Once again, it’s time for a little levity on a Sunday morning.

I didn’t keep track, but according to my own subconscious random sampling of the news for the past two weeks, Petraeus & Twinkie outscored Gaza & Fiscal Cliff  by at least two to one.

As for the Twinkie news, a friend in Houston sent me this cartoon from their local newspaper. It is a good indication of the challenge ahead as we strive to promote health for ourselves and for the planet.

Sadly, the message herein is probably accurate. The number of people who’re concerned about saving the Twinkie outnumber us healthy-eating tree-huggers by at least 100 to 1. It’s kind of like the news and their tendency to devote the most air time to the least important topics. It’s actually one of Parkinson’s Laws: In group meetings, the time devoted to any topic will be inversely proportional to its value to the organization.

A couple of lessons here—courtesy of D. Carl Garrison (my Houston buddy)

Probably the most powerful major health “special” EVER. Congrats to Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Lesson One. The news media is in the entertainment business and they get paid by the number of viewers/readers they have. Hence, give those readers what they want to hear—not necessarily what’s important. How much news do you hear about how whole plants can reverse heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers?

I can name two or three in the past few years: The Last Heart Attack on CNN (Aug 2011) and a few of the Dr. Oz segments that included Dr. Esselstyn, Campbell, Fuhrman and/or Barnard. But for every one of those “healthy” segments, Dr. Oz will have a dozen segments on the latest weight-loss gimmick.

Lesson Two. If we’re ever going to help preserve our planet’s ability to sustain life as we know it, then we’re going to need some serious leadership. Since we’re not likely to get that leadership from elected officials, the medical industry, academia or the food industry—then we must get it from the world’s most powerful CEOs. They are about the only prominent leaders (affecting millions of people) who have a huge financial incentive for those people to be healthy. See this link (Slashing the cost of health care in businesses) and go from there.

Finally, for your entertainment pleasure on the last day of your 4-day holiday weekend. A silent Saturday Night Live review (2 minutes) that begins with a Paula Broadwell book reading (11-17-12). SNL removed the video portion but I found this clip where you can read the jokes.

So, what is this garbage doing in my blog? It is just part of showing you that I have a sense of humor and that I have occasionally featured a few funnies in some of my previous 658 consecutive daily blogs. Here are a few others:

• Diabetes; made in America — or iPhone 5; made in China?
• Jon Stewart on the Queen, “Sixty years on the throne?”
• It’s time for a little levity on a Sunday morning

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

• The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD 
• Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
• An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
• Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

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J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation