Posts Tagged ‘reverse chronic disease’

Eight Key Questions to Ask Before Going on a Diet

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Selecting a diet is an important decision. It's worth the time to think it through and get some facts first.

And Why the Best Diet Is No Diet At All

Going on a diet is a serious decision. The eating plan you choose will impact your health, appearance, quality of life, self-image, and self-confidence. With so many diet choices, it’s easy to just go ahead with whatever is trendy or to follow the lead of co-workers, family, or friends.

You can lose weight on just about any combination of foods as long as you keep calories in check. But if you are undermining your health and metabolism in the process, you are making yourself into a time bomb for illness and future stubborn weight. Getting thinner will do you little good if your health and energy deteriorate.

With so much at stake, you can maximize your success by doing a little probing before making your choice. Here are the eight key questions that will guide you to the effective answer.

ONE. How fast will I lose weight? The answer you want to hear is “a pound or two a week.” This may sound slow to you compared to brash promises of some programs. Actually this rate of weight loss is sustainable and can be geared to fat loss (rather than the temporary water loss that is often a hallmark of rapid weight decreases). Plus cutting food intake (more…)

The Perfect Formula Diet Top 10 List of Plant-Based Happenings in 2011

Sunday, December 18th, 2011

The Perfect Formula Diet awards for plant-based happenings in 2011. The "top 10" list with 11 awards for an important year for the plant-based world.

Actually Eleven of the Top Good, Bad, and So-What Legacies of 2011

As 2011 speeds to its end, it’s time to reflect on the top events, organizations, trends, and people that will have a lasting impact on American food choices. The Perfect Formula Diet (PFD) 2011 awards point the way to making 2012 a better year for you and the planet.

THE BEST FOOD OF THE YEAR:

Kale – Kale was all over the media in 2011. This vegetable is universally recognized as dense with minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals (beneficial nutrients found only in plants), and fiber – all with barely any calories. WebMD calls kale “the queen of greens” and notes it is growing in popularity.

A recent Huffington Post blogger calls kale “the new beef.” This is way too kind to the beef industry. However, the point is that you can get all the nutrients in animal foods by eating kale, in a way that is infinitely healthier for you and the planet. Kale comes in many varieties and colors, with flat or curly leaves. You can enjoy kale raw or include it in just about anything you cook. Find this easy-to-grow powerhouse in farmers markets and supermarkets all over the country.

MOST FUN WAY TO CONSUME THE BEST FOOD OF THE YEAR:

Green smoothies– In recent years, (more…)

Whole Foods, Plant-Based Dining That Will Delight Your Taste

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Wayo traveled across Europe and worked with top chefs and macrobiotic teachers to learn to prepare delicious, healing meals

Casa de Luz Will Be an Educational, Healing Community Dining Room

Eating out can be challenging on a whole foods, plant-based diet. Of course you can find vegan food in most restaurants, but it may well be too salty, oily, high calorie, low nutrient, and unsatisfying. This is not unique to eating plant-based. So many restaurants cater to tastes that have been warped by industrialized fast food, unhealthy school cafeterias, microwaved dinners, and packaged junk snacks.

In this landscape of undesirable choices, Casa de Luz will be a notable example of how much better we can be fed. I was excited to learn that Casa de Luz, a 20 year presence in the Austin dining out scene, will be opening in San Diego. Their dining room, in a converted Salvation Army building in the North Park area, will also feature (more…)

How To Beat Depression and Look Twenty Years Younger

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Deborah and her husband Gerry enjoy some impressive banana squash they harvested

Deborah Pageau Hit Rock Bottom On Health and Found a Simple Way Out

In spreading the message that fish contains worm larvae, I posted my blog on this topic on VegSource. Deborah Pageau replied from Canada with her story of witnessing live worm larvae wriggling in a fried fish on a Friday “fish and chip”night.

I immediately wanted to know more and share Deborah’s experience. Here she generously shares how she, her husband, and her daughter eliminated a range of health problems by eating a whole foods, plant-based diet. Yes, whole – vegan junk foods are rarely (more…)

Why the Much-Hyped Weight Watchers Study Sets You Up for Disappointment

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

Can your doctor really help you lose weight? How does physician treatment compare to a commercial weight loss program?

Is the Glass 6 Pounds Full or 42 Pounds Empty?

The media have been overflowing with a recent British study that compared weight loss results of visits to a doctor vs. the Weight Watchers program. A Google search for the common headline “Weight Watchers Doubles Weight Loss” got me 2.7 million results.

This research, published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, is based on a year-long study of 772 overweight and obese adults in the UK, Germany, and Australia. About half were randomly assigned to see their doctor regularly to help them lose weight (called “standard care”), while the other half (more…)

Dead From Diabetes, Then Revived and Helping Others Thrive

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Mike Vee, dressed in black, in the days when he was eating meat and processed food and struggling with one health problem after another.

Mike Vee Is Transformed From Dead to Vigorous on a Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet

Mike Vee is an amazing Facebook friend. I always enjoyed his posts, but when I learned he died in the emergency room and then was revived, I had to know more and wanted to share his story. Mike Vee has been working as a clinical dietitian for 25 years and presently provides medical nutritional therapy through a Federally Funded Grant for people living with HIV/AIDS in Trenton NJ. He reduced the number of meds he takes from ten to zero solely with a whole foods, plant-based diet.

What kinds of foods did you grow up eating?

Growing up as third generation Italian-Americans, our home life reflected this. We would have the prerequisite spaghetti and meatballs, veal and chicken parmigiana, escarole and beans, pork chops, flounder, beef stew, hamburgers and hot dogs and TV dinners. Most of the vegetables we ate came from a can and were heated up to a point of ashen green that shouldn’t be allowed on the color wheel in the scheme of things. My mom liked to bake more than she liked to cook and our waistlines often reflected this.

What kinds of foods do you eat now?

If it is in the plant family, I’ll eat it. Suffice to say, on occasion I do tangle with (more…)

The Secret to Ditching Your Prescription Meds

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Dustin will be teaching us some much needed lessons in getting healthy without drugs

Dustin Rudolph Shares a Pharmacist’s Take On Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diets

Dustin Rudolph is a pharmacist who prefers plants to pills. His transformation began in February 2009 with a routine visit to his podiatrist, Dr. Sal. He ended up in a discussion on health care reform with this fellow medical professional. He was both confused and intrigued by Dr. Sal’s statement that legislation would really not have a fundamental impact on the nation’s health care practice.

Dustin ended up reading The China Study at Dr. Sal’s suggestion. At first the book’s plant-based diet approach seemed farfetched. Dustin had grown up in rural Montana on a diet heavy with animal foods. He’d also spent six (more…)

The Home Run Diet Knocks Out Diabetes

Saturday, June 4th, 2011

Todd after 7 months on a whole foods, plant-based diet

Todd Rosenthal Shares Recipes and Secrets of His Four-Step Eating Plan

Todd Rosenthal changed his diet “on a dime” in November 2010, plummeting his fasting blood sugar from 310 to below 100 in a month without drugs. He enjoys sharing his success as we discuss what he’s learned.

Todd ate “the Standard American Diet” growing up. His eating habits deteriorated even more when he began working as a small town journalist. Always on the go to cover the news, Todd consumed a diet he describes as “90% fat.” His favorite foods were barbecued ribs, ice cream, frozen dinners, and snack items. Later, when he switched careers to a family-owned business and then Internet sales, he continued the same food habits. Todd notes “I logged a million miles in the fast food lane.”

One visit to the doctor changed all that. In addition to his scary fasting blood sugar of 310, Todd had numbness in his limbs and extremities, low energy, and a constant grumpy mood. “If you don’t change, you won’t be here in two years,” his doctor advised.

The physician’s idea of change centered on taking lots of meds, but Todd pushed back. He researched the drug side effects and grappled with the need to take them for life.

The timing was perfect for a trip from Todd’s Florida home to visit a San Diego couple who are close friends. Tracy Childs and Steve Sarnoff are long-time vegans who advocate a whole foods, plant-based diet. Tracy gave Todd two books to read during his stay. The first was (more…)

Vegan for Almost 30 Years – And Loving It

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Dr. Wallace Sconiers, vegan almost 30 years, devotes his time to teaching others about health. I'm happy to welcome him as a San Diego County neighbor!

Dr. Wallace Sconiers Helps Others Discover Health

Dr. Wallace Sconiers has a firm handshake and energetic speech that makes you want to hear what he has to share. His youthful skin, lively eyes, and radiant health at age 61 are proof that getting older does not in any way need to equate with medical issues. I was fortunate to meet him when he came over to say hello to a group of us giving out veg literature for a meat-out event.

Vegan for almost 30 years and vegetarian for 41 years, Wallace embraces a whole foods diet. His plant-centered path started, surprisingly, on a Navy (more…)

Eleven Risky Mistakes the USDA Makes About Plant-Based Diets

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

The USDA should be teaching Americans that healthy food is also appetizing and delicious.

You’ll Need Bigger Clothes If You Follow the Government’s Advice

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched their Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 with great fanfare. Mostly, the Guidelines are more of the same wimpy advice that has been making Americans fatter and sicker for the last several decades.

The 2010 Guidelines does have a new twist, though. The USDA makes a half-hearted effort to lay out a 100% plant-based eating plan. Appendix 9 of the Guidelines is labeled “Vegan Adaptation of the USDA Food Patterns.”

What a silly task, to “adapt” plant-based eating to a framework built on animal foods that create obesity and disease. This is like writing Shakespeare by (more…)