Laurence Girard's Personal Blog

When I was 18 years old, I made a decision that I wanted to focus on a career that would have a social impact and decided that I would go to medical school to save lives.

Shortly after this decision, I began volunteering in my local emergency room at Huntington Hospital while simaltaneously taking a nutrition epidemiology course online taught by a Harvard School of Public Health professor.

I soon realized that many of the patients coming into the emergency room had preventable conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, amputation and blindness. Many of these conditions resulted from poor diet and lifestyle. They could have prevented through improved diet and lifestyle.

I realized this because I had become interested in Dr. Dean Ornish’s work who was a cardiologist that proved you could even reverse advanced stage heart disease through diet and lifestyle changes.

I ultimately decided not to become a physician and instead became interested in public health and prevention.

Today 1 out of 3 Americans have prediabetes which means they have elevated blood glucose and have a high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in the future.

Approximately 20 years ago, the NIH funded the Diabetes Prevention Clinical Trial that found that when participants with prediabetes participated in a lifestyle modification program they could reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 58-71%: Reduction in the Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes with Lifestyle Intervention or Metformin.

This research led to the CDC developing the National Diabetes Prevention Program where there are now approximately 1,500 organizations delivering the diabetes prevention program which is the lifestyle modification program from the original trial. Most of those organizations are small community based organizations, but I started a company called Fruit Street Healththat delivers the program online through group video conferencing on Zoom with registered dietitians.

The program consists of 22 1-hour long classes on Zoom with a registered dietitian and group of other participants. We also issue participants a wireless scale so they can track their weight loss progress and they get free medically tailored meals delievered to their home. This is a video of the program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTujudQ_-zE.

We have now helped moer than 45,000 patients improve their health who have shared amazing success stories such as:

““I am a stroke survivor, there is no other option than a lifestyle as healthy as possible!”

“Not having diabetes or a stroke and to live longer.”

“Not dying from obesity or diabetes”

“My husband just had a heart attack and I have 6 grandkids”

“Loving what I see, easier time buying clothes, starting a good path for my future family”

“I hurt all the time, I’m tired of hurting due to my weight. I look so terrible in everything and I’m tired of it, I want to be able to go to the store to buy an outfit without leaving depressed because nothing either fits right or fits at all, I am not happy with my body, I try to make / eat healthy meals for supper but breakfast and lunch are my downfalls. I’m ready for some help.”

“To be fit and the prevention of Diabetes, High Cholesterol and High Blood Pressure.”

I truly believe that our healthcare system needs to focus on preventing disease instead of treating it and that’s why I have spent 10 years since 2014 working on a diabetes prevention startup.