You can pay a lot of money for turkey labeled as “organic” or “sustainable,” but there is no evidence this reduces the health risks of eating poultry
Chicken and Turkey Are Health Risks All Year Long
Turkeys are the routine centerpiece of many holiday meals, while chickens are a common “main course” for everyday dinners. Yet when you look closely at poultry, the health dangers may surprise you, and (more…)
More and more people are choosing veggie burgers over animal foods, for better health, superior taste, and kindness to animals and the planet
Three Simple Tips to Find the Best Ones
Veggies “meats” are plant-based versions of chicken, fish, burgers, and other animal foods. These foods are soaring in popularity, as more and more people are cutting way back on how much meat they eat, but are looking for convenient substitutes for their usual menu items.
The healthfulness of veggie meats depends on two things. The first is your point of view. Are you comparing these foods to (more…)
Charlie and Melody Fish have achieved amazing health improvements in just ten months on a whole foods, plant-based diet. Here they are in November 2013.
Charlie and Melody Fish Find A Plant-Based Diet Beats the Perfect Health Storm
Charlie Fish used to gasp for breath after walking a few feet. Now he can walk a couple of miles with no problem. Charlie shared his remarkable recovery story with me when I met him and his wife Melody at a Wellness Forum Conference in November 2013.
I asked Charlie how he used to eat before finding health on a whole foods, plant-based diet. “I grew up in Toledo, Ohio. My father had three restaurants, and let’s just say the family was well-fed. I was raised on meat, potatoes, gravy, and Hungarian food. I ate meat three times a day for my whole life, and saw nothing wrong with it. I was a ticking time bomb, and then it exploded.”
He continued “I was supposed to have foot surgery so was getting a pre-surgery EKG. The nurse mumbled something and left the room for 90 minutes. She came back and apologized. Something was very wrong with my EKG but even the cardiologist she had look at it did not know exactly what. I had a heart catheterization the same day. During the procedure I was drugged but still conscious. I heard one doctor say to another “What do you think about stents?” The other doctor just laughed. I knew then I was in big trouble.”
Just as he feared, (more…)
Just as small patches of snow melt in spring, chronic illness can vanish with a whole foods, plant-based diet
Doctors Terry Mason and Baxter Montgomery Are Bright Hopes in a Failing Health Care System
The June 23, 2013 conference Healthy Taste of the South Bay, gave two top physicians the chance to share compelling visions for transforming the health of thousands of ill patients, not to mention the model that the medical system uses to approach chronic disease.
DR. MASON’S VISION
Dr. Terry Mason, CEO of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, leads the third largest public healthcare system in the country. He is also a practicing urologist and one of the clinical stars of the documentary Forks Over Knives.
Dr. Mason’s vision is the Center for Total Health at Oak Forest, which would be a multipurpose health center using an evidence-based wellness-care delivery system to treat chronic illness and bring health to an underserved population. The physical foundation of his vision is (more…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
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…)
