12 Steps to Whole Foods

Introduction
The best flavors on the planet are the natural ones, and I have made every effort to leverage a wide variety of
flavors and textures in my recipes. The goal is to make your exploration of a mostly raw, plant-based diet more
than just a move toward optimal health—it should also be an exciting adventure for your taste buds!
How Do I Know What’s True and What’s Not in Nutrition?
Advances in the field of nutrition are taking place faster than ever in history. For example, just this decade, the
“master hormone” leptin, which governs the other hormones, was discovered. New data calls into question the
popular counsel of the past decade to eat 4-6 small meals daily: leptin research suggests that we should eat
three meals daily and allow our bodies much rest from digestion. In just 2004, a class of glyconutrients (sugars)
have been found to have powerful healing properties, which disputes a decade of anti-carb “experts.”
Many people become frustrated by all the new information and competing voices telling us what to eat, what
not to eat, and why. So that you don’t give up and “throw the baby out with the bath water,” I have a bit of
common-sense advice that super-simplifies the essence of a statistics class.
The main way to push through the inevitable cognitive dissonance is to read and learn all you can: this book is
a good start, and you may also consider the reading list found on www.greensmoothiegirl.com (and also at the
end of this book). Whenever you encounter contradictions, consider several things.
First, what is the funding behind the research? You don’t have to become paranoid to examine whether research
was undertaken to objectively examine an issue or to promote an agenda. It’s simply a part of being a savvy
consumer of information in an age when we are all bombarded with thousands of voices. For instance, if a
study tells you that drinking wine daily prevents heart disease, use your critical thinking skills. Why did
researchers study wine instead of grape juice—or better yet, grapes? Before you go out and stock up on a
year’s supply of wine, ascertain, if you can, who paid for the study. Was it the wine growers of Sonoma Valley?
Often studies in the modern age are funded, second-level, by an industry wanting to promote a product (often
one that is under fire), even if the legitimate-sounding researchers named in the media, such as a university, is
not directly linked to a motive.
Second, is the study valid? This is the highest standard in statistics and research, and it means Does the study
measure what it purports to measure? This seems simple enough, but it is, in fact, a difficult thing for
researchers to achieve. If wine drinkers have much less cancer than beer drinkers, wine must be preventing
cancer, right? Not necessarily. Maybe wine drinkers are a higher socioeconomic class than beer drinkers, in the
aggregate, and beer drinkers also eat more fast food and smoke at higher rates.
Third, is the study reliable? This is the second basic research standard, and it means Is the research repeatable
with consistent results? Reliability is one of the best things about Colin Campbell’s The China Study, the
largest nutrition study in history, which will be referenced throughout this book. Dr. Campbell’s animal
research showing the benefits of a low-animal-protein diet were duplicated by other researchers, using various
animals, all over the world. The results were very consistent in showing that a plant-based diet prevents disease
and an animal-protein diet causes all the maladies of the modern age.
10 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw