Gradual Change to Optimal Diet Not Recommended The experts all recommend education followed by swift action. Prepared by Jim Hicks                    Here's what the experts have to say on the subject, and all of them are pretty much in agreement. We all know that it requires a tremendous amount of commitment to make the shift and we would like to think that the best way to do it would be to take gradual steps as you move in the right direction. All five of the following experts disagree with that approach and share the same advice: First, learn the truth about nutrition.   Second, make a commitment to change.   Third, give the optimal diet enough time so that you can experience the many benefits. Enjoy your journey as you begin to learn the truth about nutrition and the startiling impact that it can have on not only your health, but the health of the planet as well. 1. Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Eat to Live, Introduction  & Chapter 8. I ask you for six weeks of your life to make my case; after the first six weeks, it becomes a lot easier.  If you commit to just six weeks on this program, you will change your life forever and turning back becomes much more difficult. Make a clear choice between success and failure. It takes only three simple steps. One, buy the book; two, read the book; three, make the commitment. The main principle in this book is that for both optimal health and weight loss, you must consume a diet with a high nutrient-per-calorie ratio. Why should you wait until you are faced with a life-threatening health crisis to want health excellence? Most people would choose to disease-proof their body and look great now. Like Dr. Campbell below, Joel recommends eliminating ALL animal and dairy products during this first six-week period. After The Six Week Plan, he describes The Life Plan, which offers more choices. He also talks about The 90% Rule which is defined as aiming to make unrefined plant foods 90% of your diet. He states it best here: Following a strict vegetarian diet is not as important as eating a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables.  A vegetarian whose diet is mainly refined grains, cold breakfast cereals, processed health food store products, vegetarian fast foods, white rice, and pasta will be worse off than a person who eats a little turkey, chicken, fish, or eggs but consumes large volumes of fruits, vegetables, and beans. That combination of little or no animal products with a higher consumption of fresh produce is the crucial factor that makes a vegetarian diet healthful. 2. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., The China Study, Chapter 12. There are three excellent reasons to go all the way to a whole foods diet: Following this diet requires a radical shift in your thinking about food; it's more work to just do it halfway. If you plan for animal-based products, you'll eat them--and you'll almost certainly eat more than you should. You'll feel deprived. Instead of viewing your new food habit as being able to eat all the plant-based food you want, you'll be seeing it in terms of having to limit yourself, which is not conducive to staying on the diet long-term. If your friend had been a smoker all his or her life and looked to you for advice, would you tell them to cut down to only two cigarettes a day, or would you tell them to quit smoking altogether. It's in this way that I'm telling you that moderation, even with the best intentions, sometimes makes it more difficult to succeed. The bottom line is that you can eat a plant-based diet with great pleasure and satisfaction. But making the transition is a challenge. There are psychological barriers and practical ones. It takes time and effort. You may not get support from your friends and family. But the benefits are nothing short of miraculous. And you'll be amazed at how easy it becomes once you form new habits. Take the one-month challenge. You'll not only do great things for yourself, you'll be part of the vanguard toward moving America into a healthier, leaner future. 3. John McDougall, M.D., The McDougall Plan, Chapter 15 - Getting Started on Your Health Supporting Plan.   If you are sincere about making the change, do so with 100% of your effort.  Many people feel that it would be easier for them to slide into this diet plan gradually. Unfortunately we seldom manage to discard old ways and old established tastes unless 100% of our effort is devoted to the change and unless, from the beginning, we make a clear break from our old behavior. For example: A smoker who cuts down to four cigarettes per day only goes through slow torture and rarely quits. Alcoholics don't stand a chance until they take their last drink. The same thing happens with eating. Consider this advice on changing habits from William James, the father of American psychology: "In the acquisition of a new habit or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible." To this first step, he added a second: "Never suffer an exception to occur until the new habit is securely rooted in your life." When you make a complete dietary change, you are placed in a position to: Learn to like new foods.  No others are available. Lose the taste for rich foods. "Just a little " butter, cheese, chicken, or fish will be an invitation to slow torture. Find the new foods in stores and restaurants. Learn to function sensibly in social and work situations. Most people take from one to four months to become fully accustomed to the diet plan. A commitment of four months will help you stick to the diet and learn it thoroughly. It is very important to be strict with yourself during this learning period. 4. Dean Ornish, M.D., Eat More, Weigh Less, Chapter 6. In our research, we learned that it is often easier for people to make comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle than to make only moderate ones.  At first, this may seem like a paradox, but it makes sense when you understand why.  If you only make moderate changes in lifestyle-for example, reducing fat intake from the typical American diet of about 40% of calories as fat to the conventional dietary guidelines of 30% fat-then you have the worst of both worlds.  You feel deprived and hungry because you are not eating everything you want and are used to, but you're not making changes big enough to feel that much better or to significantly affect your weight or how you feel (or for that matter, your cholesterol, blood pressure, or heart disease).   In other words, you're clear about what you're giving up but you aren't getting much positive reinforcement to make you feel like you're getting something back that's equal or better.  In contrast, when you make comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle-for instance with the program-then you begin to feel so much better, so quickly, that the choices and benefits become much clearer.  And you don't feel deprived or hungry.  Comprehensive changes can be stressful at first, exactly because they disrupt your old patterns and habits.  In the long run, though, it's easier to maintain adherence to big changes precisely because they take you out of your old habits and help you form new ones. spacer 5. Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Dr. Esselstyn sums it all up in two words: "Moderation Kills." ** Although I agree with all of the above experts, in practice, I  have noticed that some people  are ultimately very successful after starting gradually...Jim Hicks