NUTRITIONAL AGNOSTIC
Personal health has been a profitable industry for centuries, from the original snake-oil salesmen depicted in movies, to the modern infomercials, and giant 鈥渧itamin鈥� stores. With the addition of mammoth internet stores such as Amazon.com, access to little magic pills and herbs has never been this easy.
Often unregulated supplements are marketed to anyone who will buy into the claims, supported or not.
Then there are the genetic freaks pushing the newest quick fix workout or machine for weight loss 鈥� virtually without exception, people with genetically rare body types are put in front of the camera, and in magazine ads to lure the desperate and gullible to equating use of product x with cut abs, trim waistline, and unlimited energy and vitality.
It蘑菇视频 entirely understandable why these promises are so alluring. Most people know they want to feel better, especially as they age beyond the 20蘑菇视频 and 30蘑菇视频. The evil genius of advertising is to know how to A. tap into our vulnerable emotions of guilt, shame, and envy, and B. convince us that we 鈥渘eed鈥� something, and can only get it through buying their current widget.
For instance, you see the infomercial come on for the latest ab exerciser. The person presenting it is usually slender, attractive, and full of energy. You see the widget, and the person together, and regardless of what they are saying, your subconscious mind places the two together, and then begins to be led to the usually false conclusion that one caused the other.
The premise is, 鈥渂uy this widget, and you will look just like the person on TV.鈥� If you stick it out, you will be bombarded for anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes of the same sales pitch pushing as many emotional buttons as you allow, to convince you to give that sacred credit card number.
I鈥檓 here to 鈥減itch鈥� a very different solution: one that I will not promise is easy, but I will promise is worth it.
So it is entirely reasonable for you to ask 鈥渨hy bother.鈥� If you have chronic health maladies that are now reducing your enjoyment of life, you may already have the answer staring you in the face. For most people, we accept a level of health and wellness as normal, when in fact it is far below what we are capable of.
I stand before you as someone with an 鈥渁verage鈥� genetic body. I store fat in my gut easily if I make poor choices, I will inevitably get diabetes, heart disease, and become obese if I live and eat like the typical American, or as it has been said, eat the SAD (Standard American Diet).
Here蘑菇视频 the GREAT news: In the face of medical doctors wanting to place me on a lifelong regimen of cholesterol and blood pressure drugs, and one specialist wanting to staple my stomach, I chose personal responsibility. I chose to seek alternative, natural methods to reverse these conditions, and I HAVE DONE SO in less than two years. In fact, the blood pressure regulated within a week of making changes.
I am still very much on my journey, for half a lifetime of poor choices will not be 鈥渇ixed鈥� in a matter of mere weeks or months; but improvement, obvious or not, will begin immediately upon making better choices. It蘑菇视频 not crazy complicated. It boils down to a pretty simple formula, which by the way, I am not selling 鈥� it蘑菇视频 free:
Eat food as nature (God, if you prefer) provides it.
Of course, this is simple, and not simple. Simple in concept, very difficult (but not nearly impossible) in application. It boils down to re-programming yourself 鈥� essentially 鈥渞ebooting鈥� in modern terms. I will address this process in as much of an orderly fashion as I can in this column. I will also soon have an active web site with videos for free viewing to compliment. In the meantime, I do have a facebook group up and running called The Nutritional Agnostic: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheNutritionalAgnostic/. If you are on facebook, please feel free to join 鈥� it蘑菇视频 free, and always will be.
As I said, my journey is ongoing, and my philosophies will adjust if new information arrives. In the meantime, I practice and advocate plant-based eating. I do not advocate this at the exclusion of all other choices. I practice what I call modified vegan: I eat limited animal products (organic raw dairy, my own farm-raised eggs, limited small wild-caught fish), and the rest organic, fresh uncooked or lightly steamed veggies, fresh fruit, seeds and nuts. I will get into this all in detail in weeks to come 鈥� for now take heart 鈥� I am not perfect, and I do 鈥渃heat.鈥� So please do not feel you need to be perfect.
One last thought for today on eating: Plant-based eating is not just about personal health, it is also about planetary health, and world hunger.
There are numbers of reports that convincingly make the case that raising livestock costs many times more in land mass and eco-destruction, plus a significant percentage of the food supply is grown to feed them.
The nutritional value in return, from eating the plant-eating animals, is far lower than the value of eating the plants in the first place.
So at the very least, drastically reducing commercial livestock farms and choosing to eat far less meat will in all likelihood save the environment, and end world hunger.
Of course, serious $$$ and power is behind meat and dairy, and the oil business that powers their equipment; so, I have no illusions about the uphill struggle to fight it. However, WE don鈥檛 have to fight THEM if each individual 鈥渧otes鈥� by choosing a plant-based diet.
Lastly: The cost of medical care and insurance would plummet if the demand suddenly went down due to people taking responsibility for their own health.