Photograph by Drajt
How To Save Earth.
One of the best things that happen to me while running except of course staying fit and healthy on a physical level is that I manage to log on into a host of knowledge that I never thought existed. Running for me is like meditation for others. A few minutes into the action and I am gone, I am in my little Zen land lost in my creative and active thinking process and leaving behind stress and anxiety of everyday life and worries of if’s. An excellent book I read recently which incorporate Zen teachings and paradigms in our daily life and also in our creative and artistic life is Koan Creativity: Using Ancient Wisdom to Inspire Modern Kreativity by Tim Ljunggren
Last Saturday I had my long run; I run nearly 30km, it’s part of my 50k training that was held 20 of May 2017 and was organized by Cyprus Ultra. I ran for about 4 hours give and take and that’s a lot of Meditation if you ask me (smile).
One of the issues I was pondering while running was how I managed to turn my life for the better and have this incredible healthy status that I enjoy since 2010. By adopting a plant-based diet and it’s benefits are what enable me to enjoy life to the fullest away from sickness and diseases and away from drugs and medicine with their deadly side effects.
More people die than the side-effects of medicine than the illness itself.
More people die from the side effects of the drugs that are supposed to heal them and make them better than the illness itself. The idea that one medicine can cure all people for me now is insane, why? Well because not all people are the same! We are like snowflakes, unique and our individuality is what we must have as a guide when we are looking for solutions in any area of our precious life. That’s why I am for alternative forms of Medicine than the so-called western medicine where it tries, and that’s the word attempts to cure people with pills and injections.
Recently I read an excellent book written by Meridith Berk and entitled: If Only My Doctor Had Told Me …: Your Rights as a Patient and the Law that Protects You. If you are interested in your health, then this book is an investment for it. It tells you what your rights are as a patient and also the section that I loved it presents you the myriads of other options you except the “western” medicine.
That was one of the issues that occupied my mind while on my running trance. I am glad that I managed to be free from drugs that the only thing they do is to maintain and not cure the so-called chronic diseases (heart conditions, hypertension, diabetes II, high cholesterol, arthritis, some forms of cancer). All these maladies are caused direct or indirect because we eat animal products and heavily processed foods.
Animal Products not good for human consumption.
By removing the food that is not design for the human body namely animal products and feeding it the food that is, namely plants I managed to stay away from the so-called chronic diseases that I just mentioned and so much more. A fantastic book that I always advocate is Dr. Michael Greger’s book entitled How Not To Die, again if you are interested in learning what is the right food for you then this book is for you. This book is excellent and is backed by scientific research and papers that prove beyond reasonable doubt that meat is now what was tobacco smoking years ago where Doctors were advertising and promoting tobacco use!
The knowledge is out there the research is done, meat is not good for us, they only reason this is not a global education anymore is because of economic, political and power interests.
Like with smoking, even after the 1964 report of the General surgeon that smoking kills, smoking was still widely practiced, and it took decades to be banned from closed areas and working places. People still smoke of course, but at least they know that they are using a deadly “product.”
The same thing happens with animal-based “products” too, the knowledge that they are dead is proven. I hope in about 20 years we will see labels on animal “products” warning people that if they consume it, they are risking their health down the road. One institution that is making a difference and I think we all should support it is The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine lead by Dr. Neal Barnard. Their efforts are pioneering, and they are decades ahead of the other conventional doctors.
Also if you are suffering from Diabetes II, then I am telling you that is completely reversible and curable as long as you adopt a balanced plant-based diet. You should buy Dr. Neals Barnard book entitled: Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs.
I wanted to do something for our planet.
A third issue that was pricking my mind while running was the fact that when I was younger, I was always worried about the environment. Maybe because I grew up into nature and still live in a place where I am surrounded by the beauty of mother earth that I still consider that protecting our environment is paramount to our survivor. Maybe I got my ecological conscious from my parents, school, and books I read and perhaps its just common sense not to destroy the place you live!
A beautiful book that explains why we should adopt a plant-based diet is World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony by Will Tuttle.
When I was an omnivore I did try to recycle, plastic, glass and paper and also when I bought my car I decided to get one that was not as polluting as the rest and that was the limit of my Eco-Conscious. I did that, and I thought that I was doing my share of saving the environment.
Before I analyze further my thoughts, I want to answer a question which is, Does Planet Earth needs saving? Think about it. When people say we need to protect the environment, and we need to save the planet, but in reality, they mean let’s save the human race. Let’s admit it the earth Earth either we like it or not is going to continue living with or without us.
As a species we are not the best option for the planet, if the human race were gone from the world then the planet would start living again, it would thrive and heal itself because we are the only species that destroys it.
People think that we are on the top of the food chain, and maybe we are with our technological advantages someone can say that, but the way I see it its the usefulness of a species that plays the vital role for the planet and not what you think you can do.
For example, if the bees and the ants disappear from the world every life will stop to exist in a matter of months, bees and ants from the earth’s point of view are more important than the human species!
Whenever people live, destruction, pollution, and illnesses exist, where animals live, beauty, balance, and life exist.
SO at least when we say save the planet what we mean is protect our selfs, and that cannot be done without saving the world first. If you want a more humoristic version of what I said check out George Carlin’s video on the same subject: Saving the Planet
Now that I am a plant-based eater I realized that I am doing more for the environment and the world that I used to do when I was eating meat and recycle.
The number one problem that is responsible for the most severe pollution and destruction on this planet in any aspect is the breed of animals for human consumption.
The reality of raising animals for food.
Number one cause of the greenhouse effect is livestock production for meat. They feed the poor cows, and another livestock with corn and soybeans which are not their natural food (grass is) and that has a result the production of methane on the other end of the animals. More methane is released into the atmosphere from animal flatulence than any other industrial output globally.
That’s one, another culprit of livestock production for food is the water shortage, this is a small passage from my book Thirsty for Health:
“On average, it takes about 1,790 liters of water to grow 1 kilogram of wheat, compared to 9,680 liters of water for 1 kilogram of beef! Also, per calorie, beef uses up to 20 times more water than grain or potatoes:
- 1kg of beef requires 15,000 liters of water
- 1kg of pork requires 6,000 liters of water
- 1kg of chicken requires 4,300 liters of water
- 1kg of pulses (legumes) requires 4,000 liters of water
- 1kg of soya requires 2,100 liters of water.”
I think the numbers talk by themselves.
Other destructions are happening on our planet because of animal meat production like Land degradation, overgrazing. Use of Agrochemicals, Air pollution, water pollution, Species Extinction, Loss of Biodiversity and of course Climate change. All these issues I also cover in my book Thirsty for Health.
We are killing our planet with every piece of meat we eat. With every piece of meat, we eat either its beef or chicken or fish or seafood we create a market for it when a market is there then people will get the advantage of it. We have been desensitizing as a race. We have some people kill the animals for us, but with every piece of meat, we eat we are killing the animals we are creating the market and the demand.
What I am saying is that if you love the environment, if you like the animals, if you love the planet we live in then the best thing you can do is to eliminate animal products from your diet and embrace a plant-based one.
It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s going to be gradually, but if you want to save our planet, you need to make a decision and commit to it to work. A beautiful book that every person should read is Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth by John Robbins.
It is encouraging though I know many people that are turning to the plant-based lifestyle or adopting a significant percentage of their diet of plants. They either do it for some reasons:
- For their health
- For the planet
- For the animals
- For all the above
An excellent article I read the other days is this has a lot of useful tips on how to reduce your Food’s Carbon Footprint.
Well, those were some of the Issues that were playing in my head yesterday while I was running in the rain (smile).
Knowledge Knows No Bounds: Join Our Cause, Donate to Our Blog Today!