“Vibrant health” via the simple, positive “80-20,” 4Leaf Program

Posted on 09/13/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

539 copies of our book will arrive at my house today — 16 days before our launch party at the Saltwater Farm Vineyard in Stonington, CT

On my way to dinner last night, I encountered a friend out walking his dog on the sidewalk. Michael stopped to tell me that he and Sarah had seen the recent Sanjay Gupta special (The Last Heart Attack), and had decided to adopt our 4Leaf Program for seeking vibrant health.

Leveraging the simple, yet powerful concept of maximizing the percent of your calories from whole plant foods — still in nature’s package

He reported that things were going very well and that he had “already lost a lot of weight (in less than two weeks) with the simple and flexible 80-20 approach.” He then added that he still didn’t want to give up the “half & half” that he enjoys in his coffee; so that’s part of the 20% of his calories that are not whole plants.

This morning I sent Michael an email right after arriving at Starbucks at 0600. I wanted to reach out to him and reinforce the “vibrant health” focus of our 4-Leaf Program. While many people enjoy the effortless weight-loss that accompanies a dramatic increase in their consumption of whole plants, we always want to warn them against making weight-loss their primary goal. The emphasis should always be on achieving and keeping vibrant health — and that means making a permanent lifestyle change; not just adopting an improved diet-style for awhile to lose some weight.

Wanting to remind Michael of these thoughts, my email to him included links to a few recent blogs on 4-Leaf eating that might be helpful for him. Here they are for your convenience:

To clarify. Some people mistakenly assume that we’re only recommending 80% of calories from plant-based foods. Let’s be real clear; while we have never recommended the consumption of ANY animal foods, we recognize that many people are simply turned off by any program that is “all or nothing.” So we placed the 4Leaf emphasis on achieving over 80% of your calories from whole plants, still in nature’s package. We also hope that you will choose plant-based foods for the other 20% as well.

The 3-Leaf level is a pretty healthy diet-style; but please don’t stop here. Remember, vibrant health is the goal.

A word about the 2-Leaf or 3-Leaf levels. We know that the average American derives far less than ten percent of their calories from whole plant-based foods and that a move to the 2-Leaf level (over 40%) means at least quadrupling your consumption of these powerful, health-promoting foods.

At the 3-Leaf level (over 60%), you’re increasing whole plant consumption by at least six fold. That’s no doubt going to make a big difference in your overall level of health and will probably help you lose some weight. But, we don’t want you to stop there. We want to help you make sure that you will NEVER have your “first heart attack” and that you will enjoy vibrant health all of your years on this Earth.

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.

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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 4Leaf for Life, Weight-Loss | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Bill Clinton — social change, urgency and activism

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

We simply don’t have time for the normal snail pace of social change.

During “The Last Heart Attack” documentary, President Clinton spoke briefly about the dismal state of affairs with regards to our school lunches across the country — with pizza, burgers and french fries dominating the menus. He said that due to the costs involved, the school systems didn’t have the budget for the more expensive fruits and vegetables so were opting for the cheaper, less-healthy fare. And he added that the kids don’t mind, because they prefer pizza and burgers over veggies anyway.

Former president Bill Clinton knows the power of a plant-based diet, but he may not be fully aware of all that is at stake.

He talked about the pace of social change for correcting the situation — but there was no sense of urgency in his voice. As he was speaking, my impression was that he was thinking like a politician and not like a world leader. As we all know, the typical politician doesn’t really  do much “leading;” they just say what they need to say to get elected. Then they spend the next four years trying not to rock the boat too much so as not to spoil their chances for re-election.

What we really need is LEADERSHIP. We need for a few powerful, smart and charismatic people who understand the “big picture,” to join forces, collaborate and do all that they can to help the average citizens of the developed nations to learn the truth about how we have chosen to feed ourselves. People everywhere need to learn the truth about the extremely harmful, wasteful, cruel and gross unsustainability of what we’re eating. The average citizen needs to understand the words of narrator Glenn Close in the great 2009 documentary, HOME (See link below):

In just the last fifty years, humankind has inflicted more damage on the fragile harmony of nature — than did all generations of humans for the past 200,000 years — combined. And, if we don’t dramatically alter that trend within the next ten years, we may have passed the point of no return.

Now, I am well aware that ALL of that damage was not caused by what we are eating, but much of it was. More importantly, without a doubt, our best short-term opportunity to have a meaningful impact on altering that trend would be an aggressive shift by billions, not just millions, to a whole foods, plant-based diet. When you consider that compared to a plant-based diet on a per calorie basis — our typical Western diet requires 20 times more land, 20 times more energy and 20 times more water — just image the powerful impact of a well-led move away from our harmful and wasteful diet. One more thing, as a fringe benefit, we save 80% of our health care dollars at the same time.

Ted Turner -- a natural leader for a world-changing cause

President Clinton already knows that the plant-based diet is superior for our health, but he doesn’t seem to fully appreciate the urgency of the situation expressed in the HOME quote and the above paragraph. But he is a very smart man and when he connects all the dots, he could be in a position to provide some much-leaded global leadership. And fortunately, he doesn’t have to worry anymore about getting re-elected.

Just as Clinton and Bush collaborated on the Haiti earthquake disaster, imagine the power of a similar collaboration on the urgency of altering our feeding model in the Western world. How about a collaboration that included the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Ted Turner? They’ve got all the resources needed to educate the masses with the regards to:

  • What we should be eating
  •  The staggering benefits of doing so: health, environment, cost of energy, world hunger
  • Why we’ve not heard these truths before
  • A plan for getting it done (bringing in leaders from around the world)

This man "gets it" with regards to the health benefits of plant-based.

Just like the problems of health care and our debt ceiling, we know that the politicians are simply not capable of getting it done. What we need is powerful LEADERSHIP and we need it NOW.

And Mr. Clinton, since you’re probably the only one of that group of four who already knows that we simply don’t “need” any animal protein to be healthy, it’s up to you to get those other three powerful “money guys” on board. And, by the way, we need to see a sense of urgency. This ain’t politics Mr. President; this is the future of life on Earth as we know it. One more thing; you might want to give Sanjay Gupta a call. Maybe CNN could give him  a leave of absence so that he could work with you full-time on this crucial project for as long as it takes.

Click below for my blog on this great documentary and an opportunity to watch this 90-minute video that everyone needs to see.

HOME – a 2009 film — a powerful eye-opener

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J. Morris Hicks, author and activist. 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.

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

PS: Rate this post below and see the results of the voting…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, Bill Clinton, Celebrities | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

It’s nine-eleven, “Big Blue has landed,” and all is well…

Posted on 09/11/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

“Big Blue” is my nickname for our book…named for that glorious blue apple

"Big Blue Has Landed" in Missouri

First book shipment arrives in Missouri — Bulk Sales Now Available to You

My good friend Susan Benigas, who I first met while working on a project with Dr. Campbell and his son, Nelson, a few years ago — placed her first book order on September 1, for (48 books) of Healthy Eating – Healthy World. Her shipment arrived on Thursday. She wrote me the next day:

Two cases were delivered to my doorstep sometime yesterday.  Jim, the book is beautiful; congratulations!  Can’t wait to read it.

Leaving right now to deliver an entire case to the 24 person staff of Dr. Doug Watanabe, my dear friend and business partner in Perfect Search Solutions, LLC.  I’ve presented to Doug’s staff and many have had tremendous life transformations through the power of plant-based nutrition.  I was in for a dental cleaning appointment this morning, and everyone was asking for copies of your book.  So….I’ll be ordering yet another case to replace my Chistmas gift inventory! Best, Susan

You may recognize this distinctive logo; it appears on every copy of "The China Study" that has ever been printed -- almost a million.

BenBella is now open for business. Monday, that is. Now that the first shipment has arrived safely, I am empowered to offer you the same price that Susan and I are both paying for our personal copies. Here’s the deal:

  • By ordering in bulk directly from the publisher, BenBella in Dallas, your price is 50% off the cover price of $14.95 or $7.48.
  • With shipping, you can expect to pay a total of around $8 per book. Amazon is selling them now (for Oct. 1 shipment) at $10.17 plus shipping.
  • Minimum bulk order size is one case or 34 copies; my first order is for 545 copies, arriving tomorrow.
  • The books are being shipped from the printer, who is in MN, so the closer you live to MN, the less your shipping costs will be.

What about international? Since shipping costs almost $5 per book, BenBella offers a 60% discount for international shipments. Hence, your book cost is $5.98. Even with shipping, your delivered cost per book is about $4 less than the cover price of $14.95.

How to place your order. Contact Aida Herrera (or assistant Laura Alberter) at the BenBella HQ in Dallas.  Her contact info:

Administrative Director | BenBella Books, Inc., 10300 N. Central Expy., Suite 400 | Dallas, TX 75231, T 214 361 7901 |  F 214 750 3645 — Email: aida@benbellabooks.com

A word about Chesterfield, MO. In August of 2009, I was part of a strategic planning meeting at the home of Susan and Jon Benigas. During that meeting with Nelson Campbell (Colin’s son), Gina Copeland, and Steve Heerboth; the original seeds were planted for the book that I am now holding in my hands. I didn’t know it at the time; but I was about to become an activist; something I would have never imagined in a million years. 

"The Eagle Has Landed" July 20, 1969. Where were you? I was a junior officer in the USCG in Hawaii, watching the telecast from my Diamond Head bachelor pad. I still get goosebumps.

Not considered a very pretty word by many; activism to me is a good thing — meaning the simple process of doing all that I can to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth. It means sharing my relatively unique “big picture” knowledge of this crucial topic with every human possible — even if it means going up against the powerful meat, dairy & drug industries and the USDA.

This blog is the first step. The next step is our completed book, which Susan is distributing in St. Louis like there is no tomorrow. My activist mission is all about providing education regarding the many crucial things that I know to be true — things that are driven by what we choose to feed ourselves. I want every single person to have access to ALL of the critical information that they should consider before deciding what to feed their own families. Information that goes far beyond the personal health of those families.

Once you have all of that “big picture” information, the choice of what you do with that knowledge is up to you. Our job is to help you figure out the GPS coordinates of your ultimate destination — and maybe provide you with a little helpful guidance as you “NAVIG-8” your own way to vibrant health. (FYI, my CT license plate is “NAVIG-8”).

One final note. Just before finalizing this blog, I got this message from Nelson Campbell, who wrote the Foreword to our book with his father, T. Colin Campbell. He writes:

Jim, I got your book today.  It is so beautiful.  The cover is amazing. And what is in between is even more amazing.  Have a great weekend! Nelson

"Big Blue" alongside what is quite possibly the most powerful book ever written.

Colin’s signed book has also arrived by now at his home in Ithaca, NY. Speaking of Colin, as I sit here finishing up this blog, I just placed our new book on the table in front of me alongside my original, somewhat tattered, copy of The China Study.

With all the blue and green, they definitely look like they are members of the same family — and they most definitely are. (Our BenBella publisher, Glenn Yeffeth, probably had that in mind all along.)

Looking back, I remember how excited I was when Karen and Colin Campbell both signed my China Study; at the Zen Palate Restaurant in New York City on December 6, 2005. At the time, Karen asked me why in the world I wanted her to sign my book. I replied, “because as I understand if, if it had not been for you, there would be no book.”

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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 “great salt pond” on Block Island in the great state of Rhode Island – 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

From BenBella Books -- Dallas, Texas

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