Doing “things right” or doing the “right thing.” Which is better?

Posted on 08/15/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

Doing the “right thing” — by a score of at least 100 to 1

This blogpost was inspired by my youngest friend, a 29-year old scientist at Pfizer who I met through our yacht club here in Stonington. A very bright thinker himself, Tim adopted a near optimal, plant-based diet shortly after sailing with me for a few hours and listening to me talking about our book. He said it just made sense.

Last week, he sent me a video of the late Dr. Russell Ackoff (see below). In it he talks about the concept of five types of content in the human mind:

Dr. Russell Ackoff

  1. Data
  2. Information
  3. Knowledge
  4. Understanding
  5. Wisdom  =  effectiveness

The first four deal with increasing efficiency; whereas the fifth (wisdom) is all about effectiveness and that means doing the right thing. And, as Dr. Ackoff explains in the video, “It’s far better to do the “right things” wrong than to do the wrong things right.

He went on to use that concept to explain why our health care system in the United States does not work. Spending far more than any other nation, we rank 37th in terms of effectiveness of our health care system. As he explained, we’re doing whole lot of wrong things right.

“If you wanted a true health care system, you would pay a doctor to keep you healthy. You would pay the doctor a fee and he would then pay all of your medical expenses. Now, it would be in his interest to keep you healthy, not to keep you sick.”

During the video, it appears that Dr. Ackoff never learned the secret himself — of doing the “right thing” when it came to feeding his body. He never mentioned it during his “health care” discussion, and his appearance would suggest that he was not eating a whole foods, plant-based diet.

He depended on our schools of nutrition and our medical community to tell him all about the “right things.” And they failed him. Taking took money from the food and pharmaceutical industries, they failed to promote the “right things” for our health.

So Dr. Ackoff probably believed what they told him. And, therefore, he was like at least 95% of the scholars of his time—believing that he “needed” to eat animal protein to be healthy. Had he learned the truth about nutrition, he would’ve said that “Our meat & dairy industries have become very efficient at doing the wrong things. But when it comes to wisdom, and doing the “right things” to make us healthy, they have missed the boat completely.”

Julia Child, doing the wrong things right.

Contrast that with someone like me who is doing the right thing (in my food choices) although not doing it very well in terms of taste, variety, and presentation.

But, regardless of those things, my “doing the right thing” — eating plants—has rewarded me with far better health than if I was still doing a wonderful job of cooking and eating the wrong things—a la Julia Child.

We need more thinkers like Dr. Ackoff and we need to unlock the power of their minds by telling them the simple truth about what kind of food promotes health in the human body—whole, plant-based foods. I encourage you to watch this thought-provoking 10-minute video.

As a bonus by doing the right thing for ourselves, we also do the right thing for our planet.

Russell Lincoln Ackoff (12 February 1919 – 29 October 2009) Wikipedia. Was an American organizational theorist, consultant, and Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Ackoff was a pioneer in the field of operations research, systems thinking and management science.

As an Industrial Engineering undergrad and a process improvement consultant for much of my career, I can definitely appreciate the wisdom of Dr. Ackoff. And I have always focused on “the big picture” — forever striving to do the right things for the benefit of all.

Quite simply, our system has failed us as they focus on efficiency over effectiveness and confusion over clarity. Our experts are missing the main point when it comes to promoting our health and in promoting environmental health that will foster the sustainability of the human race. A few related posts in recent weeks.

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 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.

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 page 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:

Nutrition Certificate

Posted in Big Picture, Sustainability | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The worst “health tip” I have ever seen (courtesy of AARP)

Posted on 08/14/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

Just when you think that our mainstream “system” can’t get any worse.

The latest terrible advice from our “system” arrived in my mailbox today—and was contained within my copy of the August-September issue of The AARP Magazine. This time, their health geniuses managed to recommend a dairy product AND added sugar within one product. On page 22, in an article entitled How to Stay Fit Forever, this was one of their twelve recommendations—from Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

One of the most powerful carcinogens ever discovered, cow’s milk is recommended as a health drink in the AARP magazine.

Drink chocolate milk. “Consuming some protein after exercise, especially as we get older, appears to help the muscles rebuild themselves more effectively,” Phillips says. When the protein is combined with carbohydrate, such as the sugar in chocolate milk, muscles recover even better. If you’re trying to lose weight, “plain milk works well too,” Phillips adds—but it isn’t nearly as much fun to drink.

So the “protein myth” is still alive and well as it is being reinforced by one of the largest, the most powerful and the most trusted organizations in the world. Although misinformation like this no longer surprises me, it does help to strengthen my resolve to continue spreading the simple truth about nutrition to anyone willing to listen.

In a June 2011 Op-Ed piece in the New York Times (see link below), the author points out that the 37 million member strong AARP has usually ranked among the most trusted institutions in the nation.

With 37 million members, This could be AARP’s finest hour. In surveys, the organization has usually ranked among the most trusted institutions in the nation, along with groups like the American Red Cross and the Consumers Union. AARP knows there is political power in numbers — and in organization. In the past, however, it had only to activate a small portion of its huge membership base to register political impact. “All they have to do is whisper,” one consultant told me.

Frederick R. Lynch, an associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, is the author of “One Nation Under AARP: The Fight Over Medicare, Social Security, and America’s Future.”

One final point. At age 67, I guess that I have been receiving the AARP Magazine for almost 18 years. The only reason I continue to pay the membership fee is for the occasional discounts for members. As for the magazine, I learned many years ago that it was pretty much worthless and normally toss it in the trash before leaving the post office. 

Meryl and Tommy Lee about halfway from my house to our yacht club in Stonington, Connecticut. In the movie, they played an aging couple looking for love—and we played the quaint seaside village that was supposed to be in Maine. Great fun for all concerned.

So why did I read it this week? Because I noticed a picture of Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones on the cover. The article about them was prompted by a current movie, Hope Springs, much of which was filmed right here in my little village by the sea, Stonington, Connecticut. Meryl and Tommy Lee were in town last October for the “on location” filming of what was supposed to be a quaint village in Maine—Great Hope Springs.

It was great fun while they were here and now all of us locals are enjoying the movie itself, which opened nationwide last week. It’s been a blast to see some of our friends and neighbors on the silver screen—along with the top stars.

As for their characters in the movie, Meryl and Tommy Lee played an aging married couple who were now sleeping in separate bedrooms and hadn’t had sex in over five years. Both were probably 20 to 30 pounds overweight and could probably benefit greatly from our…

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, Dairy, cow's milk | 10 Comments

Drought, famine and the sustainability of the human race

Posted on 08/13/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

This is way our corn is looking in the midwest these days; not looking good for the future either.

In a recent blog, I featured seven environmental experts, all of whom were offering their opinion on how best to avoid another dust-bowl. Only one mentioned the possibility of growing more food for humans instead of for animals. (See link below.)

As I have stated repeatedly on this blog, the reason that our experts never consider plant-based solutions to daunting global issues is because the majority of them truly believe that we “need” to eat animal protein to be healthy. And that is what I call the “protein myth” that must be dispelled before our brightest minds will even put plant-based solutions on the table for consideration.

Well, it has happened again, in a 8-11-12 Op-Ed in the New York Times, three new experts weigh in on the weather and drought topic with a piece entitled: Extreme Weather and Drought Are Here to Stay (See link below for complete article). So who are these new experts and what did they have to say? The authors and their titles:

Christopher R. Schwalm is a research assistant professor of earth sciences at Northern Arizona University. Christopher A. Williams is an assistant professor of geography at Clark University. Kevin Schaefer is a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

When will they learn that plant-based eating for humans will save well over 50% of the water being used on this planet?

Throughout their Op-Ed piece, the three authors make a number of good points as they review the combined problems of water shortage, climate change and agriculture. Here’s what they had to say about water shortage:

Many Western cities will have to fundamentally change how they acquire and use water. The sort of temporary emergency steps that we grudgingly adopt during periods of low rainfall — fewer showers, lawn-watering bans — will become permanent. Some regions will become impossible to farm because of lack of irrigation water. Thermoelectric energy production will compete for limited water resources.

My response. If we made an aggressive move in the direction of plant-based eating for humans, we could soon eliminate over half the consumption of fresh water around the world. At the same time, we could feed over twice as many people on less than half as much land—reducing the need to even try to grow food crops in drought-prone areas.

On this drought map, RED is BAD. And the experts are saying that it’s not going to get any better.

As for global warming, the experts agree that we have a serious problem and that it’s not going to get much better, but again they fail to mention the number one cause. From the article:

Until recently, many scientists spoke of climate change mainly as a “threat,” sometime in the future. But it is increasingly clear that we already live in the era of human-induced climate change, with a growing frequency of weather and climate extremes like heat waves, droughts, floods and fires.

As with their other “expert counterparts” around the world, these three highly educated men only offer one proposed solution—reducing the consumption of fossil fuels. But they don’t lay out any plans for how our leaders might go about implementing that solution.

There is still time to prevent the worst; the risk of a multidecade megadrought in the American West can be reduced if we reduce fossil-fuel emissions. But there can be little doubt that what was once thought to be a future threat is suddenly, catastrophically upon us.

The Bottom Line. About all this article did was to establish the fact that we have a problem, but it did absolutely nothing in terms of moving us toward a solution. Houston, we have a problem! (but no mention of what we must do about it)

What is it going to take to open the minds of our “experts” to simple, workable solutions to all of these problems? Solutions that are right under their noses. The food they are putting in their mouths. The answer is so simple; it’s just two words. Whole Plants.

As for what’s at stake. Although I have written often about “saving the planet,” I have recently concluded that the planet is going to be just fine. Mother Earth has seen mass extinctions in the past (4 billion years) and she will see more in her future. What’s really at stake for us is the long-term sustainability of the human race. And that’s something that no political candidates ANYWHERE are talking about.

But I am going to keep blogging about this topic until enough people with power and wealth start listening. With enough money, we can “dispel the protein myth,” free up millions of brilliant minds around the world and begin to get some traction with our project to move the human race back in the direction of living in harmony with nature.

Check out my “protein myth” article below for my thoughts on how we might get this process underway.

With the handy kit below, not only can we take charge of our own health, but we can sustain human life on this planet for much longer if we began eating in an earth-friendly, plant-based way.

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 Climate Change, Harmony Project | 8 Comments