The Rich Roll Podcast - Eric Adams: NYC's First Vegan Mayor On Why Healthy Food Is A Human Right

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

We live in the most prosperous nation on Earth—and yet we’ve never been more unhealthy. 70% of Americans are obese or overweight. By 2030, 50% of Americans will be diabetic or pre-diabetic. Not only is chronic illness is killing us, it's bankrupting our economy. It’s insanity—and a reality that today’s guest lived, transmuted, and has committed his life to changing. Meet New York City’s next mayor, Eric Adams. At age 54, Eric woke up unable to read his alarm clock. Concerned about his vision and numbness in his extremities, he reluctantly went to the doctor, who delivered a grim diagnosis of advanced Type II diabetes. Progressive eyesight loss was inevitable. His nerve damage was leading him on a path to amputation. Going on a battery of medications for the rest of his life was a given. Refusing to believe his fate was sealed, Eric decided instead to take matters into his own hands. Rather than googling ‘living with diabetes‘, instead he searched ‘reversing diabetes’. What he found was a plethora of support, science, and experts—many of which have appeared on this show—that inspired him to ditch his lifelong allegiance to the standard American diet in favor of a whole food plant-based diet. Within weeks of this nutritional shift and without any medication whatsoever, Eric’s symptoms subsided and his diabetes indeed reversed. His vision returned. His nerves repaired themselves. In the months that followed, he lowered his cholesterol by 30 points. He dropped 35 pounds. And a new lease on life was signed. Now five years hence, Eric is the fittest he’s ever been. His remarkable transformation inspired him to create radical initiatives as Brooklyn Borough President to improve the nutrition, health, and lives of New Yorkers and beyond. A commitment he’s adamant about expanding as New York’s next mayor. Those who have followed this mayoral race closely know it’s been focused on one issue: law and order. Under-reported is Eric's incredible commitment to revolutionizing health policy, the direct result of his very personal experience with chronic lifestyle disease. So today we dive into Eric’s remarkable journey from ill to well, and the purpose-driven mission it has birthed within him to revolutionize health not just in NYC, but across America. I suspect you will end this exchange wanting to know more, in which case you should check out Eric’s book, Healthy At Last: A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses. I appreciate Eric for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to me. We only had a tight hour—but we really made the most of it. To read more click here. You can also watch listen to our exchange on YouTube (audio only—we didn’t film this one). And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Enjoy! Peace + Plants, Rich

I encourage people, that person that they always wanted is still there. It didn't go anywhere. That amazing person that you know you are, it is there. It is there. If you've struggled with weight all your life, if you struggled with how you respond in the heat of the moment, if you found yourself being short-tempered, if you find yourself always lethargic, constipated,

tired, angry, you can actually have a complete reversal. From your diet to learning breathing, we've never been taught how to breathe. It's unbelievable. The most important thing you could do for yourself, we've never been taught. We never sat down and taught children, this is how you're supposed to breathe. How do you deal with stress? How do you deal with anxiety? And so go on this amazing journey of watching how you really start taking care of this most important person in your life. And that's yourself. believe the human being you knew you could always become is going to materialize out of nowhere. And I just encourage people just to take the leap of faith. And then start, let me just try one day a week not having meat. And you're going to find out the sun comes out. And then start, let me just learn about these different breathing exercises that have been around for thousands of years and what meditation actually is. And people are going to slowly start adding things to their

repertoire, more and more things. And they're going to find themselves becoming this totally different human being, but a human being that they always were. And then they're going to really start not just existing, they're going to start living life every day. That's Eric Adams, and this is The Rich Roll Podcast. The Rich Roll Podcast. What's happening, people? Good to be here. Good to have you.

As many of you guys know, I was in New York City recently, a couple of weeks ago. And one of the many occasions for that trip was the opportunity to sit down with today's remarkable guest, Brooklyn Borough President and soon to be New York City's next mayor, Eric Adams. And it was an experience that did not disappoint.

You might've heard Eric's name because as the current Democratic nominee for the mayorship of New York City, in recent months, this has put him on the map as a sort of national media figure. By way of background, Eric is a former police officer with NYPD. It's a 22-year career wherein Eric made great progress reforming that institution from within, well in advance of it being vogue, before retiring from the force as a captain and entering the world of politics, serving four terms as a New York State Senator before becoming the first African-American borough president of

Brooklyn. Those who have followed this mayoral race more closely likely already know that it's essentially been focused on one issue, law and order. And lost in this media cycle about today's guest is this incredible commitment that he has to revolutionizing health policy, which is a direct result of his very personal experience with chronic lifestyle disease. Five years ago at the age of 54, Eric woke up unable to read his alarm clock and concerned as you might imagine about his vision

as well as numbness in his extremities. He reluctantly goes to the doctor who in turn delivers this very grim diagnosis of advanced type 2 diabetes. Progressive eyesight loss was inevitable. His nerve damage was leading him on a path towards amputation. And going on a battery of medications for the rest of his life was just an absolute given. But Eric, refusing to believe his fate was sealed, decides instead to take matters into his own hands. Rather than Googling living with diabetes,

instead he Googles reversing diabetes. And what he finds is a plethora of support, science, science, experts, many of which have appeared on this show that inspired him to ditch his lifelong allegiance to the standard American diet in favor of a whole food plant-based diet. Within weeks of this nutritional shift

and without any medication whatsoever, Eric's symptoms subside, his diabetes indeed reverses over time, his vision returns, his nerves repair themselves. And in the months that followed, he lowers his cholesterol by 30 points, he drops 35 pounds, and essentially a new lease on life was born.

Now, five years hence, Eric is the fittest he's ever been. His remarkable transformation instigated him to share what he learned and inspired him to create impact through some pretty radical initiatives as Brooklyn Borough President to improve the nutrition, the health,

and the lives of New Yorkers and beyond. And it's a commitment he's adamant about expanding as New York's next mayor. It's an incredible story, well- by an incredible storyteller, and it's coming right up. But first. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety.

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And recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. Okay, Eric Adams, New York City's next mayor. Here's the thing though. This isn't really a conversation about politics.

It's a conversation about plants, the power of plants to heal, told through the lens of Eric's remarkable journey from ill to well, and the purpose-driven mission it has birthed within him to revolutionize health across America. I appreciate Eric for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with me.

We only had a tight hour, but I think we really made the most of it. I suspect you will find this conversation inspiring, wanting to know more about Eric, in which case you should certainly check out his book, "'Healthy at Last, A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses."

And with that, I give you Eric Adams. Thank you so much for doing this. You're welcome, you're welcome. Rachel sings your praises. She's like my better. Yeah, we've been going back and forth. Actually, I think for years trying to make this happen. But the timing, I always trust the timing

and this is a very special moment for you right now. So I feel privileged to grab an hour of of your busy day. Because we only have an hour, I mean, there's so many things that I would love to explore with you, the current problems New York City faces, gun control, police reform, and the like. But because we only have an hour to make the most of that, I think we would be best served by focusing the conversation on health and your personal health journey, your commitment to sharing what you've learned and leveraging that experience really

to create policy change and programs, systems to address everything from food insecurity to improving personal health and the lives of your constituents. So you're game for that? First of all, the earring looks good though. Can you tell that story really quick? your constituents. So you came for that? First of all, the earring looks good though. Can you tell that story really quick?

I wanna go to that, but I wanna go to something else that you touched on, which is so important. We don't connect the dots. What we are facing is all the same thing. And we sometimes believe that it's separate, but it's not. You know, the universe we live in is an ecosystem. And so everything is part of that ecosystem. And we live on this unbalance.

It throws off everything. And so you use the term system, which is important. And you also use the term of, you know, we want to talk about my health. But we are an unhealthy society. And everything also use the term of, you know, we want to talk about my health, but we are unhealthy society and everything we do is unhealthy. We have a junk food mindset, both for our nutritional standards, as well as our emotional standard, our spiritual, you know, we are really in a bad place and it's been expedited through this, our addiction to social media. That's the McDonald's of our mind. Sure. And you can't solve the big problems.

You can't solve or address the macro problems without addressing the micro problems, the problems within ourselves, right? We have to carry a certain vibration of truth and integrity and authenticity. There has to be an integration, right? You have to be in balance with yourself and your environment before you can step up to the podium

and talk about changing the problems that affect all of us collectively. Well said, well said. And so if, and the first step towards correction is what AA talks about. You have to acknowledge. Yeah. I mean.

Yeah, you have to, I've been in AA forever. So you're gonna speak my own language. One of the things I always say in the podcast is one of the tropes of AA is you cannot transmit something you haven't got. Like you have to be living it, exuding it. You have to be an exemplar of the values and the ideas that you're espousing.

Otherwise it rings hollow. And I think in this junk food, social media culture that we find ourselves in, there's a lot of people proselytizing about this and that. But a lot of that is nonsense because talk is cheap. And if you're not actually living your life in accordance with what you're preaching, I think people's antennae is one of the things about social media is that we're all very attuned

to what's real and what's fake, especially young people. They can see it a mile away. And that's why I think there's so much strength and gravitas in your message oriented around health because of your own personal experience. Well said, well said. And that connects to the whole earring piece on the campaign trail.

Bring it back to the story. You're gonna answer this question. On the campaign trail. And I was with my son the first time it happened that a group of young people that was just disench know, just disenchanted. And they said, we hear you politicians always come. You say everything we don't believe. And, you know, young man stood up and say, well, you know what, if you get elected to mayor, and I said, well, first it's the primary. He says, well, if you win the primary, would you pierce your ears?

And I said, yes, I would. He said, yeah. And everybody, the whole crowd was like, yeah, BS, BS. And so day after the primary, my son said, promise made, promise kept that. And so went to the store, sat in the chair and got the ears pierced. And it was really sending the message that this is a new day. You know, this is a new day. You're going to see an elected official that's going to push the boundaries. Yeah. And that's willing to say, I'm going to keep my promise.

Number one, I'm not going to be on the campaign trail saying one thing and then, you know, getting governance and do another. Yeah. And that's what it's about. Yeah. Did the kid who originally challenged you, do you know who that, do you have his name and stuff like that? No, we put it out on social media. I saw that. The team is probably looking for it.

I know. I feel like you need to have a tete-a-tete with that kid. It is really, you know, this moment is exciting for so many reasons. And my team watched me evolve, you know, just as a human being, this evolution that I'm going through. You know, I'm nowhere near where I'm going to end, but I'm evolving so much. And it was never about the destiny. My team heard me say this over and over again. It was never about do I become mayor. It's the destiny. My team heard me say this over and over again. It was never about, do I become mayor? It's the journey. For all I know is this journey is preparing me for what my real purpose is and the hurdles I had to go through. And this was a tough,

tough, tough journey. We had incoming coming from all over the place, but we remained, we had a motto, stay focused, no distractions and grind. That was it. Yeah, I asked you right before we started recording, like how you feeling? And you're like, not the, you gotta stay grounded, right? Can't fly too high, right? But you got a lot coming at you right now.

And I can't imagine what that's gonna look like. I mean, at this point, you know, New York City is 70% Democrat. It's not a foregone conclusion, but in all likelihood, you'll be the mayor. And in that situation, there's gonna be all kinds of insanity swirling around you. So true.

Like how do you stay grounded with that job? By being true to yourself. I know there are things I'm able to do. There are things I am not able to do. And just remain committed. Wake up every day with the same focus that I have had. You can't invent yourself day one as being mayor if you didn't have those same practices while you were going through life. And so, you know, growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, you know, mom moving us there from Brownsville, you know, going through my entire educational experience, crying myself to sleep.

I mean, literally, of why I can't learn, why I'm in a classroom and I'm being bullied as the dumb kid and getting D's, no matter how hard I tried and being told by my teachers I was lazy. I never forget in third grade, one teacher smacking me so hard that it left a handprint on my face because they thought that, you know, I just didn't put in enough effort. But I was trying every night. I was grinding. And it wasn't until I got into college, overheard a documentary on learning disabilities. And I said, wow, do I have a learning disability? I took out the documentary and realized that I did.

And I was able to overcome that learning disability. Dyslexia or what was it? It was a combination of ADD and dyslexia. It was a combination of the two. So, you know, I was in pretty bad shape. Yeah. And I went from a D student to a, on the Dean's list. And it was amazing that I was undiagnosed and my mother not understanding that.

And I still think today that my brother is dealing with bipolar that was never diagnosed. And because he never had, was lucky, like I was lucky to hear it, you know, his pathway went totally different from my pathway. But imagine how many children never had that luck and they still are suffering from the outcomes. Yeah. Just one of the many epidemics that we're dealing with right now, mental health, especially in the wake of COVID with depression, anxiety, stress, all the pressures that everyday people are shouldering, just trying to pay the bills, make through the day. That's right.

And we no longer believe. That's why this race was important on so many levels. And that's why the campaign was not only built on a strategy of how to win, but a strategy of how to tell a story of the perfectly imperfect human being. I am so flawed, man. It's refreshing to hear you say that. You know, it's refreshing to hear you say that. My campaign guru, Nathan, he said, man, we're supposed to be in last place.

You know, because I am so flawed as a person. And I wanted to put my flawed person, persona, on Broadway. I wanted everyone who had a learning disability, everyone who's dealing with diabetes, everyone who was ever bullied, everyone who was arrested and beat by police. I want everyone to see, like, listen, man, this guy is able to become the mayor. Yeah. Well, I think it's a breath of fresh air because we've developed this expectation of how a politician speaks and the way they deliver their message and these carefully crafted stories that are meant to check certain boxes.

And we've become inoculated against that. And there is this thirst, this hunger for something real and something true. It goes back to what I was saying earlier, this idea of people know when something is real and when it's crafted, when it's manufactured. Right, and that's the greatest gift I can give New Yorkers, which I'm hoping cascade throughout the entire country.

Our knower knows a lie and what's real. And we have stopped listening to ourselves. We know, your spirit won't allow you to accept a lie you know my message resonated with people because they felt the authentic approach of it we carried them we carried every new york is five boroughs we carry four boroughs in the city of all ethnicities yeah no and that And that was the joy of this race because I started to see- And underdog candidate kind of creeping your way up, right?

Like sneaking past some bigger names along the way and all the shenanigans with the, all the stuff that got baked into the count and all of that. Yes, yes. There you are, man. Yes. And it feels good.

And we never, there was never a time that the team felt as though we couldn't do it. Never. You know, all we knew we had to do. Rachel, do you agree with that? Rachel's sitting right here. We just had to put one foot in front of the other. That's all we did every day. We had to raise $11 million.

Think about how astronomical that is, $11 million. Where does a kid from Best Side get $11 million from? But we just did one fundraiser at a time. Could have been five people there writing checks for $10. We took it and said, thank you. And then they were called 10 more friends. So what do you make of that? You know, as somebody who, you know,

of these humble upbringing, this humble upbringing, who's come so far in your life and achieved so much, when you reflect on that, what are the lessons? What are the, you know, principles that you've organized your life around that have allowed you to excel? We had a rock that we used to hold that said, believe. And after every event, we will have everyone touch the rock.

Because I believe that you, just as your fingerprints leave a DNA, your fingerprint of belief, I believe it leaves a DNA on everything. The people we come in contact with, if they believe their DNA of belief is going to impact you as well. And we wanted people to start believing in themselves. And we really believe that we created this, just this energy of people of all ethnic groups, different languages and different cultures.

They just believed. It's cool, man. I got to tell you, like looking at you, of all ethnic groups, different languages and different cultures, they just believed. That's cool, man. I gotta tell you, like looking at you, you don't look a day over 40. You really don't. I mean, you 61? Yes. 61? I mean, you know, like just the model of vitality.

So I do wanna get back to the health thing, man. Like, let's talk about that, cause that's a crazy story. And I feel like you mentioned earlier the importance of telling a story, how you tell a story, the story that you are telling. There's so many issues that face New York. Those require your focus and your attention.

The health piece is a big piece. I'm not sure that it really got that much focus in the campaign. Maybe that was intentional, maybe not, I don't know. But that's the story that I think my audience wants to hear and I think is so powerful. It's so true. And nothing will impact a family more than health.

Things we call a chronic disease and the sick care that we basically believe we have normalized sick care. We don't have health care. We have sick care. And I was the victim of that. At 54, 55, I received a diagnosis that I was experiencing late stages of diabetes. Caused vision loss. I woke up, couldn't see the alarm clock because my left eye was just shot. And the doctor said, listen, you're going to lose your sight in a year, Eric. And had permanent nerve damage in my hands and feet. They were tingling all the time.

I thought it was just falling asleep. I was overweight, did not realize that because I looked fine to me, but you know, throughout the years you say, I'm in my mid fifties. Filling out. Yeah, right. Yes. And- You're about 35, 40 pounds heavier. About 35 pounds heavier. And I had this terrible feeling in my stomach. That's what sent me to doctor in the first place because you know men, you have to drag it to the doctor.

You suck it out. That would be really bad. Right, right. And I thought it was colon cancer because it was a knot that wouldn't move. It wasn't gas moving around. And when the doctor checked me, when I came out of sedation,

he checked my colon and my stomach. He said, you have an ulcer. He said, but your real problem is your diabetes. He says, you in late stages. And I went to five of the best doctors in the city. And they all told me the same thing, that it was hereditary, that there's not much you can do. You're going to be on insulin the rest of your life. You're going to be on medicine the rest of your life. And that's just, I was like, no. Because my mom was diabetic for 15 years at the time, seven years on insulin. And I just refused to accept that. My sister was experiencing, she lost a kidney through diabetes. Another sister lost a breast through breast cancer. Another brother was going through cancer as well. Another brother was dealing with prostate cancer. So it was the family was dealing with, we were at the stage of chronic diseases

that's going to get those notifications one at a time. But given that you have it throughout your family history and you on some level, conscious or otherwise, you're experiencing these symptoms, you know something's wrong and you know diabetes is probably in the cards for you. It probably didn't come as that big of a surprise that that was something that you were contending with. Where does that impulse to say, I'm not having this and I'm going in another direction come from?

That's a good question. That's sort of at odds with the guy who refuses to go to the doctor. Right, right, right, right. There was, I think that many of us, particularly men, women are not as bad as men, but particularly men, we sort of take this position, well, I'll wait until next week. And we know next week never comes. And by the time we get inside that doctor's office, it's like, listen, you're in bad shape. You're going right into surgery.

Right. And the doctor's office is like, listen, you're in bad shape. You're going right into surgery. And it was really the pain. The ulcer saved my life. And because remember, diabetes is the number one cause of non-traumatic lymph amputation. I was having neuropathic nerve damage. And it was going to lead to that. The number one cause of blindness.

It was, you know, the causes of all of these other, you know, kidney failures. And so going to the doctors was just to deal with that pain in my stomach. And later it gave me the pathway out. And so they gave me these pamphlets. All the doctors gave me pamphlets about living with diabetes. And I went to the computer and I typed one different word, reversing diabetes. I couldn't even tell you where it came from. It came from somewhere in the universe. The idea of just writing that word reversing down. Took me on a different search. Living with diabetes would have been one search engine in one direction. Reversing took me on a different search path. Yeah, Neil barnard pops up

first probably yes yes yes yes then dr esselton and dr what's my good gregor right that's my crew love those guys you know and i was able i started reading and i was like is this some national inquire if someone discovered someone from Mars or something? Because it was so far fetched. That was a foreign term, reversing chronic diseases. I never heard that before. And I just dug in and finally I called Dr. Esselstyn in the Cleveland Clinic. He said, fly down to see him. And I spoke with him, and he started telling me about what I should do. And I remember that day sitting there, and I was like, what's wrong with this quack? I'm losing my sight, and he's telling me to give up steak and chicken.

But I had nothing to lose. And when I returned home and went through my pantry, my refrigerator, I said, wow, look at these labels. We're not even eating food anymore. The lights went on. It did, it did. It's interesting because there's something about having your back up against the wall, like being in that state of desperation

that will summon the willingness to actually make the change. It's like, you can educate yourself. You could have read articles about Dr. Esselstyn or read his book or whatever. That's very different from actually implementing the advice, right? But you were in a state of high agitation

and motivation, right? Fear is a motivation. Which are, it's like, you don't want people to suffer, but I'm also not so quick to try to deprive people of those moments because they can catalyze incredible transformations. Without a doubt. I am who I am because of that experience.

And three weeks after going through a whole food, plant-based diet, my vision came back. Three weeks. Three weeks. Three weeks. How bad was your vision? It was, the doctor told me, Eric, you have to turn in your driver's license. You are legally blind. You can no longer drive a car in the state of New York.

And that first week, the food was so bad. I was like, dear Jesus, I have to eat this. I used to have a cereal in the morning with flaxseed that I didn't know that you were supposed to grind the flaxseed. Right. Otherwise, it just passed right through you. Yes. But then that Sunday, I was just in a state of just sadness. And I said, Eric, what's wrong with you?

You know, you in this woe is me. Why not go to a why not me? Why not learn how to cook? Why not learn about spices? Why not learn about different cuisines? And I just dug into it. That next Monday, I woke up with a new energy and say, every day I'm going to learn a different way of cooking and styles and my taste buds. And I was able to turn it around.

And by the end of the second week, my food was tasting better. Three weeks later, I had a nice repertoire, about 10 different meals. And three months later, my diabetes was in remission. My nerve damage went away. The tingling was gone. My vision was great. Everything changed. And my body just started shedding off

all of those extra pounds. And it was just an unbelievable transformation. It's wild, man. So your A1C was like 17 and a half percent. Yes, through the roof. Which for people that don't know, it's almost like triple where it's meant to be. Right.

It's down to like six now. Yes, it's at 5.8 now. And no medication. No medication, no medication. People have such a hard time buying into this or believing this, but you being a living example and being in this position of influence and power, I just think is really, is so palpable.

What was your diet like prior? Like just fast food and what are you eating before? Well, I was a former police officer, so we should distill the myth. Do we like donuts? Because yes, we do. How dare you? You need to get some hate for that. And it was really just processed food. You know, I knew where every dollar menu was located for McDonald's. It had to be fried, sugar, processed sweet, just a real processed food diet, over fat, over oil, over sugar, white flour. When I think about it now, I say, wow, the human body is so resilient

because the food we eat is just so bad. It's like, imagine having a Maserati and you keep putting Windex in your gas tank. It's just, the body's just not made to eat what we're eating. And still it figures out how to function with that for quite a long time before it breaks down. It's going to break down. It's going to break down. And then when we're faced with the prospect with that for quite a long time before it breaks down. It's going to break down. Yeah. It's going to break down.

And then when we're faced with the prospect of putting something good into our body, we balk at the idea. Right, right. But I think it's important for people to understand how those cravings change. Like a lot of people would imagine that, okay, you're facing this death sentence, so fuck it.

Like I'm just gonna, I have to resign myself to this way of eating and I'll just live my life in martyrdom and in misery because I have to. But in truth, as you've experienced, your taste buds, your cravings do change and you begin to get excited and look forward to these healthy foods that actually nourish you. And I think that's a pill

that people have a hard time swallowing. Like they think it's an exaggeration. No, is it that, yeah, maybe that happened to you. I'm not sure I believe that, but that would never happen to me because I can't live without, you know, X, Y, or Z filling the blank. Well said, well said.

And you know, food is heroin. You know, let's be clear. That first week I was going through withdrawal, you know, waking up. Yeah, it's rough. Yeah, oh's be clear. That first week, I was going through withdrawal. You know, waking up. Yeah, oh, it was. You take someone hooked on heroin, put them in one room, and someone hooked on a steak and all that other bad food and take it away. I challenge you to tell me who's the heroin addict. When I did it, I had the sweats and just, you know, I had no energy.

It took like two weeks to get over that hump. Yes, yes. But then, you know, the lights go on, the sky's clear. That's right. And it's a new day. Well said. And mom, you know, she transitioned in April. Sorry to hear that. And she struggled from the South.

And she really leaned into the plant-based lifestyle. And two months after going whole food plant-based, she was able to cycle off her insulin in two months. She was 80, 81, 82 at the time. Wow. And can you imagine how many loved ones we lost? How many loved ones lost their sight, amputations, kidney failure, dialysis? And so when people tell me, well, it's hard.

No, let me tell you what's hard. Going to dialysis three days a week, three hours a day. That's hard. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what Esselstyn always says. When people say, well, this is so extreme, this diet. It's so radical.

And he's like, what's radical is having your chest cracked open. It's like, that's radical. Like this is no big deal. Right, right. And it's about, that's why I encourage people to, you know, my book, Healthy at Last, I encourage people to really do this holistic approach,

get meditation into your life, breathing into your life, learn how to move just beyond the bad non-nutritional food you put in your mouth. But the non-nutritional things we do spiritually, because just as our body is a physical body, there's an anatomy of our spirit. And we need to ensure that we have complete nourishment all the way around. Yeah, I appreciate that. I'm completely down with that. You have to approach it from a holistic perspective.

It's mind, body, spirit. It is. And spirit gets short shrift in our culture. We tend to think that that doesn't really matter. But if you don't think that the vibration that you're taking into your being by dint of the information you choose to expose yourself to, the people you associate with,

that has a similar impact that's not that different than the food that you're taking in. So true, so true. And that's the goal. And people around you, if they love you, they're going to be supportive. And they don't have to go on that journey with you, but they should be supportive of it. And it is a real way to determine, is this person the individual that should be in my life? Because if you don't understand that I'm trying to do this journey, you're not supportive of that.

It really says a lot. And I had a very supportive group of people around me. And I never try to push my lifestyle off on people. I give you information. That's what the book was all about. It was about saying, here's the information, particularly the African-American and the communities of color. Much of our food is connected to our colonial past. This was forced on our ancestors. And we have continued what slavery introduced into our lives. And I wanted to show people the real connection that the food you're eating is connecting to slavery.

You may have left the plantation, but you're still enslaved. You know, that great documentary coming out of they're trying to kill us. I believe the name of it is so important. I need my rap industry, my young artists, my Black Lives Matter movement, because the Black Lives really matters. It's more than just George Floyd being murdered. It's the murder that's taking place every day in our cities that we feed people bad food.

Yeah, 100%. I'm involved in that movie behind the scenes. So I've seen it many times, been working with those guys on the edit a little bit. And I can't wait for that movie to come out because it really makes that point so beautifully and in a manner that I think will be impactful to the communities that it is addressing.

It's speaking that language. So true, so true. And I think it is important. I mean, look, the cut of your jib, like, you know, two decades as a cop, you know, politician, African-American, soon to be mayor. Like this is, you know, not the stereotypical, you know, quote unquote vegan guy, right?

Like it makes you a very interesting, intriguing and unlikely ambassador of this type of message. And, or maybe I should just say plant-based, but I also think that that gives you a certain resonance because of your life experience to speak to the communities that are so disproportionately impacted by our food system, our industrialized food system, and the disproportionate impact that it has on their health, the food deserts, the food insecurity, the lack of consistent access to healthy food,

and how that trickles down into the skyrocketing diabetes rates and obesity rates and heart disease rates that we're seeing in underprivileged communities of color all across America. So true, so true. And you said something that was extremely important about the movie and how it's going to speak to the language of people who probably would not have even engaged in this at all. Because you could have the best message, but if it's not speaking the right language, no one is going to understand it. And this has been such a 20,000 feet message that people on the ground, they don't even have a clue what we're talking about. But when we go into our senior centers and our churches and other areas and engage in a real conversation of, you know, this guy,

Eric Adams, that we all knew from his fight for police reform. And he always had an authentic message. Now he's talking about this health piece. Let's take a moment and listen to what he's saying. And I can't tell you the number of emails, calls, people stop me on the street. Oh, my A1C dropped five, six points. You know what an A1C is? But people have finally, they believe that, wait a minute, this is not my faith. I don't have to live like this. That's empowering. So imagine becoming the mayor, and now I can impact the food we're serving the underserved communities.

This is an amazing opportunity to do it. We get it right here in New York. We can change this entire country. What happens in New York sets the stage and the tone for all across America in the world. So it is on a tactile level, very powerful, but on a symbolic level, perhaps even more powerful because of the decisions that you're gonna make

and the policies that you're gonna push forward, people are gonna be noticing and paying attention to that. I'll say, I'll say. So in terms of that, I mean, I know as Brooklyn Borough President, you've made great progress in terms of healthy nutrition in schools, trying to reform nutrition in hospitals.

And you have this educational program at Bellevue. So it's educating the future, the generation of doctors, it's getting kids hooked on healthy food as opposed to unhealthy food. You've incorporated all of these principles in your office. It's a crazy situation with what you do personally and with all the exercise equipment and the food prep and all that kind of stuff, which we can talk about.

But when you cross the bridge and you're in Manhattan and you're sitting in that chair, what's the plan? Like, how are you gonna be able to scale these ideas to impact New York City more broadly? And think big, really thinking big and not being afraid to fail. Really thinking big and not being afraid to fail. And that is we've lost our adventurous outlook.

You know, we are explorers by existence. If we weren't, we would be still standing on one rock and not exploring this entire globe. And we need to think differently and surround ourselves with people who are willing to think differently. And that's the real problem. We are stagnant as a nation. We're going through the motion. We're just continually getting up time to make the donut, time to make the donut. No one is saying, let's think out beyond that. And so we're going to lean into hydroponic vertical farmers, even as the discussion continues around, does the soil play a more important role or not? Let's get there. Let's be clear on one thing. We know the food that we are feeding our people now is unhealthy and not everyone is going to eat organic from the soil.

We know that fertilizers is doing a number on us. So we're going to really push the envelope on how do we teach children how to grow healthy food? How do we teach children to have a nutritional-based education, to learn the origin of food, to learn spices, in-home economic classes? I was blown away to find out the power of spices. Some spices are more healthy than the food we eat. I like how excited you get. And so the goal is we're going to start from the place. We should not feed the crisis. What you put on your grill in the backyard is beyond my control. But you are not going to come into a governmental agency as a prisoner, and I'm going to feed you unhealthy food if you're incarcerated. As a child in ACS,

I'm not feeding you unhealthy food. If you are in my health and hospital system, you're not getting healthy food. And I'm not feeding those 960,000 meals a day in the Department of Education to be unhealthy food. We're going to look at wherever we're feeding to make sure at a minimum, you're getting healthy, good tasting food. So we don't feed the healthcare crisis because that's what we're doing now. Right. I love the idealism of it, but I'm not as sanguine about the idea of moving these powerful lobbying efforts and bureaucracies and unions and everything that gets packed into kind of calcifying these systems.

Like I know many people over the years have tried to venture into the school lunch situation and revamp it and make it more healthy. And a lot of people sort of retreat, you know, hat in hand because it's so much more difficult than you would suspect it to be. So is there a particular strategy that you have for being successful where others haven't been?

That's a great question. First, you have to start off with, it's beautiful to be idealistic, but also you must become realistic. That realism should not take you off your path, but you can't just live life through the lens of idealism. And you scale up. That's a powerful term, scaling up. It may start with just one burrow. Let's get it right. Let's iron out the kinks. Let's figure it out. Then let's scale it up to another borough.

It may start with, as we were talking, I was talking to my team earlier, let's just start with vertical farming, growing our tomatoes. We're no longer purchasing our tomatoes. Let's take the trucks off the road

coming from Mexico. Let's just create a great experience in Brooklyn of how do we grow all the tomatoes that the Department of Education is going to use. It's going to come from our vertical farming where we're going to employ people. We're going to take trucks off the roads.

We're going to send the children there and let them be part of this civic engagement of bringing those fresh tomatoes to our places where we have food apartheid. Now they're engaged. Hey, you know what else we can do now that you learned how to grow the tomatoes? Let's try some lettuce. Let's try some spinach. We can scale up. If you

tried to come in automatically and change school food overnight, you're setting yourself up for failure and frustration. No, let's empower on the ground. Let's say to Ms. Jones, you know that asthma that your son is experiencing, that obesity that he's experiencing? Let me show you what this food is doing to him every day. Now that organic movement is going to change the system and understanding how to build organic movements is going to allow me to be successful here. Yeah, the potential, the possibilities are endless

with all the rooftops that this city has to offer and all the vacant underutilized lots that are sitting idle right now. If you can get a team of Ron Finley's and Steven Ritz's and create excitement within the local communities and establish education programs that get kids plugged into this early, that's the future.

Yes, it is. And remember the economics. Urban farming is here. Urban farming is, and it ties into the holistic approach. We can't talk about saving our environment without engaging the conversation about our overconsumption on meat and dairy. So it's a level of hypocrisy when we point into cars and buildings and I tell all of my environmentalists, hey, don't forget to chicken feed. When we talk about what's happening to our Amazon, let's be honest about this. And that's the kind of conversation that I'm going to force. I'm not going to allow us to just take those comfortable conversations. It's easy to say, okay, let's do something about the builders. No, let's do something about that steak that you're about to eat right now. And if you're true to this,

then you're going to make the sacrifices you're asking building owners to make. And if you're not, don't sit down at the table and engage in this conversation. Yeah. There's going to be some uncomfortable conversations around. Discomfort is growth. You know? Yeah. You know, a hundred percent, man. It is. It's always frustrating to hear, you know, quote unquote, environmentalists speak to the issues

that relate to the Amazon, et cetera, and have this blind spot when it comes to the meat and dairy industry. Don't even want to talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or do the conference that's sponsored by the meat and dairy industry. Sure. Yeah. There's a lot of that. And young people have now, they're moving to this place of truth. They're not going to allow hypocrisy to remain anymore. They're now drilling into, okay, who's your sponsor? What is your sponsor doing? Right.

They're very attuned to transparency. Without a doubt. And I think any business owner who doesn't get that is doomed from the start. Without a doubt. If you're not transparent about how you're making whatever it is you're making and the distribution that goes into the product that you're selling

and you're not, you don't have baked into the mission statement of your business some form of meaningful giving back, then it's not going to work. No, it's not. No, it's not.

No, it's not. But then we've challenged them also. You know, that's why the movie they're trying to kill us is so important. Cause you can live in a state of denial, but once you are exposed, you have to make a decision. Are you going to be true to who you say you are? Yeah.

It's tough, man. You know, short of you having this health crisis, could you have gotten over that hump? Had you been who you were 10 years ago and you sat down and watched they're trying to kill us without your segment in there, obviously, would that have impacted you

or how would that have impacted you? I don't believe it would have. I believe I would have stated that, okay, that's going to happen to the next guy. Or I would have stated, okay, when I start receiving symptoms, then you know what? I'll think about it. But in this space, too many young people are watching their parents inject themselves with insulin. And it's all about motivators. What's your motivator? And I love when I talk to men that

experience an ED and I give them the connection of that, listen, your erectile dysfunction is based on what you're eating. You want to motivate a man? So it's about, let me find your motivator. Your son or daughter's going through asthma or diabetes, type two diabetes. Let me show you why that baby is going through that. When you find a person motivator, it will motivate them to change. Cause you're right. Right.

You have to be motivated. Well, not only that, you have to change the medical paradigm because so many people who do experience these symptoms go to their doctor and the doctor says, well, here they tell them exactly what your doctor told you. And somehow we've decided as a culture that whatever your doctor says, you know, cannot be challenged.

Like, well, my doctor told me to do this. That is what I'm gonna do and I can't hear otherwise. Well said, well said. And so that's why we're really happy with our Bellevue project with Dr. McMacken. It's an amazing project. She's the best. She is. But never received the support. We had to really drag health in hospital ahead. But now we have a real team with Dr. Katz, who's over at H&H. He's excited about the possibilities. He's an amazing person there, although David did a presentation for us one time at Downstate to a

group of doctors. And so here we have one of the largest hospital systems in America. We're going to use as a laboratory for the entire country. And when we show the evidence in the data, can't deny it anymore. And we're saying, let's give people the options. If you want to go the insulin route, you have the right to do so. But at least you should walk into your doctor's office and learn about plant-based lifestyle medicine. Right now you don't have that option. No, no, no. So when you're mayor and the New York Post headline is,

you could just see it, you could write it in your mind, right, Eric Adams is gonna take away your cheeseburger or something like that, right? Like it's a delicate line that you walk because you wanna be this ambassador, this living emblem of healthy, vital living, and yet at the same time, not be in the business of telling people how they should be living their lives. So true. So true. And we're clear on that. The goal is number one, the Marines to control the beach, the first arm of our army must be information.

We must have a major information campaign. They're trying to kill us. All of these documentaries, well done about food and what food is doing to our environment. Remember, we control our curriculum for the Department of Education. We're going to make sure that those first few months, our young people are going to be engaged over and over again about what food is doing to our country. This is going to be a youth-led movement because all the great movements we've had, they were actually implemented by young people. They blow the winds of change. Sure. And so by having these young people engaged and informed, you're going to see a different energy in this city of demanding,

we don't want this in our cafeteria. We don't want this food. And we want options. Because the goal is to get people to the place of saying, we want options. We're not even there yet. And we were successful in the vegetarian diets. We were successful with Meatless Mondays. And we have been successful.

People thought it was impossible. Right. What was the other initiative? The bologna? Right. Ban the bologna. Ban the bologna. No, get rid of processed meat.

When you start to think about it, that we're serving food that we know is a type one carcinogen. And so when I go back and reflect on my mom, when we were going through tough economic times, we were going to the government to receive the surplus food, processed cheese, canned meat, powdered eggs, powdered milk. Imagine people at their most dire and difficult time. We are going to the government and the government is saying, hey, we're going to give you food to feed your chronic disease. Instead of saying, we're going to give you food to make you healthy. And that's over 45 years ago. Look what happened during COVID. We fed almost 200 million New Yorkers and the food we fed them fed their preexisting conditions. Instead of building their, strengthening their immune system

so they can be prepared to fight against COVID, we were giving them chicken McNuggets and other food that was actually harming their immune system. Yeah, I mean, every spoke in the wheel is broken. You know, back to this idea of this holistic organism, whether it's the human body or the city of New York or the globe at large, everything has to be functioning in balance and properly.

And right now we have a conglomerate industrialized food system that's basically, you know, synergized with big pharma to such an extent that we feed the people the food that makes them sick, that then leads them to be dependent on pharmaceuticals for the rest of their lives, as you were told. And inevitably leads to the healthcare crisis, not just the healthcare crisis,

but the sort of the institution of healthcare being broken in and of itself, that's driving not only economic divide, but economic disaster as it bankrupts our country with costs spun out of control. And we're so quick to prescribe these medications and so resistant to cheaper solutions earlier in that cycle that would prevent the inevitable demise to come that becomes so much more costly in the end.

And it's not sustainable. We have to reach the point that we comprehend that this system is not sustainable. It's going to bankrupt our country. You have millions of people who are diabetic, a substantial number are pre-diabetic, waiting on deck. The cost of just sustaining this system is just not, and the human cost, the losing loved ones to a chronic disease. You know, you have a chronic disease, it hijacks your life. You're no longer who you are. You sit at a terminal in your office staring at the screen because you wrote about the results of that test.

The productivity is shot. And that's what we're trying to save our country. And it's based on this ecosystem that you're talking about. This is not cost effective at all. No, and the change that you wanna provoke can't be shouldered by the individual. You have to create environments that are conducive to the healthier choice, right?

Cause otherwise, you know, not everybody's gonna have their come to Jesus moment like you had, right? So how do we catch people before that? Well, we create environments that are conducive to that healthy choice in the schools, in the hospitals, in the corporations. And I think resolving those problems has to deal with confronting the misalignment of incentives

that currently are at play right now. We're incentivizing people to make the unhealthy choice because it's the accessible choice, it's the cheapest choice. And when people don't have a lot of options, you can't fault them for making that choice. So you have to really, you know,

kind of create a new foundation in order to compel the kind of change you wanna see at the highest level, macro. And they need wins. But think about it for a moment. Go back 40 years. Walk into a conference, and all you will see, you may see a pitcher of water, and the rest will be sugary drinks.

Go back now, you see just the opposite. You may see a pitcher of sugary drinks, but you'll see a whole host of different flavored water, bottled water. We have incentivized new productivity of tasty waters or even the basic water because now the motivator was there. basic water because now the motivator was there. And I think the industry is going to change when we start incentivizing and giving different motivations and consumer demands. That's going to motivate this. And that's driven by young people fundamentally. And that's why every fast food restaurant now has a Beyond Burger or an Impossible Burger. It's not because they're altruistic, because this is what people want and the market has spoken. So leveraging the capitalistic machine and trying to drive it in a better direction, of course.

That's part of the solution. And so if we move, if we put the right incentives in place, if we, I'll never forget going to a food pantry and handed someone a beat and they was like, what do I do with this? But if we were in those food pantries, we would incentivize food cooking classes of teaching people how to eat healthy, how to prepare the food,

how to make sure it's tasty because food must look good. It must be good, but don't, it's got to taste good. Yeah. Well, we only have a couple of minutes left. So I think that's a great segue into how you do this, right? Because you're preparing,

look, nobody's busier than you are, right? Like, let's be honest about it. And somehow you figured out how to carve out time to essentially have control over your food by preparing your own meals and doing meal prep on the weekends. But for somebody who's listening to this, who's saying, listen, you know, I'm working two jobs.

You're telling me I gotta learn how to cook. I gotta do all this stuff. Like I'm already strapped. How am I gonna do that? And they're right. And there's several barriers. The barrier of affordability. We have to be honest about people believe

that eating healthy is not affordable, which is wrong. You can grab a bag of lentils and eat healthy for the entire week on that $3 bag of lentils if you're on a bad budget, where that's a healthy meal. Some kale, some lettuce, you could do everything from a lentil burger to lentil stew to lentil pancakes that I made the other day. There's so much you can do with that one bag of lentil that you're not really stagnant in the meals that you are preparing. That's the same with black beans. The same with kidney beans. And so the most important thing that I say to people is don't rush yourself through this.

Start at a slow pace because it's a lifestyle change. And a lifestyle change is not a sprint. It's a marathon. And learn some good meals. Number one, the meals that you could take your time to prepare, your fast meals, and the meals that you can have on the go when you're coming in and out of your home, when you're tired and you don't want to go to those bad meals. I learned how to make oatmeal overnight. Steel cut oats, you put it in a nice mason jar with some fruits and some berries and whatever, some cinnamon, you let it sit overnight and it actually cooks overnight in the refrigerator.

And it's a great meal that you can have throughout the day. So there's so many tips of how to just change your mindset of how to ensure you get and receive the healthy meals. And that's what the book, my book, Healthy at Last, I show some great recipes. I tell people to always go to the recipe section first. So you can see we're not talking about walking around with kale in your pocket all the time. We're talking about some good tasting meals that are comfort food and enjoyable in the process. So walk me through your typical day and food and exercise. First, I want to take a quick peek into my previous day, waking up with the two eggs on a

roll with bacon and some butter on both sides and some processed jelly on it. That is how I started my day. That's how I broke my fast. And I would gulp down a nice 16 ounce glass of high sugar. Let me feed your diabetes orange juice. And so that's how I started my day every day. Let me feed your diabetes orange juice. And so that's how I started my day every day. Let me hit that. I didn't even have to order it when I walked into the store. They already had it prepared for me. But now I start with an amazing smoothie, a smoothie made out of kale, cups of blackberries or blueberries, and a couple of superfoods,

Malcolm powder and other powders that I mix in it. Acai. Acai. Acai. I always get it wrong. But I mix it in. And it is unbelievable how it holds me throughout until midday and how good I feel. My energy is up.

I'm not that lethargic that comes with having to process all that heavy food. And then in the middle of the day, probably 1.30, 2 o'clock, I'll do a nice lentil noodles with some nutritional yeast, mushrooms, spinach, kale. You cook that in your kitchen in your office, right? Or I will prepare it at home and then warm it up later. Or I'll put it in a food warmer. If I'm on the road sometime, I'll leave it in a food warmer.

There's some great technology out there. If you are on the road all the time, you can plug a food warmer up inside your cigarette lighter because you shouldn't be smoking anyway. Put it in your cigarette lighter, and it'll keep it nice, warm for you. So look at the technology that's out there that can actually assist you in getting a healthy meal so you don't make those bad stops. Or chop up some fruits and just nibble on that throughout the day.

Or make myself a nice stew. I have a great stew that I love made out of mushrooms. I will liquefy the mushrooms with other spices and then mix it with some chopped vegetables and other things. Or some sweet potato cornbread and wrap it up and eat it throughout the day. My three-ingredients ice cream, late at night when I just want to have some comfort food, frozen bananas, fresh-made peanut butter, and cacao powder with some berries and some other chopped fruits. I'm telling you, it is the bomb.

Later for Haagen-Dazs. You talk about it all the time. And how much time goes into the meal prep? And I want to sort of dispel this idea that it's completely time consuming. It's consuming all your time. Just the opposite. Sundays, during the day. You don't have a chef at like it's consuming all your time. Just the opposite. Sundays during the day- You don't have a chef at home who's doing this for you.

No, no, this is all me. Sunday during the day or Saturday night, I'll take out my veggie processor, food processor, any food processor, and I will chop up my kale, my spinach, my lettuce, my bok choy, and I'll put it in Tupperware so that it's ready. So during the week, I'm just grabbing a handful of each, putting it to my salad mixer, or I already will have my fruits cut up for the week or already know how I'm going to do my smoothies during the week.

And so this is where I'm ready to go. And the night before, I can make my smoothie because starting how you break your fast is really how you're going to start your day. You could get in that smoothie every day, a good healthy smoothie and a good salad, leafy salad. That's a great start for you as you move throughout the day. Yeah, I think just making those steps kind of invests you.

It connects you emotionally what you're doing. And over time that makes you more interested in taking the next step. Without a doubt, without a doubt. We're almost out of time here, but maybe a good way to close this is to leave people with some thoughts on how to effectively make this transformation.

You spoke about making sure to the extent that you can control it, having support, like having your inner circle be supportive of positive lifestyle changes that you're trying to make. Like what else has been important or do you think is crucial for people to understand? Well, really tap into this. It surprises me for over 50 years how wrong I was living. And I encourage people, that person that they always wanted is still there. It didn't go anywhere.

you are. It is there. If you struggle with weight all your life, if you struggled with how you respond in the heat of the moment, if you found yourself being short-tempered, if you find yourself always lethargic, constipated, tired, angry, you can actually have a complete reversal. From your diet to learning breathing, we've never been taught how to breathe. It's unbelievable. The most important thing you could do for yourself. We've never been taught. We never sat down and taught children. This is how you're supposed to breathe. How do you deal with stress? How do you deal with anxiety? And so go on this amazing journey of watching how you really start taking care of this most important person in your life, and that's yourself. And you will never believe the human being you knew you could always become. It's going to

materialize out of nowhere. And I just encourage people just to take the leap of faith. Start slowly. Don't try to change overnight. Just slowly start. If you just say, let me just go read up on spices. Let me learn about nutmeg and garlic and cinnamon and turmeric. And then start, let me just try one day a week not having meat. And you're going to find out the sun comes out. And then start, let me just learn about these different breathing exercises that have been around for thousands of years and what meditation actually is. And people are going to slowly start adding things to their repertoire, more and more things. And they're going to find themselves becoming this totally different human being, but a human being that they always were.

And then they're going to really start not just existing. They're going to start living life every day. I think you stuck the landing, my friend. If this whole mayor thing doesn't work out, I see a future in being a preacher or something. Amazing, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Like I said at the outset,

there are so many other things I'd love to talk to you about. So perhaps we can continue this at a future date. But I'm so excited for what's to come for you, the future of New York. Congratulations on everything. And I wish you well, and I'm at your service. Thank you. We look forward to keeping you updated. Yeah, absolutely. As we move on one year, two year, three year, four year to see the productivity.

I'm gonna hold you to it. Yes. Accountability, right? You wanna surround yourself with people who are supportive, but also hold you accountable. Without a doubt, that's why I have the earring. Yeah, there you go, right? The book is Healthy at Last, everybody pick it up,

a plant-based approach to preventing and reversing diabetes and other chronic illnesses by Mr. Eric Adams, soon to be mayor of New York City. And I will talk to you again, my friend. Yes, thank you. All right, peace plants. That's it for today. Thank you for listening.

I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation. To learn more about today's guest, including links and resources related to everything discussed today, visit the episode page at richroll.com where you can find the entire podcast archive, as well as podcast merch, my books, Finding Ultra, Voicing Change in the Plant Power Way, as well as the Plant Power Meal Planner at meals.richroll.com. If you'd like to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do is to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts,

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special offers on books, the meal planner, and other subjects, please subscribe to our newsletter, which you can find on the footer of any page at richroll.com. Today's show was produced and engineered by Jason Camiolo

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Appreciate the love, love the support. See you back here soon. Peace. Plants. Namaste. Thank you.