Most of us are used to the age-old saying “Live and learn,” but when you’re providing care to people with preventable chronic disease, you realize very quickly that we don’t have that luxury indefinitely. So, that saying changes to “Learn and live.”
In the next 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) projects that heart disease deaths will increase sharply.1
In that same time, the AHA estimates that the percentage of the US population living with heart disease will reach over 40%.
According to a recent estimate by the AHA, the cost of treating this preventable disease will skyrocket from $171 billion to $275 billion. These figures make it clear that if we want to keep living, and living well, we need to start learning how to protect our health.
Thankfully, it’s possible to live well while pursuing heart health. Studies by Dr. Dean Ornish, a leading researcher in the field, found that many patients can avoid major surgery and lessen their medication by making changes to their diet and lifestyle.
A low-fat, plant-based diet, regular exercise and stress-reducing activities like meditation have all been found to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Many people may see adopting a new diet and exercise regimen as something they have to force themselves to do. However, the most effective changes are those that are done step-by-step and gradually integrated into a person’s regular routine until they become a habit.
These changes can benefit everyone, at every stage of life, no matter your age or health status.
Coronary heart disease is not an inevitable consequence of aging, as was once thought. Sixty years ago, scientists began to discover that arterial damage may begin in childhood and progress throughout a person’s life. Still, many people think of heart disease as an old person’s illness.
In “Prevent a Second Heart Attack,” author Janet Brill, PhD, confirms that heart disease is largely caused by lifestyle factors that begin in childhood. She goes on to explain that “A toxic mix of calorie overload, especially of processed foods high in damaging fats, sugars, and salt, coupled with inactivity instigates the long, slow process of arterial damage that results in a heart attack.”
Experts are increasingly beginning to understand the importance of teaching heart-healthy behaviors to children.
While attempts to make school lunches healthier may have an impact, ultimately the most significant way to positively affect your child’s health is by making changes at home.
The most important step you can take to protect the health of your heart and your family’s hearts is to adopt a low-fat, plant-based diet.
A flesh-based diet contains an overabundance of saturated fats and cholesterol that contribute to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, that leads to a heart attack.
Fruits, vegetables and whole grains on the other hand are naturally low-fat, low-calorie foods that are rich in phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Because your body gets the nutrients it needs and keeps you feeling full longer due to the fiber, plant foods may help control weight and blood pressure, both risk factors for heart disease.7
The fiber in plant foods also helps to carry cholesterol out of your body, instead of into your bloodstream.
Numerous studies have compared life-long vegetarians in the Seventh Day Adventist community to control groups eating the SAD.
Overwhelmingly, the results have indicated that diets containing more fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains decrease the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity, which are all risk factors for heart disease.
A study by the Loma Linda School of Public Health found that vegetarians are 36% less likely to develop heart problems, diabetes or stroke compared to meat eaters.
The study included participants across the dietary spectrum, from people who ate meat frequently, to people who ate meat occasionally, and people who abstained from meat completely. They found that the closer a person was to being vegetarian, the lower their health risk became.
The more you experiment with healthy, whole food recipes the more you’ll experience how tasty a plant-based diet can be.
The more you engage in preparing and eating healthy meals with your loved ones, the more you’ll appreciate their health and well being.
The more you involve yourself with outdoor activities, the more you’ll discover the joy of being surrounded by life on all sides.
“Learn and live” begins to take on another, deeper meaning. As we learn new strategies for health, we not only increase our longevity, but we also increase the fullness and richness of our life experience.
We may be motivated at first by the desire to learn and survive, but as our habits change and we broaden our experience, we may find that, by learning, we have begun to truly live.
Aloha!
Source
www.asanediet.com
www.dresselstyn.com
www.pritican.com
Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.
After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a "plastic" community would be an understatement.
Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.
I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, " let's become vegetarians". I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, "okay"! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.
So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, "The Little Kitchen".
Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.
I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I'll elaborate on that in a minute.
But right now, back to "The Little Kitchen". Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.
The owner said to me, "Let's make a deal. You do our tax return and we'll feed you as well". So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.
But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, "Hawaii". Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called," Mr. Natural's". I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at "Mr. Natural's." To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened.
So, I'm working at "Mr. Natural's" and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle - it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka'anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.
Since I was the new guy, and didn't really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that's exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.
I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.
Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I'm asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn't thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, "You expected anything less"? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, 'enchilada's at "Natural's" tonight'. I never had to cook anything else.
A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That's when they found out I was an accountant and "Down to Earth" was born. "Down to Earth" became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.
In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD's that would call in asking for my credentials.
My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.
I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii's premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse. She said," If you want to be with me you've got to stop working on naked women". So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.
Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a "chicken" or "egg" or "fish" or "pig" or "cow" was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.
The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.
Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.
For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.
Namaste!
