An Interview with Will Tuttle, Author of “The World Peace Diet,” Part 1

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 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.

Evil Terrorists Kidnap Ronald McDonald!!

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.

In an act of cowardice that only evil terrorists are capable of doing, an American icon, Ronald McDonald, was recently kidnapped and is being threatened with execution by Feb. 11, 2011, unless the demands of the terrorists are met.

What is wrong with these people? Don’t they understand that Ronald McDonald represents the pinnacle of American living? You can’t get much more Americana than Ronald.

I mean, if we allow this dastardly act to succeed, then we are all doomed – because then nothing will be sacred.

Who are these cowards who have committed this heinous act? Not much is fully known about them, except that they go by the name of the “Food Liberation Army.”

We do know the details of the crime. The perpetrators marched into a restaurant in Helsinki, Finland on Jan. 31 posing as maintenance personnel, and then kidnapped the statue of Ronald McDonald.

Since committing this reprehensible act, the group has posted a video on YouTube where, wearing hoods over their heads and holding the statue with a bag over its head, they demand that the world’s largest food chain answer questions about its corporate responsibility and food production. You can watch the video above.

“We love burgers, fries and McDonald’s, but we can no longer watch in silence as the food we love is being destroyed and brought to shame because of greed and indifference,” one of the terrorists said, speaking in Finnish.

And that’s the thing about terrorists. They can make themselves sound like they have a reasonable case, but we all know they are madmen bent on destruction.

For what are we without McDonalds? What would happen to our way of life?

I ask all of you, pray that Ronald McDonald is saved before the execution date of Feb. 11. But yet, we can never cave into the demands of terrorists.

For if they get their way, next they’ll be making demands that we have to eat things like brown rice and organic vegetables and locally produced foods.

And if that were to happen, it would be devastating to all the businesses that make mega-gobs of profits off the unhealthy living habits of people.

The PETA Interviews, Part 3

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.

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.

The PETA Interviews, Part 2

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.

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…

The PETA Interviews, Part 1

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.

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…

Health is the Greatest Wealth, Part 1

The first wealth is health. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Please keep in mind the distinction between healing and treatment: treatment originates from outside, whereas healing comes from within. – Andrew Weil

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, and in the cause and prevention of disease. – Thomas Edison

As of today, we begin a new series, shifting the focus from sustainable/green living, which was the topic of the last series, to health.

Health is the greatest wealth, but it seems to be a commodity that, while much in demand, is hard to grasp. Everyone wants to be healthier, but the way most people go about it, is hard to attain.

In the U.S., medical costs are skyrocketing, as are insurance premiums. At the same time, all that money spent is not doing much good in helping people become healthier; sickness rates across the board keep going up, up, up.

The U.S. medical system is a sick care system, not a health care system. It knows nothing about how to help people live healthier lives; it is all about trying to arrest illness – and at that it’s not doing a great job.

And so, over the next few weeks, I’ll be talking about health and how to be healthier in a variety of ways.

I’ve discussed on these pages many times the importance of a whole foods oriented diet, one that’s not heavy in animal protein.

Eating well is the foundation for being healthy, but the cultivation of overall good health and wellness includes other factors, and is ultimately about developing the right approach and mindset. If you do that, good health becomes easy to achieve and maintain.

Being in good health allows you to easily live a Low Density Lifestyle, while being in ill health is not conducive to it. Unfortunately, most people are walking around in poor health, and are taking medications in order that they can function, be productive and carry on in their daily routine.

Medications have a number of inherent problems, and do not help to restore health. All they do at best is arrest symptoms and keep you functioning. They can cause side effects that range from mild to severe, can be toxic to the liver, can depress the immune system and can lead to other long-term health problems.

The key to developing good health is empowering yourself and being proactive. If you are not feeling well, this is a signal from the body that something is amiss. If you learn to listen to what the body is saying, and take that message to heart, you will start becoming healthier.

One of the inevitable side effects of a High Density Lifestyle, which is a lifestyle of high stress, is illness. Just the stress of living this way will sooner or later catch up to you.

But if you start listening to you body, you will start to understand when the body is telling you that you are overtaxed. Instead of rushing to take a drug for the symptoms you are experiencing from living a High Density Lifestyle, if you learn to slow down, that by itself may do you wonders.

Now, I’m not saying that you should never take a medication—there are times when they are necessary, but they should only be seen as a bridge, a temporary remedy while you work on the permanent solution.

The great majority of people seek out a doctor when they are not feeling well, with the hope that the doctor will have the answers. But did you know that most physicians are immersed in a High Density Lifestyle? A study published in the September 2008 medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that when physicians are in medical school, 50% suffer from burnout and 10% consider suicide.

If this is what they go through when they are trained, how can the profession be of help in understanding how to help a person get off the treadmill of a High Density Lifestyle?

I’ll continue in this vein tomorrow, talking about health and how to achieve it.

An Interview with Mimi Kirk, Part 2

Today I continue with the second part of a three-part exclusive interview I recently did with Mimi Kirk, who is no ordinary 71 year old. In 2009, when she was 70, Mimi was voted by PETA as the sexiest vegetarian female over 50.

If you didn’t see the first part of the interview with Mimi Kirk, don’t forget to review it by clicking on this link:
An Interview with Mimi Kirk, Part 1

The interview was conducted over skype with only one technical snafu – about halfway through today’s interview Mimi’s screen froze, so you’ll see me wait about 10 seconds until Mimi’s screen unfroze. After that the interview continued without a hitch.

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

***why to become healthy you need to become empowered and take responsibility for your health

***how she manages to wear out her boyfriend, who’s 19 years younger than she is

***why the way you think, your attitude about life, your happiness, and your ability to laugh are also crucial to health, along with diet

***what holds people back from changing their diet and making healthy lifestyle choices

***how she manages to live a stress-free life

***what the common threads are amongst people who live long lives

***how to start living a healthier lifestyle

***why eating meat and dairy is unhealthy

***that she takes no medications, and also takes no supplements

***why she shops primarily at farmer’s markets

Mimi Kirk has a lot to say, and all of it is valid. I think you’ll agree with me, as you watch this video, that Mimi is an incredible inspiration to all of us.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with the last installment of this three-part interview, so don’t forget to tune in tomorrow…

The 98-Year-Old Massage Therapist Grandmother

In today’s article on Longevity, meet Evelyn Blackburn: She’s a 98-year-old grandmother who is Britain’s oldest massage therapist, with 60 years in the profession.

Evelyn Blackburn was first granted her license to operate in 1949 and recently renewed it.

Mrs. Blackburn, of Pinner, north London, has treated tens of thousands of people since a friend’s sore neck prompted her to learn the techniques of massage six decades ago.

But she has kept abreast of developments, embracing alternative treatments such as cupping – made famous by celebrity enthusiast Gwyneth Paltrow – and radiesthesia, which treats people’s energy or auras.

Mrs Blackburn said, “I have massaged thousands of people over the years – from mothers and grandmothers to builders and scientists. Back when I started, I used iodine-based oil called Dragon’s Blood. Nowadays, I use the modern substitutes. You have to move with the times.

“I still maintain the best treatment is a pair of hands.

“I don’t think anything can replace massage. I have used lots of therapies and machines, but nothing is quite as effective.

“A massage is much better than all these advertised creams to put on your face and body, although the companies making the cream wouldn’t like to hear that – but it’s the truth.”

Mrs. Blackburn used to treat up to eight people a day at the clinic where she worked in Nower Hill, Harrow, but for the past 24 years has worked from home in a room adapted into a studio.

She stated that, “I started in 1949 and now I’m 98. It has been a long time but I enjoy my work because I help people feel better. I love the contact with people and sharing their problems.

“Now I take on work as it comes. I’m available seven days a week.”

Explaining how she has kept so active, she said: “While you cannot determine how long you live, I have been a vegetarian since I was 20 and never get angry and depressed. When you feel down in the dumps, you must pick yourself up.”

Evelyn Blackburn, the 98-year-old massage therapist grandmother, is another model of longevity, and a model of someone living a Low Density Lifestyle.

One of the common threads you may have noticed amongst all the people featured so far in these articles on longevity is diet: they have all either proclaimed that they are (or in the case of Joe Rollino, was) a vegetarian, or that they ate very little animal foods.

That really is a very important part of it, as eating an animal-food based diet will shorten your life, as the article I wrote not too long ago on The China Study pointed out.

Another thing all of these people have is a sense of purpose, and having a sense of purpose is something that has been shown to help contribute to longevity.

For Evelyn Blackburn, her sense of purpose is in helping people feel better, and she truly loves to be able to do so. As she said above, she’s available seven days a week.

So next time you find yourself in Pinner, in north London, give Evelyn Blackburn a call and make an appointment for a massage from her. You’ll learn a thing or two about longevity along the way.

The Obesity Apocalypse is Nearing

Today is the last article for this series on obesity, and the last article for this week -  Thanksgiving is upon us, and with it I am taking a few day hiatus.

And what better time than Thanksgiving to talk about the dangers of eating too much food and the wrong types of food?

Because as a nation, here in the U.S., statistics show that obesity is rapidly reaching epidemic proportions.  Already the U.S. is the most obese nation on the planet.

I’ve talked about all the different causes of obesity – diet, sugar/high fructose corn syrup, chemicals, cars and stress – but no matter how you cut the mustard, the truth is that if we continue the path we’re on, there is something ugly looming on the horizon.

And that is the obesity apocalypse.

Forget 2012 and the Mayan Long Count calendar.  That just makes for a thriller of a Hollywood movie.

The real apocalypse will occur in 2030. That’s the year, according to a study that came out in the August 2008 edition of the medical journal Obesity, that nearly every American will be overweight or obese.

The study, led by Dr. Youfa Wang of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, says that if current overweight and obesity trends continue, 86 percent of Americans could be overweight or obese by the year 2030.

And even more troubling, the authors note, is the fact that “by 2048, all American adults would become overweight or obese.”

Shades of the Pixar film Wall-E.  In that film, 700 years in the future, the inhabitants of earth are forced to evacuate the planet, because due to mass consumerism the entire planet is covered with trash. The people of earth are now living in space on starliners, and are grossly obese and no longer able to walk. They have to rely on motorized hovercrafts to get them around.

Dr. Wang of John Hopkins also said that the increase in metabolic disease and other weight-related conditions could have a catastrophic toll on public health — and on the public pocket. If these predictions come to bear, Wang and his colleagues estimate that the additional overweight and obesity burden could add up to an extra $860 billion to $956 billion per year in health expenditures to treat these conditions.

All told, this would mean that $1 in every $6 spent on health care would be spent as a result of the overweight and obesity.

The reality is that if those dollar figures quoted above are spent on the health demands of obesity, it will bankrupt this nation. We can reform health care until we’re blue in the face, we can create a single payer system that is compassionate, caring and exceeds expectations, but if we have that level of burden to pay on health care, the only way to rescue the U.S. economy will be if every person in the country is allowed to have a printing press in their home in order to print up money.

Obviously, we are in dire need of reversing course, and doing it soon…or else.

Dr. David Katz, co-founder of the Yale University Prevention Research Center says, “We are terribly, ominously off-course. To close the gap, we need to fix everything that’s broken — from neighborhoods without sidewalks, to the high price of produce, to food marketing to children, to misleading health claims on food packages, to school days devoid of physical activity and school cafeterias devoid of healthful offerings. The list goes on and on.”

Others state that the path to reversing course lie in individuals taking responsibility for diet and lifestyle habits. Dr. Neal Barnard, founder and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and a staunch supporter of a vegetarian diet, says dietary modification could be a crucial step in solving the problem.

“U.S. eating habits are nowhere near where they should be,” he says. “The average American eats 50 pounds more meat and 20 pounds more cheese per year, compared to the 1960s. … I would strongly encourage Americans to adopt more vegetarian meals.”

Soon we will be at a crossroads. On one path is the road to a Low Density Lifestyle, while the other is the trail to a High Density Lifestyle.

The choice is ours.

And so with that, I leave you to have a happy Thanksgiving.  I wish you well, and I hope you remember all I’ve written on this important subject.

Obesity, Meat Free Monday, and the Empire Strikes Back

Back in September I posted an article about Meat Free Monday, the campaign that Paul McCartney is helping to spearhead, which encourages people to go meat free one day a week.

The theory behind Meat Free Monday is that eating less meat is good for the environment and that even one less day of meat eating a week can help slow climate change.

It’s also well-known that eating too much meat can be harmful to your health, and so Meat Free Monday can definitely be a boost to the health of anyone who partakes.

And it can also be something that can lower obesity rates.

With that in mind, the city of Baltimore public school system became the first district in the U.S. to adopt Meat Free Monday. On October 5, 2009 the school cafeteria workers began prepping their first vegetarian fare.

This is really such a wise thing for the school district to do, especially in the face of the rising tide of childhood obesity, and obesity in general, in the U.S.

But the Empire was immediately ready to strike back at the news.

A spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute, Janet Riley, recently went on CNN and warned that students aren’t getting enough protein.

And the Animal Agriculture Alliance urged people “shocked” by the once-weekly absence of meat on school menus to write schools chief Andrés Alonso “to ensure this effort does not spread.”

“I am not suggesting that every child be forced to eat meat every day,” Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute said on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight. “What I am suggesting is that children and parents should have the ability to choose what they want to eat.”

Riley also voiced concerns that children will not get enough protein. Will someone please tell her that there are lots of other sources of protein besides meat?

And, get this, Riley also didn’t like the idea of  the indoctrination that will occur: she’s concerned that it’s not the place for a school to tell children how to eat.

Riley said that by taking meat completely off of the menu one day a week, the school district was denying students the freedom of choice.  “I am not suggesting that every child be forced to eat meat every day,” said Riley.  “What I am suggesting is that children and parents should have the ability to choose what they want to eat.”

During the segment on CNN, host Lou Dobbs commented, “That’s a real political storm in the making, isn’t it?”

You can watch the CNN segment in the video at the top of this page.

Now, you may consider it a coincidence, but it wasn’t much longer after this segment aired that Dobbs announced his resignation from his show, effective immediately.

To me, it’s no coincidence. It’s obvious Lou Dobbs is quitting in order to get to the bottom of this conspiracy and find out who’s behind this treacherous plot that’s forcing our kids to not eat meat.