Animal suffering. An oft-forgotten consequence of our food choices.

Posted on 11/04/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

One of the smartest animals, pigs get a bad rap — most live their complete lives in horrid conditions until they reach their ultimate destiny as part of your breakfast, your pizza topping or your barbecue sandwich.

Out of sight—out of mind

After close to 700 consecutive daily blogs, I have written about the needless suffering of animals 27 times. But lately, I have been writing mainly about sustainability issues and the need for corporate CEOs to take the lead when it comes to leading America away from our unhealthy, wasteful, harmful and barbaric western diet-style.

The primary motivation for those corporate CEOs will be to save money on healthcare; thereby improving the profitability of their enterprises.

But with every one of their employees that adopts a health-promoting plant-based diet, the lives of thirty farm animals will be saved. Thirty animals that will not have to live their entire lives in agony—only to face a brutal death at the end.

And, don’t kid yourself, we’re not just talking about the “meat” animals like pigs and cows. We’re also talking about the egg and milk producers—the ones that many vegetarians don’t think have to suffer. They might change their mind after watching what “retirement” is like for dairy cows who’ve spent their entire lives making milk, cheese, yogurt and ice-cream for human consumption.

Warning! This content may be disturbing for some. It was for me.

Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth

Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth—and the longterm sustainability of the human race.

Humans—the infestation of planet Earth. What a mess us late-comers have created. There have been about 100 billion people that have ever lived on this planet. Seven billion of us are alive today—yet we’re now torturing and killing two billion fellow Earthlings every single week for our dinner tables. And that’s just to feed their meat and dairy products to the wealthiest 50% of our seven billion population.

This way of life is grossly unsustainable for much longer—and this entire mess has been created in just the blink of the eye of history. Consider that there has been life on Earth for roughly four billion years, but we humans have only been here for less than 5/1000th of one percent of that time.

Yet in that brief period, we have taken over every square inch of the planet and have claimed all land and waters as belonging to us humans. As the only species in the history of the world who has failed to live in harmony with the planet, we have completely ignored or violently abused the other million species of Earthlings who share our home.

The Bottom Line. I am embarrassed to be a part of such a selfish lot—and am striving to all that I can to help us all move aggressively back in the direction of harmony with the rest of the planet. As more and more people become aware that the future sustainability of the human race is what’s at stake, they will be more receptive to the inevitable change.

Fortunately, when we do wonderful things for our own health, we also do wonderful things for our fellow Earthlings and for the  planet—and for her continued ability to sustain our species. Make the decision to take charge of your health today—the lives of your great-grandchildren are riding on that decision. (Today is consecutive daily blog #638)

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

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.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now

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.

SHARE and rate this post below.

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

Posted in Suffering of Animals, Sustainability | 9 Comments

“Seriously Impressive” Corporate Wellness Programs…

Posted on 11/03/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

Yet all are missing the boat when it comes to the food.

I came across a blog this week featuring some of the best corporate wellness programs. With the likes of IBM, Aetna and MD Anderson on the list, I have no doubt that their so called “healthy eating” components of their plan are coming up way short of truly promoting health.

All of these big companies are no doubt basing their eating programs on the USDA Guidelines, featuring “a balanced diet with daily intake from all the food groups, including lean cuts of meat and low-fat dairy.” All of these companies will continue to tell their people that yogurt, cheese, milk, chicken and fish are health foods—and they will continue to get modest results as their overall cost of healthcare per employee keeps going up.

They simply don’t get it and won’t get it until the overall “system” changes. But we can be the catalyst that forces that change. Our clients will see significant drops in the cost of healthcare, and their competitors will be calling us for help.

Introducing a health and wellness program into a corporate setting comes bundled with two major benefits. The first, of course, revolves around preventing employees from succumbing to dangerous conditions such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes as much as possible.

Secondly, because of this lowered chance of chronic — if not terminal — illness, this means saving money on health insurance costs.

And while the twelve well-intentioned companies are probably doing a better than average job at corporate wellness—they are missing the boat big-time when it comes to what is possible. I know of only one corporate CEO in the country who is moving in that direction—John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods Market.

He is teaching his 60,000 people how to take charge of their health by shifting to a diet of whole, plant-based foods. And he’s making it attractive for them to do so.

But, as for the dozen companies featured in the article, they’re probably achieving less than 20% of their potential wellness improvement. My estimate is that a shift to a whole foods, plant-based diet will yield ten times as much health (and cost reduction) benefit as all of the other wellness initiatives combined. But it will take some serious executive leadership to capture those benefits.

So who are those 12 companies? IBM, Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority, Aetna, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Yale-New Haven Hospital, American Specialty Health, Virgin, Google, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Mayo Clinic, and Hewlett-Packard.

The Bottom Line. All of the thousands of corporate wellness programs out there are doing good things—and many of them are talking about “healthy eating.” The problem is that they don’t know what that means. Meanwhile, the average cost per employee in corporate America continues to escalate—at about the same rate as the average increase in overall healthcare spending increases each year.

None of these efforts will yield meaningful results until we fix the food. And we are prepared to do just that.

Our 4Leaf for Life program is ready for deployment at large companies and institutions all over the country. For a better understanding of what is possible, take these three steps:

  1. Read this blog post. Slashing the cost of health care in businesses
  2. Then read this one. Are corporate wellness programs working?
  3. Then give me a call to discuss: J. Morris (Jim) Hicks at 917-399-9700.

(This is my consecutive daily blog # 637)

Source article. You can find it by “googling” 12 Companies With Seriously Impressive Corporate Wellness Programs (They asked me to remove the link for some reason.)

This stuff is not rocket science. Until your employees learn all about the “why” and the “how” (See list below) for consuming a truly superior diet, they will continue to get fatter and sicker. Not only can the corporation facilitate this learning process, they can also provide incentives, rewards, support, recognition and leadership. A winning combination for the employees, their families, the company, the shareholders, the nation and the world.

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

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.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now

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.

SHARE and rate this post below.

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

Posted in Corporate Wellness | Leave a comment

When the vast majority of people are obese…

Posted on 11/02/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

What will it be like to be in the “skinny” minority?

It was recently reported in the news that 44% of the adult population in the United States is projected to be OBESE by 2030. Some states, like my boyhood home of Mississippi, will see obesity levels as high as 70%.

If we wait until the majority of us is obese—we’ll never get out of this mess.

Upon reading this news, it suddenly dawned on me that obesity is fast becoming the accepted norm—meaning that people like me will be in the minority. Just think about the implications:

  • Restaurants. When we enter restaurants, we’ll be asked if we prefer “regular” seating (in the best part of the room) or “irregular,” in the other part.
  • Clothing. The department stores will stock regular sizes of sportswear—with waist sizes of 38″ and larger for men. Then, the “big and tall” specialty stores of today will be replaced by the “lean and mean” stores of the future–for waist sizes below 38.
  • Airlines. The airlines will be keeping our height and weight on file and will be seating the regular people in the front of the plane, where the seats are larger—and only four across. This will also serve to move the center of gravity forward in the aircraft. As for us skinny folks,  we’ll be assigned to the irregular section in the back of the plane where there will be six-across seating.
  • Vehicles. Automobiles will be designed for the larger regular folks, while the irregular skinny people will need to buy what amounts to a booster seat for adults that provides padding around the cavernous bucket seat which is standard.

Governor Christie of New Jersey during the Sandy disaster

All of the above sounds absurd, but it could very well become a reality. We’ve already got a lot of prominent leaders out there who comprise the first wave of obesity in positions of authority.

For the past week, we’ve seen a great deal of one of them—the one Dave Letterman picks on almost every night. The exceptionally large, and highly popular, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey.

The inspiration for this blog came from a friend who’d just attended the annual meeting of the National Safety Council. He caught my attention when he mentioned some of the obesity-driven safety and liability concerns that were being discussed. As he described the likely workforce of the future:

The incoming workforce will be increasingly obese over the next decade impacting their endurance, flexibility and  physical abilities. This will lead to reduced productivity, increased injuries (workman’s compensation cost increases), increased property insurance liabilities due to worker errors induced by reduced physical capacity and more subtle issues like workplace employee costs (i.e. clothing, larger chairs, etc.)

Not only do employers have an opportunity to reduce their current medical expenses, but they can protect themselves from the future liabilities of tomorrow’s workforce.

Get ready. This is what the new “norm” is going to look like in about twenty years.

In the last paragraph, my friend was referring to just another reason why today’s CEOs should be doing all that they can NOW to “tame the healthcare monster” of today—because he will be even meaner tomorrow.

The Bottom Line. It’s only going to get worse until some visionary CEOs take decisive action to correct it. Ironically, most CEOs think they’re already doing that. Towers Watson reports that virtually ALL companies with over 1,000 employees have a corporate wellness program in place today. But it is blatantly obvious that they’re not working—as our nation’s workforce continues to get fatter and sicker.

That’s because 99% of those “wellness” programs are missing the singe most crucial ingredient—serious attention to the FOOD. To my knowledge, only one CEO has demonstrated a commitment to a truly health-promoting, disease-reversing, whole foods, plant-based diet—John Mackey of Whole Foods Market.

The time for action is now—and the corporate CEOs are the only group of powerful leaders who have a financial incentive to help their entire workforce get healthy, trim and more productive. If we wait until the vast majority of our population is obese—we’ll never get out of this mess. (my 636th consecutive daily blog)

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

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.

To order more of my favorite books—visit our online BookStore now

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.

SHARE and rate this post below.

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

Posted in Activism & Leadership, Corporate Wellness, Obesity | Tagged | 3 Comments