A familiar face who has presented at past Northwest VEG VegFests and other nutrition conferences here in the Pacific Northwest, Brenda Davis returns this September to speak at the Compassionate Living Festival happening on Saturday, September 28, 2024, from noon to 6:00 PM. In a talk titled “Being Healthy on a 100% Plant-Based Diet,” Brenda will be discussing dietary factors that help protect against chronic disease and will be addressing many of the most pressing questions about plant-exclusive diets. Her talks are always engaging and informative.

A Registered Dietitian and plant-based nutrition advocate from Calgary, Alberta, Brenda became vegan in 1989. She has been a featured speaker at conferences in over 20 countries and is a prolific writer, having authored/co-authored 13 books as well as numerous professional and lay articles.

In 2007, Brenda was inducted into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame. She is the 2022 recipient of the Plantrician Project’s Luminary Award. Her professional and personal goal is “to make this world a more sustainable, health supportive and kinder place.”

Brenda is particularly proud of the work she has done on diabetes in the Marshall Islands starting in 2006. The Republic of the Marshall Islands is a group of five islands in the southwest Pacific roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Majuro, the capital island, is only 3.7 square miles with a population of about 30,000. It has the highest level of diabetes of anywhere in the world, inflicting nearly one-third of the population. In the 1950s and before, diabetes was almost unheard of, but now more than half the surgeries in Majuro are amputations related to diabetes. A government study attributes this diabetes epidemic to cheap imported foods such as flour, rice, and foods high in salt, sugar, and fats, as well as lack of access and affordability for fresh, healthy foods. Quoting the study, “This (diet) is so unlike traditional Marshallese diets, which are high in complex carbohydrates from bananas, pandanus, breadfruit, and arrowroot.” Brenda also notes the lack of physical activity, with people taking taxis or driving almost everywhere instead of walking.

In her first study in 2006-2008, Brenda and her colleagues conducted a randomized control trial that compared people with diabetes receiving traditional care to a similar randomly-selected cohort of people who were given an intensive intervention of lifestyle changes, including healthy food and education. Brenda was amazed at how fast these people responded, dropping their average blood glucose level by 75 mg/dl in just two weeks, with many reporting more than a 100 mg/dl drop in blood sugar in just one week. Since that study, Brenda has returned to the Marshall Islands almost every year up until COVID hit, continuing to educate the community and the government on the importance of diet and lifestyle in reversing diabetes and other chronic disease. You can hear Brenda describe this work in a recent Exam Room podcast by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Brenda’s website offers a plethora of plant-based information, including articles, recipes, videos, podcasts and more at https://brendadavisrd.com/.

Here are 3 of Brenda’s many books: