Proving the health-promoting power of
4Leaf Plant-Based Eating
Feeding 500 aircraft carrier sailors for six months
SOS #184 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (11-15-22)
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So what is 4Leaf eating? It simply means that over 80% of one's daily calories are derived from whole, plant-based foods. It is not necessarily vegan or vegetarian -- words that mean different things to different people.
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Full Disclosure. I regret to inform you that despite the headline of this SOS Memo, the likelihood of such a dietary clinical trial aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford is extremely low. Right now, it is just an idea that I am promoting.
But that does not mean that it will never happen. Read on.
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Last week's Bottom Line
We know that billions of people shifting to a dietary regimen consisting of whole, plant-based foods, will promote human AND environmental health -- and is, by far, our best possible chance to survive climate change.
Now, we must prove it!
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Since discovering the simple truth about health-promoting, disease-reversing nutrition twenty years ago, I have been trying to figure out a way to prove that simple truth once and for all. I used to think that a prison might be an ideal setting for conducting a clinical trial for testing the efficacy of a whole food plant-based diet.
After all, in a prison, the researchers could control exactly what the participants were eating -- and cheating is not possible. But, I now realize that conducting the research aboard the largest vessel in the world would provide us with a much better story to tell.
Many pioneering heroes of mine have already provided us with the clinical proof that a whole food, plant-based diet is capable of promoting vibrant health and reversing chronic disease -- while doing some wonderful things for the environment at the same time. We can now build on their work.
Those heroes include this group in no particular order: Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. John McDougall and Dr. Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
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All six of the above heroes appear in my books and in many of my SOS Memos.
Today, I am adding a new heroine to this esteemed group. Earlier this year, Dr. Michelle McMacken was named to a key health promotion role within the Mayor Eric Adams administration of New York City.
Dr. McMacken's new position is announced in this recent press release, dated 9-29-22:
Her new title is Executive Director, Office of Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine, NYC Health + Hospitals. I have known Dr. McMacken since 2015 and am honored that she has been using our 4Leaf Survey in her work.
Also, her mother, Maria, was kind enough to translate that survey into Spanish. Here is a link to the 2019 updated English version of that two-minute, 12-question, multiple choice survey.
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As you may have noticed in the subject line above, I borrowed the title of this 2017 documentary -- the one that convinced my daughter and her family to join me and other family members in adopting a whole food, plant-based diet.
A superb 90-minute film, you can find it on Netflix.
So, what the "health" is 4Leaf doing on an aircraft carrier?
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In last week's SOS Memo, I introduced Nicole Hadden who had written an article about her experiences of...
After reading her interesting piece, I started thinking about the possibilities of conducting a massive clinical trial at sea for testing the overall effectiveness of a diet-style that she had been passionately embracing for years.
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Since completing her Navy tour, Nicole has gone on to study nutrition.
Wouldn't it be great if she were to head up an at-sea validation of whole food, plant-based eating?
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First, let's talk about what that process might involve. Since creating the 4Leaf Survey and the entire 4Leaf "system" of health promotion ten years ago, I am frequently asked if the 4Leaf formula had been officially validated. |
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It has not been, but an envisioned six-month clinical trial with 500 sailors aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford would be a spectacular, and newsworthy, way to get that done.
And, it just might plant the seed
that could prevent the demise of humanity.
It can do that by hastening the shift in the direction of plant-based eating all over the world. It will take many decades before "cultured meats" are available for mass consumption; whereas, disease-reversing plant-based foods are available now.
And those new space-age meats will not have the disease-reversing power of whole, plant-based foods, although they would be much better for the environment than the HUGE global animal-based food industry.
Back to 4Leaf. By definition, eating at the 4Leaf level simply means that over 80% of one's daily calories are being derived from whole, plant-based foods. That does not need to be validated. I explained the simple 4Leaf concept in this five-minute video in 2013. Just click on this image:
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Keeping things simple. My simple graph below, from 2019, makes it real easy to understand the 4Leaf algorithm. It is based upon the range of possible scores on the ultra-simple 4Leaf Survey with 12 multiple choice questions.
The possible scores range from -44 (zero calories from whole plants) to +44 (with ALL calories coming from whole plants). You get + points when you eat whole plants and minus points when you eat animal-based and other highly-processed foods.
When you draw a straight line from -44 to +44 on the graph below, it makes it real easy to understand the algorithm. We set the top bar at the 4Leaf level which begins with a net score of +30, above which one is likely deriving over 80% of their calories from whole plants.
Remembering my geometry from college, that straight line up the 4Leaf scale is the hypotenuse of this simple triangle.
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Ask me to conduct a Zoom call with your group and I will explain the entire 4Leaf concept with 3rd grade math.
During the past ten years, I have received fewer than ten complaints about the 4Leaf Survey. They were all from medical professionals who insisted that they were eating at the 4Leaf level, even though their score placed them at the 3Leaf level. Since then, we have tweaked the algorithm a bit and have resolved that single, very minor issue.
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What really needs to be validated?
The simple fact is this: As one's score moves up the 4Leaf scale from well below zero to (+30) and higher, their biomarkers improve dramatically.
We can prove it on the carrier!
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The chart below describes what happens as one moves from the "Unhealthful Diet" level (with less than 10% of calories from whole plants) to the 3Leaf level with at least 60% (estimated) of their daily calories from whole plants.
After a decade of using this simple survey, we know for certain that it works. Now, the world needs to hear that great news -- and during a clinical trial aboard that aircraft carrier, we can take a giant step toward making that happen. In so doing, we will have successfully "validated" the 4Leaf Survey -- finally!
This chart for refrigerators everywhere, serves as a constant reminder of the plethora of health benefits that accompany a steady shift toward 100% whole food, plant-based eating.
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Today's Bottom Line
We still need to prove the simple truth about what humans should be eating. And we can get that done aboard the mighty Gerald R. Ford
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How do we make that happen? With a combination of three things: Passion, Money and Leadership.
The nine women pictured below have all of those bases covered. Between them, there is a great deal of knowledge, power, money, and the respect of billions of people around the world.
The first four (Greta, Jane, Kate and Sylvia) could float the idea with the other five women, the idea of producing a blockbuster movie about the yet-to-be-told story aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford.
These nine women have the brains, the knowledge and the influence to make it happen. Once fully enlightened, they could make 4Leaf a powerful global force in a matter of months.
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You can help make it happen. Just send a link to this SOS Memo to all of the most influential people you know. And, if you have email addresses for some of those pictured above, just send that link to each of them.
What the Health? The same thing that promotes health in our own bodies -- also promotes health for the biosphere that gives us life. Let's all help promote that simple truth around the world ASAP.
If we do it soon enough, the innocent children of the world just might have a bright future after all...
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As always, at the end of these SOS Memos, we provide tons of FREE data & "big picture" reference materials, beginning with free access to our two latest books. After the books below, scroll on down to the:
"Big Picture" Data and Video Section
In closing, do you want to do your part to help people get healthy...while slowing, stopping or even reversing climate change at the same time? Then, share this SOS Memo and the free books below with everyone you know.
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FREE: Two "Big Picture" Books
Our health, our planet and climate change
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To our knowledge, OUTCRY is the only book ever published that features a summary of "outcries" from the natural world, along with consensus conclusions of nine big picture scientists regarding our dilemma — AND an envisioned sustainable civilization of the future, using today’s technology.
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In mid 2022, we began giving this book away free of charge.
"the most important info in all of humanity is going undiscussed."
We're talking about the crucial information regarding how we can possibly slow or stop climate change within a few years.
Want to help relieve the desperate situation in which we find ourselves, read OUTCRY as soon as you can and send it to everyone you know. Just click on the book cover above.
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Here is the 2nd book we are now offering FREE to the world public: a quick and easy read that I wrote with Dr. Kerry Graff in 2015.
Using the Power of Food
to Heal Ourselves and Our Planet
This compact book is still highly relevant, focusing on helping people take charge of their health and reverse chronic disease by urgently shifting to a whole-food, plant-based way of eating.
A fringe benefit of their efforts is the steady downsizing of the leading driver of climate change: animal agriculture. Merely suggesting that the masses cut back on their meat, diary, egg and fish consumption will accomplish very little.
We want everyone to completely eliminate all animal-based foods from their diet. Yes, that includes cheese, eggs and all forms of seafood.
For your children and grandchildren, just do it!
Please share today's timely SOS with everyone.
Click the image below to hear my recent (May 2022)
45-minute talk regarding much of what has been covered in my recent SOS Memos.
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Finally, please contact me about arranging a FREE "live" Zoom talk for your group. They will get a lot more out of my talk if they have read our two FREE books in advance of my talk.
Sincerely, J. Morris (Jim) Hicks
PS: Scroll on down for more "big picture" information that is mainly in the form of powerful videos, most of which are free.
For a concise summary of "big picture" information about our situation, take a look at the landing page of my primary website that I recently updated. Just click hpjmh.com
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What about the "preservation" of civilization? |
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To clarify, we're not trying to preserve civilization as we know it. Because what we have now is extremely wasteful, harmful and grossly unsustainable. It's an incredibly reckless way of living that is now threatening our very existence as a species.
We're talking about replacing it with an entirely new, ultra-green civilization of the future -- and we do our best to paint a picture of that envisioned way of sustainable living in OUTCRY. For what one Ohio State professor emeritus of history had to say about that book on Amazon, click here.
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As for making our stand on the only planet in the universe capable of keeping us alive, this "Big Picture" section below will provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics. |
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"Big Picture" Data and Video Section
Beginning with the timeline of research
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Five World-Changing Films
That People Everywhere Must See
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Film #1 in 2014
In 2014, Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn produced their first documentary film Cowspiracy. Executive producer is Leonardo DiCaprio, it runs 90 minutes and has been on Netflix since 2015. In 2020, I met Kip and Keegan in Sedona where I was honored to be able to speak at the same conference with them and other great leaders in this movement like Dr. Sailesh Rao and Dr. Michael Greger.
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Film #3 in 2021
In 2021, Kip Anderson teamed up with British filmmaker Ali Tabrizi, to produce Seaspiracy, an 89-minute film that vividly and alarmingly reveals what is at stake when it comes to the crucial importance of our oceans to our future as a species. Most people have no idea regarding the environmental horrors of commercial fishing -- a disgusting industry that kills dolphins by the thousands and tosses them back into the ocean. It runs 90 minutes on Netflix. Click here to view the trailer.
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Film #4 in 2021
As our situation becomes more desperate, the documentary films become more terrifying. As alluded to earlier, we are literally Eating Our Way to Extinction, a process that is vividly covered in this 2021 film (81 minutes). Narrated and produced by Kate Winslet, you can watch this great film on Amazon Prime or on YouTube for $3.99. The great ocean scientist and former head of NOAA, Dr. Sylvia Earle lends powerful credibility to such a crucial topic.
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Film #5 in 2022
This new film (89 minutes) features a young activist who travels around his country, New Zealand in an effort to find out the truth about the horrors of the dairy industry in his native land.
The film uncovers alarming information about the environmental and health impacts of the industry -- leading up to the discovery that we are on the edge of the biggest global disruption of food and agriculture in history. This new film is now available for free at waterbear.com
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Grasping the "Big Picture"
These 2 films will help in understanding
our unprecedented dilemma.
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This 83-minute documentary is all about the findings that were documented in Dr. Stephen Emmott's 2013 book. TEN BILLION.
He brilliantly describes the grossly unsustainable way of living that has brought us to the emergency situation in which we find ourselves. Since I met him in London in 2013, he has become much more serious about the need to abolish the practice of eating meat, dairy, eggs and/or fish at almost every meal.
Just click on the hourglass image. Dr. Emmott delivers a very compelling message from the stage of a theater in London. This 2013 film is still relevant and will certainly help more people grasp that all-important "big picture."
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Finally, this half-hour video was published in November of 2021. It was produced by Michael Dowd, a non-scientific researcher like me who does a very fine job of explaining the many facets of the obstacles standing between us and our survival as a species.
As do practically all researchers, Dowd focuses entirely on the problem; not the solution. I prefer to focus on both.
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What else can you do?
Probably a lot more than you think
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Start with the new documentary (Film #4) mentioned earlier -- Eating our way to Extinction for $6 on Netflix. Watch it often with your friends and family.
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Share this SOS Memo widely: Certainties, Uncertainties & Priorities by J. Morris Hicks.
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Get an e-copy of OUTCRY. Visit Outcry page on Amazon and get a much bigger understanding of the situation in which all humans find ourselves.
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Inform all the young people in your world that you are deadly serious about this topic. Urge them to read these SOS Memos and our latest book, OUTCRY.
- Completely stop eating meat, dairy, eggs and fish today and tell everyone why you are taking such a "radical" step. You're doing it for the innocent children of the world.
- As noted above, do yourself a favor and make sure that your plant-based meals of the future consist of whole plants -- the kinds of foods that prevent or reverse most chronic diseases AND enable your body to effortlessly seek its optimal weight.
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I am confident that if a few million people carefully read and digested this book that there would be a more robust conversation around the world regarding our grossly unsustainable way of living in the developed world.
To my knowledge, OUTCRY remains the only book ever published that features an envisioned, totally-green, ultra-sustainable, super-desirable, future way of living for humans -- along with ideas for how we might get there as quickly as possible.
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The links below to earlier SOS Memos will help you understand how these ideas unfolded since 2018. |
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Promoting health, hope and harmony on planet Earth |
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