Actually, I'm as wacky as the next guy, so it's kind of surprising that I didn't really get into a book called The Isaiah Effect, which combines ancient Essene prophecies with modern quantum physics to explain how we can rediscover the lost arts of prophesy and prayer to avoid global destruction and instead usher in an era of peace and love.
Probably I'm down on the book because the author, Gregg Braden, was unshaven in the photo on the back cover, and he looked pretty good. Me, when I don't shave for a day or two, I could audition for "third hoodlum" in a Jackie Chan movie.
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Hey, I like video games as much as the next guy… if the next guy is Mahatma Gandhi. Reuters (reported in The Age out of Australia) shared research on the cardiovascular effects of the video game "Dance Dance Revolution" on overweight kids. They found that while playing the game increased heart rate and burned more calories (than, for example, sitting on their butts watching other people dance on MTV), essentially, it made no difference to their weight or fitness. Keep Reading…
Last month I accompanied my daughter Yael's 5th grade class on an overnight trip to the Haw River State Park and Environmental Education Center. After a day of exploring the outdoors and playing games in a steady rain, we had gone through all our dry and clean clothes, and were sitting together in the gathering pit for a closing event.
One of the resident leaders congratulated us for being such troopers. He said, "Some people think that if they're not in a dry, 72 degree environment, they're not OK. Some people think that they need to be clean to be OK. We need to remember that being a little cold sometimes is OK. Being a little hot sometimes is OK. Being dirty is OK. Remember: DIRT DOESN'T HURT!"
That short statement helped a lot of kids reframe their experiences of the previous 18 hours. It helped me, actually. When I look honestly at my assumptions about comfort and the outdoors, I find a lot of intolerance for discomfort. Keep Reading…
There was an article in the New York Times this week about one man’s “energy diet.” The writer, Andrew Postman, managed to reduce his carbon emissions by almost one ton, without selling his house and moving into a cave. Heck, he didn’t even give up his flat-screen high-def 37-inch TV.
He replaced his regular light bulbs with compact fluorescents, lowered his thermostat in the winter, shortened his shower, and lowered the water temperature on his washing machine. He canceled a bunch of catalog subscriptions, and turned off his cable and satellite box when he went on vacation. He wrapped his hot water heater in a thermal blanket.
My family engaged in a similar pursuit this past month. We and several of our neighbors organized an “Energy Star” challenge. While our goals were noble, our form of feedback was as selfish as we could get: dollars off our monthly electricity bill.
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Q: What do you think of the Weston A Price Foundation?
A: They are half right, and because of this, they are doubly dangerous about the half they get wrong.
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Every so often I see a news report about the "Negative Calorie Foods" diet. Basically, it suggests, certain foods take more calories to chew and digest than they provide. Celery is often given as an example. After eating a few sticks of celery – plain, of course, not slathered in mayonnaise or peanut butter or whatever else – you're thinner than you were before, or so the theory goes.
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My neighbors, who belong to the local Rotary Club and are active in a project to end world hunger, showed me the following remarkable statistics:
In the US every year, we spend
- $18 billion on snacks
- $24 billion on candy
- $20 billion on ice cream
- $103 billion on fast food
- $60 billion on soft drinks
- $45 billion on beer
- $33 billion on diets to deal with it all!
- $102 billion on health care for illnesses directly attributable to obesity (actually, I snagged that stat from www.obesity.org)
For a total of $405 billion annually (That's billion with a "B").
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Turns out eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet (i.e. Yummm!) isn't just good for us – it's also good for the embattled heavenly sphere we call home.
Now that global warming is an undisputable scientific fact (see Time magazine, April 3, 2006 if you're not already doing everything you can to reduce greenhouse gases), and the effects threaten to overwhelm our comfortable existence (tsunamis, hurricanes, threats to the food supply, killer poison ivy, instant ice age, etc.), the question is, what can we do about it? As individuals in our own lives, and as activists for our kids.
Until recently, the trendy way to show your concern was to buy a Prius or other hybrid electric car. And the statistics confirm this as a responsible choice, if you have a family of four or fewer, and your dog is smaller than a chinchilla.
And you can turn down the thermostat, opt for products that aren't overpackaged, and turn off TVs and computers and stereos when you aren't using them. Oh, and don't forget compact fluorescent lights.
But given the gravity of the situation, I wondered, what's the single biggest thing I could do for the planet I'm bequeathing to my children? Short of moving into the woods and wearing a loincloth? Keep Reading…
Q: You talk a lot about the benefits of whole plant foods and the dangers of animal protein, fat and cholesterol. Are you saying I should become a vegan? If so, just come out and say it!
A: Veganism – eliminating animal products, including dairy and eggs – is a wonderful lifestyle choice for some people. The environmental and ethical components alone make it a responsible choice, and the health benefits are well documented.
Four caveats: Keep Reading…