The Difference Between Ellen and Oprah

Not being a big fan of either Ellen Degeneres or Oprah Winfrey, I still watched both their shows this week (Ellen on Wednesday, Oprah on Thursday) because both were partially (Ellen) or totally (Oprah) devoted to current food issues. I noted in a Wednesday post how Ellen, a vegan, featured Jonathan Safran Foer and discussed his book, Eating Animals.

Not to be outdone (is this coincidence, or do these daytime divas keep up with each others' productions schedules?), Oprah devoted her entire Thursday show to "food." Her guests were Michael Pollan (omnivore), Alicia Silverstone (vegan), and Steve Ells (omnivore), founder of the 900-location Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant chain.

Pollan took his predictable position atop the political fence by continuing to promote an omnivorous diet (he knows better), along with Ells (not surprising—though he is noted for refusing to buy animal products from factory farms, which is good for the animals right up until their throats are cut, as one observer has noted). Silverstone was funny, winsome, and focused without being preachy—I was impressed with her. (I haven't read her new book, The Kind Diet).

What amazed me the most was Oprah's continuing role of not taking a stand. She dramatized her ongoing fear of the meat industry by refusing to comment on eating meat—a reference to the high-profile suit brought against her several years ago by the cattle industry for saying on her show she would never eat another burger in light of the fear of Mad Cow Disease (in a conversation with guest Howard Lyman), a suit which she won, by the way. She has received the best information on diet and health available through a variety of vegan guests, and even went on a 21-day vegan cleansing regimen vis-a-vis Kathy Freston, but still won't commit to a diet that is best for her, for animals, and the planet. It sort of calls into question her commitment to "live your best life now."

I understand her role as "all things to all people," but that doesn't mean not taking a stand and choosing what is best instead of being afraid to offend. When the apostle Paul declared his desire to "be all things to all people" it was in order "that he might save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). By contrast, Alicia Silverstone was a good example of a person with a focused, unwavering position who was able to present it in a way that respected others' views without compromising her own.

In this week's face-off, I give the nod to Ellen for her willingness to use her show to encourage her vegan point of view instead of presenting a buffet of views to the audience and telling them to make up their own mind, à la Oprah.

View from My Desk

My neighbor's large (pin?) oak tree—about 50 feet from my desk—is an on-ramp to the hardwoods canopy where the neighborhood squirrels spend their day in frantic activity. This morning, this little guy stopped for a moment's repose, long enough for me to catch him displaying a contemplative look: "What will I do today? Gather acorns or gather acorns?" My desk faces the window and I get to enjoy the wildlife all day with a simple tilt of my eyes from the computer screen to the natural screen framed by my windows. Nice.

New Kathy Freston Interview

In the past I've posted the links to the series of excellent interviews author Kathy Freston is conducting with leading plant-based M.D.'s. (You can find the previous links by using the "Search" function on this blog.)

She posted her latest interview today, this time with Dr. Dean Ornish, one of the earliest and most-well known pioneers in applying (plant-based) dietary protocols to cardiac disease. But in this interview he and Freston discuss weight loss. Freston blogs at HuffingtonPost.com, and you can read this interview here.

Vegan Ellen

Ellen Degeneres has become quite the vegan activist since changing her diet two years ago. She's had vegan chefs on the show and today had novelist Jonathan Safran Foer on for the second time to talk about his New York Times bestseller, Eating Animals. Degeneres changed her diet as a result of reading Foer's book as have (apparently) quite a few people. Nice going, Ellen!

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Dr. T. Colin Campbell, emeritus professor of bio-nutrition at Cornell University and author of The China Study, has probably done more to establish the scientific credibility of plant-based nutrition than anyone. I was listening to a lecture by him today and he made an amazing point about how the body miraculously (my word) knows how to process the hundreds of thousands or millions of chemicals (he said we have no idea how many chemicals there are in whole foods) that it receives from whole plant foods in just one meal. And why synthetic "nutritional" supplements can never be a substitute for whole plant foods.

Say we take in just one chemical in a bite of food. When it reaches the stomach the body knows which enzymes to act on it to transform it into what the body needs. Then the body knows whether or not to allow that chemical to be absorbed through the stomach's lining into the bloodstream. If it is absorbed, the body knows which cells need or don't need that particular chemical. Within the cell, the body knows how to transform that chemical into what the cell needs.

But then, consider taking in two chemicals in a bite of food. The body then has to take into consideration the impact of those two chemicals on each other as an additional variable before making all the "assignments" I just mentioned. But then consider that there are tens, or hundreds of thousands, of chemicals in whole foods that are going into the body at a meal. I don't know how to do the math that would extrapolate the impact of all those chemicals on each other, plus the body then knowing how to account for those reactions before starting the operational assignments—but it must represent an amazingly complex number of "decisions."

Every micro-second of every day, Dr. Campbell said, the body is making these choices, decisions, and assignments on how to use the countless chemicals that it needs or doesn't need at any given point of time. The idea that scientists could possibly duplicate these chemical processes in a lab and create supplements to duplicate them is beyond reason, especially when we have no idea about the actual number and function of the myriad undiscovered phytonutrients contained in whole foods.

As a scientist, Dr. Campbell sees the body's ability as a result of evolution (I know nothing of his spiritual orientation). For me, what he described calls to mind the "fearfully and wonderfully made" phrase from Psalm 139:14.

Aristotle on Vocation

I can't document it, but this quote attributed to Aristotle makes a lot of sense regarding vocation:

Where your passions intersect with the needs of the public,

therein lies your vocation.

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) 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:

Straight Talk - Stock Market
by senatork

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.

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.

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:

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:

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).

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:

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

A Movie Called "The Witness"

Eddie Lama is a hip, charismatic, street-smart Brooklynite who owns a small construction company. He admits that he reached adulthood without any "animal consciousness"—he had never had pets and just considered animals to be dirty, troublesome, and a world apart from him. Until a kitten changed his life.

The Witness is an award-winning 2009 documentary ("Winner/Best" awards at 10 different film festivals) about the transformation of Eddie Lama. The last guy in the world you would think would develop a heart for animals did—especially animals raised for the fur trade. He devised a unique way to take his message to the streets of Brooklyn, showing film footage of animal abuse to NYC passersby—with amazing results.

This is a powerful and well-made documentary. Lama is honest, transparent, and funny—the kind of guy everybody would love to have as a friend. It's powerful for two reasons: First, it shows the impact any one person can have in trying to fix a broken part of our culture, and second, it dramatically illustrates how unaware the average person on the street is concerning the abuse of animals. When passersby in NYC stop out of curiosity to watch the video Lama is showing, the looks on their faces speak volumes—they had no idea something so barbaric happens every day in America.

I was especially touched by his telling of his awakening to the fact that animals are "beings." In simple, touching, but articulate terms he recounts his discovery of the disconnect between eating some animals and not eating others. We eat chickens but not kittens, and this made no sense to him—so he stopped. Other than the weak defense of "wild" versus "domestic" (all animals were once "wild," so there's nothing natural about domestication), I've never come across a good explanation of who decides which animals are acceptable as food and which aren't. Eddie and I came to the same conclusion, I guess, and both stopped eating them. For a street-smart Brooklyn guy, he has a tender spirit, and I've never heard a better story of how anyone has yielded him or herself to what is obvious and logical without creating cultural or disconnected defenses to preserve the status quo.

I hope you'll take time to watch this movie—it's available in its entirety online here. (Word of caution: The movie is streamed from Vimeo which, imho, always produces very unsatisfactory results. However, if you do this, the movie will play fine: Click on "Play," then click the "Pause" button until the entire movie downloads. Then come back and watch the movie and it plays fine. Maybe it's just me, but Vimeo video streams are always very "jerky" if you try to watch them while they're downloading. So wait 'til the movie downloads completely before watching it and you should be fine.)

(The image above is used without permission from the web site of Tribe of Heart, the production company that produced the film.)

Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution

The movie Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution is a documentary about a small French village's efforts to preserve the health of its citizens by switching to organic methods of viti- and agriculture:

Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home

Following is the trailer for a new documentary, Peaceable Kingdom—The Journey Home, the story of a number of farmers who transitioned out of traditional farming environments to a more compassionate view of animals, farming, and themselves:

Return to Eden

Sent to me by a friend—shades of Eden:

Exposing (and Avoiding) Deeds of Darkness

Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness;

instead, expose them.

(Ephesians 5:11, NLT)

There is such a thing as visual pornography, colloquially illustrated by man's inability to turn away and not look at a train wreck. Some people will object to the video I'm posting here for that reason. But higher concerns make it justifiable.

First, it is not that visually offensive. Rather, the offense is in the practice it illustrates—the cruel practices, standard in the industry, associated with producing baby chicks for the factory farms that house hens for egg-laying purposes. I dare say the VAST majority of Americans have no idea that their breakfast eggs (unless produced under non-factory-farm conditions) have such a sordid heritage. It is a heritage that the owners of these chick-producing companies, along with all factory farms, want to keep in the dark. It's why they don't allow cameras or reporters inside their facilities; why films such as this one have to be shot under cover. One would think that, if they were proud of what they did, factory farm companies would welcome public exposure.

The fact that 150,000 male chicks are destroyed each day at the Hy-Line Hatchery chick factory in Iowa, and how they are destroyed, is a deed or darkness that needs to be exposed.

Connecting personal responsibility to the deeds of others is a difficult issue. That is, if you are a consumer of meat or dairy products—eggs, in this case—what responsibility do you have not to support industries that are based on cruelty? The same question can be asked concerning the taxes we pay to our government when parts of those taxes are used to fund practices that violate one's conscious and personal ethics, e.g., abortion or war. Or when investors place money into a mutual fund, and their money is invested by the fund managers in "sin industries"—companies that promote ill health (e.g., the tobacco industry), moral decline (e.g., certain parts of the gaming and entertainment industries), or human rights abuse (e.g., companies located in nations that allow child labor or do not protect basic human rights).

Two considerations are obvious:

1. Degrees of choice. To use examples at opposite ends of the spectrum: On one end, we are required, under penalty of law, to pay taxes to a government that may violate our personal standards in the way it uses our taxes. On the other end, we are not required to eat food that is produced in inhumane ways. So the degree of volunteerism (or obligation, or choice) is different in each situation and must be considered when weighing our response.

2. Degrees of separation. There are varying degrees of separation between an individual and inhumane or unethical practices in different situations. If I pay a farmer, face to face, for animal products he has raised inhumanely, my complicity in his actions is clearer than if I purchase a similar product at a grocery store that has multiple levels of separation between a product's origin and my purchase of it (producers who hide or disguise their actions, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, etc.). It doesn't necessarily dilute my complicity, but it makes it harder to see. And out of sight usually means out of mind.

These two factors complicate one's response in any given situation, but we are required to do the hard work of consideration nonetheless. After viewing the following short video, I hope you'll give consideration to any part you may be playing in supporting this industry's profitability, and therefore its viability:

10 Cities for Real Estate Steals

In case you're free to move, or at least move some money, U.S. News & World Report has published a list of "10 Cities for Real Estate Steals" in this hurting housing market.

Commitments

It's often been said that there are no perfect churches—and if the one I have recently joined was before, it certainly isn't now that I am a member.

It's easy to be cynical about "church," but regardless of how man has mangled the institution it is still, at its core, something valuable and necessary: the expression of Christ's body in the world. I, along with 35 or so others, was presented last night at the Sunday evening service as a new member of Calvary Church in Charlotte. There is precious little (if anything) about church "membership" in the New Testament, but things were different in the first century. There was not the "salad bar" or "shopping mall" mentality that modern Christianity has produced with our churches on every corner. Today, when many Christians prefer to visit churches indefinitely and never make a commitment—being a consumer rather than a producer—I support the idea of asking Christians to commit themselves to serve Christ and His body in a particular church.

At Calvary, I attended, along with 84 other prospective new members, six hours of "orientation" on the church's vision and doctrinal commitments, and met with three good men (lay leaders at the church) for an interview, and then was presented as a new member to the congregation. (Fortunately, the congregation didn't get to vote. Ha ha.)

I have always believed strongly in the biblical imperatives about local church involvement and have felt adrift over the last year as I looked for a church home. Calvary is not perfect, but that's not what I was looking for. I was looking for a church where Christ is exalted and the Bible is viewed as a book from God that guides faith and practice. And Calvary (along with many others) is that kind of church.

Real Food Charlotte

My daughter, Elizabeth, and I ate lunch today at a new, small, vegetarian/vegan/raw restaurant—Real Food Charlotte. The food was GREAT! (Recommended by daughter Anna, by the way!)

We both had a vegan veggie calzone that came with a mixed greens/grains salad and shared a bowl of miso soup with noodles that came with small pitas and a dollop of the best almond butter I have ever tasted. Every time I eat food in this kind of restaurant I am blown away by the flavors. The calzone must have a dozen different raw veggies inside it and the mini-pitas had a flavor I had never tasted in a pita bread before. Really nice staff as well.

We had already started eating when I remembered to ask Lizzie to take some pictures with her phone-camera, so the plates are a bit messy. But the food was great!