Day thirtyfive continued

I forgot to mention that today is 5 weeks. I am now 5/6 of the way through the initial six weeks of the program.

Yay!

OK, my impressions of The China Study book. The bottom line that T. Colin Campbell states in the final chapter of the book is what I have been saying all along. So apparently I have not been misinterpreting the signs. The gist is this:

• The impact on our society of the SAD is greater by far than any other challenge we face from similar forces such as terrorism, global warming or the like.
• The cost to society of the SAD is also greater than alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs or anything of that sort. In fact, it is likely that a smoker who maintained a strict vegan, whole foods diet could smoke a pack a day every day of his or her life and never get cancer at all. That's not to say that smoking is good for you. But in our upside down, inside out society we have placed huge emphasis on the wrong thing. We are trying to get people to stop smoking. What we should be doing is trying to get the to stop eating meat.
• What is at stake is nothing less than our society, our civilization, and ourselves. If we keep going the way we are going now, we will drown in our massive health care costs. Exporting the Western diet to the rest of the world may be our legacy of death and destruction to that part of the world as well. The rising rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the rest in those parts of the world is a striking warning of what happens when people abandon their traditional food culture for our processed, animal product-based diet.

I have discovered many things in the past 5 weeks. That's for sure. I need to learn more. I am on a rapid, accelerating learning curve. I do not know where this path will lead me. But I am intrigued.

I had an interesting conversation today at Whole Foods. I was there having dinner with Ruth. (Various forms of steamed and roasted vegetables, black beans, brown rice, grapes and pineapples.) I visited the book department. There I noticed that Whole Foods does not carry The China Study, Eat to Live, Fasting and Eating for Health, Reversing Heart Disease, or any of the rest of the books I have become aware of.

Very strange.

I confronted the manager of the department about this issue. He had heard of Dean Ornish. Dr. Ornish is probably the best known of the whole foods crowd. The oldest is actually John McDougall, I recently discovered. But whatever.

My question was this:

"I have recently discovered a body of literature that advocates the use of diet, especially a vegan, whole foods, plant based diet, to cure all sorts of diseases. This diet is extremely good for your business. I am presently buying virtually all of my foods from Whole Foods, because you have by far the best products for this sort of diet. Yet you do not sell these books. That seems strange to me. Why don't you sell these items?"

He had no idea.

I will continue to work on this. It seems to me that Whole Foods needs to get with the program. But whether they do or not, I am on the program for good.

I attended Bikram tonight, so I am in my post yoga state. That is to say, my skin is scaled off and very soft. I have little or no pain in my body. But I am physically exhausted. Bikram yoga is the most physically demanding form of exercise I have ever engaged in. But it is also one of the most effective. I can tell that profound changes are occurring in my body.

More later.