As an internationally known surgeon, researcher and clinician at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., made the case for a plant-based as a cure to cardiac trouble, a feat he explains in his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Yes, you read right – prevent AND reverse. But you don’t have heart disease (yet), you say? Read on. In this revealing interview, Dr. Esselstyn, who will soon be talking plant-based heart health on the big screen in the groundbreaking film Forks Over Knives, speaks about the surprising young age we start to develop heart disease, how grave the situation is, and how we can completely avoid it. Read More…
We were in love with this movie after we saw a rough cut of it a few months back, and now Forks Over Knives is ready to be seen in advanced screenings all over the country. This movie is what Food Inc. was to the food industry: The first truly eye-opening and very real account of a currently dire situation, this time, pertaining to the health of Americans and how food helps or hurts our well-being. The film shows you the direct connection between food and health (or disease, depending on what you’re eating), as told through two of our favorite scientists and plant champions as well as other experts and people who have made the transition to a plant-based diet and seen their lives change for the better.
We chatted with Brian Wendel, Creator and Executive Producer of the film, and a passionate plant-based diet advocate. If we are what we eat, and we’re dying of all sorts of preventable diseases, then we need to rethink what we’re eating, and this movie has all of the facts and figures to demonstrate exactly what it takes to be optimally healthy. Forks Over Knives has partnered with Whole Foods, which is sponsoring advanced screenings of this landmark film, and we hope you take the time to see it and be entertained and informed about a crucial topic for you, your family, and the planet. Read More…
Our alkalinity article was an HLifer favorite, so we thought we’d go a step further and bring you the latest from the expert on the topic: Dr. Robert Young. The author of many research papers and several books, the most noted of which is The pH Miracle (translated into 17 languages and regarded as the bible of alkalinity), Dr. Young is a nutritional microbiologist who has performed live and dry blood analysis on thousands of individuals at his center in California, with astonishing results and revelations about what is healthy for our cells – and what is not.
In this interview, Dr. Young discusses the importance of alkalinity in the body, answers some of our readers’ questions about limes, eggs and sugar, explains why he doesn’t recommend algae, mushrooms or cooked food, gives his take on blood types, and introduces us to a new exercise style called Younga Yoga. Read More…
John Reganold has been comparing organic and conventional agricultural systems since he noticed the drastic difference between them in a soil sample 25 years ago. He is an agro-ecologist who has always been interested in how land is used, and is the lead author of a study on the sustainability and nutritional benefits of organic farming, which was published in the journal PLoS ONE yesterday.
The demand for organic food continues to increase, and as we are huge fans of the benefits of organic produce here at HLife, we were thrilled to see such definitive information on a much-debated subject. While everyone knows that conventionally grown produce has more pesticide residue that the liver then has to discard, there wasn’t conclusive data regarding nutrition – until now. This study of strawberries grown on commercial farms is among the most comprehensive of its kind: A team of interdisciplinary researchers checked indicators like soil DNA, microbe diversity, fruit taste, antioxidant activity, and even appearance. Twenty-six strawberry fields were analyzed, and side-by-side comparisons found that the organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil healthier.
HLife chatted with Professor Reganold about the groundbreaking implications of this study, among which are the relationship between organic farming and better nutrition, a longer product shelf life, and quality soil. Read More…
Restaurateur Matthew Kenney is a renowned raw food chef and author, and the creator of the first licensed raw food academy. His groundbreaking restaurant/shop/school 105degrees incorporates communal dining, an open kitchen, the “glass box” 105degrees Shop where an array of products related to the raw/living foods lifestyle can be purchased, as well as the 105degrees Academy, with classes for the layperson and the professional interested in raw food techniques to learn from an innovative team.
We Skyped with Matthew while he was in New York, where he was opening yet another restaurant, Bar Paya, concentrating on Peruvian food this time. This is not a raw foods spot, but Matthew assured us that there are vegetarian dishes on the menu, inspired by traditional foods of our South American birthplace. We chatted with him about raw food and health (including what he eats on a typical day), the Academy, and his next book, Everyday Raw Express. Read More…
This is the concluding Part Two of HLife’s interview with Will Tuttle, author of The World Peace Diet, continued from last week’s Part One.
MC: You mention that being vegan is a starting point. What do you mean by that?
WT: People think that that’s the end – you are vegan, that’s it, you made it. The only thing you can do higher than that is to go raw. I think that is not true. When someone goes vegan, that’s actually the very beginning of transformation. For example, I’ve been a vegan already for more than 20 years, and I would get into certain conflicts with Madeleine, my wife. I would not be that cold, but she wanted to turn on the heater, and I’d say, ‘Come on, it’s not that cold, we don’t need the heater.’ Then, I realized that when she would say, ‘but I’m cold,’ even though I’ve been a vegan for 20 years, the mentality of discounting the suffering of others was still there, sort of like what we do to pigs, chicken and cows. They’re in horrible conditions but we just discount their suffering, we minimize it in our own minds, ‘oh its not that bad, they are just cows.’ And we have to able to see these patterns that have been injected into us along with eating animal foods, and we have to do the difficult inner work of pulling them out of our consciousness and really treating everyone with respect. You are respecting them as a being with their own unique qualities, and I think that’s when we begin to see veganism as a path to nonviolence, and as a spiritual journey that never ends. Veganism is basically an ongoing spiritual journey that just goes to higher and higher levels, to ultimate enlightenment, eventually to ultimate wisdom, love, compassion and awakening. That’s really what it is, the actual outer behavior of not eating animal foods anymore is a wonderful leap, but its just a tiny step. We have a long way to go after that. Read More…
