Mark Sutton Talks Heart Healthy Pizza, His Work, and the T. Colin Campbell Plant Based Nutrition Program

Hi Mark! Could you please introduce yourself and your website?

I'm Mark Sutton- vegan for 15 years (no-added oil for 9 years since interviewing Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn about his research on reversing heart disease), 20 years vegetarian before vegan.  My most active website is Heart Healthy Pizza and my blog, started over 9 years ago (and somewhat neglected) is Soul Veggie. 

I have a weird career that includes being the "Visualizations Coordinator" on two NASA Earth Satellite Missions, and working with two Nobel Peace Price winners on Global Climate Change.  I worked with the White House and have been Howard Lyman's (the Mad Cowboy) right-hand man for over a decade doing research for his lectures, producing his DVDs, and learning a helluva lot from someone who's incredibly smart and dedicated to the animals and people eating the right diet.

"Heart Healthy Pizza" (my self-published cookbook) is the 1st vegan pizza cookbook- all recipes are no-oil, no-sugar, no-salt.  Howard pushed me, the Esselstyn's praised the effort, and I'm proud to see it done.  I still get emails from heart patients so happy they can have pizza again and not go off their "dietary restrictions."

I'm also currently a co-host on the Dr. Don radio show, regarding health and wellness issues. Don is an incredible interviewer and I'm learning a lot from him as this goes forward.

​What was your experience when you first transitioned to a vegan diet?

34 years ago in Dallas, Texas, going vegetarian was considered quite radical and "weird." But it wasn't a discrete event. I gave up meat first, then egg yolks, then egg whites, and finally cheese.  Cheese was tough, but I couldn't justify eating it any more. Going vegetarian, and now vegan, was most impactful, both in mind and body.  My energy levels increased, I didn't get sick, and my awareness of the inter-connectedness of all life and the environment was augmented. 


For you, what is the most fulfilling, and most difficult part of being vegan?

Aside from the ridicule I got on occasion, going completely vegan wasn't that tough once I learned to adapt to "no cheese."  One of the reasons I wrote my book was to encourage others to give it up, too.

I agree with others who note that "no animal has to die for me to live or eat" and like the different awareness achieved through finally completing the process of going vegan.  Any difficulty is primarily due to other people not "getting it" and voicing concerns, arguments, and sarcasm.  After all these years, though, the clear increase in the number of people going vegan or plant-based is a nice validation of what those of us "early adapters" thought decades ago.
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​What does an average day of meals look like for you?

No such thing!  I plan my meals usually around what's available seasonally, and ideally, locally.  I consider what I've been doing physically and mentally, what I anticipate is coming up, and do permit some comfort food now and then, with an occasional indulgence in a low-fat low salt meat analog.  Being an experienced plant-based cook, and having been actively researching and cooking veg recipes for well over 30 years, I tend to wing a lot of meals.

In general, I do like fresh fruit and oatmeal with almond milk and ground flaxseeds for breakfast, and when in a relationship, I'll cut loose a bit more often with a large brunch.  Lunch?  At least a very fresh salad once every three days, but more and more these days I tend to skip lunch, especially during the warmer weather.  I like having broccoli or greens of some kind as often as possible as part of dinner.

I strive for a variety and diversity of produce, grains, and legumes during the week, not having soy or wheat too often, preferring brown rice to white rice unless making sushi (still haven't master a decent short brown rice sushi recipe, although I've had some interesting results with millet or quinoa).  

Whatever I can envision I can usually make, so I really don't have a dietary routine, per se.


Could you share with us one of your favorite recipes? 

Well, here's an article I wrote for the T. Colin Campbell's Plant-Based Nutrition program that has a recipe and photos. 

​So I see that you just graduated from T. Colin Campbell’s Plant Based Nutrition program. Congratulations! I took this amazing course too. With this in mind, what would you recommend to someone who wants to improve their overall health? 

Certainly one can learn a lot about health from the program, but I see it as more beneficial to the medical or dietary professional, who wants to refine and enhance their knowledge of diet, nutrition, and health.  I would suggest that people subscribe to the Newsletter (it's free) and get a sense of where the program is going.  It was exciting:  great knowledge to be absorbed, challenging questions, and linking up with people around the world attending the class online at the time.  They are doing some fantastic work, and I urge people to "like" them on Facebook and follow their progress.  This will, in my opinion, be a very big thing in a few years.  It's like watching a wave starting to crest- that is, plant-based nutrition and a plant-based lifestyles.

Thank you Mark! And thanks for all your hard work propelling the plant-based movement!
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