For unleashing the world-changing power of plant-based eating

This is the book that got things rolling big time in 2015.

Long before The China Study was published in December of 2004, (ten years ago this month) Dr. T. Colin Campbell was publishing life-saving and world-changing truths about food. For over twenty-five years, he has been trying to tell the world about the leading cause of most chronic illnesses, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Yet, there is still not a single school of nutrition nor a single school of medicine that is actively promoting those incredible truths that could save million of lives each year AND contribute mightily to the health of our fragile ecosystem, on which all humans depend for survival. NOT A SINGLE ONE!

Not only are those schools not actively promoting those incredible truths, many of the top schools are doing all that they can to suppress them; thereby depriving the innocent public of crucial information that we all need for longterm survival. Enough is enough. It’s now time for the public to hear about what’s been going on behind the scenes in our large healthcare organizations and in our schools of medicine and nutrition.

2015 Breakthrough #1—Enlightened journalism to the rescue. While I am not at liberty to write about exactly what is happening, I am predicting that some powerful stories on this crucial topic will be shared with the public in a number of highly regarded mainstream publications in this new year.

2015 Breakthrough #2—Stop Feeding Your Cancer, by John Kelly. That’s the name of a newly released book by a medical doctor in Ireland who is showing his patients how to beat cancer. And guess where he learned how to do that?

He read The China Study, the 2004 book that nutritional science and mainstream medicine still do not take seriously. From the online book review:

What Kelly has to say about the medical profession, dominated by consultants who rarely look beyond their own highly specialised areas, is telling.

But it is his exposure of the refusal of specialists to take on board this new way of treating cancer – or even to consider it – that makes this such an important book.

Book review: The Dublin doctor who is beating cancer

You can read the book’s preface free. Using Amazon’s “Look Inside” function at this link:  Stop Feeding Your Cancer: One Doctor’s Journey

Perhaps the leading school of nutrition in the world—still not taking the plant-based solution seriously

2015 Breakthrough #3—Mainstream doctors embrace plant-based. Long before our schools of nutrition and medicine get around to teaching how we can save millions of lives while reducing taking a quick two trillion dollars out of the USA cost of healthcare, many mainstream physicians have already started doing it. Thanks to the good work of organizations like the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, Forks Over Knives, Plantrician and many others—the ranks of the fully enlightened medical professionals is about ready to explode. Two of those mainstream professionals are featured here:

Dr. Kerry Graff. I wrote recently about my friend and co-writer for our next book. She’s not yet sure how she can earn a living in a business model currently based on managing disease, but she is 100% committed to doing it. As she says, you can’t put a dollar amount on the joy a physician feels when she helps patients get rid of disease and take charge of their health. Read all about Kerry Graff in this earlier blogpost. The Future of Medicine Starts Here—Canandaigua, NY Also, you’ll want to read her powerful “introduction” to our new book whose working title is the 4Leaf Pocket Guide to Vibrant Health.

Dr. Robert Ostfeld

Dr. Robert Ostfeld. Did I say mainstream?  A cardiologist, he earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa; his MD from Yale University School of Medicine; and his Masters of Science in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is now the director of the Cardiac Wellness Program and associate professor of Clinical Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Excerpts from a well + GOOD article published yesterday:

“When I got [to Montefiore], I started doing what I was trained to do. I encouraged patients to take guideline-based medications…[but] people weren’t getting  profoundly better. It was after that, I stumbled across The China Study.” (You know, that groundbreaking book that made a lot of connections between food and disease.)

“Disappointingly…the benefits are not well-known in the medical community. Some physicians are very open-minded to it and others are not. We should be open-minded to all things that help our patients.”

2015 Breakthrough #4—Major Healthcare Organizations. The healthcare of millions of Americans is handled by huge organizations who actually benefit financially when their patients get healthy. Even so, we’re finding that most of the physicians there are still not open-minded to a widespread replacement of “disease care” with true health promotion. One of the CEO’s of one such organization recently told one of my colleagues how he felt about telling patients about a disease-reversing plant-based diet.

He said that to him a plant-based diet was a bit extreme. As such, since he was not prepared to adopt it himself, it wouldn’t be right for him to ask his patients to embrace such a diet.

To me, that is a big problem—and here’s why. All physicians have the responsibility to provide their patients with the very best advice available when it comes to their health. That means telling them the complete truth about certain diet-styles that some may have previously considered “extreme.” Why is that? Because there is now a mountain of evidence that supports the fact most chronic disease can be reversed simply by eating a lot more whole plants.

While this “mountain of evidence” has pretty much been hidden from the public until now, I think that the time has come to get that life-saving information out to EVERYONE. All won’t act on it right away, but they deserve to hear it. And the primary access vehicle to that truth is their physician; whether or not that physician is willing to adopt that superior diet-style him/herself.

Hippocrates

When the big news referenced above starts breaking, these large organizations are going to be forced to start taking much better care of their patients. Isn’t it time for all these organizations to become truly accountable to their patients and tell ALL of them this simple advice from Hippocrates? “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” 

(See my blog entitled Plant-Based for ALL Patients! says Kaiser-Permanente)

The Bottom Line. As the news about the incredible POWER of whole plants to reverse disease becomes common knowledge, change will come and it may very well come quickly.

2015 is THE YEAR for that NEWS to break and for that rapid CHANGE to begin.

SUSTAINABILITY. Finally, let’s not forget the fact that the primary cause of our poor health is also the primary cause of ALL of our major environmental issues that threaten the sustainability of our civilization. They’re all driven by the toxic diet that we have chosen to eat. A few of my blogs on that topic during the past twelve months:

• NOTHING is more Important than Sustainability! By comparison, all else shrinks to insignificance. 1-25-14.
• Tearing down the single biggest roadblock to sustainability My “locked brains” article. 10-23-14.
• Cancer. Heart disease. Global warming. Water scarcity. Warning, this one may make you angry. 2-6-14.
• Meat consumption down? “Renewables” surging? Some things are getting better in some places, but not for the entire globe. 9-25-14.

The following five books and one DVD can be purchased on Amazon for a grand total of less than $60—and will enable you to understand the overwhelming challenges we face—along with the single most-powerful solution of all.

Six-Pack from Hicks—for health, hope & harmony on planet Earth

1. Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
2. A life changer for millions, including James Cameron. Forks Over Knives DVD 
3. An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell; the primary book that influenced Bill Clinton to adopt a whole food, plant-based diet.
4. What have we done to our planet? Full Planet, Empty Plates by Lester Brown
5. A horrifying wake-up call for leaders. TEN BILLION by Dr. Stephen Emmott
6. Food choices are the primary cause of our environmental problems, yet our world leaders, scientists & experts are Comfortably Unaware, by Richard Oppenlander.

Why should we be eating mostly plants? The “big picture” in 4 minutes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Survey. It takes 2 or 3 minutes. eCornell is now using our survey in their plant-based nutrition course. Check it out on your smartphone at eCornell.com/4Leaf-Survey.

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.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, visit our 4Leaf Program and also enjoy some great recipes from 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.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member since 2012; click banner for more info: