Take An Honest Inventory

An autopsy study in the New England Journal of Medicine found more than 85% of adults between the ages of 21 and 39 already had atherosclerotic changes in their coronary arteries.

Aside:
Fatty plaques and streaks are the beginning stages of atherosclerosis. If there are atherosclerotic changes in the vessels near the heart, that also means the vessels everywhere else in the body have fatty plaque changes too. Brain vessels for instance and the vessels in the genitalia - vessels of particular interest to me. Vessels are vessels and fatty plaques don't just choose heart vessels.

The 1992 Bogalusa Heart Study looked at autopsies performed on children killed in accidental deaths. The study confirmed the existence of fatty plaques and streaks in most children under 12 years of age as well as teenagers!

And why is this the case, you may ask? I'm convinced it's because we all go around thinking we're the ones who feed ourselves and our kids a "healthy" diet.

I think we need to re-evaluate the language we use.

Do we and our children eat 90% of calories from whole unrefined, unprocessed foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and beans every day? If you've answered no, how about 50%?
If you answered yes to 50%, try for 80%. If you answered no to 50%, even though you can't tell, you're setting yourself and your children up for future health care problems. Maybe its time for a change of heart, pun intended.

And we don't seem to care because why again? Because we've heard it so many times already and we're just too damn busy, right? Because we can't seem to wrap our brains around our nation's love affair with low nutrient foods and our own poor choices around them? Why is this still okay with us?

Because each of us, individually, think we aren't the ones. But we are. I am. You are. We are the Americans we're talking about. Those are our children in those autopsies with the fatty plaques in their blood vessels and we're more concerned with what? What could possibly be more important than this?

So let's take an honest inventory. It's important to put the ego aside here and try not to get angry and try not to make excuses for yourselves and one another.

But even if you do get angry (which is what I did at first); think about it some, sleep on it and see how you feel tomorrow. We'll try again, then.

Here's an easy way to take inventory right this minute and a good rule of thumb in general.

Sit up straight, reach down near your belly button and grab the extra flesh there.

If you're a man and you can pinch more than a 1/2 inch near your umbilicus, you're overweight and at risk for health complications.

If you're a woman and you can pinch an inch of flesh or more, you're overweight and at risk for health complications.

Yes. You.

An inch is not very much, I know.

And you can keep saying things like "live fast, die young", "death by chocolate", "life is short, play hard."

You can say that but I don't believe you.

I have a very dear friend who is dealing with her father's decline from Parkinson's disease. When she reports to me how things are going with him, my heart aches for her in a way that I cannot easily describe. Before I go to sleep at night, I ask the universe to please bring dignity to him as he nears his tragic death, which is taking a toll on too many people, mostly him. I'm certain we would make changes now if we could foresee our own death similar to his. I bet he would if he could.

And yes, your diet in early childhood and what you eat right NOW indicates what kind of death you will die. And yes, diet does have an impact on autoimmune diseases and too many other preventable diseases that we, Americans, die needlessly of. Yes, indeed, it does.

And so I don't believe that you really don't care about the kind of death you will die or the kind of death your children will face or your parents. With all due respect, I don't believe you. I bet you want for yourself, The Good Death.

The death where you go peacefully in your sleep without morphine, medicines, tubing stuck in every orifice, diapers on your ass, mind numb and confused, unable to recognize your surroundings. You don't want that, I'm sure of it.

The Good Death is after having spent so many delightful years with your spouse, children and their children, memories intact, all 11 body systems working together in sweet synchronicity, walking, laughing, and participating, right up until the very end. I bet you want that for your parents, yourself and for your children too.

Up until recently, I really tried to hide the drastic changes we've made in our diet, feeling rather embarrassed that we don't eat the same way others do. I'd sheepishly salt my soup dishes when having friends over. One time I brought a gorgeous veggie packed quinoa salad to my neighbor who gently, of course, said it was "a little bland" and she salted the shit out of it and poured some yogurt on top. I felt embarrassed of myself. But no more. From now on I'm not hiding. I'm saying it out loud. Fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, beans every single day, every single meal for me please. No thank you on the salt. No thank you on the cream. No thank you on the daily dose of packaged, refined, processed toxic diet. No thank you.

I'm looking for The Good Death. The long, clear, agile, laughter and joy filled life, followed by an uneventful and peaceful passing in my own bed. That's what I want for myself and those who will be responsible for me during my eldership.

It's my dream for you and yours too.
Until next time,

Be well little cell.

References: Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Ch.1 pg 15 - Digging Our Graves with Forks and Knives - The Effects of the American Diet, part 1.

Bender, R., C. Traunet, M. Spraul. and M. Berger. 1998. Assessment of excess mortality in obesity. Am. J. Epidemiology. 147 (1): 42-48; Wolf, A.M., and G.A. Colditz. 1998 Current estimates of the economic cost of obesity in the United States. Obes. Res. 6(2) 97-106.