In 2016, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams fought his type 2 diabetes diagnosis by adopting a plant-based diet. Now, as the presumptive next mayor of New York City, he plans to bring his constituents along on his "healthy at last" journey.
"It's important to change our healthcare system from being sick care to health care, and there's no greater impact in doing that than to look at how we are feeding the crisis on a governmental level. Built into my response is to introduce a whole-food plant-based diet to everyday New Yorkers…We're going to start transitioning to a healthier lifestyle," Adams told Medscape Medical News in an interview.
Adams, who was a police captain and then a state senator prior to becoming Brooklyn Borough president in 2013, won the NYC mayoral Democratic primary in June 2021 and is widely expected to win the general election on November 2.
In October 2020, he published a book, Healthy at Last, chronicling his journey from unhealthful eating habits when he was a cop, which followed him into elected office, to his life-changing decision to adopt a completely plant-based diet after receiving a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in March 2016, at the age of 56.
