What if I told you that I had that magic pill and was willing to share it with you?

This magical little pill has so many benefits. Some of them include purifying your blood, preventing cancer, improving circulation, strengthening your immune system, clearing blemishes, improving kidney functions, lifting your spirit and eliminating depression.

Would you want some magic?

I forgot to mention that there are no side effects to this pill.

You’d have to be a fool to turn it down.

You don’t need to visit a doctor, get a prescription orvisit a pharmacy for this magic pill. You simply need to go to the grocery store and buy some dark leafy greens. You heard right! Dark leafy greens give you all of the above benefits and more.

So why are so many American devoid of these amazing plants in their diet?

Maybe it’s because of the way vegetables are viewed.

The last commercial on TV that I saw last night made me want to throw tomatoes at the screen although I would never throw my beautiful tomatoes. But I admit, I was quite angry and frustrated at what I was witnessing on national television.  Here’s how it went down. A Mom and Dad were trying to hide the fact that there were some added veggies (heaven forbid) in the “canned dinner” (disgusting-proceesed- chemicalized- made- in- a- factory- mush) they were feeding their children. So if that weren’t bad enough, suggesting that if the kids FOUND OUT!! – they would be horrified and not eat the mush!

Or maybe it was the commercial of the girl eating a peach at her desk, suggesting that is was too messy (some juice squirted out of the peach as she bit into it) and offering the peach in a nice pretty sugarized drink instead.

Or maybe it’s those cookbooks that suggest you disguise and hide those beautiful vegetables so that the kids won’t know they are eating them.

So why the deception and perception that vegetables are disgusting and fruits are messy?

Research and facts show that you can’t get better nutrition than in fruits and vegetables. They are nutrient rich. It is, in my opinion, criminal to suggest that we need to hide their beauty and taste in some fake way. Shouldn’t we be teaching that there are simply, quick, and easy ways to prepare vegetables. Shouldn’t we be showing that they are delectable, delicious and make you feel good?  Why would we deceive?  This brings to mind the quote by Goethe, “We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves”. The information and the facts are right in front of us. We as a nation need to fight back and we can do that with our money. We should be spending our money on the products that promote our health and longevity instead of with the companies that would choose to deceive us.

Vegetables are sacred to me.  I love them. I worship them. Hell, I would marry KALE if I could. Every time I eat kale, I feel so good- energetic, powerful, and strong!    I want to share that message with the world, instead of hiding and disguising them in other dishes.

So don’t leaf me out. Include me in every meal. Here are some suggestions to integrate some leaves into your life:

1. TAKE A VISIT -Visit your local Asian Market. Buys something you’ve never tried before. Maybe it’s bok choy (see attached simple, quick and easy recipe for nutrient rich bok choy apple salad).
2. TRADE PLACES – Try adding meat (if you eat it) as the condiment and side dish to a huge bowl of salad. Instead of the other way around.
3. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX – Make it your goal to buy most of your products without a box. What kinds of foods can you eat that are as close to their natural state as possible? Spinach, arugula, romaine, boston, swisschard, kale leafs can all be chopped up into an amazing salad and eaten raw. How simple quick and easy is that?  There are no excuses and best of all, no detrimental side effects.

Green and / or lean?

See the Nutrient Rich Food and Recipe Database at www.nutrientrich.com

This is a big question and it’s been on the minds of people for decades, particularly the last 50 years. This question raises countless more questions about health, whether you’ll get enough protein, calcium etc, and less importantly, but no less urgent for most people, it raises questions around weight.

What’s the best way to lose weight or burn fat when it comes to diet?

Is it lean foods or green foods?

Well, if you consider the primary message of the diet industry, the dominant answer has been “low carb”, which, translates to eating lean, high protein animal foods that have virtually no carbohydrate. If you are relatively inactive, depriving your body of carbohydrate works just about every time to quickly eliminate water weight and promotes the use of body fat as a fuel source.

Given the fact that most people are relatively inactive (physically speaking) and the fact that animal foods taste good, are super stimulating and therefor “boost” your metabolism, they are great for weight loss, and this is a particularly powerful message.

Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?

You don’t have to have a particularly healthy lifestyle and you can manage your weight!

Millions bought into this seemingly intelligent message and still do, even though, the low carb message has fallen out of favor since is main proponent, Dr Robert Atkins, of the Atkins Diet died of a heart attack, because of an animal product based diet.

Whoops, he diet clogged his arteries.

The problem, even though eating predominantly lean low carb foods, like lean chicken and fish (and now bison) another lean, low carb, fat loss food, helps you lose weight and are rich in some nutrients, they are nutrient poor poor as a whole food.

They are defined as whole foods, but nutrient rich, they are not.

Yeah, you heard me, chicken and fish are nutrient poor.

Want to know why?

Lets look at lean:

* Their protein is not health promoting: Ref: The China Study – The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted, Revealing the Relationship Between Diet and Disease with Startling Implications!

* They are high in saturated fat and loaded with injected hormones. Even if they are grass fed, they are still loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol.

* They have virtually no carbohydrate,
* And while they are rich in some vitamins and minerals, and “EFAs” (fish)…
* They have no fiber,
* They have no water, and
* They have no phytochemicals… you know those things that protect your cells and keep you free of radical toxins in your system?
* They also promote faster growth and “aging” for that matter,
* And, not to mention, the mass production of animal foods just plain rapes the earth.

If you compare the natural resources required to produce one pound of beef versus a bushel of vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts or grains, you would be startled. And given our current environmental situation in the world, producing nutrient poor animal foods at that cost seems hardly worth it.

Especially, when the unspoken but generally accepted and primary reasons why we eat animal products at the level we do, are as follows -

1) We still think that animal foods represent “rich” and affluence.

Historically and socially eating animal foods meant you were eating first class, but that was when calories ware scarce and regular access to animal foods was rare. Kings and queens weren’t exactly known for their health and fitness; rather gout, diabetes and heart disease.

Today food is abundant for most people, and the only thing animal foods are rich in, besides some nutrients are calories and substances your body does not need. Yes, they are rich in protein but I don’t think anyone is suffering from a lack of protein these days, given it’s in everything, and the only way you would ever show signs of protein deficiency would be if you were lacking calories.

2) We eat animal foods because they help physically less active people maintain their weight.

And for those who are more active, they lose even more weight!

That’s it.

It’s easy to lose weight the nutrient poor way, eating a low carb, high animal protein diet if you want. The only thing you need to do for fat loss, is trade your health!

Does that sound like a fair trade to you?

I dont think so.

You need a Nutrient Rich diet to be optimally healthy, for higher performance and only nutrient rich foods, will promote natural weight loss if you know how. That would mean you would need to know how to lose weight the nutrient rich way and that’s a different discussion.

Even if they are lean, animal foods can’t hold a candle to green foods that are Nutrient Rich.

Now let’s look at green:

Green foods, don’t just mean salads and string beans, they refer to foods that are rich in all the nutrients we need to succeed, and they don’t contain food stuffs we don’t need, like saturated fat and cholesterol, and they are good for the planet.

* Their protein is health promoting: Ref: The China Study – The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted, Revealing the Relationship Between Diet and Disease with Startling Implications!

* They don’t have saturated fat and aren’t with injected hormones. We don’t have to talk about grass fed, becuase they grow in the same stuff grass does.
* They don’t have cholesterol
* They have real food carboydrate
* They are vitamins and minerals, and “EFAs” (nuts)…
* They have plenty of fiber,
* They have plenty of whater
* They are rich the thousands of phytochemicals… you know those things that protect your cells and keep you free of radical toxins in your system?
* They do not promote faster growth and reduce the rate of “aging” for that matter,
* And, their mass production better respect the earth we live in.

See the Nutrient Rich Food and Recipe Database at www.nutrientrich.com

Right now one of the biggest consumers of oil, and our food, is the animal products industry, to the tune of over 30%! This just doesn’t make sense on any front other than economics because this industry employes a great many people. That I cannot deny, it is a reality and one that needs to be taken into consideration. Why else would anyone support the production of animal protein at over $10,000 per lb…(true!) It happens because of the economy, it has nothing to do with healthy nutrition.

Note: For those of you who are right now, thinking “I know where this is headed” keep reading… this is not an article on being a vegan or a carnivore or a vegetarian.

When you are going beyond optimal health, and demanding high performance (like most people are these days) you will have increased needs for protein, amongst increased needs for other nutrients too.

There are easy ways to increase your nutrient intake without having to eat so much extra food, and can promote faster recovery without accumulating health problems from eating too much of foods that are known to be rich in protein, but cause other health problems – that’s the subject of another article.

Green and / or lean?

Well, let’s discuss this, with a commitment to the most considerate answer.

The premise to the answer is this.

There are 3 Classes of foods…

The foundation of a healthy diet, are the first class foods we call nutrient rich, the worlds healthiest foods on the planet. They are rich in all the nutrients we need to function and perform optimally, for health and success.

The most nutrient rich are leafy greens, then beans, fruits, raw nuts and seeks and whole unrefined grains. Smaller amounts of second class foods we call nutrient poor, if you eat them. Thy are rich in some nutrients but as a whole they are nutrient poor; such as lean fish, chicken, low fat dairy….

Whatever you do, don’t base your diet on them!

And get rid of refined foods, if you eat them at all. Notice I didn’t say processed (there are many health promoting processed foods). I said “refined” foods where the nutrient value has been literally stripped out of them, with virtually nothing left but stimulating chemicals. These are third class foods otherwise known as Nutrient Barren.

What you do you want to eat?

• First class?
• Second class?
• or
• Third class?

I think you have your answer.

Today, “eating first class” means eating at least 90% of nutrient rich foods that are “rich” in nutrients and appropriate in calories. Not all nutrient rich foods are low in calories, but because they are rich in all the nutrients you need for your body to succeed, you just don’t need to eat that much of them.

The better you eat, the less you need to eat, for health, higher performance and natural weight loss.

The question is, how are you going to transition your diet to Nutrient Rich, to accomplish your personal objectives like health, higher performance, natural weight loss?

~ JAM

John Allen Mollenhauer “JAM” is the founder the Performance Lifestyle Community and Training Center where every day achievers – fast tracked business owners, professionals and parents learn how to maintain higher levels of health, energy and fitness so they can perform well and achieve their goals while maintaining their quality of life.

As a former worn down workaholic turned Healthy High Achiever, John Allen Mollenhauer (aka “John Allen”) helps you optimize your lifestyle similar to the way athletes do for better results, even if you are not into sports or a fitness enthusiast. Unleash your full potential to perform, look and feel better and achieve your goals even more successfully, in a Performance Lifestyle.

He is also the founder of Nutrient Rich – The Most Successful Way to Eat for Health, High Performance and Natural Weight Loss, and Lose weight the Nutrient Rich Way.