My Diet

I started following my "diet" sometime back in the very early 90’s after listening to a set of audio tapes on my way back and forth to classes at Johns Hopkins while working on my masters. My best friend, Rick, had lent me the tapes of Dr. John McDougall (http://www.drmcdougall.com/ & http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/may/meat.htm). Rick had been following McDougall's diet for some time. I had thought he was somewhat eccentric because he had given up eating meat. I had never been a big meat eater, and had previously read about how some remnants of meat remain in your gut for extensive periods of time. I had actually “tried” omitting meat from my diet years before, but abandoned that idea after I gained a few pounds from substituting a lot of diary in its place.

The information on McDougall’s audio tapes made sense to me. He didn’t just describe his diet, he explained how he had come to his conclusions through his own personal experiences and research. When he was young, his diet caused his body to fail. And his unique work experience in Hawaii as a plantation doctor allowed him to recognize the differences in the quality of health in different generations of the same families where the only variable was what they ate. This led him to do independent research on the effects of certain foods on the human diet.

McDougall went on to describe how his conclusions affected his medical practice. I had always questioned the medical field’s tendency to prescribe drugs for EVERYTHING, and he described how he was trained to do just that, and how most doctors’ practices depend on their patients regular visits for prescription renewals. He was warned by other doctors that he would starve practicing medicine the way he did. He would not make the PROFIT by just treating his patients through diet alone.

What he described on the tapes actually made sense! It was LOGICAL!

I had an incentive to try his diet since heredity was not on my side. Although I enjoyed very good health, heart disease runs rampant on both sides of my family. Both of my parents had brothers who died of massive heart attacks at the age of 43. Almost all of my ancestors have died of heart disease, including my mother at the age of 57, and my father had suffered from heart disease from the age of 47.

I considered trying his diet and thought about the foods I would miss. Not having ever been a big meat eater (unlike my father who ALWAYS ordered steak when he ate out), I realized the modification in my diet would not take that much effort on my part. I might miss my favorites – meat loaf, subs, hamburgers, and shrimp. Well, I discovered that what I really liked about hamburgers were the toppings, plus I could always eat veggie burgers if I so desired. I found veggie subs to be just as satisfying as regular subs. It wasn’t a big sacrifice for me to stop eating meat.

But it did turn out to be an issue with my wife. She took it almost as a personal affront, even though I never tried to impose my diet on her or my family. She begrudgingly accepted my decision and eventually humored me by making some adjustments in the kitchen. I simply ate “around” the meat dishes. I also limited my diary intake. We had already weaned ourselves from regular milk, to 2%, and then to skim, so it was easy for me to take the next step and eliminate milk altogether and move to water. It took some adjusting to using milk on my cereal, but the biggest adjustment was just visual and not the taste. It also is tremendously “freeing” not having to always run to the store for milk which has a relatively brief shelf life.

I quickly discovered that there WERE three inconveniences to my decision to eliminate meat and limit dairy in my diet. The first was very minor – people thought I was kind of weird. So what’s new. LOL The second problem was when we were guests at someone’s home, the hosts felt they should prepare special food for me. Unless the ONLY food they are serving is meat, I prefer to just eat “around” the meat dishes. There is almost ALWAYS enough for me enjoy without their preparing something special. And the final inconvenience is eating out. I find it astounding how FEW choices most restaurants offer for meatless dishes! The “American diet” is SO ingrained in society that most people expect to eat meat at EVERY meal. And dairy – eggs and milk and cheeses and sauces – make up most of the rest of the menu. Most Americans indeed live on an animal CENTERED diet.

And look at what this “American diet” has done. Besides chronic health problems (which our society accepts as NORMAL!), the majority of the population is overweight. That’s simply because most people feel they can eat ANYTHING they can fit in their mouths.

More than half of all Americans are overweight! That is OUTRAGEOUS! Over 25% of Americans are OBESE! Obese is not just overweight, it is a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or higher. A survey by the NPD Group, a leading market research firm based in Rosemont, Ill., shows that about 62% of adults and 34% of children are overweight or obese. Shouldn’t these facts alone set off an alarm about the American diet?!

I think what bothers me the most is it seems that most people do NOTHING to improve their diet – not even in LITTLE ways. Some things have become SO entrenched in they way we eat, that few would ever consider tasting bread or corn on the cob without coating it with grease. It is difficult to actually taste most vegetables because of all the grease that is added. And most order fried food instead of baked (potatoes, etc.).

And people wonder why they are fat. They rationalize it is in their genes or they just have a slow metabolism. They refuse to acknowledge the basic fact – calories in, calories out.



Unfortunately, John McDougall’s findings, and resulting recommended diet changes, seem too extreme to some people. And old habits die hard, especially where food and lifestyle are concerned. They would rather make NO effort to try his recommendations to see if there might be any change in their health. Some people would rather die than give up their meat.

It seems most would rather scoff at the thought of making any change to their diet. Their idea of a “diet” is a temporary period of time when they cut back on food intake (or worse yet, try a gimmick diet that some quack wrote a book about) to try to lose weight. Of course this NEVER works. That’s why “Weight Watchers,” “Jenny Craig,” and other diet businesses thrive in this a billion dollar industry. These are “gimmicks” that rarely work. Their financial profit is based on their customers’ failure.

People make excuses for their bad diet and poor health. They rationalize that research shows that ALL foods are bad for you, and thus conclude that they should continue eating anything they can fit in their mouths.

Research IS clouded by the agendas of MAJOR industries – the meat industry, the dairy industry – who have great power and lobbyists. This is similar to the tobacco industry’s clout years ago when they denied facts about the use of tobacco.

Is it because certain foods are “integrated” into our culture that we dare not question their healthfulness? We learned about germs and adjusted our thinking and behavior. We learned about radiation in x-rays and adjusted our thinking and behavior. It seems we examine facts about the effect of specific foods and we doubt, rationalize, and deny.

People point out that certain illnesses run in their family, and they accept it as normal, seeking drugs to control the resulting health issues.

And the medical industry LOVES to prescribe drugs. They put people on drugs to address symptoms, and then prescribe other drugs to deal with the side effects of previous drugs. So many people are over-medicated, and they think this too is normal! It is ludicrous!


MY PHILOSOPHY:

Drugs should be used only as a LAST resort.

A diet is a lifestyle – one that you can LIVE with. It does not have to be “all or nothing.” You can “treat” if you so desire.

I want to maintain my health. I value QUALITY of life. I choose to make little “sacrifices” and changes in order to enjoy good health and avoid disease.

What McDougall recommends is CHEAP and COMPLETELY safe. I am perplexed why more people don’t at least try it – ESPECIALLY those who are battling serious health issues.

It astounds me that most people will make absolutely NO concessions in what they eat. They will put forth NO effort whatsoever to change what they eat.

A paragraph in Oprah’s August ’09 magazine describes how a change can be made:
“Retrain your palate. …familiarity is a powerful driver of dietary preference. But taste buds are malleable and can be taught to appreciate new and subtler flavors. When you swap processed, high-fat, sodium-packed, and over sweetened food for healthier fare, it can take one to two weeks before your taste buds acclimate. Don’t expect to love new flavors right away. Just keep serving the new dishes, and soon neither you nor your palate will recall what all the fuss was about.”

“IT’S NOT A DIET, IT’S A LIFESTYLE!”

If you want the TRUTH about how your diet affects your health, read “The China Study.” The facts are SHOCKING.


This video clip gives an EXCELLENT factual overview of the human diet.

Michael Klaper (60 min. video on diet)
http://www.therealfoodchannel.com/page/18.html