One of My Favorite Plant-Based Mentors: Dr. Hans Diehl

I grew up in the 1950s and ‘60s in rural Canada. I mostly ate to fuel myself: hardy meat and potato dishes with no regard for calorie counting or how my diet impacted my health or the environment. I lived for some time on a grain-producing farm where our only animals were the wild ones in habitats (bears, deer, squirrels, birds, rabbits, coyotes, the odd lynx) and our self-grooming dogs and cats. We bought our meat and dairy from a store in town. 

My father farmed part-time and worked full-time as a manager for an agricultural company that, along with seeds for growing crops, also sold the latest farm chemicals for killing weeds and insects (known as “pests”). 

Upon occasion, when the flies were particularly densely located on the inside of our house’s windows, my mother would shoo us out into the yard while she sprayed DDT to instantly kill those annoying flies. If we had a group of visitors over in the evening and were doing something outside, like barbeque-ing or playing badminton, they would spray outside to keep the mosquitoes down. We rejoiced in the effects of these chemical sprays on our environment. We were clueless in so many ways.

In the Summer of Love (extended from San Francisco in 1967 to Vancouver in 1970) I lived on Canada’s West Coast. I was expecting our first child and had begun to have an awareness of the importance of food choices for me and that of my little family. During my second pregnancy, in 1973, I read a book by then-fitness star, Bonnie Pruden, who recommended a pile of nutritional supplements be taken during pregnancy. So I did that. And not too long after that I devoured the popular “Diet For A Small Planet” by Frances Moore Lappé  that recommended an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet which seemed like a hip way to eat (and save the world, perhaps.) 

My young husband had become a Seventh-day Adventist Christian in 1971. While I had not joined him in his faith community, I was very interested to learn that Seventh-day Adventists were largely ovo-lacto vegetarian. They saw “the body” as “the temple of the soul,” and professed an awareness of the importance of having a healthy body to properly serve God. We agreed on following a vegetarian diet when our children were young, but for some reason, we “flexed” in our eating choices from time to time, and by their teens we were going out to burger joints and eating salmon and other animal foods. 

In about 1992, I was on a course to becoming an Adventist. I had been married to a gentle, kind, faithful, non-coercive, non-proselytizing, non-smoking, non-drinking partner for 22 years. I had gone to Church with him from time to time. I liked the pastor and was drawn to taking Bible Studies. When the summer of 1993 came around, I agreed to go to our first-ever Camp Meeting. 

The Camp Meeting was an unexpected delight for me. I had grown up on a farm and experienced all the thrills of pit toilets and hauling water, so I had never been excited about camping the way so many of my more urban-raised friends are.  I was surprised to find that the week-long experience included not only the spiritual presentations and evening sermons that I expected but a cafeteria that served three reasonably-priced delicious vegetarian meals each day, gorgeous music interspersed throughout the day, lovely groomed walking trails and an oxbow river, a playground, and great kids’ programs. The greatest discovery was the “lifestyle medicine” and “Biblelands” archeology presentations by two experts brought in to do this– free to us– over a number of days. It was here that I met and listened to the most influential change agent in my health journey to that point.

DR. HANS DIEHL

My sweet husband was born to German immigrants so I have a soft spot for people with German accents. My inlaws– particularly my mother-in-law– were loving, accepting people who had great senses of humor and were gentle with our rambunctious little boys, qualities I value in people. Hans Diehl seemed like a possible cousin. He was charming and funny but intensely focused on having the auditorium-full of listeners understand the importance of eating fruits and vegetables that is as “close to its natural form” as possible. He encouraged us to eschew the apple pie for the fresh, crisp apple, to enjoy the sensation of the  juice of ripe mango running down our chin, and  to discipline ourselves to enjoy a piece of dark chocolate irregularly, 

He flooded his talks with examples of obese persons coming to see him in desperation and poor health, not knowing what they could do to experience the happiness that comes with wellness. He always demonstrated empathy and compassion unlike  physicians with little knowledge of nutrition who simply suggest “Lose weight” or make a referral to a dietician who frequently puts the person on a cookie-cutter diet-of-the-day. 

Dr. Diehl  illustrated the effectiveness of not eating meat or dairy. He quoted from large scientific studies like the “Framingham Study” and a study of Finnish longshoremen who had highly physically-demanding jobs that would seem to suggest that they would ‘burn off’ enough calories to make up for any issues with their diets being high in animal fats. Alas, their intense exercise did not clear their cholesterol-clogged arteries. As long as they continued to eat large quantities of meat that they perceived they “needed” to do their jobs (because of the perception of the high quality of animal proteins) they got colon cancer or had massive heart attacks over the course of the study’s timeline.

Besides these pretty scary stories, Dr. Diehl had a trunk-load of tales about how he showed people how to reverse damaging dietary histories with satisfying lifestyle changes that included a way to deal with stress and learning how to introduce a deliciously natural way of eating: low-fat plant-based with little added salt or sugars. 

He explained how you could “eat like a horse” and not gain weight.

I got one of his autographed books that included a number of recipes and went on to lose forty pounds when I mindfully applied what I had learned from him at the Camp Meeting

I had the privilege of attending various health enhancement/disease prevention and reversal programs based on Dr. Diehl's CHIProgram.

Dr. Diehl is one of the founders of “The Institute of Lifestyle Medicine”. 

Lifestyle medicine (LM) is a branch of medicine focused on preventive healthcare and self-care dealing with prevention, research, education, and treatment of disorders caused by lifestyle factors and preventable causes of death such as nutrition, physical inactivity, chronic stress, and self-destructive behaviors including the consumption of tobacco products and drug or alcohol abuse. Wikipedia

He also developed The Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) a comprehensive lifestyle intervention dedicated to making lasting, positive changes in an individual’s live; and was honored as “One of America’s 20 Health Superheroes.” He was a well-respected and visionary teacher, speaker, and University professor.  

He passed away at Loma Linda hospital on August 2, 2023.

Dr. Diehl will continue to be a 'mentor' because of his books, his films, his influence on other teachers and authors, and his many internet interviews. 

One of Dr. Diehl's last interviews with Cyd Notter of the Plant-based Nutrition Support Group:

Following is a 3-hour memorial ZOOM of people like Drs. Colin Campbell, John McDougall,Dr. Esselstyn, and many many others who were touched by their friendships with Dr. Diehl. Well worth a watch. Thank you to Chef A.J. for putting this moving memorial together:

Rest In Peace Dr. Diehl!

NOTE:  September 29, 2024-- Dr. Diehl died from A-Fib-related stroke in August 2023. Another two prominent ''natural foods-or-vegetarian-vegan-plant-based ''gurus'' died in 2024: Dr. Andrew Saul, one of the biggest supporters of Orthomolecular Medicine, died of congestive heart failure in February 2024 ( doctoryourself.com ) He was 68 at the time of his death, but would have been 69 a couple of days later. Dr. John McDougall, the purveyor of the Starchevor Diet, passed away in his sleep in June 2024 at age 78. 

My dear friend and mentor, Wyona Hertwig, who inspired this blog, also passed away just this month (September 2024). She also suffered from congestive heart failure and was in her late 80s.

In the Bible, Matthew 24:36 reads: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.'' Even the healthiest among us have an end-date to their lives, and not necessarily a reflection of their dedication to a healthy lifestyle.  As Adventist Christians we see this particular piece of Scripture as important to our faith in the Second Coming of Jesus.  We do not know when-- we are reminded not to come up with predictions of that date or time-- but we do believe that it will happen.  Jesus will come.  

All the "dead in Christ'' (who we do not know about either) will rise with Jesus in the air and ascend into Heaven with him.  Some of the resurrected dead will likely be the vegan Centenarians from the so-called Adventist ''Blue Zone'' near Loma Linda in California. And many will inevitably be people who had never heard of alternatives to roast pork, or who ate mounds of delicious sugary desserts in their lives, or who preached against a plant-based diet because of their personal experiences or beliefs. Count on it!

One major reason for eating healthy- vegan, for example-- is to enjoy the benefits of good digestion that includes a clear mind and the blessings that entails in understanding the rights and wrongs of life, and having the ability to make good decisions for a healthy lifestyle and a choice to follow Jesus.  May you be so blessed!