The True Health Initiative: Science, Sense, & Global Consensus to Add Years to Lives, Life to Years
David L. Katz, MD, MPH
CMO, Tangelo. Founder: Diet ID; True Health Initiative. Founding Director, Yale-Griffin PRC (1998-2019). Health Journalist. COVID Curmudgeon
I founded and officially launched the True Health Initiative exactly two years ago today in association with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. If anything, the financial and human toll of misinformation about our health in social and traditional media are even worse now. But greater, too, is the support for truth over trend, data over diatribe, epidemiology over ideology. The global coalition committed to sharing expert understanding of lifestyle as medicine- for people and planet alike- has grown ten-fold in these two years.
We began as a small gathering of physicians and nutritionists committed to common ground and fundamental truths we all relied on in our own lives, with our own families. We pledged ourselves to science, sense, and the consensus among us. We agreed we could disagree about this and that detail, yet stand together to share our common understanding with the world, to help raise the standard of common knowledge. We committed to pull together, pool our voices, find strength in unity- and be heard above the constant background din of fads, fashions, fake health news, hyperbolic headlines, and the false promises of hucksters, fools, and fanatics.
Today, we count among our ranks celebrated chefs; leading health coaches; former U.S. Surgeons General; famous authors; journalists; university deans; university presidents; CEOs; environmental, sustainability, and biodiversity experts; and many more among the 400+ experts from nearly 40 countries. We have come together across continents to say: We Agree.
We agree about the six core, evidence-based fundamentals of lifestyle as medicine. We agree about whole foods, mostly plants, in sensible combinations; about moderate exercise; about the management of stress, respect for sleep, and the avoidance of toxins like tobacco. We agree on the modifiable risk factors that stand between us and vitality, longevity, sustainability and a vibrant planet so that our children may know the same blessings.
There is so much confusion propagated by the constant noise of our modern culture and the new ways we have invented to disseminate information and misinformation alike, that the actionable fundamentals we have known about for decades are overlooked, neglected, or even disparaged.
The True Health Initiative is a response to that threat, and opportunity. We represent reliable, time-honored truth over the trend riding the latest news cycle, and the consensus of diverse experts- from Paleo to vegan, from agriculture to biochemistry, from public health policy to clinical practice- speaking with one global voice. We have come together for just one purpose: to help you add years to your life and life to your years, and so that those you love may do the same. We have families, too.
Since our beginning, we have established ourselves as a 501(c)3 federally authorized non-profit, hired full-time staff, partnered with educational platforms like Verywell.com, issued weekly media rebuttals and responses, and generated monthly newsletters and daily social content to spread basic and reliable truth. We issued our first White Paper on a crucial and badly misrepresented topic recently, and more will follow.
As we celebrate our milestones as a young non-profit, we are launching a gift campaign. We need your help to grow into the potent force for true understanding we are now positioned to be.
Funds will directly impact our communication efforts, research, and the global reach of our message (our key materials are now routinely translated into several languages and shared in countries around the world, including China). Please join our common cause to fight fads, titillating headlines, and the diverting nonsense of exaggerated research findings, to improve understanding about lifestyle as medicine on a global scale. We can have, and bequeath to our children, a world with 80% less chronic disease, 80% less premature death. We can have it- but we have to work for it, together.
We need you now to join and support our movement. Please visit our primary donation site here, or click here if you prefer Paypal, and help us help the triumph of fundamental truths.
Thank you for your crucial support. Let's find out just how much good we can do- together.
-fin
Founder, The True Health Initiative
Public Health Research
7 年This is exactly what I believe in GHS (Global Health System) and not regional. The life style, as rightly indicated by the author of this article, plays a pivot role in balancing the various elements of our body.
"Our Body Is The Vessel To Freedom"-Jennifer
7 年Thank you for your works and passion. It's time for the community to understand where we in the 21st Century, with true education. We have a very like-minded community, Mindful Ways, that brings Whole Wellness Intelligent Care(TM). We bring 21st-century urban villages toward wholeness, social change, & sustainability. Mindful Ways is an innovative continuum center dedicated to providing strong community-based support for women, families, and professionals through preconception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and parenting grounded in Mindfulness and Local Ecology. We have partnered with the First EcoVillage of San Jose, located on Race St. Our partnership will bring 21st-century education from the local land to the womb. Through this focus, we will bring health, community, gentle birth, and stewards of the local land for a sustainable future. I look forward to joining your community and thank you again for your works.
Mystic Poet
7 年Exactly, healthy food, pure water, physical movement, positive mindset, good rest and do not mess with poison. Good to emphasize the simple basics, and when your body gives your signs of weakness, take your rest, use the power of nature and luckely we have a selfregulating system we can thrust on, and beside that we are lucky with professionals like you Dr. David, and I applaud your attitude!
Paralegal for the Kings County District Attorney appeals bureau
7 年i agree with what you do