When former President Bill Clinton walked his daughter Chelsea down the aisle, he looked trim and fit. How did he lose so much weight? The famous lover of fast food said his secret was a plant-based diet — in other words, the former president became a vegetarian, a lifestyle change he hopes will reverse his heart disease.

“I went on essentially a plant-based diet,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruits. I drink a protein supplement every morning. No dairy. I drink almond milk mixed in with fruit and a protein powder, so I get the protein for the day when I start the day out.”

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Clinton lost 24 pounds and now weighs what he did in high school. But his main reason for changing his diet was to improve his heart health. Even though he had undergone a bypass surgery in 2004 on four coronary arteries, follow-up surgery was necessary in Feb. 2010 to place stents in two clogged arteries.

“I don’t want it to happen again,” he said. “So I did all this research and I saw that 82 percent of the people since 1986 who have gone on a plant based [diet], no dairy, no meat of any kind, no chicken or turkey[...]

"I eat very little fish — once in a while I will have a little fish, not often. If you can do it, 82 percent of the people who have done that have begun to heal themselves. Their arterial blockage cleans up, the calcium deposit around their heart breaks up.”

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