10 Comments

Incredibly concerning! That obesity chart is not good.

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Yeah, it's terrible and why I feel a duty to (in order of importance)

1. Take good care of myself.

2. Look out for my family and friends.

3. Help others without comprimising 1 & 2.

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Yikes! Those are some eye-popping charts. We always talk about how correlation ≠ causation, but really, this one is hard to ignore!!!

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Yes. Thanks David. I intentionally tried not to comment on causation and just let the charts speak for themselves. These companies are scaling efficiently and going global. $MCD now more than half of revenues outside the US.

We’re taking the Standard American Diet global.

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This is pretty scary. I keep wondering how we get this trend to reverse. Data, education, and information doesn't seem to be enough to inspire better consumption habits.

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Unfortunately, I think its still getting worse. I focus on taking care of myself, serving as a role model, and then trying to help people as much as I am able.

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Personal journey of my wife and I. We started a whole foods plant-based (mostly as I still occasionally enjoy eggs, fish/chicken) lifestyle about 6 months ago. We are close to 60 years old and haven’t felt better in years. I believe, up to this point, the whole food plant-based lifestyle has done four important things for us: 1. Better, deeper sleep 2. More energy throughout our day 3. It markedly keeps our body weight where it should be (we are both down to within our BMI range although I’m near the top end since my genetic build is short/muscular/broad) and 4. The absolute loss of the addiction to these processed, high sugar/salt/fat no-real-benefit foods. Personally I believe that last one to be the critical one as it broke the cycle of addiction. We have our physicals in September and are looking forward to what our doctor has to say as well as what our blood work has to reveal. We were not on any major medicines thankfully except for me with “genetically” high cholesterol but I’m hoping I may be able to come off of it after that September meeting. Our blood pressure, which we monitor, is slightly lower and within perfect range and our resting pulse rates have lowered somewhat. We also exercise age-appropriate everyday or at least every other day. We started this process after being motivated by awareness of our junk food addictions, a desire to maintain good health as we age, and as well as watching and rewatching the documentary “Forks over Knives.” That’s a great starting point for anyone interested in this lifestyle change, however, you need to do some minimal work in order to make sure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your need. That’s not hard, but the need for awareness and educating oneself nonetheless is important. We do this through several books including cookbooks on the topics and following educated authors (such as Philip Pearlman) and experts on the subject. You could also ask or consult with a dietitian or even better, a plant-based dietitian, to get started. I wish everyone good health and hope these ideals become mainstay for our country and the world.

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Amazing and great work Anthony! Thank you for sharing. I am curious, where do you get the majority of your protein on a predominantly plant based diet?

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You are welcome! Our pleasure. There are many ways to get your proteins via a whole foods plant based lifestyle. We prefer hemp seeds or hemp powder but of course all seeds have protein and we enjoy many of them such as sunflower, pumpkin, chia, flax, etc. We also enjoy and get protein from soy / almond milk, beans, lentils, whole peanut butter (no additives), all nuts, and quinoa which is an excellent source of protein. Finally, most vegetables will have some type of protein in them. You can also do tofu for protein as well although we do not. What I mentioned above is not a finite list of plant based proteins, it’s just what we enjoy. We do research on Nutritionfacts.org for further education and to make sure we are getting the proper amount of everything. As a side note, B12 vitamins are the one thing you definitely cannot get from a plant based diet so we supplement B12 via a simple vitamin.

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This looks like a great list! Thanks for sharing AJ.

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