Today we have Part 1 of a 3-part interview I recently did with Will Tuttle, author of the book The World Peace Diet.

Will Tuttle

Will Tuttle is a nationally recognized writer, educator, pianist and composer devoted to providing words and music that inspire insight and compassion. An award-winning author and Dharma Master in the Zen meditation tradition, his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley focus on educating intuition, and he has taught college course in music, philosophy, mythology, and creativity.

His book, The World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony, has been called one of the most important books of the 21st century: the foundation of a new society based on the truth of the interconnectedness of all life.

It is the first book to make explicit the invisible connections between our culture, our food, and the source of our broad range of problems – and the way to a positive transformation in our individual and collective lives.

It is a brilliant book, and I highly recommend it. It is far-ranging in its scope, and leaves no stone unturned in its quest to help us all understand who we are and where we are going.

To learn more about Will Tuttle, and to buy his book, go to his website, http://willtuttle.com

Will also has a World Peace Diet group on Facebook, which you can join.

Part 2 of this 3-part interview will be next time…

The Low Density Lifestyle book is now out! You can check out an excerpt from the book, and buy it, at the Low Density Lifestyle bookstore.

It’s about Jack LaLanne, who was featured in these pages a year ago, during the series on Longevity.

Jack passed away yesterday, Jan. 23, 2011, at the ripe age of 96, so as a tribute to him, I thought it would be best to republish the story from the NY Times.

Jack LaLanne, Founder of Modern Fitness Movement, Dies at 96

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN

Jack LaLanne, whose obsession with grueling workouts and good nutrition, complemented by a salesman’s gift, brought him recognition as the founder of the modern physical fitness movement, died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, Calif. He was 96.

The cause was respiratory failure resulting from pneumonia, said his son Dan Doyle.

A self-described emotional and physical wreck while growing up in the San Francisco area, Mr. LaLanne began turning his life around, as he often told it, after hearing a talk on proper diet when he was 15.
He started working out with weights when they were an oddity, and in 1936 he opened the prototype for the fitness spas to come — a gym, juice bar and health food store — in an old office building in Oakland.

Jack LaLanne at age 71

“People thought I was a charlatan and a nut,” he remembered. “The doctors were against me — they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.” But Mr. LaLanne persevered, and he found a national pulpit in the age of television.
“The Jack LaLanne Show” made its debut in 1951 as a local program in the San Francisco area, then went nationwide on daytime television in 1959. His short-sleeved jumpsuit showing off his impressive biceps, his props often limited to a broomstick, a chair and a rubber cord, Mr. LaLanne pranced through his exercise routines, most notably his fingertip push-ups.
He built an audience by first drawing in children who saw his white German shepherd, Happy, perform tricks.
“My show was so personal, I made it feel like you and I were the only ones there,” he told Knight-Ridder Newspapers in 1995. “And I’d say: ‘Boys and girls, come here. Uncle Jack wants to tell you something. You go get Mother or Daddy, Grandmother, Grandfather, whoever is in the house. You go get them, and you make sure they exercise with me.’ ”
His show continued into the mid-1980s.

The two Jacks

“He was perfect for the intimacy of television,” Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, told The San Jose Mercury News in 2004. “This guy had some of the same stuff that Oprah has and Johnny Carson had — the ability to insinuate themselves in the domestic space of people’s lives.”
Long before Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda and the Atkins diet, Mr. LaLanne was a national celebrity, preaching regular exercise and proper diet. Expanding on his television popularity, he opened dozens of fitness studios under his name, later licensing them to Bally.

He invented the forerunners of modern exercise machines like leg-extension and pulley devices. He marketed a Power Juicer to blend raw vegetables and fruits and a Glamour Stretcher cord, and he sold exercise videos and fitness books. He invited women to join his health clubs and told the elderly and the disabled that they could exercise despite their limitations.

Jack doing one of his birthday swims, while handcuffed

At 60 he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat. At 70, handcuffed and shackled again, he towed 70 boats, carrying a total of 70 people, a mile and a half through Long Beach Harbor.
He ate two meals a day and shunned snacks.
Breakfast, following his morning workout, usually included several hard-boiled egg whites, a cup of broth, oatmeal with soy milk and seasonal fruit. For dinner he took his wife, Elaine, to restaurants that knew what he wanted: a salad with raw vegetables and egg whites along with fish — often salmon — and a mixture of red and white wine. He sometimes allowed himself a roast turkey sandwich, but never a cup of coffee.
Mr. LaLanne said he performed his exercises until he experienced “muscle fatigue,” lifting weights until it was impossible for him to continue. It produced results and, as he put it, “the ego in me” made the effort worthwhile.
The son of French immigrants, Jack LaLanne was born in San Francisco on Sept. 26, 1914, and spent his early years on his parents’ sheep farm in Bakersfield, Calif. By the time he was 15, the family having moved to the Bay Area, he was pimply and nearsighted, craved junk food and had dropped out of high school. That is when his mother took him to a women’s club for a talk by Paul C. Bragg, a well-known speaker on health and nutrition.
That talk, Mr. LaLanne often said, turned his life around. He began experimenting with weights at the Berkeley Y.M.C.A., tossed aside cakes and cookies and studied Gray’s Anatomy to learn about the body’s muscles. He graduated from a chiropractic school, but instead of practicing that profession he became a pitchman for good health.
He opened his first health studio when he was 21, and a decade and a half later he turned to television. He was first sponsored by the creator of a longevity pill, a 90-year-old man, but it sold poorly and he obtained Yami Yogurt as his new sponsor. “It tasted terrible, so I mixed it with prune juice and fruits,” he told The New York Times in 2004. “Nobody thought about it until then. We made the guy a millionaire.”
Mr. LaLanne, 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds or so with a 30-inch waist, maintained that he disliked working out. He said he kept at it strictly to feel fit and stay healthy. He built two gyms and a pool at his home in Morro Bay, and began each day, into his 90s, with two hours of workouts: weight lifting followed by a swim against an artificial current or in place, tied to a belt.
“The Jack LaLanne Show” may have run its course in the mid-1980s, but it had a second life in reruns on ESPN Classic. “We have over 3,000 shows,” Mr. LaLanne said in 2004. “I own everything.”
In September 2007, “Jack LaLanne Live!” made its debut on the online VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness Radio Network. He appeared on it with his wife and his nephew Chris LaLanne, a personal trainer.
In addition to Dan Doyle, he is survived by his wife, Elaine; their son, Jon; and a daughter, Yvonne.
Mr. LaLanne promoted himself and his calling into his final years, often accompanied at events by his wife, a physical fitness convert but hardly a fanatic. He brimmed with optimism and restated a host of aphorisms for an active and fit life.
“I can’t die,” he most famously liked to say. “It would ruin my image.”

When you buy one copy of the Low Density Lifestyle book at the regular price of $19.95, you will get a second copy free! And the ebook, normally $12.95, is on sale for $9.95.

Don’t delay – get your copy now, and make your holidays a Low Density Lifestyle one! Just scroll down to the order info below and you’ll be able to make the purchase.

Get your copy now of The Low Density Lifestyle, in book or ebook format!

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Low Density Lifestyle Book Excerpt

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The Low Density Lifestyle is the revolutionary new book by Dr. Michael Wayne, author of the groundbreaking book, Quantum-Integral Medicine: Towards a New Science of Healing and Human Potential.

The Low Density Lifestyle is experiencing and living in a more relaxed, less stressed, and calm, clear and focused manner on an everyday basis. It is also a way that can lead you to better health and happiness, along with living a more fulfilled and enlightened life.

This is a book about many things—health, wellness, happiness, fulfillment, doing what you love, movement, being a creative thinker—but at the same time, it’s about one thing: living to your maximum potential.

The goal with this book is to help you become a more complete human being. We are meant to live a healthy life, a more fulfilled life, a conscious life, and a more awakened life—this is what it means to be a complete human being.

And this is what is meant by living a Low Density Lifestyle: it is a model for living.

Get your copy now, and get ready to change your life!

________________________________________________________________________

Download and read a free sample excerpt from the book by clicking here:

Low Density Lifestyle Book Excerpt _____________________________________________________________________

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Today is the final segment in this three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.

In case you missed Part 1 or Part 2, here’s the links:
The PETA Interviews, Part 1
The PETA Interviews, Part 2

In this interview we talk about talks about PETA”s mission; animal cruelty in slaughterhouses and on farms; the prevalence of E. coli and salmonella in animals and why this occurs; the detrimental effects of eating dairy foods; and PETA’s sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest.

PETA likes to use shock and controversy, mixed with irreverence, to get their message across

After you watch this video, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it is a very enlightening discussion.

To learn more about PETA, go to peta.org, and to learn about the sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest, go to PETAprime.org.

Today I give you the second part of a three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.

The other day was part 1 of this interview, and in this interview we carry on from there.

PETA does know how to get outrageous

In this interview we talk about PETA’s outrageous billboard they put up in downtown Glasgow, Scotland; the health benefits of not eating meat; the relationship between eating meat and climate change – meat production is the number one cause of climate change; animal cruelty and the meat industry; how far removed we are from the source of our food; PETA’s educational outreach programs in schools; the origins of the swine flu; and much, more more.

I’m sure when you watch the above video you’ll agree with me that the discussion is an enlightening one.

To learn more about PETA, go to peta.org

This interview will be continued next time…

Last week I mentioned that PETA had announced their 2010 sexiest vegetarian male and female over 50 contest, and today I follow that up with the above video, which is the first part of a three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.

I’ve written about PETA in the past – I wrote articles about Mimi Kirk and Julian Winter, the winners of PETA’s 2009 sexiest vegetarian female and male, and I also did a three-part interview with Mimi.

I’ve also written about some of the outrageous things PETA has done with the article The PETA Hijinks. The article covered such things as their banned Super Bowl ad “Veggie Love,” their attempt to pay the city of Topeka, Kansas $6,000 to fill potholes in their streets and mark the repairs with messages condemning Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the billboard they put up in Glasgow, Scotland linking meat eating to man-boobs.

A PETA-sponsored demonstration

Today’s interview discusses PETA’s mission, their origins, their work in animal rights, their sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest (and their sexiest vegetarian next door contest), the benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet, and their famous “Veggie Love” ad.

To learn more about PETA, you can go to PETA.org. And to enter into the 2010 sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest, go to PETAprime.org.

To be continued next time…

These articles were on spiritual healing and on shamanism.

These healing approaches were predicated on helping the person to heal themselves. They were used to facilitate and activate the innate healing system that all of us have within.

The progression of medicine over the eons is based on this concept: everyone has a healing system, and it just needs to be maximized. All natural approaches have started with this basic premise, and have worked from there. All the modalities and disciplines used by the various natural healing approaches have this in common – they work at stimulating the body’s own reservoir of healing.

Modern medicine has gotten far away from this essential truth. It is a technological bioscience, and doesn’t recognize that people have great capacities of healing. To recognize that fact, that people can heal, a doctor would have to take the time to listen to a person, to get to know them, and then to give thought as to the proper treatment approach – and this approach would not just be writing a prescription.

It could incorporate nutrition, exercise, rest and stress management – the whole of the person would be looked at, from diet, lifestyle, emotions, attitude, spiritual health, the energetic body, and so on.

Working at this level is how the innate healing system can then be mobilized.

Bernard Lown, M.D.

Bernard Lown, M.D., is the author of the book, The Lost Art of Healing: Practicing Compassion in Medicine. Dr. Lown is also a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

In The Lost of Healing, he wrote:
“Our health care system is breaking down because the medical profession has been shifting its focus away from healing, which begins with listening to the patient. The reasons for this shift include a romance with mindless technology, which is embraced in large measure as a means for maximizing income.

“Since it is uneconomic to spend much time with patients, diagnosis is performed by exclusion, which opens floodgates for endless tests and procedures. Malpractice suits should be viewed as mere pustules on the physiognomy of a sick health care system. They are not what ails medicine in the United States, they are the consequence.

“The medical care system will not be cured until the patient once again becomes central to the doctor’s agenda.”

Albert Schweitzer, M.D.

Another physician who was a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer, born in 1875 and who died in 1965, practiced medicine in his native Germany and in Africa. He was fully schooled in the virtues of helping the innate healing system. He said:

“Each patient carries his own doctor within him. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work.”

In case you were wondering, Dr. Lown won his Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for his work at trying to end nuclear war; Dr. Schweitzer was awarded his Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life,” and the different ways that he manifested and expressed that.

Over the days and weeks to come, this series on Healing will take a look at different modalities and disciplines whose aim is to activate and cultivate the innate healing system.

I invite you to read along as I delve into these.

On the tiny island of Ikaria, off the coast of Greece, there is much to learn about living a long and healthy life, because a large percentage of the population of this island do so.

During the course of this series on Longevity, I have introduced you to various people who have lived a long and vital life, from the late Joe Rollino, to Jack Lalanne, yoga teacher Bette Calman, Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, and Mimi Kirk (whose three-part exclusive interview with me ended yesterday), among others.

But with the above video, you can be introduced to an entire population of people, as opposed to individuals.

The above video is based on the work of Dan Buettner and the Blue Zones team, researchers who have identified certain regions of the world where people live longer.

Ikaria, in the small box, in relation to Greece

They found that in Ikaria, and especially in the northeastern end of the island, that over one-third of everyone in the northeastern end reaches age 90. They suffer 20% less cancer and half the rate of heart disease. And there’s virtually no dementia.

In other words, they’re living the good years many people are missing. Years we could possibly have by just adjusting a few simple habits, including:

1. Wild Greens – Greens are abundant in fields and roadsides, Ikarians frequently eat wild green salads and pies. Some contain more antioxidants than green tea or wine.
2. Herbal Teas – The common herbal teas consumed here contain compounds that lower blood pressure and decrease the risk of heart disease and dementia.
3. Low sense of time urgency – Feeling less obligation to one’s schedule and day is shown to lower heart-harming stress hormones.
4. Daily naps – Taking a 30-minute nap at least five times a week can decrease the risk of heart attack by 35 percent.
5. Mountain living – Here, every trip out of the house occasions a mini workout. People get their daily exercise without thinking about it. Studies show the mountain people have lower cardio vascular disease.
6. Strong sense of community – Family and village support create strong social connections, which are proven to promote longevity.
7. Goat’s milk – 80 percent of all people over 90 have consumed goat’s milk many times per week throughout their life. It is rich in blood-pressure lowering tryptophan and antibacterial compounds.
8. Ikarian diet – The Ikarian variation of Mediterranean Diet is high in vegetables, beans, and low in meat and sugar. Uniquely, though, it’s lower in grains and fish, but high in potatoes.

The village of Armenistis, in Ikaria

In the U.S., cancer costs almost $250 billion per year, heart disease another approximately $500 billion and dementia yet another $175 billion. If people of the U.S. could live Ikaria’s lifestyle, rates could be cut in half and half a trillion dollars could be saved.

People of Ikaria are clearly living a Low Density Lifestyle, and living long and vital lives because of it. There’s a lot of life lessons for living a long life that we can learn from the people of Ikaria, Greece, if only we can heed the call.

One of the biggest lessons to be learned is that living a High Density Lifestyle will surely affect the quality of your life both in terms of health and your lifespan.

Today is the last installment of the three-part exclusive interview I recently did with Mimi Kirk, the 71-year-old winner of PETA’s sexiest female vegetarian over 50 award.

Mimi has a lot of valid things to say about health and wellness, and she’s an incredible role model for anyone of any age. Just watching her in this and the previous two interviews can teach you a lot about being and becoming healthy.

Mimi Kirk getting ready to eat a vegan meal by candlelight in Venice, Italy

Mimi’s interview fits in well with this series on Longevity, because, although Mimi is far younger than all of the other masters of longevity I have profiled in this series, what she discusses is clearly the secrets to living a long and vital life.

In case you missed the previous interviews I did with Mimi Kirk, you can click on the links below to see them:
An Interview with Mimi Kirk, Part 1
An Interview with Mimi Kirk, Part 2

As you watch the above video, you’ll hear Mimi talk about:

***why it’s not genes and family history that dictate whether you’ll be sick as you age

***why medications can be toxic to your health and why they’re not the answer to getting healthy

***why developing good health is simple

***why she loves eating a raw foods diet

***what her favorite creative pastimes are

***her upcoming book, “How to Be Healthy and Hot At Any Age.”

***why her sex drive is strong

***that she feels incredibly healthy and full of life

***what she does to keep her skin youthful and vital (hint: she’s never used botox or plastic surgery)

***how people can connect with her and find out what she’s up to. (here’s how to get to her Facebook page: Mimi Kirk’s Facebook page.)

So, I hope you enjoyed the interview I did with Mimi Kirk, and got a lot out of it. I surely did.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another article in this series on Longevity, so see you then.