Friday, March 5, 2010

Mothers Aren't Always Right

As a follow up to the piece below on Whole Foods, this is a quote from a lengthy (and typically excellent) New Yorker article on John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, dated January 4, 2010:
Mackey says that he was not as close to his mother, who died in 1987. “The last thing she asked me, she said, ‘John, promise me you’ll go back to school and get a college degree.’ I said, ‘Mom, I’m not going back to school. I’m doing Whole Foods.’ She said, ‘I wish you’d just give up that stupid health-food store. Your father and I gave you a fine mind, and you’re wasting it being a grocer.’ ”
In Dutch, "kruidenier" means "grocer." No offense taken, Mrs. Mackey.

Sea Change at Whole Foods

Most people fortunate enough to have a Whole Foods store in their community love the stores. For some inexplicable reason, Charlotte, NC, the banking capital of the south and North Carolina's largest city, doesn't have a Whole Foods Market. But I visit Wholefoods whenever I'm near one, especially to eat at their "food bars"—which are being radically transformed. They've always been delicious, but now they're becoming healthy. That fact illustrates the sea change that's taking place at Whole Foods.

The founder/CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, was the keynote speaker at the February 19-21 Advanced Study Weekend hosted regularly by Dr. John McDougall at his clinic and health center in California. I was interested in finding out what he had to say since he is not known for showing up at plant-based health conferences. So I listened to an audio of his presentation and was amazed at what's happening at Wholefoods in terms of health. And all this has happened in the last two months.

John Mackey has had a reputation in corporate America as a tree-hugging, granola-eating vegetarian; a little goofy; a hangover from the early '70's. But he's also incredibly smart, having built Whole Foods into a darling of Wall Street and an $8+ billion corporation. But Wholefoods is switching gears. Instead of their original vision—offering the highest quality organic foods available—their vision is now to add "healthiest" to that vision statement. Indeed, John Mackey has switched to a vegan diet and lifestyle after many years of being a vegetarian. (He kept his own flock of chickens at his home as a source of organic eggs.)

Instead of being a "seller" only, Whole Foods has taken up the mantle of becoming an "educator." This is a new core value that they have added to their corporate core values: "Promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education." Here's what John Mackey said in his keynote address:
It's not enough just to sell high quality food. We have to educate people. We have to teach them how to eat better, because people don't know.
Beginning in February, Whole Foods has started rolling out a series of new initiatives in all their stores. For example, they are going to provide ANDI scores on all the whole foods in the store—literal stickers so shoppers can see immediately the nutrient rank of foods they are considering purchasing. Aggregate Nutrient Density Index scores, originated by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, rank foods based on their nutrient density per calorie (a chart I keep on my refrigerator door). At the top of the list are kale, collards, mustard greens, and watercress with ANDI scores of 1000; at the bottom is cola with an ANDI score of .6. These ANDI scores are designed to show shoppers which foods are best. Mackey said that in the first month of using the ANDI scores, produce (fruit/veggie) sales increased by double digits and dark greens increased by 25%.

I took voluminous notes from Mackey's talk on other initiatives they are rolling out, and most importantly, his own personal convictions about making Whole Foods a leader in restoring the health of America. (They are already an innovator in health insurance for their 55,000 employees. Wholefoods self-insures at a cost of $150 million per year. Mackey came under great criticism last year for speaking out about the Obama healthcare plan and recommending the self-insure plan that Whole Foods uses. Why was he criticized? For taking on the responsibility of healthcare for his company instead of depending on the government's solution.)

If you shop at Whole Foods you should go here on their website to read about more of their plans to make Whole Foods shoppers knowledgeable and promote the healthfulness of their own employees. (They are doing a LOT, much more than I can describe here.) Here are the "Healthy Eating Principles" that Wholefoods now advocates: (note the "If" in front of the sentence about animal products, and the de-emphasis on oils, a direct result of Mackey having joined the fraternity of leading plant-based doctors: McDougall, Esselstyn, Barnard, Fuhrman, and others)

HEALTHY EATING PRINCIPLES

Plant based

  • No matter what type of diet you follow — including those that incorporate dairy, meat and/or seafood — eat more plants, like raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, legumes and beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains
  • Eat a colorful variety of plants to ensure you're getting the best nutrients for your body, which leads to feeling satiated

Whole foods

  • Choose foods that are real, fresh, natural, organic, local, seasonal and unprocessed
  • Eliminate the consumption of refined, highly processed foods and foods void of nutrients, such as artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, sweeteners and hydrogenated fats

Low fat

  • Get your healthy fats from plant sources, such as nuts and avocados
  • Minimize extracted oils and processed fats
  • If eating a diet that includes animal products, choose leaner meats and seafood as well as low-fat dairy products

Nutrient dense

  • Choose foods that are rich in nutrients when compared to their total caloric content; also known as foods with a high nutrient density
  • Build your menus around plant-based foods to ensure highly nutrient-dense meals
  • Choose foods with a wide spectrum of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants
  • Look for the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) links to another site scoring system to guide you on healthier choices
I was impressed by how honest Mackey was in his talk about the number of unhealthy products that are sold in his stores ("organic potato chips," "olive oil," etc). Rather than jerking those items off the shelf immediately, his goal is to educate Whole Food shoppers so they begin voting with their dollars on what they want the stores to carry, resulting in a gradual attrition of unhealthy products. Remember: This initiative is less than two months old, so it will take time.

Many people view stores like Wholefoods—and especially Whole Foods—as the "healthiest" place to shop and eat. But Mackey's newfound status as a seller of healthy food instead of "organic" food irrespective of its final form (processed, packaged organic foods) represents a major sea change.

In response to a stockholder's question after the talk about how these new healthy initiatives might impact the bottom line, Mackey said (paraphrase), "We've never made profits our highest goal. We're clearly stating our new vision for Whole Foods. We believe it's the right thing to do regardless of whether it's the most profitable." Mackey is an enigma in some ways and has provided more than one reason for criticism. But I like this new emphasis on health in his stores.

How the World Works

This old SNL segment is hilarious. It shows how Wall Street works and how gullible most of us (including me, I'm sure) are:

How Many Voices Does It Take?

I learned this morning about another new documentary film due to be released this coming summer: Forks Over Knives. The unclear title notwithstanding, this promises to be one of the best of the recent spate of documentaries dealing with America's health crisis from a plant-based (vegan) perspective, for one simple reason: It chronicles the life and work of two of the pillars of this movement, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr. T. Colin Campbell.

I've mentioned both these men frequently in this blog. I like them because they are "elders"—white-haired scholars who have spent their lives in the pursuit of health, and independently came to the same conclusion: The modern, chronic diseases that are taking lives and bankrupting America can be easily prevented by people eating a whole-food, plant-based diet. In other words, by being vegan. Esselstyn spent his medical career at The Cleveland Clinic and Campbell is an emeritus professor at Cornell University and head of the famed China Study, the longest and largest study in history on the relationship between diet and health.

I have never felt more sorry for anyone than I did for the four puppet/pawn physicians, in their white lab coats, who stood behind president Obama this week on a stage at the White House in support of the president's up-or-down mandate to the Congress on healthcare. I don't know who these doctors are, but they looked like people who would sell their soul for 15 minutes of fame—being invited to the White House! Being photographed with the President! Appearing on national TV! I wonder if people like this have no shame. Government, nor doctors, never cured anyone of anything. The arrogance displayed at the levels of government and the AMA, believing that money and policy are the keys to health, is just stunning.

Contrast the doctors on the stage at the White House with men like Esselstyn and Cambell, whose science and evidence points to the body's natural healing abilities if we only give the body the nutrients it needs and stop feeding it things that promote disease. Their solution is humble, affordable, and simple. One wonders how many voices it takes for this message to be embraced.

I also admire both these men because they are not afraid to take our government and medical institutions to task—pointing fingers clearly at those who place a greater priority on "maintaining the status quo" than they do on human health. (Dr. Esselstyn likes to point out that the famed Cleveland Clinic (where he practices) has, or at least had—I don't know if it's still there—a MacDonald's in the clinic's lobby to serve patrons!) Government and "the AMA" are so in bed with industries that promote ill-health and disease (meat, dairy, agribusiness, conventional farming, Big Pharma) that their hands are tied. To call them out would be to cut off the hands that feed them. There simply is no integrity in the systems that prolong the status quo. On the other hand, both Dr. Esselstyn and Campbell immediately jettisoned their animal-farming heritage and animal-based diets when their professional studies confronted them with evidence to the contrary. That's integrity—willingness to say "I was wrong and I'm going to change."

At this point, I can't say Forks Over Knives is going to be great since I've only seen the trailer. But if it accurately portrays the work of Esselstyn and Campbell (and others), it will be great—indeed, revolutionary.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Killer Whales That Kill Are No Surprise

Good article on the killer whale that killed a trainer last week at SeaWorld—the perspective of Ric Barry, a marine-life specialist with Earth Island Institute. Long story short, we shouldn't be surprised at what the killer whale did.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

What to Do When You Have a Cold

I don't get colds often, but felt one coming on last Thursday. It hasn't been terrible, but produced enough sneezing and coughing to cause me to miss a men's prayer breakfast Saturday morning, church this morning, and my granddaughters' dance recital (which included veteran dancer Jennifer and son Daniel's stage debut as Mr. and Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan) this afternoon. So I caught up on the ironing:

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Fortunately, the gold metal ice hockey match between Canada and the U.S.A. was on. Our guys lost a nail-biter in overtime. I'm not a great ice hockey fan (though Miracle remains my all-time favorite movie), but had to watch this one. U.S.A. had already beaten Canada in the previous rounds, but lost to them this afternoon:


Ah, freshly ironed shirts and pants:

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Who doesn't love the warp and woof of Oxford cloth? Probably a lot of younger people. This kind of cloth, and shirts made from them, is worn today, of course, but mostly in suit-and-tie settings. But when I was college-aged, these kinds of shirts were de rigueur for any male college student worth his sartorial salt. Fraternity house closets were full of brands like Gant and Eagle, and dry cleaners did a brisk business in starching and pressing Oxford cloth so shirts would almost stand up on their own. But that was another day. I rarely wear these shirts today (or the suits and ties that befit them), but there is a certain pleasure in handling them and pressing them—one of the few opportunities in life to quickly transform something that is a mess into something orderly and useful. Freshly washed and ironed, and lightly starched, shirts make me think of Paul's words about the being-prepared church of Jesus: "without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish" (Eph 5.27).

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Probably this guy, for one—taken from my upstairs office window. Although he did have on a blue cap and coat. He looks a little put out that the U.S.A. lost:

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Oh—the other thing you do when you have a cold and can't go anywhere is post completely irrelevant stuff on your blog.