Dr. Esselstyn's Patients

Ever wonder how some of the original members of Dr. Esselstyn's study group are doing right now? Well, the Healthy Librarian found out!

Read her Facebook post that'll tell you what's up with Anthony Yen & Evelyn Oswick these days.

Chickens' First Snow

Animal Place intern Andrea White captured these precious moments of hens rescued from battery cages experience snow for the first time. In July, Animal Place rescued 3,000 hens, saving them from being gassed by an egg farm - standard practice when hens reach the age of 1-2 on egg farms. 

I act the same way when I'm forced out into that ugly white stuff! At least these gals have just an inch or so - we got a foot of it this week with more coming on Saturday.

Richard Simmons' Publisher Endorsed Dr. McDougall

While working on clearing out piles of papers that had gathered around the computer table since we moved into this apartment nearly 14 years ago, I came across an envelope with this letter in it:

Postmarked April 2001

I had been receiving the Richard Simmons newsletter since its inception, and had already been getting the McDougall newsletter when the Simmons one folded, so after writing back to them they just extended my subscription to that one.

I didn't even realize I still had this letter after all these years!

Nice to know that non-veg health gurus recognize Dr. McDougall and his food plan as being superior. Too bad Richard Simmons himself dropped his own vegetarian diet and went back to calorie-restricted SAD.

Super Sunday Viewing

So, what does an animal loving non-sports fanatic do on Superbowl Sunday?


Animal Planet airs the 9th annual Puppy Bowl: 



National Geographic has the Fish Bowl:

And the Hallmark Channel gets into the act with the Kitten Bowl:



My DVR is gonna be very busy on February 2nd!

The Nelson Twins

Not the platinum-haired gentlemen sons of Ricky Nelson of my youth but the brunette-haired young daughters of Jeff and Sabrina Nelson of VegSource fame.

At the People's Choice Awards - Look at the 2 girls at the far left in back.

At least now I know why Jeff Novick's Fast Food 4 and the Get Healthy Now 2013 DVDs haven't been released yet. The Nelson family has been busy.

End of Holiday Health Fest and New Book Coming

Today's post is dedicated to the food program and other offerings of Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

Instead of his usual winter challenge this year he did a Holiday Health Fest from his Facebook page. There were various articles written, videos made, and a few minor contests with prizes ranging from an autographed copy of the cookbook to $2014.

Recently he posted the final video with the closing remarks about the Health Fest:



Eventually that led me to look on Amazon, where I was looking for something else but instead found the pre-order page for his newest book coming in March 2014, The End of Dieting: How to Live for Life. 

In The End of Dieting, Joel Fuhrman M.D., a board–certified family physician who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat to Live, Super Immunity and The End of Diabetes, delivers a powerful paradigm-shifting book that shows us how and why we never need to diet again.
Fuhrman writes, "By reading this book, you will understand the key principles of the science of health, nutrition and weight loss. It will give you a simple and effective strategy to achieve—and maintain—an optimal weight without dieting for the rest of your life. This new approach will free you forever from a merry-go-round of diets and endless, tedious discussions about dieting strategies. This is the end of dieting."

This description makes it look like another rehash of Eat to Live. He announced months ago that his next book was going to be an updated/replacement of Cholesterol Protection for Life. This doesn't look like that. Oh, well. Hopefully it'll have some new recipes in it, and not just more taken from the Member Center or the current recipe contest that he's running for members of his web site only. But since I'm currently veering a little away from all the starchiness of the McDougall program and more towards the vegginess of the nutritarian food plan (minus all those nuts and dried fruits) thanks to ever increasing triglyceride levels, I'll be buying this book, anyway. 

Engine 2 Elf Coach Ami Makes Sweet Potato Fries

Coach Ami demonstrates how to make Jeff Novick's Sweet Potato Fries for the broiler.

Notice the aluminum foil she's using. It's the new wrap from Reynolds that has one side silicone coated for non-stick cooking.

I've mentioned this foil before in another post, because this is what I now use on top of casseroles and lasagna so the top layer doesn't stick. Not only does it come out a few fractions of a cent cheaper than using parchment paper then foil, as Mary McDougall suggests, but it's okay to use in a broiler. As we all know (I hope), you can't use parchment paper in a broiler, and when cooking fat-free, it takes a sand-blaster to get broiled-on potatoes off a broiler tray. With Dr. Barnard the latest one to say not to use certain metals in cooking, such as aluminum, this silicone coated paper is the best of both worlds, since the aluminum never touches the food. This stuff has made my life a heck of a lot easier.

The 3 Biggest Mistakes People Make in their Diet

Here's Doctor McDougall explaining some of the biggest misconceptions people have about his food plan. It appears to be from an interview conducted back in July 2012.