway.

SPEAKER_00: 18:30

Ooh, that's good.

SPEAKER_01: 18:31

It goes everywhere in the body. Everything is affected by it. But we're really, when you step back and think about it, it makes complete sense.

SPEAKER_00: 18:38

It does. Now let's talk about the next reason why what we eat when we eat whole plant foods versus animal products. So it's that one-to-punch I always talk about. You need to get the animal products out of your life because that is what is filled with cholesterol, saturated fats, all those things that are going to cause issues with your blood and your gut. But you know what animal products have zero of? Field. They have absolutely no fiber. And whole plant foods are full of fiber. And why is this important for your gut? Because your good gut bacteria eat it. This is their food. Well, if they don't have any food, you're starving them. And the little side vegetables, we think, oh, I have a little side vegetables every day. I'm good. It's not enough. It's not enough to properly feed your good gut bacteria. And therefore they start dying off and the bad bacteria are thriving. And now you have gut health problems. And now you have leaky gut. And now because you're not eating your fiber, let's just be honest, the food's not moving through like it should. And so things are backing up. And when that happens and the stool is dry, you get constipation, which can cause rips and tears and holes and pockets in your intestines where food can get stuck and the bad bacteria can grow and thrive. And then you have a whole set of terrible problems. You can end up with leaky gut. And what does an unhealthy gut affect when it comes to your health? Well, we're finding out more and more from the research, it affects a whole lot of things, right?

SPEAKER_01: 20:16

I mean, pretty much it's everything because that's where we're absorbing the nutrients from our food. And if the gut is not working properly, then molecules that are bigger than they should be get introduced into the bloodstream, and then our immune system starts to see this and sees it as a foreign invader instead of being a nutrient. And then now you've got more problems. Now you end up with food allergies or you end up with gluten sensitivities, and then it goes on and on, or it's allowing bacteria to be introduced into our bloodstream that should not be there. I mean, it's a whole host of problems. We don't really think about it because we don't see our gut. We pretty much take it for granted. We eat something, we go to the bathroom, maybe not so regularly, and just never really think much about it. It's really very essential to our health.

SPEAKER_00: 21:00

Yeah, using the bathroom once or twice a week, that is not normal and it can cause big problems over time.

SPEAKER_01: 21:07

Now you may think you're regular because you're going regularly once or twice a week, but that is not a healthy regular bowel habit. So I just want to make that distinction because you may say, I'm on a certain time frame, but that's not a good time frame with your bowel movements.

SPEAKER_00: 21:24

No, and so we have here that the fiber that is only found in whole plant foods feature good gut bacteria, balancing your microbiome in a great way, lowering inflammation, helping to prevent leaky gut and all the problems that come with it that affect your entire body. On top of that, fiber escorts cholesterol out, which is another amazing benefit of eating more and more whole plant foods.

SPEAKER_01: 21:51

And to your point about inflammation, fiber gets converted by certain gut bacteria into a short chain fatty acid called butyrate, which lowers inflammation, but not just in the gut. It gets absorbed into the bloodstream. It even crosses into the blood-brain barrier, so it helps to lower inflammation throughout the entire body, assuming your blood is flowing properly.

SPEAKER_00: 22:11

So here we have the interconnection of the gut and the blood. They work together to provide optimal health, or if they're both in disrepair, you're in double trouble.

SPEAKER_01: 22:22

And 75% of your immune system is associated with your gut, which makes sense because it's an environment in which bacteria and pathogens can proliferate. Well, if you have the beneficial bacteria, the good guys, well, then they're gonna help fight off the pathogenic bacteria for you, allowing your own immune system to just kind of stand at bay. It's like, all right, guys, you got this handled. We'll just stand down and just let y'all take care of things.

SPEAKER_00: 22:46

So picture in your mind how many parts of your body are affected by just your blood flow and your gut health. And these are just two of the body systems that you have. Now, when you consider how the entire body is interconnected, you can easily start to see how eating whole plant foods can help you to improve and even eliminate so many different disease processes.

SPEAKER_01: 23:09

I'm still amazed whenever I tell patients and clients about all the different things it can benefit. It seems too good to be true, but thankfully it is not. But really, when you think about it as well, this is the way that the father designed us to eat. So his ways are the best ways. So it really shouldn't surprise us that it optimizes our health the way that it does.

SPEAKER_00: 23:29

And I'll add that they're the most delicious ways.

SPEAKER_01: 23:32

Yes, they are.

SPEAKER_00: 23:33

So with plants, we're naturally addressing the root causes of disease. While in conventional medicine, we were simply managing diseases based upon what we were taught in school. Now you can see why Jared and I absolutely love what we're doing today, working with our clients and our patients to help them heal and never get disease in the first place.

SPEAKER_01: 23:56

And if you look at a lot of the medications that we have to offer, what do they do? They fight inflammation. You have the non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. There are dozens of them out there. You have steroids. Now, with all of the autoimmune diseases that have just exploded in the last couple of decades, we have all these biologic agents. What do they do? They suppress your immune system. Why? Because it's your immune system that is kind of quote unquote gone haywire, but it's because of the inflammatory state that our body is in. So really, when you again step back and look at the greater picture and see what it is that we're doing, it makes sense, but why don't we address the root cause? And we're not against medications when the situation is appropriate for it. But we really need to optimize those foundational steps so that maybe we don't need the medications.

SPEAKER_00: 24:46

Absolutely. But I want to add this one thing while we're talking about medications because Jared and I, being healthcare professionals, are not anti-medication. We just believe that they're greatly overused. There's a time and a place for it. But if you're on medications, we want to make it clear that if you start doing what we're teaching you on this podcast, please be followed by your personal health care provider who can draw your labs and look at them and explain your levels to you and watch them closely because what we know is that very quickly, say you're on a high blood pressure medication, your blood pressure can start to come down to normal levels, eating the whole plant foods, and you may need to have your medications reduced. So you don't want to just stop taking your medications and start eating plants. That's a bad idea. But what you want to do is be followed by your healthcare practitioner and have them work with you to help you reduce your medications as your blood pressure naturally comes down to normal, following the steps that we're teaching you. It's the same with any disease process, same with diabetes. You need to follow your blood sugar closely when you're doing this because over time you may see it start just to come down rather quickly. And you want to be able to have insulin reduced or whatever medication you're on reduced by professional in the most optimal way. I want to add that it's time to stop obsessing over one-off nutrients like protein and calcium and instead spend your time finding the ways that you genuinely enjoy eating whole plant foods so your body can heal naturally. This week we want to encourage you to focus on finding food freedom by enjoying more of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet that actually love your body back, and that's whole plant foods. So to recap, plants thin your blood naturally, leading to improved circulation, which we all know affects the entire body. Plants restore gut health. One big reason for this is that the fiber in them is the food that your good gut bacteria require. So eating more whole plant foods leads to stronger immunity as well as decreased inflammation. What you're seeing here is that plants address the root cause of many diseases, which brings lasting help the natural way. Even 90% plant-based is miles better than the standard American diet. Small steps can bring real results. But what Jared and I can tell you is we encourage you to go all in because it's not hard once you know the way. Friend, if you're ready to take the next step, go right now to poweronplants.com forward slash guide and grab our free beginner's guide. It's filled with the practical steps to make this lifestyle enjoyable and exciting for you and even include some simple, delicious recipes to get you started. The great news is that you do not have to remain stuck in your health struggles. Things can get better, you can feel good again. You can not only live long, but also live well. Are you ready to thrive in your calling that God has for you? If so, we are here to help. Surround yourself with the supportive community you've been searching for and receive the encouragement, ideas, and inspiration you need by joining us inside our free group at poweronplants.com forward slash PIE. That's poweronplants.com forward slash pie. You do not have to do this alone. We are here for you. Know that you're loved, you're prayed for, and we look forward to seeing you again soon.