She’s doing some good things…but she could do SO MUCH MORE!
First lady Michelle Obama’s Super Bowl Party made the news a few weeks ago…focusing on the not-so-healthy food that she served her guests.
Michelle Obama, influencing people everywhere to eat healthier
While starting a vegetable garden and lobbying for healthier foods are both noble efforts, she is coming up way short of the incredible influence that she could have — a HUGE positive influence that would go far beyond obesity — and include things like heart disease, cancer of all kinds, diabetes and osteoporosis in addition to actually lowering the out-of-control cost of health care.
In an article in the Feb. 10 Chicago Sun Times, the first lady talked about healthy eating and described her philosophy about “balance” as opposed to deprivation or “all or nothing” when it comes to the foods that we eat. From the article:
Mrs. Obama defended the high-calorie White House Super Bowl menu, which included brats, kielbasa, cheeseburgers and deep-dish pizza. There was salad, she noted. The point is balance, not deprivation, she said. “I like to talk about my obsession with french fries because I don’t want people to think that “Let’s Move” is about complete, utter deprivation. “…It’s always about balance. And I felt, as a mother, if somebody came and said, “You can never have a hot dog or serve your child a slice of pizza,” we’d never get a handle on this issue, because I think that’s sometimes how people feel — that it’s all or nothing.”
For her next Super Bowl party, Michelle needs to do most of her shopping in the fresh produce department of her nearest Whole Foods Market.
I appreciate the concern about the “all or nothing” statement, which is why we described the near-optimal diet in our book as deriving over 80% of all of your daily calories from whole plants — in nature’s package. As Dr. T. Colin Campbell frequently says, “the closer we get to consuming a diet of whole plants, the better off we’ll be.”
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.
The White House Vegetable garden that was created by the first lady, Michelle Obama
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!
It’s not a matter of “all or nothing.” It’s all about maximizing the percent of your calories from the most nutritious of all foods — whole plants. We love you Michelle; keep up the good work and keep on learning about healthy eating — the children of the world deserve to know the truth.
*Regarding my use of the word poison: To be fair, it can also be argued that the scotch, wine or beer that I consume may also qualify as poisons. I will admit that they are not “health-promoting ” foods but, unlike animal protein, there is no overwhelming scientific evidence that they are associated with cancer or heart disease.
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
PS: One might ask, what about the 20 million jobs that would go away along with that $2 trillion worth of health care costs? Well, that’s for her husband to worry about; Michelle just needs to worry about saving lives.
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J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy. 