Earlier this week, Mark Bittman wrote a column in the New York Times entitled “Food: Six Things to Feel Good About.” In the article he cited the Child Nutrition Act and things that Michelle Obama and Walmart were doing to promote healthier food…plus a few comments about the growth of organic farming. One reader commented, “I like it better Mark, when your complaining, because there’s certainly plenty to complain about.” Here is what I posted, you can see it the NY Times as comment #50; you can click on the link at the end of this post to read the entire article.
J. Morris Hicks, "the big picture guy" for promoting health, hope & harmony on planet Earth.
TOO LITTLE – TOO LATE.
Thanks for this “good news” article Mark. Unfortunately, it’s a sad case of too little too late, almost like reporting how nice the evening meal was on the Titanic just before she struck an iceberg. Your well-meaning article gives people false hope that all is well when in fact we’re the sickest nation on earth, our cost of health care is out of control, obesity is everywhere and the average American still thinks that they actually “need” to eat animal protein….because that’s what the USDA and our schools of nutrition are still telling them.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government (CDC) is projecting that one out of three adults will have diabetes by 2050. As for Michelle Obama, she is no doubt doing some good things, but she could be doing so much more to help promote truly healthy foods that will reverse heart disease and type 2 diabetes and prevent cancer. Quoting from one of my recent blogs about Michelle…
What if Michelle, like Bill Clinton did recently, read Dr. Campbell’s The China Study and learned the not-so-well-known dirty little secrets about the food that we eat and the mainstream, industry-controlled academia that is bent on maintaining the status quo? What if she learned that our toxic diet of meat & dairy at every meal is driving up to 80% of our health care costs? What if she learned from that book that hot dogs, chicken nuggets and even cow’s milk were essentially poisons* that should never be consumed in any quantity by any human — at any age?
*I know…the word poison sounds extreme, yet the Webster definition is “a substance that can cause injury or death to a living organism.” And there is a mountain of scientific evidence suggesting that our toxic western diet most certainly causes “injury or death” to millions of humans every single year.
What if Michelle really learned the complete truth about nutrition and started talking openly about it in public? It still might not be “all or nothing” but I bet she wouldn’t be serving a whole table full of poisons* to her guests at the next Super Bowl party.
Then, what if Michelle started eating at what we call the “4-Leaf” level herself (over 80% of her daily calories from whole plants)? By the way, the average American gets far less than 10% of their calories from whole plants. As for her French fries, a raw potato is one percent fat; a French fried potato derives almost 50% of its calories from the oil in which it is cooked.
Michelle is already an attractive woman; imagine what she would look like as a perfect size 8…after losing 30 or 40 pounds. And imagine the influence that she would have on the entire world when she explained her effortless weight-loss — saying how it was attributed to her new diet-style consisting primarily of whole plants — in nature’s package.
Then, after she had everyone’s attention, she might even quote Dr. Campbell and Esselstyn and say, “If everyone ate like Bill Clinton and myself, up to 80% of the health care costs in our nation would simply disappear.” What if she stopped talking about deprivation and started talking about celebration? What if she stopped talking about balance and started talking about saving lives?
Just imagine!
For the complete article by Mark Bittman, click here. 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.
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—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com
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J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy. 