HEALTH AND WELLNESS FACTS & STATS
Grounded in evidence. centered on equity, Power is Giving exists because the data are clear: lifestyle-driven chronic illness is preventable, arrestable and often reversible when we make nutrition equity accessible for everyone.
​​
By expanding whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle education in communities where access has long been limited, we shift health trajectories upstream and close wellness gaps created by systemic inequity. When youth and adults embrace WFPB living, they move away from lifestyle-driven chronic illness and toward restored vitality and longevity.
DIABETES: PROGRESSION REVERSAL
​According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), in a study of patients with type 2 diabetes, more than 1/3 achieved reversal of their diagnosis after an intervention using a low-fat, whole food, plant-predominant diet. Patients saw A1C drops of up to 1.2 points, medication reduction, and, in many cases diabetes remission; outcomes unmatched by drugs alone.
-
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 38 million Americans are living with diabetes; more than 1 in 10 people.
-
The burden of lifestyle driven chronic illnesses fall hardest on communities that have been historically under-resourced and systemically disinvested.
HEART DISEASE REVERSAL: DOCUMENTS & REPLICABLE
Studies by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (Cleveland Clinic) and Dr. Dean Ornish (Preventive Medicine Research Institute)demonstrated that a strictly whole-food, plant-based diet can reverse coronary artery disease. Participants experienced improved blood flow and, in imaging studies, plaque regression.
​
In longitudinal cohort studies, higher adherence to a whole food, plant-based dietary patterns is associated with 24% lower mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer, even among people already living with metabolic illnesses.
​
​Heart disease and cancer remain the top two killers globally. WFPB diets influence major risk factors (cholesterol, blood pressure, oxidative stress, insulin resistance) for both.
NUTRITION EDUCATION GAP IN U.S. MEDICAL TRAINING
Most physicians in the U.S. enter practice deeply trained in diagnosing, treating and managing disease as well as executing needed acute care and their role in all of that work is respected and indispensable.
​
However, the gap isn’t in their dedication, it’s in the U.S. medical school system that provides an average of under 20 hours of nutrition education across four years, and over 50% of medical students report receiving none at all.
​
This means most physicians enter practice without the training needed to guide patients like you through dietary approaches that you likely ask them to advise you about. Unfortunately, many understandably fall back on personal eating habits rather than evidence-based nutrition guidance because they weren’t prepared to do otherwise.
​
This isn’t a failure of individual doctors, it’s a failure of the system.
​
Because nutrition, especially whole food, plant-based (WFPB) nutrition, is one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent, halt and often reverse the chronic illnesses driving premature death in our communities, we work collaboratively with board-certified physicians and subject matter experts who understand the evidence and support the WFPB lifestyle education embedded throughout our programs across Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, NC.
