Plant Based Nutrition Certificate Program
Like so many who have made the investment in time and resources to dive below the surface of the Plant-Based nutrition genre, I too have now completed the certificate program offered through the T. Colin Campbell Foundation and delivered via the eCornell learning portal. It was a really tremendous experience!
I won’t bother to recap everything in the course, as I’m sure you can learn that from others who have written about it, or from the T. Colin Campbell Foundation, or from eCornell. I will say that for me, at least, the content that really struck home was somewhat hit and miss. Not that I didn’t get something out of each of the 7 or 8 modules from each of the 3 classes in the certificate program, but the lectures on nutrition in the first class brought me into a realm I knew very little about, having come from a non-science background as far as my career. In the second class, which covered a number of the most recognized chronic diseases, I was utterly captivated, and the lecture by Dr. Esselstyn was just absolutely fabulous! Finally, the last class concentrated more on the application of plant-based knowledge to effect change in the world, but also contained a segment on the environmental impacts of our current food production cycle, which was brutally eye opening. Dr. McDougall also presented an excellent lecture on diet and lifestyle as well, which really hit the mark.
Moving Beyond my Comfort Zone
Anyhow, the program was very good for my thinking, and I hope it will equip me to be more effective in my communication with people who haven’t ever considered the impact they are having on themselves, other species, or on the biosphere by the nutrition choices they have made. I also hope it will put me into a better position so I can perhaps make a difference in public policy. I hope that by communicating with my representatives about how the dietary choices of a society can be either a destructive or creative force, and by getting involved in other activities that may influence a change, that this could in turn change the direction the world is headed in. Although I have already made a difference in some people’s lives, and have been somewhat in the trenches as far as outreach, yet I feel that I’ve also been holding back a little. Maybe that’s because I have not really been a person of political involvement in the past, aside from voting and signing petitions. But I’m ready to step outside of my comfort zone much more now, realizing what is at stake.
The program allowed me to gain a new perspective of who I am and what I represent. I remember way back to my early decision to follow a plant-based way of life and some of the reactions I got from friends, family, and other people I told. I recall feeling awkward and unsure of myself and my decision to follow this path that seemed to violate everything I had ever learned and everything the world was saying and doing. As time went by, however, I learned to cope with this better, but there were still times when my footing seemed to slip and I questioned my own motives at times.
I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland, I suppose.
Go Ask Alice
I now have reached the understanding that I’m not the one that is out of synch with the rest of the world. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Let me give you an example.
Suppose you are presented with two plates of food with one containing elements of the Standard American Diet (SAD), like a juicy steak, baked potatoes with butter and sour cream, and a small portion of veggies, and the other plate containing a heaping serving of lentil stew, a salad, and a big portion of several varieties of steamed squash, carrots, broccoli, and other vegetables.
Which will you choose?
Now if you have been conditioned like most people in the U.S., you grab the plate with the steak and potatoes on it and go to town. Most people who eat this way never think about where the steak came from, how much energy and chemicals were involved in raising and processing the animals, what cruelty or other questionable ethical standards were involved, or how the production process pollutes the the soil, water, and air. Nor do they contemplate all of the horrendous health outcomes that can come from their choices. All of that is simply beyond their comprehension, and even if they know a little about this, they have a defense mechanism that seems to alter their conscience somehow and just blocks it all out.
The problem is this, however: by continuing in this same dietary pattern, people are destroying their health, enslaving other species as a primary food source on a massive and unsustainable scale, and destroying the planet. Now that’s a big negative bang for your animal products-based buck I bet most people never realized!
I guess it takes Alice to put things in the proper perspective, right?
Anyway, a light went on in me at some point during the program, and I realized the predicament people are putting themselves in. It’s as if they are eating and drinking highly concentrated arsenic, mixing it in with the soil in their gardens, blowing it into their houses, and schools, and offices, and all the while complementing each other on how well they are killing themselves, every other living organism, and the entire earth.
THAT’S THE REALITY!
Now who would be stupid enough to do that, you may ask?
The answer is unfortunately almost…
EVERYONE!
Homeostasis Is Health
You see, the food choices you make can be either nutrition promoting, nutrition neutral, or nutrition toxic. In one of the lectures Dr. Campbell gave, he talked about homeostasis, which as I understand it is the body’s tendency to seek stability in all of it’s functions. When foreign proteins or other harmful biochemical agents enter the body and attempt to disrupt cellular function or attack the DNA, as in cancer, your body responds to this attack and effectively eliminates 99.9% of this and flushes them out of your system. Dr. Campbell said this process of homeostasis really is the same thing as health, since all of the complex biological mechanisms at work in the human body seek to get to that state. So when you absorb the right kinds of nutrition in a whole foods, plant-based diet, you are giving your biological defense system what it needs to promote health and fight disease. It’s like putting up a biochemical force field. On the other hand, if you are eating a predominantly animal-based diet with meat and dairy making up 30-50% of your daily caloric intake, as in the Standard American Diet, you are undoubtedly putting a laser rifle to your head, even if you can’t see it.
Turning it Around
Now that I realize this truth, I understand that we who follow a plant-based diet are ambassadors to the world. We make a difference just by being here, by setting an example, and by reaching out to help others who are stuck at various levels of ingrained thinking, and the multiplicity of other closed loop circles of causality that predominate. It would be funny if the situation weren’t so dire, but I feel it’s a bit like talking to someone who’s about to jump over a several thousand foot precipice, while they are trying to convince you to jump with them because of how nice the view will be as you both are plunging to your death.
That’s a leap I don’t care to make!
Let’s make the decision instead to wake up the world from their dietary slumber and put us all on course for a much better future. Let’s leap to whole foods, plant-based health, and let’s turn this sorry state of affairs around!
See you on the other side of the looking glass.
Happy plant-based eating and healthy and sustainable living.
