The Power of Plants: One Doctor’s Mission to Fight Diabetes Through Diet

“What did you eat for dinner last night?” It’s an unusual question for a doctor to ask during an appointment, but it’s one that Dr. Bill Releford asks each of his patients. Over the last 35 years, the podiatrist has counseled countless people on how what they eat can influence their health and, in some cases, help them keep their limbs.

“The foot in particular is at risk of complications because it’s weight bearing,” says Releford. “It’s on the ground, so it’s subjected to enormous trauma. It can be easily affected by someone who has fragile circulation or diabetic neuropathy,” a condition impacting roughly a quarter of diabetic Americans.  Diabetic neuropathy can really interfere with his patient’s quality of life, Releford says, causing numbness, tingling and even an ”inability to feel pain in the lower extremity.” A healthy diet can prevent and, in some cases, reverse diabetes. That’s why diet plays such a central role to the conversations Releford has with his patients.

One of those patients is Horace Evans, who first learned of Releford almost a decade ago while watching The View. Earlier this year, Evans found himself at the Veterans Hospital concerned about one of his big toes. “My big toe was getting real dark, and I wanted to see what was going on with me,” he tells Sentient. “The first thing that doctor out there was talking about was amputation.”

Eating More Plants to Avoid Diabetic Amputation

Left untreated, diabetes can lead to a number of foot conditions — cracked skin, purple or blue toes, and sores that refuse to heal. At that point, doctors have little choice but to turn toward amputation. Releford takes a preventative approach, by advising patients to try dietary change before recommending removal.

He’s not alone. “I believe [advising clients to eat a colorful diet is] a very good approach in thinking about the nutritional value that colorful plants bring to the table,” Lena Bakovic, a registered dietician with Top Nutrition Coaching specializing in diabetes and heart health told Sentient in an email. “Generally speaking, the more brightly colored the fruit or veggie is, the more likely it is to hold higher antioxidant value and vitamin/mineral content.”

Eating foods packed with those nutrients has been linked to numerous health benefits, including increased heart health and reduced risk of diabetes. High rates of diabetes and heart disease are especially prominent in Black communities, with related health conditions made worse by systemic discrimination, according to the CDC. “The legacy in this country of medical malfeasance still resonates very loudly with the Black community,” says Dr. Releford pointing specifically to the Tuskegee experiments during which researchers lied to Black southerners about treating their syphilis in order to document the disease’s progression.

Racial disparities in health care persist to today, says Dr. Releford who focuses on reaching Black patients, who are often underserved by physicians.. “Studies have shown that white doctors tend to make less eye contact with Black patients,” he says. Research also shows “that white doctors tend to touch Black patients less than white patients.” When it comes to amputations, Black patients are also the racial demographic most likely to need surgery.

As a patient at the VA hospital, Evans felt uncomfortable with the care he received. That lack of trust is what drove him to seek a second opinion with Dr. Releford. “It’s a training ground for the interns,” he says, of the VA medical system. “That’s what they say they’re doing — they’re practicing, but you’re not gonna practice on me.” Evans was particularly hesitant surrounding the idea of surgery at the hospital. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t trust them,” he continues. He wasn’t comfortable with “being laid out on the table under anesthesia, and they can do whatever they wanna do and explain it later.”

Releford did end up having to remove the very tip of Evans’ toe, which was already dead tissue. Still, months after his first appointment with the podiatrist, Evans is thrilled to still have the rest of his foot intact.

A Focus on Variety of Color, Not Serving Size

When Releford and his patients discuss diet, the doctor doesn’t focus on portion size. Instead, he takes the discussion a step further. “Everyone talks about [how] you need to lose weight and eat better, but no one [says] specifically why,” he says. “You need to be healthy so you can be there for your children, so you can transfer wealth and transfer knowledge. You need to be healthy so you can create wealth.” It’s a point that he says resonates with many of his patients due to the persisting legacy of racial wealth inequality in the United States.

When it comes to telling his patients what foods they should be eating, Releford takes issue with how that conversation usually goes. “American Diabetes Association will tell you to eat five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables every day,” he says, before pointing out how hard it can be to determine serving size at restaurants. If you can think about eating foods in a variety of colors, Releford says, a healthy diet is suddenly within reach. “I threw the portion out of the window and say just eat by the color.”

Bakovic adds it’s important to emphasize the need for colorful produce, as many processed foods are also brightly colored. She emphasizes a diet that includes ample amounts of fruits and vegetables in their whole form, pointing specifically to the Mediterranean diet as one example of a plant-forward approach.

Eating more whole fruits and vegetables not only benefits personal health, but planetary health as well. Eating more produce comes with less emphasis on eating red meat — a central part of the standard American diet, and a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

An Organic Farm and Health at the Barbershop

In addition to his work as a podiatric surgeon, Releford also stewards the largest Black-owned organic farm in Los Angeles county, Bloom Ranch. Across the farm’s more than 250 acres, an array of produce grows, primarily in greenhouses. That produce is packaged into boxes and then shipped directly to the farm’s customers. For example, one week in October one delivery included more than 15 items with a variety of greens — kale, Swiss chard and collards — plus a “surprise item,” per the product listing. The cost: $49.99.

For Releford, it’s not just the right thing to do, but a smart business decision. “This property is presently one of the best investments I’ve ever made,” he says. When he bought the farm in 2023 for just over $3 million, he was looking for a way to do something unexpected for a podiatric surgeon — a career path he says is usually fairly straightforward and formulaic. He saw buying the farm as a way of bringing what he preaches about diet and health to life.

While Releford points to free shipping as a means of controlling costs, at $50 a pop the box is cost prohibitive for many. In LA County, 13.9 percent of people are experiencing poverty. Another barrier to fresh produce: in the state at large about a million people don’t have easy access to a grocery store. The produce boxes do come with free delivery, but Releford acknowledges the price will still be out of reach for some.  “We may not be able to be everything to everybody, because we still have to maintain a certain level of quality.” That includes ensuring the people working on the farm day in and day out receive a living wage.

There are other challenges to his work too. It’s ultimately up to the client to decide to shift their diets. Releford estimates that between 10 and 15 percent of his patients actually take his advice. For Evans that shift was an easy one. “It was like a smooth transition,” he tells Sentient. “It was like my body was looking for something better.”

Not everyone is so successful. Researchers who tracked self-reported lifestyle changes over a 20 year period found that only 5.2 percent of people improved their diets. Sticking to lifestyle changes, especially around food, is notoriously difficult. Consider the annual tradition of making New Year’s resolutions. In a study of 200 people, researchers found only 19 percent of people maintain their commitments for two years, with an even higher share throwing in the towel within the first week.

Still, Releford sees health care as more than diet or the care provided in his clinic. Through the Black Barbershop program he founded, Releford is able to broaden his reach. Black “men have died prematurely from preventable diseases, so the barbershop historically has been a safe place where men can be at ease,” he says. Releford offers screening for diabetes and blood sugar,  reaching thousands of Black men who might have otherwise never seen a doctor. In the year ahead, Releford wants to do more, creating a Food is Medicine program at the barbershop. At the barbershop, says Releford, “they can be vulnerable.” Now, they can find ways to protect their health.