Eating healthfully is not about vegetarianism
Although it technically is one, I don't think of this as a vegetarian. Eating healthfully is not about vegetarianism, veganism, or any other '-ism'. From a nutrition standpoint, the reason I don't like the terms vegetarian and vegan is that they are defined by what you don't eat. Too often I meet vegans who proudly tell me about their animal-free diet ... which seems to be composed primarily of French fries, fake meat and nondairy ice cream.
That menu may be vegan, but it isn't particularly health-promoting. This is why I prefer the term whole-food, plant-based nutrition. The best available balance of evidence suggests the healthiest diet is one that minimizes the intake of meat, eggs, dairy and processed junk, and maximizes the intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans, split peas, chickpeas and lentils), whole grains, nuts and seeds, mushrooms, and herbs and spices - basically, real food that grows out of the ground. Those are our healthiest choices. What do I mean by whole food? I mean a food that is not overly processed.
In other words, nothing bad has been added, and nothing good has been taken away. A classic example of food processing is the milling of grains, such as transforming whole wheat into white flour or 'polishing' brown rice into white rice. White rice may have a clean look, but it's also practically devoid of the essential nutrients found in brown rice, such as B vitamins. Before food manufacturers started refortifying white rice with vitamins, millions of people died from beriberi, a vitamin B-deficiency disease that resulted from eating nutritionally empty white rice. Even though refined grains are now typically fortified with a few vitamins, they are still deficient in all the myriad phytonutrients found in the whole grain.
Using my definition of nothing bad added, nothing good taken away, I consider pinhead oats, rolled oats and even (plain) instant oatmeal relatively unprocessed, though the best option whenever possible is whole, intact grains. By plant-based, I mean centering one's diet on as many whole plant foods as possible. For How Not to Die, I created a traffic-light system to classify the Green Light foods people should eat more of, the Yell ow Light foods we should eat less of, and the Red Light foods we should ideally avoid on a daily basis. It matters little what healthy folks eat on their birthday, holidays and special occasions. It's the day-to-day stuff that adds up.
'If you find you cannot do a plant-based diet 100 percent of the time, then aim for 80 percent. Any movement toward more plants and fewer animal products [and processed foods] can improve your health!'J I've tried to ensure all the recipes are composed only of Green Light ingredients.
This is not to say that all processed foods are bad for you. Foods are not so much good or bad as they are better or worse. Unprocessed foods tend to be more healthful than processed ones. Think of it this way: adding almonds to your oatmeal is better than putting almond milk on it, whereas almond milk would be better than putting dairy milk on it.
How Not to Die was inspired by my remarkable grandmother who was told at just sixty-five years old that her life was over. Her doctors sent her home in a wheelchair to die. However, soon after being discharged from the hospital, she was watching television and saw a 60 Minutes segment about Nathan Pritikin, who was a pioneer in reversing heart disease through eating a plant-based diet.
My grandmother flew to Pritikin's center in California to see whether his plan might help her. They wheeled her in, and she walked out on her own two feet, healthy. She was able to live thirty-one additional years beyond her death sentence - to continue to enjoy life with her six grandkids, including me.