Ep. 13: Vegiterranean, Anyone? Yes, Please! — with Dr. Kim Williams, MD

What should you actually eat for a healthy heart? In this lively ‘fun Friday’ conversation, Dr. Regina Druz sits down with Dr. Kim Williams — a past president of the American College of Cardiology, Chair of Medicine at the University of Louisville, and one of the country’s best-known advocates for plant-based eating. They dig into the real data behind whole-food plant-based diets, what the famous PREDIMED Mediterranean-diet study actually showed, and the ‘Vegiterranean’ sweet spot where the two approaches meet. Along the way: health equity and food access, Dr. Williams’ own cholesterol story (and why he calls himself a ‘lean hyper-absorber’), how he uses AI to build meal plans for patients, front-of-package food labels, and a friendly cardiologists’ debate that ends in an unexpected truce. The throughline: heart disease is largely preventable, and small, doable changes add up.

Watch on YouTube: A video version of this episode is available on the Own Your Heart Health YouTube channel. Subscribe to be notified of new episodes.

Episode Chapters

[00:00] Introduction & Meet Dr. Kim Williams
[01:00] From the South Side of Chicago to Louisville
[05:00] Health Equity & the “Lady With the Cane”
[08:30] The Southern Diet & the Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine
[12:30] Why So Much Nutrition Confusion?
[15:00] “Two Kinds of Cardiologists”: The Plant-Based Case
[19:00] Tools: ChatGPT, Beans & the AI Debate
[24:00] Personalization, Testing & Knowing Your Risk
[30:00] Ranking the Diets: Vegan, Mediterranean & PREDIMED
[34:30] Dr. Williams’ Story: From Tennis to LDL 170
[41:00] Statins + Plants: The Balanced Middle
[46:00] Teaching Kitchens, Food Deserts & Food Labels
[52:00] RFK Jr., Microplastics & a Friendly Truce

Transcript

[00:00] Introduction & Meet Dr. Kim Williams

Dr. Regina Druz (00:00): Welcome to Own Your Heart Health. I’m Dr. Regina Druz, your holistic cardiologist. This week we’ll dive into common heart health concerns, uncovering root causes and unpacking scientific discoveries and controversies. The information provided does not constitute medical advice. Please contact your healthcare practitioner before making any changes that may impact your health.

Dr. Regina Druz (00:30): Welcome, everybody, to this delightful fun Friday. I’m super excited to be joined today by a great mentor and colleague, Dr. Kim Williams, who comes to us from the University of Louisville. Dr. Williams, tell us who you are, what you do, and how you ended up here on the show.

Dr. Kim Williams (00:50): First, nice to meet you, and I’m glad you’re doing this holistic heart work — we need more people in that space, because as a country we need to spend far more attention on prevention, and it just isn’t happening. Heart disease has been the leading killer of Americans since 1918. In every other modernized country it’s number two; for us, and for much of the developing world, it’s still number one. So what are we doing wrong? We enjoy too many things that are damaging, and at some point we’ll recognize that life and health are far more precious than the habits we could simply eliminate if we knew about them.

[01:00] From the South Side of Chicago to Louisville

Dr. Kim Williams (01:00): How did I get here? I was an inner-city kid who got sick a lot because my mom smoked, and after my third pneumonia I knew the drill — I’d go to a South Side Chicago hospital and see that the care was terrible. As an eleven-year-old I decided to become a doctor and try to fix the South Side. That worked: I was on faculty at the University of Chicago for 26 years, then went to Wayne State, where I founded the Urban Cardiology Initiative, then to Rush as chief of cardiology, where I built a wonderful program and started the HEART community-screening program. When your program’s ranking climbs, people come after you for this deanship or that chairmanship.

Dr. Kim Williams (03:00): I found a university — Louisville — that, not long after Breonna Taylor’s death, was in the throes of asking how to build health equity and racial equality. They wanted a chair interested in inner-city health who would go to underserved areas and screen. We’ve screened about 1,100 people in two and a half years with point-of-care cholesterol, blood pressure, and creatinine, so we can apply the American Heart Association’s PREVENT risk calculation and get people in for care. And Louisville is a good fit because the state provides extra funds for seeing people with fewer resources — Medicaid is our second-highest payer — so the mission is actually sustainable, which it wasn’t everywhere I’d been.

[05:00] Health Equity & the “Lady With the Cane”

Dr. Regina Druz (05:00): This is so meaningful to me, because I’ve tried to follow in your footsteps. I served as a chief of cardiology in an inner-city community, and hands down it was the most eye-opening and toughest experience of my career. The health system’s focus was on more lucrative procedures, but the biggest issue for our patients — some of them shockingly young — was cardiometabolic. For the first time I was seeing heart failure in 25-year-olds, not from congenital disease but from their environment.

Dr. Regina Druz (06:00): One day I was with a patient who had heart failure and multiple sclerosis. Our clinic overlooked a picturesque beach where developers were building expensive housing in this poor community. I told her she’d really benefit from eating five to ten servings of vegetables a day. She took her cane, pointed out the fifth-floor window, and said, ‘Doctor, look out this window — do you see a grocery store I can walk to?’ That was the conversation. There’s an enormous divide in this country. But I also found something positive: patients truly wanted to get better, and the first steps were often simple — just letting go of ultra-processed junk food. Some patients dropped weight and even reversed non-ischemic cardiomyopathies simply by eliminating ultra-processed foods. Have you seen this in Louisville?

Dr. Kim Williams (08:00): Absolutely — and I left out one major thing: guess where Louisville is. Kentucky. With help from our Brown Cancer Center, Kentucky finally climbed out of dead last in cancer deaths, but we’re still near the bottom in smoking and third in the nation for heart-disease deaths. It comes down to a long-standing culture — the Southern diet, opiates, alcohol. Louisville is known for horse racing and bourbon, and you can argue both are hard on health. It’s a tough place for anyone concerned about life and health — which makes it the perfect place to feel you’re having an impact, as long as you don’t give up.

[08:30] The Southern Diet & the Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine

Dr. Kim Williams (08:30): You have to meet people where they are — an overused phrase, but nothing could be truer in a place where culture, society, family, and friends all point toward unhealthy habits. So I teach the six pillars of lifestyle medicine. I focus on nutrition, but not exclusively, because if someone isn’t sleeping, is socially isolated, is under chronic stress, isn’t exercising, or is using alcohol or cigarettes, nutrition alone won’t get us there. Building lifestyle medicine into this department is one of my major goals as chair, and it’s a fascinating challenge to move the chess pieces so we develop a full, fleshed-out program. We’re going to give it a real shot.

Dr. Regina Druz (11:30): Hi everyone, it’s Dr. Regina here. I know there are contradictory opinions about nutrition for heart health and longevity — the discussion gets heated and confusing. Some push low-fat, low-cholesterol; others are fans of a ketogenic diet; and there are many voices urging vegan or vegetarian eating. To cut through the clutter, my team and I created Holistic Heart University: on-demand courses, nutrition and lifestyle resources, and supplement guidance to make healthy choices for your heart easier to understand. I’m especially proud of our open office hours and the Q&A feature where you can put us in the hot seat. Head to the show notes for the link and use promo code OWNER20 for 20% off our annual subscription. I’ll see you in office hours.

[12:30] Why So Much Nutrition Confusion?

Dr. Regina Druz (12:30): It felt to me like carving a tunnel through a mountain with a screwdriver — that’s the level of effort required. So for your patients and mine: what’s your first nutritional line? Even with all the research, trials, and data, there’s still controversy over what counts as a heart-healthy diet. In 2025, assuming a receptive middle-aged patient, what would you advise nutritionally?

Dr. Kim Williams (13:30): First, my practice is referral cardiology — people come to me after something happened or something’s out of control, so I’ve often got a motivated patient and family after a heart attack or stroke, and it’s still difficult. As for the variety of recommendations — that’s unfortunate, because a lot of nutrition guidance is industry-driven. There’s only a handful of fully whole-food, plant-based vegan cardiologists, which means we’re essentially preaching against our own self-interest: if I’m successful, my patients won’t have this disease and I’d have to retrain in something else. But the truth is there really isn’t that much controversy. The way I work with people, I used to call it the three T’s — and the first is Time. As a chair, no one tells me to rush out of the room, so if a visit runs long, the patient understands I’ll do the same for them. Spending time is the best way to earn and show respect.

[15:00] “Two Kinds of Cardiologists”: The Plant-Based Case

Dr. Kim Williams (15:00): The second T is Team. I don’t always have a plant-based nutritionist, but here’s a striking data point: about 3% of the public is vegan — and roughly 8% of cardiologists are. When I was president of the ACC and said this, it went all over the internet: there are two kinds of cardiologists — vegans, and those who haven’t read the data.

Dr. Regina Druz (15:45): I remember that line — and I’m a cardiologist and I’m not vegan, because you and I had our famous debate.

Dr. Kim Williams (16:00): No need to debate — it’s not about me, it’s the data, and your listeners like data. We have the major risk factors: obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia — and don’t tell me Black patients don’t get hyperlipidemia, because there’s a high incidence of elevated lipoprotein(a). All of those, plus the inflammasome, are dramatically improved or eliminated by a whole-food plant-based diet. Ask ChatGPT or Gemini if you don’t believe me.

Dr. Regina Druz (16:45): And whole-food plant-based doesn’t necessarily mean strictly vegan — you can be whole-food plant-based and still include some animal products.

Dr. Kim Williams (17:00): True — and there are people who are genetically fine without going all the way. But I’m a Black man over 60 with a tendency to high LDL; I can’t even eat a curry because of the palm or coconut oil, and I can’t eat refined grains and keep my LDL below 55. So everyone needs to know their own risk, but the vast majority do best on a whole-food plant-based diet that excludes refined grains. And here’s what makes my vegan friends mad: a Harvard analysis showed definitively that unhealthy plant-based foods — fried foods, refined grains, sugary drinks, juices — are more dangerous than eating animal products. Those vegan beignets and red velvet cupcakes are worse for you than a pork chop. If you eat that way, you may be helping the planet, but not your heart.

[19:00] Tools: ChatGPT, Beans & the AI Debate

Dr. Kim Williams (19:00): So the third T is Tools. For years I handed out paper handouts; not anymore. About six weeks ago, a patient I’d followed for 30 years — mild coronary disease, never a heart attack, on a maximum-dose statin but with his LDL not yet optimized after he backed off when his knees hurt — prompted a change. I asked him, ‘What could I have said all these years to get you onto a whole-food plant-based diet?’ He said, ‘That would’ve been easy — just make it full of beans.’

Dr. Kim Williams (20:00): So I went to ChatGPT, partly inspired by the JAMA article everyone saw on artificial intelligence. We were on telehealth, so he could watch the screen. I typed, ‘Give us a two-week menu of a whole-food plant-based diet with a lot of beans,’ and within about fifteen seconds it produced a full menu. Then it asked if I wanted recipes, so I picked the second Thursday’s dinner — and it printed a shopping list and step-by-step instructions. He was so impressed, and I’ve been doing it ever since: you tell me which plant-based foods you like, and we build it together right there.

Dr. Regina Druz (21:00): That JAMA study actually said I was wrong — it compared doctor versus AI versus doctor-plus-AI for management, and AI alone won; AI was better without us.

Dr. Regina Druz (21:30): I’d push back on that, because I use a lot of AI. The issue is a lack of trust in the technology: when you come in biased, with a fixed rather than an open mindset, you don’t learn, iterate, or create. I suspect that’s what happened in the trial — the doctors thought, ‘who needs AI, I’m better than that.’ My approach is to adopt and build with it. As the data evolves — don’t tell anyone anything you haven’t read in the last 18 months, especially in cardiology — AI will help us keep our practice current.

[24:00] Personalization, Testing & Knowing Your Risk

Dr. Regina Druz (24:00): Patients increasingly want personalization. What’s the best path — should they invest in genetics or advanced lab markers? My platform does advanced phenotyping for everyone, but what would you tell someone with fewer resources just starting toward better heart health?

Dr. Kim Williams (24:45): As a physician I adopt anything that changes management. So I don’t order a lot of TMAO outside research, and I don’t do much advanced lipid testing in people who already have coronary disease, because it won’t change what I do. But in someone without known disease who has, say, a 5.7% ten-year risk — absolutely: advanced lipids, C-reactive protein, and a lipoprotein(a) level, because an abnormal result changes management and may push us, by guidelines, toward a coronary calcium scan. And I encourage patients to use AI freely — it knows every guideline I ever wrote and bases recommendations on ACC/AHA guidelines. A knowledgeable patient is my best ally for their own healthcare.

[30:00] Ranking the Diets: Vegan, Mediterranean & PREDIMED

Dr. Regina Druz (30:00): Of the three most-studied heart-healthy diets — whole-food plant-based, Mediterranean, and DASH — how do you rank them?

Dr. Kim Williams (30:15): I rank them by cardiac events and mortality, and by that measure a whole-food plant-based diet with no animal products wins every trial. Does that mean every single person needs it to reach a Blue Zone-style hundred-year lifespan? No — we’re all hybrids, not clones, and some people probably don’t need it, though the planet and animal welfare might. But for events and mortality, plant-based wins.

Dr. Regina Druz (31:00): What about all-cause mortality? That hasn’t been convincingly shown to be better with a vegan diet, and the longevity comparisons weren’t from large randomized trials.

Dr. Kim Williams (31:30): Correct — you’ll never get a 30-, 40-, or 50-year randomized outcome study; nobody will fund it, so we rely on observational data. But let’s talk Mediterranean. PREDIMED is the best-done diet trial in history and the most misinterpreted. It became famous partly because of a randomization problem that forced them to re-analyze and republish, which only made it more famous. The original reported a 30% reduction in heart attack, stroke, and death, whether you were assigned extra-virgin olive oil or nuts — as long as you cut back on red meat. But look at Table 3: the 30% benefit was driven almost entirely by reduced stroke. Heart attacks, cardiovascular death, and overall mortality were essentially the same.

Dr. Regina Druz (33:00): A 30% drop in strokes is still nothing to sneeze at.

Dr. Kim Williams (33:15): I agree — but don’t tell a heart patient they’ll be protected just by switching red meat for fish. So I hassled the investigators: how could you run this beautiful trial without a no-animal arm? They did a post-hoc analysis and published it, and it was remarkable. People following what they called a ‘Vegiterranean’ pattern — the Mediterranean style, olive oil and nuts, but with protein from beans, grains, nuts, and seeds instead of animals — had a 42% reduction in mortality. That’s the sweet spot.

[34:30] Dr. Williams’ Story: From Tennis to LDL 170

Dr. Regina Druz (34:30): So tell us your personal nutritional story — you’re among the 8% of cardiologists who are committed vegans.

Dr. Kim Williams (34:45): It was written up in the New York Times in 2014 when I was incoming ACC vice president. In 2003 I went to the ACC meeting, where you can check your lipids at the booths. In 2001 my LDL was about 110, back when that was reasonable. This time it was 170. I thought the point-of-care test was wrong, so I went to a second manufacturer’s booth — 169 — and a third — still high. Unbelievable that three companies would conspire against my cholesterol. I had to accept I had significant hyperlipidemia.

Dr. Kim Williams (36:30): What had changed? Until 2001 I was practically a professional tennis player — I’d been national coaching for my son, Kurt, who won national titles, and I played twice a day, every day. When he went off to college and the Marines, I played a little less. Just slightly less exercise, right around age 44 to 45.

Dr. Regina Druz (37:15): Those are exactly the aging thresholds recently described — around 44 and again around 60.

Dr. Kim Williams (37:30): Exactly. So I went whole-food plant-based, inspired by colleagues like Taswell Banks and Dean Ornish’s plaque-regression work. Within six weeks — I now know two would have shown it — my LDL dropped from 170 to 90. Then, on my last rotation before Louisville, after a 21-patient day, I ate a bean burrito, got violently ill, and ended up in the ER. I asked them to extend the abdominal CT upward, and I have an estimated non-gated coronary calcium score of about 30. As an author of the 2019 prevention guidelines, that means a statin, not just antiplatelet. My LDL went from 90 to 75, and I can only reach the target of 55 on a maximum-dose statin and by avoiding refined grains and coconut oil.

Dr. Regina Druz (40:30): So you may be what’s called a lean hyper-absorber — lean, but your body absorbs cholesterol from food so efficiently that you genuinely need a near-vegan diet to stop sucking it up, almost regardless of how much is there.

[41:00] Statins + Plants: The Balanced Middle

Dr. Kim Williams (41:00): Right — and studies show you can eat many eggs without changing cholesterol much, because you saturate the receptors, but it still disrupts the microbiome and is associated with mortality. I’m not one of those people. In 22 years of vegan cardiology — because I wouldn’t recommend something I wasn’t doing myself — not one of my patients has had an event while on a plant-based diet and a statin. There are too many cardiologists handing out statins with no nutrition advice, and too many plant-based doctors insisting statins are no good.

Dr. Regina Druz (42:30): I’m somewhere in the middle. As a nuclear imager I use ALARA — as low as reasonably achievable: can we get LDL as low as reasonably achievable, considering nutrition, supplements, and a host of other tools? If someone has disease, they need the statin; if they don’t, counsel nutrition first. And you must adopt good nutrition yourself, because the leading cause of death among cardiologists is still heart disease.

Dr. Regina Druz (45:00): Hi everyone, it’s Dr. Regina here. Many of my colleagues and I are seeing patients arrive with self-ordered blood tests. When this trend started, I thought it would help — who doesn’t want more access to their health data? But too often self-ordered labs lead to more confusion and frustration: patients come in with a pile of results and are no better off. That’s why we created HeartWell Toolkits — a curated collection of at-home blood and genetic markers focused on heart and brain health that gives you the data you need to make informed, actionable decisions. You can order them at the shop on holisticheartcenters.com — the link is in the show notes. Use code TESTING10 for 10% off and free shipping.

[46:00] Teaching Kitchens, Food Deserts & Food Labels

Dr. Regina Druz (46:00): Some academic and city preventive centers have demonstration kitchens where they bring patients in and make whole-food plant-based eating attractive, palatable, and fun. Is that something you’re building at Louisville?

Dr. Kim Williams (46:30): Just yesterday I was having that conversation. On campus we have the Trager Institute’s teaching kitchen, run by a Harvard-certified chef coach, and we’re starting a clinical trial — I cleared the IRB today. Most of the people I’m targeting live in the West End: more industrial, former factory towns, contaminated soil, a lot of poverty. Interestingly, Louisville is segregated more by economics than race — the poor of every background are neighbors. We’ll run cooking courses at a facility called Dare to Care, which has a huge teaching kitchen right in the neighborhood.

Dr. Kim Williams (49:00): On food access: I push back on the term ‘food desert.’ There are stores there — they’re just stocking the wrong things. If that’s what we buy, that’s what they sell; they won’t stock what we won’t buy. The documentary The Invisible Vegan, by Jasmine Leyva, walks through about ten of these barriers — including a bus that let riders bring only two grocery bags. And on labeling: on January 14th the FDA proposed front-of-package nutrition labeling, with a comment period running into May. I’d love a stoplight system like other countries use — though industry pushes back, because no one wants a red ‘this will kill you’ label on bacon, even when that’s what the data show. Their proposal flags high, medium, or low for saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar.

[52:00] RFK Jr., Microplastics & a Friendly Truce

Dr. Regina Druz (52:00): Last question: RFK Jr. was just confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Good for cardiology and prevention, or not?

Dr. Kim Williams (52:15): When someone is appointed to a role like that, they can surround themselves with smart people and make good policy, so I leave room for him to become a benefit to the nation. ‘Make America Healthy Again’ — I’m a hundred percent for that. But I’d question his anti-vaccine reputation. Yes, the COVID vaccine caused some myocarditis in young athletes — no question — but even in them it saved lives, and overall the benefit was enormous; several countries saw roughly a sixteen-fold reduction in mortality. So I’d simply encourage him to be data-driven. Everything I’ve told you today is peer-reviewed; it could still be wrong, but that’s where the data are.

Dr. Regina Druz (54:00): Fascinating. Kim, you’re a delight — an early AI adopter changing Kentucky one plant-based meal at a time. We have to recreate our old debate: I argued the Mediterranean side, you argued vegan, and I won because I had lovely pictures from a trip to Greece.

Dr. Kim Williams (54:45): I don’t think you won — but give me twenty seconds and I’ll stipulate that you did, if you’ll stipulate one thing: the New England Journal of Medicine article last March on microplastics and nanoplastics, which come predominantly from seafood. I had to give up even my algae-based omega-3. Look up that article, look at the survival curve, and you’ll see a hazard ratio around 4.5 — bigger than almost anything I’ve seen short of skydiving without a parachute. If seafood is now more deadly than red meat, there’s no room left for it — so what’s left for you but the Vegiterranean diet?

Dr. Regina Druz (56:00): It was a very sobering article — point taken. Great discussion; we need to come back and talk about supplements for heart health, so I’m tapping you for that. Take care, Kim.

Dr. Regina Druz (56:30): To the professionals listening: if you’re thinking of launching a cardiometabolic or integrative cardiology program in your practice, we can help. Holistic Heart Centers helps physicians expand into hybrid or concierge services — head to the show notes and click the application link; your intro call is entirely free. Ready to schedule a practice review? Use code DOC10 for 10% off our Practice Power Hour, a 60-minute coaching session. Thank you for tuning in to Own Your Heart Health with Dr. Regina Druz. This podcast is powered by Holistic Heart Centers. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review us on your favorite platform, and visit holisticheartcenters.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel. See you next week.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a whole-food plant-based diet really better for your heart than the Mediterranean diet?

By the measures Dr. Williams prioritizes — cardiac events and mortality — a whole-food plant-based diet with no animal products performs best in the trials. But the episode’s most practical insight is that the two approaches aren’t really at war. In a post-hoc analysis of the landmark PREDIMED Mediterranean-diet trial, people who followed a ‘Vegiterranean’ pattern — Mediterranean style with olive oil and nuts, but protein from beans, grains, nuts, and seeds rather than animals — had roughly a 42% reduction in mortality. Importantly, both doctors stress individualization: not everyone needs to go fully vegan, and a key distinction is ‘whole-food’ versus ‘unhealthy’ plant-based eating — fried foods, refined grains, and sugary drinks can be worse than animal products. This is educational information, not personalized medical advice; work with your clinician on what’s right for you.

What did the PREDIMED Mediterranean-diet study actually show?

Dr. Williams calls PREDIMED the best-conducted diet trial in history and also the most misinterpreted. The headline result was about a 30% reduction in a combined endpoint of heart attack, stroke, and death for people assigned to a Mediterranean diet (with either extra-virgin olive oil or nuts) who cut back on red meat. But he points to Table 3 of the paper: that 30% benefit was driven almost entirely by a reduction in stroke. Heart attacks, cardiovascular death, and overall mortality were essentially unchanged. His takeaway isn’t that the Mediterranean diet is useless — a one-third drop in stroke is meaningful — but that you shouldn’t assume simply swapping red meat for fish will protect you from heart attacks. The trial also had a randomization issue that required re-analysis and republication. Always interpret studies, and your own diet choices, with a qualified clinician.

Why can two people eat the same diet but have very different cholesterol?

Genetics play a major role. Dr. Williams describes himself as a ‘lean hyper-absorber’ — a lean person whose body absorbs dietary cholesterol so efficiently that he needs a near-vegan diet, plus a maximum-dose statin, to reach an LDL of 55. He also notes that some people carry elevated lipoprotein(a) — a largely genetic, independent risk factor that’s more common in some populations — and that response to foods like eggs varies because cholesterol-absorption receptors can become saturated. This is why both physicians emphasize knowing your own numbers and risk: advanced lipid testing, C-reactive protein, and an Lp(a) level can be worthwhile when results would change management, sometimes prompting a coronary calcium scan. The practical message is that nutrition is not one-size-fits-all. Discuss your individual testing and targets with your physician.

Can AI tools like ChatGPT actually help me eat healthier for my heart?

Dr. Williams uses AI routinely as a patient-education ‘tool’ — the third of his three T’s (time, team, tools). In one example, he asked ChatGPT for a two-week whole-food plant-based menu ‘full of beans,’ and within seconds it generated a full menu, then on request produced a specific recipe with a shopping list and step-by-step instructions, which a long-time patient found genuinely motivating. He encourages patients to use AI because, as he puts it, it knows the guidelines and can tailor suggestions to your preferences and culture, making a knowledgeable patient his best ally. Both doctors add caveats: AI works best with an open, iterative mindset, and you should still verify recommendations and sources. AI guidance is not a substitute for care from your own clinician, and any major dietary or medication change should be discussed with them.

Show Notes & Resources

Guest: Dr. Kim Williams, MD

Dr. Kim Allan Williams Sr. is one of the nation’s most prominent cardiologists and a leading advocate for plant-based nutrition. He is Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and the Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana Endowed Professor of Health Equity. A past president of both the American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, and former chairman of the board of the Association of Black Cardiologists, he has spent more than four decades focused on preventive cardiology, cardio-nutrition, nuclear cardiology, and reducing cardiovascular health disparities. He founded the Urban Cardiology Initiative in Detroit and the HEART community-screening program in Chicago, is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, and has been vegan since 2003.

University of Louisville Department of Medicine: louisville.edu/medicine

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

PREDIMED (New England Journal of Medicine) — the landmark Mediterranean-diet trial; see Table 3 for the event breakdown (benefit driven by reduced stroke)
PREDIMED post-hoc analysis — the ‘Vegiterranean’ pattern (Mediterranean style with no animal protein) associated with roughly 42% lower mortality
2017 JACC / Harvard analysis — healthy vs. unhealthy plant-based diets; refined grains, sugary drinks, and fried foods can be worse than animal products
JAMA study on artificial intelligence in clinical management (physician vs. AI vs. physician + AI)
New England Journal of Medicine (March 2024) — microplastics and nanoplastics in atherosclerotic plaque linked to sharply higher cardiovascular events
FDA front-of-package nutrition labeling proposal (saturated fat, sodium, added sugar) — public comment period in 2025
American Heart Association PREVENT risk calculator
The Invisible Vegan — documentary by Jasmine Leyva on Black veganism and food access
International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention — Dr. Williams is editor-in-chief
Using AI (e.g., ChatGPT) to build whole-food plant-based meal plans, shopping lists, and recipes
Holistic Heart University — on-demand courses and resources (use code OWNER20 for 20% off annual)
HeartWell Toolkits — at-home heart and brain health lab panels (use code TESTING10 for 10% off and free shipping)
For clinicians: Practice Power Hour coaching with Holistic Heart Centers (use code DOC10 for 10% off)

Holistic Heart Centers

holisticheartcenters.com
HeartWell.ai — AI-powered cardiovascular risk assessment
Address: 55 Bryant Avenue, Suite #6, Roslyn, NY 11576
Phone: 877-511-5166
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Podcast: Own Your Heart Health — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms

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