Nature's Express - Healthier Fast Food

Sustainable Tuna. Is there such a thing?

2011-10-15T18:24:00.005-07:00

I used to really love fishing. Sometimes I even fantasized about the future when I would have both the time to fish and some grandkids to show how to wait patiently for a bite.

I also loved to eat seafood – tuna steaks and lobsters were my favorites. But after becoming vegetarian 20 years ago, I quit eating seafood. While occasionally I still miss eating fish, I really miss fishing.

A while back, I went to the Seattle Aquarium with my two grandsons. I find aquariums fascinating, now loving fish for the fish themselves – the incredible variety, their stunning beauty, and their joy (I presume) to be alive. While I still feel sad that my fantasy of fishing with the grandkids isn’t going to happen, sharing the wonders of the life of the sea brought joy to all.

However, when lunchtime arrived, I found the cafeteria disquieting. While my opinions represent a minority perspective, it now seems odd that after showing us how wonderful sea creatures are and how our fishing practices are ruining their habitat, I am supposed to revel in the fact that certain fish are not yet endangered, so eat up! At one time that perspective made perfect sense to me as well.

When we got home, I did a little research on sustainable fishing. The Monterey Aquarium has extensive consumer information as a guide. What I found was disconcerting.

For example, under Albacore Tuna (one of seven kinds of tuna the Monterey Aquarium discusses) their summary table advises:

The best choice is U.S. Pacific or Canadian Pacific albacore tuna caught by troll or “pole and line.”
Avoid all longline albacore caught anywhere in the world (except Hawaii). This is a problem because this method of fishing tends to catch older fish that have accumulated too much mercury.
Avoid even “wild-caught” albacore in the North Atlantic.
At a retail level canned white tuna is both a “best choice” and an “avoid.”
All the other market names they give – Longfin Tunny, Shiro Maguro, and Tombo are also confusingly both a “best choice” and an “avoid.”

So, all of the market names are both the best and the worst!

The bottom line is that consumers wanting to learn about sustainable or healthier albacore tuna find information that is, at best, confusing. And if the world of tuna eaters all ate just the tuna from the U.S. or Canada Pacific, how long would that be sustainable? Does this seem nuts to anyone else?

If you want a truly sustainable tuna sandwich – try ours. There is no threat to the health or the population of Garbanzo Beans (the base of our “hold the Tuna”) – that we know of.

Bon appétit!

By Dr. Carl Myers

Our kids deserve a better world

2011-10-07T20:43:00.009-07:00

Our children live in an obesogenic world. That is the medical term for the things in our environment that make us fat.

The causes behind the child obesity epidemic include a sedentary lifestyle plus a diet that is:High in sugar

· High in fat

· High in salt

· Low in fiber

The average 8 year old watches 4000 junk food commercials a year encouraging them to eat the worst of the worst. After 4000 commercials, who is going to listen to Mom?

No surprise - high fat and high sugar diets create fat kids.

Children 40 years ago rarely had high cholesterol, hypertension, or glucose intolerance. Now 60% of kids who are overweight have at least one of these problems. Obesity in kids also increases asthma, liver dysfunction, sleep apnea and Type II diabetes.

We have known this for years, so why does the problem of childhood obesity continue to get worse? Some blame the schools, some blame the parents, and some blame the soda companies or fast food joints.

Kids have a sugar habit even before they start school. Four year olds eat over 60 pounds of sugar per year – 40 pounds more than recommended. What can be done?

The 5-2-1-Almost None Program is a fantastic start.

It stresses a daily routine for kids with 5 or more fruits and vegetables, no more than two hours of screen time, at least one hour of physical activity, and almost no sugary beverages.

It’s time to leave the obesogenic world behind!

Make the 5-2-1-Almost None guidelines the healthy choice for your family.

Change your world one step at a time

2011-08-18T08:18:00.003-07:00

Do you have a bad habit that you would like to change? Experts divide a

person’s readiness for change into six groups:

1. “I don’t want to change” (Precontemplation)

2. “I might consider changing” (Contemplation)

3. “I’m planning on how to change” (Preparation)

4. “I’ve changed” (Making the break)

5. “I don’t want to go back to the way I was ” (Maintenance)

6. “I’m thoroughly changed” (Transformation)

Understanding one’s readiness greatly increases the chance for success

and each stage requires a different approach.

In stage 1, before one is really ready to change you might ask

yourself, “If I were to stop, why would I? Common answers include “To

save money” or “To be a better influence on my kids”. Such “what if”

questions plant the seeds for future change.

In Stage 2, one is ready to think about change. Collecting all the facts is

helpful at this stage. Comparing the gap between one’s principles and

one’s actions can generate motivation.

In stage 3, when planning one’s strategy for change it is helpful to be

inspired by others’ who have kicked your habit. Learning from your

own previous attempts is also key. Let your friends know your plans

and elicit help along the way. Create a rallying cry. For instance “This

Christmas I will once again be a size 10!”

When you are actually ready to start a change, make sure you are

prepared. Spur of the moment action plans are unlikely to succeed. Set

the stage for success by developing and sticking to your comprehensive

plan.

Stage 5, the maintenance stage, requires vigilance. Overconfidence is

the biggest cause of slipping up. For example, learn to celebrate in new

ways - even if it means avoiding your previous drinking buddies. Like a

boy scout, be prepared. If you slip, get right back on your plan. Don’t get

derailed for good.

Tackling an addiction can be the most difficult obstacle one ever faces -

but freedom when one succeeds is ever so sweet.

We all live in a nanny submarine

2011-08-09T08:16:00.002-07:00

Healthy Yuma 2011 is a community effort to help those opting for healthier lifestyle choices. This raises some concerns.

Is this a “nanny state” effort? Is this a misguided project trying to exert excessive control over people’s lives? Shouldn’t we let everyone come to their own conclusions? After all, don’t people already know what foods are healthy?

Unfortunately we already live in a “nanny” state. Government strongly influences what we eat through billions of dollars of direct and indirect agriculture subsidies. Less than 5% of that money goes to the most healthy, highly nutritious foods, while the rest goes to less healthy food or pure junk.

You can see the result of this subsidy imbalance everywhere. Our employee break rooms are toxic food dumps while our celebrations are sugar on top of sugar. Our daily food routines overcome our natural tendency to be fit and healthy, leaving us fighting those extra pounds of fat.

So our current governmental nanny is alive and well, supporting a food

environment where our kids are addicted to soda and salty snacks even before they are out of diapers. Our nanny has revolutionized our children’s diseases as well. Thirty years ago hypertension and high cholesterol was rare. Doctors even needed to rename adult onset diabetes as Type II diabetes because it is now a disease of kids, too.

The Beatle’s Yellow Submarine artfully sketches the benefits when we are in balance with our priorities:

As we live a life of ease,

Every one of us has all we need,

Sky of blue, and sea of green,

In our yellow submarine.

Societies are so immersed in their culture that it is easy to forget its profound

influence. It is time to reconsider ours.

As we live a life diseased,

Every one of us consumed in need,

Feeling blue, and feeling green,

In our nanny submarine.

Just the facts, ma’am”

2011-07-14T12:53:00.003-07:00

Sergeant Friday, from the Dragnet series, was careful not to get derailed in getting to the bottom of a case. He was only interested the facts. So, here are just a few facts – see if you can figure out the identity, of the offender. The facts were recently released in a World Health Organization report.

Here are the clues. What is it?

The world’s third largest cause of disease and disability
The cause of almost two and a half million deaths per year
The cause of over one in five cancer deaths
The leading cause of death in men from age 15 to 59
The cause of 30% of deaths from injuries

This offender can make you permanently stupid, or in medical jargon cause

neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

Have you guessed yet? The cause of this destruction and a real poison to our health, is the abuse of alcohol.

Is it a growing problem? In AZ it is. Newsweek recently reported that binge drinking is up 74% in AZ, in the last decade.

However, because alcohol is addicting and getting smashed is somehow cool, such facts alone are unlikely to change risky behavior. But there comes a time when people decide enough is enough.

So if alcohol is disrupting your life or the health of your relationships, there is no better time than now to begin the process back to normal. Call 866-407-4380, to assist you in getting started, whether for you, your family, or a friend.

Healthy Yuma 2011 is a year for the citizens of Yuma County to join together to get healthier, a time to pitch in, to make a better community. What do you plan to do?

This is Dr. Carl Myers for Healthy Yuma 2011.

Avoid the Salt Assault

2011-06-29T11:58:00.002-07:00

We vastly underestimate the health risk of a high salt diet. It is estimated that

150,000 lives could be saved every year if Americans cut their salt intake to the

recommended amount.

To put that into perspective: In just two years, as many Americans die from a high salt diet as died in combat during all of World War II.

Here are five facts you should know about salt:

1. Excessive salt raises blood pressure, wrecking havoc with one’s

cardiovascular system and kidneys.

2. After one high salt meal one’s arteries are inflexible for hours

3. Only 6% of our salt comes from the saltshaker; the vast majority comes from

processed foods and restaurant meals

4. Salt is listed as “sodium” on food labels. If the sodium number (in milligrams) is bigger than the number of calories per serving, it is a high salt food.

5. The average American eats over 3600mg of sodium per day which is double

the recommended amount

At first it might seem hard to cut back on salt, but in just six weeks of eating a

normal amount of salt, your taste buds become more sensitive. Foods that were

bland in the past become flavorful and foods that you once craved taste too salty!

Adding fruits and vegetables to your day are a great way to start. They are very

low salt - just one of the reasons they are the best foods on the planet!

So if you’d like to enjoy your food more—and perhaps tack a few more years onto your life - cut down on your salt intake.

Don't waste your willpower

2011-06-15T08:03:00.002-07:00

We all know about willpower. It’s that grit inside that gets us to do what we should when it’s not easy. But often our willpower is not up to the task. As Mae West quips, “I generally avoid temptation, unless I can’t resist it.”

No one denies that willpower is key when choosing a healthier lifestyle. But why can’t we just choose a plan of action and then do it? How do we strengthen our gumption? The answer - use willpower wisely.

Most of us tend to overestimate the strength of our willpower. We sit in front of the TV with a bag of potato chips and expect that with a new diet plan, we will stop at 50 calories. Yeah, right.

Science calls this misplaced hutzpah “restraint bias”. Although we might think

we can do it, when staring down our main attraction (chocolate, cookies, heroin -whatever) with willpower alone, nine times out of ten, we will fail. This waste of willpower over time creates a habit of failure.

Instead, use your willpower to prevent major confrontations with temptation in the first place:

- Use a grocery list and only buy what’s on it

- Don’t go to the grocery hungry

- Just say “no” to stopping for a beer after work and schedule a walk with a friend instead

- Take your lunch to work and put an apple on your desk

- Never have a cigarette in the house or in the car

Look for creative ways to use your gumption to avoid that duel on Main Street in the first place.

Using willpower wisely strengthens it so that when you do have to face temptation directly, you’ll be able to walk away with a smile as you create a habit of success.

The transforming power of inner motivation

2011-05-27T10:56:00.002-07:00

In his recent bestselling book, Drive, Daniel Pink discusses how

incentives can actually block the results they are designed to achieve.

Studies show that the more we are motivated from outside forces, the

more we act in unethical and addictive ways. On the other hand, the

more our motivation comes from within, the happier and more honest

we become.

The last time that I was a guest lecturer in Professor Lhotka’s AWC

Comparative Religion class, we explored the question of motivation.

During the discussion, one student expressed a philosophy that gives

her a strong sense of purpose. I asked the class, “Can we adopt her

statement for ourselves?” There was lively dissent, focusing on the

students’ widely differing perspectives on life.

I suggested that as a group they try to develop a common purpose. In

two minutes there was consensus - “Life’s purpose is to help others

without hurting them and to do the same for oneself.”

The clarity of this statement created a significant effect on the students.

They began expressing honest concerns that their actions were not

consistent with their ideals, admitting that in their experience it seemed

easier to “do bad things than good.”

This classroom experience has direct application to addictions, which

persist because addictions sap the energy to close the gap between

one’s actions and one’s aspirations. As the students clarified their

purpose, they immediately had energy to examine their actions.

This is precisely what Pink’s studies showed – as one taps into one’s

internal motivation, one finds a strong desire to help others. As the

students demonstrated, this desire quickly evolves into an honest

evaluation of one’s actions and a desire to act more consistently with

one’s higher aspirations. What more can we ask for?

Getting enough vitamin X

2011-05-03T15:28:00.002-07:00

As essential as it is for good health, scientists have yet to be able to put vitamin X in a pill. It relieves depression, decreases diabetes and heart disease, increases energy, improves sleep, and keeps one slim. Maybe you have already guessed that Vitamin X is exercise! The next question is - how much Vitamin X do you need?

Studies have shown that 30 minutes of moderate exercise three times a week has major health benefits. Moderate exercise is defined as the level of exercise achieved by walking 90-100 steps per minute.

Would more exercise lead to greater benefits? Yes, more exercise leads to more benefits. But public health experts are concerned that advocating too much exercise will discourage people from even getting started. One practical answer to the exercise dilemma of “how much” is to adopt the following two-tiered approach;

Tier I - No matter what, commit to 30 minutes of exercise 3 times per week. If you need to work up to that level, use the next 6 weeks to get there.

Tier II – At the start of every month, decide whether you will go beyond 90 minutes of exercise per week. Then do whatever you can to reach this level, but if you fall short, that’s ok. However, don’t ever let your level of exercise fall below the Tier I minimum. Then when the next month begins, decide your new target level.

No one else but you can provide your Vitamin X. If you have had difficulty starting or maintaining an exercise program, try the 2-tier method. It is a great tool for success.

Getting started when it isn't easy

2011-04-25T10:56:00.003-07:00

About halfway through the Welcome and Celebration Rally, I was struck by the
immensity of the Healthy Yuma 2011 goal - not just the milepost goals of 140 tons of weight loss and 3 million miles walked - but the transformational goal of becoming a less addicted community.

At the rally, I talked with several people who had already made successful
transformations – alcoholics who had been sober for years; a healthcare
professional who made it through a major meth relapse; and two women who had each lost over 60 pounds. Two themes emerged: people wanted to share how good it feels to be clean and how deluded they had been under the spell of drugs, junk food, or alcohol.

Not one said that it had been easy, but they all realized that not a day went by
without knowing it was worth it. Besides feeling happier, they found relationships much more satisfying without the uppers, the downers, and the binges.

When asked what had been their “aha” moment, their answers were uniquely their own. However, despite the uniqueness, the conclusions were the same – “First I had to admit I had a problem, and then I needed to realize how much I wanted to change.”

Whether addiction has created major havoc in your life or your current challenge is the butter pecan ice cream in the fridge, positive change comes in the form of a question and a statement. The question to ask is, “What is a skillful action, right now?’ The statement is, “Then that’s what I’ll do.”

Our habits make this difficult, but what I learned from my new friends at the rally -it’s worth it.

The meat in the pictures from VegNews

2011-04-19T06:18:00.002-07:00

I usually try to stay away from the slings and arrows of the media du jour, but I feel compelled to weigh in on the recent blowup with the pictures at VegNews. Of course, I wish that they had used strictly vegan pictures. However, when compared to the problems arising from eating meat, the infraction seems minor.

What are the important facts to keep in mind?
- The obesogenic properties of meat are key factors making us fat
- The atherogenic properties of meat are major risk factors for heart attacks, stroke, and impotence
- The carcinogenic properties of meat are major risk factors in colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, leukemia and multiple myeloma
- The antibiotics fed to animals cause widespread antibiotic resistance
- The hormones given to animals are ingested with the meat and milk, causing an increased risk in breast cancer and early sexual maturity in girls
- Well over 90% of the 10 billion animals slaughtered annually in the U.S. lived under horrific factory farm conditions
- Animal agriculture is the largest contributor to water pollution
- Animal agriculture produces a staggering 300 tons of untreated animal manure in the U.S. per year, a huge environmental and health issue

The magnitude of these issues and our ability as a society to sweep them under the rug is mind-boggling. Showing pictures of dishes with meat in them next to recipes that have no meat is disingenuous, but the outrage seems overdone. Where is the outrage when photos of burgers are enhanced with shoe polish or mashed potatoes act as stand-ins for ice cream that doesn't melt on camera? (If anyone knows the answer to this dichotomy, please let me know.)

For over a decade VegNews has promoted an appealing lifestyle with a conscience that is compatible with healthier lives and a healthier planet. On balance, major kudos to them! I for one will remain a loyal subscriber.

Expressly yours,

The guaranteed “apple a day” diet

2011-04-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

A medium sized apple has only 95 calories and is loaded with restorative
phytonutrients. A recent European study found that those eating more than an apple
a day cut their risk of colon cancer in half. Not only that, an apple can teach us how
to better understand our hunger cues.

Most of us have had the experience of digging into a high calorie snack even though
we weren’t hungry. The high fat, high salt, and high sugar stuff goes down easy.
Since junk food bypasses our satiety cues, we keep on eating - whether we are
hungry or not.

Unlike junk food, an apple triggers natural hunger awareness:

* First, if you aren’t hungry, an apple doesn’t sound so good. Do you think food
scientists are designing products that someone eats only when they’re hungry?”

* However, if you are hungry, an apple sounds great.

*And then, when eating an apple, the mix of fiber and nutrients triggers our satiety
mechanism so that even after just 100 calories, we feel fuller.

An apple can also tell you how tuned-in you are to your appetite system. If an apple
never sounds good, the chances are you aren’t tuned in at all, because your system
has crashed from an addiction to fat, sugar, and salt.

So how does the apple diet work? Bring an apple to work and place it on your desk.
If you have an urge for one of the donuts in the break room, look at your apple and
ask, “Am I hungry, or not? If not, skip the donut. If you are, eat the apple.”

Remembering a higher purpose

2011-04-01T08:49:00.002-07:00

Recently I was a guest speaker at the Church of Spiritual Living. At the
last minute, I was asked to address the children before they left the service
for Sunday school. I was still looking for what to say as their curious eyes
peered up at me in the front of the sanctuary.

“I have a very serious matter to talk about with you today. On behalf of all
the adults here, I am asking for your forgiveness. I would like you to forgive
us for contributing to a world which encourages children to become obese.”

I am not sure who was more surprised by my words, the children or me.
They became quite still, intently pondering my request.

After a few moments of silence, I went on. “ By the compassion I see in
your eyes, it is clear that you have forgiven us. Thank you.” It was a magic
moment as the children realized their true feelings had been understood.
In the few minutes left, the children eagerly expressed their rather mature
understanding of forgiveness.

The children energized and inspired the congregation that day. The moment
reminded us that we are indeed responsible for the culture that shapes our
children’ s lives. This can happen in so many ways. Every time one passes
up a donut and instead chooses an apple, one not only helps your own
health, but the health of the community.

Contemplating how our choices affect everyone around us adds purpose and
gives added meaning to our lives. Realizing this also gives us the gumption-
to do the right thing.

If you want to be successful in making better choices, remind yourself every
day that your positive actions benefits everyone.

Learn From Weight Loss Experts

2011-03-22T07:52:00.002-07:00

Despite the fact that Americans spend $50 billion per year on weight
loss, the rate of obesity continues upward at an epidemic pace.

But there are people that have bucked the trend, trading in their obesity
for a lifetime of fitness. How do they do it? What can we learn from
these successful dieters?

Researchers at the National Weight Loss Registry monitor over 4000
dieters who had kept off the weight for years. Here are their top five
keys to success.

#5. Avoid temptation - Successful dieters have learned not to rely
on will power alone. We all tend to overestimate our ability to resist
temptations. So they developed routines to avoid situations that would
challenge their willpower, such as never shopping without a list and
always taking a healthy lunch to work.

#4. Follow a consistent eating pattern – Compared with unsuccessful
dieters, those that succeed always ate a healthy breakfast. They also
kept the same eating habits not only Monday through Friday, but also on
the weekends.

#3. Monitor weight at least once per week – Just as important is to
have a specific plan of action when the weight goes up.

#2. Exercise – Physical activity is a priority in 9 out of 10 successful
dieters. Walking was by far the most frequent exercise, although
anything aerobic on a regular basis works. Adding muscle-building
exercises also helps, increasing the calories one burns 24/7.

So, what was the most common characteristic of successful dieters?

#1. They changed what they ate. 98% of successful dieters said they
switched to healthier, more nutritious foods - eating less sugar and
loads of fruits, veggies, and beans.

If you want to be successful, follow these five tips from the weight-loss
pros.

Be a giver to get healthy

2011-03-15T08:21:00.004-07:00

When researchers looked at older adults who had volunteered in a program
to help inner-city schools, they discovered a key to healthy living.

By helping children, the volunteers dramatically improved their energy level
and memory, and decreased their level of chronic pain. Even their sense of
balance had improved. The findings documented - by helping others we help
ourselves.

In his book “ Why Good Things Happen to Good People,” Stephen Post
documents other examples of the benefits giving. He describes the feeling of
a “ giver’ s high” as well as other boons – not only physical, but also mental
and financial - received by givers.

But this also works in reverse – ‘ Get Healthy to be a Giver’ . The
Framingham Study showed that if someone recently gained weight, the
odds of their friends and family gaining weight in the next twelve months
increased significantly. So, when people maintain a normal weight, they
help both friends and family stay fit as well. We are all part of a tightly
integrated community, which works either to promote health, or, as in the
case of the obesity epidemic, to decrease it.

We have an exciting opportunity with Healthy Yuma 2011 to become part
of a community network to give the gift of health. Whether helping others
reach their exercise goals or doing volunteer work, the benefits
accrue to the entire community. Resolve to become more of a giver in 2011,
and the universe will raise its glass and proclaim, “ Here’ s to your health!
For more info about Healthy Yuma 2011 click here

Want to succeed? Write down your goals.

2011-03-01T09:06:00.002-07:00

Success gurus all agree on the importance of writing down goals. They
also stress the importance of daily review, each day visualizing how
good it will feel when success is achieved.

What is so compelling about written goals? The answer is best
understood by examining the way our brains work. The majority of
the brain’s function happens at a subconscious level. Our subconscious
constantly reworks our neural networks, integrating “high priority”
items into what we think and what we do. Unfortunately, “high priority”
to our subconscious is often not what we truly value.

The input that gets stamped “high priority” depends on three things
– repetition, emotions, and our senses. Advertisers are masters of the
subconscious. That is why we hear ads over and over, see so many
suggestive models, and have jingles jangling in our heads. Repetition,
emotion, and an appeal to our senses – the next thing we know we
are buying the product. We are not even conscious that we have been
Hoodwinked … that’s the point!

We should be just as careful in orienting our own subconscious as
the advertisers who want us to buy their products. By writing down
goals, reading them daily, and imagining what success will feel like, one
stamps “high priority” in the subconscious, and our mind will work 24/
7 to reach our goals. It’s that simple.

You can add your own healthy lifestyle goals at Healthyyuma2011.com
or on the Healthy Yuma 2011 Facebook page and then visualize a new
you!

Who Needs Healthier Food?

2011-02-14T08:35:00.001-07:00

'Eat less,' U.S. says, but fast-food chains super-size their offerings” - LA Times

Honesty is appreciated wherever one finds it. In a recent LA Times article, Sharon Bernstein focuses on the wide gap between official nutrition recommendations and what sells. The following statement from a fast-food executive quoted in her article tells it like it is.

"The bottom line is that we're in the business of making money, and we make money off of what we sell," said Beth Mansfield, spokeswoman for CKE Restaurants Inc., which owns the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's chains. "If we wanted to listen to the food police and sell nuts and berries and tofu burgers, we wouldn't make any money and we'd be out of business."

She is right, ignoring the longer-term results of junk food is a great way to make money. Connecting the dots between skyrocketing medical costs and fat children, diabetes, and heart disease is unlikely to happen when someone is just looking for a quick and tasty bite to eat.

At Nature’s Express we are designed to maximize purpose, not profits. We serve less toxic food because we believe the world will be a better place the more we are fit and healthy instead of fat and unhealthy. Money is necessary for our business to grow, but no way is it the reason we’re in business.

Beth makes a good point. People choose which businesses will survive and which won’t. So far it is no contest - the high fat, high sugar, and high calorie choices are winning hands down.

In 1900 people said, “Who needs a horseless carriage?” In 1970 IBM execs said, ”Who needs a computer?”

Perhaps in 2030 (with heart disease, diabetes, and obesity uncommon) we will look back at 2011 and laugh – “Who needs healthier food?”

Stay tuned.

Carl (not Jr.)

Principle #4 – Look for chances to do your daily “Habit Push-Ups”

2011-02-08T14:47:00.002-07:00

We all know that without exercise, we get flabby. However, it is just as true that when we procrastinate, we get lazy.
Every action one takes makes it a bit more likely that we will take a similar action in the future. So, when one chooses potato chips over an apple or sleeping in rather than taking a morning walk, a pattern forms that makes it a bit less likely that we’ll choose wisely in the future.
Why don’t we naturally do what is in our own best interest?
The answer lies in our tendency to grab onto the short-term pleasures while forgetting the longer-term pain. For instance, if faced with a donut, we might ignore the unavoidable flab deposit and choose the immediate sugar hit. Such actions weaken our chances of making good decisions in the future.
Just as doing push-ups today makes us stronger tomorrow, resisting the donuts today strengthens our capacity to make better decisions tomorrow.
Every day, look for opportunities to make Principle #4 work in your life. Take the ten minutes to clean your desk, make that phone call that you keep putting off, or even find the opportunity to apologize after making a mistake – acting on these opportunities now will make skillful actions routine in the future.
Look for opportunities for “habit pushups” and you can quickly make your life healthier and more fulfilling.

2011-02-03T08:04:00.002-07:00

How are you doing with your New Year's resolutions?
February is upon us! Here is some motivation to sticking with your health goals.

Principle #3 – New Year’s Resolutions – 8 Steps to Setting Successful Goals
New Year’s Resolutions often fail. You’ve heard the quip, “The only New Year’s resolution I’ve ever kept is not to make any more resolutions!” How does one design one’s goals for success instead of frustration?
Here are the top eight tips from the experts:

Number 1 - Set aside a whole weekend in January, after the hustle and bustle of the holidays, to work on goals. Take plenty of time to reflect on what is truly important to you. Life trainers stress the importance of aligning one’s goals with one’s ideals.

Number 2 – Choose at least one goal in each of the main areas of your life (family, work, your health, recreation), remembering the importance of a balanced life.

Number 3 – Remember that consistent progress over time creates significant changes before you know it. Five pounds per month leads to a sixty-pound weight loss in a year!
 Number 4 - Learn to fail quickly. Plan on making any slip-up an automatic motivational tool to get right back on track.

Number 5 - Adjust your life to support goal success. If your current friends do not support you in your goals, consider adding a few new friends.

Number 6 - Learn to celebrate successes in creative, novel ways. Celebrating with cake, cookies, or chocolate is self-defeating.

Number 7 - Stick to your guns: Habits can be adopted in a few weeks, but incorporating these changes into your very identity- takes longer.

Finally, and perhaps the most important, number 8 … develop an “I can learn from that” attitude. Tell yourself this 100 times a day, after each small success or disappointment --now that’s a lesson I can learn from.

Follow these eight tips closely, and you just might find how rewarding it is to reach your goals.

Principle #2 – Breaking old habits by squarely facing the truth

2011-01-29T10:24:00.001-07:00

Like most of us, my friend Jane (not her real name) has more than a little weight to lose. She is quite competent at her profession, and people know her as someone you can go to when you need help.
But Jane recently confided to me that cheese was her downfall. She went on in detail, lovingly describing all the kinds of cheeses that she could just not live without. She might be an organizational wizard at work, but when it came to cheese, she was powerless.
From other discussions, I knew how much Jane wanted to be fit and healthy. She knew the facts; cheese is high in calories and high in saturated fat. With her family history of high blood pressure, she had a concern about the high salt content, as well.
How might Jane address her dilemma?
Here is where the magic of principle # 2 works, right at the point where it seems impossible to change. Squarely facing the truth creates a positive energy that leads to lasting life-changes.
There are three steps to tap into this potential:
- First, clearly assess your reality as it is now
- Next, imagine the future exactly as you want it to be
- And finally, don’t fudge. Let the tension build between the way things are and the future you envision.
For Jane, the reality is putting cheese on everything is just not healthy. Her “vision for the future” is a healthy weight and more energy. If she clearly keeps both in mind, her subconscious will work on giving Jane the roadmap for successful change.
If you are seeking to creatively approach old problems with new solutions, I suggest the book, Path of Least Resistance, by Roger Fritz. It is an inspirational read that can bring the magic of “squarely facing your truths” to your life.

2011-01-27T20:02:00.002-07:00

100 SECRETS FOR A LIFETIME OF HEALTH - New healthier lifestyle series
Our vision for Healthy Yuma 2011 is to cultivate the seeds that will create lifetimes of good health.
Our mission is to have 365 days of community support for the individuals in Yuma County who choose to take the steps to be healthier in 2011.
Throughout the year, “Healthy Yuma 2011” will present a series of Principles for Healthy Living. We will sift through the latest medical science, the practical advice from life coaches, as well as the world’s wisdom literature to present clear principles, which if followed will lead to healthier, more fulfilling lives.
100 Secrets; Get the Whole Story for Health.

Principle #1 - Be ready to learn new things about making healthier lifestyle choices
It may be obvious, but just learning about healthier lifestyles may be the most important step to improving one’s health. Before making effective changes, one needs to know the facts.
Unfortunately, the data shows that we know less about healthy options than we think we do.
A recent study on children’s nutrition showed that parents significantly overestimated the nutrition value of what their children ate. Over 80% of the parents thought that their kids ate a healthy diet, but about 80% were eating a diet that did not meet nutritional guidelines. This research shows the importance of staying open to learning.
My own running program is a good example. Twenty-five years ago, I ran road races - I never won anything, but running was always my favorite form of exercise. However, I gave it up because of frequent injuries.
I recently read the book, “Running Until You’re 100” and found out that all my injuries were the result of my own ignorance about how to train without getting injured. I am back running, training smarter, now that I know how, and enjoying it immensely.
Inspirational gurus all stress the love of learning as a key to successful lives –not only in health choices, but also in relationships and business. Open up to learning new things and enjoying a new you and a new life will not be far behind!

Healthy Yuma 2011 - A Remedy for an Ailing America

2011-01-01T12:31:00.006-07:00

Employers, local government, media, and even the local Walmarts have joined forces in Yuma County, Arizona, to support individuals who plan to adopt healthier lifestyles. HY-2011 focuses on decreasing obesity, improving nutrition, increasing exercise, and decreasing addiction to smoking, alcohol, and street drugs. The following excerpt from the core story of HY-2011 outlines the motivation for these efforts -

"Healthy citizens are the foundation of a healthy society. However, obesity, malnutrition, sedentary lifestyles and addiction have become too much the American norm.

Our forefathers created a system of governance that shaped America into the predominant economic driver of the 20th century. Our standard of living rose five-fold, giving us the economic prosperity to help rebuild Europe and Japan even after incurring the tremendous costs of WWII. Our strong economic momentum continued, providing the foundation for triumph in the Cold War.

However, our prosperity is in jeopardy. Healthcare costs have been rising faster than inflation for 50 years. The aging population adds further fuel to these escalating costs, as does the staggering burden of unhealthy lifestyles. Obesity, caused by a poor diet and sedentary habits, is an epidemic that we can ill afford. Our food supply has evolved from nutritious whole foods to high fat, high sugar and highly processed but well-advertised junk. Malnutrition is often no longer the lack of food but the result of an abundance of high caloric food with little nutritional value.

Neither our healthcare system nor our government has been successful in improving lifestyle choices, resulting in the first American generation that is experiencing a decline in quality of life. This has occurred despite spending twice as much on healthcare per person as other developed countries. These issues, on top of a high level of public and private debt, create an unstable future.

Healthy Yuma 2011 is designed to successfully address these challenges by creating positive momentum through the integration of multiple local efforts."

The two founding institutions are the Yuma Regional Medical Center and the Yuma Sun newspaper. Since 50% of healthcare costs can be attributed to unhealthy lifestyle choices, local efforts such as HY-2011 might be just what the doctors haven't been able to order.

Expressly yours,

Superbugs in our meat

2010-11-30T11:12:00.010-07:00

“Listen, my friends and you will hear,

A story more alarming than Paul Revere!”

How many of you would eat food laced with feces?

For those of you that say, “hell no!” the Center for Disease Control and others have tested the bacterial prevalence (and likely fecal contamination) of meat from grocery stores. This is what they found:

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, (MRSA) is an antibiotic resistant superbug that since 2005 has killed more Americans than AIDS. MRSA was found in 5% of meat tested. When anyone walks into a patient’s hospital room with this infection, they are required to put on a gown and gloves for protection!

Clostridium difficile (C. diff) was found in 40% of chicken breasts – C. diff is another superbug – grill the chicken for an hour and it can still be there. C. diff frequently causes severe diarrhea in those over 65 or after taking antibiotics.

E-Coli was found in 70% of samples. The strain of E. Coli that most frequently causes bladder infection in women is traced to the most common strain in chickens. Anecdotally, I was talking about this to a friend yesterday who responded, “We wondered why my wife’s urinary tract infections stopped. Now I know, we stopped eating chicken the same month!

In fact, meat is so contaminated that the cutting board in a meat-eater’s kitchen may well be more contaminated than their toilet.

So, if you know your s--- from Shinola, you will never touch meat again without gloving up. And, if for nothing more than the infection risk, you might consider cutting meat out of your diet as well.

Have a good week!

Expressly yours,

Food-free Preservative

2010-10-12T14:59:00.006-07:00

Poor McDonald's is in the news again...

This report on the durability of a McDonald's Happy Meal gave me an ironic smile as I have been stressing how important it is to date our fresh foods to our staff in Yuma. It struck me after reading the linked article that our young people have been raised on food that never ages. Perhaps we need a new tagline for the processed stuff we eat - "food-free preservative"?

World Veg Festival San Francisco

2010-10-04T17:00:00.007-07:00

A wide array of fantastic speakers presented at this year's Veg Fest last weekend! Thanks to the San Francisco Vegetarian Society for all the work necessary to host this event! While I couldn't hear all of them, below is a short recap of the talks I attended.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman spoke on the causes of the obesity epidemic and the weight loss that his patients and adoptees of the Eat to Live food plan have achieved. He had numerous unique insights that are especially helpful to people who have hit a weight loss plateau.

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau explored communication techniques that help when introducing friends and families to healthier food choices. Her compassion and engaging style created a compelling presentation.

One of my all-time favorites is another giant in the field of lifestyle medicine, Dr. Michael Greger. Dr. Greger updated the nutritional data from last year's 5000 plus peer-reviewed articles in the medical literature. With an incredibly entertaining quiz show format, he made you laugh as you learned about the seriousness of our food foibles. The 2009-2010 data reinforced what we have learned over the last 30 years:

1. Supplements are hype and hope - none have been scientifically proven to extend life - while many have shown to be detrimental. The scientific data suggests we get our nutriments as Mother Nature packages them ... in whole foods.

2. Vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains are health protective.

3. Meat (including poultry and fish), dairy, and eggs (especially as produced in the toxic environment of factory farms) are harmful to health.

Dr. Gregor again stressed that vegans and vegetarians need to take adequate B12 - (100 mcg per day, 500 mcg three times a week, or 2000 mcg once a week as a sublingual tablet).

Any opportunity that you might have to hear any of these wonderful presenters is well worth it. To have them all available for $7 at the same venue was incredible.

Expressly yours,

Our Nutrition Myths

2010-08-30T04:32:00.008-07:00

A CASE OF ACCURATE FOOD REPORTING IN THE POPULAR PRESS

When I read articles listing "food myths" it is often quite discouraging. As often as not, the myth lists are actually propagating some of the biggest nutrition myths.

However, CBS's recent "15 food myths that can kill you" are right on target. I applaud CBS for reporting on valid food data. Check them out and send them to all the people whose health you care about.

Expressly yours,

Avandia - The Predictable Billion Dollar Mistake

2010-07-05T09:23:00.006-07:00

Getting past scapegoats to system solutions

Another blockbuster drug with hundreds of millions of annual sales, taken by hundreds of thousands of patients, likely doing more harm than good - does this sound familiar?

Mounting evidence suggests that increased death rates, strokes, and heart disease are occurring in patients taking the diabetic medicine Avandia. The FDA is reconsidering the case of Avandia again this month. This is obviously a huge issue. Millions were spent to make this drug available, billions have been spent buying Avandia, and yet it appears, patients are worse off. How can this be?

In 2004, David Graham, then Associate Director for Science for the FDA, stated that the FDA was - "virtually defenseless" against another "terrible tragedy and a profound regulatory failure" like Vioxx. The proven concerns against Vioxx were the same as those now with Avandia - heart attack, stroke, and cardiac death.

In passing out blame, pundits often charge that the FDA is incompetent, or even worse, in bed with the greedy pharmaceutical firms. I believe that those answers are results, not underlying causes. Well-designed systems work despite a profit motive and entrenched or even shady bureaucrats. However, we now have a system that delivers predictable results from the system's design - biased research that favors expensive drugs whether they are beneficial or not. What happened?

Before the 1980's, the main sources of pharmaceutical research dollars were the U.S. government and private foundations. Improvement in medical knowledge was viewed as a public good and a driver of overall productivity and therefore supported. However, over the last few decades, a major shift in drug research funding occurred. Now most of the funding to develop new drugs comes from the pharmaceutical firms themselves. The stated purpose for this switch in policy was to make drug research more cost effective.

With the funding comes the power to determine the focus of research design. A cost effective bias with a profit maximizing mode seeks to answer the question, "How do we design the least costly study that will assist us in selling the most drugs at the highest price?"

The problem with this "cost effective" approach is that industry looks much harder for a reason to use a medicine than for reasons not to use it. It is incredibly inefficient for a company (although very beneficial for society) to drop a drug that does not work, after spending millions of dollars trying to prove that it does. There lies the rub.

There is good data to show that this industry bias influences results. A British Medical Journal article showed that industry-funded research was 4 times as likely to report data that was favorable to the drug under study. This efficiency bias is so strong that one begins to distrust the results of all industry-sponsored research. Thus the research becomes incredibly ineffective, no matter how cheaply it is done, by eroding the trust in the whole system.

A second important question for industry in creating a cost effective study would be, "How do we create enough data in the least costly manner so the FDA will let us sell the drug"? In the case of Vioxx, this included strategically ignoring some key data altogether. Billions of dollars of drug were sold before the importance of the "doctored" data was discovered.

The capitalistic fact is that pharmaceutical firms must make a profit or go out of business. What would happen if a drug company made the decision to be extremely careful so their research designs did not have a bias towards getting positive results? Unfortunately, over a short period of time, competition would assure that they would go broke. Let me see -- millions of dollars in profits versus going broke. It is easy to see how the studies are designed with a bias to get positive results.

To conclude, we have a system design that has delivered the expected results - biased research that favors expensive drugs whether they are beneficial or not.

In this scenario, the FDA is not the problem. Expecting the FDA to police the validity of research results against such hidden built-in biases is bound to fail. Putting up too many safeguards to protect against this bias creates expensive bureaucracy -- also not the answer.

To avoid future serial blockbuster-drug-gone-wrong disasters, a major overhaul in pharmaceutical research funding is necessary. It is time to push the pendulum back from industry-sponsored toward more publicly-sponsored pharmaceutical research. The methods to accomplish this are beyond the scope of this blog, but it is abundantly clear that the current system is not performing the goal of cost-effective discovery and promotion of the best treatments for our patients.

Expressly yours,

(If one wishes a more in-depth analysis of Vioxx and other drug research failures, I would suggest the very readable and well-documented book, Overdosed America, by Dr. John Abramson.)

Veganvironmentalists

2010-04-24T06:57:00.041-07:00

The specter of the estimated 1 billion hungry people on the planet has haunted me since Earth Day. Yet another reason to choose a plant-based diet - to feed an increasing world population. When will we (those with enough food) get serious about eating a more efficient diet? Will it take two billion people starving? Three billion? Us?

Preparing for Earth Day at Arizona Western College gave me a chance to review population statistics. At the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, we had just reached a population of 3.5 billion (science believes homo sapiens appeared on the scene between 250,000 and 400,000 years ago). We have added almost another 3.5 billion people since that first Earth Day forty years ago.

Many current veganvironmentalists (term coined this morning to describe someone who is vegan for environmental reasons) began their quest to help the world after reading Frances Moore Lappé's 1971 book, Diet for a Small Planet. (Jean began decreasing our family's meat consumption after she read this book as well.) For many others, the first big influence was John Robbins' Diet for a New America.

What has happened to the world's meat consumption since 1970 when Diet for a Small Planet described the environmental damage and inefficiency of animal agriculture? It has risen a whopping 440% - from under 65 million metric tons then to over 285 MMT's of meat now. The damage to the world's ecosystem at this level is unsustainable, yet meat consumption is predicted to double again in the next 40 years.

Despite the increase in production, meat still only supplies 17% of the world's calories. However animal agriculture uses over 50% of the world's arable land and causes over 50% of the land degradation. If the production of meat doubles as predicted, and even without arable land loss - which is inevitable - meat will take 100% of the land and produce 34% of the current calories. Do the math - it just isn't possible!

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization's 2006 Livestock's Long Shadow report and the subsequent 2009 revision of that report by World Bank researchers found that somewhere between 17% - 51% of man-made greenhouse gases are caused by animal agriculture. The UN report also documents that animal agriculture is both the largest water polluter and the biggest cause of deforestation.

Environmentalists have begun to adjust to this new data on the environmental impact of animal agriculture. I applaud their adoption of Meatless Mondays and other efforts to choose more sustainable food.

However, the passion of most environmentalists is clearly a 24/7 commitment. Meatless Mondays will spawn Tofu Tuesdays (just checked, it has been on-line at least since January 2010) and soon many environmentalists will see as much sense in becoming vegans as they see in the ritual of recycling.

For me, my patients' health was enough stimulus for me to begin promoting a plant based diet. For others, it will become the environment or pictures of starving children.

Not everyone will be changing their dietary perspective anytime soon. One doesn't have to look far on the internet to find the beliefs of those who find the above reasoning both illogical and arrogant.

Meat is an integral part of American culture and, as the world develops, is becoming an increasing part of the world's meals. At Nature's Express, however, we will continue to happily serve everyone - whatever their culinary or philosophical perspectives - tasty, meatless, and affordable meals.

Expressly Yours,

Time for Nutritional Sanity

2010-02-28T10:39:00.026-07:00

Recent Dr. McDougall Conference

Looking for a life changing experience but not quite sure who to believe on nutrition? A great place to begin is the McDougall web site. Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend Dr. McDougall's fantastic weekend intensive in Santa Rosa, a valuable educational experience on nutrition and health. I recommend it heartily.

One very noteworthy moment at the conference was when Amy Joy Lanou, Ph.D., author of Building Bone Vitality and a professor at the University of North Carolina, spoke about the moment of truth in her educational transformation. She had spent eight years pursuing traditional nutritional studies when she had her first encounter with Dr. Colin Campbell, author of the best-selling The China Study, and biochemistry professor emeritus at Cornell. By the end of Campbell's lecture, Amy had come to the conclusion that either all eight years of her education leading to her doctorate degree totally missed the point of what a good diet really is, or Dr. Campbell was a crock (not her exact words). After doing further research, she became convinced that the most vigorous science supported a vegan diet - time after time. The mantra, "there are no bad foods" turned out not to be sound nutritional advice, but blatant marketing for the current SAD (Standard American Diet) status quo (also not her exact words, but you catch the drift).

We do not need more data to know what to eat and what not to eat; we just need to do it. Choose your guru - Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn or his son Rip, Dr. Neal Barnard, Rory Freedman, or partake from what tickles your fancy from each of them. These are all pioneers pointing the way toward healthier lives for you and your family through sound and incredibly tasty nutritional practices.

There is plenty of science to say what is wrong with our diet. We don't need more statistics to say we are getting fatter - any trip to the grocery store will suffice to prove that. Just as we don't need more data to understand that dairy has literally milked us all - we have known that for decades.

One can either keep one's head in the sand and continue eating an incredibly unhealthy diet or decide to get smart, healthy, and feel great, making it much less likely that heart disease or cancer will become a part of your future.

I wish everyone a world of healthier choices.

Expressly yours,

The problem with salt

2010-01-23T20:10:00.058-07:00

"Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?" Job 6:6

It seems the amount of salt added to junk foods makes this verse from Job quite contemporary.

The negative health implications of high salt intake have been known and effectively ignored for decades. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article which showed that even modest reductions in Americans' salt intake could save up to 392,000 quality adjusted life years annually while dropping annual medical costs by between $10 and $24 billion per year. NPR reported on this article, stressing that in the middle of our healthcare financial crisis, perhaps we should look more seriously at cutting back on our salt.

Another article from the NEJM in 2007 reviewed the research on sodium and potasium intake, leaving little doubt that high salt's is a major contributor to hypertension.

For those concerned with what they look like now, a body building site levels even more criticisms at salt from the perspective of a life skills trainer. They make an interesting case that to lose weight, one first needs to cut down on the salt intake.

Despite the evidence of damage to our health from too much salt, the American's average salt intake has increased by 50% in the last 40 years, mainly from our highly processed foods.

Why not just cut back on salt? My patients who successfully decreased their salt, reported up to six weeks of bland tasting food. After this, they described enjoying previously hidden, yet quite pleasurable tastes, especially in vegetables. It seems a win-win scenario, less salt unlocks the joy of eating and decreases heart attacks and strokes.

So, why don't more people cut back on salt?

The main reason is that junk foods just don't taste good without loads of salt, whereas "healthier" food tastes great with less salt.

So a modern answer to the rhetorical question in Job might be, "no, the junk needs salt!"

Expressly yours,

carl myers

The taste of true love

2010-01-21T07:54:00.014-07:00

One Saturday while mingling with happy diners at Nature’s Express, a lady stopped me to express her profound disappointment with the minestrone soup. She assured me that the minestrone was incorrectly spiced. Whatever I said was not making her any happier either, and she carried on and on about the poor quality of the soup. Fortunately, another customer who had overheard the interchange stood up to give her opinion. She countered that the soup had been perfectly spiced, adding "and I know spices!" When she sat down, no one said any more about the minestrone and peace again descended on the diners.

Each customer was perfectly correct in her opinion. The soup fit one's taste but not the other.

Taste is of utmost importance to a restaurant's success, but our main goal is to provide a high level of nutrition through healthier food choices. Great taste can come processed with high fat, high salt, laced with hormones and added chemicals... or it can come freshly prepared with quality ingredients, high in natural nutrition and spiced with healthy herbs. Taste is similar to infatuation with all its potential pitfalls; good nutrition is true love.

Nature's Express is serious about this mission to promote healthier lives by making it easier to choose better nutrition. We tweak our recipes to decrease the salt, fat, and calories, while increasing the fiber and phytonutrients. We don't kid ourselves; we are not perfect and do not profess to be. However, our team believes in creating healthier, convenient, and tasty food at a great price.

We hope to have the opportunity to serve you soon.

Expressly yours,

carl myers

Musings Concerning the Berlin Wall of Factory Farming

2010-01-14T12:39:00.015-07:00

Today's blog is published with some trepidation. Nature's Express is all about providing healthier food, so the tangential issue of factory farming does not directly apply. Nevertheless, whenever I travel past the stench of the stockyards between Yuma and Phoenix, or see a cow pushing its nuzzle out the side of a transport truck, my sense of empathy is aroused, adding fuel to my passion to grow NE.

Factory farming as an ethical concern

Although hidden away from our daily lives, there is an increasing awareness that factory farming creates a veritable hell for billions of creatures that are as sentient as our pets. This troubles some of us more than others. For myself, before curtailing meat for health concerns, I remember feeling irritated when confronted with farm animal issues. To a large extent, it was only after dropping meat from my diet that my concern for farm animals began. I have no high horse to ride; my moral compass was not so very strong.

I first saw the "Meat your Meat" video six years after becoming vegetarian and immediately resolved to become vegan. Despite this intention to change, it still took me two to three years to give up cheese entirely.

The benefits of eating plant based grew clear to me only after changing to a vegan diet. In hindsight, my diet was clouding how I saw the world - damaging my health or the environment from my own actions was hard to swallow.

As far as health is concerned, studies show benefits to small diet changes. A healthier diet could start with one more apple and an added side salad with a healthy dressing every day. Each step toward a better diet makes one healthier.

I attempt to take a similar approach with compassion - more is better than less. One plant based meal is more compassionate than a meal with a burger. Choosing less meat is a more compassionate approach than more meat. If we can make it just as easy and tasty to choose something that is healthier and more compassionate, that is a good thing.

Momentum for change

In hindsight, as pundits look at the social and political trends that occurred before the Iron Curtain crumbled, what was so surprising as it happened, now seems as though it was inevitable. However, before the Iron Curtain actually fell, few predicted it.

Perhaps our eating habits are undergoing a similar evolution. The momentum towards a plant based diet is building on several crucial fronts. The environmental damage of animal agriculture, concerns for human health, and the horrors of factory farming are all realities with severe social consequences. The Berlin Wall became irrelevant as the momentum for freedom reached a tipping point against repression. Does factory farming face a similar tipping point? Will more compassion rather than less compassion become the new status quo?

When framed in that light, why not?

Expressly yours,

Soy Is Healthy In Breast Cancer

2010-01-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Good news in breast cancer

The misinformation concerning soy and breast cancer has reached urban legend status; it is widely believed, but utterly false.

Unlike most urban legends, however, the erroneous belief that soy products promote breast cancer has dire consequences. It is time to stop telling women concerned about breast cancer to avoid soy products. In fact, health care providers should be advising more soy and other plant foods high in flavonoids in order to reduce the incidence of breast cancer.

Just a few years ago, I advised my patients with breast cancer that the direct data on soy and breast cancer was not yet available. I would then discuss my bias that soy probably did not promote breast cancer based on information from areas in Southeastern Asia where people ate the most soy. The incidence of breast cancer was not higher, as one would expect if soy promoted breast cancer, but tended to be lower than in areas of Asia where people consumed less soy.

I also suspected that the source for the soy concern was the usual "trumped up" defense of the status quo industries that compete with soy products. (See Big Tobacco Tactics in my December 2 blog)

I would leave it with patients that while I was not convinced that soy increased the risk for breast cancer, the jury was still out. In retrospect, I wish I had been more adamant in my support of soy, but I felt the data was still equivocal.

However, concrete data on soy is now available. The jury has returned, and without a reasonable doubt, soy is not guilty.

In a December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, a prospective study of over 5000 women in Shanghai with a history of breast cancer was reported. The women who ate more soy protein had fewer deaths or recurrences than those who ate less. This was true whether the breast cancer was estrogen positive or not and also whether the women were taking tamoxifen or not. The conclusion of the study was clear: "Among women with breast cancer, soy food consumption was significantly associated with decreased risk of death and recurrence."

The data supporting soy is not only from Asia. A definitive 2008 editorial in the British Journal of Cancer, Soy intake and breast cancer: elucidation of an unanswered question, outlines the data which not only clearly absolves soy in the promotion of breast cancer, but also builds a convincing case that soy is protective against the development as well as the recurrence of breast cancer. The protective effect was particularly noticeable for women who had a high level of soy intake during adolescence.

Urban legends do not die easily - the myth that soy is bad in breast cancer is unlikely to go away soon. Please join me in the crusade against breast cancer and help spread the real truth about soy.

Hidden Weight Loss Secret

2009-12-17T09:58:00.015-07:00

Couple Loses Over 200 Pounds Together

Our local newspaper had an article this morning documenting the weight loss success of Wendy and Marty Becker. It is an inspiring story for anyone trying to lose weight.

However, it wasn't easy. Despite a high level of motivation, an expensive commercial weight loss plan, a vegetarian diet, and exercise; they both had hit a plateau. After losing about 50 pounds, it seemed they could not lose any more. Once they added one more ingredient to their plan they again began losing weight. This final "secret" was buried in the middle of the article in a paragraph on page 2. They became vegan.

Wendy was quoted, "That (stopping all dairy products) just gave us the last kick we needed".

Studies have shown that vegans are only one ninth as likely to be overweight or obese as those that eat meat. As people become more aware that a vegan diet is the most effective and healthy way to lose weight, the vegan bandwagon will start rolling even faster.

If you want to jumpstart your 2010 weight loss resolutions, check out the free 21 day on-line program that starts January 1st. Thousands of people have already joined. Give it to a buddy for Christmas and the two of you can make 2010 your healthiest year ever!

Expressly yours,

carl myers

Vegan Athletes

2009-12-14T19:22:00.010-07:00

Timothy Bradley Wins

Tim Bradley (see 11/24 blog) went to 26-0 last Saturday night while successfully defending his World Boxing Organization title. At 140 pounds of muscle this picture is worth a thousand words to reassure anyone who might be concerned that one can't get enough protein without eating meat.

For anyone still skeptical, here are a few more pictures of vegetarian superstars.

Congratulations Tim!

Igniting a Food Revolution

2009-12-07T07:41:00.015-07:00

Pessimism, Realism, and the Birth of a Superhero

Contemplating the crisis in healthcare, global warming, and topsoil erosion leaves me pessimistic, concluding that modern culture does not serve us well. However, pessimism doesn’t work to solve such big issues, which require a more optimistic, can-do approach, so I strive to leave pessimism behind me.

Although change may be rational (eating healthy food versus junk, for example), the sheer force of cultural momentum means that change is not readily forthcoming. However, as the negative results of current behaviors appear, such as childhood obesity, forces arise in opposition to the status quo.

A rational revolution evolves when there are frameworks to channel these reactive forces. We founded Nature’s Express to create just one such framework.

A second requirement for a cultural revolution is abundant wisdom. Such wisdom keeps an optimistic perspective despite significant negative momentum. Such wisdom (think Gandhi) also embodies the unconditional love that overcomes the hostility and fear of the status quo.

I realize all this, yet often slip back into pessimism. Alas, my love for mankind still is somewhat this side of unconditional. I am, as yet, no Gandhi.

TurnipMan to the Rescue

TurnipMan has been a rather silent logo since the inception of Nature’s Express, waiting for branding to design his purpose. Although kids seem naturally drawn to him, his corporate persona has remained somewhat vague - but no longer.

TurnipMan will become the Nature’s Express symbol of optimism, embodying everyone’s wish to do good deeds. He loves all and wants to serve everyone healthier food. Courageous, yet filled with consummate compassion, he is as joyful as the Dalai Lama in the face of adversity. He wishes to learn to fly and wants a superhero’s cape for his birthday!

Through his unbounded optimism and good cheer, TurnipMan hopes to become a world-changing ambassador.

When you see him, wish him luck, buy a burger, and leave a tip.

Expressly yours,

carl myers

Are Eggs a Health Food?

2009-12-02T12:15:00.017-07:00

No, eggs should be limited to just an occasional food.

A friend recently e-mailed an MSN on-line “health & fitness” article highlighting their 25 Ridiculously Healthy Foods. Number one on MSN’s healthy list was eggs. In general, eggs have had a bit of resurgence in the popular press as a healthy food after many years of concern about their high level of cholesterol. Unfortunately this is a grave misconception; eggs are not a health food and just one or more eggs a day is correlated with the development of diabetes, congestive heart disease, and a statistical increase in the death rate.

Today’s blog confronts two of the issues causing confusion about nutrition in general and then addresses some concerns specifically about eggs.

#1. “Big Tobacco Tactics” – The business of generating confusion

The painting, Skull with a Burning Cigarette, is Van Gogh’s 1886 rendition of the prevailing thoughts on smoking over a century ago – “it ruins your lungs and then it kills you”. Some forty years later Van Gogh’s prescience was confirmed when articles began appearing in the medical literature correlating smoking with lung cancer and early death. In 1964, almost eighty years after Van Gogh painted his smoking skeleton, the U. S. Surgeon General concluded that smoking was harmful.

In his book, Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health, David Michaels exposes how the tobacco industry created paralyzing doubt despite scientific certainty. By combating legitimate science with “industry experts”, Big Tobacco not only stalled regulations for decades, but also reassured smokers that the risk to their health was not that great. Dr. Michaels then goes on to detail how the tactics used by the tobacco industry were adapted by other industries (asbestos, coal, chrome, arsenic, mercury, beryllium, and others) to question legitimate scientific findings with what was essentially industry-sponsored propaganda.

I believe that “buyer beware” is the correct bias whenever assessing an industry’s defense of the safety of its product.

#2. Culture and nutrition at loggerheads – The myth about protein

In The China Study, perhaps the most important book ever written on nutrition, Dr. Colin Campbell outlines the discoveries of his highly respected scientific career, focusing on the findings from the most extensive epidemiological study ever done. The conclusions were as startling as they were statistically unequivocal. Numerous supporting studies have since confirmed one of the key findings: the high level of protein in our diet is not healthy.

Despite the cultural drumbeat that we need lots of protein, the truth is that we don’t. Heart disease, cancer, strokes, and diabetes are all diseases that are related to the excess animal protein in our diet.

As Galileo learned when publicizing his findings that the earth goes around the sun and not vice versa as had been believed, a scientific finding that does not conform to cultural norms is often not well received. Although the data on protein seems irrefutable, it is not popular, and so the myth about needing high levels of protein continues.

#3 Health issues and eggs –

A widely cited 1999 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association found no significant differences in coronary heart disease and stroke in those eating an increased number of eggs. This would be reassuring except for three more recent articles with the following highly statistically significant findings:

Ø Higher rates of death with higher egg consumption (1)

Ø Increased risk of heart failure with increased egg consumption (2)

Ø Increased risk of type 2 diabetes with increased egg consumption (3)

Both the 1999 article and the three articles published since 2008 were large and well respected studies.

The later studies also did not show an increase in coronary artery disease with increased egg consumption. On the other hand, heart failure, type 2 diabetes and overall death rate were significantly increased with eating 7 eggs or more per week compared to one or less eggs per week.

Particularly concerning was the doubling of the death rate in people with diabetes who ate an average of one or more eggs per day.

So, since this data seems clear, where does the controversy come from? How can eggs appear on a most healthy foods list? Here one needs to remember the tactics of Big Tobacco.

One would assume that a 23% increase in mortality, a 64% increase in congestive heart disease, and a 58% increased risk in developing diabetes would be headline news. After all, we eat over 200 million eggs a day. But consumers have not decreased their egg intakes after these studies were published. Why not?

Ø Most have never heard about the studies in the first place.

Ø If one did hear a report about those studies, nutrition information is so confusing because of conflicting data that one isn’t sure what to do.

Ø One loves eggs and/or hates statistics to the point where one just doesn’t bother with inconvenient findings.

These three points are key to remember if one wants to sell more eggs.

In general, industry studies are more widely publicized because favorable findings, no matter how biased, are sent as press releases to every media outlet. When there is damaging data, one can expect the study to be questioned on highly technical and methodological grounds. One can also expect massive diversionary marketing to occur whenever the media covers negative results.

In conclusion, you can be certain that most of what you read or hear about eggs is the industry’s attempts to “egg you on”.

An example of industry positioning would be a recent on-line article in “Risk Analysis”. This research, paid for by the egg industry’s Egg Nutrition Center, concluded:

…”focusing on decreasing egg intake as an approach to modify coronary heart disease risk would be expected to yield minimal results relative to changing other behaviors such as smoking and other dietary habits.”

This conclusion is consistent with the data, but effectively diverts one’s attention from the more significant facts - congestive heart failure, diabetes, and death rates go up as people eat more eggs.

I would offer three conclusions:

#1. Be wary of industry generated media and industry sponsored research.

#2. Remember that “we need a lot of protein” may be a cultural mantra, but it is not true.

#3. Eggs should not be on your list of most healthy foods.

Expressly yours,

carl myers

VEGAN ATHLETES

2009-11-24T09:36:00.011-07:00

NO MEAT AND NO DAIRY - BIG ADVANTAGE?

"Daniel made up his mind he would not defile himself with the king's meat and wine... ‘Let us be given plant foods to eat, and water to drink’... At the end of ten days, their appearance was handsomer, and they were stronger, than all the youths who had been eating the king's food."  - Daniel 1:12, 15, 17, 18

Timothy Bradley has been a regular at Nature’s Express in Rancho Mirage, California, coming in three to four times a week for a sandwich and a shot of wheat grass after working out. He has a comfortable and genuinely friendly manner with a smile that lights up the whole cafe. When he talks about wanting to be a good role model for kids, his face develops a missionary zeal. After spending a few minutes with Bradley, it becomes quite evident - he is the real thing.

On December 12^th, Timothy defends his title as champion of the World Boxing Organization Junior Welterweight Division (140 pounds) against also undefeated Lamont Peterson. When Tim goes into the ring, he brings a controversy with him that will completely rock the sports world over the next few years.

Everything else being equal, since Timothy goes vegan during intensive training, is he destined to win?

ESPN recently had an informative article that discussed the pros and cons of a completely plant based diet, highlighting the records of some notable vegan athletes. Check it out; they seem to suggest that the vegan diet just might be an added edge for athletes that want to be their best.

In the animal world, there are records for both the carnivorous and herbivore contenders. The cheetah, with its digestive system designed for meat, is the fastest sprinter on earth, clocked at 70 miles per hour. But the elephant, eating the plant-based diet fitting its physiology, is the endurance runner king, able to run faster than the fastest human sprinter for 10 hours straight at 25 miles per hour.

The question is not whether the human design favors a plant-based diet, which it does, nor whether we can adapt to animal based products, which we do, but rather, does following a vegan diet give an athlete a significant edge?

Surveys show that only one per cent of Americans are vegan and so it is no surprise that most top athletes are meat-eaters. Carl Lewis and Edwin Moses are most often cited as the top vegan athletes. More recently Tony Gonzalez, Pro Bowl tight end, switched to a vegan diet in the middle of his 'hall of fame’ career without losing any of his endurance or strength. He even states that his energy and alertness in the fourth quarter far exceeds what it was in his younger, pre-vegan diet seasons.

There is a growing list of athletes that are choosing to be vegan for the same various reasons that others do - health, the environment, or animal welfare. But increasingly, some athletes are turning to a vegan diet because they believe it will give them the edge in performance that will take them to the top of their game.

One thing is certain, whether Bradley wins or loses on December 12^th, the controversy over athletic performance and vegan diets will continue. After all, Edwin Moses won 122 consecutive 400-meter hurdles between 1977 and 1988 without convincing a world of carnivorous skeptics that the Book of Daniel has been right for a few thousand years.

Go Bradley!

Picture from 11/11/2009 blog

2009-11-23T18:25:00.001-07:00

I was asked to put up this 1945 picture of my mom and grandfather that I talked about in my initial blog. My grandfather would never have guessed.

Expressly yours,

carl myers

Healthcare Reform

2009-11-22T06:00:00.006-07:00

PART 2 – FOCUS ON PREVENTION

A few evenings ago I listened to a thoughtful National Public Radio guest who suggested “inappropriate healthcare” as a place to save dollars. I believe such efforts are worthy, certainly not new, and unlikely to significantly change healthcare cost trends.

Yet the words “inappropriate healthcare” struck me. Have I been part of the “inappropriate healthcare” that he referred to? Every day in my medical practice I would see at least one cancer patient whose disease had not been significantly helped by the chemotherapy drugs that I had prescribed. Every day I would also see at least one patient who had been cured by their chemotherapy. We often celebrated with patients who had been helped by chemotherapy despite poor odds.

Even in hindsight, I have difficulty defining when I rendered inappropriate care. A few times in my career a patient or their family sought a new physician because I had stressed (as compassionately as I could) that in my opinion chemotherapy treatment in their situation would likely cause more harm than good. What if this patient was one whose cancer would have responded against great odds? Did this make my advice inappropriate? What if the next physician decided to treat them and the patient was just made sicker by tens of thousands of dollars of drugs that did not work?

By addressing these complex aspects of care I do not mean to say that efforts to evaluate the appropriateness of care should not continue. However, I doubt that these are the most germane questions to ask.

The succinct adage - ‘garbage in, garbage out’ - quickly reminds one that a computer does not fix faulty data. Such a reminder helps focus efforts where they really count, since even the most elegant analysis of bogus data is a waste of time.

Our current medical model could use such a pithy slogan to focus our efforts more effectively.

‘Billions of dollars of junk food in, trillions of dollars of pills and surgery to chronically maintain the junk out’ is hardly pithy, but it accurately fits our healthcare reality. And like ‘garbage in, garbage out’, it should focus our efforts where they belong - avoiding the ‘garbage in’ in the first place.

Hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes are only a few of the ‘junk in, disease out’ illnesses that plague us. More studies won’t make it any more obvious that our high fat, high salt, high sugar, and non-nutritious diets make us obese and then kill us. Largely ignoring junk food in the healthcare equation has resulted in millions of Americans dying prematurely and trillions of wasted healthcare dollars.

I sometimes quiz audiences about this ‘junk in, illness out’ perspective. I’ll ask them to raise their hands if they think they eat more junk food than they should. Most people giggle a bit and then sheepishly raise their hands. I then follow this question by asking them if they also put diesel fuel in the tank of their gasoline-powered car.

In an instant the audience gets a glimpse of the depth of the delusion supporting our junk food habit. It becomes clear, if we were as smart with our bodies as we are with our cars, we could be much healthier.

To paraphrase Clinton’s message on the economy - as far as spiraling healthcare costs are concerned, - ‘it’s the food, stupid’.

Healthcare Reform

2009-11-19T11:27:00.003-07:00

ADDRESSING AMERICA’S BIGGEST PROBLEMS – PART 1

America is dying of healthcare costs.

We spend twice as much on healthcare per person as other developed countries. Despite the higher costs, we ranked dead last in a study of quality adjusted life expectancy. Widespread concerns about the costs and effectiveness of healthcare have been a national focus for over thirty years and our inability to address these trends is well documented.

Both the healthcare reform movement and the free enterprise proponents have their vocal advocates. However, each also has a long track record of being inadequate to overcome the lobbies that benefit from the status quo.

Since the problem is not improving, many blame our leaders in traditional fashion - the Democrats are the problem if one is a Republican, and vice versa. This is politics as usual and may get someone elected, but will not solve the problem.

However, in this instance, our leaders are not the cause of the problem - we are. American’s fundamental attitudes concerning health underlie both the costs and the reasons we cannot reach effective reform.

In War and Peace, Tolstoy posits that the major shifts in world history are not initiated by great leaders, but by a tectonic shift in the attitude of the masses. He points out that great leaders seem to lead, but in reality just skillfully execute the changing direction arising from the mega-shift in perspective.

Tolstoy’s assessment doesn’t fully explore the nuances of leadership, but it does point out a key limitation of leadership. Leaders can lead only so far ahead of the curve or they will be replaced - no matter how eloquent they may be.

The result of the current healthcare reform battle is irrelevant; the status quo will be served. Real reform - significantly better health for significantly less cost - requires a sea change in the way we approach our health. True patriotism is not just waving the flag faster. In healthcare reform, patriotism requires a fundamental reassessment of our thinking.

To be continued…

Expressly yours,

carl myers

CHANGE - 11/18/2009

2009-11-18T08:53:00.004-07:00

My own conversion from the typical Western diet was neither quick nor relapse free. Twenty-five years ago, no one would have predicted my destiny as a zealot for healthy food. I had every intention of remaining a lifelong meat-lover - - giving up cheese was not an option.

As a kid, cheeseburgers were always my first choice. When I started oncology practice and could finally afford steak, I knew the long years of medical school and residency had been worth it. I considered the addition of lobster, shrimp, and scallops as the just desserts for long hours of training and middle of the night phone calls. I still have happy memories of Saturday morning jaunts with the kids to McDonald’s for pancakes and sausage patties.

So in 1984 when Jean read Diet for a Small Planet and became vegetarian, I was less than pleased. Suddenly, after setting up my life perfectly, I was married to a lunatic. I found restaurant questions about beef broth and vegetable soup particularly jarring to my concept of a romantic night out.

However, our world did not stop with her becoming vegetarian, and I gradually developed tolerance to her peculiar food choices. By 1986, as concerns about red meat became more prevalent, I noted the hypocrisy of advising patients to cut back on their red meat intake while daily treating myself to a burger or steak. I switched to more chicken and fish as a concession to consistency.

In 1992, both Jean and I began a meditation practice. As a result, I also became vegetarian and widened my goal from ‘be a caring physician’ to ‘embody compassion for all creatures’.

Once I adopted a vegetarian diet, I read the medical literature differently. While still eating meat, I had minimized the statistics that implicated meat as causing cancer. After becoming vegetarian, the same scientific data now represented largely ignored and unnecessary deaths.

Since I continued to consume dairy products, I was a somewhat lukewarm disciple to healthy eating. However, the handwriting was already on the wall once I learned that dairy products were also neither healthy, nor kind, nor necessary. In 1998, I finally decided to give up dairy products. However, that decision turned out to be a struggle, and it was not until 2001 that I finally gave up cheese.

Occasionally I remind myself of my own slow, seventeen-year change process as I encourage other people to move toward healthier eating. Expecting dramatic changes from the cultural status quo defies logic. However, as the Bob Dylan song goes, ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’.

Jean realizes that the quote is over forty years old and advises me to be content planting seeds.

Expressly yours,

carl myers

2009-11-11T07:21:00.002-07:00

LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD - 11/11/2009 –

As I started this restaurant blog, I glanced up from my writing desk and saw the high school graduation picture of my mom with her father. She was pretty with the short, tight curls that marked the end of World War II. Looking back at her life, I saw a derailed determinism in her eyes and nuanced smile. Her father, a judge in rimless eyeglasses, was handsomely austere. It goes without saying; both were thin.

My mom, forty years before the fashion, became obese in 1957, following a twice daily routine of Ovaltine and whole milk to an early diabetic grave. Grandpa, in the tradition of his time, ruined his lungs with Camel cigarettes and died at age 62.

I would like to dedicate this blog to them and what I learned from watching their addictions morph, almost imperceptibly, from pleasurable routines to severe disabilities and early deaths.

May we profit from their legacy as we seek wiser decisions.

Expressly yours,

carl myers