Karyn Asked About My Diet

A friend asked me about my diet and actually asked for suggestions. In all the years I've been following my diet, I've never been asked for help, so I'm flattered. So as you might imagine Karyn's letter to me, while thorough, was probably not as thorough as my response;-) What follows is my response to Karyn:

Karyn, I never get asked for advice about my diet. You're the first one ever, so it pleases me.

I was thinking about the Bell curve recently. And it seems that no matter what, even though we have the best of intentions, we regress to the mean. Culture and of course our life long habits and likes have a great pull. We certainly don't need to beat ourselves up about it.

I had a steak the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Karyn, first I'd recommend 2 books you can get from the library, and they are truly mind-blowing books--The China Study and The Pleasure Trap.

I find that simplicity works best for me. Enjoy a few things and eat them over and over--like I make a killer oatmeal for breakfast--oatmeal, grape nuts, strawberries, blueberries and bananas. Bean burritos for lunch. Lots of soups.

Even though I had the steak the other day, I'm 99.9% animal free. Sometimes I question why I did this, when no else I know comes even close. My cholesterol is under 150, normal blood sugar A1c, normal CRP and blood pressure.

And it seems most who follow this path are on the Left, which makes it even more difficult, because where the Right used to be considered the reactionaries, it's now the Left who wants to stop progress. Man, it's weird.

But Ray Kurzweil says that in the next few years, we'll have the knowledge to greatly extend our lives. I believe this is true, and I want to be in the best health I can when the time comes.

The more I do this Karyn, I realize it's not only about not eating animals. Animals are one thing that is bad for our health, but I've come to realize other things are just as deleterious--such as oils, salt, breads/cookies, alcohol and of course dairy. And of course restaurants don't care about nutrition, so I'm trying to eat more and more at home.

Kayrn, two doctors I'd follow on the internet are Drs McDougall and Fuhrman. They have lots of stuff on the internet (McDougall has very good forums, and Fuhrman a good blog) they freely share and their books are in the library. They both have there own way of doing things, but if you remove the minor differences, they are both great men that I trust (not that I disregard other studies). And the people who follow them are most serious about their health, it's quite motivating.

Good luck Karyn and thanks for your kind words. And BTW, I think I really do have some good posts on my blog about nutrition. I have one on there about a 5 day fast I did while blogging about it (type in "fasting" on my blog search and it will help you find it. It's one of my best posts).