Posts Tagged ‘cardiovascular disease’
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
Robb and Amy enjoy a delicious, hearty dinner a few months after adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet
Robb Trexler Loves His Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet
Most people I’ve known who have moved from a standard American diet to a whole foods, plant-based diet have taken some time to make the transition. For me, it took about four years. While a slow transition works for many, Robb Trexler and his lovely wife Amy show that transforming food choices can happen rapidly, with permanent success.
Robb, a 64 year old nurse, Marine Corp veteran, and Clinical Data Analyst for the Open Heart Program at Scripps Memorial Hospital, is a San Diego friend I love to spend time with. He lives enthusiastically, being sweetly devoted to his wife and family, not to mention his favorite teams. He switched to a vegan diet with (more…)
Tags: Amy Trexler, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, getting healthy, lose weight, making a difference now, Plant-based nutrition, reverse chronic disease, Robb Trexler, San Diego Veg Week, weight loss, whole foods, whole foods plant-based diet
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Sunday, March 17th, 2013
You know your lungs are vital for breathing. Think of them also as a point of exchange between you and your environment. What are you bringing into your body?
Give a Wide Berth to These Four Enemies of Air Quality
Your lungs are an entryway to your body, a site where you literally take in your environment. Millions of tiny air sacs in your lungs have walls only one cell thick. The oxygen necessary to life diffuses into your blood across this cell layer, and carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, diffuses out to be eliminated from your body. This exquisite design is fundamental to life, and blocking it for only a few minutes will result in death.
Modern indoor and outdoor air pollutants are intruders hijacking this process, leading to premature death, disability, and damage that crosses generations. Microscopic pollutant particles and gases can cross the one cell layer of your air exchange sacs and enter your blood, from there carried throughout your body to cause widespread damage.
Other particles remain lodged deep in your lungs, provoking serious respiratory inflammation and harming your ability to get the oxygen needed for survival. Your lungs are structured to function in clean air, so don’t (more…)
Tags: air pollutants, air quality, barbecue, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, environmental degradation, fragrance, getting healthy, grilling, PAH, particulate matter, Plant-based nutrition, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, secondhand smoke, traffic exhaust, whole foods plant-based diet
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Sunday, March 3rd, 2013
Dave’s Killer Bread, fresh out of the oven. Every time I see this picture, I want to grab a loaf.
Bob’s Red Mill and Dave’s Killer Bread Take Whole Grains From Field to Your Lunch
Unlike the political capitol of the US, impressive health flows from Milwaukie, Oregon, the whole grain capitol of food fans. Or at least this food fan. What are whole grains? Simply the seeds of certain grasses. Whole grains, a key part of whole foods, plant-based diets, lower your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and help you stay thin. Ridiculous denials of extensive scientific research by animal foods industries and advocates do not change the basic biological facts.
I was in whole grain heaven the day I visited the headquarters of Bob’s Red Mill and Dave’s Killer Bread. Their two facilities, only minutes apart in Milwaukie (near Portland), are united by (more…)
Tags: Bob's Red Mill, cardiovascular disease, Dave's Killer Bread, diabetes, lose weight, Plant-based nutrition, Sin Dawgs, whole foods plant-based diet, whole grains
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Sunday, February 3rd, 2013
You no longer need to wonder whether the chicken or the egg came first. They are interchangeable. An egg is a disassembled baby bird just waiting to form into a miraculous being.
It’s Not Just the Cholesterol That Scrambles Your Health
One of my most stomach-churning childhood experiences was cracking an egg for cooking and finding a partially formed chick fetus inside. I screamed in horror and threw it in the trash. No one else was in the kitchen with me. I learned at that point that it’s pointless to ask “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
In fact, chickens and eggs are interchangeable. An egg is a disassembled chick, since everything needed to form the baby bird is inside the egg. The shell forms (more…)
Tags: cardiovascular disease, cholesterol, diabetes, eggs, getting healthy, lose weight, nutrition facts, Plant-based nutrition, salmonella, whole foods plant-based diet
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Sunday, December 16th, 2012
Your choices significantly determine whether you will go over the health cliff that fills so many lives with pain and limitations
The Health Cliff Is Way More Treacherous Than Any Fiscal Politics
The drama of the “fiscal cliff” is riveting the country. Even when a political deal stops the threat of abrupt tax hikes and deep spending cuts, more battles over finances are sure to rock Congress for years to come, so the core issues will remain hot long after January 1, 2013.
While the fiscal issues are major news, the media spends little time focusing on the health cliff, which is a looming catastrophe for most Americans. You have the choice to make this most personal drama play out (more…)
Tags: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, fiscal cliff, Forks Over Knives, getting healthy, health cliff, Perfect Formula Diet, Plant-based nutrition, reverse chronic disease, The China Study, Vegucated, whole foods plant-based diet
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Friday, November 2nd, 2012
Dr. Don Wagner broadcasts 5 days a week for an hour each day with top-notch guests. You can hear him anywhere with the show archives on the web.
Dr. Don Wagner Heeded “Physician Heal Thyself,” and Now Guides Patients with a Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet Plan
Childhood was a health disaster for Don Wagner. Born with cardiac issues, including a hole in his heart and arrhythmias, he started life on medications and hospitalizations.
At age 4, he tumbled off a three story balcony in New York City, his childhood home. Paralyzed on his left side, he spent 6 months in a hospital with doctors helpless to get him to recover. Finally, still unable to move the left side of his body, (more…)
Tags: Bullhead Urgent Care Center, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Don Show, Dr. Don Wagner, getting healthy, Plant-based nutrition, reverse chronic disease, vegan radio show, vegetables, whole foods plant-based diet
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Saturday, September 15th, 2012
Early cave men did not look like this, and they did not eat the Paleo diet either. But good myths are hard to get rid of.
Still Another “High-Protein” Diet Threatens Your Health
The Paleo Diet can hook you with its story. This “cave man” diet promises to reunite you with your ancestors from 2.5 million years ago through the simple act of eating meat. In this complex era of busy lives and disconnected community, this is an appealing picture. Agriculture, which began 10,000 years ago, is the story’s villain, supposedly leading people away from the hunt to an unnatural diet.
Loren Cordain, PhD and professor at Colorado State, launched the Paleo Diet with his book of the same name. This restrictive eating plan forbids all grains, potatoes and legumes (peas, lentils, beans) as well as dairy and processed foods (including processed meats). You eat all you want of meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit. Bone marrow, animal organs, and meat from wild animals are all on the menu.
The book represents that you can cure just about any chronic illness, from heart disease to cancer, by eating this way because it would match the way your distant ancestors ate for over two million years. You are also supposed to (more…)
Tags: African savannah, cardiovascular disease, cave man diet, diabetes, human evolution, lose weight, nutrition facts, Paleo diet, Paleo diet dangers, Plant-based nutrition, Smithsonian, whole foods plant-based diet
Posted in Plant-based nutrition | 3 Comments »
Thursday, August 23rd, 2012
Whole grains are lovely as they grow. You can clearly see in this picture that the grains of wheat are seeds that form in a cluster on a grassy plant.
A Seed by Any Other Name is Still a Seed
Real world studies of what people eat show, over and over again, that if you consume whole grains you will be healthier and thinner. Yet outlandish statements in the popular media, and even “nutrition” books, may keep you from enjoying and benefitting from these most basic of all foods. When you know the facts, you won’t deprive yourself.
Whole grains are seeds. You might hear silly statements such as “Whole grains are not healthy, but quinoa is because it’s a seed.” If you hear anything like this, you know whoever is telling you knows zero about plants or nutrition, and you can boost your health by tuning out.
Another mundane myth is that people did not start to eat whole grains until these plants were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Why would people have gone to all the trouble of deliberately cultivating a plant that they never ate before? Were our ancestors that misguided? The truth is that people ate wild grain seeds long before they started to plant them. In some parts of the world, wild grains still (more…)
Tags: barley, cardiovascular disease, corn, diabetes, fiber, getting healthy, lose weight, nutrition facts, oats, phytochemicals, Plant-based nutrition, quinoa, reverse chronic disease, rice, weight loss, whole foods, whole foods plant-based diet, whole grains, whole wheat
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Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Getting older does not have to mean slowing down.
Six Ways Whole Foods Fuel Long and Active Years
An enjoyable retirement is a great American dream. People save up financially for decades, often planning to spend retirement traveling, with family, and fulfilling long-postponed goals.
The sad fact is that many have their retirement kidnapped by poor health. Americans with Medicare see an average of seven different physicians in a year. Even at age 55, more than half of people have more than one chronic health condition. These medical problems vacuum up money needed for more fun and meaningful activities. The pain and disability of illness are potent barriers to desired activities and quality of life. Yet much of this suffering can be avoided and even reversed.
Whole plant foods are healthy life span enhancers that work together as a powerful team. Here are six reasons why.
• Protective phytochemicals
• Perfectly packaged nutrition (more…)
Tags: aging, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, getting healthy, longevity, phytochemicals, Plant-based nutrition, whole foods plant-based diet
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Saturday, January 14th, 2012
Lynne Morrissey is now thriving on a whole foods, plant-based diet.
Lynne Morrissey Sheds $300 of Monthly Medical Costs Along with 111 Pounds
Lynne Morrissey is a Facebook friend with an inspiring story of survival against heavy genetic odds. Lynne, who lives near St. Louis, Missouri, just turned 50 and has four adult children. She is sharing her achievements so she can show others to never give up. Health is just a forkful away.
Lynne has a frightening family history. She lost her Dad to a heart attack when he was only 33 and she was 3. Even as a normal-weight child, she had cholesterol levels over 200, as did both her brothers. The young siblings were put into a diet and cholesterol study. Her older brother was started on an experimental medication and told to eat margarine. Tragically, none of the medical interventions worked. He died of a massive heart attack at age 35. His cholesterol was over 600. Several other family members on her Dad’s side suffered severe heart disease.
Lynne was fatalistic. “I believed there was nothing I could do, that I was (more…)
Tags: cardiovascular disease, getting healthy, lose weight, Lynne Morrissey, weight loss, whole foods plant-based diet
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