We love drugs and have devised many ways to take them, whether it's orally, rectally, vaginally, by inhaling, intravenously or by snorting.

Prescriptions in the United States have exploded 61 percent to 3.4 billion written annually over the past decade. Pharmaceutical sales rose 250 percent over that same time frame, reaching $250 billion while the average price of prescriptions more than doubled.

We obsess over pills as well as designer conditions. When social diseases and psychological phobias potentially turn the effect of life stresses into seemingly complicated disorders, we become medical consumers rather than patients.

Disease mongering is not a new concept. Health writer Lynn Payer introduced the term in 1992 in her book Disease-Mongers: How Doctors, Drug Companies, and Insurers are Making You Feel Sick. Healthy individuals are convinced they are sick while the mildly ill elevate their malady to almost deathbed status.

While conditions like female sexual dysfunction, bipolar disorder, restless leg syndrome, social anxiety disorder, irritable bowel syndrome and balding — and their respective therapies — are under attack by healthcare consumer watchdogs, we are convinced life is unmanageable without a pill.

Need more conditions?

You can make your fortune by creating your own like Hypoactive Disorganized Identity Syndrome With Flatulence (HDISWF), Hyperactive Sexual Social Dysfunction With Incontinence (HSSDWI) or Hypoactive Dysmorphic Sleepwalking Syndrome With Constipation (HDSSWC), described as “extreme reluctance and low energy compromised by extreme unhappiness while sleepwalking, exacerbated by an uncomfortable and unnatural inability to defecate,” and patent a treatment.

It would be irresponsible not to consider the many life saving drugs and technologies that have raised U.S. life expectancy from 70 in 1960 to 78 in 2008. Having seen loved ones go through unforeseen life threatening medical emergencies, I have had to grow up quickly and come to terms with the fact that health is not something to be taken for granted. Some things are just beyond our control, grasp and understanding.

But when the top five leading causes of death include heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory diseases, it is foolish not to pay stronger attention to prevention as much as treatment, management and prognosis. Especially since for the first time in two decades, alarming rates of childhood obesity could have the effect of lowering life expectancy for the next generation.

Arguably for many, health starts with what we eat.

I do not vegan preach as I find the practice akin to religious door-to-door fundamentalists aching to convert the unsuspecting. I am not perfect and my own habits could use improvement. In this case however, the evidence is overwhelming and speaks for itself.

The typical Western diet is associated with higher rates of obesity, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Countries that have assimilated a similar lifestyle have found rates of these diseases explode.

How the world eats

Worldwide, diets can be divided into three patterns: The Oriental diet is characterized by a higher consumption of tofu and soy, the Prudent diet favors higher intake of fruits and vegetables while the Western diet consists of higher amounts of fried foods, salty snacks, eggs and meat.

The Journal of the American Heart Association noted that “people who consumed the Prudent diet of more fruits and vegetables had a 30 percent lower risk of heart attack compared to people who ate little or no fruits and vegetables.” Conversely, “people who consumed the Western diet had a 35 percent greater risk of having a heart attack compared to people who consumed little or no fried foods and meat” while “the Oriental pattern showed no relationship with heart attack risk.”

There are several organizations making efforts to change the way people eat.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) promotes preventative measures through different initiatives including advocating for nutritional reforms at the federal level. PCRM’s New Food Groups aims to redefine the basic food groups to fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains from the original four endorsed by the USDA in 1956 (meat, dairy, grains and fruits and vegetables), later changed to the food pyramid in 1992.

Meatless Mondays is an international effort to reduce meat consumption by 15 percent and lower the risk of chronic preventable diseases. Among them are cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.

Cancer

According to the World Health Organization, 30 percent of all Western cancers are directly related to meat consumption. Higher red or processed meat intake increases the risk of colorectal cancer, the fourth most common cancer in the U.S.

William Li, in his TED Talk, explains that unbalanced angiogenesis, the process that our bodies use to grow blood vessels and feed cancerous cells into tumors, can be controlled with certain foods including strawberries, parsley, soy, grapes, green tea, turmeric, garlic and others at higher potencies than drugs. "What we eat can be our chemotherapy three times per day."

Cardiovascular Disease

Animal proteins are the only source of cholesterol and generally, the main source of saturated fat in the Western diet. Vegan diets tend to be higher in fiber. Rich vegan protein and polyunsaturated fats found in nuts, seeds and vegetable oils reduces the risk of heart disease by 19 percent.

There are also documented cases of reversal of heart disease when following a low-fat vegan diet. If Rocco, the middle-aged meat-loving nothing green on his plate turned vegan cowboy can learn new tricks with the help of Dr. Oz, general misconceptions about the difficulty of vegan diets are most likely grossly overstated.

Diabetes

Higher intake of red and processed meats are associated with increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Vegan diets free of refined ingredients have also been successful in reversing the disease in some cases with added benefits that include weight-loss, lowering blood pressure and eradicating dependence on medication.

Obesity

According to an International Journal of Obesity research study on diets and body mass index, “BMI was significantly different between the four diet groups, being highest in the meat-eaters and lowest in the vegans."

In Texas, there has been almost an 100 percent increase of obesity rates from 1995 to 2009 with higher prevalence among Hispanics and alarming rates in the African-American community.

With obesity being associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer and type 2 diabetes, it is sensible to turn to prevention and diet as a means to mitigate our risk.

However, vegan diets are varied and can also be unbalanced. Taking away animal products from the dinner plate does not guarantee weight loss. Having struggled with weight control through vegan, vegetarian and omnivore eating regimes, I find have found that sensible low-fat vegan diets rich in fruits and vegetables keep you fit, lean and trim.

"Your body has a remarkable capacity to begin healing itself if you give it a chance to do so," Dr. Dean Ornish explains.

We just have to fuel it correctly.