This statement holds more truth than most people realize.  Think about most advertisements for food on TV...Mc Donalds, Burger King, sugary cereals, sugar-laden soft drinks, cookies, etc.  There is nothing healthy about of these "foods" and yet, Mc Donalds, Burger King and the other food industries are multi-million dollar organizations.  People spend their money on these "food products" without even thinking twice about it, and they are getting noting in return for their money EXCEPT obesity and sickness.  

Unfortunately, there are no commercials for whole fruits and vegetables giving us all the reasons why we should be eating broccoli, asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms, green leafy vegetables, apples, oranges and bananas just to name a few.  Why?  We all know the answer to this...the almighty dollar.  Organizations like Mc Donalds can well afford to advertise on TV...but who will advertise for broccoli and green leafy vegetables?  Even though they are some of  the most nutritious foods we can be eating to prevent disease and restore health, this information is not readily available like the Dollar Menu is.  

I truly do believe this is why so many people are just so confused on nutrition today.  When it comes to healthy eating and getting information on nutrition, what is being advertised on TV and radio, billboards, etc., is NOT benefiting anyone EXCEPT the people doing the advertising.....they are getting richer and richer while the American public continues to get fatter and sicker.  Americans are more overweight and have more illnesses now than ever before in history.  

However, the GOOD NEWS is, YOU can CHANGE your health right now....today!  First, all you have to do is get yourself in the right frame of mind.  Once you decide that you are sick and tired of feeling SICK AND TIRED and you must do something different because what you are doing now IS NOT WORKING, you are on your way.  Once you DECIDE to MAKE some CHANGES, you are half way there.  

As I have discussed in previous blogs, you can do this by taking baby steps such as one meal at a time, or make changes one day at a time, or, jump in with both feet and make MAJOR changes.  Whatever strategy fits your lifestyle will be the right one for you.  The 'baby step" approach might be to eliminate artificial and processed foods, so this would be something like eliminating soda completely....no more Pepsi or Coke...and then the following week eliminate chips and packaged cookies....etc.  My rule for processed foods is read the label, if it has more than 5 ingredients and there are ingredients you can't pronounce let alone know what they are, do not buy it.  Or, if high fructose corn syrup is in that ingredient list, PUT IT BACK!  Once all processed foods are eliminated, then the next step would be to eliminate the next culprit--MEAT.  

Now eliminating meat may take some people a little while to conquer...but believe me, once you have achieved this, you will FEEL the difference.  One of the first symptoms to disappear is HEARTBURN or acid reflux.  Imagine not having to take any medication to relieve those symptoms?  So many people just do not realize that meat creates an extremely acid environment inside us...it's not the spicy foods that 'cause' heartburn, spicy foods will 'aggravate' the symptoms...the main cause is animal products.  Of course, meat also provides us with artery-clogging  saturated fat and cholesterol, not to mention all the hormones and antibiotics we get as by-products.  

Then step 3 would be to eliminate dairy...personally I found this to be the hardest part.  I think the majority of females have a hard time giving up dairy and most men have a hard time giving up meat.  Not only will dairy give us the saturated fat and cholesterol that meat will, (many nutritional experts refer to dairy products as LIQUID MEAT!), but the protein in dairy is called 'casein'.....CASEIN FEEDS CANCER CELLS AND PROMOTES TUMOR GROWTH.  Yes, that is a PROVEN FACT! 

I know it's hard to believe because we were raised  believing dairy is one of the most healthy food groups you can eat and drink....of course, that information comes straight out of the mouths of the DAIRY INDUSTRY'S brilliant marketing department.  Yes they have nutritional "experts" that sit on their Boards along with very powerful lawyers that know just how to "word" the information we are bombarded with.  So how come we all know that "milk gives us strong bones", (myth), but most of us have never heard of the word 'casein' and how it FEEDS cancer cells??  And we wonder WHY cancer is so "common" today.

No matter how you want to change your eating habits, either taking baby steps or by jumping in with both feet....it doesn't matter....what's important is you take the FIRST STEP.  You can start with eliminating a group of foods at once, or maybe just one certain thing at a time.  Whatever works for you will be the right way.  If it seems overwhelming in the beginning, do NOT get discouraged....take one step at a time.

If you are a person that is all or nothing, start today with eating oatmeal with fruit for breakfast, at lunch have a veggie wrap with a side cup of vegetable soup and a piece of fruit, for a mid-afternoon snack have another piece of fruit or a small amount of nuts, and then for dinner have whole-wheat pasta loaded with vegetables and marinara sauce, a large green salad, and if you want dessert, a thick, rich, creamy smoothie made with Almond milk, ice, frozen berries and a banana with a sprinkle of 100% cocoa----you just ate a complete day's meals without anything artificial or processed, AND, there is no meat or diary products included in anything you ate!  It is really that simple.

If you need help transitioning over to a Whole Food Plant Based diet, please let me know....I would love to help you get your health back....

No one should be drinking another species milk...that's right...no one should be drinking cow's milk, unless you are a calf.  If you are anything like me, I was raised on milk....we had milk with all three meals EVERYDAY.  Our choices of beverages were milk or water.  Period.  We are bombarded with all kinds of reasons that we must drink milk to be healthy, such as it gives us strong bones and teeth.

What the dairy industry does not want us to know about is all the PUS that's floating around in that glass of milk you are about to drink.  That's right, PUS!!  Let me tell you how this happens:

It is very common for cows to develop staph-infected udders due to the annual cycles of artificial insemination, pregnancy and birth, and mechanized milking for 10 out of 12 months.  This excessive drain overburdens the cows who are considered productive for only two years and then are slaughtered for hamburger when their "money-making" abilities drop, around their fourth birthday.  This is a small fraction of a cow's natural lifespan.

Turning cows into milk machines has led to epidemics of "production-related" disease such as lameness and mastitis, (udder infections), the two leading causes of death in cows here in the United States.  Remember that Humane Society's investigation showing sick and crippled cows being beaten and dragged into the California diary cow slaughter plant to be used in the national school lunch program?  That triggered the biggest meat recall in history.  The cows were so crippled due to the extreme manipulation for unnaturally high milk yields.

Because mastitis is now an epidemic in cows here in the US, the dairy industry continues to DEMAND that American milk retain the HIGHEST ALLOWABLE pus cell concentration in the world!!  So these pus cells are sloughed off from the udders going right into the milk.  The average pus cell count in US milk per SPOONFUL is 1,120,000.  ARE YOU KIDDING???

Oh, but don't worry....the dairy industry points out that accumulation of pus is a natural part of an animal's defense system.  So, pus itself might not be such a bad thing, but do you want pus from a cow's udders in your mouth?  However, the US dairy industry insists that there is no food safety risk.  If the udders of our factory-farmed dairy cows are inflamed and infected, it doesn't matter---the milk gets pasteurized--the pus gets cooked. 

But, just as some people don't want to feed their children chicken that is covered in fecal matter even though it will be cooked, (remember from one of my previous blogs, the majority of chicken is covered in feces),  they might not want to feed their children pasteurized pus.  Instead, drink a plant-based milk like Almond Milk.  I can't tell you how many people come back to me and tell me they prefer Almond milk over cow's milk....not to mention, you don't have to worry about pus cells floating around in your glass!

Let's not even get into the fact that the protein in all dairy products is casein--casein FEEDS cancer cells.....

The good life is killing us.  Chronic diseases, that is diseases without a cure have managed to become our "norm".  But, not without a cost.  Here are just two disturbing statistics:  

• 75% of our national $2.5 trillion health care budget is spent on chronic disease...that's $7010 per person.

Car manufacturers are spending more on health care costs than the steel that goes into their cars.

Our current high-tech medicine used to treat these chronic Western Killer Diseases is no longer sustainable.  BUT, there is HOPE--by teaching people to make lifestyle changes to prevent, stop and reverse these chronic diseases.  People everywhere can live not only a healthy life, but the "Best Life".

What you eat affects all aspects of your being--probably more than anything else you do.  Food can cause disease or prevent and reverse it.  When you eat junk, you aren't nourishing your body, just your waistline.  

The problem is, we are being "educated" by the food industry in regards to nutrition.  That is very scary!  Their main goal is to make money...they don't care if their "food" is healthy or not...it just needs to taste good so people buy it and lots of it.  Another goal of the food industry is to make food fast and convenient for people...no need to cook or be tied up in the kitchen.  They provide "meals" that come in a box...just follow the directions on the package and dinner will be on the table in a matter of minutes.  Quick, easy, and  hardly any mess to clean up....nutritional value....practically nothing!  Unfortunately, this way of eating has become the "norm".  

We have to take control over our own health, and we can do this very, very simply--by the foods we choose to eat.  I know I say this repeatedly, but it has been proven over and over again!  Because it sounds so simple, people tend to listen half-heartedly.  We are programmed to listen to the advice of physicians on how to be healthy, but unfortunately, the majority of mainstream physicians are just not educated in nutrition---they are trained to diagnose a disease and prescribe the medication to "handle" the symptoms.  

We have it all backwards!  Our goal should be to prevent the disease from beginning in the first place...and this is very doable.  There is so much research available proving what a HEALTHY diet (Whole Food Plant Based) can do for our body. Not only will a WFPB diet prevent disease from starting, it has the power to STOP a disease from continuing and many times REVERSE the damage that has already taken place.  This can be accomplished with REAL FOOD, no medication required.

So, go to the grocery store and fill your cart up with REAL food found in the produce section...food that have no ingredient lists stuck on them such as leafy greens (lettuce, spinach, kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, etc.), red, yellow, orange and green bell peppers, zucchini, squash, eggplant, mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, onions, garlic, green beans, asparagus, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, butternut squash....and we haven't even touched on fruit yet!  Bananas, all kinds of varieties of apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit, grapes, cherries, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe.....the list goes on....

When you fill your cart with every color of the rainbow, you will be feeding yourself with so MANY different antioxidants, vitamins and minerals found only in plant foods, disease will not have a fighting chance.  Take control of your health right now--get rid of the foods that are causing us to become fat, sick and tired (processed foods, meat and dairy), and replace these foods with vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, beans, nuts and seeds.  

I am here to tell you, not only can you rid yourself from disease, get off medications, and have more energy than you ever thought possible, but the "side effect" from eating a WFPB diet is WEIGHT LOSS.  The weight will just come off naturally...by eliminating the foods that not only cause disease and "feed" disease, but makes us fat, we get our health back....and really it is as simple as that....I get to witness this everyday with the people that have decided to dramatically change their eating habits and follow a WFPB diet.

And believe me, once you get to "feel" good again, there is no turning back......

My passion is to help people change their lives with nutrition...there is nothing I would rather be doing.  Every free minute I have, I am pouring over the latest research that's available in regards to nutrition.  

Over this past weekend, I came across a physician in Michigan that had to change her diet completely around to save her own health, and is now saving the lives of her patients with nutrition.  The physician's name is Mary Clifton, MD, who not only has her own private practice, but conducts studies out of Michigan State University on a Whole Food Plant Based diet.  She went to her own primary care physician for a regular check up, and when her lab work came back, she was shocked to say the least.

Mary's cholesterol was well above the "normal" 200 range and her blood sugar was very elevated.  All the men in Mary's family either had bypass surgery in their 40's or they died before the age of 45.  However, Mary thought she was eating a very healthy diet as compared to most Americans. She typically ate cereal with milk in the morning, yogurt or cheese for a mid-morning snack, lunch consisted of a huge salad topped with chicken breast, another yogurt for an afternoon snack, and for dinner some sort of meat, poultry or fish with a vegetable.  

When Mary spoke with her physician about her diet, he agreed that she was eating "healthy" and would absolutely need to take a cholesterol-lowering drug to bring her cholesterol down, and maybe a "small dose" of another drug for her blood sugar.  Mary really wasn't too excited about taking either drug because of the side effects, AND, she knew she would be taking them for life.  At this point, Mary was in her late 30's.  

So, she decided to go over as much information regarding diets as she could get her hands on.  After spending many, many hours researching, she decided she AND her family would be eating a Whole Food Plant Based diet.  Period.  Mary became a "vegan" overnight.  She ate absolutely no animal products at all...no meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, etc.  NOTHING!  Her family transitioned a little slower than she did, but she went cold turkey. 

Mary will tell you very honestly, it was very hard for her to do this, BUT, she states, it was the MOST VALUABLE thing she ever did.  In her opinion, you have to get your mind set on doing something like this....once you make your mind up to take a challenge such as this, half of the battle is won.  She started buying all different kinds of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole-grains, nuts and seeds.  She made all kinds of new and different recipes.  What Mary realized was, like most Americans, we tend to eat the same 7-9 meals everyday, every week.  She was feeding her family these new dishes and eventually, no one was eating animal products anymore, her children included!

Mary's lab numbers dropped dramatically, her weight dropped, her skin cleared up, her GI issues disappeared and her energy soared.  Now, as her first approach to treating her own patients, Mary discusses their diet.  She had an 82 year old woman say to her, "Are you asking me to try a vegan diet?"  Mary said yes to her, and the woman responded, "OK, I will try it".  It was as easy as that!  The woman changed her diet completely, (at 82!!), and was able to stop her cholesterol medication completely and come off of half her blood pressure medications.  This patient is 85 years old now and still going plant-strong.

The point I am trying to make is, if an 80 something year old person is willing to change their diet, ANYONE can do this if you make your mind up.  Eating this way is a lifestyle change, it's not a diet that has a start date and an end date...it doesn't work that way.  This is not only a "diet", (I hate that word), for weight loss, it is a diet that will GIVE you SUPERIOR HEALTH!  Eating a WFPB diet will give your body ALL the ammunition it needs to "fight off" all the bad stuff, it will nourish your body with all the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants it needs to repair the damage that has been done, and it will CURE so many chronic illnesses.....There is not a pill on the market that has that KIND OF POWER.

So, if you want superior health, no more excuses.....it's summertime and I want to barbeque, there are too many summer parties, weddings, and events I have to attend......there will ALWAYS be something to go to and there will always be upcoming holidays....that doesn't matter!!!  If you want to change your HEALTH, the time is RIGHT NOW.  By learning how to substitute animal products and processed foods with much healthier food choices, the results you will get in a matter of weeks will astound you!

What are YOU waiting for?

For way too long, there's been a myth that athletes just could not sustain their endurance by eating a plant-based diet.  The great "thinkers" were OK to eat a plant based diet, like Leonardo da Vinci, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Mahatma Gandhi to name just three. Also, the extremely successful business executives, like Bill Ford, (Ford Motor Company's executive chairman), Russell Simmons, (hip-hop impresario), Biz Stone, (Twitter Inc. co-founder), Mort Zuckerman (media mogul), Steve Wynn, (Mr. Las Vegas), and John Mackey (Mr. Whole Foods), and many more are following a plant-based diet.

What do all of these successful people know about a plant-strong lifestyle that 95% of Americans don't?  They know the power of whole plants control their health destinies.  They don't want to play Russian roulette by eating meat, dairy and refined garbage. 

Now, what about the athletes?  Well, how about Tony Gonzalez, former Kansas City Chiefs tight end, and currently on the  Atlanta Falcon's team.  He read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell in 2007 and with some help from  a plant-eating coach, he broke the record for both touchdown receptions by a tight-end and career receptions by a tight end by the end of the 2007 season.  

What about Rip Esselstyn, author of The Engine 2 Diet?  He states that he made the leap from a meat-weak diet to a plant-strong diet in 1987 when he decided to become a professional triathlete.  Plants gave him an abundance of phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, protein and water to support his body in its recovery phase after training and racing.  He would train 4-8 hours a day and he states plants protected him from the stresses of this type of endurance.  He believes plants gave him arteries and vessels that were youthful and elastic, improving blood flow to working muscles for killer oxygen uptake and a strong immune system that kept him healthy and free from illnesses.  Plants gave him a lean body and a muscular body that was perfect for slicing through the water, pedaling efficiently on a bike and running like the wind.  

During the first hour of exercise, carbs provide half of the energy your body consumes.  The harder you push, the more carbs you use.  The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends that athletes base 70% of their diets on this type of plant food, focusing especially on complex-carbs, the whole-grains and starchy vegetables.  

Fat is your backup source of energy.  Along with glycogen, your body metabolizes fatty acids for fuel, especially after the first hour of exercise.  If you don't have enough, your engine will start to sputter.  This is where most people turn to meat without thinking about what they are putting into their body.

At the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, the endurance athletes that are following a high-carb, low-fat diet perform longer than those on a high-fat, low-carb diet.  They get their fat from healthful whole-food sources like avocados, olives, oats, nuts and green leafy vegetables, (YES, green leafy vegetables have about 9-11 percent healthy fats!).

The amount of protein athletes need is actually quite small, about 10-12% of their total calories, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.  No one recommends that any athlete, even strength-training ones, eat more than 2 gr of protein per day for every 2.2 pounds of body weight.  Remember, you can get all you need from leafy greens, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds.  The Nevada state government recommends that even boxers get their protein from vegetable sources rather than meat.

Rip Esselstyn says that athletes should think of their body like a car.  If you put in premium fuel, it will run longer and better than on economy unleaded.  Meat isn't premium fuel.  Meat comes with a lot of baggage that isn't doing you any favors.  Athletes on a plant-based diet are generally advised to eat 3000-6000 calories a day. 

You might consume more calories than meat eaters, but a full tank of premium beats a quarter-tank of economy any day!

Does this sound healthy to you?  Racks of lamb....platters of fish...bottles of red wine.....salads loaded with feta cheese...vats of yogurt...ladles of olive oil.  Most Americans would say "YES" to these foods...the so called Mediterranean diet.  Someone spread the word that this diet was the healthiest diet to eat for longevity, excellent health, etc.  The fact is, there is NO REAL Mediterranean Diet.  The food industry, (once again), concocted this "idea"...there is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year branding business that comes up with this sort of thing, uses "faulty research" to sell their idea, and then  they have brilliant marketing ideas to get people to "buy-in" on this sort of concept.  

Let's start with the facts.....there are more than 20 countries that border the Mediterranean Sea, and they all have completely different diets.  Some use olive oil, some don't.  Some eat fish, some don't.  Some devour feta cheese, some don't.  Some drink alcohol, some don't.  There are Mediterranean "diets" that these people eat, but there is no ONE Mediterranean diet.  These people may have some foods in common--lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of fresh produce, and little or no meat.  But, these diets vary drastically in other ways.  

Unfortunately, one of the GREATEST MYTHS that came out of all this is that olive oil is heart healthy....this is one of the WORST LIES we have been told!  We really should have paid more attention to the data before making such a hasty decision regarding olive oil.  It's oil....it clogs our arteries...oil is oil is oil.  There is no getting around it.  

Take a look at a "sterling example" of a country eating the Mediterranean diet...Spain.  According to one of the most comprehensive recent studies of Spanish nutrition and health, more than 50% of the 2,000 adults studied were  either overweight or obese, 33% had high blood pressure, 65% had high cholesterol levels, and about 30% had three or more cardiovascular risk factors that could be "fixed" by CHANGES to this lifestyle.  According to a physician at one of the prestigious hospitals, "The prevalence of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol in Spain have all risen at an alarming rate over the last 20 years and this is likely to cause future increases in bad health and death due to cardiovascular disease."

Researchers believe this myth started about 40 years ago based on data from rural areas that wasn't quite conducted properly.  The information that has been translated into the Mediterranean diet originally arose from a 1950s study that found low rates of heart disease among people living on the island of Crete.  While these people did eat some olives, avocados, olive oil and other fats, their diets were mostly made up of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole-grains and legumes, plus a small amount of fish.  Part of the reason for this was these people could not afford butter, cheese and meat.  As soon as they could, however, they got fat and sick.  The rates of obesity and heart disease on Crete have been rising steadily since the time of the original study.  Visit the island of Crete today and you will find obesity centers and billboards advertising gastric-bypass surgery placed in downtown areas.  

So, for your best health, put down the olive oil and skip the myth about the Mediterranean diet.  Instead, follow the time-honored and PROVEN PRINCIPLES of a healthy diet by people all over the world--A Whole-Food, Plant-Strong diet!

It doesn't get any better than that.....

One of the biggest misconceptions about eating a plant based diet, (or people will say eating a healthy diet), is that it's just too expensive.  There were even studies done claiming to support this misconception.  The problem is they based their comparison on "calorie per dollar".  For instance, if comparing a banana to a candy bar, the candy bar has a lot more calories than a banana--therefore, the candy bar is "cheaper"--even though the banana far outranks the candy bar in nutritional value.  Well, if your goal is to eat as many calories as possible everyday, than the calorie per dollar comparison would be perfect and you could live off of candy bars, hamburgers, and sugary sodas.  You would probably save money eating this way, because you would probably die before you hit forty!

Eating a plant based diet isn't any more expensive than eating unhealthily--as a matter of fact it is CHEAPER.  And that's not even considering what you will save in medical bills.  Let's face it, 72% of Americans are overweight, and several estimates put the health-care costs related to this obesity at about $118 BILLION per year.  Think about that the next time you buy so-called cheap meat!  The World Watch Institute found that obese people visit the doctor 40% more often than people of normal weight.  These people also are 2 1/2 times as likely to need drugs for some sort of cardiovascular disease.  If you still think you save money buying unhealthy foods, think again. 

When you fill your cart with vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, and beans, and avoid the meat, (the most expensive item in the store), you will SAVE money as well as save your HEALTH.  The beauty of eating a plant based diet is that you do not need to rely on specialty ingredients like powders or supplements.  People spend a boat load of money on supplements that are not necessary AT ALL if you are eating a healthy, plant based diet.  You just need to know what you are looking for. 

If you eat like a peasant, (beans, rice, vegetables, and fruits), you will live like a king.  If you eat like a king, (meat, cheese, cakes and pies), you will get fat and sick and die like one.  So, let me show you how to save money at the supermarket. 

Beans:  Beans are one of the cheapest and most nutritious proteins out there.  They cost about 50 cents a pound for dried beans, they are dirt cheap!  When you buy them dry, you need to soak them overnight in water, rinse them the next morning, add fresh water and cook for about 1 1/2 hours.  Don't want to bother making your own?  You can buy them in cans, look for no-salt added varieties, (usually everything in a can has a lot of sodium in it), rinse them off and they are ready.  Of course, the dried beans are much cheaper;  make a big batch, and freeze in ziplock bags...again, cheap as dirt.
Oats:  Oats are chock-full of fiber and complex carbohydrates, and cost about 50 cents a pound.  The less processed the better, so avoid the flavored ones that look like flour and choose old-fashioned oats--or even better-- steel-cut oats.  Make a huge batch over the weekend, and store in the refrigerator for several quick breakfasts during the week!
Bananas:  Bananas are considered the "snack of the gods".  Loaded with potassium and fiber, fat and sodium free, they come packed into one convenient carrying case.  Use them in oatmeal, use as an oil replacer in baking, freeze them and make "ice cream", or eat them as a post work-out snack.  Again, bananas are dirt cheap.
Potatoes:  Don't let people fool you about how bad potatoes are for you...potatoes are full of vitamins and potassium and they fill you up like nobody's business.  Sweet potatoes, (my favorite), are a great source of beta-carotene and cost about $1 a pound.  Eat your potatoes with the skins on to get an extra boost of Vitamin C and fiber--just scrub the skins.  Don't buy the myth that potatoes are fattening or somehow unhealthy--it's the toppings most people put on potatoes that's the problem--butter, sour cream, bacon, cheese--as well as HOW they are cooked--fried in lots of oil or butter.  As a matter-of-fact, potatoes won the award for vegetable of the year in 2008 from the World Health Organization because it is such a plant-strong star!
Brown rice:  At less than $1 a pound, rice is a STEAL.  Buy the brown varieties--they are full of stomach-filling, body-energizing, complex carbohydrates.  Like potatoes, rice is extremely versatile and can be thrown into anything from soups and salads to veggie stir-frys, or even an Almond milk rice pudding.  

Please forget the processed foods, even if they are "plant based".  A packaged dinner of some sort of pasta dish will cost you about $2.80 a serving--a family of four would be spending about $11 to feed themselves this "food-like" product.  For that amount of cash, they could make six servings of their own pasta with FRESH ingredients and still be able to buy the salad fixings and fruit.  

As I always say, there are so many plant based recipes available now if you need help figuring out what to make.  Vegetable stir-frys are so easy....saute a little onion and garlic (using water or vegetable broth) in a pan, add all the vegetables you like, add your seasonings, herbs, etc., throw in rice or beans at the end....dinner is on the table in minutes.  

Yes, it does take time to prepare your own food.  But, if you compare it to the amount of time that people who eat unhealthily spend at the doctor's office for problems like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, it doesn't seem like a waste of your precious hours after all.  

Do you realize you can regain your health and take control of life--without taking medications? Having your ideal weight, having lots of energy, no aches and pains, having your body "restore" itself, can all be yours by very simply eating a Whole Food Plant Based diet!  No pills, no supplements, no meal replacement "foods"...just plain and simple whole foods.

A whole food plant based diet consists of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds.  To flavor dishes, lots of different herbs and spices are used with very little amounts of sugar and salt, (if any).  By eliminating animal foods, including meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs and oil--all of which are providing us with toxic levels of fat, cholesterol, excess protein, and very often harmful chemicals, our body will start healing and repairing itself.  And, if exercise is added in which can be as simple as a daily brisk walk, that's a bonus!  

Eating a really healthy diet has more impact on our health than exercise.  Now, don't get me wrong, exercise is important and everyone should get at least 30 minutes of some kind of exercise everyday.  But, with that being said, there are people such as marathon runners that have died in their 30's, 40's, 50's, etc,  of heart attacks.  When people hear this kind of news their first response usually goes something like this, "Here's a person that is eating healthy and exercising, and look what happens, they die of a heart attack.....why bother?"  

Now, let me set the record straight.  Researchers have found what's called 'gel plaque' inside arteries.  Gel plaques are small plaques that form inside arteries, they resemble little pimples....now the scary thing is, people that have these gel plaques don't know it....their cholesterol levels can come back as normal....there are no "signs" or symptoms of this.  What happens is, people eat whatever they want to...lots of animal products, dairy, oils, etc., along with some vegetables, fruits, etc., but they are exercising and running usually everyday.  Because they are doing all this exercise, and their weight is under control, they believe they can eat whatever they want to.  Well, these are the people that end up with these gel plaques that rupture, cause a clot to form which blocks off the artery, and BINGO, a heart attack occurs.  

This is what happened to Tim Russert, the newscaster.  He wasn't a marathon runner, but he was on a barrage of medications for his blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as other medications.  His blood work numbers were all within normal range, he received a clean bill of health from his physicians, and two weeks later died of a massive heart attack...in his 50's.  He ate what he wanted to and took medication for his medical issues....this did not work for him.

I truly believe if people were given a crystal ball and could see what was coming, they would do WHATEVER they had to in order to live a long, HEALTHY life.  If Tim could have seen into his future, and was given the information on the power of nutrition, I'm sure he would have changed his eating habits.  Unfortunately, physicians are just not educated on how powerful nutrition really is...physicians also have the mind-set that their patients will find it "too difficult" to eliminate animal products from their diets.....in my opinion, stents, bypass surgery, stroke and or death seems a little more difficult to me.....given the options, I would change my diet in a heartbeat!! 

I am offering a 12 week class entitled, Go Plant Strong!...we will be meeting once a week in my office which is located in Watervliet.  The class will begin next Wednesday, June l9th at 5:30, and it's FREE!!  All participants will be keeping daily food and activity journals, we will have weigh-ins and blood pressure readings each week, (private), and cholesterol levels will be done at the beginning of the program and again at the end of the program to see what kind of improvement can be accomplished with nutrition.  

If you or anyone you know is interested in joining this program, please let me know by Friday, June 14th.  You have nothing to lose except a small amount of time, weight, and maybe some health issues you would like to leave behind!

So many people today are overfed and undernourished...you have to think about that statement, overfed and undernourished.  Most people today eat cereal from boxes, snacks from plastic bags, meals from frozen packages and salad dressings from bottles.  What's the problem?  Original foods, like wheat berries, rice, corn, and soybeans, are refined, depleted, or stripped away of their nutrition in some way.

Then, they are processed with unhealthy oils and sweeteners, making them unnaturally rich, high calorie foods that starve you of nutrition, fatten you up, and make you more vulnerable to type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, etc.  

However, whole foods contain more fiber, bulk and water than refined foods.  When you eat whole foods, you can fill up on fewer calories, a lot fewer.  Dr. Joel Fuhrman, one of America's leading nutrition experts, analyzed food groups and ranked them based on their ratio of nutrients to calories.  He calls this ratio "nutrient density".  This means the more nutrition per calorie, the higher a food will score.  Choosing foods with a high nutrient density are the healthiest foods for you and will fill you up with the least amount of calories.

Whole Foods Market, (which will be coming soon to our area), recently used Dr. Fuhrman's nutrient scoring system to rank foods.  Here is an example:

Raw leafy green vegetables......100
Solid green vegetables.............97
Non-green, vegetables.............50
Beans/legumes.......................48
Starchy vegetables.................35
Whole grains.........................22
Raw nuts and seeds...............20
Fish.....................................15
Fat-free dairy.......................13
Wild meats and fowl.............11
Eggs....................................11
Red meat..............................8
Full-fat dairy..........................4
Cheese.................................3
Refined grains.......................2
Refined oils...........................1
Refined sweets......................0

As you can see, vegetables, fruits, beans and whole grains have the highest scores--the BEST ratios of nutrients to calories.  Flour products, oils and refined sweets have the LEAST nutrition per calorie--practically zero.  They're also the most calorie-dense foods.

The foods with the lowest scores will fatten you up, make you carry extra weight, and cheat you out of the nutrients in the whole foods that they came from.  So, you wind up fat, tired, deficient and plagued by chronic health problems.  

So, if the whole foods are so  much better for us, why were processed foods even invented?  Well, the food industry wanted to make foods convenient and taste really good.  But, of course, that wasn't their only goal...they wanted to cut costs using cheap ingredients.  They would add second-rate ingredients like corn oil and high fructose corn syrup which are dirt cheap and toxic to our body.

The food industry also wanted to maximize shelf life, even when they KNOW the ingredients are bad for us.  They processed the foods, (taking out the nutrition), then would need to add ingredients back in like stabilizers to keep the food "fresh" for an unnaturally long time. 

One of the best examples of foods that are so bad for us are the fast foods, snack foods, fried foods and baked goods.  The industry uses extremely cheap oils that lasts for several months at room temperature....they are the hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils.  When you read these oils in the ingredient list, put the food back...they are the WORST foods you can eat.  And, you will be surprised at how many foods have hydrogenated oils in them including salad dressings and breads.

The more of the foods you eat with the higher nutrient score, the healthier you will be.  You can eat all you want without having to count calories, fats, carbs, etc....they will fill you up and nourish your body with all kinds of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.  Not to mention, the foods with the lower scores will not only give you so many more calories per serving, but, those are the foods that will raise your cholesterol levels, increase your blood pressure, put you at a higher risk for heart disease, cancers, strokes, and all kinds of chronic medical issues.  

So, choose the foods with the highest scores and eat as much as you want to....your body will thank you!!

I would LOVE for my yard to look like this!  We planted a decent sized vegetable garden this year, but it's not anywhere near as creative as this one.  However, it should give us all the tomatoes, lettuce, squash, peppers, eggplant, Swiss chard, beets. and herbs we need.  

I know I say this all the time, but it's worth repeating....a whole food plant based diet will give you SUPERIOR HEALTH...it's that simple.  People do not realize how powerful nutrition is.  Unfortunately, we have been blinded in regards to what's healthy and what's is not so healthy.  The primary goal of the  food industry is to increase their profit margins, not worry about the health of the American people.  Therefore, the marketing people come up with brilliant, creative marketing ideas enticing people to buy their "food products".  This is the "nutritional advice" we are exposed to.  Well, I'm sorry to say, what these people "feed" us, is not nutritional advice....it is so far from it!  In the meantime, we are in an epidemic of overweight people that have all kinds of medical issues.

A whole food plant based diet, (WFPB), will give you your health back.  It does require a little bit of planning, but putting a little effort into what you are feeding your body will pay you back with HUGE rewards.  People eating a plant based diet eat a wide variety of vegetables, beans, legumes, fruits, whole-grains, nuts and seeds, while eliminating animal products--meat and dairy.  The major goals of starting a WFPB diet is to get off medications, lose weight, decrease the risk of cancer and heart disease, as well as many other chronic diseases.  

A WFPB diet is not an all-or-nothing program, but is a way of life that is tailored to each person.  However, a person that has a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, or GI issues, this way of eating is especially beneficial.  The benefits people will get is dependant upon the level of adherence one has to eating vegetables, beans, fruits, whole-grains, and eliminating the animal products as well as processed foods.  

I see so many people each and everyday that come into the doctor's office with bags of medications.  As I am writing down all the drugs and dosages, I think to myself how does this person get all this medication into themselves in a 24 hour period?  Some patients take 10, 15, 19 different medications a day!!  How does this happen?  Can you imagine the amount of money people could save in drug costs alone if they just changed the food they were eating??

It's very unfortunate for the American people that the majority of  physicians are not well versed in nutrition--that's not what was taught in medical school.  Physicians are good at diagnosing a disease and prescribing a pill to "manage" it.  Unfortunately, when it comes to health, we have this backwards.  Patients need to understand how to PREVENT diseases from even starting....or, if the disease has begun, patients need to know how to get to the root of the problem and stop it.....without medication.  

When people are prescribed a medication for a certain medical issue and change nothing else, it's like the person mopping up the water from the overflowing sink with the faucet running.  The "cause" has not been addressed...the "cause" is still there...so we just keep on mopping....nothing really changes.  

However, stop the cause....problem ends.  I believe people need this knowledge to make informed decisions.  Get rid of the foods that are making us fat and sick, and replace those foods with vegetables, beans, fruits, whole-grains....foods that will NOURISH our body, prevent so many horrible diseases from even starting, and, reverse damage that has already been done.  This can all be accomplished with FOOD!!

I know it sounds so simple....IT IS!  I have experienced it first-hand as well as taught others how to take control of their health.  There is nothing more rewarding to me than helping someone take charge, change their eating habits, lose weight, and get off of medications.  

Yes it requires some effort, yes it requires grocery shopping and making most of your meals at home....but the effort it takes is so WORTH the end result.  I can't tell you how many people come back to me and thank me for saving their life....my response to them is that I didn't save their life, they did....I only gave them the tools to get there.