Allison menezes , MD

  • Medical School: McGill University, Montreal, Canada

  • Internal Medicine Residency: University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  • Ophthalmology Residency: University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

  • Medical and Surgical Retina Fellowship: University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  • 1994-1995 Clinical Assistant Professor, Toronto Western Hospital and Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  • From 1995 - Retina Specialist, Coastal Eye Institute, Sarasota, Florida

  • From 2014 - Clinical Assistant Professor, Florida State University

  • From 1995 - Associate Staff, Sarasota Memorial Hospital

  • American Board of Internal Medicine 1989

  • American Board of Ophthalmology 1993-current

NUTRITION IN MEDICINE RELATED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS:

A Broader Approach to Diabetic Eye Disease: Two Minutes for Plants. Retina Today September 2023. In press.

Two Minutes for Plants. Presentation at the International Conference for Nutrition in Medicine. Washington DC. August 2023.

Impact of Brief Nutritional Intervention on Health of Diabetic Patients in a Retina Practice. American Society of Retina Specialists Annual Meeting July 2022. Paper on demand.

Changing Diabetic Patients’ Health with a Brief Nutritional Intervention in a Retina Practice. American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting September 2022. Poster

Nutrition in Medicine email monthly newsletter. July 2022 – present.

LECTURES:         

Medical students. Florida State University, Sarasota Campus.

Internal Medicine residents. Tampa General Hospital.

Internal Medicine residents. Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

 

My path to mostly plant based eating.

I was an ophthalmologist for 20 years, seeing many patients with complications of diabetes and hypertension, yet was not aware of the large amount of research about plant predominant diets reducing chronic diseases and their complications.

Despite 4 years of medical school, an internal medicine and ophthalmology residencies, and 20 years of continuing medical education, the medical nutrition research seemed so contradictory that all I could tell my patients was to eat a healthy diet.

Most doctors (like me) receive little medical nutritional information in our training.

Yet it is the most important modifiable factor that our patients control three times a day to increase or decrease their risk of chronic disease.

In 2017, a family member asked me to look into the nutritionfacts.org website and the book “How Not to Die.” I watched the 90 minute 2016 video: 'The Role of Diet in Preventing, Arresting and Reversing our Top 15 Killers,' and was taken aback by the wealth of evidence of the power of a plant based diet to improve the outcomes of so many of our patients with chronic disease.

Once I became aware of the power of a whole food plant based way of eating to reduce many of our chronic illnesses and causes of death, I tried to share this information with my patients.

One day I received a phone call from a 48 year old patient with Type 2 diabetes who needed injections of a medicine in his eye because of diabetic macular edema (fluid in the retina at the back of the eye causing vision loss). He said that he had tried eating plant based for 1 month and his fasting glucose was down to 80, he was losing weight and decreasing his insulin. Within 6 months, his HbA1c was normal at 5.2, he had lost 98 pounds and was able to stop his insulin and all diabetes and blood pressure and eventually his cholesterol medications. This is when I realized the power of plants.

Over the last 5 years, I have been amazed at the improvements in diabetes, blood pressure, weight and general well being in the patients who were able to eat mostly plants for at least 5 days a week. Often they would tell me about the benefits in family members who went on this journey with them. Even for the many patients who choose not to implement a plant strong diet, I can feel that I have done my part as a physician who gave them the information to improve their health when they are ready to do so.

This website contains much of the information I share with them, the questions they ask, and top line evidence for health professionals who would like to tell their patients about plant based eating.

Together, we can all improve our health and the health of the planet.