News or entertainment? How can the media help our cause?

Posted on 10/19/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Since I use my DVR extensively to watch the morning and the evening news, I have the privilege of watching only what I choose to watch. And I am constantly amazed by the incredible amount of coverage that is given to totally insignificant “news” stories like the Casey Anthony trial in Florida. Sure, it was a tragedy that a child’s life was lost, but is it worth the hundreds of millions of “viewer hours” that are spent watching it? No amount of watching that story will bring her back.

Tragic indeed, but it's really a lot more about entertainment than the news.

This week on Monday, after publishing my daily blog, I sat down with a bowl of fruit to watch the Today Show on my DVR. On a slow news day, this was the line-up of  the three “lead” stories for the entire first sixteen minutes of the program — uninterrupted by commercial break:

  • The Indy car crash in Las Vegas that killed one man
  • The woman in Kansas City who can’t find her baby
  • The sick woman in Antarctica that finally got airlifted out

Tragic stories certainly.  But we’re talking sixteen minutes on the national news that is seen by millions of people every day. That is almost 80% of all of the non-commercial time during the first half-hour of the program — the portion during which ALL of the really big news is covered. Then on the following day, the top two stories remained the same, while the third lead story featured a Michigan man who let us 9-year old daughter drive him to the convenience store because he was drunk.

And it’s not just NBC, it’s all the major networks and all the local TV stations. Personal interest “entertainment” stories dominate our news programming in this country. What can we do about that? How can we get life-saving information in the news? How can we get more “news” in the news that will help to make the planet a better place to live?

This is the kind of story that everyone "needs" to hear; how to improve our health and lower our sky-high cost of "disease care."

Adapt our message to the delivery system. If we want the 24/7 media industry to cover our cause, we must make our own personal interest stories newsworthy, or shall I say “entertainment” worthy. We must tell entertaining stories that deliver a powerful health-promoting message.

Example. Remember when Rip Essselstyn’s book (Engine 2 Diet) was launched about two years ago? As I remember it, on his book launch day, he appeared live on the Today Show in NYC to promote the book. And it was all driven by a “personal interest story” that began at the Engine 2 firehouse of Austin, TX. His segment wasn’t in the first 16 minutes, but he was on the national news.(See video below)

A great story as I remember. One of their firehouse teammates was tested with an extremely scary level of cholesterol (344) which prompted a group effort on the part of his buddies to save his life. Since Rip knew how to lower cholesterol with plant foods (something he learned from his dad), he led the crusade which included a contest among ALL team members to help rescue their friend. Long story short, after the friend began eating mostly whole plants all the time, his cholesterol plummeted from 344 to 146, a drop of 57%. Hooray for Engine 2.

While Bill talks a little about his disease reversal with plant-based diet, he has not taken the subject up as one of his global initiatives.

I agree that the Engine 2 story is worthy of the national news coverage that it received. And Bill Clinton’s heart disease reversal also earned that kind of coverage. But with most us not enjoying celebrity status, we must come up with our own public interest stories aimed at attracting the attention of the news media. And they have to be good in order to compete in entertainment value with the flying crashes of race cars or the lost child in Kansas City.

To that end, we are working on a few projects here in CT that we hope you will see someday on the evening news or maybe even “60 Minutes.” I wrote about some of our ideas recently in this blog: Brown vs. Yale — in the first ever “4-Leaf Challenge” This one hasn’t happened yet, but we may be getting close in another. Stay tuned. Here’s that video of Rip on the Today Show:

Authors J. Stanfield Hicks and J. Morris Hicks , working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

The Bottom Line. My primary point here is that we must not just complain about our lack of real news coverage, let’s learn to leverage the almighty power of the world’s media to reach millions of people quickly. Like Rip Esselstyn, let’s make our stories entertaining enough to attract their attention.

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. 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, Video Included | 1 Comment

Are microwave ovens safe? Do they destroy nutrients?

Posted on 10/18/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

(Posted on 10-18-11; update on 11-30-11 with input from Dr. Colin Campbell)

What are the best and worst methods of cooking your food? A reader sent me the following note over the weekend:

Are microwaves safe to use? Do they destroy nutrients?

After being referred to your book by Amazon, I did a little research and found your site. I am somewhat puzzled that you would use a microwave to prepare your food. Looking forward to reading more of your articles/blogs and hearing your thoughts on microwaving food once you have a chance to do some research on the topic. Lucinda

Hi Lucinda, After reading your note just now, I decided that if I could run your microwave concerns by just two people, that they would be Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Michael Greger, both of whom were educated at Cornell. One is a scientist and the other an MD who also has a degree in agriculture.

My first step was visiting Dr. Greger’s new website, nutritionfacts.org. He has been posting a new video every day for about six months and presents extremely well-researched and highly documented information on all aspects of nutrition. From his website, here are his credentials:

Michael Greger, M.D., is a physician, author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues.  A founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Dr. Greger is licensed as a general practitioner specializing in clinical nutrition. Currently he serves as the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. Dr. Greger is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine.

In this 3.5 minute video, Dr. Greger goes into great detail in reporting the relative effectiveness of various sources of cooking. He says that “food scientists outdid themselves last year with a total of 300 experiments aimed at identifying the best cooking methods.” His findings may surprise a few people.

By the way, I would be real surprised if Dr. Greger has totally missed the boat about the dangers of microwave cooking, as he impresses me as being one of the most thorough people I have ever seen. But, just to make sure, I checked a few more sources. (See link to Dr. Greger’s site below)

From Wikipedia: Several studies have shown that if properly used, microwave cooking does not change the nutrient content of foods to a larger extent than conventional heating, and that there is a tendency towards greater retention of many micronutrients with microwaving, probably due to the shorter preparation time. Any form of cooking will destroy some nutrients in food, but the key variables are how much water is used in the cooking, how long the food is cooked, and at what temperature. Nutrients are primarily lost by leaching into cooking water, which tends to make microwave cooking healthier, given the shorter cooking times it required. 

According to Wikipedia, the microwave might be the very best way to cook spinach.

Spinach retains nearly all its folate when cooked in a microwave; in comparison, it loses about 77% when cooked on a stove, because food on a stove is typically boiled, leaching out nutrients. Microwave blanching is 3-4 times more effective than boiled water blanching in the retaining of the water-soluble vitamins folic acid, thiamin and riboflavin, with the exception of ascorbic acid, of which 28.8% is lost (vs. 16% with boiled water blanching).

I also read a few of the Mike Adams’ articles (that you recommended) but could not find much about his educational credentials on his various websites. Further, I will run the question by Dr. T. Colin Campbell the next time I speak with him. But for now, I have not been convinced to stop using my microwave. Here is that Campbell report:

11-30-11. On November 21, a colleague and I met with Dr. T. Colin Campbell in his home office. While breaking for lunch, I noticed a microwave in his kitchen and asked if he ever uses it. He said rarely. But not because of any scientific evidence. He told me he saw a series of pictures comparing two plants, one watered with fresh water; the other with water that had been microwaved. I remember seeing those pictures and they were quite dramatic.

Even though he has no scientific proof of anything, he said that since seeing those pictures, he has tried to steer away from the microwave. But he’s got an edge on me. He is married to Karen over fifty years AND she was preparing his meals for him for more than twenty years before microwaves.

As for me; at least half of my calories are raw, 40% cooked conventionally (home and restaurants) and about 10 percent in the microwave. It would be very inconvenient for me not to use it for conventionally cooked foods that I warm up before eating. And I like the convenience of using it for popcorn.

Authors J. Stanfield Hicks and J. Morris Hicks , working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth. Shown here at age 33 and 61 respectively.

On a personal note, my health is far superior now that I have been eating mostly whole plants for almost nine years. I used microwaves before the change and still do, so guess I’m still getting plenty of the nutrients that I need.

In the future, when people ask me about the nutritional hazards of using microwaves, I will refer them to this blog.

Dr. Greger’s website at nutritionfacts.org

Microwave oven – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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

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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.

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Nutrition Certificate

Posted in Microwave cooking, Video Included | 6 Comments

Gift Idea. How about a handy “Weapon of Mass Instruction?”

Posted on 10/17/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

An ideal holiday, birthday or anniversary gift for people you care about

An ideal "weapon of mass instruction" for your gift-giving needs

While the term has apparently been around for awhile, I just learned about it from a blog reader. After a quick internet search, I found this video about Raul, who’s driving his own weapon of mass instruction around Argentina.

In Argentina, a local artist has transformed an old ford Falcon into a roving library. He weaves through the streets of Buenos Aires and the rest of the country, offering free books to passers-by in the hopes of sparking the country’s appetite for literature.

Like Raul, we’re trying to do our part to spark the world’s interest in a different topic — the simple concept of using their food choices to achieve vibrant health, lower the cost of health care, nurture our fragile environment, feed the starving masses, conserve our fossil fuels and end the needless suffering of billions of food animals around the world.

We would love to see our book become the “go-to book” for vegetarians and vegans around the world to give to their meat-eating friends and families. While it will never replace the incomparable books by the likes of Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, we think our book makes an ideal weapon of mass instruction gift for three reasons:

  1. It is an easy read. A straightforward, highly referenced “big picture” that can be easily read and understood by the average 8th grader in one afternoon.
  2. Not just about our health. While we begin with health, we devote separate chapters to the other four categories of compelling reasons for adding more plants to one’s diet: environment, energy, world hunger and animal suffering.
  3. It is not an “all or nothing” proposition. While we explain and recommend the optimal diet (100% plant-based), we encourage everyone to start “making a difference” by simply adding as much whole plant-based foods to their diet as they possibly can.

As for the video, not sure if any of Raul’s books deal with healthy eating, but it’s interesting nevertheless. Anyone know how I can get a few of our books on that truck? Guess we’ll have to wait until BenBella Books publishes the Spanish version.

Authors J. Stanfield Hicks and J. Morris Hicks , working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

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. 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, or you can get a full case discount by ordering directly from the publisher. (Just scroll to the bottom of the BookStore page)

—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 Book Promotion | Tagged | 2 Comments