Health on a Fork

Recent headlines identifying the health care crisis in America does little to assist a concerned public in clarifying the changes needed to promote this valued commodity called health, or to instruct individuals in habits for minimizing disease risks. In a soon to be released video Forks Over Knives, a documentary focused on practical help to answer these concerns of increasing risk, this timely film engages discussion for health based on the food on your plate. Two dedicated men share their research, concerns and expertise in diet and lifestyle intervention for an approach to health care that will substantially reduce disease, illness and suffering in our society.

Decades of research by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. published in his book, The China Study, and clinical work by Caldwell B. Esseltyn, MD compare the effects of disease rates with nutritional consumption. The compelling connection between diet and disease is reflected in published research, clinical trials and personal stories.  Both Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esseltyn combine their expertise to reveal a powerful option to interrupt, reverse, and heal from chronic and life threatening illness. That option presented in their film, to be released in March 2011, is to reject the Standard American Diet (SAD) and begin a plant-based way of eating.

As simple as this recommendation is why do many avoid this path to health and wellness? If you were told that your favorite food is linked to your recently diagnosed cancer, would you choose to never eat that food again?  If you were told that your favorite food is a contributing cause to your diabetes to eventually cause blindness, would you be willing to change your food habits? None of the inflammatory, chronic, or auto-immune diseases afflicting growing numbers of people have any cure available from the medical community. Nutritional experts and researchers have consistently shown through numerous studies that we are what we eat and that our diets are connected to the diseases we suffer, endure and spend our life savings in symptom care with no real hope for measurable healing.

The truth for eliminating disease is to understand the power of plant foods to protect and heal the body. But, lifestyle factors that remove home cooked meals as the normal way to eat food, with increased access to convenience foods, along with a strong belief that medicine will “cure” illness with a yet to be discovered potent pill, keep many trapped into thinking that food is not really that important to actual health.

Perhaps the answer for minimizing disease is so obvious, we’ve missed it! Examine the food on your fork and ask whether it is recognizable as whole, fresh, fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, beans, or whole grains and without additives, chemicals or preservatives. Are you consuming plant-based protection for your health? The most wonderful result of the many studies and stories of diet and lifestyle intervention is how quickly the body responds to nutrition from whole, fresh, plant food sources. Truly how much your health is worth can be measured by the foods consistently chosen for your plate and fork.

For more information on changing your health outcomes, visit my website: www.bethforhealth.com and contact me for a health consultation.