40 blogs in 40 days…powerful information — one bite at a time

Posted on 03/22/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Fresh 2-Minute Bites of Info Every Day

J. Morris Hicks, the "big picture guy" sharing powerful health-promoting and world-changing information with you every single day.

After launching this new blog on February 10, I thought it was about time that I told you how this site is organized and how you and your family might be able to find information that will help you as you take charge of your own health. Here are a few tips for looking around the site:

  • First, take a look at the drop-down list of “Big Picture” categories in the right hand column. Note that “Protein Concerns” is one of them.
  • Or you can just scan the titles of the “most recent 40 posts” in the right hand column.
  • Just this weekend, I set up a new “4-LEAF Program” page that summarizes a number of recent posts on this healthy eating program featured in our new book. The tab for this page is just to the right of the Home page.
  • There is also a tab for our Book Preview, featuring the foreword by Dr. T. Colin Campbell and his son, Nelson.
  • Want to see the “most viewed” blog so far? Click here to find out if “health insurance companies really want us to be healthy.”
  • The second “most viewed” is the Meals 101 tab.
  • Check out the Video tab for some short clips of Bill Clinton, Oprah, Dr. Campbell, etc., along with a powerful full-length movie called HOME.
  • Like to get a feel for the Big Picture? You might enjoy this 20-minute read under that tab. It’s my take on this incredibly complex mess we have created — coupled with the magnificently simple solution.

After 40 days of blogging, I am pleased to say that this is my favorite time of every day. At first, I feared that I would run out of information eventually, but I soon realized that would never happen. There is just too much that I want to share.

Speaking of sharing, please feel free to provide your comments at the bottom of each and every Page and Post. My policy is to approve ALL comments within a few hours — unless they are vulgar. I welcome any and all questions, comments and concerns. And if you’d like to hire me or my son as a health coach or speaker, visit the Contact Us page.

Thank you for visiting my site; if you found the information helpful, please share it with someone you love. As for our overall topic — I say it in our book and frequently say it in public, “I am convinced that there has never been anything more important in the history of the world.”

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: 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 Big Picture | Leave a comment

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr….a true American hero

Posted on 03/21/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

Yale grad, Olympic Gold, Bronze Star, top surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and the doc that may have saved Bill Clinton’s life

J. Morris Hicks introduces Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn in August 2010. Speaking to a crowd of over 100 at our local yacht club that evening — he had a great impact.

How much more do you need to know about this great man? He has excelled in everything he has ever done. But I am sure that he would tell you that his greatest contribution to the entire world is his well-documented study — and book — proving that even advanced heart disease is completely reversible at almost any age.

As he says, our nation’s number one killer — heart disease — is nothing but a “toothless paper tiger that need never exist and, if it does exist, need never progress.”

I first learned about Dr. Esselstyn from reading The China Study in 2005 and then was privileged to meet him and his wife Ann later that same year in New York. We have since become friends and I tell my “Esselstyn story” at every single one of my public speaking engagements.

I tell about the 17 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who were recruited by Ess after being told that they could no longer have any more surgical interventions. Working with those patients in his own home in the evenings, he and Ann taught these lucky people how to completely reverse their heart disease by simply shifting to the natural diet for our species — eating mostly whole plants, in nature’s package. Now for the scoreboard:

In the eight years prior to his intervention, those 17 patients had 49 cardiac events — in the next eleven, the entire group had a grand total of ZERO. 49 – 0. Lopsided football score for sure.

But guess what? Armed with this powerful proof, Dr. Esselstyn was still unable to convince the Cleveland Clinic to offer this dietary intervention as an alternative to traditional surgery. You see, there’s just not much money to be made when people get healthy. (See related posts on cancer and health insurance)

But Ess does have a new job at the clinic. He is now the Director of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Reversal at the Wellness Institute of The Cleveland Clinic. He is still treating several hundred patients a year and has a near 100% success rate, yet still hardly ever receives a referral from a cardiologist. He gets the lion’s share of his patients from internet searches and word-of-mouth.

Bill Clinton has read his book and told the world about his success on CNN. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr….a true American hero indeed — his work will save millions of lives. You, or someone you know, may be one of them.

My recommended action plan for you. Get his powerful 2007 book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, read it, follow the advice, give it to a friend, save some lives and change the world. Don’t think you need it? He would now tell you that over 90% of Americans over the age of 20 already have coronary artery disease; they just haven’t had their first heart attack yet. Click here to view some great (and free) videos at Dr. Esselstyn’s website.

You see, heart disease is the natural result of eating the typical western diet of meat and dairy three meals a day 365 days a year. Simple cause — simple solution.

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.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 Heart Disease, M.D.s---Health-Promoting, Medical Experts | Leave a comment

“4-Leaf” eating, Part 2 — Analysis of current diet

Posted on 03/20/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

You may be surprised to find out what you’ve really been eating.

Most consumers of the typical western diet are near the bottom of the "No Leaf" level when they start the program.

The first step in the process of moving to the “4-Leaf” level of eating is taking a look at what you are eating now. Since most of us are creatures of habit, we tend to repeat what we eat month after month, year after year. Each of us has a typical breakfast, lunch and dinner and we tend to snack on the same things.

So let’s begin by looking at your typical breakfast…which I will define here as all of the calories that you consume prior to your lunch meal. If you usually have coffee, a bagel with cream cheese and one sausage biscuit, it won’t take long to ascertain that your first meal (with no whole plants in sight) will score at the bottom of the “No-Leaf” range on our scale.

But, maybe you’re already trying to watch what you eat and are having granola, a bagel and coffee. So, with that information in mind, let’s go to nutritiondata.com where you can find the nutritional content of zillions of fresh and packaged products — everything from a Cheese Whopper to turnip greens. You’ll want to join this site for free and begin building your own “foods.”

Taking a look first at the granola; here’s what I found at nutritiondata.com for a home-made version. How could granola not be good for you?  Two clues:  added sugar and too much fat content.  Remember, you’re looking for an average of less than 20% of your calories from fat and you’re looking for near zero added sugar.  One serving of a home-made granola cereal on nutritiondata.com contains 24 grams of sugar and a whopping 264 calories from fat—accounting for 44% of the total of 597 calories per serving.

Use the “recipe function” on nutritiondata.com to add up all of your breakfast calories, including the cream and sugar in your coffee. It will also enable you to easily add up all the calories from fat. Divide the latter by the total calories to find out the percent fat content of your typical first meal of the day.

Sailors Daily Oatmeal -- best if eaten next to a lighthouse

You’re probably going to find that unless you’re eating a lot of fruit with whole grains, you’re going to have a hard time coming anywhere close to the “4-Leaf” level — with over 80% of your calories from whole plants. Click here for a delicious example of a very healthy “4-Leaf” breakfast…shown here.

What about Bill Clinton with that protein shake that he’s having in the morning? Well, he may be eating at the “4-Leaf” level for his typical day, but if starts with a protein shake, he’s not eating at 4-Leaf for breakfast. That’s because the protein shake is not a whole plant, has lots of added sugar and oil, and derives way too many of its calories from sugar and fat (from the oil — all oil, including olive oil is 100% fat). Click here for an earlier post featuring an analysis of a protein shake.

As for lunch and dinner, if you’re eating a HUGE salad with nothing but veggies and a little dressing, you’re probably thinking that surely that’s going to be a “4-Leaf” meal. That depends on what’s in that one ounce of dressing. I recently analyzed such a salad and found that only 34% of the calories came from the veggies; the remaining 66% came from the one ounce of French dressing, which was 98% fat. So the meal only scores at the “1-Leaf” level.

Please don’t despair. Just take your time, and plan some healthy and delicious “4-Leaf” meals that you can be comfortable eating regularly. Then, the calorie counting is over.

Here’s another rule of thumb for you; if you add up your daily calories from JUST the whole plants, the following table is an approximation of your “4-Leaf” level:

  • > 400 calories = 1-Leaf
  • > 800 calories = 2-Leaf
  • > 1200 calories = 3-Leaf
  • > 1600 calories = 4-Leaf

Once you get into the groove and are regularly eating great meals, the analysis and calorie counting is over. Just eat all you want and look forward to all of the benefits of vibrant health and effortless weight-loss. For more information on 4-Leaf, you might want to visit our 4-LEAF Program page or to proceed directly to Part 3 of this five-part series, 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.

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

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

PS: 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, Healthy Eating 101, Recipes & meals | Leave a comment