The highlight of the UCSD
Integrative Oncology Conference for me was listening and speaking to Dr. T Colin Campbell, author of the masterpiece The China Study

The UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine Treats and Prevents Cancer By Helping Your Body to Heal Itself

You may think of cancer as a discrete mass of cells with a life of its own. Every kind of cancer is labeled with the part of the body it first targeted. Yet your whole body is key to preventing and healing cancer, regardless of the type. To a great extent, all cancers begin in your mind, when you tell yourself to eat risky foods and spend the evening stressing out while sitting on the sofa. With the right knowledge and motivation, you can just as easily make healing lifestyle choices.

The University of California San Diego (UCSD) Center for Integrative Medicine weaves together open-minded conventional medicine with evidence-based approaches that go beyond drugs and surgery. I was privileged to attend the Center’s April 2013 Conference on Integrative Oncology, which brought together a range of perspectives on taming cancer using a whole body approach to strengthen self-healing.

The China Study‘s brilliant author, T Colin Campbell, PhD, was a keynote speaker. Dr. Campbell reviewed the highlights of research over decades that develops compelling evidence for the relationship between diet and cancer. Nutrition controls genetic expression to a huge extent. This is

The standard American diet, laden with animal foods, is a time bomb on your plate, as Dr. Campbell’s decades of research have demonstrated

especially true for the action of animal protein. Dr. Campbell found that casein, the main protein in dairy foods, had the effect of turning tumor growth on and off as the amount of casein in the diet was manipulated up and down. Plant proteins, even in similarly high concentrations, did not -in contrast – incite cancer progression.

The more Dr. Campbell researched the process by which casein made tumors grow, the more ways he found. He discovered a “tsunami of mechanisms” by which animal protein underlies cancer progression, and stated “casein is the most relevant carcinogen ever identified.”

Dr. Campbell concluded with a description of the powerful effects of a whole foods, plant-based diet. This ideal nutrition prevents and cures most chronic disease, and does it quickly, in days to weeks. All this with no harmful side effects. So nutrition therapy trumps drug therapy. Whole foods optimize the functioning of your whole body.

Stress can also contribute to the inflammation and genetic damage that contribute to tumor growth

Two of the other Conference speakers pointed out the role of stress and other mental factors in making the body vulnerable to genetic damage, while effective mind/body healing mechanisms are protective. Dr. Scott Lippman, Director of the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, discussed the finding that early palliative care prolongs lung cancer survival. Palliative care is not direct treatment of cancer, but instead involves health care professionals meeting with the patient to assess symptoms, establish goals, assist in making decisions, and coordinating care based on each patient’s specific needs.

You are likely not surprised that patients who received palliative care had higher quality of life and better mood. What does indicate the interaction of mind and body is the fact that patients receiving early palliative care had less aggressive medical care for their cancer at the end of life, but survived significantly longer.

Dr. Sheila Patel, Medical Director of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, reinforced the research supporting the role of stress and mind/body healing for cancer patients. She pointed out that stress directly impacts immunity and inflammation, and chronic inflammation underlies cancer through multiple mechanisms. She recommends relaxation to give yourself a break from the overstimulation of modern life.

Several survivors related their gripping stories of medically documented recovery from stage 4 cancer. I

Lauray MacElhern, Managing Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine, shows students in the Natural Healing and Cooking Program how to make easy, delicious, healthy meals

was especially fascinated by the recovery and triumph of Bhava Ram, an NBS News war correspondent who traveled the world in perilous situations, but was ultimately felled by a broken back, failed surgery, and stage 4 cancer. An organic vegan diet became his “organic chemotherapy.” Intensive yoga practice was the other essential aspect of his journey to radiant health, leaving both cancer and back pain in a past that only inspires him now to teach and help others.

The Center for Integrative Medicine reaches out to the San Diego community with cancer-fighting plant-based cooking classes. Dr. Gordon Saxe, the Center’s Research Director, and Lauray MacElhern, the Center’s Managing Director, run the classes at Casa de Luz, a unique dining room with delicious, organic, plant-based meals. During the Conference, both spoke about the power of food in concert with mind/body modalities to reduce stress and facilitate the body’s healing power. Dr. Saxe told the moving story of his own father’s battle with cancer.

A whole foods, plant-based diet is the foundation of effective cancer prevention and treatment

By emphasizing cancer is a whole body disease, not an isolated tumor that is best treated only by surgery and highly toxic drugs and radiation, the Center for Integrative Medicine and the Conference speakers show the way to a truly effective, integrative oncology with plant-based nutrition at its core.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes a plant-based diet plan that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease – and that includes cancer in many cases. Janice is thrilled to hear Dr. Campbell present, and speak with him after.

The post Cancer Is a Whole Body Disease appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

Robb and Amy enjoy a delicious, hearty dinner a few months after adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet

Robb Trexler Loves His Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet

Most people I’ve known who have moved from a standard American diet to a whole foods, plant-based diet have taken some time to make the transition. For me, it took about four years. While a slow transition works for many, Robb Trexler and his lovely wife Amy show that transforming food choices can happen rapidly, with permanent success.

Robb, a 64 year old nurse, Marine Corp veteran, and Clinical Data Analyst for the Open Heart Program at Scripps Memorial Hospital, is a San Diego friend I love to spend time with. He lives enthusiastically, being sweetly devoted to his wife and family, not to mention his favorite teams. He switched to a vegan diet with the same energy he cheers on UCLA with.

Robb grew up with a diet centered on meat, cheese, white bread, whole milk, fried foods, and processed snacks like candy, cakes, and cookies.

Robb with his old diet, before he decided to eat plant-strong. He is at the favorite breakfast spot of famed basketball coach John Wooden

He is now 100% plant-strong, nourishing himself with whole foods and skipping the processed junk.

While Robb stopped eating meat in the late 1970′s, he transitioned to a truly healthy diet during a staycation with Amy, beginning September 15, 2011. They found out about Veg Week, an annual San Diego celebration of whole foods, plant-based diets, with speakers, cooking demos, shopping tours, and social events, and decided to attend all the offerings. Both Robb and Amy decided to go 100% plant-strong the first night of that week, and have kept on track since then.

Robb shared the exciting impact this change in diet

Robb, after deciding to go vegan, makes much healthier food choices in the same restaurant booth

has had on his life. “Before, on my old diet, I was chronically tired and didn’t sleep well. After I went to healthy, whole plant foods, my weight went from 210 to 167 in 3 months, and has stayed there without needing to count calories or points. Amy makes delicious smoothies and meals and I love what we eat. I never get bored with it. I am now off all the meds I used to take for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. I have a lot more energy and sleep well. My only regret is that I didn’t make this choice 30 years ago, and there I was an ICU nurse taking care of patients who had suffered heart attacks, strokes, and had open heart surgery. All the evidence to change my ways was right in front of me, yet I ignored it because I loved the taste of “good” food. But now I enjoy the whole foods we eat as much as I used to love the cheese and processed empty calories. Knowing we are eating healthy and not consuming at the expense of animals, with all the pain and cruelty that involves, is comforting. Being role models for others is satisfying as well.”

And Robb is a role model at the hospital where he works. After his one year anniversary as a vegan, the hospital posted pictures of him on a prominent bulletin board, with his success story in his own words. Robb even shared his phone number so his coworkers could call him with questions. He found people stopped him in the hall at work to marvel at his transformation, with some expressing skepticism they

Robb’s healthy journey was posted on the bulletin board at Scripps Memorial Hospital to inspire and inform coworkers

could achieve the lifestyle Robb and Amy have.

Robb smiles. He knows anyone can do it – they just need to go out and get the knowledge, then grab some contagious enthusiasm and forge ahead. You can grab enthusiasm and guidance from Robb by sending him a friend request on his Facebook page, and then messaging him with your questions.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes a whole foods diet plan that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice is happy she was part of the San Diego Veg Week activities that inspired Robb and Amy, and that they have remained friends ever since.

The post Going Vegan In One Week, No Problem appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

The Jazzy Vegetarian makes preparing a plant-based meal fun and easy

The Jazzy Vegetarian Brings Health With Music and Food

Laura Theodore started asking for acting and singing lessons at age 3, when she made herself the star of home movies that were supposed to have her baby sister as the focus. Laura got her first acting job when she was 11, and had performed in 40 plays and 5 television shows by age 16. Her acting was interrupted by idyllic summers on an island in Lake Erie between the US and Canada, where she learned to love nature and fresh-grown fruits and vegetables.

Laura, now popularly known as the Jazzy Vegetarian, shared with me her story of how she’s developed her cookbooks, PBS television series, and weekly radio show to get everyone to try their hand at healthy, compassionate cooking. Her journey started with frequent childhood stomach aches that became intolerable by the time she started her professional career in New York. “I grew up eating a typical American diet with lots of meat. During rehearsals as a kid, we would be given fast food dinners. I got terrible stomach pains after, but never put it together with the food. By the time I was 20, my stomach was sick all the time,” Laura told me.

Luckily, a health food store employee suggested to Laura that if she stopped eating meat, her stomach would feel better. She began the transition of deleting all animal foods from her diet; the process took about 10 years to complete. “I was traveling all the time to perform, and it was hard to find plant-based meals. I was not as motivated as I needed to be until I learned all the compassionate reasons to not eat dairy and eggs. After that I just could not eat them anymore,” Laura observed. “Today it’s easy to travel and find healthy plant-based meals. Whenever I’m going to travel, I use Google to figure out the nearby

The Jazzy Vegetarian demonstrates the steps to prepare her tasty recipes

vegetarian restaurants and health food stores. Being prepared, I never have a problem.”

Laura explained the health benefits she experiences from a vegan diet. “For me, the main health benefit of being on a plant-based diet is that my weight is more stable. I gain weight really easily. While managing my weight is still a challenge, being on a plant-based diet makes it easier to maintain.”

I asked Laura how she gets ideas for recipes, and discovered it went back to when she first learned to cook from her mother and grandmother. “We have family recipes that are a tradition. After I became vegan, I didn’t want to stop cooking and enjoying those favorites. So I found ways to veganize the recipes and still have them be delicious. Now, whenever I see a recipe I like or that is a classic American choice, I start thinking right away about how I can make it healthier and vegan. For example, I might decide to substitute a finely chopped apple for eggs and sugar in a muffin recipe.”

Laura let me know how her lifelong career in acting and singing meshes with her career as a vegan cookbook author and TV chef. “They have merged and are the same career now, there’s just one path for me. My mind works the same whether I’m developing a recipe or singing jazz. When I’m singing, I picture the next bars that will complement and carry forward all the music played before. When I’m creating a new recipe, I visual the ingredients and how they come together. Doing either creates a natural high for me. There’s always a music subtext for my food shows, and always a plant-based subtext for my music.”

Jazzy Vegetarian fans include many non-vegetarians who want to learn to make a tasty, appealing plant-based meal for themselves and their families. I ask Laura what she hears from her audience. “I’m not vegan, but I like this. You’re making it so much easier for me.”

Laura shares the reasons for success of the recipes in her books, TV show, and radio. There are four secrets.

• The ingredients have to be convenient and accessible in just about any supermarket

• There should be minimal steps to prepare the recipe, unless it’s in the gourmet category

In merging the musical and culinary creative processes, Laura makes vegan food that sings

• The end result should be delicious

• Bake in the entertainment, however you present the recipe; everyone loves to be entertained and have fun

Laura lets me know that she is grateful every day that she can use her creativity to help people get healthier and reduce the demand for factory farming. I am grateful too that she is working so hard to make plant-based food a tune that everyone wants to sing.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to try some of the Jazzy Vegetarian recipes.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes a whole foods, plant-based eating plan that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice enjoys the Jazzy Vegetarian’s radio show, and is honored to have been a guest.

The post Recipes That Sing a Plant-Based Song appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

You know your lungs are vital for breathing. Think of them also as a point of exchange between you and your environment. What are you bringing into your body?

Give a Wide Berth to These Four Enemies of Air Quality

Your lungs are an entryway to your body, a site where you literally take in your environment. Millions of tiny air sacs in your lungs have walls only one cell thick. The oxygen necessary to life diffuses into your blood across this cell layer, and carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, diffuses out to be eliminated from your body. This exquisite design is fundamental to life, and blocking it for only a few minutes will result in death.

Modern indoor and outdoor air pollutants are intruders hijacking this process, leading to premature death, disability, and damage that crosses generations. Microscopic pollutant particles and gases can cross the one cell layer of your air exchange sacs and enter your blood, from there carried throughout your body to cause widespread damage.

Other particles remain lodged deep in your lungs, provoking serious respiratory inflammation and harming your ability to get the oxygen needed for survival. Your lungs are structured to function in clean air, so don’t have mechanisms to filter out all these harmful bits of pollution.

You can, to a meaningful extent, control the amount of health-destroying pollutants that assault your lungs. But first you have to know what they are. Here are four of the most dangerous causes of air

Air “fresheners?” Only if you consider unlabeled toxic chemicals to be refreshing

pollution.

ONE. Fragrance. You might have thought of scented personal care and cleaning products as fun. You might have held the bottle to your nose for a big whiff, or sprinkled on perfume, or set “air freshener” loose in your house.

The Environmental Working Group’s comprehensive report Not So Sexy: The Health Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrance will set you on a safer path. By law, the ingredients in “fragrance” do not have to be listed on the label, to protect the manufacturer’s proprietary blend of any number 3,100 chemical ingredients.

Many of the chemicals used in artificial scents are associated with hormone disruption and allergic reactions. There is no scientific knowledge of the effects of most of these chemicals on human health, wildlife, or the planet’s ecosystems. No one knows the impact of a mixture of the risky substances, since they interact in your body and the larger environment. Manufacturers don’t even have to test for safety.

How can you protect yourself and the planet? Don’t buy any product with the word “fragrance” on the label. This includes perfumes and colognes, lotions, hair products, cleaning supplies, air fresheners, scented candles, dryer sheets, and so on. It’s fine to buy products fragrant with natural plant oils (for example, lavender oil). These will be labeled as a plant oil, not “fragrance.” If there is air freshener on the wall of the rest room you must use at work, ask management to have it removed.

TWO. Secondhand tobacco smoke. Just about everyone is aware of the health-destroying nature of secondhand smoke. But you might not be aware of just how risky it is to breathe this substance. If you hang around where people are smoking, take note. A recent study found that people with the highest exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke were 90% more likely to have arteries clogged with plaque than were those in the general public.

Even if you don’t use tobacco, the smoke billowing from the cigarettes of others can clog your arteries

In fact, breathing these tobacco emissions will put you at greater risk for coronary disease than will diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or kidney disease. Clogged arteries greatly increase your risk for heart attack and stroke.

Again, there is a solution in sight. Stay away from anyone who is smoking indoors or out and from place where smoking is allowed, such as many casinos.

THREE. Traffic fumes. You may think of auto and truck emissions as unpleasant, without realizing how dangerous they truly are. Diesel emissions are especially risky, but all engines that burn fuel send out the ultra-tiny particulate matter that is the most dangerous form of air pollution. Remember, these microscopic particles, some 95% smaller than a human hair is wide, can penetrate into the deepest part of your lungs, and even into your bloodstream to attack cells throughout your body. These light, invisible particles are also carried on the wind great distances, again a threat to wildlife and ecosystems.

This particulate matter has both short-term and long-term health impacts. Short-term effects include

Auto and truck emissions can significantly raise your risk of chronic illness and early death

aggravating asthma, coughing, bronchitis, and hypertension, and increasing the immediate likelihood of heart attack. Longer term dangers include a greater likelihood of developing lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, reduced brain function, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic inflammation, and premature death from chronic disease.

These toxins can even harm the next generation. A study of babies born between 1995 and 2006 in California found that a pregnant woman’s exposure to air pollution measurable increases her baby’s risk of developing autism.

While you may not be able to avoid living in a fume-filled urban area, you can lessen your exposure to traffic in many ways. For example, don’t live on a busy road. Take public transit whenever possible. Don’t exercise on traffic-filled streets or at rush hour, when emissions will be highest. Keep your share of the overall pollution down by driving a high-mileage car, maintaining it in optimal shape, and avoiding driving when you can.

The smoke from cooking meat, tobacco, and traffic all have one deadly chemical in common – PAHs

FOUR. Meat fumes. If you love the smell of cooking meat, or think that barbecuing or grilling animal foods makes them healthier, you may be astonished to learn that many of the same chemicals and fine particles in tobacco smoke and traffic emissions also pervade the air when you cook meat. You risk your health, and especially the well-being of a growing fetus, by inhaling particles of cooking meat, chicken, turkey, and fish.

One of the most health-busting classes of chemicals common to tobacco smoke, traffic fumes, and meat smoke are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These substances are a product of incomplete combustion of materials that contain carbon. Burn tobacco, wood, oil, gasoline, coal, garbage – or meat and fish – and PAHs will form. Over 100 varieties of PAHs can threaten our health and the environment.

Grilled or barbecued meat is even more hazardous than tobacco and traffic as a source of PAHs. At least you don’t eat tobacco or auto emissions. With the animal foods, you not only inhale the smoke, but you eat the PAHs that adhere to the meat or fish, thus getting a double dose of toxins.

PAHs are carcinogens and damage your eyes, liver, skin, red blood cells, immune system, and kidneys, in addition to your lungs. PAH-induced damage to DNA increases the risk of birth defects. For unborn children, exposure to PAHs can raise the likelihood of childhood cancers and impact brain development.

Meat fumes are among the easier air pollutants to avoid. Stay away from grilling and barbecuing meat,

Tasty, healthy, and non polluting. Wouldn’t you rather have a bowl of these colorful berries than a toxin-laden hunk of charred, greasy meat?

both indoors and out, and don’t eat it either. In fact, a colorful, appealing, whole foods, plant-based diet looks and tastes way better than a burnt, drab hunk of animal food anyway.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read more information on the dangers of barbecue and grilling animal foods.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes a whole foods, plant-based diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice loves to hike in fresh air and does not buy products with “fragrance.”

The post Which Air Pollutants Are Worst For Your Health? appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

Dave’s Killer Bread, fresh out of the oven. Every time I see this picture, I want to grab a loaf.

Bob’s Red Mill and Dave’s Killer Bread Take Whole Grains From Field to Your Lunch

Unlike the political capitol of the US, impressive health flows from Milwaukie, Oregon, the whole grain capitol of food fans. Or at least this food fan. What are whole grains? Simply the seeds of certain grasses. Whole grains, a key part of whole foods, plant-based diets, lower your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and help you stay thin. Ridiculous denials of extensive scientific research by animal foods industries and advocates do not change the basic biological facts.

I was in whole grain heaven the day I visited the headquarters of Bob’s Red Mill and Dave’s Killer Bread. Their two facilities, only minutes apart in Milwaukie (near Portland), are united by a common philosophy that consumers deserve healthy, delicious, convenient whole grain choices.

I was fascinated to watch how these grains journey from field to store, where you can benefit from all this work by simply putting the tasty products into your shopping cart. The ease and low cost are astonishing.

Bob’s Red Mill plant is 17 acres of whole grain heaven

Appropriately, I started the day by visiting the 17 acre Bob’s Red Mill facility, where huge trucks deliver tons of freshly harvested grains to be processed and packaged. The informative tour guide distributed information on the company along with sample of whole grain cereals. A picture of Bob Moore, the company’s founder, brands all 400 of their products. Bob, now in his 80′s, is vigorous and plays an active role in the company’s operations. He is a living testament to the healthfulness of whole grains. However, the company is no longer his – he gifted it to employees for his 81st birthday.

The plant where grains are processed and packaged is meticulously clean. Gluten-free products are extensively tested to be sure they are really free of gluten, and are walled off from the products that do

Employee-owners take great care of the Bob’s Red Mill facility

have gluten.

In addition to elemental whole grains (just the seeds as the plants grew them), cereals, flours, and mixes, Bob’s Red Mill offers flax seeds, dried beans, and other whole foods (be careful, some of the mixes do have animal ingredients, so read the labels).

The flours are special because they are stone ground at low speed and temperature, to maintain maximum taste and nutrition. This contrasts to most flours ground in high-speed steel roller mills that heat the grains to a much hotter temperature. The grinding stones take more care to maintain and are more expensive to operate, but isn’t your health (not to mention taste buds) worth nurturing with nature’s finest foods?

Bob’s Red Mill ships tons of its organic whole wheat flour, freshly milled, a few minutes down the road to the amazing bakery of Dave’s Killer Bread. I was fascinated with a special tour of the plant to watch the

The freshly risen dough is ready to be carefully baked

entire production process.

The ingredients for each batch of bread are carefully analyzed because of natural variability in organic ingredients. Small differences can have a profound effect on outcome. In the mixing room, professional bakers figure out how to blend each batch for perfect results. My tour guide emphasized again and again that the bubbling yeast and fermenting dough are “living things” that must be respected and nurtured.

Baking that first loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread took 15 years. That’s the time that Dave Dahl, the force behind the brand, spent behind bars for drug-related convictions. After four long stints in jail, Dave decided to turn his life around and go back to the family baking business.

Today Dave focuses on continuing to perfect his product for the community. All his breads use organic ingredients and are certified organic. These wonderful loaves are 100% animal-free and based on whole grains.

Dave’s Killer Bread sets the standard for breads sold anywhere – stores and bakeries alike. Although

Bob’s Red Mill packaging says it all – Whole Grain Foods for Every Meal of the Day.

packaged, the taste is right out of the oven. You can totally savor the respect for the baking process and the high quality ingredients in the finished loaves . The 18 varieties have a range of tastes and textures, which fans describe as hearty, chewy, bold, sturdy, airy, sweet, crunchy, nutty, moist, and thick. The Sin Dawg variety is a perfect marriage of bread and a sweet treat. Its sticky cinnamon filling is so addictive that it might be a controlled substance. If you don’t want to get hooked, don’t try this bread.

If you can’t fly to Oregon and your local stores don’t carry the Bob’s Red Mill products you want or Dave’s Killer Bread, don’t despair. You can order online. These special products go far to make a whole foods, plant-based diet accessible and delicious for all.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes an anti-inflammatory diet built on whole plant foods that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice eats whole grains every day, almost every meal, and can’t get enough of Dave’s Killer Bread.

The post Where Do You Find the Best Whole Grain Foods? appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

You no longer need to wonder whether the chicken or the egg came first. They are interchangeable. An egg is a disassembled baby bird just waiting to form into a miraculous being.

It’s Not Just the Cholesterol That Scrambles Your Health

One of my most stomach-churning childhood experiences was cracking an egg for cooking and finding a partially formed chick fetus inside. I screamed in horror and threw it in the trash. No one else was in the kitchen with me. I learned at that point that it’s pointless to ask “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

In fact, chickens and eggs are interchangeable. An egg is a disassembled chick, since everything needed to form the baby bird is inside the egg. The shell forms a casing that allows the contents of the egg, under proper conditions, to rearrange themselves into a baby bird who will hatch and grow into a reproducing member of his or her species.

The hideous conditions of chickens on factory farms has been widely reported, so many aim to eat supposedly “kinder” eggs that are labeled “free range” or “cage free” or a similar soothing label. These terms are not regulated and have no meaning. Most often, chickens suffer terribly to lay these eggs for commercial production. The laying hens must be replaced, and the male chicks who hatch to replace them are killed at birth since they have no profitable use. Often the tiny babies are ground up alive.

Still, some insist they get their eggs from rescued chickens who are treated like much-loved pets. What could be wrong with that? For starters, these eggs have the potential to harm your health and weight, just as all eggs do. Here are seven reasons to choose a non-egg breakfast.

ONE. The USDA National Nutrient Database records that a whole, cooked, hard-boiled egg has 155 calories, no fiber, and 10.6 grams of fat. Of this, about a third is saturated fat. Since the egg has no fiber, it

Whole plant foods are way more filling, satisfying, tasty, and appealing than a gooey, fat-laden egg

will activate your stomach’s stretch receptors for fullness only to the extent of the volume of the egg itself, which is pretty small considering your stomach is a bit bigger than a liter. You could get so many more nutrients and satisfaction from fiber by eating 155 calories of whole plant foods, such as apples, black beans, or brown rice.

TWO. Eggs contribute almost as much to the growth of plaque blocking your arteries as smoking does, according to a 2012 study. This study focused on egg yolks, and found that yolk consumption accelerated the development of the deadly plaque that causes heart attacks and strokes.

THREE. Eating eggs measurably increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. For example, a recent study found that eating 3 to 5 eggs a week doubled the chances of becoming diabetic, and those eating 5 or more eggs a week had three times the risk of this deadly disease.

FOUR. The incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is soaring. The fats in eggs may directly harm your liver, contributing to cell death, inflammation, and eventually deadly liver cirrhosis. The cholesterol concentrated in egg yolk can directly harm your liver as well.

FIVE. Endotoxins, which can cause destructive inflammation in your body, are poisonous substances in bacteria that are released when the bacteria die. This inflammation fuels cardiovascular disease and chronic illnesses ranging from headaches to arthritis to autoimmune disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. Fat helps transports endotoxins into your body – and recall that eggs are high in fat.

SIX. Got salmonella, a disease-causing bacteria that causes nasty food poisoning? Salmonella bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), are frequently found on the outside as well as on the inside of eggs. The CDC recommends eating only thoroughly cooked eggs and tells you to “wash hands and all food contact surface areas (counter tops, utensils, dishes, and cutting boards) with soap and water

Dark chocolate eggs are okay for a special treat

after contact with raw eggs. Then disinfect the food contact surfaces using a sanitizing agent, such as bleach, following label instructions.” Do you really want to go to all this trouble every time you touch an egg, or have something so full of bacteria in your refrigerator?

SEVEN. Don’t think you are home clear if you just eat egg whites, which have no cholesterol. Instead, egg whites are dense sources of animal protein, which itself directly raises cholesterol. The body sees bits of absorbed egg protein as a foreign invader, which can activate your immune system, again directly increasing inflammation and the risk of chronic illness.

Forget being plagued by indecision in trying to chose the “kindest” egg or justifying to yourself eating the reproductive materials of rescued birds. When you consider your own health, you’ll choose scrambled tofu with veggies for breakfast instead of scrambled eggs. With just the right amount of turmeric, the tofu has a

Whatever your breakfast, add to its taste and healthfulness with lots of fresh or frozen fruit

color virtually identical to eggs and is delicious. Recipes abound online for this delight, and well as animal-free pancakes, waffles, French toast, and other breakfast choices. For baking, search for plant-based egg replacements, which are numerous, and all healthier and lower calorie than eggs are.

Chicks, whether assembled into birds or disassembled in eggs, are not an appetizing or health promoting food. Give them up for a few weeks, give your tastes a transition period to change, and you’ll see what I mean. A whole foods, plant-based diet can quickly become your first choice. Your body will thank you, and so will the birds.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes a simple diet built on whole plant foods that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice has not eaten eggs since 2000, and is relieved and happy to be free of this gooey food.

The post Seven Dangers of Eating Eggs appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

Julie Simon shares how to end emotional eating permanently

Julie Simon Shows You How to End Compulsive Eating and the Diet Mentality

Do you struggle with compulsive emotional eating, including binge eating when you’re not really hungry or frequently reaching for junk food instead of nourishing choices? If so, you may have developed a love/hate relationship with eating.

On the one hand, food is always there for you, and can entertain and soothe you. But at the same time, you feel out-of-control and so unhappy after stuffing down more than you need. You have probably tried many diets and maybe even emptied your wallet on an unsuccessful quest for an easy, trendy fix. Yet you find yourself with weight ups-and-downs (more up than down) and a painful struggle between “I want” and “I should,” with guilt never far away.

I know, I lived these conflicts myself through my early adult years. My friend Julie Simon, a psychotherapist and life coach, also struggled with these same issues. Lucky for us, Julie developed an approach to put a permanent end to unhealthy eating driven by addictions, body imbalances, and painful emotions.

Julie’s book, The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual: A Practical Mind-Body-Spirit Guide for Putting an End to Overeating and Dieting, shares her discoveries. She articulates how to end your emotional eating for good by developing the tools you need to grow beyond it. Julie’s wise and compassionate coaching

Julie writes with care and concern you can feel throughout the book

guides you to build self-care skills and spiritual practices that nourish you on every level.

Julie told me why she wrote her guide. “Most diet books and weight loss programs focus exclusively on reduced-calorie eating plans and exercise regimens. They attempt to apply external solutions to internal problems and fail to address emotional and spiritual hunger and body imbalances. I created the 12 Week Emotional Eating Recovery Program and wrote this book because I wanted to offer an alternative to dieting that would address these mind, body and spirit imbalances.”

I asked Julie about the diet mentality that rules the lives of so many. “When I use the term diet mentality, I’m referring to deeply entrenched thoughts and habits related to controlling food intake and body size. For example, you might be:

• constantly thinking about what you’ve eaten, what you’ll eat and what diet you’re going to follow to lose weight;

• regularly counting and restricting calorie, carbohydrate and/or fat grams;

• eating according to “rules” rather than body hunger, i.e., not eating past a certain time of night, fasting, under eating, or skipping meals when you feel fat or after you’ve overeaten;

The dieting mentality may be ruling your life

• avoiding activities that involve food and eating;

• ignoring hunger signals by drinking extra amounts of water, tea, coffee or diet sodas;

• feeling guilty when you eat something off your current diet plan;

• using diet pills, caffeinated beverages and cigarettes to reduce your appetite;

• over-exercising to compensate for perceived overeating or weight gain;

• overusing laxatives and diuretics to combat overeating or bloat and

• excessively concerned about your body size which may manifest in weighing yourself daily or multiple times per day.”

Julie recommends a whole foods, plant-based diet as an important part of recovering from emotional eating. When you thrive on vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains, your hunger signal works as it is designed to, guiding you on when to eat and when to stop. This is the diet you are designed for, as an

ever-growing mountain of research demonstrates.

Are you all wrapped up in a dieting mentality?

Since a whole foods, plant-based diet is optimal, why don’t most people simply adopt it right away, ending our national nightmare of epidemic obesity and chronic disease? Julie explores the many reasons you may be driven to make unhealthy choices, and how you can nurture yourself to grow beyond compulsive emotion-driven eating. Using food as a comfort, distraction, and friend is often fueled by lack of nurturing in your formative years.

If you face unhealed trauma from childhood and major stresses now, you can use the methods in The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual to learn to care for yourself in a healthy and effective way, amplifying your Inner Nurturer and quieting your Inner Critic. Julie’s caring voice guides you with five self-care skills, five body-balancing principles, and five soul-care practices in an integrated approach to develop as a person.

You grow out of binge eating and dieting as these practices lose their grip on your mind, body, and spirit. Julie outlines practical steps to choose the foods your body is designed for, get optimal exercise and sleep,

Julie recommends a whole foods, plant-based diet as fundamental to recovering from emotional eating

and learn to listen to and balance your body signals and chemistry. As she points out, “It’s best if you can shift your focus to gaining skills and practices rather than to losing weight. Over time, the weight will come off and stay off. And losing weight tends to be somewhat effortless with this approach.”

The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual shows you a long-run solution to weight issues and effective self-care skills that will serve you in many areas of your life. You’ll fell nourished and understood just reading it.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes a whole foods, plant-based eating plan that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice is so grateful to have ended her binge eating, and wants you to find an approach to develop a healthy relationship with food.

The post How To Stop Emotional Eating For Good appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

Your choices significantly determine whether you will go over the health cliff that fills so many lives with pain and limitations

The Health Cliff Is Way More Treacherous Than Any Fiscal Politics

The drama of the “fiscal cliff” is riveting the country. Even when a political deal stops the threat of abrupt tax hikes and deep spending cuts, more battles over finances are sure to rock Congress for years to come, so the core issues will remain hot long after January 1, 2013.

While the fiscal issues are major news, the media spends little time focusing on the health cliff, which is a looming catastrophe for most Americans. You have the choice to make this most personal drama play out the way you want it to for yourself and your family. Here’s what you need to know to avoid this gloomy slide into sickness and stay on track for a lifetime of health.

What Is the Health Cliff

Whether you’ve thought about it or not, you are facing a slide down a health cliff – an expensive slide for you in every way, costing you not just money, but also time, pain, and your freedom to live as you want with energy and superb health.

The descent starts when you are first diagnosed with a chronic disease, for example hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis,

No matter how much money is spent on drug ads, the fact is that pills do not equal health and are no substitute for a healthy lifestyle

depression, heart disease, chronic sinusitis, headaches, asthma, back pain, a digestive system disorder, kidney disease, osteoporosis, cancer, or an autoimmune disease. Modern medicine offers drugs and surgeries to perhaps control the worst symptoms and sometimes prolong life, but offers few cures. And the drugs and surgeries themselves can be hazardous, with their own lists of dangers.

One huge problem is that chronic diseases love to keep each other company. The technical term for this is “multimorbidity,” which means you have more than one chronic disease at a time, and the number you suffer with at once will likely go up as you get older. As you accumulate these

Navigating the health cliff can be way more treacherous than the fiscal cliff. There are so many alluring ads that make the dangerous choices seem normal, even fun.

unwanted diagnoses, you health, energy, and ability to function keep slipping down the face of the cliff.

Several recent studies indicate that the health cliff is starting earlier and becoming steeper for most Americans.

• The United Health Foundation released the 2012 America’s Health Rankings. The striking finding is that, while Americans are living longer, quality of life is severely impacted by preventable chronic illness. In a press release, the group’s medical adviser notes that “As individuals we are regressing in our health.” The release observes that obesity and diabetes are at “epidemic levels.” Life expectancy in the US is lower than in most other developed countries. A quarter of US adults take at least four prescriptions regularly!

• The American Hospital Association’s December 2012 Trendwatch shows that the rate of diabetes among those age 65 and older went from 18% in 2002 to 27% in 2010. This is an increase of 50% in just eight years! In the ten years from 2000 to 2010, the percent of seniors with two or more chronic illnesses went from 37% to 45%.

• The American Heart Association published its 2013 update on heart disease and stroke statistics. While medicine is improving its ability to rescue heart attack victims from immediately fatal consequences, an American dies of cardiovascular disease every 40 seconds.

The Health Cliff Vs. Fiscal Politics

The health cliff and a fiscal political battlefield have much in common.

• Both involve choices and trade-offs that most people find difficult. In the case of fiscal issues, it’s higher taxes vs. the continuation of government programs that millions see as critical. For the health cliff, it’s the ability to make “easy” lifestyle choices (eat animal and junk foods, skip exercise, and perhaps smoke or drink alcohol to excess) vs. the liberating experience of living pain-free, with high energy and the ability to spend time having fun instead of sitting in the doctor’s office or pharmacy.

• Both are manmade, avoidable disasters.

• Both are key issues with long-term consequences for the US as a whole and for you and your family.

The approach to the edge of a cliff may be level and appear safe. You might not see the fall until you are very close to it.

At the same time, the two cliffs have stark differences.

• While your personal influence over government budgeting is quite limited, you have personal power to make choices that substantially determine your health cliff outcome.

• The fiscal cliff is a very public drama played out in Washington DC. Your lifestyle choices are private and personal, played out in your own home and workplace.

• The fiscal cliff is governed by the laws of economics, which can be influenced by human decisions and negotiations between parties. The health cliff is governed by the laws of biology, physics, and chemistry. Don’t even think about messing with mother nature. She does not negotiate or compromise. You make your choices, and the consequences predictably follow.

Staying On the Road of Health

Diet is the most important lifestyle choice determining your health. This is not to say other factors are not important. Not using tobacco or other addictive drugs is also crucial, followed by exercise, getting enough sleep, avoiding environmental toxins, and generally staying involved in life through relationships and activities. But if you are putting unhealthy foods into your body – pouring sand into your engine, is one way to think of it – the other factors are not likely to keep you off the cliff.

Staying on the path to great health is a lot easier than you might think – and more fun than facing pain and disability. In fact, it can be downright fun once you get the hang of it.

Overwhelming evidence shows a whole foods, plant-based diet goes far to prevent and even reverse most chronic illnesses, with no bad side effects and no cost. To educate yourself on what to eat on this diet and why it works, there are shelves full of resources. Start with The China Study, then you can advance to any of the numerous other books on whole foods, plant-based diets (including The Perfect Formula Diet).

If you prefer the drama of movies, don’t miss out on the films Forks Over Knives and Vegucated. The engaging stories of their reality stars will set you firmly on the path to health, with the cliff of pain, disability, low energy, and a life centered around costly meds just a dot behind you on the horizon.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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 book, based on over 1,000 scientific studies on nutrition and health, describes an easy whole foods diet that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice is wishing you the best of health and enjoyment of life for many years to come.

The post How To Avoid Your Own Personal Health Cliff appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

Your liver is a vital organ that is essential for health – and for survival. Drinking to excess can injure and eventually destroy your liver.

Wine and Cheese May Be a Particularly Toxic Combination

Drinking too much over a period of years is even more deadly than smoking. Alcohol can damage your brain, liver, digestive system, and other body systems. A recent study found that death rates were twice as high for alcohol-dependent men and almost five times as high for alcohol-dependent women, compared to the general population. Some studies have found small amounts of alcoholic drinks to be protective of heart health, although this may be due to beneficial phytochemicals in the plants the drinks were made from.

You should consult your physician to determine the amount of alcohol (if any) it’s best to set your limits at. The information in this article is educational and not intended to tell you whether you should drink or (if you do) how much; only a licensed health care professional who is familiar with your health history can do that.

Whatever your choice on consuming alcohol, you should know that that animal foods, such as meat and cheese, may boost the normal dangers of drinking by accelerating liver damage and inflammation. Even if you never consume alcohol, these animal foods may harm your liver, with a result similar to the effects of drinking.

Your liver is super at multi-tasking. This large organ filters and stores blood and forms key blood cells, is critical to metabolizing food and hormones, detoxifies drugs and chemicals, manufactures bile for digestion, and stockpiles vitamins and iron. You need a high-functioning liver for optimal health.

You may already be aware that alcohol can injure your liver, sometimes to the point where the damage is fatal over time. Here are six ways that mixing animal foods with alcohol may make that liver injury worse. Or you can look at it that alcohol is making the effects of animal foods more toxic. However you want to think of it, the point is that meat, cheese, and alcohol don’t mix.

1. Endotoxins, which can cause destructive inflammation in your body, are poisonous substances in bacteria that are released when the bacteria

Some studies indicate that small amounts of wine are healthful. This effect may actually be due to the grapes the wine is made from.

die. Alcohol enables endotoxins in your gut to get into the bloodstream that flows to your liver, causing your liver to become inflamed. Animal foods are often dense with endotoxins, which are not destroyed by cooking. Thus, alcohol may increase the amount of meat and dairy endotoxins in your digestive system that reach and inflame your liver.

2. Fat also transports endotoxins into your body – with meat, cheese, and eggs all being high in fat.

3. Even apart from easing the passage of endotoxins, fatty acids may directly harm your liver, contributing to cell death, inflammation, the formation of scar tissue, and cirrhosis. Saturated fats – so dense in meat and cheese – are the most dangerous.

4. Meat is high in a kind of iron that your body will absorb whether you already have enough iron stored or not. Excess iron can directly damage your liver and give rise to electrically-charged free radicals, which also harm your liver. So eating iron-rich meat while drinking may result in an attack on your liver from two sources: iron and alcohol.

Parties are fun.

5. Too much cholesterol can also injure your liver – cholesterol is found only in animal foods, and even in so-called “low-fat” animal foods.

6. Liver processing of alcohol makes your body more acidic. Meat and dairy products also are metabolized in a way that will make your body more acidic. The joint effect of the intake of alcohol, meat, and dairy together is potentially even more disruptive of your body’s chemistry than each of these substances alone is.

There is overwhelming evidence that alcohol hurts your liver and that components of animal foods have a harmful effect on your liver. Scientists should be studying more directly the effects of mixing alcohol and animal foods in people. For example, directly research whether diet makes a difference in outcome for people who choose to drink to excess. Until such studies are available, consider the facts listed above and see where the existing evidence points – the conclusions are obvious.

Whole plant foods, on the other hand, are protective. The vitamins and antioxidants so dense in vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains

Now here’s a delicious party platter that will help you enjoy life for many years to come.

soothe inflammation and neutralize free radicals. If you are going to drink wine anyway, why not have it with fruit, whole grain crackers, hummus, and similar whole-foods choices instead of cheese?

Even if you don’t drink, you may be part of the epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), in which fat accumulates in your liver even if you drink alcohol in small amounts or not at all. Obesity significantly raises your risk of developing this condition.

NAFLD is a common condition, with up to 1 in 3 Americans afflicted. NAFLD can progress to more dangerous liver inflammation and cell death, and from there to potentially fatal cirrhosis.

Some medical literature will shrug off early fatty liver disease as fairly harmless unless it progresses. However, this widespread medical condition deserves more research by studying people that have it. It’s hard to believe that even mild injury to an organ as critical as the liver has no significant health impact. How much liver damage does it take to affect your health and longevity? The answer is that no one knows. However, your risk of dying prematurely is significantly increased if you have NAFLD.

You don’t want to leave a party feeling like this. Not fun.

While we are waiting for more information, remember that you get only one body per lifetime, so take care of it. Help protect your hard-working liver by saying no to animal foods and yes to whole plant foods. And see your doctor and get help right away if you suspect that you may have a problem with alcohol.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes a simple diet built on a tasty whole foods eating plan that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice is wishing you the best of health and enjoyment of life for many years to come.

The post Why Meat Can Magnify the Dangers of Alcohol appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.

Dr. Don Wagner broadcasts 5 days a week for an hour each day with top-notch guests. You can hear him anywhere with the show archives on the web.

Dr. Don Wagner Heeded “Physician Heal Thyself,” and Now Guides Patients with a Whole Foods, Plant-Based Diet Plan

Childhood was a health disaster for Don Wagner. Born with cardiac issues, including a hole in his heart and arrhythmias, he started life on medications and hospitalizations.

At age 4, he tumbled off a three story balcony in New York City, his childhood home. Paralyzed on his left side, he spent 6 months in a hospital with doctors helpless to get him to recover. Finally, still unable to move the left side of his body, the young boy was allowed to go home. When the doctors told Don’s parents he would probably never walk again, his Mom became his hero. Refusing to give up, she learned some physical therapy modalities and worked with Don intensively until he made a full recovery. Don was not done with the hospital stints yet, though, and his pediatrician became a role model because Don saw him so often.

Luckily, Don grew into better health in his teenage years. “I never wanted to be sick again,” he told me as I shared a fragrant Indian curry dinner with him and wife Sandy. The couple, thriving on a whole foods, plant-based diet, now juggles their busy Bullhead Urgent Care Center in Arizona with a plant-based private practice and Dr. Don’s vegan radio show.

“I grew up on the standard American diet, but had a hippy macrobiotic uncle. He and his friends told me, “Don’t eat meat, man, it’s not healthy.”

Instinctively I knew they were right, and became vegetarian when I went to college, then vegan just before medical school. I didn’t know how to do it right, though. I didn’t feel well, and my weight plummeted from 180 to 122. I ended up going back to being vegetarian, which was easier for

After spending so much of his childhood in the hospital with doctors as his role models, it’s no wonder Dr. Don decided to dedicate his career to helping people get better. His medicine can heal the planet as well with a whole foods plant-based diet.

me,” Dr. Don relates.

Dr. Don became certified in Emergency Medicine and Family Practice. He moved his career from New York to Florida, then decided to live in the West. Tragedy struck his family again on 9/11. Dr. Don was in a small town in Arizona to interview when he watched the Twin Towers fall. He lost two family members that day. The comforting safety of a small town with no crime was irresistible and so he accepted a new position. Later he moved to Bullhead City, a faster-growing town, and eventually opened Bullhead Urgent Care Center.

Dr. Don likes to resolve his patients’ problems. “I was happy fixing bones and sewing up gashes, but frustrated that my patients with chronic disease never got better. They just ended up on more and more meds. I knew there had to be another approach. I became vegan again in 2006, but this time I got the science. I studied the research of Doctors McDougall, Esselstyn, and Campbell. This time I ate right, with whole foods like vegetables, flax seed, and nutritional yeast. I was careful to get enough B12. I felt great, but still did not know how to use what I was learning to get my patients well.”

The turning point for Dr. Don was a low-income, seriously ill patient who came to his Urgent Care Center. This man, who had not had the funds

Now that Dr. Don figured out how to get patients genuinely well, he won’t settle for just giving out pills.

to see a doctor in years, turned out to have advanced diabetes, hypertension, and elevated liver enzymes. Dr. Don put him on multiple meds, but the man wanted to get at the cause of his ills. Dr. Don told him the problems all traced to lifestyle choices, and marvels at the result. “The man got a bike to ride everywhere for exercise. He gave up drinking and started feasting on vegetables. In 6 months, he was off all his meds and never came back to see me. He was well.”

Encouraged by success, Dr. Don began handing out Dr. Esselstyn’s book to his heart patients and Dr. Campbell’s book to his cancer patients. “Some get it, some don’t. If the patient wants to work on a plant-based eating plan, I take care of him or her. Otherwise, one of the other clinicians in the Urgent Care Center does. I only work now with patients heading in a plant-based direction. It can be a slow transition. The hardest foods for my patients to give up are oil and cheese. They convince themselves that a little bit is okay. But even a little bit causes inflammation and plays havoc with their recovery. Sometimes I have to transition them off of up to 15 medications. The process is challenging, but highly gratifying for me. The ones who go all the way get well, and I rarely see them again.”

Dr. Don also gave Dr. Esselstyn’s book to his wife, Sandy, who was suffering from severe pains in her legs caused by blocked blood vessels. Sandy discovered the pleasures of a whole foods, plant-based eating plan. Her leg pains vanished, her blood pressure normalized, and her energy soared. Sandy, who runs the Urgent Care, is a gifted cook who shares her healthy recipes with patients and is working on a cookbook.

Dr. Don lets everyone know about the power of whole foods, plant-based diets to heal with his terrific broadcast radio program, the Dr. Don Show. Pretty much every leading figure in plant-based lifestyles, from physicians to PhDs, to chefs to exercise and psychology experts, have been guest on his show. Dr. Don is a skilled interviewer who works with his guests to articulate their story.

At first Dr. Don could reach only the Bullhead City broadcast area. As listeners began to thank him for changing their lives, he realized he needed

Dr. Don will send you to the store to buy healing food

to get his show to a larger audience to help even more people. He now archives all shows on the site of his Urgent Care, and is building a new website to host the archives and become a go-to resource for information on healthy vegan diets. His plans for the site include videos, articles, recipes, and more.

You can listen to the archives of his show now. Don’t miss out on this treasure trove of entertainment and information while we wait for his new site to launch.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on whole foods, plant-based diets. 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. The book describes an easy-to-follow diet built on a simple plant-based eating plan that can prevent, and even reverse, most chronic disease. Janice is honored to have been a guest on Dr. Don’s show.

The post The Physician Who Sends You to the Food Store, Not the Drugstore appeared first on Perfect Formula Diet.