Lynne Morrissey is now thriving on a whole foods, plant-based diet.

Lynne Morrissey Sheds $300 of Monthly Medical Costs Along with 111 Pounds

Lynne Morrissey is a Facebook friend with an inspiring story of survival against heavy genetic odds. Lynne, who lives near St. Louis, Missouri, just turned 50 and has four adult children. She is sharing her achievements so she can show others to never give up. Health is just a forkful away.

Lynne has a frightening family history. She lost her Dad to a heart attack when he was only 33 and she was 3. Even as a normal-weight child, she had cholesterol levels over 200, as did both her brothers. The young siblings were put into a diet and cholesterol study. Her older brother was started on an experimental medication and told to eat margarine. Tragically, none of the medical interventions worked. He died of a massive heart attack at age 35. His cholesterol was over 600. Several other family members on her Dad’s side suffered severe heart disease.

Lynne was fatalistic. “I believed there was nothing I could do, that I was destined by genetics for premature death. I thought I might as well eat whatever I wanted because I was going to die young no matter what,” Lynne told me. She became a hospice nurse, so she was around people facing the end of their lives every day she worked.

When she did go to a cardiologist, Lynne got a demoralizing lecture that her cholesterol was 327. Amazingly, the cardiologist advised her to eat eggs! Lynne did not go back to this doctor, but did end up in the offices of her primary care physician and numerous specialists.

As her weight soared above 260 pounds (she is 5 feet, 11 inches tall), Lynne coped with a growing list of diagnoses. Among these were hypertension, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, low thyroid, fibroids, carpal tunnel syndrome, depression, anxiety, allergies, asthma, and disk disease. She needed a CPAP machine to

Lynne spent hundreds of dollars a month on medical costs when she was on a typical American diet.

breathe while sleeping, and the copays for the meds for her illnesses were hundreds of dollars each month.

Disabling back pain, which threatened her ability to work, brought Lynne to a medical rock bottom. But going to physical therapy also brought new hope. “I noticed I felt better, and it clicked that if I went to a gym and lost weight, it would make a difference.”

Lynne decided that swimming was the exercise to start with and found a gym with a pool. At the gym she began working with Adam, who is still her personal trainer. She stopped eating fast food, upped her daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, and water, and exercised four to five hours a week. (She is now up to exercising eight to ten hours a week.) Her weight plummeted and she was off

Lynne right before she began working with Adam, her personal trainer.

her blood pressure medications in two months.

When she reached 174 pounds, Lynne completed a triathlon. But she stopped losing weight, and in fact began to regain it. “I still ate meat and cheese, and it was a struggle to keep the pounds off. I was on antidepressants and several other meds. Soon I was 195 again and thought I worked too hard to let this happen. So I began pushing the weight loss to get back to 184. I knew I had to do something that would help me.”

That’s when Lynne met Julie, a cycling instructor who was healthy and brimming with energy. Lynne wanted what Julie had! Upon getting to know Julie better, she found out that Julie was vegan and was a plant-based nutrition educator. Julie also worked with individuals who were interested in changing to plant-based diets. At first Lynne thought that would be too difficult a diet for her. “I decided to give it a try because I hit a wall on exercise. I was going to be vegan for only a month,” Lynne reflected.

Lynne and Julie teamed up together and the journey began! Julie’s first recommendation was for Lynne to read The China Study; and on March 29, 2011, Lynne plunged into a whole food, plant-based vegan eating plan. She weighed 184 pounds. “The weight just fell off after that. It was no longer a struggle. I no longer had weight fluctuations. I could exercise harder and better than I ever had. At first I was detoxing and felt odd. Then I began to feel better than I ever had, even as a kid. By the end of the first month I had so much more energy, and the diet was easy. Before I was eating tiny meals. Now I could fill up, and there were so many choices of what to eat that sometimes I could hardly decided what to have for dinner. I went from eating steak and cheese to a whole foods, plant-based diet overnight and the transition was surprisingly simple. I also got off all my meds except for one thyroid pill. I don’t need them anymore,” Lynne happily relates. She is now 149 pounds.

Lynne continues to enjoy her plant-based diet and eats heartily. “I can’t believe how much food I can eat and still lose weight.” Her breakfast is always a huge shake made with almond milk, flaxseed, many kinds of fresh and frozen fruit, and some leafy green vegetables. “I have to decide if it’s a one banana or two banana day. If I have a particularly packed schedule visiting patients, I put two bananas in the shake to hold me to lunch.”

Lynne is on the road all day, and usually picks up a vegetable sandwich or salad for lunch. She snacks on fruit and fat free pretzels. She exercises most nights before going home for a dinner that might include more leafy green vegetables, hummus, potatoes, and soup. Lynne cooks on weekends, but is too busy during the week for elaborate meals. With simple foods, she enjoys eating more than

Lynne loves her whole foods, plant-based diet. Joy of eating is one of the rewards of this food choice.

she did before going plant-based.

“Animal foods repulse me when I smell them cooking now. But I was eating them less than a year ago,” Lynne observes. This repulsion is fed by her growing awareness of how animals suffer when they are raised for food. “The awful truth as moved me from focusing just on my own health to a wider motivation.”

Lynne and Julie are now close friends who have done presentations together on the power of whole foods, plant-based diets. Lynne is geared to reaching out to help others. “Every day I see people dying, often from what they eat. If I can touch even one person and keep this from happening, I would know I accomplished something important. And we have done that. I am looking for ways I can reach more and more people to help them,” Lynne shares.

With her determination and inspiring example, Lynne is sure to succeed in changing and saving lives. She has overcome her own genetic battle and now is poised to spread the news that genes are not destiny.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read successes of other formerly frustrated people who lost weight and gained health on a whole foods, plan-based diet. Here are stories of San’Dera Prude, Todd Rosenthal, Meridith Hayden, and Judi Menzel.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. Janice was overweight most of her adult life until finding this Perfect Formula Diet.

Selecting a diet is an important decision. It's worth the time to think it through and get some facts first.

And Why the Best Diet Is No Diet At All

Going on a diet is a serious decision. The eating plan you choose will impact your health, appearance, quality of life, self-image, and self-confidence. With so many diet choices, it’s easy to just go ahead with whatever is trendy or to follow the lead of co-workers, family, or friends.

You can lose weight on just about any combination of foods as long as you keep calories in check. But if you are undermining your health and metabolism in the process, you are making yourself into a time bomb for illness and future stubborn weight. Getting thinner will do you little good if your health and energy deteriorate.

With so much at stake, you can maximize your success by doing a little probing before making your choice. Here are the eight key questions that will guide you to the effective answer.

ONE. How fast will I lose weight? The answer you want to hear is “a pound or two a week.” This may sound slow to you compared to brash promises of some programs. Actually this rate of weight loss is sustainable and can be geared to fat loss (rather than the temporary water loss that is often a hallmark of rapid weight decreases). Plus cutting food intake drastically slows your metabolism, making it progressively more difficult to continue weight loss.

What’s more, given the polluted state of our planet, there is a certainty that you have highly toxic persistent organic pollutants (such as dioxins, DDT, flame retardants, and many more) dissolved in your body fat. When you lose fat too fast, these substances will flood your liver quickly, with a potentially profound effect on your health. This is because these pollutants are fat soluble, not water soluble. The liver is your organ to detoxify these dangerous chemicals and send them out of your body.

TWO. How much weight will I lose? BMI (Body Mass Index) is a measure of how your weight relates to your height The best answer is that you will lose enough weight to get to the ideal BMI of between 20 and 23. Research indicates that this BMI is the most protective against disease, and would be considered to be a trim weight without being skeletal.

Beware of diets that don’t give an answer, or hold up a set number of pounds or percent of your current weight. The amount you need to lose is based on your height and where you are starting.

THREE. How likely is it that I will regain the weight I’ve lost? Ask for success rates a year or two out, and you might just get an evasive response. However, if you lose weight just to regain it, you are likely to wind up in a worse place than you started. All weight loss results in the reduction of both fat cells and learn muscle mass. There is no way around this. A 2011 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutritionstudy shows that when you regain lost weight, the extra pounds come back mainly as fat,

You want to celebrate long-term success, year after year

with the lean muscle in scarce supply. So you definitely want to avoid the yo-yo diet effect.

FOUR. What foods will I eat? You might be primed to select a diet that emphasizes foods you already eat and like. However your tastes can change in three weeks with little stress, either physical or psychological. Given this fact, the oft-stated promise of being able to eat “the foods you love” on a diet becomes less persuasive.

Are you going to be eating animal products every day? These foods have been shown to increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, some cancers, and other chronic illnesses. Or are you going to build your meals and snacks around whole plant foods – vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices? These are the foods that thousands of research studies prove to enhance health and reduce the risk of chronic illness. Not to mention keeping your skin youthful.

FIVE. Will I be hungry on this diet? If the diet works through portion control, the answer is almost certainly “yes.” You may have been told that hunger is an inevitable part of dieting. However, portion control is a failed strategy for the vast majority of people.

Portion control is a failed strategy for most people, especially in the long-term.

Hunger is a basic survival instinct, similar to the need to breathe. You can deny it for only a relatively short amount of time. For some people this might be hours, for others it might be months. Either way, you are destined to eat until you are full sooner or later.

Your body has exquisitely sensitive sensors for both nutrients and calories, plus there are stretch receptors in your stomach telling you when it is full. You will lose weight permanently when you discover the eating plan that lets you satisfy all three sets of sensors at once. Such a food strategy will not leave you feeling hungry or deprived.

SIX. What is the effect of this diet on my health? Even if you care only about appearance, health should still be a major consideration. Why is this? You can’t look your best when you are low energy and plagued with chronic illness. You will not be vibrant and glowing when you are sick. And the pharmacy and doctors’ waiting rooms are not ideal places to meet a life partner or show off new clothes.

SEVEN. What peer-reviewed, published studies are there on this diet and what do they say?

There are surprisingly few studies on “name brand” diets. Weight Watchers has been the subject of more research than most. Published studies show a typical dieter on this eating plan, if the person starts out (for example) weighing 200 pounds, will weigh about 189 at the end of one year and about 193 at the end of two years. Is this the level of success you crave? In looking into this question, beware of studies funded by the company that stands to profit or studies that were never published in respected scientific

Dieting should not leave you poor.

journals.

EIGHT. How much does this weight loss program cost? It’s reasonable to pay some money for information on how to attain and maintain a healthy weight. But the cost of prepared food and ongoing monthly fees can be a major budget hit.

The eating plan that gives the right answers to all eight questions is not a diet at all. Instead, it’s a decision to thrive on whole foods, plant-based food choices. This eating plan is based on vegetables, fruit, beans, potatoes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices. This eating plan does not include animal foods or processed foods (including oil, margarine, soda, and other manufactured foods). It’s really a life choice, not a diet.

People who consistently follow this eating plan do generally lose a pound or two a week if they are overweight to start with. If you eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full, your eventual BMI should fall into the healthy range of 20 to 23.

On a whole foods, plant-based diet, you will enjoy the best food nature has to offer.

As long as you continue this way of eating, the weight will stay off indefinitely and you will be eating nature’s finest foods. There is no need for arbitrary portion control and you will do best if you do eat until you are satisfied. Peer-reviewed published research shows a whole foods, plant-based diet can prevent and reverse chronic illness, including heart disease and diabetes. Dozens of studies show plant-eaters are, on average, leaner than those who eat animal foods.

Finally, a whole foods, plant-based diet can be quite affordable. Whole grains, beans, and potatoes are among the lowest-cost foods. The price of vegetables and fruit can be minimized through smart shopping. You might end up financially way ahead if you can work with your doctor to discontinue prescription drugs with expensive copays.

The next time you, a friend, or a family member is searching for a diet that works, use these questions as your guide. You will be spared disappointment and be rewarded with achievement.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read successes of formerly frustrated people who lost weight and gained health on a whole foods, plan-based diet. Here are stories of San’Dera Prude, Todd Rosenthal, Meridith Hayden, and Judi Menzel.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on a whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. Janice was overweight most of her adult life until finding this Perfect Formula Diet.

The Perfect Formula Diet awards for plant-based happenings in 2011. The "top 10" list with 11 awards for an important year for the plant-based world.

Actually Eleven of the Top Good, Bad, and So-What Legacies of 2011

As 2011 speeds to its end, it’s time to reflect on the top events, organizations, trends, and people that will have a lasting impact on American food choices. The Perfect Formula Diet (PFD) 2011 awards point the way to making 2012 a better year for you and the planet.

THE BEST FOOD OF THE YEAR:

Kale – Kale was all over the media in 2011. This vegetable is universally recognized as dense with minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals (beneficial nutrients found only in plants), and fiber – all with barely any calories. WebMD calls kale “the queen of greens” and notes it is growing in popularity.

A recent Huffington Post blogger calls kale “the new beef.” This is way too kind to the beef industry. However, the point is that you can get all the nutrients in animal foods by eating kale, in a way that is infinitely healthier for you and the planet. Kale comes in many varieties and colors, with flat or curly leaves. You can enjoy kale raw or include it in just about anything you cook. Find this easy-to-grow powerhouse in farmers markets and supermarkets all over the country.

MOST FUN WAY TO CONSUME THE BEST FOOD OF THE YEAR:

Green smoothies– In recent years, green smoothies are leading the trend to have lots of fun with healthy foods. While green

A green smoothie is great for any meal or for a snack

smoothies gained popularity several years ago, this drink shows every sign of attaining mainstream acceptance in 2011.

Green smoothies incorporate green leafy veggies (such as kale, spinach, or collard greens) in a blend with sweeter fruits that provides much of the flavor. However, the veggie leaves provide the color, making the drink green.

You can find endless recipes to experiment with until you find the smoothies you most enjoy. A recent google search of “green smoothie kale” yielded 343,000 results. If this is overwhelming, start with the site fatfreevegan.com for some great ideas. Expand from there with other plant-based recipe sites and cook books.

THE MOST DANGEROUS “HEALTH” FOOD OF THE YEAR:

“Wild-caught” salmon – Unless you were living in a tree with no media access in 2011, you could not escape the advice to eat more fish. “Wild caught” salmon is the most highly recommended. When you hear something a million times it must be true, right? Not!

In fact, industry and government are putting out severely skewed and dangerously incomplete “information,” then the popular media parrots the advice that people want to hear. Physicians are too busy to sort through all the thousands of published studies on fish, and fall victim to the fishy hype along with their patients.

Salmon, along with just about all fish, are full of saturated fat, cholesterol, persistent organic pollutants and many other health-

Grind your flax seeds and eat two tablespoons a day sprinkled on your food for a safe, healthy source of omega-3s. You can even add to your green smoothie. Skip the salmon, wild-caught or otherwise (you never know, since fish are often labeled inaccurately).

killing contaminants, mercury, nasty bacteria, and worm larvae, to name some of the threats to your health from this misrepresented food. For more information, check out this post on ten reasons that seafood is neither safe nor appetizing. Omega-3 fatty acids are important, but the best food to get them from is ground flax seeds.

MEDICAL HYPE OF THE YEAR:

Lipitor Goes Generic – Lipitor, the top-selling drug in the world, had 2010 global sales of $10.7 billion, with $7.9 billion of that figure coming from US consumers. Such income buys a lot of advertising, which is exactly where Pfizer has thrown a sizable chunk of its revenues. The media swarmed all over the story of Lipitor being available as a generic on November 30, 2011.

All this hype left consumers with two ideas. One was at least a small seed of doubt that the generic would have the same activity as the brand name. Yet under strict rules from the FDA, generics and name brands must have the same active ingredient. Generics are well accepted and there is no evidence that the generic forms of Lipitor would not have the exact same biological activity as the name brand. Yet Pfizer has created a $4 copay card for Lipitor, with the effect of confusing both patients and pharmacists.

Second, all this hype makes Lipitor seem desirable and important. Yet clogged blood vessels can be cleared and cholesterol

Real health comes from whole plant foods, not from manmade pills.

plummeted to levels well under what drugs commonly achieve using only a whole foods, plant-based diet. Expensive medications with dangerous side effects are totally unnecessary and serve only to distract doctors and patients from the easy, costless dietary solution.

NUTRITION YAWNER OF THE YEAR:

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 – Wait, you think, this is a 2011 list. Yes, but these Dietary Guidelines are such a yawner that when the 2010 update was not released until 2011, no one really cared. The 2010 Guidelines are mired in animal foods just as previous versions were. Americans are instructed to eat foods that make them fat and sick. Dairy and fish are prominently featured. Although this year includes a vegan adaptation of the guidelines, the USDA version of a vegan diet has so many dangerous issues that anyone trying to follow it will almost certainly give up.

Instead of relying on science for direction and clear language for communication, the Guidelines are a testament to the power of multi-billion dollar corporations (that also happen to be huge political donors). Even the industries that most threaten the health of Americans must be protected and promoted. Same old, same old, same old useless, confusing, hazardous advice and obscure language from our friendly government agency.

NUTRITION INSPIRATIONAL PROJECT OF THE YEAR:

Meals For Health – With bold vision, the nonprofit EarthSave partnered with the Sacramento Food Bank to show that low-income people will enthusiastically adopt a whole foods, plant-based diet. Leading plant-based physicians, dietitians, and educators shared their time to make the project successful. The Whole Foods Sacramento store donated piles of healthy foods. The results are astounding.

Most inspiring, the people in the program opened their hearts and minds to the food and the message of plant-based eating. Their stories of total recovery from illness, often after decades of suffering and mountains of medications, can move you to tears. All the participants wanted to stay on their new eating plan after the initial 30-day pilot. Does this sound like a lifestyle of deprivation?

NUTRITION SUSPENSE OF THE YEAR:

Results of the Whole Foods Immersion Program for Team Members – Since 2010, Whole Foods has been offering its employees (team members) an unbeatable health opportunity. After passing an application process, those with serious chronic medical conditions have a choice of attending one of three immersion programs to learn to thrive on a whole foods, plant-based diet. We can surmise this program has been successful and cost-effective, based on the fact that Whole Foods continues to offer it.

Yet data have yet to be publically released. The results could transform employer-sponsored wellness programs and help millions of American workers. Whole Foods, let’s get this information out there! Hopefully 2012 will be the year the suspense ends, and the data will be a story of the year no doubt.

This is avoidable. Make yourself heart attack proof with food and you can skip the heart surgery.

TV SPECIAL OF THE YEAR:

The Last Heart Attack – In a groundbreaking move for mainstream TV documentaries, CNN aired the documentary The Last Heart Attack. In this one hour report, Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks with former President Clinton about his remarkable health transformation after starting a whole foods, plant-based diet. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn relates the secret of becoming heart-attack-proof. Two contrasting reality patients share their stories of easy success via diet and scary complications via surgery.

Other TV shows brought plant-based nutrition and health information to the public as well, making 2011 a noteworthy year in making animal-free diets understandable and accessible.

WILDLIFE DEFENDER OF THE YEAR:

Sea Shepherd – No 2011 legacy list would be complete without recognition of the deteriorating life support system of our planet. To discuss major 2011 victories, disappointments, and disasters in environmental issues would be a list of its own. In every catastrophe in this area, wildlife suffers first and most, from palm oil plantations that are killing orangutans, to polar bears starving and drowning from climate change, to frogs chemically castrated by persistent organic pollutants.

The 2011 PFD Award for Wildlife Defender of the Year goes to Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Led by the awesome Captain Paul Watson, this group sends a courageous crew to the Antarctic every year to stop the Japanese whaling fleet from slaughtering whales

The Sea Shepherd crew risks their lives protecting helpless whales in Antarctica. And these tough men and women are powered by a vegan diet.

in the name of “science,” but actually to make money from selling whale meat.

The unstoppable Sea Shepherd crew risks life, limb, and freedom to protect the helpless whales. What’s more, their ships serve vegan food to the hungry defenders. No “some animals count and others don’t” in this fleet.

CALL-TO-ACTION OF THE YEAR:

Forks Over Knives – This feature film examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that disable and kill people in developed countries can be controlled, or even reversed, with a whole foods, plant-based diet. Roger Ebert calls the movie “A film that can save your life.”

The film has awesome graphics that make the science understandable and compelling. Articulate reality patients share their personal journeys with warmth and humor. These patients easily ditched a laundry list of medical problems, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and

Forks Over Knives will show you a new world of health and enjoyable eating

obesity simply by changing what they eat.

You can view this movie’s hard hitting call-to-action on DVD, Blu-ray, at a house party, or by streaming the video.

CHANGEMAKERS OF THE YEAR:

The Plant-Based Community – The plant-based community is growing daily, with every member playing a role in promoting healthy eating. The plant-based medical professionals and researchers lead the way through science and patient treatment. To name just a few: Drs. T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn, Neal Barnard, Joel Fuhrman, John McDougall, Pam Popper, Terry Mason, Michael Greger, Alona Pulde, Matt Lederman, Michael Klaper, Don Forrester, Baxter Montgomery, and many other pioneers too numerous to list.

Authors of books on plant-based nutrition replace dangerous nutrition myths with must-know facts. Plant-based dietitians are a force for change. Vegan celebrities and athletes show it is cool to eat animal-free. Don’t forget the authors of plant-based cookbooks, the instructors of vegan cooking classes, and chefs in vegan restaurants who make the science jump from page to delicious plate.

Here’s to anyone with a vegan business, radio show, magazine, TV series, film, DVD, podcast, Facebook postings, tweets, conference, web site, or blog. People who give out samples of vegan food or host an animal-free meal, run a vegetarian society, walk to raise money for farmed animals, operate a farmed animal sanctuary, or volunteer or work for a vegan nonprofit. Undercover investigators, who risk their lives to bring the truth about factory farming to the public. Looking at the future, let’s honor the folks who work tirelessly to educate kids on plant-based nutrition and bring them healthy school lunches.

Kudos to the community members of all ages and in every location who quietly eat plant-based every day and serve as role models for how easy and enjoyable this can be. Together, we weave a tapestry of change and joy. Every person is essential.

The plant-based community is open, and you are welcome to join. Let’s make 2012 a healthier year for people, animals, and the planet. It starts with your choice of what to eat every day.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to learn why people love a plant-based diet.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on a whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. Janice is already looking forward to the 2012 awards.

Mint leaves and fruit are an excellent combination.

Enjoy the Refreshing Herb Mint During the Holidays – And Year Round

You may think of mint as a common herb that you casually use for its flavor and aroma. Minty candy canes symbolize the winter holiday season. Iced mint tea is refreshing in the summer heat.

People around the world cultivate mint or enjoy leaves from the plant growing wild. There are about 100 varieties of plants in the mint family. This herb is hardy and may even take over your garden if you start a small patch without containing the roots. .

When you understand how powerful and versatile mint is, you can use it deliberately to ward off disease and even speed recovery from illness. Here are ten great things that mint can do for your health and satisfaction.

ONE. Numerous phytochemicals in mint are powerful anti-oxidants that obliterate the free radicals that menace your cells. Damaged cells can then lead to malfunctioning organ systems. Mint is effective in interrupting this process, thus staving off illness and perhaps even slowing the rate of aging.

TWO. Mint has a strong anti-inflammatory effect. Again this is related to the phytochemicals. Chronic inflammation is at the root of most chronic illness, so the action of mint to balance the inflammation that results from any threat to your body can be beneficial.

THREE. If you are looking for an ally to fight cancer, mint protects you cells from mutation and enhances the DNA repair process. In

Candy canes are minty, but save them for an occasional treat during the holidays. Mint candy is not the best way to consume mint.

addition, peppermint oil is steam-distilled from mint leaves. This safe process avoids the toxic hexane used to extract most vegetable oils. So mint oil does not pollute you or the environment with cancer-causing chemicals.

FOUR. Mint helps prevent infections of many types. Researchers have demonstrated mint kills harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, and yeast that want to set up residence in your body.

FIVE. For centuries, folk medicine used mint to calm the digestive system. Now science supports this, with studies showing mint prevents spasms and pain in your digestive system. Great if you just stuffed yourself with a too-big meal. Medical researchers have even found peppermint oil can reduce symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

SIX. Mint may function to counter allergic reactions. Although this has not been thoroughly studied, it may be helpful to consume mint if you are suffering from allergies.

SEVEN. Topical application of mint oil has been found to reduce pain from injury and headaches.

Mint is easy to grow - watch out or it can take over your garden.

EIGHT. If you are prone to travel sickness, try mint. This is still another reason mint can be helpful over the holidays or during summer vacation, when you are likely out and about more than usual.

NINE. Mint is refreshing, cooling, soothing, and delicious – all at the same time. It’s bright taste and alluring aroma will perk up any meal, drink, or snack. You will certainly be willing to use less salt when you flavor food with mint, as the mixture of mint and salt is not very appetizing. Since most people consume way too much salt, this is a good thing.

TEN. Mint is inexpensive and available in any supermarket or natural food store. You don’t need a prescription to buy it. The label is not filled with scary side effects.

When you combine all the protective actions of mint, the net effect is powerful enough to even guard cells and organ systems against the worst effects of radiation!

Supplements cannot mimic the health-enhancing effects of mint. All varieties of this herb contain a similar beneficial cocktail of vitamins and phytochemicals. The relative proportion of these substances varies based on the variety of the herb and where, when, and how it was grown. In every case, the effectiveness of the whole exceeds the sum of the parts.

Don’t be shy about sampling new recipes with fresh mint leaves, dried mint, or mint extract. You can liven all kinds of dishes with the distinctive flavor of this herb. Try mint in smoothies, fruit salads, green salads, whole grain dishes, sauces, soups, and teas. You can even add a few mint leaves or a drop of mint extract to water or sparkling water for an excellent drink.

Generally, you’ll benefit most by incorporating mint with healthy foods – vegetables, fruits, potatoes, beans, and whole grains. The

You can order mint tea in just about any restaurant or coffee shop. An assortment of brands can be found in just about any supermarket or natural foods store.

marriage of mint and dark chocolate flavors was truly made in heaven though. Minimize mint candy to an occasional treat, but you don’t have to give it up entirely.

The Perfect Formula Diet emphasizes herbs and spices as an essential part of a whole foods, plant-based diet. Mint is an inexpensive, readily available, delicious, and health-promoting herb you can savor throughout the year.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read more about some other healthy foods – try mushrooms, flax seeds, or cranberries. In fact, the news about whole plant foods is always good.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of  Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on a whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. Janice loves a cup of mint tea after a meal and dark chocolate flavored with mint as a special treat.

It's no coincidence that the aisles of products with chemical ingredients in most drug stores ends at the pharmacy counter

Must-Have Information on Harmful Chemicals in Your Home

Whether you are buying personal care and household products for yourself or as a gift for others, you need to be aware of the toxic substances that lurk in these products. Manufacturers lure you in with sexy ads and bright packaging. Chemical-laden choices promise to make your life easier and more fun.

Don’t fall for it. You are probably washing your hair, moisturizing your skin, and cleaning your kitchen with harmful petrochemicals. These toxic materials end up in your body, often dissolved in your fat. The residues wash downstream to deform and kill wildlife. No effective laws slow down industry practices in this area, and many ingredients are not even listed on the packaging. Over 85,000 manmade chemicals are now in use.

There is another way. You can protect yourself, your family, and the planet with facts to make nontoxic choices. But where will you get unbiased information to avoid toxic materials? The popular media, industry groups, and anyone with a monetary interest in the status quo are not going to be reliable guides.

Here are five top sites of nonprofits that are not afraid to speak out with the truth about personal care and household products. These sites have so much useful information you might get overwhelmed. To avoid this, a helpful strategy is to browse one or two sites with a specific product in mind. It might be shampoo, toothpaste, soap, baby products, or kitchen cleaners. See what you can find. Pick up some easy tips to start implementing. Any change in the right direction is better than doing nothing.

If you make every trip to the store a learning experience, soon you will be well down the road to a nontoxic body and nontoxic house. The important thing is to get started and don’t expect to make all changes overnight. It’s easy to keep your head in the sand

You can ignore the risk, but that does not reduce the potential hazards of most commercial insectiicides

and be put off by fear of knowing. But actually it’s much scarier not to know. Soon you will be teaching others.

You definitely don’t need a degree in chemistry. Read labels. If you can’t pronounce an ingredient or don’t know what it is, it’s a safe bet you don’t want to put it on your body or give it as a gift. Remember everything you put on your skin gets absorbed through your skin into your bloodstream and eventually your cells. Ditto with chemicals you breathe with sprays and fragrances. Time to begin learning and exploring.

SITE ONE. Environmental Working Group. This comprehensive site showcases toxic materials as a public health issue. The information is specific enough to start you off making better choices after five or ten minutes browsing.

Here are a few of the site’s most to-the-point pages to get you started.

Health tips has a series of guides and tip sheets on everything from baby products to cell phone radiation to healthy pets and safe drinking water.

Chemical index takes you through many toxic chemicals and lets you know why they are dangerous. You will be a much smarter

Note how the bottles are all colorful and feel smooth and pleasant if you pick them up. Manufacturers design packaging to seduce your natural love of color and smooth texture - which spring from our human origins as fruit eaters, loving the color and texture of ripe fruit.

label reader after browsing this information.

The Skin Deep cosmetics database lets you look up specific personal care products to see if they contain chemicals of concern and to find the least toxic alternatives.

SITE TWO. Organic Consumers Association. OCA features a database to help you find less toxic products and services in your area – for example, pet services, pest control, clothing, and health care practitioners.

Their e-newsletter, Organic Bytes, has taken a lead role in battling Monsanto and other companies pushing genetically modified organisms (GMO) crops. This newsletter, which you can subscribe to for free, does an outstanding job explaining why these GMOs are so terribly dangerous and what you can do about it.

SITE THREE. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. As soon as you click on this site, you will see a short, entertaining video on the toxins in “stuff” and how you can start to make healthier choices. Learn which baby shampoo is carcinogenic.

The Science tab on this site is a wonderful information source on specific chemicals to watch out for. I strongly recommend downloading the free report Not So Sexy: The Health Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrance. Even just reading through the first few pages of this report will transform your understanding of the toxic mess that industry has been selling you in glamorous ads.

Eagles were among the many birds severely endangered until Rachel Carson wrote her classic book Silent Spring. For this, she was ferociously attacked by chemical companies who denied the harmful effects of DDT and questioned Ms. Carson's scientific credentials.

SITE FOUR. Silent Spring Institute. This nonprofit carries on the legacy of Rachel Carson. This brave scientist faced down industry scorn and wrath to let the public know toxic chemicals were wiping out birds by making eggshells too thin for the chicks to hatch.

The Research page highlights specific studies of chemicals found in the bodies of various Americans. You might be amazed at the

findings. Breast cancer is a special area of concern for this nonprofit.

SITE FIVE. Environmental Health News. Most news organizations concentrate on the predictable– bickering politicians, misbehaving celebrities, the latest stock market gyration. Not Environmental Health News. Their staff has to be working 24/7 to

bring planet-changing information to the public’s attention, all for free.

Subscribe to their daily e-newsletter Above the Fold. Every day you will get information on really important topics that will shape your life and the future of the next generation. You will be in the most informed elite and prepped to make a true difference.

Please explore these top five sites to find essential information to protect yourself and the planet from harmful chemicals. These nonprofits are courageous in battling established interests and remaining free of big-money influence.

If you want to keep learning, you might check out this post on The President’s Cancer Panel April 2010 report Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk. This hard hitting report, which was bashed by polluting industries and then promptly ignored, clearly outlines the dangers from carcinogenic chemicals and provides fascinating must-know information and memorable quotes.

Amphibians, such as this frog, are the animals most vulnerable to downstream pollution from chemicals in personal care and household products

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on a whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. The book has two chapters on getting toxic chemicals out of your life. Janice is on a long-term mission to seek out nontoxic personal care and household products that won’t harm her or wildlife.

Mushrooms, as an ingredient in a lightly cooked vegetable soup, make for a super soup to stay warm and healthy on a cold day

Why Mushrooms Tune-Up Your Immune System to Stop Colds and Flu

Is there really a way, through diet, to treat and stop a cold or the flu? While chicken soup is routinely believed to be good for a cold, my post “What Kind of Soup Is Best for Colds” shows that lightly cooked vegetable soup is your most potent ally. That post tells why such soup is healing and how best to spice and eat it. The soup is best for a cold day even if you aren’t sick and just want to stay cozy and healthy.

To make your soup even more effective in fighting – and even preventing – colds and flu, add some mushrooms to the pot. Regardless of whether you use inexpensive white button mushrooms or more exotic and expensive kinds, this food revs up your immune system to fight the virus causing your illness.

Numerous studies show that mushrooms are potent for fighting cancer, so when you add mushrooms to your soup you are reducing your risk of malignancy, not just feeling better from your cold or flu.

• A study of over 2,000 women in China showed women who ate mushrooms every day had a 64% reduced risk of breast cancer, compared to women who never ate mushrooms. As little as one white button mushroom a day made a difference. If the women drank green tea every day as well, their risk of breast cancer fell an amazing 89%!

• A lab study of six mushroom types found the blend of these mushrooms suppressed the proliferation and invasiveness of human breast cancer cells.

• Another lab study found an extract of several kinds of mushrooms made by boiling this vegetable inhibited a dangerous process in the breast. The mushroom extract blocks a substance that causes the breast to locally make estrogen, which in turn may fuel breast cancer growth. White button, shiitake, portabello, crimini, and baby button varieties were all effective in this process.

Mushrooms work with your immune system in several ways. Surprisingly, the strongest weapons in the mushroom arsenal include

The inexpensive, easy-to-find white button mushroom is excellent as a soup ingredient

special long chains of glucose molecules. Glucose is the life-giving sugar that fuels your body and provides most of your energy. You may be wondering how this sugar chain (which is one type of dietary fiber) could be helpful in immune-system functioning.

This mushroom-based fiber, called beta-glucan, has a distinctive structure. This glucose chain in beta-glucan is strongly bound together in a way that’s difficult for you to digest. While different mushrooms have diverse kinds of beta-glucan (or even other types of fiber), all have a common type of structure and helpful immune effects for fighting diseases from colds to cancer.

Scientists are just starting to glimpse why beta-glucan has its well-documented protective power. Here’s what we know so far.

• Beta-glucan is especially abundant in bacteria, yeast, mushrooms, oats, and barley. This glucose chain does not occur in human cells.

• While beta-glucan is not easily digested, some appears to be absorbed intact and more absorbed in broken pieces of the glucose chain. These fragments of the original still keep measurable protective power.

• Once in your body, beta-glucan binds to some immune system cells to help fire up your defenses against viruses, bacteria, and malignant cells.

• The beta-glucan from shiitake mushrooms has been isolated and used to treat cancer.

• Beta-glucans don’t overexcite your immune system, but help it to work more effectively. In fact, this fiber decreases your risk of allergies and intestinal inflammation while increasing immunity needed to fight microbes and cancer cells.

• In addition to its protective immune effect, beta-glucan can also lower cholesterol and may contribute to weight loss.

In addition to beta-glucans, mushrooms are dense with other protective substances. Mushrooms contain phytochemicals, which are

On the other hand, the many delicious mushroom types available, such as these king oysters, add flavor, variety, and more cancer-fighting activity to your diet

beneficial substances found only in plants. Phytochemicals act as anti-oxidants and can guard your cells in many ways.

Vitamins and minerals in mushrooms are also anti-oxidants and supply critical nutritional needs. Some mushroom proteins may also support your immune system strength. So don’t settle for beta-glucan supplements. Instead, enjoy the whole mushroom added to soups or to other recipes.

Mushrooms do more than boost immunity. For example, a lab study of white button, crimini, shiitake, oyster, and maitake mushrooms found these vegetables protected human cells that line the walls of arteries. Under conditions that would normally favor the development of artery-destroying plaque, mushroom extract significantly reduced the processes that lead to blocked arteries.

The most amazing study of the effect of mushrooms on health actually looked at gingivitis, an inflammatory gum disease caused by microbes. While not gingivitis may seem non threatening – compared to heart disease and cancer – this condition can lead to tooth loss and increases the risk of many kinds of disease.

The researchers compared shiitake mushroom extract to the active ingredient chlorhexidine in a leading mouthwash used to treat gingivitis. The chlorhexidine did decrease the total amount of bacteria in the mouth, both healthy and unhealthy microbes.

Add a wide variety of whole foods, plant-based ingredients to your soups and other meals for maximum health

But the mushroom extract did way better. The shiitakes killed harmful mouth bacteria but also spared bacteria associated with health. It’s as if the mushrooms acted in an intelligent way, with purposeful effects on health. Imagine a drug with such smart action – and shudder at what it would likely cost. Compare this to the cost of a white button mushroom, or even a more expensive shiitake.

Mushrooms will not, however, rescue you from the effects of a diet based on animal and manufactured foods. As the study of the combined effects of mushrooms and green tea showed, mushrooms will be most powerful when consumed as part of a whole foods, plant-based diet. These wonderful vegetables make for super soup and taste satisfaction in foods ranging from stir fries to pasta sauce to burritos and veggie burgers.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read more about how nutrients in a whole foods, plant-based diet work together as a superstar team.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on a whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. Janice loves plant-based soups, especially if they are made with mushrooms.

Wayo traveled across Europe and worked with top chefs and macrobiotic teachers to learn to prepare delicious, healing meals

Casa de Luz Will Be an Educational, Healing Community Dining Room

Eating out can be challenging on a whole foods, plant-based diet. Of course you can find vegan food in most restaurants, but it may well be too salty, oily, high calorie, low nutrient, and unsatisfying. This is not unique to eating plant-based. So many restaurants cater to tastes that have been warped by industrialized fast food, unhealthy school cafeterias, microwaved dinners, and packaged junk snacks.

In this landscape of undesirable choices, Casa de Luz will be a notable example of how much better we can be fed. I was excited to learn that Casa de Luz, a 20 year presence in the Austin dining out scene, will be opening in San Diego. Their dining room, in a converted Salvation Army building in the North Park area, will also feature a cooking school so you can learn to make appetizing, healthy meals at home.

I was lucky to have a chance to sample the Casa de Luz food experience at a recent Meet Up. The food is deceptively simple.

I love the Casa de Luz logo

In fact, while using whole organic ingredients, our chef created an outstanding meal that I still think of with longing. The tastes are delicious, satisfying, complex, and memorable.

Far from  being a restaurant, Casa de Luz in San Diego will be a dining room. Customers will sit at large round tables so they can chat with fellow diners while watching the staff chop vegetables and create savory meals in the large, open kitchen. Just observing will be a learning experience. The idea is that experiential learning is a powerful way for people to change and incorporate this healthy way of living – more powerful than a simple class would be.

Eduardo (Wayo) Longoria III, the founder of Casa de Luz in San Diego, is the son of the Austin dining room and holistic center founder. I was fortunate to talk with Wayo and learn more about why he’s starting the San Diego center and his long-term goals, which include healing both for his own serious diagnosis and for the community. Just as important, Wayo is passionate about the rich possibilities of the enjoyment of whole foods. He loves this way of eating, far more than previous routine diet choices.

Wayo’s family has been in the food business since he was a child. His Dad, originally from Nuevo Laredo, had a company called Healthy Snacks. These were packaged snacks that were less bad than the regular movie concession stand variety.  Wayo’s Dad sold the products on the honor system. People were not ready for this kind of payment and the company went out of business.

In the meantime, though, Wayo was literally a kid in a candy store – he would go to the warehouse full of these products and grab them by the handful. He was athletic and did not gain weight, but on the inside he was suffering the consequences of

Wayo was inspired by his Dad's successful Casa de Luz in Austin

empty calorie choices.

Wayo had a stint at boarding school, where he also ate junk food in enormous amounts. Later he learned the restaurant business working at his family’s Burger King and Papa Johns franchises.

Wayo decided to branch out on his own and opened a seafood restaurant in Monterey, Mexico. At that point he was consuming seafood every day, for just about every meal. Instead of ending up a model of health, as the fish hype would lead you to believe, he got mercury poisoning and had to get chelation to get this destructive metal out of his body.

After getting through mercury poisoning, Wayo had an even more devastating diagnosis. He had started suffering with vertigo and numbness. He learned he had multiple sclerosis, a life-changing autoimmune disease that can lead to progressive neurological damage and sometimes even total disability.

Determined to beat his illness and get healthy, Wayo joined his family in Austin to research natural methods of combating multiple sclerosis He discovered macrobiotics at the Austin Casa de Luz. Macrobiotics is a balanced yin-yang approach to eating that mostly relies on seasonal  whole plant foods, especially grains, beans, and vegetables. Macrobiotics is well-known as a healing diet for catastrophic diseases including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, and Wayo was optimistic it would help his multiple sclerosis.

A journey to Europe to study macrobiotic cafes and work with macrobiotic chefs soon followed. Wayo learned the various schools of macrobiotic cooking and how to cook the most enjoyable foods in Amsterdam, Italy, and France. During this time

Wayo (second from right) and some friends celebrate a yummy creation at a macrobiotic center in France

he kept meticulous track of his multiple sclerosis flare-ups. He noticed these disease remissions got less frequent and milder. One year in Europe he had no flare-ups at all, despite being on no medications. He found Europeans to be accepting of healthy choices in eating out. “I felt part of a larger community there, not isolated” Wayo notes.

Still, since his Mom and cousins live in San Diego, Wayo decided to return there and start his own dining room founded on whole foods and the model his Dad is successfully following at the Casa de Luz in Austin. The Austin Casa de Luz has a loyal following of regulars based on delicious food that just happens to be healthy.

All the food will be tasty, organic, unprocessed, and nourishing. Diners will start their meals getting their own soup and salad, then runners will bring carefully designed plates of tasty food. The flavor of real unprocessed food grows on you the more you eat it. There is no menu to choose from, but you can check the restaurant’s site before going to see the food that will be served that day. If you want an add-on to the meal, there will be desserts, a juice bar, tea bar, wine, and beer, or you can buy another half plate of the main meal.

Wayo at the groundbreaking for Casa de Luz in San Diego. This dining room breaks new ground in more ways than one, showing how organic, healing food is inseparable from a memorable, satisfying, delicious meal.

Artesanos, the cooking school, means “artisans” and is carefully named. Wayo explains that cooking is creating art work. “You are hand crafting your body. What you put in your mouth becomes you. If you eat wrong, you won’t be a masterpiece.” The cooking school is affiliated with the University of California, San Diego Center for Integrative Medicine. This innovative medical provider with sponsor some of the cooking classes for their patients, along with other alternate approaches to healing, such as acupuncture and meditation.

The parent company of Casa de Luz in San Diego is Commitment to Health, LLC. Everyone who works in the dining room will commit to their own health. Wayo finds potential employees are very open to this. While they can eat any way they want, they need to commit to eating healthier and making progress toward a whole foods, plant based diet.

Casa de Luz will open in San Diego most likely at end of November or early December 2011. Check their Facebook page for progress. Wayo is working on the final construction and hiring of the rest of the staff. He is so excited that he is once again like a kid in a candy store, but this time the “candy” is healthy, organic, and truly delicious for the educated palate. Casa de Luz will be a destination center for anyone interested in enjoyably nourishing their body while enjoying the best food on earth.

Most importantly, diners will learn they do not have to choose between taste and health. In fact, for the quality of food that the dining room will serve, taste and health complement each other. I hope Wayo clones Casa de Luz to many more cities.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read Twelve Ways to Make Cooking Fun and Easy.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. Janice expects Casa de Luz will quickly become her favorite San Diego dining room.

Deborah and her husband Gerry enjoy some impressive banana squash they harvested

Deborah Pageau Hit Rock Bottom On Health and Found a Simple Way Out

In spreading the message that fish contains worm larvae, I posted my blog on this topic on VegSource. Deborah Pageau replied from Canada with her story of witnessing live worm larvae wriggling in a fried fish on a Friday “fish and chip”night.

I immediately wanted to know more and share Deborah’s experience. Here she generously shares how she, her husband, and her daughter eliminated a range of health problems by eating a whole foods, plant-based diet. Yes, whole – vegan junk foods are rarely in their kitchen. The transformation of her family’s health was so wonderful, she even won the approval of school authorities!

What kinds of foods did you grow up eating?

I grew up in the 1950s & 60s. My parents, similar to most in that era, believed eating animal products were essential for good health. Processed foods, such as white bread, high fat snack foods, soft drinks, sugar cereals, etc, were also part of our diet. There were very few fruits, veggies, whole grains or legumes in my diet back then.

What kinds of foods do you eat now?

I eat a vegan diet of fruits, veggies, gluten-free grains, and a wide assortment of legumes, nuts, and seeds. Most of my foods are prepared from scratch at home, without oil, sugar or salt. I drink herbal teas & a lot of water, sparkling juice for festive occasions. I also take supplemental vitamin B12 and D.

When did you change your diet?

The transformation of my diet has been a process, beginning in childhood. When I was 7, I discovered to my horror that

Deborah and Gerry love dancing, and have plenty of health and vigor to enjoy it. Photo by Jan DeGrass, photojournalist Gibsons BC Canada

meat came from animals; and I wondered about the roots of health as I lay in bed with repeated illness.

When I was 12, my dear father died suddenly of a heart attack. When I was told that elevated cholesterol from eating meat had been a factor, I struggled to figure out how something that was supposed to be good for him, killed him. I began to cook in high school and to experiment with whole grains and legumes, but also went on jags of eating a high protein, low carb diet.

My university years provided me with many food adventures. During my three years of eating in residence, I avoided the worst items such as the “Dreaded Breaded”: a veal cutlet – so fatty that pressing down on it forced fat to ooze out, then soak back in when the pressure was released; and the deep fried fish, after a friend cut his piping hot serving open to cool, and discovered wiggling worm larvae.

During my fourth year at the university, I shared an apartment with a girl whose family had eclectic culinary tastes. She introduced me to the delights of international cuisine, along with lessons on such points as the difference between North American Chili Powder (mild!), and Powdered Chili spice (hot!). Although I was still eating animal products, exploring the foods of other cultures opened up my edible world.

When I married, I immersed myself in back-to-basics style homemaking, baking our own bread, even making our own sausage… all fodder for my dietary research. It all became very focused for me while nursing our daughter in 1983. Out of desperation to relieve her of “colic”, I gave up dairy products. While that helped, I confused the effect by continuing to consume volumes of sugar, white flour, meat, and processed foods.

What made you change your diet?

By the time our daughter was 2, I was severely depressed and 30 pounds overweight, with chronic bronchitis and pain in my hip joints so severe that I could barely climb a flight of stairs. I had trouble sleeping and was tired during day.

On top of that, our daughter was suffering chronic ear infections for which her doctor recommended surgical implantation of drainage tubes. General anesthetic for such a young child was a terrifying prospect. My husband had always had a “nervous stomach”; at this point, he was throwing up every day. After several GI investigations, his doctor recommended “exploratory surgery”.

Whole foods took Deborah and her family from rock bottom to "let's rock"

This was rock bottom for our family’s health. I knew that drugs and surgery were only bandage solutions, so I was receptive when my former roommate told me about dramatic improvements to her health from giving up all refined sugar and white flour. That was 1985 and the turning point for me.

What changes have you seen in your health and weight after you changed your diet?

Thankfully, the very day we stopped eating sugar and white flour, my husband stopped throwing up. I started sleeping and embraced a whole foods diet with enthusiasm. Within 6 weeks, the bronchitis & pain in my hips were gone; bounding up stairs was once more one of my joys. Our daughter’s ears cleared up all by themselves.

I was so inspired by our improvements, I read everything I could about healthy diet. “Fit for Life” encouraged me to cut down on animal products. By the time we were eating meat only once per week, “The McDougall Plan” helped me to cut it out all together. It was such a relief … emotionally & physically… to finally be eating a fully vegan diet!

The most surprising discovery was finding out that I had lived all my life with a low grade headache; I only found out about it after it stopped! Colors were clearer & brighter. I had a whole new attitude, enjoying keeping up to our busy toddler. We ate MORE food than we had ever eaten in our lives yet my husband and I both lost excess weight. Our daughter’s little friends loved to come over to our house because we fed them the simple plant foods that their alert, youthful instincts recognized as desirable.

How much do you enjoy a diet based on whole plant foods?

Looking back on it, I can see that I had been struggling towards a whole foods vegan diet most of my life. My initial motivation was love for animals, although ultimately, it was many years of experience and research on nurturing human health that made the difference.

It’s been a long road for me personally, just as it has been for society. Back when we began eating a vegan diet in the 1980s, we were seen as “radical”. The Public Health nurse at our daughter’s school instigated an investigation of our “unusual” feeding habits out of concern for her welfare. Over a period of several weeks, she repeatedly interviewed me with the intention of teaching me the error of our ways. I did my best to remain calm and presented her with McDougall’s recommendations, our experiences, and detailed daily food journals. Gradually, she backed down and admitted that she was uncertain how to proceed.

Eventually, she turned the matter over to her superiors who paid us a surprise visit early one winter morning on a school day. They were two massive ladies who had to squeeze to get their morbid obesity into our chairs. Thankfully at least, they were willing to acknowledge our daughter’s glowing good health and calm intelligence as sufficient proof of our fitness to be her parents.

Since that time, we have continued to refine the details of our diet. For example, we tried eating 100% raw for a couple of years, but found we needed warm food in winter. Subsequently, we discovered benefit in avoiding gluten, dried corn products, and soy. Recently, I have discovered I need to avoid guar & xanthan gum, which are common ingredients in many packaged foods.

What keeps you going with your current food choices?

After over 25 years of eating this way, I think we can say that success speaks for itself. I am going strong, with the same height & weight I had in my 20s, even though at my age, my father was already dead and my mother was deformed by osteoporosis. My husband’s doctor told him “If all my patients health was so excellent, I would be out of a job!”

Initially, I felt rather isolated by our food choices, so we created a social network by offering monthly vegan pot lucks to our community. As society has caught up with us, I am feeling increasingly part of a growing global community with similar interests. One of the most wonderful aspects of our diet/lifestyle is when sharing information with others has helped relieve suffering & save lives.

Plant foods are the roots … literally and figuratively… of human health, happiness & prosperity.

Any other thoughts?

Meals can be quick and simple most of the time; fancy recipes are great for when you have the time and/or special occasions. It helps to identify and avoid personal food allergens. Anyone on a plant-based diet needs to supplement with Vitamin B12. It makes life easier to access nutritionists and doctors who understand plant-based eating. In general, the ongoing pleasures of good health are greater than the fleeting sensations of recreational foods.

I’m pushing 60, some people say I look 40; and quite often, I feel 23.

Deborah, thanks for your inspirational 25 years of vegan choices.

If you want to learn more about how a whole foods, plant-based diet gets you the omega-3s you need in a healthy package, check out the post Five Ways You Thrive with Flax Seeds for Pennies a Day.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. And this book does not advise you to eat worm larvae.

This beautiful fish enjoys her ocean home, just as nature intended

Ten Reasons Seafood Is Not Safe or Appetizing

Government, media, and even health professionals flood you with advice to load up your diet with fish and fish oil. The alleged health benefits of eating fish center on a two nutrients: omega-3 fatty acids and protein.

Don’t be fooled by industry and government hype. Plants are the base of the food chain on planet earth. Plants are nutrient factories, while animals are nutrient consumers. Fish are animals, and as such get all their nutrients from plants or from smaller fish who ate plants.

On a whole foods, plant-based diet, you get all the nutrients in fish, plus many more. Your food is beautiful and appealing. All you give up on a plant-based diet are the dangerous drawbacks of fish.

Here are ten reasons to throw fish out of your diet and back into the water where they belong.

One. While fish does contain long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, these animals get this fat by eating marine algae that made the omega-3s in the first place. No animal has the ability to manufacture omega-3s.

Unhealthy fats come packaged with fishy omega-3s. For example, according to a US Department of Agriculture database, 3

Strawberries...appetizing

ounces of cooked wild salmon has about a gram of dangerous saturated fat – just about exactly that same amount it has of omega-3s. Plus this salmon has 47 milligrams of cholesterol, a substance your body makes naturally and that contributes to clogged arteries when you eat it.

You can get all the omega-3s you need from plants, which form this beneficial fat in the first place.

Two. A much-touted “benefit” of fish is its high concentration of animal protein. Few know that animal protein can directly raise the amount of cholesterol in your blood, in addition to the role that animal fat also plays in this process. Excessive

Corn on the cob...appetizing

dietary protein can damage your kidneys and liver and may spark the chronic inflammation that underlies most chronic illness.

Proteins are the basis of all life, both plants and animals. These proteins are linked assemblies of 20 amino acids – the same aminos form both plant and animal proteins. Only plants can make essential amino acids, the ones you need from diet. Get your proteins directly from the plant factory, not the animal middleman.

Three. Fish concentrate persistent organic pollutants and other manmade contaminants. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are highly dangerous chemicals that include PCBs, DDT, dioxins, and PBDEs (flame retardants), among many others. Cancer, nervous system damage, behavior problems, Parkinson’s disease, reproductive disorders, immune system disruption and autoimmune disorders, diabetes, and allergies can all result from exposure to POPs.

Animal foods are most likely the source of 89% to 99% of POPs in your body. A study of U.S. supermarkets found the

Whole grain pasta...appetizing

product most contaminated with PBDE, a class of POPs used as flame retardants, was fish.

If you decide to go for distilled or “purified” fish oil in hopes of avoiding the POPs in whole fish, you are out of luck. Laboratory studies show that even distilled, highly processed fish oil capsules still contain these dangerous pollutants.

Fish farm owners may deliberately contaminate the fish they raise with drugs and other chemicals that are banned for human consumption. The goal is to keep these animals alive in the filthy, crowded conditions of fish farming. Imported seafood, which is most often tainted with these harmful contaminants (some carcinogenic) accounts for 80% of the fish Americans eat. The government inspects only about 1% of the fish that enter the US.

Fish is not accurately labeled and it is practically impossible to determine where it came from or how it was raised. So if you eat much fish, the likelihood that your meals are contain toxic contaminants is overwhelming.

Hummus and veggies....appetizing

Four. Fish is the leading dietary source of mercury, a potent neurotoxin. While a developing fetus is most susceptible to this poison, adults can be harmed as well. There is no safe level of mercury in your food. Don’t be fooled by “low mercury” fish. Virtually all fish are contaminated with this toxic metal, which also increases the risk of heart attack.

Five. Fish can also be contaminated by microbes that cause food poisoning. This is especially true for imported seafood and fish that have not been properly refrigerated somewhere between their death and your dinner plate. Possible pathogens in fish include E. coli, salmonella, staph, and botulism.

Six. When excess fertilizer and nitrogen (often from factory farms) floods fresh water, cyanobactera thrive. These microbes produce a number of toxins. Microcystin, one of these toxins, harms the liver. In addition, it may be a tumor promoter and have an effect similar to estrogen on the body, disrupting reproduction. Microcystin accumulates in fish. If you eat enough

Citrus slices...appetizing

of it, damage to your liver may be severe and irreversible. There is no easy therapy.

Seven. An adequate amount of omega-3 fatty acids is essential. An excessive amount, however, as may result if you consume fish oil or a lot of fish, has perilous consequences. An unnatural amount of these fatty acids can lead to increased bleeding time, interfere with wound healing, raise LDL cholesterol, and suppress the immune system

Eight. Fish oil tastes bad and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. It can cause indigestion and burping. Fish oil is just plain gross. It’s more susceptible than vegetable oil is to becoming rancid, and rancid oil can damage your liver. When fish start to decompose, unscrupulous companies may cover up the odor with chemicals – for example, a mixture of chlorine, trisodium

Apples....appetizing

phosphate, lemon juice, and copper sulfate.

Nine. Speaking of gross, parasitic worms and/or their larvae are common in fish, including the fish muscle that people eat. For example, one study found that every single one of 50 wild sockeye salmon caught during their spawning migration contained the larvae of the parasitic worm Anisakis simplex. Eight-seven percent of the larvae were in the salmon’s muscle – the part of the animal that people eat. A National Institutes of Health fact sheet on the fish tapeworm, another parasite, warns that these worms can infect humans who eat raw or undercooked freshwater fish. The worm will grow in your intestinal tract, possibly becoming 30 feet long and causing anemia and intestinal blockage.

To avoid humans becoming hosts for fish parasites, the U.S. government mandates that all seafood that is to be served raw be frozen at very low temperatures for extended periods of time. Note these are temperatures often not achieved by home

Bean burrito with rice...appetizing

freezers. However, there is no guarantee that the business which supplied the fish you are eating actually complied to the extent the larvae were frozen to death.

Even if all the fish larvae you eat are dead – killed either by cooking or freezing – you can have an allergic reaction to them. Even if you have no reaction and are not infested, how appetizing is it to eat worm larvae? Would you order worm larvae in

Worm larvae....not appetizing

a restaurant? When you think about it, wouldn’t you rather just have a nice black bean burrito or hummus sandwich?

Ten. Finally, 90% of the large fish in the ocean have already been killed and the oceans are being overfished at a totally unsustainable rate. A recent panel of 27 top scientists concludes the oceans are on the brink of catastrophic extinction. Does that one fish you plan to eat make a difference? Yes, it does. Every time you eat, you vote for either survival or extinction. Which will it be?

You may be thoroughly confused by now, thinking of all the studies you’ve heard about that say fish is healthy. Well, those are the industry and government hyped studies. Actually, a mountain of studies show fish does NOT have positive effect on health, but you never hear about those.

For example, a study published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2009 followed 195,204 adults for almost 3 million person-years. The researchers found that eating a lot of fish increased the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Another study, published in 2011 in American Journal of Epidemiology, found that men with higher levels of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (which often indicates eating more fish or fish oil) were more likely to develop high-grade prostate cancer.

What’s more, the studies that do show any benefit for fish and fish oil are comparing people who eat fish (people who are generally health conscious and may pair their fish with spinach and baked sweet potatoes) with people who eat a standard diet of fast food burgers, chips, and donuts. If you were to compare the health of people who eat fish and fish oil to the health of people on a whole foods, plant-based diet, you don’t need much imagination to see who would come out on top.

Humans are land animals, not natural fish eaters. Animals designed by nature to eat fish catch their food without manufactured hooks or nets. True fish eaters, such as seals, dolphins, pelicans, and grizzly bears, eat their prey raw and whole.

If you were meant to eat fish, you would have the teeth and digestive system to bite into, chew, and swallow an entire raw

Dead fish...not appetizing. Look at the horror in the eyes of these creatures.With such an abundance of healthy, beautiful food, why would you choose to eat this?

fish, including not just the carefully filleted muscle. You would chomp down on and consume the skin, bones, fins, guts, and eyes. Does this sound appealing to you, or even possible? If the answer is no, you are not designed to eat fish.

You have zero requirements for consuming fish or fish oil. Seafood, far from being necessary to your health, can speed its destruction. The total fish nutritional package, when you balance the omega-3s against all the toxic components, is decidedly negative. Instead of seafood, see your food for what it really is. You will happily choose plant-based nutrition.

If you want to learn more about how a whole foods, plant-based diet gets you the omega-3s you need in a healthy package, check out the post Five Ways You Thrive with Flax Seeds for Pennies a Day.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight. And this book does not advise you to eat worm larvae.

Can your doctor really help you lose weight? How does physician treatment compare to a commercial weight loss program?

Is the Glass 6 Pounds Full or 42 Pounds Empty?

The media have been overflowing with a recent British study that compared weight loss results of visits to a doctor vs. the Weight Watchers program. A Google search for the common headline “Weight Watchers Doubles Weight Loss” got me 2.7 million results.

This research, published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, is based on a year-long study of 772 overweight and obese adults in the UK, Germany, and Australia. About half were randomly assigned to see their doctor regularly to help them lose weight (called “standard care”), while the other half attended Weight Watchers meetings for free.

The laudatory reporting makes it sound like Weight Watchers has a path to health and a trim body. A review of the actual data, as opposed to the overblown stories, shows just the opposite. The study results indicate this commercial program will disappoint in term of both health and weight. These common programs will keep you from the true weight loss secret: a whole foods, plant-based diet.

Here’s what the routine media won’t tell you. Before the study started, the average participant in The Lancet research was about 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighed 191 pounds, and had an obese BMI of 31.5 for the Weight Watchers group. BMI (Body Mass Index) is a measure of the relationship of your weight to your height, and is commonly used to determine if you are normal weight, overweight, or obese.

Over the course of the year-long study, the participants who received standard care from a doctor lost, on average, about 5 pounds.

If you are overweight, you may dread weighing yourself.

This does not include the people who dropped out of the study. These people probably lost even less, as unsuccessful results will discourage participants from continuing.

The participants who went to Weight Watchers over the year of the study, with the time spent on meetings, counseling, portioning out food, counting points, setting goals, and all the other program activities lost, on average, 11 pounds. Again, this does not include the results of the drop-outs. In other words, Weight Watchers was good, on average, for an additional 6 pounds of lost weight (compared to just going to a doctor) over the course of an entire year!

To get to a BMI of 23, a truly healthy weight as supported by numerous research studies, the participants needed to drop to 138 pounds. In other words, they had to lose 53 pounds, not the 11 they actually experienced. So maybe a year was not enough to lose that much weight? Actually at a safe pound a week, you can easily lose 53 pounds in a year. This study’s published data show that, for the Weight Watchers group, weight loss leveled off after 9 months. The data did not indicate any further weight reduction was happening or that the participants would lose more than 11 pounds over time.

So here’s the data summary for the average Weight Watchers’ participant:

• Beginning of study: 5’5” tall and 191 pounds – classified as obese
• One year later: 5’5” tall and 180 pounds – still in the obese range
• Still to go for a truly healthy weight – another 42 pounds to get to 138
• Rate at which weight was being lost at the end of the year – zero

Health should be the driving reason to lose weight, not cosmetic appearance.

The researchers in The Lancet study advocate weight loss as a powerful method to reduce the risk of chronic illness, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Did this happen for the Weight Watchers participants to any greater extent than it did for the “standard care” patients? Here’s a summary of the published data:

• The Weight Watchers participants did not fare any better than the standard care participants in lowering blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, or LDL cholesterol.
• The Weight Watchers group did have small additional improvements in insulin and the ratio of total to HDL cholesterol. Although these changes were statistically significant, their clinical significance in preventing and reversing disease is likely to be marginal.

The results of The Lancet study (which, by the way, was actually funded by Weight Watchers International) are consistent with an earlier review of long-term weight loss for a number of commercial programs. This prior review, published in the prestigious medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, cited research that Weight Watchers participants (those who did not drop out) lost 5.3% of their initial weight at one year and maintained a loss of 3.2% of their initial weight at two years. In The Lancet study, the Weight Watchers participants lost 11 pounds or 5.8% of their initial weight, which is virtually identical to the 5.3% reported previously in the earlier research.

Yet women who join a weight loss program yearn to lose 32% of their original weight. Most are going to be left disappointed. In fact, their wallets may be left lighter than their scales are. A search of current Weight Watchers charges in San Diego (this may vary in other locations) showed an annual program cost of between $479 and $728, depending on payment method.

These facts are not intended to in any way put down the efforts of anyone seeking trim weight and better health with a commercial weight loss program. Any success – in fact, any sincere effort – should be congratulated and acknowledged. Commitment and persistence are laudatory qualities. But they can be put to better use. In fact, unsuccessful weight loss programs can be dangerous if

You really can lose weight - and without hunger, deprivation, or portion control - on a whole foods, plant-based diet.

they discourage you from starting the eating plan that really works.

The path to permanent, hunger-free weight loss and drug-free good health is a whole foods, plant-based diet. The story of San’Dera Prude (the reality star San’Dera Nation in the film Forks over Knives) shows the contrast between commercial program results and feasting on nature’s finest offerings.

Just before she began a whole foods, plant-based diet, San’Dera had lost 30 pounds on Weight Watchers, but her diabetes was still not controlled. Now she consumes a delicious, varied diet of vegetables, fruits, beans, potatoes, and whole grains. San’Dera is free of her diabetes and eats whenever she is hungry without having to worry about portion size, calories, or points.

The same spectacular results can be waiting for you on a whole foods, plant-based diet. You can experience more weight loss than you would have dared hope for without counting calories or points, without deprivation, without disappointment.

If you want to learn more about a whole foods, plant-based diet for weight loss and meaningful health improvement, you might enjoy these success stories: Judi Menzel (30 pounds), Todd Rosenthal (50 pounds), Meridith Hayden (80 pounds), Mike Vee (90 pounds). You may also want to check out the post Weight Loss – Success At Last and the film Forks over Knives.

You may also want to check out Six Reasons Portion Control Will Make You Overweight.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods. This easy-to-follow eating plan is built on whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease as well as get you to your perfect weight.