Food for thought

By John McDougall, MD This truth is simple and is, therefore, easy to explain. You must eat to live. But the choice of what you eat is yours. There is an individual, specific diet that best supports the health, function, and longevity of each and every animal. The proper diet for human beings should be based on starches. The more rice, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beans you eat, the trimmer and healthier you will be—and with those same food choices you will help save the Planet Earth too. A recommendation for eating starches puts glazed looks on people’s faces. They think of starch as something used in the laundry to stiffen shirts. Starch brings back memories of pasty bland-tasting goop, and white, airy Wonder Bread. Most disturbing is that nearly everyone believes starches are fattening and nutritionally inferior foods. Fortunately, common knowledge is completely wrong and the proof is right before your own eyes. The most important evidence supporting my claim that the natu...

There are certainly a lot of good things when it comes to sports: good sportsmanship, camaraderie, teamwork, sports stimulate the economy, provides entertainment, gives underprivileged youths a chance to succeed, and more. Wealthy pro sports management does donate a portion of profits to worthy causes. Here's a recent internet article re: an under 17 girl’s soccer tournament in Costa Rica: The U.S. team girl’s soccer team was playing Haiti, a team of girls that two months ago was dealt an unlucky hand, an earthquake that killed more than 200,000. All of the girls arrived for the tournament in Costa Rica homeless. U.S. goalie Bree Haeberlin said she and her teammates started strategizing almost immediately about how to handle the Haitian girls. They weren't thinking of what kind of offense to run or how to shutdown Haiti's leading scorer. They were thinking about what they could do as a team to help the Haitian girls ease what must have been, Bree and her teammates thought...

Get a small portable blender, Magic Bullet, or the like. You can even use a larger blender, but for one to two people a smaller one works best. I like to use Rice Dream or any kind of rice "milk" as the liquid, but soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, etc works fine too. For 1-2 people: Place into the blender- One peeled soft, ripe, chunked banana One cored, peeled ripe, chunked pear 1/2 to 3/4 cup of liquid (Rice Dream, or soy milk, etc) Thoroughly blend That's it! (After use, rinse out blender immediately or it will be hard to clean.) Other options: Just use liquid and 1 to 1 1/2 bananas for a banana smoothie (Good!) or to the peeled soft, ripe, chunked banana 1/2-3/4 cup of liquid (Rice Dream, etc) add one of the following: Bing Cherries (a favorite!) Peaches (peeled) Mango Strawberries Raspberries Blueberries Fresh Pineapple Blackberries Asparagus (just kidding!) Other fruit? We've found that not mixing fruits works best. If you can take the majority of processed su...

You have been given a precious gift- your life. How you live your life- your lifestyle- will dictate how long you live. Your dream is to live a long, happy life. There are many hurdles standing in your way to prevent this. You should want to know what these hurdles are. That is one of the purposes of this blog. I hope each of you will look back someday and be happy with healthy lifestyle changes you made, that ultimately contributed to your longer life. These healthy lifestyle changes are what I would like to talk to you about. I had to fix something that was broke. As a young man I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and contracted Crohn’s Disease. Today, at 54, I take no pills. I’ve fixed the first two diseases with a healthy diet. Crohn’s is life long, but is controlled by a healthy diet. I’ve had occasional Crohn’s flare-ups over the years when I regress to old bad habits. Sometimes knowing what I should do to be healthy, and doing it are two different things. I’m sure you c...

Hello, and welcome to a new blog dedicated to human and planet health. I will be presenting entries that deal with nutrition, social, and environmental issues. The goal will be self-improvement. If you would like to add a comment click on "Comments" at the end of an entry. This month's entries: A Precious Gift The "A" Word... The Truth About: Food and Drink "Just Keep Telling the Truth" The Truth About: The Gay Issue The Best Oatmeal in the World Pronounced "Keen Wa"

If you are serious about your health, if you are seriously interested in finding out what on the earth is healthy, and what is not, if you are interested in achieving your ideal body weight the fastest and healthiest way humanly possible, please read on. There is SO much misinformation out there. Here is the truth, from Joel Fuhrman, MD, John McDougall, MD, and many others. For one, there is one healthiest, fastest way to arrive at your ideal body weight. Granted, there are MANY ways to lose weight , but all but one are impractical and unsustainable. Let's debunk: Nutrisystem/Marie Osmond: No. Jenny Craig/Valeri Bertinelli: No. Weight Watchers: No. The New Atkins: No. South Beach: No. Gastric or Lap Band/weight loss surgery: No. Over exercise/burn the calories off: No. I won't bore you. There are dozens more, and new ones added all the time. All others but one, wrong. You can lose weight with the above methods, they're just not sustainable/healthy. Why have to deal with por...

If you are what you eat, and you eat unhealthy, What does that make you? The choices we make dictate how healthy we are. Addictions dictate how healthy we are. You’ve heard the sayings “Food is a drug” and “Everyone has a vice.” Each of us is addicted to something that does not promote longevity. Cigarettes? Alcohol? Prescription drugs? Illegal drugs? Meat/food from animals? Coffee? Junk food- sugar, salt, chips, doughnuts, pastries, cookies, ice cream, candy, pop, fast food? A drug addict does not like to be reminded of their addiction. A drug addict doesn't want anyone messing with their drugs. Someone who has an addiction to unhealthy food/drink does not like to be reminded about it. They may realize the unhealthy aspect of their addiction, but choose to do nothing about it. Or maybe they’d like to do something about it but they are powerless. They are hooked. There are many reasons why people consume what they consume. One is depression. “Comfort food.” In the short term it may...