2) Eat mostly vegan

I love statistics. I studied it at university and I worked with it for many ways over 25 years. I only have two rules; check the source and check as many studies as possible. Then you get closer to ‘the truth’, in this case the truth is speaking for the population in general. Over the years studies show that vegans/vegetarians live longer and healthier than omnivores. There is no doubt about it. And it is not that we are generally healthier. Vegetarians smoke and drink as much, it is often a cover up for eating disorders like anorexia and many start off having no clue on how to get enough protein, iron or B12.

Over the years I have found studies which show that vegans or vegetarians live 17-32 years longer then the population in general. They have much less bowl diseases, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, arthritis, fibromyalgia, some cancers, CVD, allergy, and many, many other inflammatory based issues. Vegans/vegetarians are even less over weight and take much less sleeping pills, ‘happy-pills’ and other medication. I believe this is enough information to feel safe in my second recommendation; Eat mostly vegan.

Knowing biochemistry these statistic make perfect sense. Our digestive system (and other systems and organs) don’t feel as well when digesting animal food rather than vegan food. We get an over acidic body and the substances causing inflammation will rise. Today most of the diseases are inflammation based, like all the ones I just mentioned. Why would you want to hurt yourself by causing more inflammation when there is enough in our environment causing it anyway, like stress and pollution?

If you compare a carnivore like a tiger, there are vast differences in our bodies; the teeth, digestion, muscle use… We simply don’t have a body to thrive on meat. We can’t even use the protein. Our bodies have to break it down into amino acids before we can make the human protein it needs. What a waste! The success story of the human is that, as our cousins the big apes, we can digest it, but we shouldn’t. If you want I can explain more in another blog, just let me know.

So if you want to feel better, if you want less inflammation and feel less anxiety, it’s worth cutting down on meat. Try it for 2 weeks, and feel! But only if you bother to learn how to get enough protein from other sources. If you don’t, I recommend you continue to eat it. Not every day, never 3 times a day like a typical anglo diet; bacon and eggs in the morning, ham sandwich for lunch and chicken for dinner.

To get more than enough protein from vegan sources you just have to combine grains, rices, and pulses. So you should have rice with lentils, or millet with black beans, etc. See our food blog for inspiration: http://oliveretreat.com/vegan-recipe-blog/ The key is to only eat whole grains and rices. No white rice, no white bread. It has been refined and depleted of the nutrients and only has refined carbs left, which is the main source for putting on kg’s. If you suspect you might not get the micro nutrients you need take a good multivitamin (goes for everyone).

If you are not convinced yet, if you don’t care about your own health that much, maybe I can convince you using the health of our Earth. Few industries pollute as much as the cattle industry: the methane (from their flatulence) is the worst contributor to the green house effect; the amount and depletion of land used to feed animals is huge too. To produce 1 kg of protein from meat you need roughly 100 times more land than if you would get it from the vegan source. It’s absurd. Just think of all the water and air it wastes. Our health depends on our nature’s well-being. We will never be healthier than what we allow our Earth to be. 

If you are still not convinced think about how they treat the billions of pigs, chickens and cows you eat or drink in dairy from. I won’t even go there, I don’t want to spoil your weekend. You know what I mean. When you feel it’s time for you to reflect upon all this, we’d love to support you. It can be tough, but gives huge health benefits – the mental detox. It’s the non-mass solution, the fundament to get benefits in the mass. It’s mindfulness. Taking action gives peace of mind.

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” —Albert Einstein