And Then This!

Every day the news reveals another article regarding the importance of plants in our diet and/or the disadvantages of animal products in our diet. Is it just me? Am I like one of those women who can't get pregnant who sees thousands of pregnant women every time she turns around? A vegetarian's wet dream to be sure, but this is the third day in a row an article like this has come out.

TIME magazine published an article relaying the findings of a new study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. The title of the TIME article by Alexandra Sifferlin is... EATING MORE VEGETABLES CAN ALMOST HALVE YOUR RISK OF DYING. You will have to read it to understand that the title doesn't mean you halve you chance of ever dying! Click here to go directly to the article. And pass the asparagus.

Informed Consent Not Just For Surgical Procedures

Wow. The day after I read about doctors prescribing produce instead of medication this video arrived in my inbox. It's only 4 minutes long so I hope you watch the whole thing but what impressed me starts at minute 1:44. Doctors are supposed to be practicing medicine by a code of ethics which states that "physicians should sensitively and respectfully disclose all relevant medical information to patients" which includes giving patients all their treatment options and then allowing them to decide. It's called informed consent. I know better than the next person that informing a patient about all options is time consuming, yet that is what physicians are ethically required to do. This means that we, as patients, may need to demand that at our appointments. And it might mean that we need to bring up diet and nutrition. Unfortunately physicians are poorly trained in diet and nutrition and probably can talk less to that point than the average Ingrid.

Again please pay attention at minute 3:30. The editor in chief of The Journal of Cardiology (not some vegetarian freak) states, "Atherosclerosis is due to abnormalities of serum cholesterol, mostly from eating calories high in cholesterol and saturated fats. If we all existed on a plant-based diet we would not have needed this discussion." Wow.