J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy.

Ralph Lauren, Columbia, NYU and the Candle Cafe

Posted on 10/13/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Big Blue (our book) finally made it to the Big Apple.

Columbia University in New York City

Tuesday was a big day for our message and for our book, as my earlier Steve Jobs blog went viral, producing a spike in my web traffic that was 600 percent greater than our daily average. So while people around the world were reading about Steve Jobs and pancreatic cancer, I was delivering my books on the East side, West side and all around the town, including the posh RL headquarters on Madison Avenue.

After taking the M60 bus from the Metro North station at 125th Street to Columbia University on the upper West side, I took the subway down to NYU near Astor Place in the Village. By then, it was time to visit my favorite two restaurants in NYC; the Candle Cafe on 73rd and the Candle 79 between Lexington and 3rd on 79th Street. After having a delicious 4-Leaf lunch at the former, it was at the latter that I found out from the owners that Ralph Lauren’s son David and new bride Lauren were regulars there — “because she is a vegetarian.” Yes, the former Lauren Bush is now Lauren Lauren.

David and Lauren. Being a beautiful vegetarian doesn't hurt our cause one little bit.

About an hour later, while delivering Ralph’s book to his office, I wrote this note inside the cover:

Dear Ralph, I learned a great deal about passion, vision and excellence while working for you and have done my best to apply that knowledge in this book. When you and Ricky are finished reading it, I am confident that your new daughter-in-law, Lauren, would love to have it to share with David. Best, Jim

Unfortunately, I was unable to see Ralph as he was hosting a big party in his elegantly appointed reception area — all related to the huge “breast cancer awareness” march in the city earlier that day. As with so many other ultra-successful people, Ralph is very health-concsious and has always been a huge supporter of charities that fight disease and promote health. Hopefully, he will become inspired after reading our book — to put some of his powerful global brand to work helping people learn how to use food to promote vibrant health at all ages; and as a bonus, learning how to avoid most chronic diseases in the first place.

New cookbook by my friends at the Candle Cafe and Candle 79. To be released on 11-1-11. Not a bad sounding date to launch a fabulous new vegan cookbook. See link below to order.

The Bottom Line. Why am I out visiting universities and getting our book in the hands of famous people like my former boss, Ralph Lauren? Two words. Youth and Power.

I am convinced that the best and brightest young people will lead what history may someday dub “the great food revolution of the twenty-first century.” It took us about a hundred years to get ourselves in this mess, maybe we can get out of it in far less than half that time.

An earlier blog to the collegians

During earlier blogs, I have mentioned Bill Clinton, Ted Turner, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffet. Almost everyone in the world knows their names; the same goes for Ralph Lauren. But, out of this entire group, he is the only one that I know personally.

If any single one of those people really got serious about promoting our “revolution,” people all over the world would listen. Not everyone would change their diet right away, but many would. Some combination of Youth and Power, coupled with enough Money, is what we’ll need to create global behavior change in the fewest number of years.

An earlier blog about power: Bill Clinton — social change, urgency and activism

Click here to order the great Candle 79 Cookbook on Amazon Starts shipping on 11-1-11

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

And when you visit their restaurants in New York, ask for the owners Joy, Benay or Bart and tell them that J. Morris Hicks sent you.

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, Book Promotion, Celebrities | Tagged david and lauren vegetarian, ralph lauren | 1 Comment

Sir Paul and Nancy serve organic vegetarian at their wedding.

Posted on 10/12/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Including the wedding cake.

Sir Paul McCartney with his new bride, Nancy

Paul McCartney has long been a prominent voice against the cruel treatment of animals in our factory farms around the world. A famous quote of his:

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we’d all be vegetarians.

Sadly, they don’t have glass walls, but we are still complicit in what goes on behind every single one of those walls. And, don’t kid yourself about dairy and eggs not being harmful to animals.

The life of a dairy cow is no picnic and the laying hens probably live a more horrible life than any of the other animals that we eat. And guess what happens to the male chicks in an egg factory? They are dropped into a plastic bag to smother to death along with their brothers — 250 million of them per year, just in the USA. Michael Pollan describes the lives of those female laying hens in our book:

It is routine practice to cram laying hens into cages so small that the birds are sometimes driven to cannibalize their cagemates. The solution to this ‘vice’—as the industry and the Department of Agriculture call such counterproductive behaviors in livestock (talk about blaming the victims!)—is to snip the beaks off the hens with hot knives, without the use of anesthetic.

One of the smartest animals, pigs get a bad rap -- most live their complete lives in horrid conditions until they reach their ultimate destiny as part of your breakfast, your pizza topping or your barbecue sandwich.

In my recent post about our complicity when it comes to the treatment of animals, I included the following video illustrating the life of your sausage before it reaches your pizza. I couldn’t make it past the first minute. The sound alone made we want to scream. My son didn’t make it past the first minute either. But neither of us eats pork or any dead animal (or animal product) for that matter and didn’t feel that we needed to watch it.

But I think that all of the meat, dairy and egg consumers of the world should be required to watch this kind of video. And, if they can’t make it all the way to the end, they shouldn’t be allowed to eat any more animal foods. Got any animal-food lovers that you’d like to share this with?

I grew up around farm animals but now want no part of the entire, despicable process. Viewing nature in the wild is more my cup of tea...as Sir McCartney would say.

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

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

Posted in Celebrities, Suffering of Animals | 4 Comments

FIBER. How much should we be eating?

Posted on 10/11/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

An excerpt from our book and a new video added to an earlier blog.

From Chapter 1 in our book on page 23, under the section entitled, “What is the Optimal Diet for Humans?” As it relates to fiber consumption:

This excerpt from Chapter 1 of our book

The American Dietetic Association reports that most of us don’t even come close to the recommended intake of twenty grams to thirty-five grams of fiber a day. While thirty-five grams of fiber would be a dramatic improvement for most people eating the typical Western diet, the fiber in a truly health-promoting optimal diet would be more than double that amount.

On NutritionData.com, an analysis of a near 100 percent whole-foods, plant-based diet demonstrates that it typically delivers well over seventy grams of fiber per day. I simply added up the fiber in all of my meals of whole plants (fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds) for my typical day. The total always exceeds seventy grams of fiber.

So what happens when you start eating lots of whole plants and your fiber intake goes from 10 or 15 grams to 50 or more? Well, everything in your body starts working better, and I will guarantee you that you’ll no longer need any reading material in the bathroom. See the first blog posted below; it now includes a new video on this topic by Dr. Michael Greger that I added yesterday. The other blogs all have something to do with colon health in general.

Reading material in the bathroom…a red flag. (originally posted on 3-13-11)