CANCER — “It’s the FOOD” says Dr. John McDougall.

Posted on 12/09/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Our genes load the gun, but lifestyle (mainly our food) pulls the trigger.

Since beginning my study of diet and health in 2002, I have been curious at how we name the many “cancers” based on where they occur in the body — as if each of them is a completely different disease. When, in fact, they’re really all the same disease — malfunctioning of cells—according to Raymond Francis (scientist).

In his book Never be Sick Again, he explained that there was essentially only ONE disease and only TWO causes. The one disease is malfunctioning cells (we have about 100 trillion of them):

  • First cause:  Our cells don’t get enough of what they need — nutrients.
  • Second cause:  Our cells get too much of what they don’t need — toxins.

In the case of cancer, we can’t control our genes; nor can we control some of the carcinogens that we might encounter; but we can control the food that we eat. By eating the right food, we can give our 100 trillion cells the nutrients that they need — while avoiding many of the toxins that they don’t need. It’s as simple as that; we can create just the right kind of chemical environment within our bodies that make it almost impossible for the genes & carcinogens to grow a family of cancers.

As for our food, we simply pattern our diet after those cultures where cancer is almost nonexistent. This fact is explained  by two experts (Greger and McDougall) in the recently updated blogpost below (containing two short videos):

Cancer Prevention — And Treatment, with Diet

One more thing; you might like to see what Raymond Francis had to say about our book:

“Poor nutrition is our leading cause of disease. Yet the biggest impediment to improving our health is that most people mistakenly believe they are eating a good diet. With the costs of disease out of control and threatening the economic health of our country, ‘Healthy Eating, Healthy World’ is a timely contribution, explaining in clear, easy-to-read language why our standard diet is making us sick, and how you can make simple choices that will improve your health, longevity and quality of life. This is a must-read book. Highly recommended!”

—RAYMOND FRANCIS, MS (from MIT), scientist and bestselling author of Never Be Sick Again

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. Also, for help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4-Leaf page.

J. Morris Hicks, author and activist. Working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

And if you like what 4-Leaf eating is doing for you and your family, you might enjoy visiting our new “4-Leaf Gear” store. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

SHARE and rate this post below…One more thing, occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard.

Posted in Cancer, M.D.s---Health-Promoting, Video Included | 4 Comments

From Lisa’s Kitchen — Andrew’s 4Leaf Kale Soup

Posted on 12/08/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

The second in a series of 4Leaf recipes from Lisa’s Kitchen

Andrew's 4Leaf Kale Soup

Not being that handy in the kitchen myself, I asked my daughter-in-law, Lisa Hicks, to join my blogging team and prepare a series of her favorite 4-Leaf recipes that I could share with everyone. Maybe this series will lead to a companion book in our future. Here is one that is named after her 9-year old son; hope you like it.

This mild, earthy tasting soup, with its crunchy texture, is our son, Andrew’s favorite dish. He asks for it all of the time! How many kids ask for kale, let alone even know what it is! Not to mention kale is one of the superfoods. This recipe will make you enough for the entire week!

Scoring high in the 4-Leaf range with well over 80% of its calories from whole, plant-based foods. Contains zero animal products. From Lisa with love…

Andrew’s 4Leaf Kale Soup — Ingredients:

  • 1 small onion or 1/2 of a large onion, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped
  • 1 large bunch of kale, or two small, stems removed, and leaves roughly cut up
  • 2 15 oz. cans of unsalted diced tomatoes or fresh tomatoes
  • 1 15 oz. can of unsalted black beans, rinsed
  • 1 15 oz. can of unsalted kidney beans, rinsed
  • 1 15 oz. can of unsalted pinto beans, rinsed (you may substitute the types of beans if desired)
  • 1 qt. of low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 4 – 6 cups of brown rice, bulgur wheat, quinoa, or wheat berries (or any whole grain of your choice)

With love from Lisa...

Directions.

  1. Using a large pot (8 quart plus), saute or steam onion on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes. You can forgo the cooking spray and use any type of liquid, such as water.
  2. Add garlic and saute or steam for about 2 minutes.
  3. Stir in kale and cook 5 to 7 minutes, or until leaves are wilted, tossing occasionally. Add water if needed to prevent burning. (I strip the leaves off of the stem with my hands and then rip the leaves into small pieces).
  4. Add diced or fresh tomatoes, beans, vegetable broth and about 10 cups of water, or enough of water to cover ingredients; season with salt and pepper, if desired.
  5. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 45 minutes.
  6. Add desired amount of your whole grain of choice to your bowl and then add soup. (You may also wish to leave out the whole grain if you choose to have a less hearty meal).
  7. Enjoy! Enjoy! If you’d like to send an email to Lisa directly — all questions and/or praise are welcomed at lisa@4leafprogram.com

For a “printer-friendly” one-pager, ideal on your fridge with a magnet—Just click here for a PDF.

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. And if you like what 4Leaf eating is doing for you and your family, you might enjoy visiting our new “4Leaf Gear” store. From the New England village of Holden, Massachusetts — Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—Lisa Hicks…blogging occasionally at 4leafprogram.com

SHARE and rate this post below…One more thing, occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard.

Posted in 4Leaf for Life, Recipes & meals | 2 Comments

Combining forces with sustainability advocates

Posted on 12/07/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Working together to save the planet

In earlier posts, I have mentioned some of the world’s brightest and best educated people who are dedicating their lives to solving many different critical issues of our time. Take the environment for example. It seems that many environmentalists have not yet heard about the simple power of plant-based nutrition to greatly reduce many of our problems. In many cases, it’s almost like a case of penny wise, pound foolish.

When most of us think about saving water, we’re thinking about shower nozzles and toilets; yet only 5% of the water consumed is for domestic uses. On the other hand, each of us could reduce our own “water footprint” by 90% by simply shifting to a health-promoting diet-style of whole, plant-based foods. On a per calorie basis, it takes ten to twenty times more water to produce animal foods than plant-based foods — and 75% of the world’s water is devoted to agriculture. The potential water savings are staggering but never even make it to the table for consideration because of the widespread “protein myth”  among brilliant, well-meaning people everywhere that we actually need to consume animal protein to be healthy.

Ellen MacArthur in her record-setting trimaran

Just last week, I heard about another great human being, Ellen MacArthur, the founder of a  charity aimed at promoting sustainable living. A resident of the Isle of Wight in the U.K., she is best known for her career as a competitive. From Wikipedia:

Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur, (born 8 July 1976) is an English sailor….On 7 February 2005, she broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe, a feat which gained her international renown….Following her retirement from professional sailing on 2 September 2010, Ellen announced the launch of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity set up to inspire people to re-think, re-design and build a sustainable future.

Ellen MacArthur

Reaching out to Ellen. After visiting her website today, I was very impressed with her and her most admirable work — aimed at making our world a better place to live for future generations. So, I decided to reach out to her and suggest that there might be an opportunity for us to work together — thinking that this might be a case of one + one = three.

Take a look at this two-minute video of Ellen talking about the challenge of solo racing around the world in a sailboat. With her narrating, you can get a good feel of the kind of talented, passionate and polished individual she is. Following this short video is my letter to Ellen.

Hi Ellen, I am an author/blogger and recreational sailor in the USA and was just introduced to your foundation by one of your fellow country-women on the Isle of Wight (Frances Oglander). Your background as a circumnavigating sailor and a promoter of sustainability is most remarkable.

We are both impressed with what you are doing and applaud your efforts. The world needs more people with your drive, enthusiasm and sense of responsibility for what we’re doing to our planet.

I share your passion for ending the extremely harmful and wasteful trend driven by humankind for the past 100 years. In the movie HOME (produced by PPR in 2009), it was reported that the human race has inflicted more damage on the fragile harmony of Nature in just the last fifty years than all previous generations of humans combined — for the past 200,000 years.

My journey to being concerned about sustainability began with a study of the “optimal diet for humans” about nine years ago. Initially focusing on the diet that would make us the healthiest that we could be, I discovered that that same optimal diet for us is also the human diet-style that would contribute mightily to the health of the planet.

In fact, I discovered that the single most powerful move that we humans could make to correct the mess that we have made is an aggressive move back to the diet-style that Nature intended for us to eat — a return to deriving most of our calories from whole, plant-based foods — produced much closer to home.

Now, after nine years of study, I am more passionate about the environmental and sustainability issues of our typical Western diet than I am about health for humans. And I have documented all of that in our book that was published by BenBella Books two months ago.

Please take a few moments to read one of my recent blogs on this subject. “Running roughshod” over our planet at the 7 billion mark. While on my site, you will see reviews of our book along with several hundred blog posts on this huge, interconnected global unsustainability problem of our Western lifestyle.

From J. Morris Hicks, shown here sailing off the coast of Connecticut.

After reviewing some of that information, perhaps we could discuss how we might be able to assist you in including elements of our “great food revolution of the twenty-first century” in your mission of promoting sustainable living. As a sailor myself, I look forward to collaborating with you in the future. Best regards, J. Morris Hicks.

If you like what you see here, you may wish to join our periodic mailing list. Also, for help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4-Leaf page.

And if you like what 4-Leaf eating is doing for you and your family, you might enjoy visiting our new “4-Leaf Gear” store. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

If you’d like to order our book on Amazon,  visit our BookStore now.

—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com

SHARE and rate this post below…One more thing, occasionally an unauthorized ad may appear beneath a blog post. It is controlled by WordPress (a totally free hosting service). I do not approve or personally benefit whatsoever from any ad that might ever appear on this site. I apologize and urge you to please disregard.

Posted in Activism & Leadership, Sustainability | 1 Comment