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A FREE EXTRA DECADE OF LIFE #4
GROOVIN' WITH A GARDEN BURGER
It's getting to be more and more the cool thing to do.
You go to Marie Callendar's for lunch, and order the Garden Burger. Same
thing at Appleby's, which is now right across the street from our office.
Also just a block away, a lot of our employees hike over to Costco, where
you can buy meatless Corn Dogs, meatless chicken, meatless hot dogs, meatless
turkey, meatless just about everything.
We're right in the middle of an exciting series entitled A FREE EXTRA
DECADE OF LIFE. A new book by Word Publishing gives us this promise in
its title - Live 10 Healthy Years Longer - and we're finding that these
twenty chapters really deliver on that promise. Authors Jan Kuzma and
Cecil Murphey, working with the data resulting from decades of scientific
research, are telling us about the L.L.L. - the "Live-Longer Lifestyle."
Depending on how healthy a lifestyle you adopt as your own, you can actually
add, according to the actuarial tables, a whopping 13 years to your life
expectancy.
Well, that's an incredible thing, and in our Wednesday segment, we shared
with you what Jan and Cecil have found out about eating habits from the
27,000-plus people in the control group. But now here in chapter four,
they unveil for us 11 secrets regarding the actual kinds of food: the
diet. And the very first secret out of the eleven maybe brings back a
mental image of hippies driving a beat-up VW bus with a flower power peace
sign painted on the side and a "No Nukes!" Ralph Nader bumper
sticker on the back. Because here's the first secret: THEY - the men and
women in the study - EAT A PLANT-BASED DIET. In other words, they're essentially
vegetarian.
And right away, a good many people looking in through the knothole in
the fence say, "Well, that's it. A vegetarian? No way am I going
to be a vegetarian. I'm not a leftover hippie, going around on a sun-powered
moped with my love beads saying 'Far out' and 'Groovy' and making steak
sandwiches out of lentils and tofu. Forget it. I'm with that guy in the
TV commercial who has a big juicy hamburger, a fries, and Coke, and says
to the world: 'Don't bother me; I'm eating.'"
Well, friend, I understand exactly where you're coming from. To a person
who isn't a vegetarian, becoming one sounds like the most impossible -
and maybe stupid - thing in the world. It conjures up all the wrong images
. . . plus it sounds like such a radical, inhuman departure: almost to
another planet.
But let me say a few things about all that. And really, Jan Kuzma and
Cecil Murphey make the point better than I could. First thing is this:
You don't have to segue immediately into total, 100% beatnik vegetarianism,
with the peace signs and the hippie commune. You don't have to move to
Haight-Ashbury. But is it possible that you could consider just edging
in the right direction? Remember, the Live-Longer Lifestyle can give you
up to 13 additional years of life; every step you take which even heads
over there is a step in a good direction.
The authors of this new book put it this way:
"This is the single, major dietary secret of those
who follow the Live-Longer Lifestyle: They are vegetarians. That fact,
above everything else, accounts for their better health."
But then they also point out that the choice is up to
you regarding how fully you want to embrace this objective, how completely
you want to experience the benefits of the Live-Longer Lifestyle. Again,
let's emphasize that a vegetarian eating pattern is the #1 factor out
of the eleven.
Speaking of broken-down psychedelic vans and love-in communes, Cecil and
Jan go on to share some fascinating statistics about today's vegetarians.
Would you have guessed that they are: better educated than the average
American citizen? (Keep in mind that upscale lunch crowd at Marie Callendar's,
all ordering garden burgers and imported bottled water.) They exercise
more. Fewer of them are overweight. Fewer of them have colds or get the
flu. And this is very important: "They pay attention to the way they
eat." People in the Live-Longer Lifestyle don't feel deprived; they
don't go around sighing about how they've had to "give up" meat.
They eat well. They savor their food. Many of them are gourmet cooks.
It's a lifestyle they generally embrace with zest . . . and remember,
they get to embrace it for up to 13 extra years.
There's so much in this Chapter Four, entitled "Eating Secrets,"
which we don't have time to share today - all the more reason to call
or write so that we can mail you a copy of this amazing book, Live 10
Healthy Years Longer. But Jan and Cecil do go down the line and answer
virtually every objection you might think of regarding a vegetarian diet.
Do you actually need meat to get your necessary vitamins? No . . . and
they tell you why. How about getting enough protein without meat? Millions
of Americans achieve that goal easily each year on a completely vegetarian
diet. And in terms of pure health, we're told that "the highest occurrences
of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes occur in the nations that consume
the most meat."
Well, there's so much eye-opening material just on the vegetarian diet,
but I would like to share with you a few more of these eleven secrets.
Here's #2: THEY - people in this Live-Longer Lifestyle - HAVE REDUCED
OR ELIMINATED THEIR CONSUMPTION OF DAIRY PRODUCTS. Let me say again: you
don't have to go whole-hog here (no pun intended.) But in America, where
we consume 75 billion pounds of dairy products every year, there's plenty
of room to cut back. That helps you to reduce your cholesterol levels.
It potentially releases you from a number of allergies. You can improve
your chances of avoiding osteoporosis.
Here's Secret #3: THEY REGULARLY EAT BREAKFAST. A substantial meal in
the morning is one of the major success strategies for people who live
these extra years.
#4: THEY EAT MORE FRESH VEGETABLES. And if you need good reasons to trade
in your filet mignon for a plate of vegetables, here are six: Veggies
are high in vitamins and minerals. They're excellent sources of dietary
fiber. They contain anticancer nutrients. They're low in fat and have
no cholesterol. They're safer to eat than meat - largely because they're
lower on the so-called "food chain," so that they contain fewer
contaminants. And one more: especially raw vegetables are full of health-producing
enzymes. You lose these with cooked vegetables, anytime you cook above
122° F. (By the way, you also lose them when you microwave your veggies.)
But right there are six reasons to make sure your diet is high in vegetables,
and low on the cheeseburger end.
Secret #5: THEY EAT MORE FRESH FRUIT THAN AVERAGE AMERICANS. I've been
to some hotel breakfast buffets with vegetarians right out of the Live-Longer
Lifestyle control group, and it's almost comical to watch the poor Marriott
people trying to keep up with how these folks grab the bananas and sliced
pineapple off the fruit platter. And many of you know that fruit is naturally
sweet, it's a cleansing agent for your body, and it's a good source of
energy. By the way, Cecil and Jan tell us that if you happen to like figs,
they qualify to be just about the perfect fruit. High dietary fiber, highest
overall mineral content of any fruit, plus good percentages of calcium,
magnesium, and potassium. So if you give a fig about good health . . .
don't give that fig, eat it!
We're racing the clock here, but Secret #7 is that HEALTHY PEOPLE EAT
MORE LEGUMES than the average. Lots of advantages - one being that beans
and lentils are so cheap! But not only do legumes have fewer calories
than meat - a cup of beans scoring 250 calories compared to 550 in a five-ounce
slab of steak - but you can really lower your LDL or "bad" cholesterol
to the extent that you switch over.
Let's put Secrets #8, #9, and #10 together: HEALTHY EATERS REDUCE THEIR
FAT INTAKE AND THEIR USE OF REFINED FOODS. ALSO SPICE AND SALT. Going
with that: less sugar, more unrefined oils. And finally, #11, THEY MAYBE
TAKE VITAMIN AND MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS, depending on how fully they're following
the other ten points we've whistled through today.
Well, friend, maybe you're feeling lightheaded as you listen to all this,
and you're already thinking that this "Live-Longer Lifestyle"
is itself full of legumes. Meaning beans. I understand that. I would urge
you, though, to get a copy of this book, Live 10 Healthy Years Longer,
read all of the supplementary details we had to gloss over today, and
then decide if you just might be able to at least scoot your cafeteria
chair over toward the salad bar.
Final thought for the day. Wouldn't you imagine that whatever diet God
suggested in the Garden of Eden - before sin and thorns and weeds showed
up - would be the perfect diet? That makes sense, doesn't it? And you
know, you can find God's menu described in Genesis chapter one, verse
29:
"Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing
plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with
seeds in it. They will be yours for food.'"
There you have it: fruits, nuts, veggies. Adam and Eve both ordered the
Garden Burger and went right out and lived 930 years. Far out.
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