You & The Food Revolution: Heart Edition

Introduction and Ocean Robbins Background 0:00

Hi, everybody, and thanks for joining us. In this Heart Disease Reversal Summit. We've put together the greatest collection of individuals you can take charge of your health and bring it to a new level and live without fear of heart disease. And I am today so happy to be speaking with Ocean Robbins. A true leader. A true leader in this field. A mentor to so many people. And just just a great source of help for you in your journey to better health and better living. So Ocean. Thanks so much for joining us today.

So glad you're part of this. And let me just tell people, if I am probably you, you're sure you know about Ocean and it's quite a job. But let me just play a little bit a little a little bit about Ocean, just a little bit of a background before we get started. So Ocean, of course, was the co-founder and CEO of the 900,000 member Food Revolution Network. So he's really put together influential information that's really changed the health of millions of people. He's the author of two bestsellers, the 31-Day Food Revolution and also Real Superfoods And let's talk a little bit about that today.

And Ocean founded the Youth for Environmental Sanity or. Yes. And he founded at the age of 16. And he still directed that for the next 20 years, did a tremendous amount of work improving people's health all over the world. He's spoken in person to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, organized online seminars, events reaching more than a million, and actually events for leaders in 65 different nations. And he's an officially he's an he's also an adjunct professor at Chapman University, a recipient of the National Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service, the Freedom Flame Award, and the Harmon Williamson Award, and many other honors.

His TEDx Talk Eating Our Way to Happiness has been seen by more than a million people, and we're grateful to have him here today as part of this Heart Disease Reversal Summit to add his wisdom. So Ocean let's get started. And obviously, people are here because they want to improve their health. And sometimes people have challenges in improving their health and they have to both learn and develop the skills, motivation and knowledge to really move it up to a next level. So before we get into those specifics, tell me why you wrote the 31-Day Food Revolution Tell me why you wrote that first and what makes it different from other sources of information on the subject.

Sure. Well Joel, thank you so much for creating this and bringing us all together. As we all know, a person with their health has a thousand dreams. A person without it's only got one dream just to get it back.

Food Revolution Mission and Real Superfoods 3:00

So this really is about helping folks to get their dreams back and their lives back so that we can do what we were born to do. And I think that is a sacred, sacred work. And I thank you so much for your leadership for decades in bringing this message to the world. And I'm thrilled to join you now and in working with you to help spread the word. I wrote 31-Day Food Revolution. And thank you, by the way, for writing the foreword to it, because I wanted to help people move from knowing what to do to doing what they know.

And so the book is has 31 chapters, and each chapter ends with simple action steps you can take to implement what you're learning. And you know, the thesis. The thesis. Why 31? Well, there's some good research to show that any time you start new habits for about a month, they get more locked in. But also, my grandpa started at 31 flavors Baskin-Robbins. And so I'm kind of tying it in and saying, in the long run, 31 Steps to Health can bring you more pleasure, more joy and more fulfillment even than 31 flavors of ice cream.

And then another key part of the book is that there are four parts. Part one is detoxify, and that's where we focus on getting rid of the bad stuff that's making us sick. Part two is Nourish. That's where we focus on saying yes to the super healthy foods that can make us thrive. Part three is Gather, and that's where we focus on the social side of food and building a strong social network to help you stay with it. Because oftentimes you become a lot like the people you hang out with. So how do you you influence others in a positive way and also surround yourself with people who help pull you forward instead of dragging you back?

And then part four is Transform. And that's how you can change the world, how you can vote with your knife and fork every day for a better planet, with less climate chaos and more sustainability, more beauty, more joy, more love on the planet ultimately. And looking at how we tie it all together. Because my vision, honestly, I don't just want to help people with their own health. They also want to change the food world so that everybody can be healthier and have access to a livable future. Yeah, that sounds fantastic.

I think that's what probably what you're explaining things about your foundational reasons for for the Food Revolution Network. Right. Why? Calling it the Food Mission, right? Right. I mean, our mission is healthy, ethical, sustainable food for all. And, you know, unfortunately, I think that right now, too often health is available to the privileged and the well-connected. And so, you know, in a toxic food culture, you shouldn't have to be wealthy or privileged in material terms. I think to be able to eat right for yourself and your family and to reap the benefits.

And unfortunately and tragically, the more economically disadvantaged people are statistically, the more likely they are to suffer and die from diseases that we know how to prevent, that are caused by diet and lifestyle, which tends to create intergenerational cycles of poverty. And one of my passions, and I know you're passionate about this, too, Joel, is helping uplift, especially the most marginalized communities out of these cycles of poverty by restoring health to the masses, so to speak. And that's why I wrote my latest book, Real Superfoods Everyday Ingredients to Elevate Your Health, which is all about The Real Superfoods, which are not super fancy, fancy, expensive things that only the rich can afford.

The Real Superfoods to me are the ones that can do the most good for the most people, and those are the foods that are widely accessible and widely affordable and super delicious and nutritious. You've just got to know what to do with them, which is why it's a cookbook. That's so cool. What else do you think we could do for people could do to help change that problem where the less, less fortunate individuals can't have access to can't get access to healthy food, and they're not even informed about taking charge of their health.

Well, of course, it's a multi-layered issue, but but one of the biggest things is eating lower on the food chain. And here's why. It takes about 12 pounds of grain or soy to produce a single pound of feedlot beef in the United States today. It takes anywhere from 5 to 20 calories of feed to produce a single pound a calorie, rather, of food from animal products in general. So whether you're talking about chicken or turkey or pork or beef, it's a very inefficient food conversion ratio because most of the calories the animals are consuming don't go to flesh or eggs or milk.

They go to hoof and hide and bones and energy the animal uses to move around. And, of course, body heat and then also manure,

Eating Lower on the Food Chain 7:30

which ends up becoming a waste problem in many cases that causes pollution. So when you eat lower on the food chain, you eliminate the middleman or the metal cow, so to speak, and you get rid of what is functionally a protein factory in reverse. There was a major study that came out a few years ago which found that worldwide 83% of all agricultural land is being used for animal agriculture to produce 17% of the world's calories. So if just theoretically, the whole world went vegan tomorrow, which I'm not saying that's going to happen, but just to stay with me for a second, we free up an area of land equivalent to the entirety of the United States, China, the European Union and Australia combined instantly.

Land that can be used for rewilding or reforestation or carbon sequestration initiatives. Or to grow organic food for future generations of humans. So what that would do is it wouldn't just reduce land use, but it would also reduce water use, topsoil erosion, aquifer depletion, all the other major environmental crises of our times. And that would in turn free up resource is that could ultimately get to the world's poor. See, when we recycle corn and soy through livestock, they're not available to feed hungry people.

And in a world of 8 billion and counting, where no new births outpace deaths by more than 2 to 1 population still going up fast. And what we're on a trajectory towards is environmental collapse on a systemic level. But we can help turn that around by eating lower on the food chain, reducing our ecological footprint, feeding, freeing up land, water, soil resources to feed humanity. And that, in turn, can make food more accessible and affordable for all. It's only one step. There's a lot of other things we need to do. Of course, but it's a big one.

Right. And there's also all the work you've done to bring information to people who are economically disadvantaged. Like, for example, in your in your recent book on Superfoods. But it's also we have this all these things, of course, in parallel to each other. Right. And of course, I have a guest on my left here. Was it invited into this meeting? Excuse me 1 second. Hey, you work with animals? You know, it's it's so, I think, profound, really, that that, you know, animals are part of us. They're part of our humanity.

And, you know, they make us smile. They make us laugh. They make us remember. What it means to be. Human. I don't know how she got that door opened. She opens the doors and. It can also be pretty smart sometimes. Like the other day when she opened the door, I took out a leash and put it on my left foot at the stake arena. All right. Well, sorry for the interruption. Let's get back to this to what we're talking about here. So this is really important, what we're saying, because we're improving our own health.

We're living longer, but we're also what we're doing, every choice of every thing we put in our mouth has a downside or an upside that filters down the rest of humanity. So we're interrelated with other with other individuals, both human and non-human. So we are all interrelated and in a way, we can protect our planet. And you are you've been at the forefront, you and your dad, at protecting our planet with these choices and the individual marrying that together for like 30 years now, it's been really work you've done.

Thank you. And you know, another piece of it that gets me pretty excited is the political and economic side. You know, because we have so many arguments among politicians about, you know, how much taxes should we pay and how much should we spend on social services and what can we afford? How much can we add to it? How much can we afford to increase the national debt? And all these questions are based on a certain economic climate. But consider the fact that in the United States, we spend more than four and a half trillion dollars every year on health care, which is really disease symptom management.

80% of that is on chronic disease management. 80% of those chronic diseases can be prevented or even in some cases reversed with healthy diet and lifestyle. So truly, it's not an exaggeration to say that we could be saving trillions of dollars every single year in health care costs just by changing our diet and lifestyle and those trillions of dollars exceed the military budget. So, you know, what could that free up for families to not be in poverty? For communities to be healthier? For bankruptcy's not to have to happen.

But also for a whole economy. The Medicare system, for example, to have the resources it needs to be solvent for future generations of citizens.

Practical Habits for Lasting Health Changes 12:00

And that, in turn, opens up so many doors of possibility for community reinvestment that doesn't come at the expense of future generations through, you know, increasing national debt because the resources are there, because we're not wasting them on out of control. Medical costs for diseases that were caused by the food we're eating, which, by the way, is also destroying our planet. There are so many ways that a healthy diet and lifestyle based around whole plant foods can save lives, can improve lives, can improve economies, and can help make the world a better place.

Right. It's just simple. It seems almost every person has to step up and change the way the world is heading. And and your leadership here is so critically important that people and people can feel pride about and build self esteem for the right reasons rather than for the wrong reasons. Because it's all about being a force, a leader, a lighthouse. Right. And every person listening to this has to become a leader and move the world to a better place. Yeah. What what is your input here about how people who struggle to implementation of service and wants to move in a positive direction, they know all the benefits, but they don't seem to be able to sustain these changes.

Do you have any added practical advice for individuals here? Absolutely. My first advice actually is really simple. Make friends with a good recipe, you know, something that you can really enjoy and then make it again and again. You know, most of us don't have all that many things that are really part of what I call our starting rotation, the things that we return to day in and day out. Some people, it's like their favorite cereal and milk or, you know, whatever it is that they make a lot, right?

So make something. And there's a familiarity that builds and a comfort that builds when you know how to make a really good recipe that you enjoy, that's also good for you. You can make it once a week, make extras, have leftovers. These can be really powerful. And then you make friends with a new good recipe and you make that once a week. Maybe it's a tofu scramble or, you know, some delicious salad that you love with some beans in it, and a really lovely dressing. Find ways to enjoy super healthy foods that love you back and that you can fall in love with.

And so that's that's number one. Number two is think long term about healthy habits, not short term, about a quick diet binge. And the best time to repair a roof is when the sun is shining, you know, not when it's pouring rain. So the best time to develop healthy habits isn't when you're in the middle of a binge and an exhausting week late at night. It's when you have some energy on the weekend. Maybe you do a shopping from a list, plan ahead, plan out multiple recipes you're going to make during the week.

Another piece is Cooking Quantity with healthy foods because time is a big issue, especially in a toxic food culture where so many of our fast foods and convenience foods are really junk foods. So you want to learn to take charge in your own kitchen and cooking in quantity, making leftovers, even making friends with the freezer can be awesome. Do not be afraid of frozen fruits and vegetables. They're often frozen at the peak of ripeness or freshness and that all the vitamins and minerals are locked in.

They may actually be healthier than than, say, refrigerated fruits or vegetables that have been sitting for a couple of weeks since they were harvested. So frozen can be fine. It can also be affordable, and it helps reduce waste because you get out exactly what you want when you want it and it'll preserve for a while in the freezer. Those are just a few tips. There are so many more. Obviously, get rid of the bad stuff. You can go through your kitchen and say goodbye to things that are not healthy for you.

The best way to not eat unhealthy foods is to not buy them in the first place. So getting them out of your kitchen so you're not tempted is super healthy. Super good idea. A lot of people are like, Oh, I'm going to get on a healthy pattern as soon as I eat all this junk food that I've got in my cupboards. Well, that may sound good from a research standpoint, but why not give it to somebody else who's going to eat it anyway and then go ahead and clean house, so to speak, so you can get a clean slate because then you won't be tempted in the wrong directions.

All these steps can help move you forward. Love yourself a whole lot when you slip. Don't beat yourself up. Just keep going. Keep moving forward and get some accountability in place. Someone you can talk to when you say, Hey, I want to make these healthier choices. I see what's possible. I've taken this summit. I've learned something. Now I want to put it into action. Would you help me? Can we talk once a week and you'll just check in and ask me how I'm doing? I'll tell you what my commitments are this week.

I'm gonna eat three servings of vegetables. This week, I'm going to make one recipe that super healthy that I've never made before. I'll have oatmeal tomorrow for breakfast, whatever it is, and then follow through and tell them how you did and how it felt. And here's the thing. I'm in a promise to you. Every step you take towards more health can give you more vitality, more energy, more Hotspur, more self sense of capacity to keep going. You build momentum and you keep moving and making progress one step at a time.

And within six months or a year, you could be in a whole new body with a whole new perspective on life feeling a whole lot better. That's it. And that's good either. That's what I say. So you to make progress or you make excuses, right? You got to make progress. You got to keep me. Yes. So, Ocean, what do you think about this idea of of like GMOs versus organic? I know you're a proponent of organic farming, so give me a little bit about that. And also, what about is that only for the rich? In other words, how does a person who can think they can't afford to eat organically?

Because I know that I'm I feel that when I eat organically, I'm also preventing farmworkers from being exposed to pesticides. Right. And I'm going to be exposed to getting leukemia. I'm a plumber from working with chemicals. So I feel like we would get more people that would do it the more we'd have more people supporting farms that are using poisonous chemicals and killing the bees and killing and cancer and humans work with chemicals. So give me your feedback on this. Okay. Well, let's talk about organics first and then GMOs.

So organic agriculture is food that has been grown without the use of synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.

Organic Food and GMO Concerns 18:00

And in the case of animal agriculture, it's also been produced without antibiotics and a few other specific standards and been fed organic feed. Okay. So the benefits of food that is growing organically are numerous. From a personal health standpoint, you're getting less exposure to pesticides. Many of the pesticides used on our crops today are based on formulas originally developed during World War Two to kill people. So we call them pesticides, but we can really call them biocides. They kill life.

Now, obviously, it depends on the quantity. The amount that we're consuming in our food is not enough that you're going to kill over and die in most cases. But they definitely could increase risk of cancer and other long term health problems, birth defects, etc. So personally, I would rather not consume foods that kill bugs on the foods that I feed my family. Pesticides have many concerning problems with them. And so if you go organic, you're getting away from that. There are still certain pesticides used in organic agriculture, but they're much milder, they're much more heavily regulated, and they're not synthetic.

Then the fertilizers that are used in conventional agriculture make for bigger yields and faster growing crops, but not necessarily more nutritious. So there is a concern there as well. And this doesn't tend to be very sustainable. So one of the nice things about organic is that it can be better for carbon sequestration, it's better for keeping topsoil healthy. And there are many different ways to grow food organically, but most of them tend to be more sustainable. And when you have better topsoil, you also have more drought resistance and more flood resistance, which is really important with climate chaos unfolding on the planet.

We need resilient farms and farmlands and organic is helping prepare us for our more resilient future. Yields a little lower in the short term, about 10% lower. But that can balance out over time because the soil is more, more fertile and more prolific over time. So those are some of the advantages. And on an immediate level. And then I also want to add, as you mentioned, the farmworkers, because when farmworkers are exposed to pesticides in the field, a lot of them are dying of cancer and other health ailments.

And personally, I don't want to support that. I want the people who grow our food to be treated with decency. And one of the ways we do that is by not exposing them to carcinogenic compounds on the job. Now, you've heard about the canary in the coal mine, right? And so in some ways, farmworkers are a little bit like the canaries in the coal mine. They're in the front lines. They're facing it day in and day out. And if these pesticides are toxic for them, they're probably not great for consumers as well.

So those are some good reasons to move organic, if you can. Now, let me be clear. Organic food costs more. There are several reasons for this. One is volume. Conventional agriculture is just much higher scale, and that tends to create efficiencies that are not there with organic food. Smaller supply chains equal, you know, more pricey elements. But number two is that organic certification costs are borne by the organic producer. So, for example, if you want to spray your field with tons and tons of pesticides, you don't have to report to any regulatory body.

You can just do what you want. But if you want to grow your food organically and be certified as such, you've got to pay for all the inspections and fill out all the forms and all the paperwork which costs real money. It's kind of like being fined for wearing your seatbelt. You've got to pay extra to do the right thing in the safer thing. But that's how the system is right now. And then you've also got the fact that there is somewhat lower yield, at least in the short run, and the costs are externalized for pesticide agriculture.

So whereas with organic agriculture, you're creating a more sustainable future, you're reducing water consumption, you're creating a better environment for farm workers. Also for animals. If you're talking about animal agriculture. But none of these costs show up at the marketplace to the consumer. So if we looked at all of that, we might end up finding that actually organic food is cheaper, but in the short run, it's not. So if you can't afford organic, don't stress about it. This is just a good thing to do when you can.

But there's a lot of studies showing that people are eating more fruits and vegetables, for example, are a lot healthier than people who don't. And most of those fruits and vegetables were not growing organically. So don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. Do the best you can. Environmental Working Group comes out with a report every year on the Clean 15 and the Dirty Dozen least and most pesticide contaminated foods. And what we find is that the least pesticide contaminated foods tend to have some kind of a shell that you don't eat, whether it's avocados or melons or other foods like that.

So so with those types of foods, if they have a shell, you don't eat also, including mangoes and papayas, organic is not as important from a pesticide exposure standpoint. Leafy greens and berries tend to be the most pesticide contaminated. If you want to get pesticides off your food, soak it, soak your produce in a gallon of water per tablespoon of baking soda for about 10 minutes. That'll get off about 90% of the pesticide exposure. So if you can't afford to go organic, then that's a great option, especially with leafy greens and ideally berries as well.

And there's not really any residue left to convince. And after you're done, but a gallon of water and a tablespoon of baking soda soaking for 10 minutes does the trick. So those are a few pointers on that. Now, you also asked about GMOs or genetically modified organisms. So what's a GMO? Some people think it means got move over, but no, it doesn't it means genetically modified organism. And this is these are crops that have not just been bred for certain characteristics. These are crops that have had the DNA from another life form a virus, a bacteria, maybe even a pig or a fish inserted into the DNA of a specific plant trying to confer certain traits.

Now, the biotechnology industry has promised the world that GMOs would bring us bigger yields, more drought resistant crops, less pesticide consumption, better flavor and better nutrition. But about 30 years into the mass production of GMOs in our food supply, we don't have any of those traits. What we've got is crops that have one or both of two characteristics, and one is that they are pesticide producers, so they produce B.T., which is a insecticide in every cell of the plant, which means certain bugs take a bite, their stomach splits open and they die, which is helpful for not needing other pesticides to be sprayed on it because the plant itself is registered with the EPA as a pesticide.

And then number two is we've got herbicide tolerance, which means they can be sprayed with Roundup and other herbicides and the weeds will die, but the plants won't. So herbicide tolerant crops are now being sprayed with very large amounts of herbicides, which by the way, are classified as part of the pesticide family. And those are winding up in our food at unprecedented levels. Now, Roundup, as an example, which is the biggest one, is a endocrine disruptor. It's a probable carcinogen and it's an antibiotic.

It's actually been patented as an antibiotic. So this means that it can kill bacteria. Now, I don't know about y'all who are watching, but when I think about this, I think, wow, what's happening to our guts if we're regularly consuming an antibiotic herbicide to our food? Now, if you want to avoid GMOs, the best steps you can take our to go organic. Because organic is always by definition non-GMO, go non-GMO certified or look out for the big GMO crops. The main ones right now are corn, soy, canola, which is used for canola oil and also sugar beets, which are about half of our sugar supply.

Those are used in highly processed foods in large quantities. So if you're going to eat any of those foods, particularly talking about corn and soy and canola, look for non-GMO or organic options if you don't want to be part of the GMO experiment. Ocean I know there's a lot more we can talk about, but I there's two things I want to I want you to address.

Gratitude, Hope, and Leading by Example 26:00

One is what I want you to talk something about the neuroscience of gratitude and how it affects a person's food choices to be healthier. That's one aspect I want to ingest. And the other thing I want just after that would be about what about hope for the future, how we could work together to hope for the future. So it's gratitude, how it impacts our own lives and how it can impact how we work together. All right. Wonderful topics. Well, gratitude first. Okay. So I'm so grateful you asked Jill. I think gratitude is an incredibly powerful force.

One of my friends, Lynne Twist, says what you appreciate, appreciates. And often when we focus on all the things that are wrong or broken in the world, we kind of get more of that. When I was first learning to ride a bike, I remember riding towards a pothole and I'm seen it up ahead of me. And I'm saying to myself, Don't hit the pothole, don't hit the pothole. And I'm riding straight at the pothole, looking straight at the pothole. And guess where I ended up spilling on the curb right next to a pothole because I was going where I was focused.

And so I think this is a powerful lesson, actually, if you want to move in a positive direction, look at where are what you're going towards, not what you're scared of or pushing away from. Gratitude is a profound example of that because you're actually giving thanks for what's already present in your life that works. And a lot of times we focus on all the things that don't work in our bodies and ignore all the things that do. For example, right now, your blood is carrying oxygen to every cell in your body.

It's carrying nutrients to every cell in your body, and it's disposing of waste in every cell of your body brilliantly and creatively and consistently and without regard for the good guys and the bad guys, everybody gets loved. That said, if you start to develop a cancer cell, your body has the capacity to cut off blood flow to that cancer cell when it is not acting in alignment with the whole. Your body's brilliant. There are millions of incredibly intelligent actions taking place every second of your life beyond your consciousness.

There's so much we can be grateful for, but if we stop. Barto We're just cursing the heavens about that, that tostop and how much it hurts. And that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. But we can quickly forget about all the things that are right with us and with our lives. So just taking a moment to give thanks and appreciate can be an act, I think of getting in more right relation with the universe and it helps your body to secrete the neurotransmitters that help you feel better and more at peace. Now, here's the interesting thing, Jill.

When people express gratitude, they don't just, like, see the harmful side of their glass. Their glass actually gets fuller. There's a considerable body of research on this which shows that people who take even 5 minutes a day at the end of the day to write down three things they're grateful for from the day. When they do that for a few weeks, they start to see lower blood pressure. They start to exercise more, they start to make healthier choices, which in turn creates positive feedback loops. Long term people who express more appreciation to their spouse are more likely to end up in happy and even successful long term marriages.

People who expressed more gratitude are more likely to live longer and to be healthier by just about every metric we have available to us now. Is it because grateful people do better things and then have more to be grateful for possibly hard to know, but the critical intervention thing here is that people can start in the same place and when they express gratitude regularly, they end up in a different place. So it's not just like, Oh, I won the lottery, therefore I'm grateful. It's like I'm grateful, therefore I'm more likely to end up with better outcomes, right?

And I think that's really powerful. So gratitude is a actual verb, in my opinion. It's a force that moves through us. It's a choice we make, and it can be liberating, liberating and even life changing and this connects to food because I love to sit around the table and give thanks before a meal. And when you do that with loved ones, you're building social connection. And in our family, we sometimes also use it as a chance to just kind of reflect on what are we grateful for? Everyone says one thing and then you get to know more about what's going on in your family's lives and you get to have a sense of connection around that gratitude.

So Thanksgiving is a very, very powerful ritual that can be profound for its health giving as well as love and family building effects. Then you also asked about what was the other question? Oh, hope. You hope. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So yeah, I mean, you know, first of all, I want to acknowledge that we live in tough times. There's a lot that's painful going on in our world right now. And it would be easy to get lost in a lot of cynicism and despair. But to me, hope isn't a spectator sport. It's not something that comes from sitting on the sidelines calculating whether things are going to get better or worse out there.

Will the good guys win or the bad guys win? Hope is more of a verb. Also, it's something that comes from how we live. And as long as there's breath in your lungs and blood in your veins and thoughts in your mind, there's hope. There's hope that you can make healthier choices. There's hope that you can be on the right side of your own wellness. There's hope that you can be a part of the solution in some way on this planet. And I personally would like to focus more on the things that are in our control, the things that we can do something about and feel hope that we can do that.

Then I would end things I have absolutely no control over that are completely out there because we could argue all we want about what's going on in the world and politics and policy and everything is good or bad. And what should they do out there? But how powerful is that? What kind of difference does that really make? Who really cares what you are? I think they should do. I mean, at the end of the day, what matters so much more is what do we do? What do you do? What do I do? How can we become the authors of our own lives rather than looking at life as a spectator sport?

Giving Back Through Tree Planting 32:00

So to me, hope in action is saying, Well, something is possible, therefore I'm going to do it. And you know, hope opens the door. Of course, action is walking through the door. So the next step from hope is do right. Like you could say, oh my gosh, I could eat better. I could learn to make oatmeal. I could, you know, eat all of the wonderful G-bombs that Dr. Fuhrman tells me about. I could exercise and get a gym membership and I could actually use it. That's hope. But then change is doing it and reaping the benefits over time.

And so you never get change without hope. But hope alone isn't enough. I'm interested in what we actually do. Most of all. I also recognize having that hope, that spark of possibility is absolutely critical to creating change right now. I think what you and also I want to bring it to my attention to me is that unless you have that hope and take those actions, you can't be effective. It at least in leadership what facilitating change for the better. Unless you take care of yourself and you do them and you make these changes necessary to be a good role model, then then you're going to be weakening your ability to have a positive effect on the rest of humanity. You know?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you've got it. You've got to walk the talk and, you know, I think that some people say, oh, how do I get my loved ones to eat better then like, well, first of all, eat as well as you can yourself and be an example because more and more, especially as we get older, people look at us and they're like, wow, like I'm 50 and people look at me and they're like, You don't look 50. I would have thought you were just got out of college and you know, you know, I'm never quite sure how to take that, but I think that the core point is that that you actually age differently and more vibrantly and more joyously when you treat your body right.

And that in turn becomes a living example of what's possible. And when people see you having lost a bunch of weight, when they see you feeling better and brighter, your skin's clear, they're like, Wow, what's your secret? And then you can tell them. And then you're not shoving an ideology down their down their throat. You're just sharing your enthusiasm for what's working for you, which I think is the best way, the most satisfying way to change culture. Absolutely. All right. Well, we've said a lot and I'm so pleased and excited for the message people are going to hear on this interview.

And before we close, though, I know that you've made this really incredible promise to like plant a tree in a low income communities. People buy a book. You got to just before we leave, can you just tell me more information about you and this book and this pledge? How would it how it works together? It's kind a cool. Yeah, well, so first of all, every product that Food Revolution Network sells of any size we fund the planting of an organic fruit or nut tree in a low income community. We work with trees for the future.

And so we've planted over 100,000 trees now in low income communities all over the world. And and I'm an organic fruit and nut tree. So these are trees that are growing food in populations in communities that really need that food. And to me, that is such a wonderful opportunity to to spread the movement around the globe. And and we also did that with my first book, 31-Day Food Revolution. So literally every copy that sold, we donate to trees for the future as well. And, you know, it's a lot of fun to do that.

And I would encourage everyone to think about the ways we can build giving back into our legacy and into our lives in small ways or big ways, you know, because then I think it takes on a different sense of meaning to me. Obviously, every product we sell is hopefully also helping people heal their lives, walk lighter on the earth, be part of the solution on planet Earth. But the fact that we're also giving back in this way just fills my heart even more. And so I invite you to think what would fill your heart?

What will give you a sense of purpose and meaning beyond just yourself? And how can you bring your food choices into alignment with what you really want for your life and also for your world? And to me, that's what The Food Revolution is really all about. Wow. Fantastic. All right. Well, that wraps it up. And thank you, Ocean. And thank all of you for joining us on this Reversing Heart Disease Summit. And I'm so excited that you're all that you're all here and making these changes that we're talking about.

All right. Take care, everybody. Thanks again. Bye bye.