So as you can guess, there ain’t a whole lot of cooking and writing going on here.

While I’m scrambling to prepare for the move, may I direct your attention to my new favorite healthy foodie blog, Happy Katie Eats. I love this gal because I always learn something from her.

I’ll be here the next few weeks, but sporadically. When I return I’ll have a new life, with big plans for this little corner of the internet.

Photo credit davipt

Weighing in at close to 400 pages, The Food Revolution is no light read. And then there’s Robbins’ preachiness and occasionally maudlin anecdotes to muddle through. If you can get past the obstacles, there is quite a bit of useful information. Robbins did his homework and references his sources like an academic, which he is not. There is too much repetition, though, and I think the book could have been whittled down to half the size.

I will summarize each of the sections so you can decide if you want to investigate further:

Section 1: Your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other diseases is greatly increased if you eat an animal-based diet. Conversely, a plant based diet has been shown to reduce these risks. I checked one of Robbins’ sources, the American Institute for Cancer Research report titled “Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer“. The scope of this project is impressive. A panel of scientists and reviewers gathered the medical literature over the last few decades and summarized it to 8 key recommendations for preventing cancer. Recommendations #4 and 5: eat a plenty of plant foods and avoid animal foods, respectively. I recommend you read the 12 page summary if you are interested in learning more.

Robbins continues by warning that many food borne pathogens like salmonella originate from animal foods, yet another reason to reduce their consumption if your health is a concern.

Section 2: The factory farm industry is cruel to animals. Duh.

Section 3: The largest polluters of our air, soil and water are the meat and dairy industries. Their impact on our environment doesn’t stop there. Millions of acres of rain forest have been cleared and countless species have gone extinct so that crops to feed meat animals can be grown. This occurs in countries where a large part of the population has barely enough food to live on. So in a sense, the land of the poor is being co-opted to feed the wealthy. Ick.

Section 4: Genetic engineering is scary because no one is doing the proper research to assess it’s impact on native species. Likewise, no one knows if there are any harmful effects that may arise from the consumption of these foods.

Do I believe every word in The Food Revolution? No. While Robbins’ does a thorough job of citing his references, there are a few arguments here and there that seem to be based on speculation rather than hard scientific evidence. Nonetheless, some very good points are made. By reducing your consumption of animal products you substantially reduce your risk of disease and take huge steps towards protecting the environment. I like to think of my approach as “flirting with vegetarianism”. I have reduced my consumption of animal products to a few meals a week. I’m still not certain if I will go 100% vegetarian, but I’m starting down that path. To me, the best form of health insurance is to do whatever I can to reduce my risk of disease. I call it growing my health fund.

If you go to my shelfari virtual bookshelf, you’ll see what I’m up to. Nevermind “Walter the Farting Dog”, I want you to focus on the last four books I added. See? I’m going to read all of that info and distill it into domestic/scientific geekery the likes of which the internet has never seen!

Invest your bling in your health savings

I don’t mean to be all Debbie Downer. What I want to say in this post is that, given the odds of finding a cure, to me it makes a lot of sense to try my best to avoid cancer altogether. I know it’s not a sure bet, but living a healthy lifestyle is the best way to do it. I got to thinking: Why don’t I approach my health like I do my retirement fund? I sock away a portion of my paycheck every month in the hopes that there will be enough to support me when I decide to quit working for good. What if for every vegetable I eat, for every glass of water I drink instead of a soda, for every minute of exercise I endure, I think of it as dropping a few bucks into a health fund? It’s the same principle: take an action today that is intended to pay off in the future. With a health fund, I am “investing” in my golden years, in the quality of life I want to have. When I retire, I want to travel the world and volunteer and garden and write a novel…I better start aggressively investing in MY health fund if I’m going to do all of that.

Photo credit Brooks Elliott

How stupid is it that I’m actually taking this trip? Very. This is my point, I guess. As much as I try to live a healthy lifestyle sometimes I’m forced to make decisions that aren’t exactly “healthy”. ASCO is the biggest event of the year for my company, and my counterpart at work has just welcomed a newborn baby boy into his household. Budget cutbacks have limited the participation from the rest of our team. My boss and I are IT this year, plus one of my team mates who graciously offered to pay his own way to attend. My boss told me I could skip it, but I know I’m really needed so I’m just gonna grit my teeth and power through.

Say a little prayer for me that I am 100% better tomorrow. I get the feeling I’m in for a bumpy ride.

Yay, Chicago! I took this from the Sears Tower, facing north.

I’ll be back next week and I might have time to put up something before I head out again, this time to Florida. I’m attending the biggest cancer conference of the year, ASCO. Hopefully I’ll some great information to share with you when I return.