And it’s not a very pretty picture…
But first a little Hurricane Irene update. I drove from coastal Connecticut to higher ground at my son’s house West of Boston last night. Looks like things may not be quite as bad as we had feared in Stonington; I will head back down there tomorrow morning to bright sunny skies. And I may even be sailing by Monday afternoon.
This is where I hope to be by sunset on Monday
As for our long-awaited CNN special, we should know soon when they plan to re-schedule it again. Meanwhile, I was reading some CNN reader comments yesterday below the David Martin “heart attack proof” article — and they were not very encouraging.
After reading a sampling of the hundreds of comments, it appeared that 90% of them were not receptive to the life-saving message in the article, many were skeptical and some were even angry. Here are three that were fairly representative:
*** Enough already with you having a heart attack at 38 and moderation almost killed you. Bitterness and unforgiveness wipes out 3/4 of the planet through diease and committing acts of violence takes out most of the rest. There’s a village in Italy that smokes, drinks and eats meat almost every day and the average death rate is 100+. My point, the wages of sin is death—sin kills every one of us, some earlier than others that’s all.
*** I don’t know … people in New Guinea, rural China, central Africa and the indians of Mexico … no heart disease BUT also they don’t generally have long life spans anyway … so maybe if they would live longer, heart disease would show up. Besides, people in these areas don’t get autopsies upon death, they’re just buried or cremated as soon after dying. Anyway, why is a Mediterranean diet considered healthy, olive oil, fish, meat, greens, whatnot ? Same goes for the Japanese diet, fish, meat, veggies, oil … and the French … lots of wine and fatty meats ?
*** This sort of pandering comes around every few years and it adds to the list of physician authors who have discovered the secret to curing heart disease. Unfortunately, however, genetics is going to play the greatest influence in how efficiently your body processes cholesterol, how your body deals with inflammation and what specific characteristics in your body lend themselves to health or disease. No doubt, there will be people storming the shelves to buy this new discovery of a book that will make the author rich, but it will not change the cards you were dealt by mother nature.
Stay Tuned -- This special is coming soon.
What does this tell me? It tells me that we’re a very long way from improving the eating habits of the vast majority of Americans and other consumers of our extremely harmful, wasteful and unsustainable Western diet.
The key word here is unsustainable — meaning that since our way of eating is not going to be around forever — eventually, people everywhere will be “forced” to move in the direction of a plant-based diet. Hopefully, we can begin to reach the more thoughtful members of the mainstream long before the “force” comes into play.
When I began my study of this topic in 2002, my primary emphasis was learning about the optimal diet for humans, but the more I learned about the many other reasons for eating a plant-based diet, I became at least as passionate about all of those other reasons as I was about the health reasons. That’s what is missing with the people like the ones who commented above. They simply do not fully comprehend the magnitude of what is at stake.
If they knew all of the facts about how our food impacts the environment, the energy crisis, world hunger and animal suffering; many of them would consider making better food choices for themselves and their families. Posted below are two previous posts on this topic — the all important task of reaching the mainstream. First, we must listen to them, then we must help them understand “the big picture.” In addition to these two links, there is a link below my signature to the full CNN article (with comments) by David S. Martin.
In closing, I will let you know when “The Last Heart Attack” has been rescheduled. Soon, the whole world will be able to hear these powerful words from Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
If we collectively ever want to get to the point where we have “The Last Heart Attack,” a good start would be to stop ignoring what we already know to be true…we know that eliminating heart disease can be done —and truth is, we have known for a very long time how to do it.
J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.
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If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. Also, for help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4-Leaf page. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.
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—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com
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J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy. 
Hi Jim, re the CNN comments: whenever I come across ignorance/people who are uninformed about the value of a plant based diet it inspires me even more to spread the good word/be a good influence to others. I don’t know everything but would bet my life on the science and logic backed facts that we so desperately want people to grasp regarding taking care of our health, the health of the earth, and animals.
We must band together- strength in numbers. How about if someone like you or Dr M or Dr F or ANYONE! comes up with a brief ideology re a plant based diet- then like a petition we get people in the know like us to sign it. The list will continually grow. The “People For Plants” list.
Even apparently “intelligent” people who read the right info STILL discount it. I know someone who is a BIGGIE in the air traffic business who thinks I am a LUNATIC for my plant based diet beliefs. (My beliefs are the same as yours. Since I’ve started reading your blog entries there’s nothing I’ve disagreed with- we are like minds. There are only a couple of other people I know/have direct contact with that I consider to have like minds.) The person I mentioned above in the air traffic business has read my blog entries and refers to them as “pyscho babble.” This is a person in great demand in his field who travels to other countries because others seek his insight!
The great majority of doctors back in the day thought that blood letting was a good practice, and that any doctors who were against it were shunned.
The great majority of doctors back in the day thought the need to wash their hands before surgery was ridiculous. The doctor who suggested this idea was ridiculed and lost his job/reputation.
My point is: there’s ALWAYS going to be the naysayers, those close-minded supposedly “intelligent” folks who will NEVER get it. Isn’t it true that only 5% or less of the general population eats a plant based diet? I’m afraid we have an uphill battle- a steep hill in fact.
I just happened across a few websites that I actually laughed at their beliefs. Please check them out: http://www.angelfire.com/bug2/shellpics/ I see there’s Atkins links on the left- ha! Or this one: http://savetheplants.tripod.com/id4.html
“It is difficult to stop eating plants.. so we hold meetings to try and help you stop your addiction.”
Ha!
Or
We hope to have fund raisers in order to make “Save the Plants!” t-shirts, and bumper stickers. We will eventally hold protests to stop vegetarians in their meaningless slaughter of our brethren!
Or
http://savetheplants.tripod.com/id3.html
ie: “Salad is murder too!”
——————————
Can you believe it! Ha!
So Jim, these are examples of what we have to work with.
Again, like you, I’ll go out trying to spread the correct info that we’ve been blessed with understanding.
Keep up your fantastic work my friend. I’ll continue to read your blog, and write mine. I hope you don’t mind I quote you/include snippets from your blog/refer people to your blog.
Best, Greg
People For Plants http://peopleforplants.blogspot.com/
This is so sad to hear these comments – I try not to read comments after articles, because they are usually very uninformed, regardless of the topic.
When my wife told me about her switching to a “plant-based diet” after her mother suffered through cancer, I laughed at her. “NO WAY” is what I thought. Until after my doctor wanted me toa take blood pressure pills and cholesterol lower medication. My father died of a heart attack at 56. so did his father. That’s when I switched to a completely vegan diet. I don’t miss meat at all. My diet not for everyone, unfortunately. My cholesterol went from 220 to 137 in 3 months. LDL from 120 to 73. My blood pressure went from 130/95 to 115/70.. I get so angry when National Egg Council, Dairy industries and National cattleman’s association infiltrate the FDA and tell us that lean meats, eggs and low fat dairy is “good for us”. Study after study show it’s not. They squash those studies or confuse the mass public with their “funded studies” that confuse the mass public. Good for you dr. M…I hope you can spread the word!
In the words of Dr. M : “People love to hear good new about their bad habits.” The truth can set us free but only if we accept the truth.