Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Cost Effective Health the Nutritarian Way, Part 2

So having stated the three foundation principles, here's my very own top ten list of specific practices for cost effective implementation, including foods, techniques, habits and tools. Please feel free to substitute your own.

1. Cabbage. Nothing on grocery store shelves beats it for consistent low price and high nutrient density. I often find it for 25 cents per pound, and I can usually find it for 49 cents or under. I almost never pay as much as 89 cents, partly because when I find it for less, I buy a bunch and just keep it in the fridge.

Oh, sorry there, got ahead of myself.............

2. Buy great stuff in bulk. When you find a great deal on high nutrient food, get lots of it and preserve it. This applies across all other items on the list.

Here's some examples:

About nine months ago when apples were super cheap, I bought five 40 pound cases. They were in my refrigerator and my garage, and the cool weather where I live is a factor in being able to preserve these so long. So is the type of apple - these are Braeburn's and seem to store exceptionally well.

Something else I tend to buy in quantity and keep and use for a long time is bananas. Often I'll go into a store and ask for a case of over-ripe bananas. I take them home and freeze them in zip-lock bags, and use 'em in smoothies and desserts. A case lasts me well over six months.

Cabbage also stores well, especially in a refrigerator.

Dry beans store well for me for five years and beyond.

Flax seeds, sunflower seeds and nuts all store well in my freezer for up to several years.

3. Make it yourself. Sure, you can wander into Whole Paycheck Market (er, I mean Whole Foods Market) and get lots of wonderful, even exquisite pre-made foods, grass-fed, free-range animal products, and certified organic everything. You may not afford a home payment, but you'll eat mighty fine!

Not that I mean to pick on Whole Paycheck. 98% of all foods at all American grocery stores are pre-cooked, pre-packaged, and nutritional junk (Whole Paycheck I rate at 95%).

Dried beans are a very cheap, inexpensive convenience food, if you buy them in a 25 lb. bag, cook them yourself in a pressure cooker (ready in 45 minutes, or takes three to five minutes to pull a container out of the freezer and defrost them, since you'll want to freeze the excess you don't immediately use).

So that's it for now. Next time we'll make it to ten.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Cost Effective Health the Nutritarian Way, part 1

I love to eat lots of great tasting food. And this way of eating allows me to do that, without guilt or regrets or weight gain.

In fact, it's really hard to eat too much of the right kind of food, even when you understand what that food is.

How, for example, does one eat a full pound of leafy greens? (drum roll, rim shot....) One bite at a time.

Dr. Fuhrman recommends targeting one pound of fresh leafy greens and one pound of cooked greens per day.

Now just this component alone could potentially break most people's food budget. Not to mention some of the other things that go into a great healthy eating plan, like berries, nuts, seeds and mushrooms.

Then there's the issue of all those specialized ingredients that it takes to make all those other things tasty. Like special spices, fresh, natural ingredients, things that it appears, from most of the recipes you'll find, make it so you should really plan on hundreds of dollars per person eating this way.

This, of course, is self defeating baloney.

If it cost lots, I couldn't do it.

In fact, if it cost even an average amount, I wouldn't do it.

Here's the principles of cost effective healthy eating, according to, well, me. They work, and I'm sure they'd work for others. Plus, there's plenty of ideas floating out there, waiting to be gathered in.

First of all, seek understanding of what healthy eating consists of. The words alone are precious truths. The difference between "nutrient density" and "nutrition" helps me focus on the fact that nutrition which focuses on macro-nutrients such as carbs, proteins, fiber and fat, is old-style eating wisdom, and that micro-nutrients are the keys to what ails our modern-day civilization.

Second, know what high nutrient density foods are. Dr. Fuhrman's "G-Bombs" formula of Greens-Beans-Onions-Mushrooms-Berries-Seeds is probably more precisely stated as Gombbs to best prioritize what we should be eating - not as catchy, but the G-Bombs acronym helps reinforce and remind us that it's only a slight modification to describe real nutrient value relationships.

Third, eat the cheapest highest nutrients possible. The most bang for the buck. As the ratio of nutrients per calorie is the key to health, nutritients per cost is the key to affordability, that makes healthy eating, and therefore health itself, a real, practical possibility for everyone.

So obvious it's stupid, huh?

The obvious is sometimes hidden in plain sight. Understanding what works, and why it works, plus proof that it works - now that's what really works.

Add to that an absolute need, and a sentence of pending death if you don't do it, well, that's my motivation.

Works for me. More specifics coming next time.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

What If It's True?

So I’m going to engage in some pure speculation here, inspired by my religion, my experience, my impressions, hopes and dreams.

Some day, I believe, the world will be a paradise. Truth will reign supreme, and there will be a perfect ruler at the head.

There will be no war.

Love will be the primary motivation of everyone, because of correct choices in the hearts of all people everywhere.

There will be no sickness or disease.

A thousand years of a perfect society.

And, let’s not forget that perfect ruler at the head, teaching, loving and inspiring by words and example. Never forcing, always judging with perfectly just judgment, helping us learn, love and encourage each other.

Now, it seems to me there’s a congruence here, between the hopes of a nutritarian future for me and for the world as a whole, and the concept of a millennial society. Could it be possible that this is a vein of truth that could be so powerful as to be a part of bringing about the millennial dream?

The title of his former blog and third (fifth?) most recent book make it apparent Dr. Fuhrman thinks it's that powerful. Disease Proof. And, Super Immunity. No sickness or disease. If it’s true, this would be a major part of “The Millenial Dream.” Or, as others would probably prefer to call it, a “Utopian Dream.”

It’s certainly a cherished dream, to live substantially without sickness.

But is it just a dream, or is it a real possibility?

We’re talking about heady stuff here. Impossible stuff, most folks would say.

But wait a minute.

WHAT IF IT’S TRUE?

Wouldn’t it be worth checking out, just to see if it’s possible?

There’s some solid evidence here that it could be just exactly that. More than possible, It’s a dream that some people say they’re living.

This is too good to not at least hope for. And to yearn for. To pray, work, learn and act for.

There are also many barriers. And some warning signs. Just because it’s possible, just because there’s evidence and people who have succeeded with this, does not constitute proof. Not yet.

On the other hand, when you’re faced with a possibility of a long and healthy life, vs. the certainty of disease and early death, what would you do?

I have just that choice before me. I visited my doctor two years after my last heart attack, and he gave me no hope for recovery, only for slowing down the certainty of disease progression.

That’s what all the medications he prescribes, the surgeries he’s familiar with, every medical test he uses, are all aimed at.

Slowing down the certain progress of disease. No one, in his opinion, can turn around heart disease. No one has their arteries clear up, they always continue to close off, but at a slower rate if you follow the medical guidelines.

No one.

So I’m doing everything he suggests, and doing lots more. The most important part of “lots more” is eating according to nutritarian principles.

That’s what this is about, the lots more, the hope, and we’ll see if it’s reality, to be healed.

I’m 66. By the time I’m 91 (and long before that) I want clear arteries. A healthy mind. An active, fulfilling life. Bringing along a few friends(especially my best friend) on that same path.

I live for that hope, that part of the millennial dream, to be my life.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

The Disease List, Part 2

To continue an amazing list, let me start of by admitting, this can be hard to swallow.

Errors in the truth arena abound, after all. Every multi-level marketing guru of the latest health fraud will tell you, their product is a cure for most everything.

Maybe some are. But not most (take that, Noni International).

Sorry, it’s wrong of me to pick on something so specific, too harshly. There’s so many targets, and off-target good intentions, out there after all.

I count regular medicine as among those. I’d hardly call it a fraud. Well, maybe just the pharmaceutical industry part of it. Or maybe most spine surgeries. Or maybe. . . .

Sorry, off track again. Later.

So here goes:

Flu. Fractures in general.

Gastric bypass. If ever there was a clear case of standard American diet combined with standard medical approach vs. health, and a mistaken assumption that a temporary fix is the cure, this is it!

Hashimoto’s disease. Heart disease. Hepatitis C. High blood pressure. High Cholesterol/triglycerides. Hip fractures. Hormonal abnormalities, especially relating to young women and maturation. Hypertension. Hypothyroidism. IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).

Inflammatory processes. This is another deep, deep subject, affecting so many things that it’s really hard to describe briefly. Another tip of the iceberg.

Kidney stones. Lupus. Meningitis. Migraines. Non-cancerous tumors.

Obesity. Yet another huge topic, with so many implications and relationships to other conditions, affecting so many, yet so few people beat this. The fact that nutritarian eating is so universally effective in this regard is a key to many of the other conditions it can impact.

Osteoporosis. Pellegra. PMS. Pneumonia.

Prescription drug poisoning. Ok-Ok, I’m in trouble here consistency-wise. This is not a disease, but a principle related to health. All prescription drugs are poisons with a purpose, they all have risks, that’s why it takes a prescription to get them. All of them cause something negative, and the chances of negative effects and disease increases with the standard American diet. Just one well-researched example: A blood pressure medication causes multiple-site cancers, and is notorious for being related to lung cancer in non-smokers. You may not have heard that from your doctor! And the amazing thing is, you don’t even have to be exposed to that risk, with nutritarian eating (because high blood pressure just goes away).

Renal failure. Renal insuffiency. Rheumatoid arthritis. Rickets. Scurvy. Skin diseases. Strokes. Thrombosis. TIA’s (mini-strokes).

Ulcerative colitis. Very personal to me. Our son died of complications from UC, without ever being given a chance to hear about this. We asked every doctor we could find if there wasn’t something more we could do, something related to eating, it seems so obvious. We’re talking about where all food residues pass. "No relationship," we were told, time and time again. We had no idea we were dealing with a medical “blind spot,” that made it so almost no gastroenterologist who hoped to stay in practice would ever admit or even read about food-related correlations and cures. A few great ones who understand otherwise are around, we’ve since found. This and more makes us hyper-receptive to the nutritarian message. And eager to share.

Uterine fibroids.

Viral infections. Another huge category, with amazing correlations.

Weight gain. According to Dr. Furman, 85% of Americans are overweight, and too many of the rest are only that way because they're sick. Our normal or average weight is way skewed against optimal health. This one factor alone is perhaps the best indicator of the potential for better health through nutritarian eating.

As doctor Fuhrman says in Eat to Live*, how can this not catch on?

But this is not a panacea (a principle that cures everything). Not quite. But it's a start.

I’ll talk about the only real panacea in my other blog, AMormonNutritarian.blogspot.com.

*Note that some of this material is only touched on briefly or not even mentioned in Eat to Live. I also got insights from Dr. Fuhrman’s more recent books.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

The Disease List, Part 1

Superior nutrition produces superior health.

It seems so obvious. And once you try it, it’s even more so.

But the total impact is not completely obvious, because when you try it, you try it, you experience it, you can tell the effects. And there are so many opinions on quality nutrition, it’s hard to sift the diamonds from all the dirt.

There’s lots of dirt. The nutritarian concept appears to me to be a diamond.

It’s still not enough to tell that it’ll be effective for someone else, on some other condition, in another set of circumstances.

That’s what makes Dr. Furman’s experience and books so valuable. He’s seen a wide range of conditions, over a number of years, backed up by lots of high quality research.

(Most people though wouldn’t know quality research from a hole in the ground. I’m not saying I’m any great expert here, but I’ve found people who do know the difference, and I try to listen and learn from them.)

Nutritarian style eating is best at preventing disease, but it’s effective at curing and reversing many diseases. Sometimes, though, a disease process has gone on too long, done too much damage to be reversed or cured. Even so, it can still be dealt with way, way more effectively than medications alone.

But other times even serious and long term conditions are reversed. Sometimes even nearly fatal conditions are stopped in their tracks and symptoms and effects vanish.

Here’s an alphabetical list of conditions that nutritarian eating prevents, cures or just helps with. Any list is going to be incomplete, and I’m betting that many more conditions will be added in time. Some are duplicates, same disease different name. And I know I’ve missed some that are probably obvious and well known.

Even so, the list is simply amazing. When it’s worth a comment I’ll pause with a separate paragraph:

Acne, including cystic acne. Allergies. Alzheimer's. Amputations related to diabetes.

Anti-centennarianism, or the tendency to not live to be a hundred years old, healthy, happy and active up until you die (OK, I made that one up, but it’s true).

Appendicitis. Artheromas (fatty deposits hiding in blood vessel walls). Artherosclerosis. Arthritis. Asthma.

Autism. If ever there was a complex and difficult issue, this is one. My NMD (Naturopathic Medical Doctor) friend Jerry Taylor cures this with superb nutrition as the foundation of treatment, as with everything he treats. Smart man.

Autoimmune diseases. Lots more to tell, there are so many related conditions listed here, the words are just the tip of an iceberg. But it applies so often it suggests there is an overall affect on potentially most, many or all of these.

Back pain.

Bacterial infections. A huge category, with fabulous research and amazing results, if you’re open to reading about them.

Beriberi. Birth defects. Blindness related to diabetes. Bone fractures.

Cancer. Wait till you see how the research correlates cures vs. deaths related to nutritarian eating!

Colds. Constipation. Cretinism. Crohn’s disease. Dementia. Depression.

Diabetes. The vast majority with type 2 diabetes are proven to be better off with a nutritarian lifestyle, and most have a complete reversal of symptoms, as we did. Even type 1 diabetes is impacted, with less insulin, far fewer negative consequences, and normal life spans.

Diverticulitis.

Epigenetic conditions, which are passed down to children, can result from environmental or external factors - like eating! Healthy or unhealthy, we pass it down to our children, especially through the mother. But it also appears that negative effects we receive from our parents can be reversed by reversing our own unhealthy habits.

And here I’ll pause, lest you faint, or fade into incredulity (a serious mental disease than can actually be caused as a counter-reaction to nutritarian learning, where you stop believing in truth because it conflicts with things your mother, your doctor, and even your culture, civilization and experience teaches you).

More next time in Part 2.