A Holiday Message From Us to You

Hi Dear Readers!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve.

We are proposing a holiday challenge for all the omnivores out there...and it won't be easy: GO VEGAN ON THANKSGIVING DAY.

If you succeed, leave a comment below. We expect ZERO comments, because people are weak and social conventions (like slaughtering millions of birds and eating them) are strong. But if you manage to complete the challenge, we want to recognize you!

Take care.

The End.

Maybe This is the One

Hi Readers!

It's November. And that means we are nigh on another Thanksgiving (aka, the Great Turkey Holocaust).

Perhaps this will be the one where you finally eschew eating meat, and instead focus on the variety of healthier plant based food options you can substitute for it very easily? If you want to give it a go, but find it hard to break with the meat eating tradition of the holiday, consider eating vegan "turkey." There are a lot of great meat substitutes out there these days. [I like the Gardein Turk'y Roast a great deal.]

As a reminder, eating meat is toxic physically, mentally, and spiritually. Unfortunately, the consequences tend to be karmic and happen down the road a piece, when it's far too late to undo the damage. I put forth this post every year as a PSA reminder and wellness challenge for any and all who want to participate.

But, it's your body (mind and soul) and your choice.

In any case, have a superb day!

Numbers

Vegan diet for the win!

8/16/24 Lab Results:

Cholesterol: 156

LDL: 91

HDL: 54

Non-HDL Cholesterol: 102

Triglycerides: 53

Glucose: 91

The End.

Plant Based and Pelotoning

I'm not gonna lie. My life is f*cking good. And the reason it is good comprises two things: a plant based diet and a Peloton workout every day.

If you want a f*cking good life, do those two things too. Also avoid toxins.

Ciao!

Purpose

A part of me would love to convince people to go vegan for the health, ethical, and environmental benefits. But fuck that. It's easier to just lead by example. People can't believe I'm 55, in awesome health, and have a slim, athletic body, all because of eating a plant based diet. It can't all be genes, because my family (not vegan) is not especially healthy. They eat fairly healthy and thus they are fairly healthy, but not ideally healthy like me. The secret is no secret at all. Eat vegan and exercise daily. That's it. I mean...yes, avoid excessive smoking, drugs, and alcohol too. That seems obvious to me though. Toxins are, by definition, toxic.

Of course, people could just watch "The Game Changers" documentary too.

The End.

Good News for Your Health

Hi Readers!

I have some good news. I'll be opening my Functional Nutrition Medicine Coaching Program to eight (8) participants at the end of 2023.

Overweight? Sick? Tired? Depressed? Brain fog? Unmotivated? Out of shape? Generally unsatisfied with your direction in life?

Then this program is for you. You can reach out to me HERE for more information, pricing, and to get enrolled. The program launches 1/1/24 and you have to be enrolled by 12/31/23 (with intake all paperwork completed) to participate.

So, this is your early bird notification (and there is a 20% discount if you get on board between now and 6/30/23).

I am thrilled to be able to take on more participants in my no nonsense Punk Rock Life Coaching program.

The End!

The Pop Up

There was a vegan popup today at the Goodman Community Center in Madison WI. We attended. We ate vegan food there and also bought some vegan stuff to take home. Overall, a fun time.

We discovered a vegan pizza place there that is from Chicago and will ship frozen deep dish vegan pizzas anywhere in the USA. They are not cheap though.

The End.

Reminder

The key to a long and healthy life comprises:

1. A whole food 100% plant based diet.

2. Daily aerobic exercise.

3. Self care.

4. A sense of purpose.

5. Avoidance of drugs and alcohol.

A good day to you!

The End.

The Whole Food Plant Based Secret to Longevity

Hi friends. This is your weekly - possibly even monthly - reminder that the secret to health and wellness and longevity is to eat a whole food plant based diet at least 80% of the time (and a vegan diet 100% of the time). This allows you to enjoy some vegan junk food now and then. Never eat animal based foods or animal byproducts (milk, eggs, honey), because these foods are not only destructive to your health but they are exploitative to animals and they harm then planet. I am not lying. These are facts, You may not believe them to be, but no one cares. Eating plants shrinks your ecological footprint and makes you better, stronger, and healthier. It also eliminates an incredible amount of suffering by animals. It's easy to verify what I am saying with a bit of research on the Giant Internet Brain (Internet). I encourage you to do so, but you don't have to. You could just become a plant based vegan and trust in the process.

I bid thee a good day.

Deets

On this site, I share tips and tricks for improving your life. My credentials are several degrees - in psychology, biology, public health, science journalism, and psychotherapy - as well as certification in functional nutrition counseling.

When it comes to health and wellness, everyone is a little bit different, although not nearly as different as many people like to think. There are some universals when it comes to living a high quality life (defined as a long life, largely disease free, and a fairly painless death in old age).

One of these universals is eating a healthy diet. The challenge here is two-fold. First, there is a lot of information AND misinformation out there about what defines a healthy diet. Second, because everyone is biologically and physiologically a little bit different, an ideal dietary pattern for one person may not be as ideal for another. But, again, there are some universals here too. For example, no scientific study has ever found that eating more whole food fruits and vegetables is bad for your health. Ever. The more whole, minimally processed plant foods you can eat, the better your health will be. You may not be in perfect health, but plant foods will improve your health no matter what your existing health issues.

When I do functional nutrition coaching (separate from my marriage and family therapy counseling practice), I conduct a comprehensive intake assessment with clients to get a better understanding of their presenting health issues, life history, and nutritional patterns and deficits. There are three "non-negotiable" interventions that all clients start with. This is the removal from the diet of gluten, refined sugar, and dairy for at least a fortnight (and ideally three months, if they can manage it), followed by sequential re-introduction of these foods, to assess any health and wellness impacts from these dietary components. If health improves when these dietary components are removed, it tells a story about what is going on in the body, and leads the functional nutrition counselor (me) down the likely correct path to what the underlying health issue is.

Clients are also encouraged to add some universal elements to their nutrition plan, including, but not limited to, a source of omega 3 essential fatty acids (that the human body needs, but cannot make, and so can only be obtained from the diet, which is often deficient in these fats), B vitamins (essential for many healthy functions in the body), and magnesium (a mineral that aids digestion and sleep).

The mainstream media contributes to a lot of the misinformation the public has about nutrition. They like to simplify and sensationalize the science, which is often complex and nuanced, in order to make it more entertaining and digestible (pun intended) for their audiences. They often make leaps of logic that are not supported by the data, such as suggesting that red wine is healthy because it contains resveratrol, a substance shown to improve health outcomes in rats. First off, rats are not humans. Secondly, rats do not drink wine. Thirdly, to get the amount of resveratrol equivalent to that used in the rat studies, a person would have to drink so much red wine that they would LITERALLY die from alcohol poisoning. As it turns out, a simple apple provides an incredible amount of healthy phytonutrient antioxidants and soluble fiber that benefit health - the apple a day adage is actually based in fact.

Exercise is also universally beneficial for human health. As with diet, exercise type may vary from person to person. But universally, getting one's heart rate up daily and building muscle slows the aging process and can prevent disease.

The End.

Diet and Disease

It's pretty much doctrine in nutrition science that eating the Standard American Diet (SAD) will kill you. It takes a long time, but very few people on this diet of refined carbs and fats live long enough to die of old age. They most often die of cancer and heart disease, which are awful ways to die. Just ask anyone who suffers from those diseases.

The only way to beat the odds and improve the likelihood of dying relatively painlessly at the end of a long and healthy high-quality life is to adhere to a whole food plant based (WFPB) diet. If you're skeptical about that, the science doesn't care. Facts matter and there is no debate among scientists (except those underwritten by industrial SAD food producers, unsurprisingly) that eating more fruit, vegetables, raw nuts, and whole grains prevents (and reverses) many chronic diseases and prolongs life.

It's super easy to eat a WFPB diet and it doesn't require any special tools or caloric restrictions, other than not eating anything that's not a whole plant food. Or, if it's easier to remember, simply not eating any food derived from something that had a mother. Boom. Easy peasy.

Now, most people reading this are not going to adopt a WFPB way of eating for a variety of dumb reasons, in spite of the massive health benefits. These people will think they are choosing to continue eating the SAD of their own free will. But it's actually big government and corporate messaging that beguiles people into following a diet that will slowly but absolutely kill them. It doesn't really matter if they have free will or not. The point is they will continue to go on slowly poisoning themselves with inflammatory SAD foods until the damage is irreversible, and then they will actively die.

It's just sad and pathetic is all...that horrible, preventable death will take many lives before the stricken will even have a chance to remedy it.

On the bright side, almost all of those who transition to WFPB eating immediately begin to heal, reverse inflammation, and prevent or reverse chronic diseases. I'm living proof.

I am almost 54 years old and I have the health of a 25 year old, four years after switching to a 100% plant based diet (a less strict version of WFPB eating that allows some vegan junk food now and then because...you know...life is literally too short to not enjoy some ice cream or a cheeseburger now and then - and yes, there are very delicious vegan versions of these now!). I fully plan to live 50 more years, assuming I don't get hit by a bus or Republican right wing extremists don't take over and start disappearing granola-type, peace-loving vegans like me.

Do you know who isn't going to live 50 more years? You, if you keeping eating sh!tty animal based foods known (by science!) to cause horrible, deadly chronic diseases.

A good day to you.

Things Continue to be Excellent

My brain power continues to be maximized on the whole food, plant based diet I have been following for almost 3.5 years now. My weight is down to a nearly all time low (in my adult memory). I feel fantastic. I won't have empirical data to support my subjective experience until after my annual physical, likely in July. But based on my strength during exercise, I expect the blood work will support my lived experience.

Many people doubt or distrust the whole food, plant based vegan diet for health promotion. There are two reasons for this. The first is mass confusion about nutrition in the mainstream media. Even though no scientific study as ever concluded that eating LESS fruits and vegetables is good for your health, there is still a cognitive dissonance about animal based foods and whether they are unhealthy. Animal foods are unhealthy (SOURCE), but the mainstream media, with its "fair and balanced" doctrine, perpetrates a belief that the science is still ambiguous about the harm animal foods do to the human body.

At baseline, the ideal diet for optimal health is the whole food, plant based diet (SOURCE). The introduction of any animal based foods - at all - increases the risk for chronic diseases. That's not to say people eating a whole food, plant based diet won't ever get a chronic disease. But it is to say that the risk is the lowest it can possibly be if you eat a whole food, plant based diet (SOURCE).

Thoughts to Think On

I sometimes struggle with the dilemma of how to persuade people to adopt a whole food, plant- based (WFPB) diet. In spite of mountains of scientific evidence supporting the WFPB diet as ideal for long term physical and mental health, people still seem to adopt the narratives of the Food-Industrial Complex and the corporate mainstream media, respectively, that what we eat has no bearing on our health and that a plant based diet is extreme and unsatisfying.

When I notice myself struggling with this issue, I use mindfulness to remind myself that's it's not my responsibility to persuade people to improve their heath and wellness via ideal dietary choices. I'm only in control of my own health choices, and it takes a good chunk of my mental bandwidth to stay on top of that, much less try to manage other people's lives.

I think it is sufficient to point out a simple fact and then let people incorporate that fact into their own life narratives: No scientific study has ever concluded that eating more fruits and veggies makes your health worse or causes heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, or any other chronic degenerative disease you can think of. Ever. In fact, the opposite is true. Many studies have linked eating more fruits and veggies to longer life, better health, and lower disease risk.

Prove me wrong.

Coming Up On Three Years WFPB Vegan

In January, I will have been on this fantastic vegan nutrition journey for three years. I have honestly never felt better in my life.

Today, my wife Deborah and I rode our new bike smart trainers using the Rouvy cycling app that let's you ride actual bike routes around the world, virtually. Today I rode Stage One Part Two of the Tour de France. It was only eight miles, but it had some significant hill climbs. The smart trainers simulate real road riding by electronically changing the resistance of the trainer depending on the slope of the rode in the virtual ride simulator. How fun! I burned off quite a few calories, although probably not enough to compensate for the two bowls of fantastic vegan Thai curry I threw together tonight. Hard to say for sure, but the scale will tell me in the morning.

The End.

A Little Over 2.5 Years WFPB Vegan and the Results Exceed Expectations

I've been vegan for 2.5+ years, with a good 1.5 of those years as a whole food, plant based vegan. I expected to see some minor health improvements when I switched to this way of eating. However, my modest expectations were significantly exceeded.

My osteoarthritis pain in my toe from a sports injury over 20 years ago has essentially disappeared and has not returned. I sleep great. I feel great. I am the lightest weight I have ever been in my adult life. My airways are clearer than ever before - I can breath through my nose at night. I don't need alcohol or caffeine to keep me happy and motivated, respectively (I've largely quit both and I don't miss it at all). I feel mentally content most of the time (some of which is attributed to supplementing with ashwagandha, an adaptogenic herbal supplement from Chinese Medicine). My blood test at each of my annual physical exams has provided empirical proof that the whole food, plant based diet is ideal for maximal, if not optimal, health.

The only physical issue I have is some pain in my left knee when I go on long bike rides. But this pain is mild and resides almost as soon as I am done with the exercise.

I can't speak highly enough of adopting a whole food, plant based diet for health and wellness. The experimental case study will continue for the foreseeable future and I will report back periodically. But, the evidence thus far is clear: A whole food, plant based diet can't hurt, and it might help.

Good day.

Plant Based Diets

The corporate food industry does a pretty admirable, if diabolical, job of keeping important scientific information from consumers regarding the types of foods one should eat for optimal health. This is because a lot of money rides on getting people to ignore evidence-based dietary health advice and eat more "value-added" foods. 

"Value-addded" is  a fancy moniker for refined and processed foods, which mean more money in the pockets of food company shareholders when consumers eat them. That being said, value-added foods are not, in and of themselves, always harmful to human health. In fact, many minimally processed foods can be harmful to human health, especially if they are derived from animals. 

Take, for example, meat. Most meat is minimally processed in that the animals from which it is derived are fed optimal, yet artificial (as compared with their natural diets), foods designed to develop the animal's muscle tissue in such a way as to make it appealing to humans, so they will eat it. For example, beef cattle are fed corn* because it's cheap. This adds value to the corn by turning it into much more expensive cuts of meat. The muscle tissue is then rendered from the carcasses in slaughter houses, refrigerated, sometimes mechanically ground and/or treated with chemicals, and packaged, adding still more value to the meat. Such processing can be pretty basic and still increase the food's value immensely. 

We know from the scientific research on diet that meat consumption is strongly correlated with poor health outcomes and premature death, even after controlling for confounding factors like caloric intake (meat is more calorie dense) and lifestyle factors (smoking, exercise, etc.). It's also true that the more processed meat is (cured meat, for example), the worse it is for health. Conversely, a plant-based diet that contains little to no animal-based foods (including dairy) has been clearly linked to longevity and a reduction in the incidence of chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. This is true even though many completely plant-derived foods, such as sugar and flour (even tofu!), are highly processed and refined (to add value) by comparison to the processing and refinement that happens to meat-based foods. 

The current scientific evidence strongly suggests that the degree of refinement and processing of a food is less of a predictor of health outcomes than whether a food is plant- or animal-derived. Another confounding factor is that many dietary food components are significantly correlated ("fries and soda with that cheeseburger?"). That is to say, people who eat a lot of meat generally do not eat meat exclusively, and meat-heavy meals are often supplemented with plant-based foods, often highly refined and processed. So, in any diet in which meat is consumed, epidemiological studies are likely to show adverse health outcomes linked to both the meat in the diet as well as the refined/processed plant-based foods in the diet. This is why studies of diet and health have to be really large to be able to tease out these slight statistical nuances, and it is also why the food industry can reasonably question and critique any scientific studies that purport to show adverse health consequences from their precious value-added foods. 

As a result, some of the most compelling studies on the role of diet in health are the ones that look at overall dietary patterns in large groups of people (population studies), rather than individual foods, and then use factor analysis to determine statistically the effects on health of particular food groups (beef, poultry, fish, dairy, whole grains, nuts, oils, sugars, fruits, and vegetables, etc.) within those dietary patterns. It is studies like these that have given us the Paleolithic, Mediterranean, Okinawan, Standard American, Vegan, Vegetarian, and other dietary patterns that we hear about in the media. Studies like these also have the advantage of being conducted with humans, rather than in mouse or rat models of diet (humans eat very differently than mice and rats, so it is literally like comparing apples to oranges...pun intended). These studies clearly link plant-based diets to better overall health outcomes in humans than meat/dairy-based diets. Factor analysis reveals that greater animal-derived foods in the diet are the main contrbutors to poorer health outcomes and death. Starchy, salty, oily junk food also correlates with poorer health outcomes, even when such foods are plant-based (potato chips and French fries, for example), but this effect is strongly linked to the greater consumption of meat in diets that have a high consumption of junk food. Junk food is so highly refined and processed that a consumer cannot get enough of the required nutrients (mainly protein) for survival without eating high-protein animal-based foods as well (in general). The mechanism of action of many of the effects of diet on health is inflammation in the body, which is beyond the scope of this post.

Note: Other corn by-products are oils, sweeteners, and food additives that increase the caloric content, flavor, and shelf-life of other foods to which they are added.

KEYWORDS: lifestyle coaching, best weight loss diet, best diet for health