Athletic performance and plant-based nutrition…

Posted on 05/21/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

a winning combination—as illustrated by a pole-vaulting medical student from Canada and a bike-racing grandmother from Arizona

Erika Reiser is a champion pole-vaulter and a medical student in Canada; she also is having to learn about plant-based nutrition on her own.

Together, these two new friends have inspired my new “Athletic Performance” category” that is long overdue on this website.

Along with never-ending questions about protein, people often ask me about the suitability of a whole foods, plant-based diet when it comes to athletic performance. We’re not just talking about professional athletes here, we’re talking about people like my son, Jason, his wife Lisa, and their many bike-racing friends—and my new pole-vaulting friend from Canada. Erika, a med student at the University of Toronto wrote to us a few days ago:

Jim and Jason,

Thank you both very much for such an informative  book,  Healthy Eating Healthy World. My name is Erika Reiser and I am just finishing up my first year of medical school at the University of Toronto. I have a huge interest in nutritional medicine and agree with much of the nutritional advice presented in your book.

If you have any other suggestions that would help me continue to expand my nutritional knowledge base, (as most nutritional knowledge must be self taught in medical school!) please let me know! It is a career goal of mine to be as knowledgeable as I can in nutrition so I can help to council my future patients on not only how to help manage symptoms, but better yet, how to be become truly healthy.

Thanks again for helping to bring awareness on such important subjects into the public eye!

Sincerely, Erika Reiser

Check her out in the news. We’re also talking about high school and college basketball players, football players, variety swimmers, cross-country skiers, marathoners, etc. We’re talking about anyone who enjoys a very active lifestyle; like the bike-racing grandmother from Arizona pictured next along with her note. Here is her story…in her own words:

My new 4Leaf poster girl…a very active grandmother of eight.

Hi Jim,

Here is a picture of me in the Tour de Mesa (70 miles), held in April 2012.  It was a cold and windy day.  The previous two years, my time for this race was 4:30.  But this year, my time was 4:03 – nearly 30 minutes faster and that was with a stiff wind!

I’m just an average cyclist but I’m so excited about my progress these past few months!  I also rode in the Tour de Tucson in November (111 miles) and took 45 minutes off my time there (I started eating this way in Sept).

My friends that I cycle with are amazed that I’m so much faster going up hills.  I used to complain all the time how I was always one of the last to reach the top of the hills.  Now I’m passing all my friends.  Yes, part of the reason could be that I am now 19 lbs. lighter, but the other reason I know is because I’m fueled by the healthiest foods available!  No meat, dairy, processed foods, or oil to slow me down anymore!

Last summer, during the month of August, I rode 800 miles and my weight stayed about the same.  When I started eating a whole foods, plant based diet in September, I started to lose weight – 19 lbs. total – and then it stopped at 125 lbs. which is what I weighed when I got married 31 years ago at age 19 (I’m 5’7”).

I was actually surprised at the weight loss because I thought my weight was fine and I wasn’t even trying to lose weight.  It just naturally happened.  It happened effortlessly!  I want to shout it from the rooftops that I have found the answer everyone is looking for!  Interesting how my weight stabilized when I got to the weight my body was meant to be.

Another benefit; food tastes so much better now.  I love food!  The other night I made a quinoa and sweet potato recipe.  After I finished eating I was saying mmm – mmm!  That was so good!  I think the problem that people have when they hear about this way of eating, they assume that it won’t taste good.  I just wish they’d give it a chance.  Of course, they would have to give up all the fat and sugar so their taste buds could adjust, but how surprised they would be to find that this food is so much more delicious!  That’s what I want to tell people.

Thank you so much for all you are doing!  Your website is excellent! Karen Barnes

Here’s Jason and Lisa heading out for a 50-mile bike ride.

And thank you Erika and Karen for sharing your stories with my readers. While you may not consider yourselves extreme athletes, you have the very same nutritional needs that they do and, like them, you’re proving that the whole foods, plant-based, 4Leaf kind of diet is all you need.

Athletic Performance “category.” Near the top of the right column on this blog is a drop-down list of about fifty different categories for which I have written blogs since February of 2011.

This is my 469th consecutive daily blog since then—and this is the fourth one that falls in this new category. Links to the other three are shown below this great book by Brendan Brazier. This book also appears in my online Store, along with my other favorites.

This book comes highly recommended

Thrive, The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life by Brendan Brazier. My son and co-writer, Jason Hicks, and many of his friends have found this great book invaluable in helping them deal with the high calorie requirements of the seriously active lifestyle of many athletes.

One of Jason’s friends, an M.D., had this to say, “As a triathlete myself, the idea that a whole foods plant-based diet could allow an athlete to compete and do well at such a high level was very exciting. I bought the book and devoured every word. Brendan’s words were right in line with the research I had done for my thesis. The lifestyle he promotes is one in which the body utilizes nutrient-rich foods in their natural state, as opposed to the refined, processed foods of the traditional Western diet.” Click here to purchase Thrive on Amazon. To visit the website of the marathon-running M.D. who is quoted above, click here for Dr. Charlotte Moriarity’s website.

Three previous blog-posts about athletic performance

Animal Protein—Professional athletes don’t need it either. Posted on 03/23/2012 The “Protein Myth” that won’t go away. Lately, I have been hearing questions from readers and in lectures about the special “protein” needs of highly-trained athletes. Here is one of those questions—followed by a response by my son, Jason and … Continue reading →

Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley, vegan prize fighter Posted on 02/28/2012. That’s right, vegan prize fighter and it’s not an oxymoron. On June 9, the undefeated (28-0) Desert Storm will fight the defending welterweight champion, Manny Pacquiao, in Las Vegas. And for at least three months leading up to the fight, Timothy … Continue reading→

Questions about protein, omega-3′s and B12 — Let me hear yours. Posted on 04/21/2011. Q’s and C’s — Got two questions and two comments yesterday First the questions. The first one was from a friend who was one of my very first blog subscribers. He was also the one who inspired my Unsupportive Spouse … Continue reading →

Handy 3-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 | 1 Comment

Calling all moms; I need some input on infant feeding.

Posted on 05/20/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

We all know that mother’s milk is best for babies.

But what if you are unable to nurse your newborn for one reason or another, what should you do? In Friday’s post, ‘Thinkin’ about drinkin,’  I had “store-bought” infant formula in 7th place in my list of ten beverages (ranked by health). It was considered to be slightly better than soft drinks, alcohol, and cow’s milk, but not by much.

No doubt you’ve heard about this TIME cover if you haven’t yet seen it. The article is more about ‘attachment parenting’ than nursing, but it does get your attention.

While researching for this post, I found lots of infant formula brands and decided to take a look at the big three: Similac, Enfamil and Gerber. And while all of them offered some non-dairy versions, I decided to choose what appeared to be the most popular for my analysis.

As for breastfeeding, it seems that most people, including me, were turned off by this recent TIME magazine cover. But as they say in business, any PR is good PR—and this cover is getting a lot of PR. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel quipped, “You think that TIME’s Mothers Day cover was bad? Wait ’til you see what they have planned for Fathers Day.”

This post was inspired by my friend Karen, a grandmother of two, including a newborn baby boy. She told me that she read the list of ingredients of the formula that her daughter was feeding her new baby and couldn’t believe her eyes. Now I know what she was talking about:

Infant Formula—Yum, Yum

Be sure to check the ingredient list.

Have you taken a look at the ingredients list lately? It doesn’t matter which brand you’re looking at, they’re all pretty scary. Unable to breast feed your newborn?

Then find an enlightened registered dietitian or MD to help you work out a truly healthy way for you to feed that precious child. Here’s what most babies are getting today—and the collective impact on their future health is unknowable data.

WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE (FROM COW’S MILK, ENZYMATICALLY HYDROLYZED, REDUCED IN MINERALS), VEGETABLE OILS (PALM OLEIN, SOY, COCONUT, AND HIGH-OLEIC SAFFLOWER OR HIGH-OLEIC SUNFLOWER), CORN MALTODEXTRIN, LACTOSE GALACTO-OLIGOSACCHARIDES*, AND LESS THAN 2% OF: POTASSIUM CITRATE, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM CHLORIDE, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM CITRATE, MAGNESIUM CHLORIDE, FERROUS SULFATE, ZINC SULFATE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, COPPER SULFATE, POTASSIUM IODIDE, MANGANESE SULFATE, SODIUM SELENATE, M. ALPINA OIL**, C. COHNII OIL***, SODIUM ASCORBATE, INOSITOL, CHOLINE BITARTRATE, ALPHA-TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, NIACINAMIDE, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, RIBOFLAVIN, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, FOLIC ACID, PHYLLOQUINONE, BIOTIN, VITAMIN D3, VITAMIN B12, TAURINE, NUCLEOTIDES (CYTIDINE 5′-MONOPHOSPHATE, DISODIUM URIDINE 5′-MONOPHOSPHATE, ADENOSINE 5′-MONOPHOSPHATE, DISODIUM GUANOSINE 5′-MONOPHOSPHATE), ASCORBYL PALMITATE, MIXED TOCOPHEROLS, L-CARNITINE, SOY LECITHIN.

  • *A prebiotic fiber sourced from milk.
  • **A source of arachidonic acid (ARA).
  • ***A source of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

My request for input. Whether soy based or dairy based, that list of ingredients is downright scary. So what should we be feeding our babies if we’re unable to breast-feed? Let me hear from you and I will dedicate a future blog to this important topic. I also welcome input from any medical doctors, registered dietitians or nutritionists. Please provide your feedback in a “comment” below or just send me an email.

If you are not a mom yourself, please forward this request to someone who is. Thank you.

This just in. Before posting this appeal for input, I ran across a posting from a fellow blogger, Jess Parsons, who resides in New Zealand. A vegan herself, she did a great job of responding to the TIME cover story on breast-feeding.

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.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our 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 Children, Dairy, cow's milk | 5 Comments

Searching for the cure—now has a life of its own.

Posted on 05/19/2012 by J. Morris Hicks

A midnight message from Karen inspires a new look at cancer research.

At 12:08 EDT, while I was sound asleep at my home in Stonington, Connecticut; an email message arrived from a reader in Arizona. A super healthy, bike-racing grandmother of eight—Karen Barnes—wants to know if our T. Colin Campbell Foundation has a plan for telling the world that the cure for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke has already been found.

Karen racing in a 70-mile bike race in Mesa, Arizona—April 2012. Since going plant-based, she shaved a full 30 minutes off her previous best time.

I read that message at 4:50 a.m. EDT and was inspired to answer her question with a simple analogy that may change the world. But, first the message from Karen, a 50-year young entrepreneur who asks some great questions:

Hi Jim,

I scored a 36 on your 4Leaf Survey.  I follow a whole foods, plant-based diet as outlined by The China Study, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and the documentary Forks Over Knives.  I started this last September.  I feel so fantastic now!  I feel so good after every meal!  I ride a road bike and I am so much faster riding up hills and riding in races!  I’m a 50 year old grandmother of 8 and everyone tells me how young I look!  I think because I now weigh what I did in high school!  I could never go back to eating the old way.

Jim, how can we educate America?  Do you people at the T. Colin Campbell Foundation have a plan?  I feel so helpless.  I feel like I’ve stumbled upon a huge secret to excellent health and permanent weight loss and hardly anyone is willing to listen.  What can be done?  Do organizations like the Susan G. Komen Foundation turn a deaf ear when presented with these facts as found in The China Study?  Do the other organizations dealing with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. turn a deaf ear also? 

Why don’t they pounce on this research as the answer that they’ve been looking for?  I mean, are they not truly looking for the cures for these diseases?

Best regards, Karen

My response: 0600 from the Mystic Starbucks—Mystic, CT—May 17

J. Morris Hicks

Dear Karen,

I absolutely love your letter. Thank you so much for taking the time to write and share your story. The short answer to your question is yes; we do have a plan. But, until sufficient funds are available to go big-time with that plan—we’ll continue with our grassroots revolution that is fueled by the books you mentioned, the Forks Over Knives documentary, this daily blog, and messages like the one you sent me this morning.

While showering, getting dressed and driving from Stonington to Mystic, I was thinking about a simple analogy that might turn into a plan that could go viral—a message that could clarify for all concerned that the answer to our health problems has been right under our noses all along. It’s what we put in our mouths every day.

So why is that simple concept not getting any real traction? Even with a former President of the United States among the converts? And, as you said in your note, “Do organizations like the Susan G. Komen Foundation turn a deaf ear when presented with these facts as found in The China Study? Why is the truth about nutrition and health not circulating more rapidly?

It’s because Americans, and other consumers of the toxic Western diet are looking for a quick fix for their bad habits. Maybe a simple analogy inspired by your message will go viral and open a few million minds to the potential of what we put at the end of our forks. As we know, most people put far more thought into what kind of fuel they put in their car than what kind of fuel they put in their own bodies.

You ask, “Why don’t people pounce on this powerful information?”

It’s because their light hasn’t come on yet. Like me, I read over forty books in the spring of 2003 before I had my blinding flash of the obvious and concluded, “Oh my God, we’re eating the wrong food.” Maybe this automobile analogy will do the trick for a few people—an absurd example to be sure—but no more absurd than the way we’re eating ourselves to death.

2012 Mercedes SL550 Roadster. Like all automobiles, your brand new Mercedes needs fuel, coolant, motor oil, and air in order to run. The air takes care of itself, but you have to decide how to handle the other three. But, instead of using the kinds of products recommended by the manufacturer, you want to be different.

For fuel. Instead of premium gasoline, you choose a mixture of regular gasoline, kerosene, turpentine and paint thinner.

For coolant. You choose a mixture of Gator Aid and cow’s milk.

For motor oil. Instead of the high tech synthetic recommended by MB, you buy a few cases of 10 w 30 at Sam’s Club and decide that you’ll make it last longer by adding only 4 quarts of it to your engine instead of the recommended five.

How to make your car very sick. You also decide that you don’t have time for routine maintenance and simply proceed to drive the heck out of your new car. After a few weeks, you begin to notice some strange noises, smells and emissions, but you just keep on driving. As 2013 approaches and your new car nears the 30,000 mile mark, you begin to notice some serious problems. Finally, one day, your car simply refuses to start. Not it’s time to “search for the cure.”

“Searching for the cure.” After having it towed to the MB dealer, you ask the service manager about what can be done to fix your automobile. After examining your engine, his service team cannot believe what they’re seeing. Your engine is destroyed—and you are told that there is no way to fix it. You are angry. You want a cure. You ask, “Why isn’t there something you can pour into my engine that will cure it?” The service manager looks at you and says….

Are you crazy? There is no cure, lady. You need a complete new engine.

Similarly, there is no simple cure for cancer—and likely never will be. Unlike automobiles, there is no such thing as a complete new engine for human beings. Our manufacturer decided long ago that the policy would be “only one body per customer.” But there is a natural and simple lifestyle regimen that will give you the very best chance of never developing this horrible disease in the first place—despite how much family history you have.

AND for healthy bones, healthy heart, healthy liver, etc.

What about cures for other chronic diseases? The good news is that there is a simple cure for some 95% of the cases of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many other maladies that are driven by what we eat. And there are even some cancers that can be slowed, stopped in their tracks or even reversed. The primary answer to most of our health issues is simple. The choice is yours.

  • Eat what Nature intended for you to eat (whole plants)
  • Get plenty of exercise, rest, fresh air and sunshine.
  • Find your passion for living and enjoy your time on this planet.

The Bottom Line. This analogy illustrates an incredibly simple point. All we have to do is feed our bodies the right fuel and Nature will take care of the rest. Let’s start by eliminating the leading cause of cancer—not searching for a miracle to “cure” a grossly mistreated body. Some day, doctors of the future may react the same as the MB service manager did, “Are you crazy? There is no cure for what you’ve done to your body and there never will be. Let’s start by showing you how to choose the right food.”

For help with all of this, you might want to spend $36, less than the cost of one dinner for two…

Handy 3-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

Another part of our plan. I call it the Harmony Project and it begins with dispelling the “protein myth” that pervades the Western world. With two or three billion dollars, we could make some serious headway in getting this done. And that’s far less than half the net worth of the 20 or 30 wealthiest people in the world. If “the light goes on” for just one of them, we could be well on our way.

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 | 1 Comment