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Step 7: Use Extra Motivators

 

When you’re faced with an overwhelmingly seductive food, it helps to remember why a change is important. This chapter presents an extra boost to keep you on track, based on the many benefits of changing the way you eat. Of course, different motivations matter to different people, depending on their ages, values, and backgrounds, and range from increased longevity and health improvements for your children to advantages for the environment.

I have a business associate, Kent, who is a classic example of a low-D₂ individual—the sort of person born with less than the normal number of dopamine receptors, as we saw in chapter 1. Like many people with this genetic trait, he feels chronically empty and gets hooked on everything that feels momentarily good. He used to smoke, drink in binges, and overeat high-calorie food. Despite having gained quite a bit of weight over the years, he just didn’t have enough motivation to overcome his unhealthy eating habits. Even after getting married and the birth of two children, he still carried on risking his own health.

Finally, his doctor sat him down for a serious talk. He sternly pointed out that he was not only too overweight to play with his children, he was almost certain to have a heart attack—particularly considering that his family history was riddled with heart problems. The doctor looked him in the eye and asked if he had a will. This stunned Kent. “What do you mean?” he asked. The doctor repeated his question: “Do you have a will?”

Kent was speechless in the face of what seemed a pretty nervy thing for a doctor to ask. But his doctor quietly explained that, in his medical opinion, the risk of serious health consequences and even premature death was too great to ignore. And the fact was that Kent clearly needed to be ready to spare his wife and family the difficulties that would come if he died without having prepared for it. Kent chuckled at what he took to be a joke, but the doctor looked dead serious.

Well, as Kent drove home, the message sank in. His father had, in fact, died of a sudden heart attack in his mid-forties, when Kent was just twelve years old. And he had to admit that he himself was not exactly a picture of health. By the time he pulled into his driveway he made a dramatic decision. First of all, he started seeing a psychiatrist for a brief course of treatment dealing with anxieties and stress that seemed to drive him toward overeating, drinking, and tobacco. Then, along with his wife, he consulted a dietitian for a better meal plan.

Over the next year he lost a considerable amount of weight, despite also quitting smoking. He relied fairly heavily on his doctor’s and dietitian’s support, calling them with one question or another every week or two. And he also managed to get “addicted” to something healthy: He joined an aerobics class that was down the block from his office. It started out slowly, but over about a year’s time it got vigorous enough that he felt what he took to be a bit of “runner’s high.” He now works out every day (he is actually afraid to stop), and, surprisingly enough, aspires to one day become a fitness instructor himself. I have never seen such a behavioral transformation. The key was finding the right motivator.

 

What Really Matters to You?

 

Sometimes finding the right motivator is a bit of a challenge. Several years ago a community group outside New York City asked me to give a series of nutrition lectures at various schools. Dean Ornish had just made a huge splash with his research showing that a vegetarian diet, exercise, and stress management, could actually reverse heart disease, and my hosts were eager to convey this message as broadly as possible.

The first talk was at a college. The students listened politely to my lecture, although it was pretty clear that the dangers of cholesterol and saturated fat seemed pretty remote to this young and generally healthy group. The second lecture was for a high school crowd that was far more interested in acne creams and music videos than heart disease risk factors. So I decided to switch gears and talk about other reasons they might want to forego meat, figuring that they might find filthy slaughterhouse conditions and sloppy government inspections to be suitably “gross” and controversial, which they did.

But the third talk was at an elementary school. As I walked into the gymnasium the students were sitting on the floor, and teachers were busily reprimanding the rowdier kids. While I had long harbored the illusion that I was still in touch with my “inner child,” I soon realized I had absolutely nothing to say to these kids. What could possibly motivate a grade-school child to think about diet? I couldn’t spot any budding cardiologists in the group and couldn’t recall a single storybook character who had ever had a cholesterol problem. In the end, all I could think to do was to ask the students how they felt about farm animals. “If you were a pig,” I ventured, “would you rather be stuck in a huge indoor farm—in a stall where you could barely even turn around—or would you rather be out in the field with your families?” They reacted instantly. “With our families! With our families!” the kids yelled. And that was the way the talk went. I figured that, three decades hence, those who had decided to simply leave the pigs alone would certainly have healthier hearts and trimmer waistlines than the kids who decided to go ahead and eat them.

If you’re looking for a bit of extra motivation, see which of the following points mean something to you. They are all linked to the advantages of breaking free from unhealthy eating habits.

 

• Your family and friends will have a healthier you. Adolescents take all too many risks—driving too fast, drinking too much, smoking cigarettes, taking drugs, and eating heaven-knows-what. But, about the time we get married and start having children, we come to realize that other people depend on us. Parents who risk cutting their own lives short with dangerous lifestyle habits are not doing their dependents any favors. But, by taking care of yourself you’ll be around to help your family through the challenges that lie ahead.

 

• You’ll slim down. By stepping away from calorie-dense foods, you’ll have a much easier time trimming your waistline.

 

• You’ll cut your cancer risk. If you ever wondered whether breaking a meat-and-cheese habit is worth it, studies of vegetarians show that you can expect to cut your cancer risk by a good 40 percent.¹

 

• You’ll reverse heart disease. In the classic research study conducted by Dean Ornish, M.D., 82 percent of individuals who switched to a low-fat, vegetarian diet, along with exercise and stress management, actually reversed their heart disease.² This is especially important, given that most people in Western countries have the beginnings of artery blockages before they finish high school.

 

• You might even prevent back pain. Studies show that blockages in the lumbar arteries are a major contributor to the vertebral disk problems that cause common lower-back pain (which is also why smokers have more backaches).³ Simply put, if the vertebrae don’t get the blood and oxygen they need they become more and more fragile. If they rupture, the result can be severe and chronic back pain. So the same diet that is good for your heart—opening your arteries and increasing blood flow—might be good for your back, too.

 

• You’ll stay young sexually. Ordinary impotence, which is common in middle-aged and older men, is not caused by performance anxiety. It is caused by blocked arteries. In the same way that blockages in the arteries to the heart lead to heart attacks and blockages in the carotid arteries leading to the brain cause strokes, blockages in the arteries to the genitals lead to impotence.^4,5 That’s right—a Philly Cheese Steak doesn’t make you a better Romeo, but the veggie burger might just do the trick.

 

• You can prevent diabetes, or even reverse it. Research studies show that if you change your diet enough, type 2 diabetes improves or even disappears, and all the problems it causes—heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, and amputations—are much less likely to occur.⁶ When you get the fat out of your diet, insulin works much more efficiently, enabling many people with diabetes to reduce their medications or get off them completely. If you have type 1 diabetes, you can minimize your insulin to the smallest possible dose.

 

• You can reduce your blood pressure. In research studies, a combination of diet changes and exercise can bring down blood pressure enough that most people can reduce or even stop their medications.⁷ A note of caution: High blood pressure can be very dangerous, so let your doctor decide if and when the time is right to stop medication.

 

• You can say good-bye to constipation. Switching from a fiber-depleted diet loaded with sugar, chocolate, cheese, and meat to a menu filled with healthy vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains gives your digestive tract everything it needs to work properly. You can throw away the laxatives.

 

• You might cut the risk of appendicitis. The improved movement of intestinal contents caused by a healthy, high-fiber diet may be the reason vegetarians are much less likely to develop appendicitis. The condition usually starts with a bit of compacted stool (from a low-fiber diet) clogging the opening of the appendix.

 

• Bye-bye hemorrhoids. Famed cancer researcher Denis Burkitt, M.D., discovered that a high-fiber diet could do more than cut the risk of colon cancer. It could also prevent and possibly cure hemorrhoids, which are often the result of too much straining by constipated people.⁸

 

• You’ll be safer from food-borne illnesses. Virtually all the bacteria that make headlines in food-poisoning cases originate in livestock feces. Traces of chicken manure and the bacteria they harbor taint, believe it or not, as many as two-thirds of chicken packages in the retail store. When you slice open the package at home, those bacteria dribble out—alive—along with the “chicken juice” that spills onto your countertop, ready to contaminate your kitchen sponge, utensils, and hands. Since plants do not have digestive tracts, fecal bacteria (e.g., salmonella, or E. coli 0157:H7) only contaminate vegetables and fruits when they are tainted with manure (e.g., as a fertilizer) or when handlers have used poor hygiene.

 

• You’ll keep stronger bones. People who stop eating meat tend to hold onto calcium more readily, as we saw here. Animal protein leaches calcium from the bones and sends it through the kidneys, to be lost in the urine.⁹

 

• You’ll reduce menstrual symptoms. Premenstrual symptoms and menstrual cramps are reduced in most women who break a meat-and-dairy habit, because your hormones come into significantly better balance.¹⁰ And getting away from sugar can help stabilize PMS-related mood swings. For details, you may wish to consult my previous book, Foods That Fight Pain (Harmony Books, 1998).

 

• You’ll have more energy. I don’t know why it happens, but it does. When people break free from unhealthy foods they often notice a surge in their energy levels.

 

• You’ll be healthier in your old age. Getting older doesn’t have to mean losing your health. The illnesses that strike many older folks—diabetes, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, stroke, and even Alzheimer’s disease—are linked to diet to a substantial degree. Breaking away from sugar, dairy, and meat is a powerful prescription.

 

• You’ll be more likely to make it to old age. Living fast and dying young might make for a romantic James Dean movie, but it doesn’t work out so well in real life. Vegetarians live years longer than their meat-eating counterparts.¹¹

 

• You’ll find new and interesting tastes. When I was a child growing up in North Dakota, dinner meant roast beef, potatoes, and corn. Or sometimes pork chops, potatoes, and corn. Or meat loaf, potatoes, and corn. That was about it. And we had two spices: salt and pepper. Breaking into healthier tastes also means much more interesting tastes: Italian pastas with plum tomatoes, exotic Indian curries, piquant Mexican dishes, Cuban black beans and rice, Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern foods, vegetable sushi, endless Chinese and Thai dishes, Ethiopian cuisine, and many more. Even without their health benefits, there would be no reason to step backward from such exquisite foods to the plain fare I grew up with.

 

• You’ll save money. Just as cigarette smokers spend a small fortune on their habit, those packs of cheese, chocolate, and cookies can add up pretty fast, too.

 

• You’ll save serious money. In 1995, my colleagues and I calculated that the direct medical costs attributable to meat consumption in the United States—for the excess cases of heart disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, food-borne illness, obesity, and appendicitis among meat-eaters, compared to vegetarians—reached $61 billion per year.¹² The current figures are unfortunately much higher, and show up in escalating insurance premiums, prescription drug costs, and Medicare outlays.

 

• You’ll help fight world hunger. Environmentalist Frances Moore Lappé wrote, in Diet for a Small Planet, that acre after acre of usable land is cultivated for nothing but feed for the one hundred million cattle, billions of chickens, and millions upon millions of other livestock living in the barns and fields of North America. Breaking the spell that the meat and dairy industries have had over us for many decades would free up land for other uses, including feeding the world’s hungry.

 

• You’ll be a real environmentalist. If you live downwind from a hog farm for more than five minutes, you’ll wish your neighbors had all gone vegetarian.

 

• You’ll be kind to animals. U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show that Americans now eat, believe it or not, more than one million animals every hour. Breaking a meat habit changes a lot more than just what’s on your plate.

 

• You’ll be kind to farm workers. As we saw in chapter 3, a major issue in the chocolate industry is the heated debate over the conditions in which field workers live.

 

A great many people take care of their own health, not for themselves, but because they feel obliged to be healthy for their families, or they feel some responsibility toward the world they live in. By all means nurture those motivations and ultimately capitalize on them. Your coronary arteries and waistline don’t care why you change your diet. But they’re thrilled when you do.