Friday, July 26, 2019

We need to clarify our message

Counter productive intercene squabbling has broken out in the whole food plant based community. Many "vegans" are now ex-vegans, which confounds and irks the "true believers" who want to "save the animals", and "save the planet".

We're focusing on the wrong animals.

The term "vegan" is problematic because it does not specifically address human health. But health, physical and emotional/spiritual, is the core problem.

Healthier human cultures would be more apt to recognize and abstain from self destructive practices such as industrial scale manufacture of animals for food. We might even begin to unwind the economic "growth at all costs" paradigm that brings us ever closer to the brink of global economic collapse. The potential for an historic paradigm shift in human existence is present, but we're less effective than we could be because we're mixing our metaphors.

We use the terms "vegan" and "whole food plant based" interchangeably as if they were the same thing. Yes there is overlap, but they are not the same thing. Vegan can be a breakfast of (the registered trademarks) Fruit Loops and Pepsi, whereas whole food plant based comes directly from mineral rich non-toxic soil to your table, and is the healthiest diet for humans.

"Whole" is a critically important element in the phrase "whole food plant based", because it connotes (primarily) two things: unprocessed (whole), and nutritional sufficiency. It also connotes "whole (intact) nutrient structure" (an apple not a vitamin pill). Can you imagine a diet of only empty calorie foods? All the supplements in the world will not make make it healthy. We love science fiction, the technologic promise of convenience and "better than nature". It's the dream that does not die easy that's killing us.

Physician heal thyself. Fixing the physical-emotional-spiritual health disaster that has befallen our species makes us more effective, conscious, compassionate, and ethical. This is not a utopian dream, it's a practical potential.

We did not create Earth, it created us, and will very likely survive the end of humans whenever and however that occurs. Earth is a very sweet spot (waaay better than Mars:) ...Let's hang around for awhile.

Collectively we do not understand the rapid and profound shift in physical health and emotional/spiritual consciousness that occurs with a whole food plant based approach because we have not yet experienced it individually.

Let's work toward increased awareness by clarifying our message with a focus on human health. The animals and the planet will thank us.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Triple Play

I've been shirking my duty as a responsible blogger on health and nutrition. So today, I present a comprehensive perspective into the problem we've all had to deal with in one way or the other: why does nutrition seem so complicated? (when in fact it's really quite simple).

If you take the time to watch these three videos by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Justyna Sanders, and Dr. Pamela Popper, with an open mind, you will find clarity and overview, I promise.









Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Why is the Science of Nutrition Ignored in Medicine?

A succinct Ted Talk by arguably the most important nutrition research scientist of our time, T. Colin Campbell. Of course that's an opinion, but many feel Campbell should have received the Nobel Prize for his discovery that animal protein is a key carcinogen. But Campbell is far ahead of his time, and the Nobel is not his goal, it is the elimination of the post-industrial disease epidemic.

Science is catching up however, recently the World Health Organization has taken a step in the right direction with a survey of thousands of studies that correlate processed and red meat to cancer. Small bites are better than no bites, this information is culturally difficult to swallow. It should be noted however, Campbell's work implicates animal proteins in general as carcinogenic. We are not at the end of this story yet.

Meanwhile the backlash from industry to Campbell's work has been massive, in large part because our calorically rich nutritionally deficient food delivery system is a big and growing part of our economy. And the great irony is good nutrition, which is the primary cause of health, is not complicated in practice.

There is one overarching point to the work of Campbell and all the many other doctors, health practitioners, nutritionists, and researchers who also advocate a diet comprised primarily of whole fruits and vegetables, and that is healthy life span. We typically see statistics for total life span, but for many of us these days that includes a few decades of pain and suffering due to degraded health and vitality from cardiovascular disease (stroke, dementia, heart attack), cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions. We are led to think these are the unfortunate but normal consequences of aging, but that is simply not true. These conditions are primarily the consequence of our nutritionally deficient diet that we, unfortunately, have come to think of as "normal". And it is normal in the sense it's the prevailing condition, but it is most definitely not normal for health.

And unfortunately healthy life span is decreasing, we can see this in the obesity rates of children and young adults which is up dramatically. Obesity is the one condition highly correlated to all the post-industrial diseases mentioned above, and could be said to be a post-industrial disease itself.

Doctors would do better in leading us toward health, but their hands are tied by three conditions: nutrition is not taught by medical schools, so in many cases they are as clueless as to "the cause of health" as the rest of us, they are only compensated for treating diseases in such a way as to perpetuate the post industrial disease epidemic, and the current "economic food delivery system", the primary cause of post-industrial diseases, is completely beyond their control.

To their credit, some MDs are making an effort to influence the quality of our food, but to a person express frustration and exasperation with the intractability of the health degrading economics of food production.