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.

Ethics

There is a lot of controversy and drama about eating a vegan diet. A lot of it is in the form of microaggressions toward those of us who choose to eat vegan. We get snide comments sometimes about how "challenging" it is to get together to eat because of "the vegans." Right back at ya, omnivores! Notwithstanding that the Standard American Diet is 70% plant based already, putting vegans on the right side of nutrition, and that no scientific study has ever concluded that more fruit and vegetables is bad for health, people still tend to over-focus on the food and nutrition part of the equation, while missing out entirely on the ethical basis for eating only plants.

Once you go to a plant based vegan diet, the blinders come off. You no longer have to selectively hide from the environmental costs of eating meat or the horrendous suffering of animals that the meat/dairy/poultry industry causes. Once you become aware of those facts - and they are incontrovertible - eating animals becomes a moral and ethical impossibility (assuming you have ethics and/or empathy). Eating animals and caring for the planet are mutually exclusive, by definition [SOURCE]. Eating animals and preventing animal suffering are also mutually exclusive [SOURCE]. Believing that you meat, milk, and eggs are humanely sourced is delusional in this age of industrial agriculture. Eating local and organic does not help and unless you never eat at restaurants, it is 100% certain you are causing some animal somewhere to suffer.

A good day to you.

Why

Why are some people so threatened by someone's choice to eat a vegan diet?

There are basically two reasons:

THIS ONE...

and

THIS ONE.

Both reasons create cognitive dissonance for some people who eat a typical omnivorous diet.

It's liberating when you go vegan and can finally stop avoiding reality.