President Clinton Goes (Mostly) Vegetarian

President Clinton has yielded to the evidence of science that a plant-based diet can heal coronary heart disease. He has switched to a (mostly) plant-based diet in hopes of extending his life. Short video interview here, and more information here. In this CNN interview, Wolf Blitzer looks like Clinton is speaking a foreign language: no meat? no dairy?

If You Use a Digital Camera . . .

Found a good guy, Bert Sirkin, who runs photobert.com, a resource site for digital photographers. I learned about him through one of his most popular products: a series of digital camera/photography "cheat sheets." Your 100-plus-page camera/flash user's manual (with emphasis on Nikon and Canon) is reduced to a laminated one-sheet written in plain English with only the most pertinent info. There is a separate web site for the "PhotoBert Cheat Sheets" -- check out both sites for the sheets and loads of info and accessories (only stuff Bert has used and found helpful) for digital cameras. If you email for info, you'll get a reply from Bert himself. Good guy and good products. (And from Bert's Twitter feed today: Now thru 10/20/2010 25% discount on PhotoBert CheatSheets; 15% on accessories & software!)

Think on These Things

From Ben Stein's Facebook page:

"Fathom the odd hypocrisy that Obama wants every citizen to prove they are insured, but people don't have to prove they are citizens."

From Newt Gingrich (no attribution available):

"As an American I am not so shocked that Obama was given the Nobel Peace prize without any accomplishments to his name, but that America gave him the White House based on the same credentials."

Today: Battle of Titans -- Alabama vs. Penn State

The Kind of Guy I'd Like to Have on My Side

Newest Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta -- one of the few who lives to receive the Medal in person. Read what he did to earn the Medal here. That we might all be this selfless -- rescuing the wounded and captive in the heat of battle, whether physical or spiritual.

I Like NJ Gov. Chris Christie (So Far)

Earlier this week, NJ Gov. Chris Christie responded point-blank to a complaining teacher in a town-hall type meeting. (Watch the woman's roll-the-eyes head diss when Gov. Christie begins answering her question, and the response it brings from him. Finally, a leader who will stand up to the NEA!)

Atkins Diet INCREASES All-cause Mortality

Dr. Dean Ornish, long-time advocate of nutritional protocols for preventing heart disease, reports in the Huffington Post on a long-term study released in Harvard's Annals of Internal Medicine on the mortality rates of those following Atkins-type diets and those following plant-based diets.

85,000 women were followed for 26 years and 45,000 men for 20 years. In both groups, all-cause mortality was higher among those following an Atkins-type diet (high in animal protein, low in carbohydrates). All-cause mortality rates were lower in those eating a plant-based diet.

Ornish's concluding sentence: "To the degree that you move in a whole foods, plant-based direction, the better you're likely to feel and the healthier you're likely to become."

Read the short article here.

Q & A with Wholefoods' John Mackey

Q: You've been a meat-eater, then a vegetarian, now a vegan. What can you cut out next?

A: I've cut out all oils. I dont eat olive oil or canola oil. I've reduced the salt I consume. We don't cook with salt at home. I've cut way back on concentrated sweeteners and sugar. And I feel great. I've lost 20 pounds. My vitality is higher, my cholesterol plummeted, and my blood pressure has dropped. I'm healthier today than I was 20 years ago.

Read the entire USA Today interview with Wholefoods founder John Mackey (more about the stores than about him) here.

What the Egg Industry Means

Yesterday, the egg industry ran a full page in several major national newspapers. It was simple: an egg and text on a white background, intended to mollify the American public over the recall of half a billion eggs due to Salmonella contamination.

Marion Nestle, professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, author if many books on food politics, and widely-respected spokeswoman for organic, sustainable, and safe food and food systems, has interpreted what the egg industry's words really mean. This is terrific. If you don't think the egg industry thinks you're an idiot, you will when you read what they really said in their expensive newspaper ads. Read Nestle's brief article in The Atlantic as she translates the egg industry's words into plain English, here.

KISS in Iraq

I confess to never having been a KISS fan -- or a Gene Simmons fan. But I like this video -- a KISS USO concert for U.S. troops in Iraq. What I love the most about it is the friendly competition and camaraderie between the four service branches as they belt out their particular songs and try to outsing their comrades. I don't know who wrote the four service hymns, but every one of them gives me goose bumps. I am a HUGE sucker for ceremony and protocol and love that part of military life. And the service hymns are a huge part of the esprit de corps. Regardless of how you feel about the military and its current involvements overseas, my hat's off to those who serve -- and to KISS for honoring them:

Chow Down Movie

The latest documentary extolling the virtues of a plant-based diet is Chow Down—the story of a man who followed Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's plant-based approach to reversing his heart disease (and shorter stories of two others). You can rent/stream ($2.99) the movie, or download a digital version ($9.99) or buy a hard copy -- all from Amazon. You can read an in-depth review of the movie and the medical story behind it here.

Here's the trailer -- it would have been nice if the two speakers were identified. The first is Dr. Esselstyn, the second is Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study.

Philly's Only Vegan Coffee House

David and friend Mike Barone opened the Grindcore House -- Philadelphia's only vegan coffee house -- last Saturday night from 7:00 -10:00 with a featured art exhibit. This was a "soft" grand opening with the formal grand opening coming soon. Dave said they had a huge turnout as the night wore on. (Sister Liz was there from Connecticut.) The Grindcore House FB page generated nearly 600 "likes" in a matter of days prior to the opening. (Dave was always good at drawing a crowd.)

If you're in south Philly, stop by for a cuppa and a cookie: 1515 S. 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147.

A few pics from the opening (thanks to Matt Grosse):

And thanks to Justin Miller for this one:

Vee-gan, Las Vegas!

Steve Wynn, Las Vegas resort mogul, has introduced vegan entrees to the menus at the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas resorts. With a half-billion eggs being recalled in the United States in the last two weeks, those entrees are probably looking pretty good right now. Read the whole story here.

Breakthrough! The Christian Gene

Omega-6 vs. Omega-3 Fats

Another killer post by the Happy, Healthy, Long-life Librarian -- this time summarizing everything she's learned in recent months about the Omega-6/Omega-3 contest.

Most diet-conscious folks know that we need more Omega-3 and less Omega-6 fats, which roughly translates to "eat a plant-based diet." The 6:3 ratio needs to be as close to 1:1 as possible, but most Americans eat a diet that is about 17:1, accounting for all manner of inflammation leading to disease.

But even within the plant-based diet there are caveats. All nuts are VERY high in Omega-6 (walnuts are the lowest), and garbanzo beans are WAY high in 6 along with tahini (3,100:55 !), which makes hummus not so great. But black beans have an almost-ideal ration of 6-to-3. Therefore, black bean hummus without the tahini brings hummus back into the healthy range. And all oils (with the exception of flaxseed oil), like nuts, are higher in Omega 6 than Omega 3.

She cites the Nutrition Data website as a good place to check on the nutritional content of most foods, including Omega 6 and 3 content. (Enter a food in the search box at the upper right, then scroll down through the various nutritional charts. Omega fats are near the bottom left.)

I strongly encourage folks to subscribe to the Happy Healthy Long Life feed to get her occasional updates.

Why There Are No Jobs in America

A short, hypothetical scenario created to illustrate why starting and running a business in America is so hard thanks to being forced to have the government as a partner. This "partner" contributes little and takes a lot, making the chance of success limited. It can be done, however—the author of the piece is a young entrepreneur who started and runs a very successful financial research firm. (Today [the date of publication], this piece is posted on the home page of its host site, but will migrate to the archives quickly. I'll try to keep the link updated. If not, search for "This Is Why There Are No Jobs in America" and the author's last name, Stansberry.)

U.S. debt, for the second time in history, is about to . . .

10 Signs the U.S. Is Becoming a Third-world Country

Read 'em and weep.

"No Reasonable Person Should Believe Our Advertising"

In a Huffington Post article, "The Dark Side of Vitaminwater," best-selling author John Robbins points out the twisted logic of Coca-Cola in their defense against a lawsuit brought by a public-interest group saying that Vitaminwater has no health benefits. Here's the opening to the article:

Now here's something you wouldn't expect. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. No surprise there. But how do you think the company is defending itself?

In a staggering feat of twisted logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."

Does this mean that you'd have to be an unreasonable person to think that a product named "vitaminwater," a product that has been heavily and aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage, actually had health benefits?

Or does it mean that it's okay for a corporation to lie about its products, as long as they can then turn around and claim that no one actually believes their lies?

Why I Want to Work for the Government When I Grow Up

“. . .government employees seem to work shorter hours, have more vacation time, access unbelievable healthcare, never worry about job security and even make more money than people slugging it out in the private sector.”

Those are the words of a federal careers expert, quoted in a depressing Forbes.com article about the cushiest jobs in America: working for the government. Read it here.