Ecological "Sandwich"
Promoting Health. For You -- and for the Planet
SOS #201 -- J. Morris Hicks -- (3-14-23)
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Family physician, Dr. Kerry Graff, and I teamed up in 2015 to write the 4Leaf Guide to Vibrant Health featured herein.
Before covering that "ecological sandwich," I wish to dedicate this SOS Memo to my good friend & colleague, Dr. T. Colin Campbell on his 89th birthday.
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Back to our 4Leaf Guide
With a total of thirty-seven concise chapters (averaging 4 pages each) thirty-three of them are all about human health.
The remaining four chapters (all appearing in the 2nd half of the book) are there to subtly remind readers that there is a huge ecological bonus that results when we humans choose to eat the most nutritious & health-promoting diet for our species.
Those four short chapters, coupled with a few passages within the 15-page Epilog comprise that Ecological "Sandwich" that I mentioned in the tagline: Using the Power of Food to Heal Ourselves and Our Planet.
After nearly eight years in print, the 4Leaf Guide remains one of the very few -- if not the only book in existence -- that focuses on human AND environmental health.
In addition to the 37 chapters, this book also includes the epilog mentioned earlier that explains how we got into the mess that we are in today -- and what we can do about it.
Last summer, we decided to start offering that powerful little book to the international public for free -- in this SOS Memo:
If you want to steer a friend to the site where they can easily find this FREE book, it's a simple process:
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First, ask them to go to my website's landing page at hpjmh.com where they'll be greeted by this banner -- which also comprises the primary artwork on the cover of our first book:
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Second, near the top of that landing page, they will see this text regarding:
Two Free Books for the International Public
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Let's move on to a few snippets from the four chapters comprising the "meat" in that ecological sandwich.
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Chapter 27
Cancer, Climate Change & World Hunger
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Over halfway through the book, this is one of my favorite chapters. It covers a great deal of territory in just four pages, beginning thusly: |
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We lumped these three monster problems together because they are widely recognized as the three most serious issues facing humanity--and they all share a common cause and cure.
Cancer is the most-feared of all diseases, climate change exacerbates all of the other environmental issues and world hunger is an ever worsening problem--a stark reminder of the staggering inadequacy of our global feeding model. Let’s take a look at each one of these monster problems:
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Chapter 31
Sustainability is Paramount
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This chapter features convincing advice from a Dartmouth scholar in the second paragraph below:
In the future, things that we value most like family, health, freedom, peace, wealth, friends and happiness--will not exist without sustainability. In other words, if we don’t learn how to live in harmony with nature, life will be nothing more than a hell on Earth for those few of us who manage to survive.
Many scientists now agree that Mother Nature cannot sustain the way we are living for very much longer. One of those scientists is Marcelo Gleiser, PhD, professor of natural philosophy, physics and astronomy at Dartmouth. Shortly before this book was published in the summer of 2015, his article entitled, “The High Price of What We Eat,” was posted on npr.org. His conclusion:
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- “Yes, meat tastes good. But we have to start asking ourselves how long we are going to ignore what is obvious--that our meat-eating culture is not environmentally sustainable. We've moved far from our Paleolithic ancestors. It's time our diet follows our cultural advances.”
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Chapter 32
Profound Lessons from Easter Island
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This chapter features a real-life example of what happens when we rob from nature to feed our unsustainable lifestyles. Remember, Mother Nature always wins in the end. |
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It’s extremely important that we all learn from what happened at Easter Island and that we make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself on the finite space where we all live today-- planet Earth. So what happened on Easter Island?
A small island (About 63 square miles) located 2300 miles off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific, the human settlers (Rapa Nui) are believed to have arrived by boat from Polynesia around 400 A.D. That’s when they began to take charge of this tropical paradise that it took Mother Nature billions of years to build.
Prior to the arrival of the Rapa Nui around 400 A.D., the island had been almost completely wooded with palm trees and was home to thousands of species of birds and insects. Almost all of them went extinct during the first 1,000 years of human occupation. And the humans were well on their way to becoming extinct when the Dutch arrived in 1722.
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Chapter 36
New World of Harmony
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Unless we learn to live in complete harmony with nature, our hostess will ensure that we will not be able to live here at all. Here are "six from Hicks" bullet points from this next-to-last chapter of our book: |
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One. Imagine for a moment that almost everyone in the world is already eating a plant-based diet. That’s right--the billions of farm animals that we once raised for our dinner tables no longer exist. All the great chefs and fine restaurants of the world are focused totally on plant-based dining and are written up in the Michelin and Zagat guides everywhere.
Two. Not only are people raving about the food, chronic disease is almost non-existent and the cost of healthcare in the USA has plummeted to record low levels--now hovering around 4% of the GDP, down sharply from the record of almost 20%.
Three. Prominent medical schools have converted from “disease management” to health promotion and most of the medical costs now are for things like prenatal services, injury repair and cosmetic surgery. Screening tests for cancer are no longer needed since the incidence of that killer disease has shrunk to near zero.
Four. There is enough food and fresh water for everyone on the planet and we are now only using natural resources at a
responsible rate that allows Mother Nature to continuously replace them. The population has stabilized at a sustainable number and we have ended our dependence on fossil fuels.
Five. There is widespread peace and a better quality of life throughout the world as the enormous funds that were formerly spent on healthcare, highly inefficient foods and wars--are now devoted primarily to the complete elimination of world hunger, poverty and illiteracy. The world is once again a place of near complete harmony.
Six. And it all began with a rapid shift from animal-based foods to plant-based foods. But that transformation didn’t get any real traction until enough courageous medical professionals embraced the incredible power of whole, plant-based foods to prevent and reverse disease---and then started enthusiastically promoting it to their patients.
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The Bottom Line
Calling All Doctors! -- by Dr. Kerry Graff
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The final chapter by Dr. Kerry Graff is an appeal to MD's everywhere to embrace a way of eating that not only promotes their own health -- but also the health of the biosphere that keeps us alive. I highly recommend that you read it; then share this SOS Memo with all of the medical doctors you know. Here's how Chapter 37 begins: |
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After first learning the powerful truths about food, many people are motivated (for a variety of reasons) to change their diets immediately--until they visit with their physician. Unfortunately, that’s when they are far more likely to hear words of caution than encouragement.
That’s because most physicians are still eating some version of the Typical Western Diet themselves, and thinking that pills and procedures will fix the diseases they believe are caused by genes and bad luck. After all, they are just doing what they were trained to do.
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To be sure, we still have a chance to get this right. Most people have trouble grasping the concept of humanity going extinct or even the impending collapse of our civilization.
But if their family doctor were fully enlightened about this crucial topic, she or he might simply tell their patients that they are likely perish from heart disease and/or cancer within two years if they don't quickly switch to a diet-style that features over 75% of their calories from whole, plant-based foods.
In the document below, Dr. Graff appeals to physicians everywhere to help make that happen.
P.S. In addition to being of profound importance to a person’s personal health, I have come to believe that “what humans eat” is the most important topic in the history of humanity. The economic and environmental benefits of a plant-based diet are enormous.
Our highly inefficient, harmful and grossly unsustainable western diet is the primary driver of up to 80% of our cost of healthcare and practically ALL of our most serious environmental problems, including climate change.
Indeed, the future of our civilization and our species is being put at risk by what we are putting on our forks and into our mouths. Luckily, the solution to all of these problems is one and the same—eating mostly whole plants. But then, it really isn’t just luck, is it?
For when we take care of Mother Nature, she in turn, takes care of her own.
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The Epilog
Give me 30 minutes & I'll give you 30 years...
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Here is how that epilog begins:
How Did All of This Happen?
By J. Morris Hicks
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It is crucially important that many more people learn the very important truths about the way we eat and how it affects our health and longevity, our environment and the future of life on planet Earth. This final piece may help you understand how we got into this mess in the first place and what we must do to get back to living in harmony with nature.
In 2007, after studying the global human feeding model for five years, I suddenly realized that the rare “big picture” knowledge that I had acquired on this most crucial of topics, must be documented. At that moment, I became concerned that I might die without sharing all of these truths with my loved ones, so I immediately got busy writing.
As I pounded the keyboard of my laptop on a Delta flight from Boston to Atlanta, I was thinking to myself, This is what I would want to tell all of my closest family and friends if I knew that I had just Thirty Minutes to Live, my original title for this piece. I later changed it to the less morbid, Give Me Thirty Minutes and I’ll Give You Thirty Years.
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Finally, are you among the rare group of humans who are making the direct connection between our lifestyle choices and our future as a species on this planet? If so, I would love to collaborate with you. Contact me and tell me your story: jmorrishicks@me.com.
Here are handy links to my five most-recent SOS Memos (in chronological order) on this same theme. It's always the same theme...as long as our children's futures are in peril.
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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.
Also, scroll on down to the Big Picture Documents and Video Section where you will find links to a plethora of references regarding the validity and the urgency of the information contained herein.
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FREE: Two "Big Picture" Books
Our health. Our planet. Our future as a species.
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Here is the first book we are now offering FREE to the world public: a quick and easy read that I published with Stuart Scott in 2020. Just click below for individual links to each chapter. |
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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.
"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 that is now FREE: 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, dairy, 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 Memo with everyone.
Click this image to watch my May 2022 presentation.
A 45-minute talk whose title says it all.
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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, our "Big Picture" section below will provide you with handy reference materials on this most crucial of all topics. |
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"Big Picture" Documents & Video Section
Chronological timeline of climate change research
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This section begins with a conversation with our creator after a 50,000 year absence.
And Mama ain't happy.
Nine more handy "big picture" documents and/or videos:
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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 $2.99 on Vimeo.
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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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