I am overwhelmed by the support & unity of cardiologists, scientists & physicians of all specialties who have supported me & spoken out abt online bullying of women physicians on social media. As a cardiology fellow w/ a passion for prevention & nutrition, this means a lot to me.
Although I utilize a plant based diet to help my patients, I recognize & respect there are many dietary patterns that help patients. Normally I recommend a low fat plant based diet, but about 10 months ago I started to utilize plant based diets of all macronutrient profiles.
And found that some patients preferred a plant based keto diet, high fiber, low SFA, high MUFA/PUFA. And if that if it was working for them, I would support it, as this still falls within our ACC guidelines and recommendations for nutrition.
I started to share patients success stories in reducing their risk factors for CAD including improved lipid profiles, Hgba1c, and BMI, using both plant based keto diets or low fat plant based diets, or even in the middle!
I started to get a lot of negative feedback from individuals in the very low fat plant based community for breaking the norm, (IE, I “allow” my patients to eat nuts, seeds, avocado and EVOO), which was disappointing, but I try to keep it positive on social media so I ignore.
And if you’re reading this &shocked that a vegan cardiology fellow has been viciously attacked by other vegans for endorsing that patients may consume nuts, seeds and EVOO (that is consistent with our ACC guidelines..) then you may now see how viscous nutrition twitter is.
And normally, ignoring negative comments on social media is easy, especially when I know I am providing evidence based nutrition to my patients that falls within our ACC dietary guidelines.
But I could ignore, only until this recent attack of memes by an individual who is very close with many physicians in the plant based community. I did not know who he was, but these sexualized memes were wildly offensive.
And I hate to admit this but, if his goal was to silence me about my statement that olive oil, avocado and nuts are not dangerous (yes you are reading this right, sounds silly doesn’t it?) it almost worked.
I was completely offended by these memes, and hurt. As a female physician and cardiology fellow in training who practices evidence based medicine & evidence based nutrition, I suddenly felt that maybe I should keep quiet about nutrition topics like plant based fats.
I have even expressed to both @ethanjweiss and @kevinnbass that maybe I shouldn’t have a voice in plant based nutrition, because these misogynist & sexist memes were too much for me to handle. It upset me, my family, and many of my friends and colleagues.
But thanks to so many of you, cardiologists, scientists, physicians in every specialty and from all over, I don’t feel that I have to be scared to share my views on nutrition science on social media. I follow guidelines and I help patients, and this is most important.
So thank you to the cardiology community, #cardiotwitter, and so many of you involved in nutrition and medicine for supporting me and standing up for sexist bullying in #scicomm.
I have friends who are physicians and scientists with all different dietary philosophies who I love, admire, and respect! So thank you for supporting me and helping me to keep my voice in plant based nutrition, no matter how hard some may try to shut it down.
And yes, if you can believe it, this was all over me saying nuts, avocado, and olive oil do not cause heart disease....
I can’t thank these individuals enough for their support, they have continued to empower me & reassured me that my voice in science matters. Thank you so much @ethanjweiss @kevinnbass @DrMarthaGulati @KCKlatt @CMichaelGibson @cardio10s @DrOstfeld @KoushikReddyMD @YoniFreedhoff
@ChristianAssad @kdinbburg @KevinH_PhD @dnunan79 @POhukainen @AnastasiaSMihai @HeartOTXHeartMD @DocSavageTJU @hvanspall @purviparwani & so many more I can’t thank you enough for your kindness & I am so lucky to have a professional network that stands by women in medicine❤️
And so many thanks to @Drgarthdavis @Dr__Guess @mmamas1973 @mirvatalasnag @atunuguntla1 @cardioPCImom @sjoshimd @iamritu @Pooh_Velagapudi and everyone else reading this thread who supports women in medicine and science. Thanks❤️
And most of all @cadiulus who started me on this entire macro nutrient experimentation ❤️ realizing that patients are not “1 size fits all” in nutrition has been one of my greatest areas of growth over the last year as a physician.
