Common ground among experts…foundation of 4Leaf

Posted on 03/16/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

J. Morris Hicks, building on the “common ground” truths from the medical experts

Our upcoming book features five trail-blazing MD’s who tired of a medical paradigm that treated only symptoms. They each first learned about the power of whole plants in different ways, but they all have been reversing chronic disease in thousands of patients for decades — by simply changing their diets. And, during that time, they have all been researching and studying this exciting field for the last 30 or 40 years.

For some of them, they have had trouble making a living because they conduct no expensive procedures and all of their patients get well. A great treatment paradigm for the patient but not a good way to make a living for the doctors. Hence, they have turned to writing books, giving lectures, conducting seminars and retreats in order to made a living. Finally, the world is beginning to listen as prominent people like Bill Clinton have read their works and are heeding their powerful advice.

During the next month, I will dedicate one of my daily blogs to each of these great medical doctors: Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. of the Cleveland Clinic, Joel Fuhrman, John McDougall, and Dean Ornish.

While some of these outstanding physicians may disagree on one or two minor aspects of plant-based nutrition for reversing chronic disease, there is a vast amount of “common ground” on which they are all in total agreement. We have built our “4Leaf for Life” on that common ground:

After studying all of their published works of these great doctors, I have concluded that they all agree on this statement by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, “The closer we get to a diet of whole, plant-based foods the better off we will be.” Hence our program encourages our clients to maximize the percent of their calories from these nutritious foods — Simple, effective, reasonable & practical. (Click here for more info on 4Leaf)

I mentioned above that these five doctors didn’t learn about the power of plant-based nutrition in medical school; they learned it on their own — just like I did. You see, as of today, there is no for-credit course in plant-based nutrition offered by any reputable school of nutritional science in the United States. If there is, Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell, would like to know about it.

But there was such a course at Cornell and it was taught by Dr. Campbell for about seven years. Abruptly canceled by the administration (dairy industry pressure), the course is now being taught online by eCornell and Dr. Campbell’s foundation at tcolincampbell.org. That course, which I took in 2009, is approved for continuing education credits for MD’s and RD’s — but is no longer approved for credit toward earning a degree from Cornell University. See my earlier blog on “academic freedom” in nutritional science.

Handy 5-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

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 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.

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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—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation

Posted in 4Leaf for Life, M.D.s---Health-Promoting, Medical Experts | 1 Comment

Your Viagra and Lipitor not working so well?

Posted on 03/15/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

The crazy new game of Pharmaceutical Russian Roulette

J. Morris Hicks, helping everyone learn how to take charge of their health and greatly lessen or eliminate their dependance on prescription drugs...all of which are toxic.

Counterfeit drugs have taken pharmaceutical madness to a whole new level. This past Sunday (3-13-11) on 60-Minutes, there was a pretty scary story about the prevalence of fake drugs in the marketplace.

They were interviewing CEO John Clark of Pfizer and Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN on location in a ratty little building in Peru — a fake drug factory that was cranking out product that even Clark and Gupta couldn’t tell if they were fake or not. (See link to this telecast at end of this post.)

It gets worse. They talked about horrible ingredients that these fake producers might be using — things like furniture polish and paint. And they reported that only 12% of the legitimate drug facilities in the world are inspected each year.

They showed truckloads of fake product in many airports and acknowledged that no one knows how big this fake drug problem might be. Further, a drug factory might be legitimate but might be using raw materials that aren’t. There is simply no way to know where the problem is, how big it might be or how it can possibly ever be controlled.

So let’s get this straight. A guy has high cholesterol and erectile dysfunction and is given prescriptions by his doctor to take a statin drug like Lipitor for his cholesterol and an E.D. drug like Cialis or Viagra. In the event that the poor guy is inadvertently taking fake drugs, then it is very unlikely that either of his symptoms are going to get any better. Unless he benefits from a “placebo” effect from the E.D. drug, he is not only not going to improve his love life; he may very well be poisoned by the completely unknown ingredients in the fake drugs.

Taking charge of your health is a simple matter of replacing your toxic western diet with a plethora of whole plants -- deriving over 80% of your calories from these nutritious foods.

The good news here is that this horrific craziness may influence millions of worried consumers to take charge of their health and stop taking all prescription medications.

We know that all drugs are toxic which is why the warnings out-weigh the benefits on all of the drug ads about 10 to 1. We also know that most people can eliminate ALL prescription medications simply by shifting to a diet that consists of mostly whole plants.

Bill Clinton learned how to do this from doctors Esselstyn, Campbell and Ornish, but your own doctor is not likely to tell you about the magic of whole plants. He/she is more likely to tell you that “when diet and exercise are not enough,” then you should try one of these fine drugs that you will be able to enjoy for the rest of your life.

But, in defense of the M.D.’s, they are simply doing what they have been taught. They didn’t learn about the magic of plant foods to promote health in med school; they learned how to diagnose problems and treat symptoms with drugs, surgery, chemo or radiation. That’s it. Some M.D.’s like Esselstyn, Fuhrman, McDougall and others learned about this magic on their own — just like I and a few million other lucky people have.

Thankfully, prominent people like Clinton, Oprah and others are talking openly about this natural diet for humans. Gradually, we will put an end to the global pharmaceutical madness — closing that rat-hole in Peru and eventually shutting down up to 80% of the legitimate pharmaceutical business; along with 80% of all other health care costs in the western world.

Click herefor the 13-minute 60-Minutes segment on CBS. 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, Celebrities, Erectile Dysfunction, Health in General, Healthy Eating 101, Prescription Drugs | 2 Comments

Where do you get your protein?

Posted on 03/14/2011 by J. Morris Hicks

The question most often heard by those of us who eat no meat

Gotta love this cartoon. Do you think they are really worried that we're not getting enough protein? How about the kid with the drumstick and the bottle of milk.

The word protein is synonymous with meat in our western world, and it will probably be a very long time before the average person accepts the scientifically proven fact that animal protein in our diet is simply not “needed,” AND that it is downright harmful and arguably (according to the Webster definition) should be labeled “poison.”

“Hi, my name is Teri and I will be your server. Your choices of protein this evening are ribs, T-bone or salmon. Could I take your beverage order?”

In recent years, even after people have seen the light and have cut meat and dairy out of their diets, they still have this lingering fear (after many decades of brainwashing) that they’re not going to get enough protein from just the plants…maybe because people keep asking them the old protein question — every day. So, like Bill Clinton and others, they add a protein shake or eat some fish occasionally.

A friend who sells a high end line of personal products recently asked me to try her protein shakes. So I took them home, checked out the label, tasted one, then poured it down the drain after analyzing the contents. I wanted to be as courteous as possible with my feedback to her so I wrote her the following note:

Dear Mary, Thank you for giving me samples from your line of protein shakes. While they may help improve the health of a great many people, I have concluded that they are not right for me. As you know, I am committed to maximizing the percent of my calories from “whole plants” still in nature’s package. If I consumed your products on a regular basis, my percent of calories from whole plants would have to go down. Here is a summary of my thinking regarding protein shakes in general.

  1. First of all, I have no interest in increasing my consumption of protein any more than I want to increase my consumption of carbohydrates or fat, the other two macronutrients. Our body needs all three…and it gets just the right amount of each from our eating a variety of whole plants. Just like other herbivores in the wild, including the strongest animals in the world — elephants, horses, hippos, etc.
  2. Since your protein shakes are not whole plants, that means they’re not something that I would ever want to consume on a regular basis. For the 20% of my calories that are not whole plants (on our 4-Leaf Program);for me, those calories are already allocated to a combination of bread, pasta, cocktails, cookies and an occasional rich hors d’oeuvre in someone’s home.
  3. Both of the products you gave me have added sugars and added oils and I decided long ago to not consume ANY added sugars or oils on a regular basis — except for the occasional cookie “treat” that I mentioned above.
  4. The percent of calories from fat for both products is well over 20%. I strive to stay below 15%, Dr Esselstyn likes to see his heart-disease reversal patients get down to 10% of their calories from fat. The average American gets almost 40%.
  5. All protein shake products are based on the premise that we need more protein than we’re getting, especially if we have cut back on meat and dairy. This is simply not true. In The China Study, Dr. Campbell clearly showed that the ONLY problem with protein is that humans consume way too much of it….especially the protein from animals which promotes heart disease, cancer and many other health issues.
  6. Did you know that mother’s milk contains only 5% protein at the time when the fastest period of growth is taking place. Nowadays, most adults in this country are getting over 15% protein from animal foods and it’s literally killing us. The plant proteins, on the other hand, are not a problem, regardless of the quantity that we consume — according to Dr. T. Colin Campbell.

    Calorie for calorie, spinach and broccoli contain more protein than steak.

Although Bill Clinton credits Doctors Esselstyn, Ornish and Campbell with influencing him to shift to a near optimal diet so he could enable his body to “heal itself, ” he didn’t take their advice about protein.  The lifetime of brainwashing on that topic apparently won out over those three prominent individuals that he credits with saving his life.

Still not convinced? Please visit our Protein Page which contains many more articles on this controversial topic.

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, Health in General, Healthy Eating 101, Protein Concerns | 1 Comment