Word Search Puzzle Created by Nicole Foucault (from Canada)

Canada, the beautiful and wonderful country to our North

In November of 2012, my publisher (BenBella Books) in Texas received a hand-written letter addressed to me. It contained the Word Search Game presented below. Here is that letter:

October 27, 2012

Dear Mr. Hicks, I loved reading “Healthy Eating, Healthy World!” It should be required reading in all high schools. Excellent suggestions, clear explanations!

Here is a word search game I created with vocabulary from your book. You may use my game.

Thank you, Nicole Foucault

Here are the instructions for Nicole’s game:

1. Print off the grid by clicking here for the one-page PDF.
2. Using all of the words listed below in alphabetical order, find them in the following grid.
3. The words can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal and may be right to left or left to right. They may also be going up or down.
4. As you find the words, draw a line around each word.
5. Some letters in the 14 by 14 grid will not be used. You may use those letters to solve the puzzle—a seven letter word.

Word Search Game by Nicole Foucault of Pontiac, Quebec, Canada

Andrew Hicks (10) —- that’s his dad, Jason, on water skis in the photo behind him; on Lake Wallenpaupack in PA in 1990.

On Thanksgiving Day (2012), my 10-year-old grandson, Andrew, solved this puzzle in less than twenty minutes. The only direction his mother (Lisa Hicks) gave to him was: “Use your leftover letters to form a word.” After circling all the words on the grid, he quickly found his seven un-used letters and discovered the correct word just seconds after that. I didn’t do nearly as well.

A puzzle with meaning. Shortly after learning the correct one-word answer, I thought of a meaningful visualization. Think of the 196 squares in the grid above as the farming fields of the world—with each of them containing about 40 million acres. Think of the seven squares remaining at the end of the game.

They would contain about 280 million acres. What if they were the only acreage left to feed our growing population? As we continue to add 200,000 people per day to our population and continue to lose an area about the size of South Carolina (20 million acres) each year—we will soon be out of enough land to feed everyone and enough land to maintain the fragile harmony of our ecosystem.

This is how much arable land is lost in the world every year—about 20 million acres.

The obvious solution is a move to a plant-based diet for humans. Not only is it much more healthy for us, it is much more healthy for the planet AND will enable us to feed the world’s seven billion people on far less than half the land the we’re currently using.

Think about half the squares of the grid being available for a return to forests, meadows and natural habitats. Think about the human race retuning to living in harmony with the rest of the planet—something we haven’t done for a few hundred years.

The Correct Solution. Did you find the secret word?  Using your seven-letter word in ALL CAPS as your password to access the page, Click here to find out if you are right.

If you didn’t find the correct solution or you had trouble opening the solution page, just send me an email and I will send you simple clues that will help you quickly find the solution. jmorrishicks@me.com —My 660th consecutive daily blog—

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

International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.

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