New York City has just elected its first vegan mayor.  Eric Adams, a former police captain, ran on a campaign to restore New York to its former glory after being ravaged by the pandemic, but the fact that he’s vegan could have a big impact.  We’ve previously written about how Adams went vegan 5 years ago, while suffering from Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and he was losing his eye-sight.  Within 3 weeks of changing his diet, his vision improved.  Within 3 months, his nerve damage recovered and he has not needed to take any more medications.  With such a dramatic improvement, he has become passionate about the importance of a healthy diet.

He has previously been able to use the power of his position to share the importance of eating healthy and the benefits of a plant-based diet as widely as possible.  As the Borough of Brooklyn president, he was able to ban processed meat from schools in 2019.  In addition, in June he provided a discretionary grant of $10,000 to State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate College of Medicine, so that medical school students there could study the benefits of a plant-based diet. The money will help fund a new initiative entitled “Food as Medicine.” It will act as a supplemental program to the college’s existing nutrition courses. 

While he has many other challenges on his plate as the mayor of New York City, we look forward to watching what other changes he is able to make to encourage more plant-based eating in New York.