Serena leads a great day for plant-powered athletes.

Posted on 09/11/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

Two NFL performances complement her stunning U.S. Open win.

Powerful woman, mentally and physically—cradling her fourth U.S. Open Trophy on Sunday

Outstanding athletes who eat nothing but plant-based foods are beginning to demonstrate the superiority of the diet-style where it matters most—at the highest level of professional sports.

Of the three great athletes in this article today, Tony Gonzalez led the way a few years ago, Arian Foster made the switch this summer and Serena announced on 9-10-12 on CBS that she’d followed sister Venus to the vegan diet-style just recently.

Ladies first. How about that Serena Williams! Watching her win that championship match on Sunday was a sight to behold. At the time, I was thinking that I had never seen a woman who looked more physically fit and more powerful than Serena in that match. She might even be tougher than Martina—another vegan, I might add.

Then the next day, I learned on CBS This Morning that she’d been eating vegan for the last few months. She explained that she lives with her sister Venus who’d switched to vegan for health reasons earlier this summer. Wanting to help Venus stick with her regimen, Serena reported that she’d been eating the same way that Venus eats. And apparently, that way of eating is working out just fine for her.

Serena did admit that since she and Venus both cheat from time to time, that they refer to themselves as “cheagans” — short for “cheatin vegans.” Sounds to me like they might like our 4Leaf Program, which includes the wiggle room that most people like.

The big vegan hauls in a touchdown pass in the KC stadium where he spent most of his career.

Tony Gonzalez. Long-time veteran and regular pro-bowler with the Kansas City Chiefs and now with the Atlanta Falcons. Gonzalez had five catches for 53 yards as he began his 16th, and likely his final, season of his sterling career in the place where it all began—Kansas City. From ESPN:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tony Gonzalez boarded the first bus to Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, eager to arrive as early as possible to start what’s likely his final season in the place where it all began. The Falcons made sure it was a happy return.

Matt Ryan threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns, one of them to the longtime Chiefs tight end late in the third quarter, and Atlanta pulled away with a dynamic second-half scoring outburst for a 40-24 season-opening victory over Kansas City.

Here’s what the winning QB had to say about Tony’s performance, “He’s such a great part of this organization, you know, probably the greatest tight end to ever play the game. I think deep down in their hearts, Kansas City fans were happy to see that one more time,” Ryan said, pausing. “Maybe not at the time. Maybe in retrospect they will be.”

Arian Foster is too much to handle for this Miami defender as he leads his team to victory with two touchdowns on Sunday.

Finally, there was Arian Foster of the Houston Texans. He got the ESPN headline for his team’s victory, “Arian Foster has 2 TDs as Texans silence Ryan Tannehill, Dolphins.”

He was also the leading rusher in the game, outrushing Miami’s Reggie Bush 79 to 69 and outscoring him 12 to 0. See the second blog article below my blog two days ago dedicated to the remarkable Mr. Foster.

Numerals courtesy of the Baltimore Police for my 584th consecutive daily blog.

9-11 Footnote. Today is the 11th anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy. I landed at LaGuardia that morning, just minutes before the first attack on the World Trade Center. Where were you?

Vegan is for wimps? The old myth about manly men eating meat is beginning to give way to the reality of what the natural diet for our species can do for athletes on the field of battle. And for the rest of us, that same 4Leaf lifestyle will enable us to take charge of our own health:

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 Athletic performance, Celebrities | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

‘Green Mile’ star, vegetarian, dies of heart disease at 54

Posted on 09/10/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

Raises questions about the health benefits of vegetarianism

Michael Clarke Duncan as he appeared in Green Mile; Tom Hanks in the background.

Michael Clarke Duncan, most famous for his superb role in Green Mile with Tom Hanks, passed away on September 4 at the age of 54. Earlier this year, he appeared in the PETA video below—where he spoke of how much better he felt since becoming a vegetarian three years earlier.

A giant of a man at 6’5″– he reportedly weighed 360 when the Green Mile (with Tom Hanks) was filmed. In recent months, he apparently weighed closer to 280 and credits some of that weight-loss with his becoming a vegetarian in 2009.

Many people will now assume that his death may have been caused by his vegetarianism. But not me. For starters, we don’t know what kind of vegetarian diet was he eating. In the video below, he talks mainly about not eating meat, but he never mentions that he’d given up milk, cheese, eggs or seafood.

Apparently, his primary motivation for making the dietary change was his love of animals although he does mention health in this video. He also mentions that he read “Skinny Bitch” and “Skinny Bastard,” where he learned more about needless animal suffering.

So why did he die so young if he was eating a healthy diet? I can only speculate since I don’t really know exactly what he was eating. For most people who describe themselves as vegetarian, they continue to eat dairy, eggs, cheese and seafood. If they give up all animal products, they generally then call themselves vegan.

4Leaf focuses on what you DO eat—not what you’re avoiding. It’s what you DO eat that makes you healthy.

But many vegans also eat a very unhealthy diet. They avoid all animal products but don’t eat nearly enough whole, plant-based foods to protect themselves against disease. In the video, Michael talks about eating a lot of legumes, fruits and vegetables; but we know nothing about whether he also ate a lot of cheese pizzas.

We also don’t know whether he had a history of heart disease or if he was taking any cholesterol lowering medication. We do know that if he had been a patient of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic, that he would have been told to give up ALL animal products & all oil and to cut way back on high fat plant foods like avocado, nuts and seeds.

Then, if had followed that diet-style faithfully, he would have had a 95% chance of reversing his heart disease. That’s the success rate that my friend Dr. Esselstyn has enjoyed for the past 30 years.

Whether his heart disease was diagnosed or not, we know that it existed long before this week, when he suddenly died. That’s because we know that heart disease can begin many decades before your first heart attack. Sadly, the first symptom of coronary artery disease is frequently a heart attack.

The numerals for consecutive daily blog #583 come today from Texas.

Like many others, Mr. Duncan was probably just another innocent victim of the lack of clarity about what we should be eating for optimal health. He would’ve gotten that clarity from Dr. Esselstyn. But now it’s too late.

Unlike cancer, heart disease is reversible in 95% of the cases at almost any age. As Dr. Esselstyn says, “it’s a toothless paper tiger that need never exist.” You won’t learn how to reverse heart disease from the American Heart Association but you will learn it here. In addition to the following 4 items, you may also wish to purchase Dr. Esselstyn’s book, Prevent/Reverse Heart Disease, on Amazon.

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 Celebrities, Heart Disease | 4 Comments

Poetry, quantum physics, vegan diet—and the NFL?

Posted on 09/09/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

Not your typical stereotype of a professional football player

Arian Foster of the Houston Texans. Labeled by Sporting News as the “NFL’s Most Interesting Man.”

Appearing on CBS This Morning (9-5-12) was the “NFL’s Most Interesting Man,”Arian Foster of the Houston Texans. Not drafted after playing for the University of Tennessee, Arian thought at first that his football career was over.

Later, after spending a year riding the bench in Houston, he got his big break—starting the first game of the 2010 and literally exploded on the field, gaining 230 yards rushing and scoring three touchdowns. He went on to lead the entire league in rushing for the season.

In an earlier article (See link below), it was reported that his new vegan diet was causing controversy. Here’s what Arian had to say about that:

Who would have thought that someone cutting meat out of their daily eating regimen would cause such hullabaloo. As Foster says, “People feel so strong about meat and milk. I wish they felt this strong about peace.”

The NFL’s Most Interesting Man. But, as he said, “If you’re not winning, nothing about you is interesting.”

Regarding the controversy, from the article: “Some of Foster’s Twitter followers gave him a hard time for his announcement. In response to Foster saying he’s never drank an entire glass of milk, one twitterer went as far to say he did when he was a baby. Foster responded, “My mom didn’t produce cow milk.”

When asked in the CBS interview (9-5-12) about him being called the “NFL’s Most Interesting Man,” he replied that that kind of thing accompanies success. When he and his team weren’t doing very well, no one ever thought of him as being that interesting. But now, they want to know all about that poetry, the quantum physics and yes—that vegan diet.

Two Minutes of “Arian Inspired” Vegan Controversy on ESPN

Another “interesting” vegan of the NFL—Tony Gonzalez of the Atlanta Falcons, veteran of ten pro-bowls.

But Arian disagrees with those guys as he explains some of the reasons for going vegan. He makes it real simple. He chose to go vegan for a number of reasons, but one of the main reasons was for the added benefit of quicker recovery times after muscle-draining games. Perhaps he was also influenced by a number of elite athletes who had gone vegan before him. People like pro hockey player Mike Zigomanis, who says, “Triathletes, a lot of them are vegan. All the ultra-marathon runners are vegan.”

Other great athlete vegans include boxer Mike Tyson, Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier, football greats Desmond Howard & Tony Gonzalez and tennis star Venus Williams.

And this just in. Finally, a great health tip (for a change) on CBS This Morning(9-5-12). On tips that help women avoid gaining weight after menopause. Sounds a lot like 4Leaf to me; 4 simple steps:

This motorcycle plate provides the numerals for consecutive daily blog #582.

    1. Reduce desserts
    2. Reduce sugary beverages
    3. Reduce cheese and meats
    4. Increase fruits and vegetables

Finally, handy links to the source article along with links to a few of my earlier blogs about athletic performance and healthy eating:

Know any young athletes out there who might want to learn how to help their body perform for them? You might want to forward this blog to them; maybe they’ll take advantage of some of the simple advice provided here:

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 Athletic performance | Tagged , | Leave a comment