Part 2 of my interview with a very healthy octogenarian:
Listen to Living Well Interview
(.mp3-10 mins)
Q: What do you say to people about diet? Let’s say, they make a decision they will eat more plant food and more fruits in their diet. And they still sort of have this approach towards a hundred percent of my health care and wellness, they go with their doctor’s recommendations. I know that you went through that in your own situation, trying to figure out what’s the right decision to make based on what needs to be done to keep yourself healthy. And, as you’ve been studying and researching this, what do you think about the doctors today in terms of their approach towards fitness and health and do they have all the right solutions or are there other alternatives that – issues that people should be considering?
A: There are lots of solutions out there to solve our problems of health. But the medical profession, normally medical doctors are trained to treat the sickness after it occurs. But there are other natural ways of prevention, before the sickness occurs. And that is what’s important and there are many authors that have written many books about eating plant foods and about preventing this sickness.
As you know, and I know, that the media today is finally – what – what people call the mainstream media, is finally admitting that the problems in this country of obesity is very serious. And people really haven’t been awoken. And they probably won’t be until they get sick. And then many times it’s too late. And therein lies the difficulty because the people that are neuropathic or people that believe in natural foods, they say that we should not be eating meats and dairy products and processed foods – white flour, for instance – and – but how do you convince people that they should be eating only fruits and vegetarian-type style. And that’s very, very difficult because people don’t think about it until they’re sick.
And many times there are so many young men in their 50s that don’t have an opportunity because they have a – they have a heart attack and they’re dead. Or they have cancer and it’s too late. And so you have to get into the real meat of this thing and there are many, many doctors out there. You’ve got Dr. Andrew Weil, and you’ve got Dr. Julian Whitaker. I could name you doctors – McDougall, Dr. McDaniels. They all have newsletters and they all have publications. They’ve all written books about the ideal food that we should be eating. And there are religious people out there also that have written books. There’s a gentleman by the name of Dr. George Malkmus in Shelby, North Carolina, who has a website – as many other doctors. They have websites and newsletters to advise you and tell you. And basically, they’re all the same.
They’re all saying that you – we, in this country, eat too much meat and we eat too much dairy products. And that comprises all of a different cheeses which are just wonderful to eat. But they’re now saying that these foods that we’re eating, the standard American diet, is what’s causing our cancers and our diabetes, and our health prob – our heart problems. And so we have to stop eating those foods and start eating the proper foods, and our sicknesses will be reversed.
