By Jeff Nelson, the founder of VegSource

When I received my vegsource.com newsletter today, an article about heart disease caught my eye. More about that article later, but first, I want to share Jeff’s superbly-done, 26-minute, weight loss video with you. ( FYI, “HCLF” means high carb, low fat.)

Jeff Nelson’s Calorie Density Chart

Here is my “Six from Hicks” takeaway list from this great video:

1. Losing weight is a matter of consuming fewer calories than you’re using. To help you do that, I recommend that you print a copy of this chart for your refrigerator door:
2. We know that we can’t get there by simply restricting calories; its just not sustainable.
3. The key is changing the kinds of foods we are eating, loading up on whole vegetables and starches, both of which are low in fat. They fill you up and make you feel good until your next meal.
4. The secret is eating the kinds of foods that fill us up with fewer calories; hence we can eat all that we want and don’t have to worry about eating too many calories.
5. Jeff’s rule of thumb is that vegetables have about 100 calories per pound, whereas meats average about 1,000 calories per pound.
6. And, as you can see from Jeff’s chart–bread, chocolate, nuts and ALL oils contain 1400, 2500, 2800 and 4,000 calories per pound, respectively. For best results, you don’t want to make these foods a big part of your daily routine.

Brian, after effortlessly losing over 30 pounds — on his way to vibrant health and a total weight-loss of 47 pounds; almost 25% of his beginning total.

My conclusion about weight-loss. Our bodies will naturally seek their ideal weight if we eat the right food for our species. Remember, it’s all about a permanent diet-style shift  in the pursuit of vibrant health. The weight-loss is just a fringe benefit and will take care of itself. I have found that weight-loss diets with arbitrary targets rarely work out longterm–for two reasons:

1. Once people reach their “target weight,” they tend to gradually drift back to their old, unhealthful way of eating. That’s why over 95% of the people, who “diet” to lose weight, end up putting the weight back on.
2. Until people commit to at least four months on a “HCLF” version of a whole food, plant-based diet, they never really know how much weight they have to lose. For example, read about Brian (shown here) in the next to last page of Chapter 24 in our book, 4Leaf Guide to Vibrant Health.

Handy list of veggies.. Since the primary KEY to weight loss is to maximize the consumption of non-starchy vegetables, Jeff provided a convenient list of your choices in this Wikipedia page: List of non-starchy vegetables.

He also suggests that, for best results, 2/3 of your lunch or dinner plate should be non-starchy vegetables–with the starches making up the remaining third.

Frequent weighing. Jeff has found that, for best weight-loss results, people should weigh themselves every day, at least in the beginning–and he provides a study that supports that practice: Study about how often to weigh yourself

Click on Book to purchase on Amazon.

Dr. John McDougall. Much of the information in Jeff’s video was originally developed by our mutual friend and colleague, Dr. John McDougall, who talks about the fact that people all over the world for many thousands of years–have depended on starch-based foods for their sustenance: whole plant-based foods like: corn, rice, beans, potatoes, etc.

The other whole plant foods are extremely important as well, but it is the starches that provide us with most of the energy we need and give us that comfortable, “full” feeling until it is time for our next meal.

What about 4Leaf? Our 4Leaf concept works beautifully with everything that Jeff Nelson and John McDougall have to say about healthy eating. With our 4Leaf Survey, people get an estimate of the percentage of their daily calories that are derived from whole, plant-based foods.

The definition of the 4Leaf level of eating is: deriving over 80% of your calories from whole, plant-based foods AND getting less than 20% of your total calories from fat. The average American gets 40% from fat and 10% is the optimal–according to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Jeff Nelson of VegSource.com.

We find that “below 20%” is a pretty good target for most people. The key is not including high fat items in your routine meals or snacks.

Now for the article about heart disease. In this informative article, Jeff Nelson tells about his father’s experience with heart disease–a story that reinforces the supreme importance of making your new eating habits permanent. As the title of the article states, “Just a little can kill you.” An excerpt from that article:

For a few years he {my father} ate a pretty tight diet. But as time went on, when I’d visit my folks, I’d see that they weren’t really adhering to the lowfat plant-based diet as much as I thought they should. I saw peanut butter, sometimes my dad would eat something oily if they went out for dinner, or eat something he should have avoided altogether at a dinner party at a friend’s home. I told my mom to ditch the vegan mayo that I found in their fridge at one point. — To read the entire article, click here.

The following six books 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. 4Leaf Guide to Vibrant Health, powerful new book by Kerry Graff, MD and yours truly
2. Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (my first book)
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. Primary cause of cancer is not bad luck. Stop Feeding Your Cancer, by John Kelly, MD
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 you are eating? Take our free 4Leaf Survey. It takes about two minutes. eCornell is now using our survey in their plant-based nutrition course.

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 website, which is now being used by an ever-growing army of enlightened medical doctors who are fed up with “disease care” and want to promote true health for their patients.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmh@4leafglobal.com

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