It’s All in Your Hands (With a Little Help from Your Friends)
The world works in mysterious ways. While writing this chapter, I received an email from Andrew
Cohen, the author of the book Evolutionary Enlightenment, which read:
What does it really mean to consciously evolve—to deliberately and intentionally create and
co-create the future? It gets clearer and clearer to me every day that it really is up to us—
each and every one of us, individually and collectively—to create the future that we hope for
in our highest moments. When we reach that point in our own development where we
unequivocally have accepted the fact that no one else is going to save us—not a mythic God in
the sky or "destiny" or a miracle—we realize that the next step in the evolutionary process
really is in our own hands.Formerly this book section was titled “Shocking Statistics,” but Andrew’s quote immediately tuned
me in to the true message of this section, which is that if you are going to make the switch to a
nutrient-rich healthy eating style, it’s in your hands to do so.
An inspiring HBO production called Weight of the Nation, a four-part series on obesity in America,
gave us a revealing look into the nutrient-poor, unhealthy eating style that is making us fat and sick
as a nation.^7 It is also representative of how Westernized and developed countries are both eating
and living.
These videos exposed the fact that obesity is growing at an incredible rate and is not only having a
health impact on each individual, but also a financial impact on the country (due to lower
productivity and inactivity and rising health care costs).
In addition, the series revealed the national bias that is invested in the problem. The answers are
relatively simple, yet real solutions to the obesity problem will never be implemented in a
significant enough way by government, large corporations, diet companies, hospitals or any other
institution that is profiting from the obesity crisis. Each has a compelling interest in keeping
Americans fat and sick to a certain degree. Sadly, it’s profitable.
The good part is you have the power not to participate. Whatever these entities are selling and/or
profiting from, you can opt out. You don’t have to eat the Standard American Diet. You don’t have to
be obese or unhealthy. If you take this into your hands, they can’t touch you.
For years, I have been saying that the nutrient-rich revolution is a personal shift, and that
companies will have to respond accordingly. But as long as you are addicted and eating the
nutrient-poor products they are selling, they can keep selling them to you.
(^7) HBO. The Weight of the Nation.