Lots of Sources for Plant-Based Eating, Compared to the Sugar-Salt-Fat Frenzy Prevailing Now

 

I knew nothing about greens and beans, nuts and fruit and seeds, until I found Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book - unread - in the Library: Eat To Live. He has several other excellent books.

I ran out of ancient history documentaries, so I tried Nutrition as an Amazon Prime option (no cost). That revealed two major speakers/writers on the topic.

Rip Esselstyn Engine #2 - The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds. He was an athlete and showed his buddies how to have much better meals.

Dr. Michael Greger -  website - https://nutritionfacts.org/ - packed with brief descriptions and videos on all the issues, easy to read, impossible to read it all. Also, two cheerful books -

1. How Not To Die
2. How Not To Age

Rip Esselstyn goes to people's homes and goes through their groceries, pointing out how gross their selections are, making a meal out of delicious and nutritious foods.

My point is that  any two of these authors will serve as great introductions in replacing the junk food we eat on a regular basis. Self-education is the best route, because we can feel the difference and weigh less in a week or less.

Some of it is obvious - 

Drop:

1. All milk products, including cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and - sob - ice cream.
2. High salt items, easily spotted on food labels - pizzas, packaged frozen meals, most loaves of bread, chips, popcorn, high-salt beans, sausage, dried meat.
3. Sugar based food - ice cream and milk, all juices (just sugar water with a pill), frozen desserts (so obvious), candy, chocolates, many prepared foods.
4. In short, Schwan's Frozen Foods, mostly sugar-salt-fat.

That does not mean dropping everything at once. For example, it takes time to eject favorites from our normal eating habits. Chopped greens are loaded with nutrition, including calcium and protein! I thought greens were just for poor people, because leafy greens are very inexpensive and tasteless. Last night my supper consisted of two pears and spinach leaves - nutrition and fiber galore. Now I can see why so many professional athletes come from poverty - they could not afford sugar-salt-fat frozen meals and treats.

Replace Sugar-Salt-Fat Opiates With:

Leafy Greens - I had to shock my body into eating greens by making a stew for lunch. The two quart pan gets half full with chopped frozen greens - spinach (my favorite), turnip greens, collards, and kale. Here is the kale list, as Greger says - "Kale beats them all." Now I mix chopped kale with one of the other three greens or maybe two. So kale is the champion and also hard to find at the biggest Walmart in Arkansas.

Healthline on kale -

"1. Highly nutritious

Kale is a popular vegetable and a member of the cabbage family.

It is a cruciferous vegetable and is closely related to cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, and Brussels sprouts.

There are many different types of kale. The leaves can be green or purple, and have either a smooth or curly shape.

The most common type of kale is called curly kale or Scots kale, which has green and curly leaves with a hard, fibrous stem.

A single cup, or 21 grams (g), of raw kale contains (1Trusted Source):

• Calories: 7
• Carbs: 1 g
• Fiber: 1 g
• Vitamin K: 68% of the Daily Value (DV)
• Vitamin C: 22% of the DV
• Manganese: 8% of the DV
• Vitamin A: 6% of the DV
• Riboflavin: 5% of the DV
• Calcium: 4% of the DV

Each serving also contains a small amount of folate, vitamin B6, potassium, magnesium, and iron.

Adding more kale to your diet is a great way to boost your intake of these key vitamins and minerals, along with other important nutrients. Kale is low in calories and contains several important nutrients, including vitamin K, vitamin C, and manganese."

Four or more fruits a day - delicious and fibery. Natural sugar is slowed down by fiber, because the Creator fashioned fruits to taste great while slowing down the digestion process. We love candy and ice cream because they provide an instant lift when we feel hungry, depressed, or too hurried to get a real meal. Fiber lets the bacteria break down and re-shape the ingredients in food. Fiber also turns off the instant eating cycle where an empty stomach releases sugar and fat effortlessly.

Nuts - walnuts and almonds reduce high cholesterol levels. Which one tastes better - a statin pill (which interferes with digestion) or nuts. I eat one or two handfuls of walnuts each day and my cholesterol went down to normal. I refused statins because I know their history. We can get sugar-salty nuts, which cost more, but ordinary nuts will provide a delicious alternative to iatrogenic disorders (meaning - caused by a doctor). I use iatrogenic with each new doctor, which is not unlike flashing my NRA card when a policeman stops me. I use stickers on the car and the house. 

Vegetables - know your medicines! My parents tried hard to make us eat the vegetables they grew on the farm, growing up. They said, "At least try one portion!" Dad would encourage us by saying, "You know what you kids are? Spoiled. SPOILED ROTTEN!" We hung our heads and waited for dessert, which my parents loved and my father manufactured at Melo Cream Donuts. I like frozen vegetables but canned will do. Note that "seasoned" frozen vegetables cost a lot more because they have added salt and some seasoning to the package, jacking up price.

The Lord of Creation fashioned all kinds of vegetables to enjoy, a giant medicine cabinet filled with a wide variety of cures, starting with the dangers of being overweight. For that we need to educate ourselves on a regular basis. The ingredients found on vitamin pill containers are much better in the food. If you doubt the value of a vegetable, Google "the nutritional value of..." and insert the vegetable or fruit or nut. Healthline offers 10 science-based benefits from Cicero Peas (chick was his name in Latin) or chickpeas.

"A 1-cup (164-gram) serving of cooked chickpeas offers (1Trusted Source):

• Calories: 269
• Protein: 14.5 grams
• Fat: 4 grams
• Carbs: 45 grams
• Fiber: 12.5 grams
• Manganese: 74% of the Daily Value (DV)
• Folate (vitamin B9): 71% of the DV
• Copper: 64% of the DV
• Iron: 26% of the DV
• Zinc: 23% of the DV
• Phosphorus: 22% of the DV
• Magnesium: 19% of the DV
• Thiamine: 16% of the DV
• Vitamin B6: 13% of the DV
• Selenium: 11% of the DV
• Potassium: 10% of the DV

As you can see, this legume is a particularly good source of the mineral manganese and the B vitamin folate."

Seeds - I began to see the value of seeds as I did nutritional searches on them. I started with ground flax seeds, very inexpensive but also anti-cancer and a lot of nutrition. Sesame seeds cost a bit more. I have added anise seeds to lunch because they have a unique flavor at a very low cost.

 Rip Esselstyn saved on buying KALE shirts rather than YALE.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Epiphany 5 Epistle - "But among Christians many are sinners, many infirm. In fact, Christians associate only with these; not with saints. Christians reject none, but bear with all. Indeed, they are as sincerely interested for sinners as they would be for themselves were they the infirm."

 

Complete Epistle Sermon for Epiphany 5 - Colossians 3:12-17. Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

5. They stand for a part of the ornament, the beautiful, charming Christian jewel, that becomes us better in the sight of God than pearls, precious stones, silk and gold become us in the eyes of the world. “A heart of compassion” is evidence of the true Christian. Paul would say: “Not simply in external deed, or in appearance, are ye to be merciful, but in the inmost heart.” He refers to that sincere and whole-souled mercy characteristic of the father and mother who witness the distress of a child for whom they would readily expose their lives or sacrifice all they possess. The Christian’s mind and heart should be constantly devoted to merciful deeds, with an ardor so intense as to make him unaware he is doing good and compassionate acts.

6. With this single phrase Paul condemns the works and arbitrary rules of hypocritical saints, whose severity will not permit them to associate with sinners. Their rigorous laws must be all-controlling. They do nothing but compel and drive. They exhibit no mercy, but perpetual reproach, censure, condemnation, blame and bluster. They can endure no imperfection. But among Christians many are sinners, many infirm. In fact, Christians associate only with these; not with saints. Christians reject none, but bear with all. Indeed, they are as sincerely interested for sinners as they would be for themselves were they the infirm. They pray for the sinners, teach, admonish, persuade, do all in their power to reclaim. Such is the true character of a Christian. So God, in Christ, has dealt with us and ever deals. So Christ dealt with the adulteress ( John 8:11) when he released her from her tormentors, and with his gracious words influenced her to repentance and suffered her to depart. We read of St. Antony having said that Paphrutius knew how souls are to be saved, because he rescued a certain individual from brethren who persecuted and oppressed him for his transgression. See “Lives of the Fathers.”

Were God to deal with us according to the rigor of his laws, we should all be lost. But he mercifully suspends the Law. Isaiah says (ch. 9. 4): “For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken.” God now only persuades.

7. Note how involved in the Law and in hypocrisy they still are who esteem themselves prominent saints and at the same time are intolerant of the infirmities of Christians. If they fail to find perfect holiness — a miracle of purity — in those who possess Christ and know the Gospel, then nothing is as it should be; the heavens are on the point of falling and the earth about to be destroyed. They can only judge, censure and deride, saying: “Oh, yes, he is truly evangelical; indeed, he is a visionary!” Thus they indicate their utter blindness. With the beam constantly in their own eyes, they show how little they know of Christ.

Know, then, when you meet one so ready to censure and condemn, one requiring absolute perfection in Christians — know that such a one is merely an enforcer of the Law, a base hypocrite, a merciless jailer, with no true knowledge of Christ. As, with Christians, there is no law but all is love, so neither can there be judgment, condemnation and censure. And he who calls another a visionary is certainly a visionary ten-fold himself. In the thing for which he judges and condemns another, he condemns himself.

Since he ignores mercy and all but the Law, he finds no mercy in the sight of God; in fact, he has never experienced, never tasted, God’s mercy. To his taste, both God and neighbor are bitter as gall and wormwood.

8. But tender mercy is to be shown only to Christians and only among Christians. With the rejecters and persecutors of the Gospel we must deal differently. It is not right that my charity be liberal enough to tolerate unsound doctrine. In the case of false faith and doctrine there is neither love nor patience. Against these it is my duty earnestly to contend and not to yield a hair’s breadth. Otherwise — when faith is not imperiled — I must be unfailingly kind and merciful to all notwithstanding the infirmities of their lives. I may not censure, oppress nor drive; I must persuade, entreat and tolerate. A defective life does not destroy Christianity; it exercises it. But defective doctrine — false belief — destroys all good. So, then, toleration and mercy are not permissible in the case of unsound doctrine; only anger, opposition and death are in order, yet always in accordance with the Word of God.

9. On the other hand, they who are mercifully tolerated must not imagine that because they escape censure and force, their beliefs and practices are right. They must not construe such mercy as encouragement to become indolent and negligent, and to continue in their error. Mercy is not extended them with any such design. The object is to give them opportunity to recover zeal and strength. But if they be disposed to remain as they are, very well; let them alone. They will not long continue thus; the devil will lead them farther astray, until finally they will completely apostatize, even becoming enemies to the Gospel. Such will be their end if they permit mercy to be lavished upon them in vain. We may not be indolent and asleep in the matter of our false doctrines, relying upon the fact that we are not despised nor constrained of men. There is particular need to be active and diligent, for the devil neither sleeps nor rests. We need beware that he does not lead us where we will never enjoy God’s mercy. “Kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering.”