A Time for Reflection and Action
As the New Year gets underway, many people who follow the Gregorian calendar are thinking about changes we would like to set into motion. I was unaware of the statistics, but had a hunch that one of the most common New Year’s resolutions that people make is to loose weight. I imagined that other health-related changes are also potentially high-ranking resolutions. Well, I turned to the internet for answers, and guess what? A site called “Statistic Brain” has this to say about New Year’s resolution statistics:
- The most common New Year’s resolution for 2017 is “Lose Weight / Healthier Eating!”
- This resolution captured 21% of the responses.
- The statistics came from a poll of 1,273 respondents. (The poll was U.S. based.)
It should come as no surprise to anyone in the U.S. who pays attention to any media that many people are concerned with their weight and their diets. I have been deeply engrossed in reading The China Study lately. This book by T. Colin Campbell, MD, and his son Thomas M. Campbell, M.D. exposes and clearly explains a huge body of decades of nutritional research, including the huge “China Study” for which the book is named. I may be an unusual bird, but I find this book to be a page turner! It’s pages contain ample support for all those people who resolved to loose weight and eat better, in the form of information from study after study that come to the same conclusion: that a whole foods, plant-based diet is the most optimal form of nutrition for humans. This diet leads to weight loss for those who are overweight or obese, and can also prevent and even reverse the chronic diseases that kill most of us in the U.S.: heart disease, circulatory system malfunctions, diabetes, cancer, etc.
The other fascinating book I just finished reading a couple of weeks ago is Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat is Killing Us, by Garth Davis, MD. Both of these books encourage readers to adopt a whole foods, plant-based diet, and provide ample convincing evidence to support this recommendation.
One of the many compelling reasons to make a switch to plants is that fully 40% of Americans will die of heart disease or other malfunctions of the heart and circulatory system! (according to a study cited in The China Study) That’s pretty shocking. Just think, four out of every ten people we know will die of diseases that can be prevented by a diet high in plant foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains. Not only that, but a low-fat plant-based diet has also demonstrated that heart disease can be reversed.
Reading these books has really inspired and provoked me to do more to support people in eating healthy foods. I realized that people are dying for lack of knowing what I know. I am ready to share in a big way. What we eat can heal or harm. What we eat can restore our vitality or kill. We are at choice in every moment about what we put in our mouths. Let’s choose wisely. Let’s choose vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds: vital, life-giving foods. If you want support to get on track with your food choices, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would love to serve you in the cause of vital health!
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