PLANTSTRONG Podcast

At 17, after adopting a high-protein diet filled with meat, milk, protein powder, and processed meats, Dr. Yu experienced his first gout attack. The pain was so intense that he still remembers waking up at 4:00 a.m. feeling as if someone had slammed a wooden board into his toe.
But gout was only the beginning.
Over the years, Dr. Yu developed recurring, mysterious inflammation throughout his body — jaw, shoulders, wrists, fingers, knees, toes, hips, ankles — along with fatigue and irritability. Even while in medical school, he struggled to find answers. Eventually, he was diagnosed with gout, pseudogout, and spondyloarthritis, an autoimmune arthritis often treated with immunosuppressive medications.
But Dr. Yu had a feeling that diet was part of the story.
Inspired by his wife, Dr. Melissa Mondala, as well as Forks Over Knives and Dr. Michael Greger’s How Not to Die, he decided to try a whole food, plant-based diet. Within two to three months, he noticed his joint pain beginning to disappear. At his follow-up appointment, his C-reactive protein — a key inflammation marker that had been elevated for years — had normalized.
Today, Dr. Yu is a board-certified rheumatologist and integrative medicine physician who helps patients address autoimmune disease through a whole-person lens. In his practice, he looks at food, lifestyle, stress, trauma, infections, environmental exposures, supplements, and patient partnership.
In this conversation, Rip and Dr. Yu discuss:
Why a high-protein diet triggered gout at age 17
The difference between gout, pseudogout, and autoimmune arthritis
What CRP and ESR can reveal about inflammation
Why some autoimmune patients are told “everything looks normal” even when they feel terrible
How a whole food, plant-based diet changed Dr. Yu’s own health
Why rheumatology patients may benefit from looking beyond medications alone
The role of stress, trauma, infections, mold, pesticides, plastics, and environmental triggers
Why Lyme disease can be controversial and often misunderstood
Dr. Yu’s top supplements for inflammation, including turmeric, algae oil, vitamin D, Boswellia, and glutathione
Why vitamin D levels matter in autoimmune disease
How Dr. Yu practices medicine through patient partnership

This episode is a hopeful reminder that inflammation is not always a life sentence — and that the body can respond powerfully when we give it the right conditions to heal.
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Dr. Melissa Mondala joins Rip to talk about women’s health, autoimmune disease, anxiety, perimenopause, metabolic health, hormones, and the power of whole food, plant-based lifestyle medicine.
A family medicine and lifestyle medicine physician, Dr. Melissa shares her personal journey from struggling with GERD, IBS, fatigue, and serious health challenges to discovering the transformative power of plant-based nutrition during her training at Loma Linda. She also shares how meeting Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Ann Esselstyn helped shape the way she practices medicine today.
Rip and Dr. Mondala explore why so many women feel anxious, foggy, inflamed, exhausted, or “off” — and how food, blood sugar, hormones, stress, sleep, trauma, movement, and metabolic health all connect.
They also discuss coronary calcium scans, advanced lipid testing, fatty liver disease, perimenopause symptoms, plant-based protein, resistance training, hormone replacement therapy, and why lifestyle medicine is often the most powerful tool in the medical toolbox.
Dr. Mondala’s message is clear: you are not broken, you are not crazy, and there is so much you can do to reclaim your health.
Watch the Episode on YouTube
Learn More About our 2026 Live PLANTSTRONG Events: https://plantstrongevents.com/
Let Us Help Your PLANTSTRONG Journey
Learn More About Our Corporate Wellness Program: https://liveplantstrong.com/corporate-wellness/
COMPLEMENT: Use code PLANTSTRONG for 30% off at https://lovecomplement.com/pages/plantstrong-special-offer

Follow PLANTSTRONG and Rip Esselstyn
https://plantstrong.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GoPlantstrong
https://www.instagram.com/goplantstrong/
https://www.instagram.com/ripesselstyn/

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Ever eat when you weren’t really hungry and wonder why willpower wasn’t enough to stop you?
This week, Rip talks with Dr. Jud Brewer - neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and author of The Hunger Habit - about cravings, emotional eating, and the science behind food habits.
Rip and Brewer explore the difference between true physical hunger and what researchers call “hedonic hunger” — eating driven by emotions, stress, boredom, celebration, cravings, or cues in our environment. Dr. Jud explains why ultra-processed foods are engineered to hit the “bliss point” of sugar, fat, salt, crunch, and mouthfeel, making them especially hard to resist.
They also dig into why willpower is such a shaky strategy. Most diet programs rely on some version of “just don’t eat that,” but Dr. Jud explains why shame and restriction often backfire. Instead, he teaches a more effective path: awareness.
By paying close attention to how overeating actually feels — and how it feels when we stop at satisfied — the brain can begin to update the reward value of those habits. In other words, we can learn, through direct experience, that certain behaviors no longer serve us.
This episode is a compassionate, science-backed invitation to stop blaming yourself and start getting curious.
Watch the Episode on YouTube
Episode Webpage
Learn More About our 2026 Live PLANTSTRONG Events: https://plantstrongevents.com/
Let Us Help Your PLANTSTRONG Journey
Learn More About Our Corporate Wellness Program: https://liveplantstrong.com/corporate-wellness/
COMPLEMENT: Use code PLANTSTRONG for 30% off at https://lovecomplement.com/pages/plantstrong-special-offer

Follow PLANTSTRONG and Rip Esselstyn
https://plantstrong.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GoPlantstrong
https://www.instagram.com/goplantstrong/
https://www.instagram.com/ripesselstyn/

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Nelson Campbell joins Rip Esselstyn for a deeply personal and powerful conversation about his new book with Dr. T. Colin Campbell, The Whole Truth: The Hidden Agendas Behind Decades of Health Misinformation—and What to Do About It.
Nelson reflects on growing up as the son of one of the most influential nutrition scientists of our time and watching his father’s groundbreaking discoveries meet resistance from industry, government, academia, and the medical establishment. He and Rip also discuss the parallel journeys of the Campbell and Esselstyn families, the courage of Dr. Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and what it means to carry their fathers’ work forward.
This episode explores the suppression of nutrition science, the manipulation of public health messaging, the challenges facing the plant-based movement, and the urgent need for simpler, more compassionate, community-based approaches to change.
Nelson also shares the story behind his documentary From Food to Freedom, the rise of PlantPure Communities and the pod network, the lessons he learned in the plant-based food business, and why he believes the future of this movement depends on grassroots connection, youth engagement, and “heart-centered wholism.”
This is a conversation about truth, courage, family, frustration, hope — and what each of us can do within our own sphere of influence.
Key Takeaways
The story behind The Whole Truth and why Dr. T. Colin Campbell wanted to tell these stories now
How nutrition science has been suppressed, distorted, and dismissed
The personal cost of challenging powerful industries
Nelson’s experience with the documentary From Food to Freedom
Why the plant-based movement has stalled — and how it can grow again
The importance of simple, joyful, accessible messaging
Why community may be the most powerful force for change
What Nelson means by “heart-centered wholism”
How to turn righteous anger into meaningful action

Episode Webpage
Watch on YouTube
Learn More About our 2026 Live PLANTSTRONG Events: https://plantstrongevents.com/
Let Us Help Your PLANTSTRONG Journey
Learn More About Our Corporate Wellness Program: https://liveplantstrong.com/corporate-wellness/
COMPLEMENT: Use code PLANTSTRONG for 30% off at https://lovecomplement.com/pages/plantstrong-special-offer

Follow PLANTSTRONG and Rip Esselstyn
https://plantstrong.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GoPlantstrong
https://www.instagram.com/goplantstrong/
https://www.instagram.com/ripesselstyn/

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Barbara Court is almost 75 years old, full of humor, full of heart, and living proof that it is never too late to get Plant Strong.
After joining PlantStrong’s free Real30 Challenge, Barbara committed to eating 30 different whole plant-based foods each week and moving her body for 30 minutes a day. In just a few months, she lost nearly 15 pounds, brought her A1C out of the pre-diabetic range, increased her daily steps, and found a renewed sense of motivation.
In this conversation, Rip and Barbara talk about weight loss, calorie density, plant diversity, arthritis, movement, simple meals, social temptations, community support, and why perseverance and humor matters more than perfection.
Barbara’s message is simple and powerful: you do not have to be perfect. You just have to keep going.
In this episode:
How Barbara found success with the Real30 Challenge
Why she tracks her weekly plant diversity
How she lost nearly 15 pounds
What helped her improve her A1C
Why calorie density finally clicked
How she handles tempting foods and social events
Why daily movement is non-negotiable
The power of online community and encouragement
Why it is never too late to change your health

Watch on YouTube
Learn More About our 2026 Live PLANTSTRONG Events: https://plantstrongevents.com/
Let Us Help Your PLANTSTRONG Journey
Learn More About Our Corporate Wellness Program: https://liveplantstrong.com/corporate-wellness/
COMPLEMENT: Use code PLANTSTRONG for 30% off at https://lovecomplement.com/pages/plantstrong-special-offer

Follow PLANTSTRONG and Rip Esselstyn
https://plantstrong.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GoPlantstrong
https://www.instagram.com/goplantstrong/
https://www.instagram.com/ripesselstyn/

Follow the PLANTSTRONG Podcast and Give the Show a 5-star Rating
Apple Podcasts
Spotify