At home, at school, at the soccer game, in the restaurants — the wrong food for our species is ubiquitous.

We know from overwhelming scientific and clinical evidence that the natural diet for our species is whole plants — in nature’s package. And even though our mothers told us that we should eat more fruits and vegetables, we keep eating less and less. As a percentage of our calories consumed in the United States, we get a meager 5% from whole plant foods — the natural diet for our species. Most Americans give far more thought to the type of fuel they put in their cars than they do the fuel they put in their bodies.

Here's Lisa with my son and co-writer Jason as they head out for a 50-mile bike ride

How can we not expect to have an obesity epidemic throughout our population at all ages — now beginning with the children? A school-teacher in Massachusetts (my daughter-law, Lisa Hicks) says it best in her comment responding to my Chubby Kids in Georgia post.

Food is definitely the main factor in childhood obesity. As a teacher, I see it everyday. The kids come into school, many of them after eating breakfast at home and eat it at school again, none of which is nutritional. They then are provided a snack, which consists of cereal, juice and cookies, again devoid of any nutritional value, and some of them even bring in their own snack to eat as well. Their snacks are always processed – cookies, chips, or candy.

One of many unhealthy school lunches in New York City

In my twelve years of teaching, I have only seen a handful of kids bring in a piece of fruit! And then to lunch, which is served only about an hour after their snack. Lunch is usually pizza, macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets, more processed unhealthy food. They are constantly being fed, and being fed the wrong foods!

Now to the lunchboxes, which are packed with snacks, something kids, and their parents, think they need. Unless it is a fruit or vegetable, all snacks are highly processed and full of ingredients that you can barely read! Putting things into your child’s body that you can’t even identify or know are bad for them is a shame. Hopfully, America realizes your message soon or we are going to have an even sicker, more obese generation of kids. Look at the variety of cookies and candy in a supermarket – how can we not think food is our problem?

Where does this mess end when you consider that our top schools of nutrition, like Cornell University, are still following the USDA pyramid (with animal foods) in their curriculum? Succumbing to pressure from the dairy industry, they even cancelled Dr. Campbell’s very popular Plant-Based Nutrition course a few years ago. (See my earlier post on Academic Freedom.)

Even though a former president of the United States (Bill Clinton) has read Dr. Campbell’s book and removed meat and dairy from his diet, our farmer-controlled USDA continues to promote meat and dairy for human consumption. But, as I have said many times before in this blog, the answer to this mess is a grass-roots revolution led by people like you and me.

J. Morris Hicks, the "big picture" guy when it comes to what we should be eating...for our own health and so much more

The way to be an active part of this revolution (without proselytizing) is simply to choose the healthiest foods for you and your family  and share this kind of information with people that you care about. When enough of us are demanding more whole plant foods, the farmers, stores and restaurants will respond and this movement will eventually gain some powerful, world-changing momentum.