Health

Waking up

I think we didn’t evolve sleep, we evolved wakefulness – Paul Shaw

Reduce emissions, save a life

A new study estimates the mortality cost of our carbon emissions.

From The Guardian:

For every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere beyond the 2020 rate of emissions, one person globally will die prematurely from the increased temperature. This additional CO2 is equivalent to the current lifetime emissions of 3.5 Americans…

While it takes just 3.5 Americans to create enough emissions in a lifetime to kill one person, it would take 25 Brazilians or 146 Nigerians to do the same, the paper found.

While emissions are still something best addressed by government policy and economic incentives, and “carbon footprint” is a concept popularized by BP to shift blame to individuals, understanding the mortality cost grounds even individual decisions (including voting) with the opportunity to save lives.

How I eat (2020 edition)

My food

The way we eat is one of humanity’s most important characteristics. Food connects us with our cultures and our environment. The eating choices we make define our relationships with plants and animals, and the health of our bodies.

The way I eat has changed significantly over the years. I grew up with a Midwestern American diet–lots of meat, milk, and bread. As I started training for cycling, I embraced a low-fat diet with vitamin and protein supplements. In my late twenties I became vegetarian, and in my mid-thirties shifted to a low-carb diet.

The way I eat today connects my physical needs, social beliefs, and ethical priorities. While I continue to experiment, here’s what I’ve learned so far.

My target diet

My target diet today is “vegan mod keto, with intermittent fasting”:

  • Vegan: I try to avoid all food from animals.
  • Mod keto: I try to avoid significant carbohydrates, especially those from grains and starches–but don’t go so far as to enter ketosis regularly.
  • Intermittent fasting: I regularly go 16+ hours without eating.

I call this a target diet because while it forms the basis of my food choices, I still eat outside these boundaries when needed or desired. For regular meals I plan, I’ll follow these criteria. But if a family member makes a special dish with cheese or eggs, I’ll eat it. If a chocolate chip cookie looks amazing, I’ll have one. By allowing a bit of flexibility, I get almost all the benefits of the diet while easing travel, social, and activity issues.

Why vegan?

I grew up eating meat, and didn’t think much about it for over 20 years. Sure, Lisa Simpson turned vegetarian in one amazing episode, and my brother gave me an intense Peter Singer book for my birthday one year, but nothing ever kept me from having a burger. I once vowed to become a vegetarian the day after eating 12 different animals in one day (I kept track at a fancy reception), then found that the unknown tasty ingredient in the next morning’s breakfast was bacon.

Then one day in Google’s cafeteria I saw a sign for “Enchiladas de Puerco”. Ah, I thought, “carnitas”–I loved those! Then I read the description:

Pork butt enchiladas

That stopped me cold. I didn’t want to eat a butt. Pig butt, cow butt, person butt, anybody’s butt! I moved on and chose another dish, but that moment stuck in my head. (It turns out the “butt” is typically used to refer to the shoulder; named after the barrels pork was shipped in 200 years ago. But it’s hard to shake that image).

People who sell meat have done a good job over the years disassociating the idea of animal bodies from the meat they sell. Pig meat is “pork”, “bacon”, or “ham” (a “magical animal”, indeed). Cow meat is “beef”, baby cow meat is “veal”. Deer meat is “venison”, sheep meat “mutton”, even pigeon meat gets called “squab”. Even the word “meat” is abstracted from the muscles, fat, and organs that make it up. Only poor chickens and turkeys are consumed under their own names, perhaps not cute enough to earn a euphemism.

The more I thought about the animal bodies my food came from, the less I wanted to eat it. I stopped eating most meat that day.

As much as I’d love to claim some sort of ethical enlightenment, the truth is I was repulsed by meat. Sure, I believed the arguments in favor of animal rights, and understood the impact meat eating has on the environment. But the defining factor was thinking about animal bodies. I began to call myself an “aesthetic vegetarian”–I just thought meat was gross.

There were still exceptions. The less a food looked like an animal’s body, the easier it was to accept. I ate fish fillets for a long time; even had a couple chicken strips on occasion. But over time, those became less appealing as well.

I kept eating lots of cheese, cow milk, and eggs though. Those didn’t require an animal to die, or me to chew on muscle fibers. And they provided a quantity of protein and vitamins that I didn’t know how to get elsewhere–especially important as I was still cycling intensely.

The tipping point again came with a turn of phrase–“secretions”. I don’t recall exactly where I read it (Twitter, probably), but when I thought about milks squeezed out of animal bodies bodies (usually after forced insemination and child separation), or eating the products of ovulation (eggs), I lost my appetite for them as well.

There are huge, far more important reasons to choose a vegan diet and lifestyle. Billions of sentient animals live painful lives and are brutally killed every year for our pleasure. Over a third of all raw materials and fossil fuels are used to raise those animals. It’s the number one source of water pollution worldwide and responsible for more greenhouse gasses than all the world’s transportation systems combined. (source). And we’re right now living through a global pandemic that started in an animal meat market (like most past pandemics).

But for me, all of a sudden, eating animal body parts and secretions just became gross. And fortunately unnecessary, once you learn a few things (below).

Why mod keto?

While my shift away from eating meat was significant, the change to a low-carb diet might have been even bigger.

As a cyclist, I had always followed the conventional advice to “carbo-load” for maximum performance. Pasta was the cornerstone of my diet, supplemented by lots of cereals and breads. My pre-race meal was a can or two of Spaghettios, with a side of fresh bread. My mom even made me spaghetti sandwiches for lunch–that’s spaghetti (and meatballs) between two slices of bread, frozen, then packed in my lunch bag to keep everything else cold. It would mostly thaw by noon…

Grains and starches were convenient, cheap, packed with energy, and I knew how to cook them. After college my roommate and I would choose groceries based on calories per penny, and pastas, breads, and potatoes always came out on top. What’s not to like?

But after I turned 30, a few issues surfaced. My energy levels now fluctuated wildly throughout the day, impacting my work, fitness, and relationships. Often I’d grab two bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch at 3pm just to make it to the end of the workday, then end up with a splitting headache by 7pm. I wasn’t cycling as much as before, and sitting at a desk much more, and I started gathering a few persistent fat rolls around my gut. And inside that gut, more meals were causing indigestion and gas.

One day after work I stepped into a roving fat-scanning van to get my body composition checked. After the giant scanner finished, the attendant reviewed my data. “You’re in good shape,” he said, “but this fat around your waist won’t go away with exercise. Cut out carbs and you’ll drop it quickly.” I was skeptical–but also just a few seconds away from a sub-20-minute Old La Honda climb, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

After a couple months of cutting out carbs, I’d lost 20 pounds, broken 20 minutes, and eliminated the gut. I could bike all day without needing food, as I’d adapted to using stored fat for energy. I also had steady energy levels throughout the day, better focus at work, and…less gas. It turns out that I have a mild reaction to wheat, and cutting it out stopped the gas pains and farts that I thought were “normal”.

All that was enough to stay on the plan, but fully cutting out carbs was challenging and required a diet that lacked enough fresh fruits and vegetables–especially when combined with my vegetarianism at the time. After a few months of strict carb exclusion, I started bringing back foods with moderate levels of carbs, even the occasional grain (still avoiding wheat though). I managed to keep the benefits while adding much-needed nutrients and fiber. This approach also provides carbs I can use for the higher-intensity efforts in my cycling training (even fat-adapted athletes need glucose to power efforts at the very high end; fat isn’t converted fast enough on its own, and if the body doesn’t have carbs it will make glucose from proteins).

It turns out this diet has a name: “mod keto“, short for “modified ketogenic”. Most people on the mod keto diet don’t enter or stay in ketosis regularly (I never could get those urine strips to turn color anyway), but get most of their energy from fats, while allowing the low levels of carbohydrates found in many fruits and vegetables. The best advice is to kickstart the process with a strict ketogenic diet to force fat adaptation, then back off to a more sustainable moderate state. I’d accidentally followed that prescription to the letter.

While the majority of my mod keto change was driven by personal health concerns, there were a couple other interesting things I learned along the way.

One is how deeply ingrained (pun intended) carbohydrate consumption is in our society. Political scientist James C. Scott wrote a fascinating book called Against the Grain showing how the advent of agriculture–specifically, grain-based agriculture–was driven by the needs of early states to control their population. Despite the disadvantages in locking your society to specific plots of land, often causing new animal-sourced diseases, Scott argues that societies embraced and enforced cereal grains because they “can serve as a basis for taxation: visible, divisible, assessable, storable, transportable, and ‘rationable.'”

Even today, the packaged food industry pushes narratives that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” (invented by Kellogg), and that you need lots of “whole grains” (you mostly need the fiber). Conveniently, these foods are also the most shelf-stable, easiest to ship, and cheapest to produce in the entire supermarket.

As a result, the “American breakfast” is basically dessert, and most of our other meals are basically fronts for complex and simple sugars as well, from bread-sandwiched lunches to potato and pasta dinners. These foods have made calories cheap, easy to store and transfer, and universally-available, which has saved millions of people from starvation (the “green revolution” was really more beige). But that doesn’t mean they’re the best foods for you.

Why intermittent fasting?

Once I went low-carb, my energy and focus levels stayed constant even when meals were far apart. I’d read about health and mental benefits of fasting for years, so I finally thought I’d try it.

On days I exercise, I usually eat 3 normal meals. On days I don’t exercise, I skip breakfast. This gives me a 16:8 intermittent fast on those days. Typically mid-morning I start getting hungry, and by lunch I’m really craving my kale salad. It’s an interesting mental challenge to staying focused while hungry, and I feel it’s developed my willpower and mindfulness.

About once every 3 months I do a longer 2-3 day fast. These are fascinating. I actually find I’m not hungry after the first 16 hours. Instead, I feel incredibly focused and energetic–as long as I don’t do anything too physically challenging.

Usually entering the third day I get a bit too amped on the adrenaline produced by fasting; when it starts affecting my sleep, I break the fast with a light meal.

What I eat

A vegan mod keto diet doesn’t seem very flexible at first. When you remove breads, cereals, dairy, eggs, and meat, what’s left? Can you still get enough protein? What about vitamins and minerals? How would you have enough energy to exercise? Each of these questions held me back from fully engaging with the diet for a long time.

It turns out, though, that with a bit of research it’s very possible to get to a vegan mod keto diet that’s easy to maintain. A combination of some traditional common foods with a few unique new ones provides me with plenty of energy and the building blocks for a healthy body.

Key foods

These foods make up the bulk of my diet. Most of them are easily accessible from delivery services and many are shelf-table–handy in a pandemic. I’ve linked to the ones I buy, which are mostly available via an automated Amazon subscription.

Meals

I have a few cornerstone meals that I eat often, based on these foods.

Gigantic kale chiffonade salad

Every day for lunch I make a huge salad. Most days I start with an entire bunch of lacinato kale, cut into a chiffonade (thin strips). Then I add everything in the kitchen: avocado, nuts, hemp hearts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, cacao nibs, nutritional yeast, thin carrot strips (I use a vegetable peeler), tofu, and usually a few dried cranberries for sweetness. I pour an obscene amount of olive oil on top. Like, several seconds of pouring–probably 1000 calories. This is my main energy source for the day.

Kale chiffonade salad

Power pudding

On days I eat breakfast, chia seed pudding is my mainstay. Combine a cup of chia seeds, a cup of soy milk powder, cacao powder, monkfruit sweetener, and creatine. Shake the dry ingredients, then stir in water. Refrigerate, stirring again after 10 minutes. Top with berries, coconut, flax seeds, pecans, etc. Tons of protein, fiber, and omega-3s; satisfies hunger for hours.

Power pudding

Black bean spaghetti

This one’s simple–boil the dried spaghetti, douse with olive oil and nutritional yeast. Obscene amount of protein and fiber. Even the kids like it.

Black bean spaghetti

Tofu bowls

Stir-fried tofu on top of cauliflower rice, topped with avocado and sliced veggies.

Tofu bowl

Noatmeal

Hemp hearts with with soy milk, top with coconut, flax seeds, and berries. Mix in flaxseed meal for more fiber/protein/omegas. Post-workout, I’ll add in real oatmeal to boost carbs. As a bonus I can make the kids oatmeal at the same time in the microwave. Breakfast for 3 in 90 seconds!

Noatmeal

Snacks

  • Peanut butter on a spoon – Ah, college memories.
  • Dried seaweed – surprisingly satiating for a low-calorie snack. Good vitamins and minerals.
  • Nuts – Easy to go overboard on these, but ounce for ounce one of the most nutritious things you can eat.
  • Dark chocolate – Like, real dark: 85%+. Usually eat Lindt 90% but starting to explore more options. Use it as a scoop for peanut butter to feel truly decadent.
  • Soy decaf lattes – We got a Nespresso machine just in time for quarantine, and it’s been great. Decaf capsules, soy milk, and monkfruit sweetener.

Supplements

Vegan diets lack a few beneficial nutrients, especially for athletes. Fortunately many of them are added to vegan staples like nutritional yeast (B vitamins) and soy milk (Vitamin D, calcium), so I only need to supplement a few.

  • Omega 3 – A vegan Omega 3 capsule once a day keeps my Omega 3s in balance.
  • Creatine – I include creatine monohydrate powder in my power pudding mix, and sprinkle it on oatmeal. Taking it with breakfast means I replenish it every time I exercise.
  • Zinc/Magnesium – I take ZMA before bed as well as a couple sprays of Zinc throat spray, which also helps a lot with minor cold symptoms (think Airborne tablets).
  • B vitamins – added to most brands of nutritional yeast, but check the label to make sure you’re getting enough.
  • Iodine – just switch to an iodized salt and you’ll get more than enough. I tried an iodine/taurine supplement but it messed with my sleep.
  • Selenium – a single Brazil nut a day covers this.

Summary

If history is any guide, I’ll continue to refine my diet as I learn more about my body, my food, and its impact on the world. “Vegan mod keto” may gather a few additional descriptors before I’m through…

Cows vs. geeks

“Unlike the cow, we get better at making meat every single day” – Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown

[Launched at a tech conference](https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/07/impossible-launches-its-second-gen-burger-at-ces/), naturally.

Hijacking habits

My college (and then Google) friend [Tristan Harris](http://www.tristanharris.com/) has been doing some great work communicating the dangers of “attention-hacking” and the dark sides of social technology. A recent video he made on [how the instant gratification of smartphones creates bad habits](http://bigthink.com/videos/tristan-harris-how-your-phone-disconnects-you-from-reality) got me thinking about how I’ve successfully stopped bad habits and started good ones in the past.

**1. Hijack bad habits with good ones**

[BJ Fogg](https://www.bjfogg.com/), an expert on persuasive technology who taught Tristan at Stanford, runs a “[Tiny Habits]” course that emphasizes creating “triggers” that will remind you to do your new habit. I find that I can often use the urge to do a bad habit as my trigger to instead do my new good habit.

Charles Duhigg, author of [The Power of Habit](https://smile.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X?sa-no-redirect=1), calls this “routine replacement”– hijacking the cue and the reward, and inserting a different routine between them.

In my method, the bad habit isn’t technically “forbidden”–it’s just delayed and distracted enough by the good habit that it usually has no power left.

I also find it’s helpful to use a good habit that’s in the opposite direction as the bad habit–if the bad habit is eating junk food, the good habit is eating brocolli

**2. Make those new good habits as small as possible**

Right now I have a rule that I will do 1 pushup per day, and take one mindful breath per day.

Now, by the time I get down on the floor to do that 1 pushup, or take the time to have one mindful breath, I almost always end up doing a lot more. But even if I don’t, the success of completing the habit each day is the strongest reinforcement I’ve found to solidify it.

A few small examples of how I’ve applied this strategy:

* *Before I check my social media feeds*, I take 10 mindful breaths
* *Before I read blog posts*, I write one (that’s what I’m doing now!)
* *Before I eat candy or junk food*, I eat a vegetable
* *Before I drink a beer or glass of wine*, I drink two glasses of water
* *Before I say (or write) something bad about someone*, I say something good about them

As you might imagine, doing the good habit first usually kills the urge to do the bad one. Some of the good habits address the same core needs as bad ones but in different ways (giving the mind something to focus on; learning something new; satisfying hunger; quenching thirst); others provide a cognitive dissonance that makes it hard to follow one with the other (saying good then bad things about someone).

It sometimes feels trivial to optimize such small things, but they add up. [As Annie Dillard wrote](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/530337-how-we-spend-our-days-is-of-course-how-we):

> How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

Micro-activities

Since becoming a father I’ve had trouble fitting in all the things I’d like to do, so I’m always on the lookout for ways to combine two activities together, or to squeeze one in between two others. A few examples of these “micro-activities” that have worked out well:

* Meditate while falling asleep
* Pushups as I roll out of bed
* Bodyweight exercise on playground equipment while the kids play
* Mindful breathing while waiting for them to finish things (brushing teeth, putting away toys, etc)
* Squat stretch while brushing teeth
* Naps during lunch break (and related, lunch during meetings)
* Squats and stretches while riding the elevator (alone =)

The way these work best is when the activities are in two separate cognitive or physical categories. I haven’t been able, for instance, to listen to a podcast while working (which both require cognitive attention), or to intersperse pushups with cooking (both require your hands). But a physical activity while doing a mental one can work (e.g. pullups while watching the kids).

Mindfulness in particular is well suited for this. Besides the fact that a single 20-minute session is hard to stay focused for anyway, spreading bits of meditation throughout the day has a nice regulating effect on my mood and attention. [Chade Meng Tan](http://chademeng.com/) encourages people to practice just a single breath at a time, finding that produces a large benefit; I agree.

How to run the fastest marathon ever

[Some fascinating techniques](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/may/06/eliud-kipchoge-misses-out-on-sub-two-hour-marathon-by-2-seconds):

> At the start the three athletes were immediately joined by six pacers, who adopted an arrowhead formation behind a Tesla electric car with a giant clock timer on it. Wind tunnel studies show that this formation would help them as it saves energy…

> Kipchoge was also using a new carbohydrate-rich sports drink, delivered by helpers on mopeds so he did not have to slow down…

> Then there was the use of Nike’s Zoom Vaporfly Elite shoes, which some have suggested should be illegal because they contain a special curved plate that allows runners to roll through instead of bending toes and losing energy.

The new economy and disability

Millions of people are unable to work because of a disability, but [that has as much to do with the changing nature of work as with the disabilities themselves](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/490/transcript):

> When I said things like, what about a job where you don’t have to lift people, or a job where you don’t have to use your shoulder or where you don’t have to stand all night long, or just simply, have you thought about other jobs that you could do, people gave me such bewildered looks. It was as if I was asking well, how come you didn’t consider becoming an astronaut…

> Being poorly educated in a rotten place, that in and of itself has become a disability. This is a new reality. This gap between workers who are fit for the US economy and millions of workers who are increasingly not. And it’s a change that’s spreading to towns and cities that have thrived in the American economy.

It’s sadly ironic that while tech workers are proud about [the health benefits of their new standing desks](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-b-trafecanty/the-benefits-and-consider_b_9996782.html), people with real health issues can’t get jobs that allow them to sit.

Thoughts on a year of Headspace

As I mentioned in [my 2015 wrapup](http://bob.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=5467), this past year I practiced mindfulness meditation with [Headspace](https://www.headspace.com/). I wrapped up another “pack” this morning and thought it would be useful to collect some thoughts on the various approaches I’ve learned and the experience overall.

* My main insight was that [training the mind really is like training the body](http://bob.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=5362). It benefits from consistent practice, varied techniques, planned routines, and even interval training (alternating periods of focus and relaxation). Similarly, the mind can become detrained without regular training, and I noticed a real difference in my mental state after just a few days without practicing.
* That said, I wasn’t very consistent with my practice, averaging a little less than one session every two days, and sometimes going up to two weeks between sessions (often caused by travel or illness disrupting my routine). Contrast that with some people who mention online that they’ve had a streak of 90 or even 365 days straight, and I wonder how their experience differs. I managed to maintain an overall sense of peace that persists even after a few days off, but some of the more advanced techniques and benefits didn’t stick around.
* The only way I was able to fit this into my day is by waking up earlier. If I start my day with meditation (after a few wakeup stretches), I’m much better at staying focused. Once I’ve done much of anything else, my mind is too distracted to have a successful session.
* Meditating on the breath always seemed to me an arbitrary choice–why not on a concept or a sound (like “[om](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om)”). However, I gradually came to appreciate it, as your breath is always with you (and if it’s not, you have bigger problems than mindfulness), and doesn’t require conscious effort to maintain. When the goal is to clear away distracting conscious thoughts, the breath is a handy aid.
* I was initially skeptical of the “pack” approach unique to Headspace, but it too proved itself over time. It’s nice to break down what could be a lifelong practice into manageable chunks, giving you a tangible goal every 10 or 30 days. And while I started each pack wondering how meditation was supposed to improve a skill like creativity or generosity, every time there was indeed a helpful insight or new practice. A few examples and reviews:
* *Focus* was the first pack I tried. What stuck with me is the sense that sustainable focus isn’t something static and fixed, but rather the ability to steer your attention to different things at will–a dynamic experience. I wrote about [how my son exhibits this trait naturally](http://bob.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=5403), but it was a new (or renewed?) practice for me. I continue to use the visualization of a glowing sphere moving through the parts of the body when I’m cycling, especially during hard efforts, to keep my overall attention on the body’s performance and prevent my mind from wandering.
* *Anxiety* was next, and while this was a natural emotion for meditation to help, the approach was again surprising. The technique instructs you to first name, and then categorize, whatever stressful thoughts enter your mind. You might think of a difficult project at work, for example, which you could then give a title, mark as “negative”, and label as a “thinking” anxiety. The simple act of acknowledging the thought can be enough for your mind to let it go, a bit like how writing down an important todo item lets you relax mentally–it’s no longer your mind’s responsibility to keep track of it.
* *Appreciation* was a nice shorter one and quite related to *Generosity*. In both cases you’re instructed to think about who and what makes you the happiest and most fulfilled, and the goal is to cultivate that feeling (rather than, say, translate into direct action). I found Generosity more valuable overall, as you extend that feeling toward others and into the world.
* *Creativity* was a bit of a slog. 30 sessions, and again the goal was mostly to recognize the “feeling” of being creative. It introduced one nice technique though, the idea of rapidly alternating between focus on the breath and “letting go of the mind”, which trains you in the art of smoothly entering into a focused state at a moment’s notice. During this series I found myself better able to do “micro-meditations” throughout my regular day.
* I’ve only tried 10 days of *Headspace Pro*, the packs with less guidance and no particular theme. I did find them more challenging, and less motivating, than the themed packs, and haven’t been back recently. Hopefully more consistent practice will make them accessible again.

I continue to find new benefits from Headspace, even after a year and over 150 sessions. Here’s to another year of mindfulness!

Carbs, fat, and politics

After years of pushing low-fat and high-carbohydrate diets, [the federal health agencies have finally flipped their recommendations](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/opinion/why-is-the-federal-government-afraid-of-fat.html):

> Following an Institute of Medicine report, the 2005 Dietary Guidelines quietly began to reverse the government’s campaign against dietary fat, increasing the upper limit to 35 percent — and also, for the first time, recommending a lower limit of 20 percent…the scientists on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, for the first time in 35 years have sent recommendations to the government without any upper limit on total fat.

[The guidelines themselves take a strong stance on sugars](http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/PDFs/Scientific-Report-of-the-2015-Dietary-Guidelines-Advisory-Committee.pdf) and refined carbohydrates as well:

> Higher consumption of sugar-sweetened foods and beverages as well as refined grains was identified as detrimental in almost all conclusion statements with moderate to strong evidence.

And it looks like [those egg council creeps](http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/The_Egg_Council_Guy) finally got to the scientists too:

> Available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary
cholesterol and serum cholesterol.

I switched to a vegetarian protein- and fat-heavy diet with lots of raw vegetables, oils, eggs, yogurt and nuts this year and I’ve lost significant weight and felt amazing. It’s fascinating to see the tides change as scientists finally have the tools and data to run big studies on nutrition:

> Confirming many other observations, large randomized trials in 2006 and 2013 showed that a low-fat diet had no significant benefits for heart disease, stroke, diabetes or cancer risks, while a high-fat, Mediterranean-style diet rich in nuts or extra-virgin olive oil — exceeding 40 percent of calories in total fat — significantly reduced cardiovascular disease, diabetes and long-term weight gain.

But all of this threatens a huge packaged-food industry that thrives on shelf-stable grain products, and the political deck is stacked against change. Hopefully the evolving scientific consensus will bolster efforts like the ones led by [Alice Waters](http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/delicious-revolution) and [Michael Pollan](http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view/) to move our eating back toward freshness, sustainability, and health.