Dr. Steve Hughlett has been a Clinical Pharmacist for over 30 years in the hospital setting. He has given numerous talks to healthcare professionals and enjoys learning and educating others. And now, in his new book, Your Plate is Your Fate, he teaches readers how to use food for healthcare and disease prevention.
His God-given passion has always been to help people with their health. Over the years, his research has led him to change his focus from treating the unhealthy with medications to trying to prevent them from becoming unhealthy with nutrition.
Dr. Steve Hughlett and his wife, Theresa, are on this mission together. And his book is just the beginning. The couple have also launched the Simple, Healthy Choices for Weight Loss podcast and are now offering an online course with coaching to move people toward true health and medication-free living.
He may be retired from his career in Pharmacy, but publishing a book has created more opportunities to change people’s lives than he ever thought possible. Here, he shares his background, the research that went into this book, and the process of becoming a self-published author with selfpublishing.com.
Book Title: Your Plate Is Your Fate: A Simple Guide to Understanding How Your Food Choices Lead To More and More Medications
Genre: Nonfiction, Health & Wellness
Website: drstevehughlett.com
Who did you write Your Plate Is Your Fate for?
If you are overweight and/or take medication each day, you might want to check out this book.
An ongoing prescription that needs to be refilled every single month means the medication is only treating symptoms. Poor nutrition is usually the root cause. Even worse, taking medication without changing your nutrition often makes your condition worse.
This then leads to more medications.
I want to help you break that cycle.
While most people could get something out of this book, it’s mainly for those who have diet-related health issues. Specifically, it’s for anyone…
- Who is obese
- Who is or has a risk of Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes
- Who is on medication for high blood pressure
- Who has kidney issues, Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons’, skin conditions, etc
- Who has a family history of any of these
How is the information in this book helping readers?
I’ve already had many people reach out, saying that they have read my book and/or listened to our podcast, took the advice, and are now losing weight – AND coming off medications.
This is like a dream come true for me!
One gentleman has already lost 121 pounds in 7 months. When I met him, he weighed 420 lbs and walked very slowly with a cane. He is now off two of his blood pressure medications and is weaning down his heart medication. He’s wearing a pant size that he has not worn in over 20 years.
A young mother who read my book and listened to the podcast also shared her incredible weight loss journey. She was already overweight when she got married 4 years ago. A couple of years later, she had gained so much additional weight that she could not fit into the wedding dress she wore when she was heavy. Now, she has lost 40 lbs in 4 months. She said she looks much better in her wedding dress than the day she got married.
Another reader had been treated for Parkinsons’ disease for years and did not get any relief until she read my book and made changes to her nutrition. She said her symptoms have all but gone completely away.
Share five quick lessons from your book for anyone reading this.
- The nutrition we put in our mouths has a direct link to our health or unhealth.
- If you want to be healthy, it is imperative to eat only God-made food. This includes real meat, real vegetables, and real fruit. And the fruits and vegetables must be eaten – not drunk! Avoid man-made and processed foods as much as possible.
- Almost every known disease condition has a root cause of insulin resistance and inflammation in our bodies. And the foods you eat can deeply impact the level of inflammation you have.
- All man-made and processed foods are made from plant-based foods, most of which are carbohydrates. All carbohydrates are made out of glucose, and having a continuously high blood glucose level is what causes insulin resistance.
- We have been lied to regarding how we need to eat less fat, less cholesterol, less meat, and less dairy. These are actually vital to our existence.
What is the research behind the book?
After working for 30 years as a Doctor of Pharmacy in the hospital setting, I discovered something I was not aware of. I was researching nutrition science in preparation for a talk on childhood obesity I was asked to give at the Annual Pediatric Seminar.
This is when I discovered, at the molecular level, how we can reverse almost all of the diseases and conditions we suffer from today just by changing our thoughts about what we put in our mouths. The research really helped me understand how the body uses the nutrition we eat in order to function at peak performance.
That’s when I started thinking about how sick everyone currently is.
This research opened my eyes to what was truly causing all of our diseases. It became crystal clear how focusing on medication instead of nutrition was killing us as a nation and a world.
I realized that I had been working in sick care – not healthcare as I had thought – for the past 30 years.
After giving that talk, many attendees approached me and said they loved the talk. Most had never heard this information before, and many told me I should write a book. My wife agreed. That was all I needed.
I truly want to get the word out to as many as I can. That’s the purpose of my work and this book.
I had a friend videotape my Pediatric Seminar talk.
After, my wife sent the video to a company that transcribed my talk. When I got the transcription back, I used this as the backbone of the book. I just started adding in all the things I had learned in my research but did not have the time to include in my spoken presentation.
What was the hardest part about writing and self-publishing a book?
First, I knew NOTHING about writing a book. Once the original transcription was in Word Document form, I was at a loss as to how to continue to make this into a published book. This lack of knowledge and the fear of the unknown definitely kept me from writing and publishing as quickly as I could have.
Fortunately, my wife heard Chandler Bolt being interviewed on a podcast at the same time that I was writing the book. The timing was perfect for me. So I contacted selfpublishing.com and asked for help.
I joined the Author Advantage Accelerator Elite Program and got everything I needed, including the names and contact information for great book editing and book cover designers. They also walked me through all the multiple other steps that go into successfully self-publishing a book.
Second, I was still working 60 hours a week, with 48 of them being the graveyard shift as Pharmacy Supervisor of the 2nd and 3rd shifts. I had to find and use downtime at work and at home to actually write the book.
I also could not use a jump drive due to the hospital’s regulations on personal jump drives being used on hospital computers. So I was emailing myself my own pages back and forth between work and home, trying to piece the book together – without losing what I had just worked on!
What is your favorite part about being a published author?
The best part of this whole process is realizing that this was – and has always been – my God-given passion. Without a doubt, I have the information that can truly help people decrease their weight, get off medications, and reverse conditions like type 2 diabetes, obesity, skin conditions, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, IBS, fatty liver disease, and more. And now, I had a way to actually inform others!
I feel I have helped MANY more people by publishing Your Plate Is Your Fate than I did in my previous 30 years of working in “healthcare.”
I started out thinking this meant learning about medication. But after over 30 years as a Doctor of Pharmacy, I realized that medicine is sick-care. Nutrition is health-care.
I have retired from the hospital. But I feel as if I’ve just started truly helping people get healthy, reverse their disease states, and get OFF medications. I feel I am right where I need to be.
The other thing this process did was empower me. I now have the courage to do other things on this newfound path to health education. I started a health podcast called Simple, Healthy Choices for Weight Loss. I have also given presentations for large communities like Take Off Pounds Sensibly (T.O.P.S.), and SugarAddiction.com with their “The Kick Sugar Summit”, and others around the country.
And I have more to come!
So, what is next for you and the book?
After getting our podcast up and running (we just launched weekly episode 102!), my wife and I began working on a digital 8-week program that walks someone through each of the steps needed to become healthy and medication-free. Throughout the program, we also transform their thinking and beliefs from what we have all been told by food companies and drug companies to what is true, healthy nutrition, according to the massive amount of true nutrition science research out there.
I worked hard to explain in very simple terms – but on the molecular level – exactly WHY various types of food we put in our mouths can either lead to extremely poor health and multiple disease states or can lead to very high-quality health, free of disease.
My wife focused on the mindset side of health. If you want to change the results you are getting with your health, you must first change your thoughts.
The final program will include three options for students. They’ll have an option to go through the program by themselves and at their own pace, an option to do it with a Facebook community, and an option to do it with our one-on-one coaching support.
Finally, I am also planning to give some TEDx talks after the program is up and running. Then, we’ll see what comes next!
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