The Power of a Whole Food-Plant Based DietA whole-food diet simply means that the food comes directly from nature and have not been stripped of their original packaging. The foods I am referring to are vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. The higher percentage of your diet that consists of whole foods, the lower the risk of heart disease, cancers, Type II diabetes, obesity and auto-immune disease. Your diet actually has the power to prevent and reverse diseases…this has been
scientifically studied with thousands of people, (check out the China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD), and the outcomes of these studies are mind boggling!! I believe preventing diseases and illness from occurring is much easier than treating the disease once it has occurred. The analogy I like to use is this: you would want to prevent your car from rolling over the cliff rather than fixing it once it had rolled over. Prevention is the name of the game. So, put down the PILLS and head for the PRODUCE section!! Statistics tell us that 2 out of every 3 Americans are overweight or obese…as of 2008, (which is 4 years ago, the number is probably much higher now), 72.5 million adults in the US are obese, which means they are 120% or more over their ideal weight. Obesity is the contributing factor of death, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancers. Increased blood cholesterol comes from: processed foods, saturated fats, animal protein and animal products which are meat and dairy. Remember, cholesterol is the waxy substance found in cell membranes and transported via the blood. Foods that improve cholesterol are fiber which is found in plant foods and omega-3 which is found in flaxseeds, hempseeds, soybeans and walnuts just to name a few. Physicians from the Cleveland Clinic tell us for minimal risk our total cholesterol should be 150 or below, our LDL, (bad cholesterol), should be less than 70 and our HDL, (good cholesterol), should be 50 and above. The job of HDL is to “scoop” the bad cholesterol out of our blood and transport it to the liver to be disposed of. If you combine all the current medications at your disposal, nothing comes close to the benefits of eating a whole-food plant-based diet!! THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR HEALTH: 1. Current research supports a whole-food, plant-based diet as the key to achieving optimal health. 2. Plant-based diet describes the types of foods included in a meal plan that’s heavy on plant foods. 3. A whole-food plant-based diet is a premier option for minimizing risk of diseases, achieving optimal weight and keeping cholesterol levels in check. Read 5. WEIGHT LOSS DRUGS ARE NOT THE ANSWER |
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