56 Months A Vegan! 36 Months A Runner!! #foodismedicine #eatlikeahorse #runlikenooneswatching

Dinner

I was going to write another blog post describing where I was healthwise 5 years ago, what was happening to people around me and how I found my way to healthier habits eating better, eventually taking up running and sidestepping away from the path to Diabetes and heart disease.  Instead I'm just going to ask you something.  Are you managing your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar with pills? Is your weight under control? Is your health where you want it to be? Will it be your doctor or you who gets you healthy and keeps you there?
Go after the cause and you won't have to deal with the symptoms.
Your going to need a starting point.
Here's a new one set up by some of my friends and....  IT'S FREE!!!!
You're welcome. Sign up. Learn...   
Copy this and paste it into your search bar:

https://www.healthyhumanrevolution.com/offers/LZEz7HX7/checkout

Diabetic Polyneuropathy and the Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil Diet #FoodisMedicine

Diabetic Polyneuropathy and the Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil Diet

  Allan Kalmus, DPM

www.01Reluctantvegan.blogspot.com

Diabetic Neuropathy is described by patients as manifesting itself in a number of different ways. Some experience painful burning sensation that keeps them up at night. Others feel like their feet are freezing even though the skin feels warm to touch. There can be the feeling like an insect is crawling on you or you may get sudden sharp electrical shocks that radiate into the foot or up the leg. There may be partial or complete numbness in the toes but normal sensation in the arch and heel. The entire foot may be numb and it can extend into the lower leg as well. The patient may lose the ability to tell where their foot is in space affecting balance and gait. The joints in the foot lose the ability to signal the brain when they are under stress. This will cause the joints to degenerate resulting in collapse of the arches and even a “rocker bottom” foot structure. Skin ulcers may form and easily become infected. There can also be hypersensitivity with the patient experiencing severe pain with light touch. Even the act of putting on a sock can be almost unbearable. The skin may become very dry with changes in texture and color as the autonomic nervous system becomes involved and the ability to perspire is lost.

   

Although Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetics can both develop neuropathy, it appears to affect the Type 2 Diabetic earlier in the course of the disease. These findings are consistent with the pathology on the cellular level coming from 2 or more separate pathways. In the Type 2 Diabetic the Insulin Resistance associated with Intramyocellular lipid accumulation prevents glucose from being transported across the muscle cell membrane where it can be metabolised. The nerve cells act in much the same way as the muscle cells in that their preferred fuel is glucose. In the presence of trans fats the glucose is not able to cross the cell wall and the neurons are starving. The stress on the nerve cells causes them to send the pain signals to the brain as a sign that something is dreadfully wrong.

    

The healthy nerve cells also require adequate microcirculation to bring in Oxygen and glucose as fuel and to remove waste. The blood vessels are microscopic and will lose flow when plaques form just as in any of the larger arteries. In the Diabetic, the presence of peripheral neuropathy symptoms are an early warning sign of atherosclerotic changes that also affect the heart, brain and kidneys. It doesn’t take much plaque to clog a microscopic blood vessel.   Consider it another “Canary in the Coal Mine” much like Erectile Dysfunction being an early warning sign of Coronary Artery Disease.

The numbness can be correlated with a decrease is the number of superficial nerve fibers  in the skin on biopsy.

   Normal Nerve Fiber Density                                

Nerve Axon Swelling with loss of Fiber Density

    In my practice, once we establish that the limb has sufficient circulation to avoid amputation my patient and I will discuss both their medications and their lifestyle. Along with quitting smoking, increasing activity and medications I always discuss their diet. Without fail they will describe a diet high in animal products and low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and anything they have been told is starchy. Basically The American Diabetes Association Diet in one form or another. I have them watch the trailers for Forks Over Knives and Eating You Alive just to establish some mainstream credibility. If they see it on a computer or TV they tend to give it more credence than coming from me. I tell them that what they are doing is not working for them and that they are not going to get better without making the dietary changes that will eliminate animal fats from their diet. In my mind, if I don’t at least give them the option to learn what they are doing wrong and how they can help themselves without medication I’m doing them a huge disservice. Whether I think they are capable of making the necessary changes or not is irrelevant. All I can do is give them enough information to know that the option to get off most of their medications is out there and that there is a clear, safe and effective pathway to get where they want to go.

    Every one of my patients who have listened and made the simple dietary changes to a whole food plant based no oil diet have responded with a decrease in their Neuropathic Pain symptoms within 6 weeks. The patients with numbness notice gradual return of feeling in their feet in 6 months to a year. A subsequent skin biopsy after changing over for 6 months will show return of normal nerve fiber density. The dry skin disappears. They all lose weight, improve their blood pressure and become more active as the pain in their feet disappears. The need for medication to control their sugar in the Type 2 Diabetics is either eliminated or severely reduced. The more compliant they are the less medication they need. The Type 1 Diabetics find that they need far less daily Insulin. They all come back from their Primary Care Doctor visits stating that they were told: “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”

    If you are suffering from the symptoms of Diabetic Neuropathy there is not a pill, miracle food, shot, therapeutic modality or surgery that will give you the long term relief you want. Changing your diet and lifestyle are your best bet and won’t cost you a thing. The only dietary supplement you need is a very tiny amount of over the counter Vitamin B12. It is not essential that you buy all organic produce and you don’t have to join a gym or hire a trainer. You’ll get plenty of protein from plants the same way gorillas, buffalo, horses, cows, giraffes, elephants, deer, etc. do. There are no side effects. Anyone can do this. All you have to do is convince yourself that you want to take control and that your well being is worth it!!!

For an excellent collection of references go to:

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/curing-painful-diabetic-neuropathy/

Thanks to Bako Labs for the photomicrographs of nerve fibers.

55 Months a Vegan!! #foodismedicine #eatlikeagorilla

Its 55 months already!  Every time I pass a mirror it's a bit of a shock. I was so fat for so long the reflection of my new normal is of someone I'm still getting to know. Not quite a stranger but also not the reflection of the person ingrained in my head. Body image is a real thing. Since I was close to becoming a member of the former 300 pound club, I've made some friends who all say the same thing. Instead of highlighting the amazing improvements, our brains register our flaws. Varying amounts of excess skin, stretch marks and sundry remaining bulges capture our attention more than the vast loss of adipose tissue and the extreme health improvement. I know how much healthier I look and how much better I feel, but my brain wants to compare my flaws with airbrushed magazine images of perfect bodies. I know where I was 5 years ago and how far I have come. I'm very grateful for the guidance I've received from my friend, Joel Kahn, MD and the resulting new lease on life the changes have given me.

   My transition to a whole foods plant based diet was pretty easy. I already liked to eat unprocessed whole grains, fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, berries, seeds and nuts prior to starting. All I had to do was eat more of those things to keep me from being hungry and replace the calories from meat and dairy products. As long as my tummy felt full, there were no cravings and no feelings of hunger. Since all those things are carbohydrates which break down into glucose and glucose is the fuel on which our bodies prefer to run my energy level went up overnight! Over time I became bolder and introduced new types of plant based foods into my everyday diet. Things that I never thought I would like turned out to taste really good! The weight started to come off quickly. After 3 months I had lost 40 lbs without any exercise. I plateaued for a while and found out I was eating too many nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds are both high in oil. I didn't give them up but just cut way back on them. To get the nutrition out of them that I needed I limited myself to a palm full of walnuts, almonds or sunflower seeds as a snack. At first it was every day, then every other day and now about twice a week. Nature put nuts in hard shells and up in trees to make us have to work to eat them. Buying a 1 pound bag of them already shelled for $5.99 at the local supermarket was not the way Nature intended for us to get them. More weight starting coming off until I met resistance again at minus 60 to 80 lbs.

    

     That is when I attended my first lecture on nutrition through the Plant Based Nutrition Support Group (www.PBNSG.org).  At that time I was still using either a little olive oil or vegetable oil to brown onions, stir fry veggies and to make vinegar and oil salad dressing. I learned that oils, and I mean ALL oils are inflammatory calorie dense processed food with little nutritional value. They inflame the endothelial cells that line every artery in your body leading to plaques, peripheral vascular disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. T. Colin Campbell PhD also taught me that oils increase the risk of certain cancers. As if that weren't enough, oils also plug up the ability of insulin to move sugar out of the blood and into muscle cells where it's burned as fuel. We call that Insulin Resistance and that's Type 2 Diabetes. Learning that and giving up oils I was able to reach my goal of losing a total 100lbs. 

That was around Memorial Day of 2016. That's when my niece invited me to run a 5K race with her Labor Day.  Of course I said no. I'd never run that far ever and had no intention of changing that. But my niece was persistent and informed me that I would get a free t-shirt along with a shiny finisher's medal if I did it. I guess dangling something shiny in front of me is all it took. I signed up and started running just a little, slowly around my neighborhood. In 3 days I was up to 1 mile.

Adding a little at a time I got the distance up to 3.1 miles within 6 weeks training 2 or 3 runs per week . Race day came. My wife and daughters came to cheer for our niece, our son-in-law who decided to join us and me. It was a brisk, clear morning with no significant wind. The race started and my niece set the pace for me. She was so nice and stayed at my side slowing herself as I strained to keep going. It was such a thrill to cross a finish line for the first time in my life that I did a little Grapevine dance as steam rose off my shoulders. As we were eating our free bananas and drinking our water the race results were posted.  Out of the 28 people in the 60 - 65 age group I came in 3rd! Bronze medal winner right here!!!

 With the running I managed to lose an additional 10lbs over that summer.

     I became a grandfather almost 3 years ago. The first thing I said to my new grandson was: "Get used to this face because its going to be around for a long, long time!" He is an excellent motivator. All he had to do was be born and I immediately wanted to live long enough to watch him grow up. Prior to going plant based I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea and was prediabetic. Since eating my way out of all those high risk categories, I have a much better chance of being around long enough to see him graduate from college and remain an active and involved part of his life. At almost 3 years old he already loves to swim. I can get into the pool with him now, teach him a few strokes and not be embarrassed to be seen in my bathing suit. I hope to be the fit, happy and involved family member that I am today for many, many years into the future. Nobody knows how long they have. I know I have more years behind me than I do in front of me. You can't control all the things that may go wrong with your health but you can control what you eat. My big picture goal is to not shorten my life by eating things that subtract years from it. Plants don't do that and they give me everything I need to stay healthy.
     I was 58 years old when I finally started to pay attention to my health. I didn't wait for a health crisis to convince me to change my habits. That heart attack or stroke that may have been in my near future and could have killed me is now much less of a probability at age 63 than it was then. My family is proud of me, my friends are in disbelief and my family doctor is as confused as Hell.
Its really quite simple:
"Eat whole foods that are plants, no oil and go for a walk."
Those are things that only you can do for yourself. Do it for a month and see how you feel. Don't wait for some extrinsic motivator to come along like a heart problem that you may not survive. This is way too easy not to do. The results I have experienced are typical, expected and profound! It's easy to see the difference. Take your "before" picture today and start living that long, active, healthy "after"!

Broccoli For The Win!!!!❤ #eattolose #vegan #WFPBNO #eatlikeahorse

You have to try this! I was in a hurry last night and really had a lot of broccoli because it was on sale. In our refrigerator it was right next to a quart of Baby Bella's.

Wash and thinly slice all the mushrooms.

Put them in a microwave safe casserole dish. Break up a crown of broccoli and add it over the mushrooms. Sprinkle a teaspoon of onion flakes, 1/2 a teaspoon of lemon juice, 1/2 a tablespoon of low sodium Tamari and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar over everything. Put the lid on and microwave on Hi for 5 minutes. Flip it over on your plate and enjoy with a baked potato and sweet corn. I put the excess liquid on the potato with some dried parsley. So good!!

The meal as shown has 25 grams of protein and 4500 mg of potassium. That's half the protein and all the potassium you need for an entire day!

Both delicious and healthy!  You can't go wrong.

52 Months A Vegan!! Losing Weight Permanently. The Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil Mindset

 I just had another article published!  Thanks  to the Plant Based Nutrition Support Group for including me.
Here's my article and a link to the website at the end....

  "Mindfulness" is the buzzword of the month. In this case it means pay attention to what you eat and how it will affect you in the future. If you are like me, you've tried any number of diet plans and failed miserably on all of them. When I was finally ready to let go of what wasn't working and embrace a lifestyle change, everything came together. I was already 58 year old and 110 lbs overweight. Diets of moderation or deprivation just don't have the consistent long term desired benefits. Unlearning to depend on animal products and processed oils only required me to change my mind on the basics of healthy nutrition. I rejected the anecdotal advice, the flashy TV ads, fad diets and plans of moderation. Instead I learned to pay attention to the mountain upon mountain of science based, peer reviewed literature that all pointed in the same direction. Simply remove all the food and food-like products that came from anything that ever had a face and a mother and the rest takes care of itself.

  Skip forward 2 years, to age 60 and the

110 lbs was gone. Skip again 2 more years to age 62 and it's still gone!  For anyone who is on the Standard American Diet and suffering the consequences the entire PBNSG.org team is ready and willing to guide you on your transition journey. Whether you are just a little overweight, morbidly obese, Diabetic, Hypertensive, coping with heart disease, worried about high cholesterol or having a concussion or a number of other chronic illnesses affecting you, they can all be treated and avoided with a Plant Based Whole Foods No Oil diet and a good helmet.

     Where you are in your personal journey is not important. What is important is that you take ownership of the process and understand that this is YOUR journey. Your personal Doctor may be the nicest person ever to draw breath, but if yours is like mine, the likelihood is that your problem will be met with a prescription and  the statement: "You know what to do. Eat less and get more exercise." On to the next patient.

     We all know that already, but two thirds of the time, it doesn't work. We need only go to the mall or anywhere people gather to see the epidemic of obesity and its related illnesses.  Medical professionals are taught how to treat chronic illness but get very little if any training in proper nutrition as a means of preventing and reversing it. It isn't being taught to the doctors so we know it isn't being taught to the patients. We just go about our business eating all the low fiber, high fat, sugary, salty foods that we've addicted ourselves to and expect the doctors to make us better when that chest pain starts, that blood sugar gets out of control or those hip and knee joints need replacing due to all that extra weight they have been subjected to over the years. 

     These medical problems are not your Doctor's problem. He or she has no skin in the game. These issues are associated with your body and they are your problem. Taking a pill or having a procedure done to treat a symptom is not going to address the causation. When diesel fuel damages your gasoline engine you would recognize your mistake and stop using the wrong fuel. You would never say that you will only use the diesel fuel in moderation. The food that you are eating is causing the obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Switch to the proper fuel, the problem goes away and you can stop trying to manage it. Learn from your past mistakes that brought you to this point. Make the changes that will shape your future. 

     The ironic thing is that you will be eating more food more often than you are used to and losing weight. There is never a reason to feel hungry. Foods that are nutritionally dense, high in fiber and contain no animal fat will help keep you feeling full. You get all the nutrition that you need without the excessive calories associated with fats and oils. 

     Exercise is good for you, but it is not an essential part of getting that weight down. If you want to go for a walk, run, bicycle, swim or go to a gym, that's great. Your heart is a muscle and will benefit from the exercise. But what you really have to focus on is what you eat. When the weight starts coming off it becomes much easier to get some exercise. Think of it as a wonderful side effect. You will weigh less, have more energy and feel good about yourself in less than a month! There are no doctors, surgical procedures or medications anywhere that will do this for you. Stick with it and reap the rewards. You earned them!

https://www.pbnsg.org/weight-management/
     

     

Vegan Simple G-Bombs Dinner! Gotta eat. Make it healthy! #foodismedicine #EatToLive #FullOfBeans

Simple Dinner:  Great Northern Beans with Garlic Sauce on a Whole Wheat Pita, Mixed Salad and Sweet Corn

     It occured to me that I'm making really great dinners but they are complicated with things like fresh jackfruit. Who the heck, outside of Southeast Asia and South America, every heard of that? It's not available everywhere and preparing it is very time consuming. I hate to think I'm losing your interest so let's get back to whole foods that are readily available. Everything on my plate tonight is from Kroger.

     Sweetcorn is easy! All I did was shuck it, rinse it off, wrap it in a moist paper towel and microwave it for 3 minutes. It gets really hot and is still cooking when you take it out of the oven so let it cool for about 10 minutes. There is nothing on the corn. Not even salt. It is very sweet and tender all by itself so take advantage of it. 

   The salad is just a mixed salad. Make it with any vegetables and fruits you like. I try to get my Dr. Fuhrman G-BOMBS (Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, Seeds) at least once a day.  I also like colorful salads so there is red swiss chard, yellow sweet pepper, carrots, celery, fresh parsley, romaine lettuce, white mushrooms, chickpeas and tomatoes dressed with red wine vinegar, dried onion flakes, fresh ground pepper and 4 crushed green olives.

     That delicions brown and white blob in the back of the plate that covers a whole wheat pita is great northern white beans and Quinoa seasoned with  1 Tablespoon of onion powder,and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 Tablespoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and 1 teaspoon of salt. I rinsed 1 pound of  the beans and put them in my pressure cooker with 1 cup of dry Quinoa and all of the above seasonings and water covering 3 inches above the beans. They were cooked at the high setting for beans for 2 hours and allowed to vent on its own. 

     The white dollop in and on the beans is my favorite savory garlic topping. I use it on beans, as a dip, in my "Tuna-ish" salad or as a sandwich spread. Here's the recipe:

CREAMY GARLIC SPREAD 

2 cups cashews, soaked in water overnight then drained
4 garlic cloves

4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1  teaspoon salt

1 cup aquafaba

Put everything in your blender and puree thoroughly. Store it in a tightly closed container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

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Vegan Spare Ribs!! #Vegan #OilFree #WholeFoodPlantBased #Kosher #Pareve # Hallal #FoodIsMedicine

Jackfruit Spare Ribs, Brown and Wild Rice, Baked Potato with Catsup

 I bought a quarter of a jackfruit at Randazzo's market just for fun. The whole fruit is mammoth! The price for the quarter of the fruit (about 5 pounds) was $7.50.  That's a pretty good deal considering the only thing I didn't use was the hard pits in the fruit and that intimidating outer layer of skin on the thing! I'm the only one in my house who eats this stuff so this qualifies as my batch cooking for the week.  From the inner part of the skin, which I am going to call the "pith" because that is what the white inner skin of an orange is called, I got 10 jackfruit spare ribs, pictured on my plate above.

Jackfruit Pulled Pork

 I used the inner yellow fruit along with the shreds between the bulbs of fruit to make 6 pulled jackfruit pork sandwiches.

Jackfruit Beef Medallions

I use the hard inner stem to make jackfruit beef medallions. There were more, but I ate them before I took pictures.

The ribs weren't very hard to make at all. In fact they were a kind of a bonus since all I set out to do was make the pulled pork. I think the hardest part was finding a quartered jackfruit!

Fillet

JACKFRUIT SPARE RIB RECIPE

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Fillet the pith from the skin of the jackfruit full thickness and discard the rough outer layer.
Cut the fillets into appropriate size strips.
Boil the strips for 15 minutes covered in water with salt, onion powder, garlic powder and 4 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
Remove the strips and set aside.
To the liquid add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of yellow mustard, 1/4 teaspoon of smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper  and 1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce. If soy is ok with you as it is with me, add some low sodium soy sauce or Tamari to taste.Stir and simmer until it thickens.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay the strips side by side on the paper and brush with the sauce. Bake for 20 minutes. Take them out and let them cool a little. Turn them over, brush with sauce and bake for another 20 minutes. Brush them with sauce one more time and place under the broiler for 5 minutes or until they just start to darken. Serve hot.

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