Your health, our government and our food.

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The juicer of “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead” Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor ^[2]

A few weeks ago I posted this:

Right now, my favorite product is this Breville BJE510XL Ikon 900-Watt Variable-Speed Juice Extractor. ^[2] I’m 5 days into a 30-day juice fast and feeling great. You can buy one of these juicers and help support the site- and get healthy. If you’re wondering why I’m doing the liquid diet- you should watch this movie: “Fat Sick and nearly Dead.” You can watch it via Netflix streaming or for free online via the site ^[3]. I’m inspired by the movie and my friend Pastor Jimmy Mann who has juiced for years. If you know him, you know you won’t find a more healthy, energetic, positive person.

via The best ad agency in Dayton Ohio supports esrati.com ^[4].

Five days is nothing. I’m at day 26 now, and although I’ve had a few meals out- sushi, salads and the wonderful half socca with salad at Olive, an Urban Dive ^[5], for the most part- it’s been juice 3x a day, nuts and my homemade hummus (plantain chips from Trader Joe’s are amazing btw). I also have eaten bananas, apples, oranges, and carrots and celery (to scoop the hummus).

I’m down 15 lbs. I haven’t felt as much energy, mental acuity and gotten as deep a sleep ever. And, I’ve not been hungry. Sure, it’s been hard watching people at work eat Pizza Bill’s amazing “Buffalo Chicken Ranch” pizza ^[6] (our office favorite- since our video guru, Max, suggested the recipe to Bill). It’s definitely helped that I’ve been doing this with my amazing partner, T.

On the recommendation of a friend who works for a bariatric surgeon (the guy who does surgery to help you lose weight if you don’t take my advice now). I also watched “Forks over Knives.” ^[7] There are a slew of movies you can watch to tell you what you don’t want to hear: our diet of over-processed food, promoted by a government funded by lobbyists for big agriculture, is making us sick, fat and walking medical disasters waiting to happen.

Going carb-, sugar- and meat-free- essentially vegan, raw- was something I never thought I’d do. But, considering the way I feel and how easy this has been- I’m wondering why should I go back?

Since I’ve never been a coffee or caffeine drinker- and have always preferred water over soda, and I don’t drink alcohol- this diet was probably a lot easier for me to adopt than it will be for many of you. Don’t get me wrong, I still miss steak, gyros, Skyline Chilli- but, I don’t miss how I felt when those were part of my diet. And, for me, day 2 of juice wasn’t fun- let’s just say, don’t plan on going too far away from a restroom.

We have a lot of libertarian commentators on this site, who are always talking about personal responsibility- and taking government out of everything. The new health-care provisions which were helped by Thursday’s Supreme Court decision aren’t really the answer to solving the health-care problems in our country- changing what we eat would.

I’m not going to go into all the statistics about how our nation comes in 37th in health care, or leads in heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer, or how inefficient our health-care system is, or what the costs of treating all these diseases is annually- including the loss of productivity. I’m also not going to go into the effect of the “Western diet” is having in China- where the introduction of our over-processed, meat- and carb=centric diet is causing the same outcomes. We can skip the cost of the pharmaceuticals that are prescribed to “treat” the disease- instead of curing the cause. I’m not going to talk about the stupidity of having mandated health “insurance” instead of just putting all the money directly into direct health care. All of these facts, figures, and data are easily available elsewhere, and covered in the movies. And, besides these two movies- there are a ton more.

The list of movies about eating healthy, raw, organic, local, vegan, unprocessed, and the impact on health, the economy and productivity – ultimately telling a story that our government has lied to us and waged a secret war on our health through bad agricultural policy and horrible health suggestions;

• Food Inc
• Food Matters
• King Corn
• The Future of Food
• Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat
• Botany of Desire
• To Market to Market to Buy a Fat Pig
• Blue Gold: Water Wars
• Sweet Misery
• The Real Dirt on Farmer John
• Food Fight
• American Meat
• What’s organic about organic
• Fresh
• Fast Food Nation
• Processed People
• A Delicate Balance
• Eating
• What’s on your plate, and of course
• Fat Sick and Nearly Dead
• Forks over knives

Each movie has a site, and reviews- and if I had hours, I’d build links to all. Many are available on Netflix instant. There is one doctor who keeps appearing in many of them: Dr. Joel Fuhrman ^[8] who has a best seller, Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Revised Edition ^[9], which you can read to find out that you should be eating  a lot less meat, cut out sugar, carbs, alcohol and caffeine.

In terms of cost of the juicing diet- we’re spending about $150 to $200 a week to juice for two.  We’re also not eating out much- saving a lot of money. The biggest issue is that our refrigerator fills fast- and empties quickly- and cooking for the kids adds another meal to prepare. On average it takes about 20 minutes to clean, peel, prep the ingredients for juicing and about 3-5 minutes to clean up after. At first, we were following recipes from the “Join the Reboot” site from the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead- but soon we started winging it- it also didn’t help that they redesigned their website and made the recipes harder to use ^[10].

On making juices: our favorite ingredients are raw ginger, lime, carrots, apples, strawberries, cucumbers, oranges, lemons, rhubarb, grapes, broccoli, pears, peaches and pineapple- then throw in kale, Swiss chard and beets as the “it’s good for you ingredients” and you can live happy. Our rule of thumb has become: never to take the juicer apart until you taste it- so if you need to doctor the juice you can. The only absolute loser in the juicer was radishes- which with just a few made the juice have a pucker factor fail.

I’m not going to post before and after pictures either- no one wants to look at me- but, I’ve lost at least 2″ to 3″ off my waist, and will probable continue to lose inches as I continue this diet and up my workouts (work has been incredibly busy lately).

Even if this diet doesn’t appeal to you, next time you are out- start looking at people and counting the numbers of people who could do with losing 15 lbs. or more. Think of the costs of the diseases and health issues that come with the ever-expanding waistlines. What is the impact on our health-care costs and productivity?

Next time you have a physical, look at your cholesterol, triglycerides and risk factors for heart disease- and ask, if you can afford the treatment and the impact on your life?

While we believe in cheap, abundant food- Dollar menus at fast-food restaurants, processed prepared foods at the grocery stores- they come with a hidden price tag that can far exceed the “savings” up to and including a premature end to your life.

Go take a hard look in the mirror- are you happy with what you see? If you are ready to change your body and feel a hell of a lot better, take my advice and buy the juicer above- and start drinking your way to feeling great.