From time to time, beginning in my twenties and decades later, I was overweight. I was always a big ‘meat eater’! How would I ever know back in the 1970’s that eating a lot of meat actually caused poor health?

For example, all the beef commercials said you needed beef! Same went for milk. I didn’t feel healthy. I drank a lot of milk and ate a lot of meat. They can’t advertise milk and beef is good for you anymore. Why? It has been proven not good for you!

I had a ‘ruptured appendix’ almost dying in my mid-thirties. I feel I owe that to meat and dairy. That made me start to think about those things I ate! The two week stay in the hospital was a real eye opener! I lost twenty pounds. Not a happy way to lose unwanted weight.

I was over two hundred pounds for many years! I worked out and wanted to be big and strong. I practiced karate. I wanted to be a tough guy! Yet, I didn’t feel right weighing over two hundred.

In high school I was one handsome trim agile and strong 158 lb. young man. I didn’t stay like that. What went wrong! Through the years, steak always looked and smelled so good. Yet, I am positive all my weight gain was ‘NOT’ because of meat.

Meat did other bad things to me, instead. It was all those empty calorie snacks like chips and crackers I ate! Man, did I pound down the sourdough bread! Beware of refined grain in all its forms, it’s a definite addictive weight gainer.

Have you noticed there are ‘skinny’ people holding a ‘soft drink and doughnut’ who don’t look that healthy. Heart disease, stroke and cancer strikes the ‘slim as well as obese’ (obesity is a medical condition requiring a medical professional) if their diets are low nutrient.

I have experimented with ‘fad diets’ in the past. None of them were healthy while not a one brought permanent health-giving results.

These diets were not lifestyle changes. Adopting a whole food plant based diet is a lifestyle change. Whole food isn’t a diet, because diets are temporary and they never work! Plant based food is our natural diet containing all the nutrition we need. There is no brainwork involved. You eat all you want until you are full. No portion control.

In the past, I read how meat ‘was and wasn’t’ healthful for you. It got confusing. Some cultures add a little meat to their vegetables for flavor. Doing so may not affect your health adversely, yet at the same time, I don’t believe it would benefit your health any.

I believe it better to not eat any meat, because a little can lead back to our old ways of ‘eating too much meat’. Why not think back and examine for a moment how you felt after eating that ‘tasty steak’?

If you are a meat eater, experiment a couple of days. Exclude all meat and any animal products and see how you feel. This means, no chicken, pork, fish, cold cut lunch meat, tuna, milk, cheese and especially NO beef! Can we do it? Yes, we both can do this…

Notice how you feel. You might decide to stop eating it altogether. Not easy, but I did it. You can, too. We must give up those low quality foods (that taste good) which block us from losing weight, getting healthier and living longest.

I had been after my wife to stop eating animal products and meat for ages! She loves steak. When my wife stopped eating ‘beef’ in particular, her blood pressure went down. Also, swelling went down in one of her legs.

I had been strongly suggesting to her in the past to cease eating all forms of animal products for years. All my frustration and talk didn’t reap results.

She finally stopped eating beef on her own. It came ‘out of the blue’ one day. I think it happened after I decided to stop ‘nagging’ her! Apparently, if you want to help someone, most often the ‘subtle suggestions’ will get you much better results!

You probably heard about one of many so-called ‘caveman’ diets? You know, the ones where it is said we are ‘meat eaters’? If we are, then why don’t we have sharp teeth and claws? We weren’t born with a knife in our hands, either.

I take all these fad diet books with a ‘grain of salt’. They ‘come and go’ with the wind. But, they always come back again as ‘best sellers’ in another form with another flaky diet plan with different titles and a new slant on what to eat and not.

All they are is another proportional mixture of carbs, protein and sugar. It’s like ‘shuffling shells’ guessing which one something is under. Focus should be on superior nutrient content of food. Plant based whole food is the health, weight loss and longevity solution. It has been proven scientifically it promotes superior health.

Nowadays, we have access to eating all kinds of fat filled meat and as much as we want, all day long. There could be no way we need that much protein. Furthermore, animal products are the wrong kind.

Protein from animal products can damage our kidneys and their bad cholesterol damages our hearts and cardiovascular system. Yes, it tastes good, but if we have our first heart attack or stroke, that might make us ‘think twice’ changing our strategy from eating ‘what tastes good’ to a diet of plant based ‘healthy food’.

You might not have known that healthy food tastes good. All you need do is add a little ‘spice’.

Note- before you change your diet consult your doctor.