[B767drvr]

For what it's worth, and I'm sure not very much, I wholeheartedly agree with Jimbo, VPL, and shcisamax.

From my personal experience watching my parents slowly decline down a painful simultaneous path toward death (retired physician, nurse) I began to wonder if this was my inevitable future? I did a voluminous amount of reading searching for salvation or at least a course correction, and finally decided that the weight of SCIENTIFIC evidence was simply overwhelming in favor of a plant-based diet if I wanted to alter my destiny. If you're curious, my top three reading picks are:

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell (in GREAT scientific detail lays out the studies that show what the healthiest populations eat and what the unhealthiest populations eat, why the standard american diet "promotes" many types of cancer and how many diseases previously thought due to genetics are due to nutritional choices)

Whole by Campbell (also) (explains WHY you don't know what you don't know! Will definitely make you reconsider vitamin supplements!)

Super Immunity by Joel Fuhrman (mostly interesting, IMO, for the importance of intestinal health/bacteria to your overall health)


Previously, I'd consider myself very "mainstream" educated on nutrition and fairly strictly following the US FDA guidelines of limited red meat consumption, organic or free-range chicken and turkey, some wild salmon, and limited eggs and saturated fat. In short, I THOUGHT I ate pretty healthfully.

Boy was I wrong! When you had a question in life and your parents lacked the answer, someone (usually a wise uncle) chimed in with the adage, "Follow the money!" Wow was that ever great advice in the search for nutritional truth. There is a ton of money spreading an incredulous amount of bad information to keep the American consumer purchasing a lot of profitable, but unhealthy "food".

I learned I was NOT eating very optimally at all. I enjoy food, but I would not say I was previously a "foodie" like my wife who writes a food blog and is a paid reviewer, is a food photographer, and derives a GREAT amount of enjoyment from life via food. (Caveat, she's 5'4, 125 lbs) I mention these personal things only so the reader understands that food is enjoyed, a passion, but is not out of balance in our lives. It is still sustenance and that is important to keep in mind.

There is so much money intentionally being spent to obfuscate the health value or detriment of everything you consume that your mind would literally spin. Unfortunately, we all rely on the government appointed body (the FDA) tasked with ensuring and regulating our food supply for optimal nutrition and health to keep us healthy and safe and that trust is ABSOLUTELY MISPLACED!

At this point, I'm sure I have a dozen or more detractors ready to attack me as they have the previous posters, but I'm going to say that I will post my thoughts, but I'm exhausted attempting to convince the non-believers. Heart disease is the #1 KILLER in the United States, but is VIRTUALLY UNHEARD OF in 75% OF THE PLANET! You heard me, 75% of the human race suffers essentially NO heart disease! How can that possibly be? If you wish to learn, begin to become nutritionally literate and start with the books above. You'll find many more, but realize there are $BILLIONS at stake to convince you to continue consuming the standard american diet.

Finally, I'm at peace with the fact that many are "set in their ways", are healthy, or "healthy-enough", and don't wish to change their diet. I get it. My father is dying from a multitude of infirmities and I simply don't want to follow his path to his eventual grave. If I can alter my path and maintain a healthier life longer than my dad did, then I'm ahead of all the naysayers that say it's all pre-ordained.

Oh, and my foodie wife is now also vegan as well as my daughter. Our son is much healthier in his diet, but still only about half-way there. We're all individuals and we all thankfully have free choice, especially including our food choices! On this positive note, I think we can all agree.

Bon Appetit!