Page 13 | Michael T. Miyoshi

Rationalization to Ruin · 20 July 2013

If the doctor told you that you had to give up something or die, you would give up that something. Even if it was your favorite food.

My Dad’s doctor has not told him to give up certain foods (yet), but one of his doctors told him to give up cigarettes after his second heart attack. That physician gave him an ultimatum. Stop smoking or die. Of course, everybody dies sometime, but the doctor was telling Dad in no uncertain terms that his death would be premature if he kept smoking. So he stopped smoking. Just like that.

I wonder if people would do the same thing if their doctors told them that they had to give up their favorite foods.

I suppose that most people would not have a problem giving up ice cream or chocolate cake if they were the culprits. We could all probably give up any treaty thing that we do not have on an everyday basis. But what if that food was a supposed staple? I wonder if we would give up those foods we love and believe must be a part of every meal if they were the culprits of our health problems.

From what I have read and observed on my own journey toward health, eating few processed foods and little to no animal products is the healthy way to eat. We need not totally give up those sugary and starchy products that come in boxes. We do not need to completely cut out meat, dairy, and eggs. But if we really want to be healthy, we need to drastically cut down on all of those foods. Maybe even giving them up entirely for some period of time.

That is where rationalization comes in.

We say that we do not really eat that much processed foods when in fact, pastas, breads, and cold cereals make up much of our diets. We say we do not eat much meat and have an eight ounce steak or large pork chop for dinner. Plus we eat meat at every meal. Even though we know that three ounces of meat satisfies our daily recommended allowance for protein and that we also get protein from plant sources.

If we know what is good for us, but do not do it, we are merely rationalizing away our health.

Of course, we have all rationalized our own behaviors. Whether those behaviors have to do with health or any choice that we make, we can come up with some seemingly rational reason for behaving the way we do. At least until we realize we are just rationalizing.

When we stop rationalizing and realize that nutrition, especially eating a plant-based, whole food diet, can do more for our health than pills or surgery, we can start our own journeys toward health. We can cut out processed foods because we want to pay for good food rather than doctors. We can greatly reduce our animal product intake because it provides little nutrition rather than thinking we are just getting our protein requirements or cowing to animal rights activists. We can change our behaviors because it makes sense rather than defending the status quo.

Once we realize that eating the “traditional” American diet is ruining our health, we can stop rationalizing our way to ruin.

I am no doctor. But Dr. Fuhrman and other physicians are telling us to give up processed foods or have a life filled with disease. They are telling us that meat and animal products ought to be minor parts of our meals instead of the main course. They are telling us we can eat our way to health instead of rationalizing ourselves into disease and an early grave.

Those doctors might not be telling us to stop eating a certain food or die, but their message is strong. We need to stop rationalizing our food choices. We need to eat right to live healthy.

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Not Any Diet Will Do · 19 July 2013

When it comes to weight loss, any diet will do. At least according to my wife. In reality, she is right. To a point.

When it comes right down to it, cutting calories is all we need to do to lose weight. According to my wife and many so called diet gurus, we just need to make sure we do not cut down so many calories as to put our bodies into starvation mode and we can lose weight. Regardless of the diet.

Unfortunately, without proper nutrition, we cannot sustain those diets for long. I ought to know. I have tried just about every fad diet to lose a few pounds.

I know dieting can get results because I actually lost a few pounds with each of those fad diets. The problem is that those results were always short lived. I lost a little weight, but I could not sustain eating programs that did not provide enough calories let alone enough nutrients for my body. Consequently, I would always go back to eating the way I did before. And I would always gain those few pounds back.

Sustainability is the argument I use with my wife as to why I plan to eat a whole food, plant-based diet for the rest of my life. I can eat as much as I want as long as I do not have lots of processed foods or too many animal products. I do not count calories or starve myself and I have gotten down to a healthy weight without any desire to go back to the way I ate before. I can keep eating this way for life.

My wife cannot argue with that.

When all is said and done, my wife is probably right. To lose weight, any diet will do. But if we want to be able to keep the weight off and be healthy, we need to eat healthy. And to be healthy, not any diet will do.

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Choose Health · 18 July 2013

The more I read and the more I reflect on my own journey, the more I realize that health is a choice. Certainly, there are aspects like genetics that we cannot control, but when it comes right down to it, we really can choose to be healthy.

This aspect of choice really hit me as I reflected on our recent cruise experience.

As I mentioned previously, there is food everywhere on a cruise ship. We could choose to eat until we burst every day. Or we could choose to eat moderately. There were also plenty of choices of what to eat. We could choose healthy food or junk food.

In reality, there was not much junk food on the cruise. (Probably because fine dining is more wholesome than fast foods simply because the chefs prepare the foods from more wholesome ingredients.) But it was difficult to know what the ingredients were in many of the food choices. After all, many rich foods were made rich by the amount of cream or butter (or both) in them. I found out the hard way (due to lactose intolerance) that many soups had cream in them. But by working with the wait staff and questioning what ingredients were in many foods, I was able to eat my whole food, plant-based diet.

Besides eating for health, we can also choose to be fit. We can choose to exercise.

Before our cruise, I did not know whether there would be any way to run on the ship. I knew there was a fitness center and basketball court, but I did know whether there would be a way to run or not. Still, I had a plan. I figured I would play basketball every morning while my family was asleep and I would run if there was a track. As it turned out, I only shot baskets on two of the three mornings I ran. Still, even though I did not do lots to stay fit, I did make the choice to run those few days. Plus, we walked a lot on our shore excursions and on the ship. (We even chose to take the stairs most of the time.)

Besides being a great vacation, the microcosm of a cruise ship helped me reaffirm that there are at least two aspects of health we can control – eating and exercising. Our short shipboard journey helped me reflect on our overall journey of life and remember that health is a choice.