One of the main themes of these columns boils down to the notion that healthcare is not medicine and that this is the major mistake that needs fixing. I am basically a student of T. Colin Campbell and his Whole Foods Plant-Based nutrition, available also as a certificate course through the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritionstudies. His work was foundational to the modern plant-based nutrition movement, and it pays to go back to the source. One of his tenets is that he believes we could cut medical costs by 70-80% if we all adopted a Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet. He coined that term specifically to distinguish it from veganism or vegetarianism, which are not about nutrition but about ethics. Veganism is secular ethics, as in animal welfare and environmental concerns. Vegetarianism is predominantly a matter of religious ethics in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and some Christian and Jewish sects. Whole Foods, Plant-Based nutrition is about nutrition. After he found the basic evidence that plant-based proteins are healthier than animal-based proteins, Campbell focused the rest of his life on researching and formulating a concept of nutrition that was simple and understandable in the end. His conclusion is what matters here – nutrition is the key factor in health, and being healthy is simply more enjoyable and more economical than fighting disease.

To recap quickly, the principles are easy: 80% of calories should come from complex carbs (i.e., un-refined grains like brown rice, whole wheat flour, or potatoes); 10% of calorie intake should come from naturally occurring oils and fats, such as what is contained in beans, etc. and the final 10% of calories should come from plant-based proteins. Do not use added Sugar, Oil, or Salt. Eat the colors of the rainbow. One of his students, an engineer, made it even easier and devised the four-leaf survey, which is a self-inventory to help you track your progress by scoring your actual eating habits on a daily or monthly basis. The top rating is four leaves, but if you score less, it will tell you what you are having too much or too little of. It is really Occam’s razor. And this is actual nutrition, not a diet. Diets are standard nutrition minus this or that, but Whole Foods, Plant-Based, is actually nutrition. If you combine it with the precepts of Lifestyle Medicine, you include sleep hygiene, exercise, prayer and meditation, relaxation, and healthy relationships. Suppose you can live by those simple principles. In that case, it is not too hard to see that. Indeed, health is 80% just healthy habits, and only in exceptional cases, accidents, etc., should medical interventions be necessary. The attitude and orientation of doctors have to change. If you want to make this change, get a doctor who understands.

The imponderable is where the motivation comes from, and nobody can give you that. Our egos are conflictuous mechanisms and ultimately self-destructive, and yet, within all of us, there is some kernel of truth, of knowing that this is not all there is. Somehow, there is a deeper connection, which we can lose sight of very easily, and yet we know it will bring us home. One of the powerful images is the thread of Ariadne, which the hero, Theseus, follows to find his way out of the labyrinth of the Minotaur. It is that inner sense of a small thread woven into our lives, sometimes easy to lose, yet we can always pick it up again, and it will bring us home. When we are young, many of us are reckless and behave as if we were indestructible, but later in life, we may start to want to get the conflict out of our lives, and that includes self-destructive behaviors. Nobody said it would be easy, but the concept is simple.

This is what I love about the concept of Whole Foods: Plant-Based nutrition; it is simple. To me, it is like Occam’s razor for nutrition, like the KISS principle, and it is known to be the most anti-inflammatory diet on the planet, bar none. So you end up feeling better, and once you establish a healthy baseline, you also become more aware when you go off-kilter. And in the end, it does not feel so good. Beer and chips are vegan or vegetarian, but they are not healthy, and they definitely do not meet Whole Foods’ plant-based criteria. If you indulge, you feel it. We saw that in one of my recent articles about the nurse practitioner who found out her entire cardiometabolic system was slipping even after a 10-day cruise vacation. Conversely, I have seen numerous stories of people doing full-immersion whole foods, plant-based lifestyle, and on day three, someone’s angina will be over; by day seven, another says the gout is resolved, and within three weeks or even ten days, various medications such as for diabetes, hypertension, or cholesterol, need to be reduced.

A pill for every illness seemed easy only when you started the first one; pretty soon, polypharmacy becomes your problem, as we see it all too often with seniors. Doctors are not educated to teach people how to live healthily, so you have to take control of yourself. These days, if you follow various social media, etc., you will find any number of well-meaning doctors who are trying to show that it is possible to practice medicine the old-fashioned way, to respect patients’ rights, to provide informed consent, and so on. As per usual, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but the point is that the very concept of allopathic medicine is exactly to tempt us into buying into the pills and procedures that fix the symptoms without having to take the trouble to address the problem. God forbid, to make a lifestyle change.

People complain that it is hard to make the change, but only until you do. These days, there are so many support groups. I taught a cooking class at a local church in the years before COVID-19, and now it turns out that I had a small fan club from that, and we are restarting the class, as well as whole foods and plant-based dinners at a local restaurant. The group of people seems to be growing, so we shall see. There seems to be an interest in the community. The previous pastor of the church also very visibly solved a number of health issues by getting on this type of nutrition, so that was an encouragement. He lost 120 lbs in his first year and drastically reduced his medications. So that was a very visible improvement.

As to the matter of our inner conflict and why we so often fail with our good intentions, it helps to get in touch with the ego dynamics that are very self-destructive. We all have a natural tendency to blame anything but ourselves, but if we do blame ourselves, we can get even more destructive, and what matters is to move past all that and get to the roots of the resistance. One tool that could help some people was a seminar at the Foundation for A Course in Miracles titled Overeating: A Dialog.

Is there more? Yes, there is always more, and one thing that has been getting traction lately is the work of Dr. Jack Kruse on blue light and EMF. It is very likely that if Trump wins, RFK Jr will start having a significant influence on these issues, and he is very aware of the work of Dr. Jack Kruse. Make sure you keep him on your radar. Here is an interview with him. It is very worthwhile. Some of the solutions may be easier than others. I am involved with a company that makes daylight-quality light, Pure-Light. You can use this for background lighting in most areas. The light is red than natural sunlight, and it has hardly any blue light. I think there will be a lot of action on this front, for it is one of these neglected areas where we simply did not pay attention as a society.

A lot seems to be hanging in the balance, and we could only wish that the country made the right choice. Trump is showing himself to be very statesman-like, and recently, even Bill Ackman has been paying attention. With the crack team he is bringing with him this time, Trump is making the election about the issues and uniting with a very diverse group who are prepared to set differences aside in service to the country. Democrats seem clueless; they don’t seem to have any issues or solutions to offer and resort to ad hominem attacks. Trump can be crude, but he is in your face. So what, Kamala is not like Trump? I could have told you that, but is that a reason for electing a president?