Juicing and Healthy Eating

Let's talk about juicing.

I very recently watched the following documentaries that are all related:

Forks Over Knives

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Food Matters

Hungry for Change

Many of the people, facts, ideas, and theories presented in these documentaries overlap between the 4 different shows.  The first point all of these documentaries have in common is that people today as a whole are not eating enough plant-based whole foods.  We're not eating enough vegetables!

The documentary I watched first, "Forks Over Knives," is very scientific in its approach.  The 2 main people presented in the film are scientists who are also doctors.  They separately came to the same conclusions using different research that complemented the other person's work independently.  Both men in "Forks Over Knives" came to the conclusion that cancer and heart disease can be arrested and even reversed by eating a primarily plant-based diet and they have the scientific proof to show for it.

"Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" talks mostly about juicing as a way of detoxifying and cleansing a body that is "a cheeseburger away from a heart attack."  At first glance, I thought this was a bit extreme, and it is.  But what I really liked about this documentary is that both men who used juicing as an extreme detox method did it under the supervision of a physician, and the director of the film, Joe Cross, stresses the need to consult your doctor if you want to do a detox like the one he did and like the one the other guy did.  The moral of the story?  Don't just decide that you can do on your own what Joe Cross did under the supervision of a doctor.  

I also want to mention here that the doctor Joe was supervised by is mentioned in relation to one of the doctors from "Forks Over Knives."  Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr.'s son, Rip Esselstyn, has his own campaign for the plant-based diet in his book The Engine 2 Diet.  In The Engine 2 Diet, Rip Esselstyn mentions Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who supervised Joe Cross' 60-day juicing detoxification diet, as a source for research into the plant-based diet.  It's also interesting to note that Rip Esselstyn also gives a mention to Dr. Dean Ornish in his book, and Dr. Ornish is mentioned in "Food Matters."

Both "Food Matters" and "Hungry for Change" mention juicing as well as the importance of an abundance of vegetables in a healthy diet.  They also give mention to the anti-cancer benefits of eating clean and eating plant-based.  The guy that directed "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" makes an appearance in "Hungry for Change."  One of the guys from "Food Matters" also appears in "Hungry for Change."

So what does all of this mean for me?  Well it means that I want to change my overall diet and I want to begin to eat healthier.  I am overweight by about 20 lbs.  For my height, my doctor has informed me that a healthy weight is between 125 and 155 lbs.  I currently weigh right around 175 lbs.

I love google and I love doing my own research, so I've been googling like crazy to get so much more information on how to tackle my health and weight loss goals.  I've found a lot of helpful information, and I plan to share it here on my blog through a series of posts that I'm going to tag "healthy weight loss."  Tune back in for more information as I do the research for you!