Book Review

For anyone you care about on your Christmas list. This book is to physical health as The Infinite Atonement is to spiritual health. Order it for yourself, read it, and then lend it to a friend. I really can't say enough about this book. I put off reading it for a while because I had a feeling he was going to tell me milk was bad for me, and he did. I feel a little lied to by the dairy industry, honestly, telling me milk was good for my bones all these years. As to the meat industry, I've known that was a bunch of "bull" for a while.  The author himself is a vegan and advocates as little animal protein  in the diet as possible. (He's 70 years old and still able to run 6 miles a day.) Reading between the lines it sounded like you could get many of the same benefits on a flexitarian diet- or very nearly vegetarian diet- of up to about 1 oz of meat a day (think one big bite of a hamburger or one 7 oz serving/week). I'm not announcing my switch to vegetarianism thus far, but I've been drinking water with more meals and I have been scanning the horizon for more vegetarian options for my family.Meat eating opportunities come up often enough. Twenty years of good solid research have gone into these recommendations and there is convincing evidence that diet alone can reverse heart disease, prevent cancer, and cure type 2 diabetes. Diet can also slow the development of cataracts, auto-immune diseases, and memory loss. Its not just for weight loss any more folks. People say "I may die 10 years younger, but at least I'll die happy" but there is nothing happy about kidney stones, osteoporosis, nuropothies, pain and discomfort. A change in diet will not only add years to your life but life to your years and I for one want to be as useful as possible, as long as possible. Get this book, check it out from the library, read it, feel guilty. A little guilt is good once in a while if it leads to change. Good luck people, and share any stellar vegetarian ideas you have with me.

Quality not Quantity

       I have mentioned before probably that I am NOT a huge fan of calorie counting for a number of reasons. Mostly because it can be inaccurate by as much as 30% , or basically a useless guess. And even if you are closer to the mark, you are measuring it against an estimate as to how many calories your body actually burns based on semi-useful equations. You aren't listening to your bodily clues when calorie counting and you are spending a bunch of needless time and energy obsessing about something that your body is telling you how to do naturally. 
Well here is another extraordinary piece of evidence that indicates calorie counting isn't what its cracked up to be. It comes from the ground breaking book, The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Cambell II who discuss twenty years worth of data collected comparing the health and nutrition of the Chinese to other nations. This is just one of the many interesting facts included in the book.

Nutrient	China	United States
Calories/day	2641	1989
Total fat (% of calories)	14.5	34-38
Dieetary fiber (g/day)	33	12
Total protein (g/day)	64	91
Animal protein (% of calories)	.8	10-11
Total iron (mg/day)	34	18

Notice Chinese people, on average, eat 650 calories more, or in other words an entire meals worth of food, and are in much better condition as far as heart disease, obesity, cancer, and other long term health indicators. They are not fat. On the contrary, if they struggle with their health at all it is usually from the diseases of poverty not wealth i.e. pneumonia, ulcers, TB, parasites etc. The majority of their food is plant based, not animal based. There is more quantity but it is of much greater quality.  More fiber, more phytochemicals, more  antioxidants and basically more everything good and less everything bad. Take home message from the book:

Animal products in your diet cause long term disease and obesity- eat the very least amount you possibly can, if any at all. 

As a westerner myself this is a hard one to swallow since it is not uncommon for me to eat meat once a day, but facts are facts. The Lord knew what he was talking about when he said: 

"12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly. 

13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be  used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.

D&C 89:12-13

Don't just say "hummmm, interesting."