New Book
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is on a mission to tackle one of the most stubborn health problems in the country: chronic disease in the African American community.
African Americans are heavier and sicker than any other group in the U.S., with nearly half of all Black adults suffering from some form of cardiovascular disease. After Adams woke up with severe vision loss one day in 2016, he learned that he was one of the nearly 5 million Black people living with diabetes-and, according to his doctor, he would have it for the rest of his life.
A police officer for more than two decades, Adams was a connoisseur of the fast-food dollar menu. Like so many Americans with stressful jobs, the last thing he wanted to think about was eating healthfully. Fast food was easy, cheap, and comfortable. His diet followed him from the squad car to the state senate, and then to Brooklyn Borough Hall, where it finally caught up with him.
But Adams was not ready to become a statistic. There was a better option besides medication and shots of insulin: food. Within three months of adopting a plant-based diet, he lost 35 pounds, lowered his cholesterol by 30 points, restored his vision, and reversed his diabetes. Now he is on a mission to revolutionize the health of not just the borough of Brooklyn, but of African Americans across the country.
Armed with the hard science and real-life stories of those who have transformed their bodies by changing their diet, Adams shares the key steps for a healthy, active life. With this book, he shows readers how to avoid processed foods, cut down on salt, get more fiber, and substitute beef, chicken, pork, and dairy with delicious plant-based alternatives. In the process he explores the origins of soul food-a cuisine deeply important to the Black community, but also one rooted in the horrors of slavery-and how it can be reimagined with healthy alternatives.
Features more than 50 recipes from celebrities and health experts, including Paul McCartney, Queen Afua, Jenné Claiborne, Bryant Jennings, Charity Morgan, Moby, and more
Reviews
Heart disease, type 2 diabetes, early-stage prostate cancer, hypertension, and other chronic diseases may often be reversed and prevented by changing diet and lifestyle. In this important and compelling book, Eric Adams describes how. Highly recommended.
– Dean Ornish, M.D., the father of lifestyle medicine and author of five New York Times bestsellers including UnDo It
Eric Adams is living proof of the power that a plant-based diet has on the prevention, effective treatment and even the reversal of type 2 diabetes. In Healthy at Last he delivers practical, life-changing, life-saving recipes for good health.
– Dexter W. Shurney, M.D., M.P.H., president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine
Healthy at Last will motivate you and give you the tools you need to transform your relationship with food into one that is healing. I full-heartedly recommend this book.
– Papoose, lyricist, entrepreneur, owner of Black Love clothing, and television star
