The Ultimate Disruption Opportunity: Food!

The past 9 days I was immersed in the latest insights from 25 world-leading thinkers on health and nutrition. Many of the speakers were already leading physicians in cardiology, neurology, cancer, or chronic disease when they faced their own health crisis, which drew them to explore the connection between food and health. After dramatic turnarounds, they re-focused on preventing and reversing diseases previously considered incurable or that carried sentences for patients to live the rest of their life on pills and procedures.  

We also heard from public health experts like Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM, physician, New York Times bestselling author of six books including Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, How Not to Die and How to Survive and Pandemic.

What’s my key takeaway?

There exists a game-changing solution that reduces our risk for chronic diseases, cancer and dementia. It will make the biggest impact on reducing climate change and the risk of pandemics like Covid-19. This solution costs tens of millions less than the status quo, and it’s something that every person can do to make a meaningful impact. But it requires a shift in mindset around beloved cultural traditions and giving up foods we love. Talk about a positioning challenge! 

 Jump in and share your thoughts on this positioning opportunity and learn how to change the quality of your life beginning today!

Here are some highlights (research sources available upon request)

Covid 19

• As devastating as COVID-19 has been, it may be a dress rehearsal for an even greater threat waiting in your chicken wings.  According to the CDC, the leading candidate for the next pandemic is a bird flu virus known as H7N9, which is a hundred times deadlier than COVID-19.
• COVID-19 is the dry run we needed, the fire drill to wake us from our complacency to reform the food system before it's too late. When we overcrowd thousands of animals in these cramped, filthy, football-field sized sheds to lie, you know, beak-to-beak or snout-to-snout atop their own waste, it's just a breeding ground for disease.

 Heart disease

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the US, but is practically nonexistent in regions of the world who don’t consume the Standard American Diet (SAD)
• Patients with significant cardiovascular illness who adopted a plant-based lifestyle reduced risk of further cardiac events by 89.3% compared to those who didn’t
• Study called INTERHEART found in 52 countries, first heart attack could be prevented through lifestyle change in 92% of people

Alzheimer’s & Dementia

• The rate of Alzheimer's is up 70% in the last decade. 90% of dementias can be prevented with a plant-based diet. Only 3% of Alzheimer’s cases are genetic

Cancer & Diabetes

• A study of people under the age of 65, who eat 20% or more of their calories from animal protein, had a 400% increase in cancer and a 500% increase in Type 2 diabetes
• A study found a 50% increase in breast cancer risk for women who consumed the largest amounts of cow’s milk compared to those who consumed the least
• 87% of women who get breast cancer don't have a mother or a sister who has had the disease
• Kaiser study of women diagnosed with breast cancer showed women who ate 1 or more daily serving of dairy had a 64% higher likelihood of recurrence compared to those who had less than a half serving a day

Dairy

• Countries that are the highest consumers of dairy products have the highest rates of hip fractures and greatest prevalence of osteoporosis
• 75-95% of Asian and African Americans are lactose intolerant
• The average dairy cow has gone from producing 5,000 to 22,000 pounds of milk per year. Dairy cows are constantly pregnant, so high levels of estrogen resides in the milk

Plant-strong diet

• 95% of Americans are not getting the minimal recommended amount of fiber. The single greatest predictor of a healthy gut microbiome is the diversity of plants within our diet
• We can prevent 80% of chronic disease with a whole food plant-based diet
• A study published in 2017 titled vegetarian, vegan diets and multiple health outcomes concluded vegetarians and vegans have lower rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, and many other illnesses  
• Kaiser Permanente is now training their physicians to promote a plant-based diet
• The strongest man in the world, Patrik Baboumian, is a vegan. He says he's as strong as an ox because they both get their strength from plants

Climate & Agriculture

• Five of the largest meat and dairy companies combined produce more greenhouse gas emissions than Exxon-Mobil, Shell or BP
• 60% of global biodiversity loss is due to meat-based diets
• If everyone ate paleo diet, we would need 15 planet earths
• The U.S. government has awarded more than $300 billion in farm subsidies, which goes mostly to corn for high fructose corn syrup and cattle feed. Less than .03% went to growers of apples and vegetables. Twinkies contain 14 ingredients subsidized by farm subsidies.
• Oxford study reports the only type of agriculture that can sustain a growing planet is a plant-based agriculture.

Disrupting our food system will require the kind of innovation, hard work and creativity Silicon Valley is known for. As one of the speakers, Haile Thomas said: 

“I'd like to define soul food as something that really connects to my soul on all levels what really shapes the soul of our food is how it impacts the environment around us, the people who produce our food.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this positioning opportunity and what we can do to make a positive impact on the world and our health.

 How do you get started? Here’s my suggestions. Let me know how it’s going!

1. Start with Meatless Mondays or eating plant-based meals at least once a day
2. Include GBOMS in your diet - greens, beans, onions, mushrooms and seeds
3. I found these documentaries eye-opening and encourage you to talk about them with your friends and family:

• “Forks Over Knives”
• “Game Changers”
• “What the Health”
• “Seaspiracy”

4. The same goes with these books:

• Breasts: The Owner’s Manual by Dr. Kristi Funk
• How Not to Die by Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
• How to Survive and Pandemic by Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
• Undo It!: How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases by Dean Ornish, MD and Annie Ornish

#foodrevolutionsummit #ZoomMarketing #ClimateChange