Can Diet Save Your Life and the World?
It’s no easy task to be the heir of the world’s largest ice-cream chain and commit to a life of healthy eating. John Robbins, of Baskin-Robbins fame, did just this and he did it by staying true to his belief in health and environment over corporate profit margins. Appalled by the proliferation of high-protein, fad diet books, his book The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life And Our World advocates eating locally, organically grown fruits and vegetables, incorporating whole grains and drinking lots of water while avoiding animal products and processed, refined and fatty foods.
According to Robbins, “There is an increased recognition that eating is not just a culinary act. It’s also an agricultural and a political act, with profound economic and environmental consequences.” Try this out for chaotic cause and effect: monarch butterflies are dying in droves due to genetically-engineered corn growing in the Midwest. There is also a direct correlation between the Big Mac in your hand and the mile-wide river now running across the North Pole. “I’m discouraged by “edible food-like substances,” many of these come in packages adorned with health benefit claims.”
Robbins has some clear steps that will urge more people to become aware of healthy eating.
Become a food activist. Read labels and talk about how your food was produced. Eat far less meat and dairy products, and never eat any that come from factory farms. Without sounding like a broken record, eat more vegetables, whole grains, and fruits.
When you eat a plant-strong diet with a minimum of processed foods, you are taking a stand for your health, for the planet, and for our kinship with all life.