FAQ's
A wise but ignored sentence =
“Food is medicine and medicine is food.”
Hippocrates
Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates informed his medical students that illness was derived primarily from what we eat. Lifestyle and the environment were also crucial contributors to illness.
We kill animals and eat them. Then animals wind up killing us due to the diseases that result.
Our tongues LOVE sugar, fat & salt. They build up bad bacteria in our small intestine that craves more and more.
Aside from our tongue cells, the rest of our body despises sugar, fat & salt.
These cells in our bodies smile when we eat healthy. But when we ingest sugar, fat and salt, these same cells become bright red, irritated and inflamed when we ingest the avalanche of oils, creams, chemicals, dyes, found in ultra-processed foods and animals as well as their eggs and milk.
* What are the 5 plant based food categories?
Hand painted edible garden plant identifiers
nuts & seeds
legumes (beans, peanuts, lentil & chickpeas)
fruits
vegetables
whole grains
* Do doctors & teachers know about healthy foods?
Without knowledge, we cannot make informed choices.
Check out the doctors you know. Do they look healthy? Do teachers?
They look no more or less healthy than the general population. Both doctors and teachers are charged with being at the forefront of enlightenment, sharing knowledge with us in their role as leaders devoted to the service of advancing our health and education. These genuine pillars of our society, why aren’t they role models for healthy lives?
Neither teachers nor doctors are required to learn about food nutrition in school or during their post-graduate professional development. Knowing that doctors and teachers are ignorant about nutrition, can we at least rely on the government to provide reliable guidance?
Not at all. While the teachers and doctors have no knowledge, the government’s system is corrupted by corporations who provide financial inducements for scientists to enrich the food industry and neglect our health. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services invite the food industry that produces ultra-processed, nutrient-deficient, disease-promoting products to dictate the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s nutrition recommendations.
As a result, all of us are on our own to take the initiative to become informed about how to heal and feel good in our bodies through the foods we eat because we cannot rely on educators, health professionals or the government nutrition team to provide accurate information about food. The dearth of knowledge makes all of us vulnerable, so the quicker we become informed, the better.
Nutrition education is currently not a requirement when becoming a medical professional at any level in the USA. Doctors on average study nutrition for a total of 20 hours, and during that time they learn about details like the % of magnesium in an IV but never how to help patients eat for longevity, good daily health and a disease-free life.
My father, a physician, died from eating a high animal fat, high saccharine diet that resulted in hypertension, type 2 diabetes and eventually the pancreatic cancer that took his life.
My Dad was not the only healthcare worker who lacked basic preventative health knowledge. An oncologist I know said there was no relationship between diet and cancer. He covered his food in salt, so much that it looked like there was snow piled on his food. My own primary care doctor became curious about adopting a plant-based diet after he saw that my cholesterol dropped to 147 after stopping the eating of animals and animal eggs and dairy, and I reported having more energy. He asked me about the details and is considering trying a plant based diet. Before we spoke, he said he had known nothing about the benefits of eating a plant-based diet.
One active community member is living proof that a plant based diet can reverse disease and save lives. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams had severe type 2 diabetes. After visiting Dr. Esselstyn (President Clinton's cardiologist) at the Cleveland Clinic, he began eating plants only, no oil and no added sugar. He did not take ANY insulin or other diabetes medication. Within three months of his diagnosis, his diabetes was gone. His 80 year-young mother also eats a plant-based diet and has reversed her diabetes.
As I taught my 580 students about healthy eating, the teachers were frequently at the back of the room eating unhealthy foods like chips and drinking soda. As stated before, teachers are as educated or uneducated about nutrition as the rest of us. Teachers should be role models of healthy eating when they are with their students.
So the question arises, why is eating healthy not taught in schools? Why weren’t we all taught about the potential for disease reversal through a healthy diet when we are growing up so that, as parents, we are not creating generations of unhealthy food addicts? Because of ignorance, we stuff our toddlers with 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar on average each day.
Studies show that students will try new foods if they cook them. Why isn’t culinary, edible plant cultivation and nutrition education an experiential learning requirement for all students in every grade? We need to cultivate the joy of caring for the planet and ourselves in tandem.
The complete lack of nutrition education indicates that some people are benefiting from this absence of knowledge. Who derives an advantage from the teachers', doctors' & general public’s lack of knowledge? The more diseases we contract, the richer the healthcare, insurance and pharmaceutical industries become. As we eat ourselves into an early grave, profits fill pockets!
* How does plant based eating relate to our weight?
Weight is not an indicator of health. People that are over the average weight can have excellent health indicators. Conversely, plenty of underweight or average weight people have opted to ingest ultra-processed foods, resulting in being “skinny fat,” otherwise knowns as “normal weight obesity,” highly inflamed and frankly angry cells that are fed up with being charged with digesting zero-nutrient ultraprocessed foods like cured meats, cheese, snacks and soda, all crushing our cells with an avalanche of oils, creams, chemicals, dyes, rather than nutrients.
* How do I feel since I stopped eating animals and animal products?
Higher energy, sick less often, fantastically good numbers at my annual physical including lowered cholesterol, & improved digestion.
Thank you, vegan diet!
* Have I lost weight?
Yes, and I eat as much as I want, as often as I want.
* Do I ever eat added sugar?
I try to minimize sugar in my diet.
Sugar is the polar opposite of a superfood.
Added sugar (not the sugars naturally present in plants) is highly toxic for our bodies. As a substitute for animal milk, I use oat milk. For each egg called for in recipes, I use 1 Tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tablespoons of water or a powdered egg replacer.
Though we are advised to consume no more than 6-9 teaspoonfuls (24-36 grams, 4 grams = 1 teaspoon) of sugar per day, the typical American consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugars (white, agave, honey, corn syrup and 52 other terms for added sugar) per day.
Teaspoons of Sugar Content / Beverage/ Quantity
2.5 / Kombucha / 16 ounce
9/ Arizona Iced Tea with Lemon/ 12 ounces
10/ Coca Cola/ 12 ounces
The tooth decay, heart disease, & weight gain stemming from the ingestion of soda is catastrophic.
Sugars that derive from plants (“natural sugar”) are different from “added sugars” because they are better absorbed by the body.
Imagine the sticky, waxy mess that builds up in our bloodstream from so much sugar. That mess is so dense that it sticks to the walls, eventually creating grotesque blockages that look like slabs of fatty bacon on the walls of our veins, arteries and organs, including our brain’s vessels.
Maintaining clean, pink, flexible vessels in our bodies is a worthwhile life goal.
The average American child eats over 40 spoonfuls of sugar per day.
*Do I cheat?
Yes, on occasion, I will eat a vegan dessert.
* Are we designed to be herbivores or carnivores?
Our digestive systems resemble herbivores, not carnivores.
* What diseases can result from eating meat dairy and eggs?
Health problems include cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, impotence, hypertension, strokes, and type 2 diabetes.
Half of people under 18 are predicted to contract type two diabetes in their lifetimes, based on their current diet that is overflowing with added sugar, processed foods and animal products. Diabetes is a pandemic.
* 1 in 4 deaths are from heart disease, the biggest killer of Americans. One person dies every 37 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease. How is diet connected to heart disease?
In a study by Disease Reversal Royalty Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn proved that 100% of heart disease patients who adopted an oil-free, added (not plant) sugar-free, plant-based diet experienced a reversal of their heart disease. They had no heart attacks during a 5 year longitudinal study.
* How many plants do Americans eat?
Americans do not eat enough plants. Only 14% of American adults consume at least 2 servings of fruit and at least 3 servings of vegetables daily. What passes as a serving of vegetables can be french fries (hot oil is a carcinogen. Fried foods are toxic for our bodies) or apples in an apple pie.
* Why cut out dairy? This video says it all. Dairy products WEAKEN our bones by removing calcium from them. The dairy industry is no longer allowed to lie and say that milk builds strong bones. Now they claim to be a good source of protein. Animal protein is not as healthy as plant protein. Much of what we were taught about nutrition ("Milk builds strong bones.") belongs in the dustbin along with those old "cigarettes are great for your health." advertisements that we laugh at now.
* Why not eat fish? Fish are high in cholesterol, just as high as poultry or steak. Often fish and shellfish are scooped up after a detonation of a coral reef that paralyzes or kills sea life that floats to the surface. The seafood is sometimes processed by enslaved people from countries in Southeast Asia.
* And poultry? 70% of chicken meat has arsenic & 48% fecal contamination. If that’s not persuasive enough, know that chicken is bad news for our bodies.
Eating animal, eggs and dairy sparks chronic disease. Basically, I don't eat anything with eyes, except potatoes.
*What about nuts? “Your life span may be increased by two years by eating nuts regularly—one handful (or about a quarter of a cup) five or more days a week. Just that one simple and delicious act alone may extend your life."
https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/nuts/
* What is Cholesterol? A crumbled-up, waxy, blobby fat that sticks to the walls of our vessels.
All animal products are cholesterol laden foods.
Plants have no cholesterol.
* A common myth is that soy products cause cancer. Is that true?
Below is a quote from WebMD:
"In one study of more than 73,000 Chinese women, researchers found that those who ate at least 13 grams of soy protein a day, roughly one to two servings, were 11% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who got less than 5 grams.
“In Asian cultures, where people eat a lot of soy from a young age, there are lower rates of breast cancer,” Meyers says. And in those societies, people still eat soy in its traditional forms.
Meanwhile, another analysis of eight studies showed that those who got the most soy isoflavones -- about the amount in a serving of tofu - were 29% less likely to get the disease compared to those who got the least.
“As part of a healthy diet, whole soy foods are safe,” says Denise Millstine, MD, director of integrative medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ.
Is fake meat unhealthy?
The Center for Consumer Freedom is a PR group that has done work for food companies, restaurants, and other special interests including the meat industry. They spread false information, trying to portray fake meat as unhealthy. The Center for Consumer Freedom has argued against lowering the blood alcohol content to 0.08 in most states, lobbied against raising the minimum wage, and has claimed that the Centers for Disease Control was “whipping up fear over food” when it issued warnings about salmonella. The organization is pro-tobacco and said “smoking won’t kill you; over-regulation will.” The group does not care about health, just profits.
Comparing a Beyond Meat burger with a beef burger. The Beyond Meat burger has double the fiber, the same amount of protein as a beef burger, no cholesterol and is a healthier choice. Red meat is tied to some of our most prevalent chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Processed meats like sausage, bacon, and hot dogs could also increase the risk of stomach and bowel cancers.
Red meat exacerbates our climate crisis. The World Resources Institute estimates that cutting the world's beef consumption by 70% could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by around 35%.Here are the Beyond Burger ingredients: Beyond Burger ingredients: water, pea protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, contains 2% or less of the following: cellulose from bamboo, methylcellulose, potato starch, natural flavor, maltodextrin, yeast extract, salt, sunflower oil, vegetable glycerin, dried yeast, gum Arabic, citrus extract (to protect quality), ascorbic acid (to maintain color), beet juice extract (for color), acetic acid, succinic acid, modified food starch, annatto (for color). You can try the Beyond Sausage at Dunkin Donuts or buy it at the grocery store.
What are the dangers of ingesting oil?
Typically Per Pound:
Vegetables - 100 calories
Fruits - 300 calories
Oil - 4,000 calories
Dr. Esselstyn’s Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Program site discusses this very topic. Click on the following link, go to FAQs and then 4th bullet. www.dresselstyn.com/site/faq
Matt Frazier’s site No Meat Athlete has a discussion on Why I’ve Finally Stopped Eating Oil. Click on the following link to read more. www.nomeatathlete.com
Dr. Campbell’s site has an article entitled I Should Use Coconut Oil Right? nutritionstudies.org/i-should-use-coconut-oil-right/
Dr. Barnard’s site for The Physician’s Committee For Responsible Medicine has a plethora of information related to the “benefits” of oil. Type in “Oil” in the Search engine for pages of articles. www.pcrm.org
Rip Esselstyn’s (Dr. Esselstyn’s son) site has a discussion on fish oil. Click on the following link: www.engine2diet.com
Jeff Novick’s site is wonderful and full of great resources. Go to “Articles”, go to the bottom and click on Newsletter Archives and find the article entitled The Impact of “Just A Little Oil“. www.jeffnovick.com
Video clip of what your blood vessels look like after a fatty meal: click here
Oil is a carcinogen.
* Is oil unhealthy?
"NO OIL! Not even olive oil, which goes against a lot of other advice out there about so-called good fats. The reality is that oils are extremely low in terms of nutritive value. They contain no fiber, no minerals and are 100% fat calories. Both the mono unsaturated and saturated fat contained in oils is harmful to the endothelium, the innermost lining of the artery, and that injury is the gateway to vascular disease. It doesn’t matter whether it’s olive oil, corn oil, coconut oil, canola oil, or any other kind. Avoid ALL oil."
* What about coconuts?
* Does eating coconut help our skin health?
* Do certain foods need to be eaten in combinations? Is this a myth?
* Are avoiding nightshades good for our health?
* Is milk healthy?