These are sample pictures of three crap-food establishments that litter "my Main Street". Even sadder: There's three CVS pharmacies within one mile of each other on this Main Street. If this is your diet, no doubt, you will spend a lot of time (and money) at those CVS stores.

I call this The Main Street Diet.

By the way, the Western diet can be extremely funny. Don't believe me? Check this out.

I'm a big fan of Edamame - easy to prepare and loaded with protein. Here's a spiced up version of plain Edamame. Very simple and delicious: add cranberries and pop it with some Feta cheese. I don't eat a lot of cheese. I usually use a little to pop some flavor. So, if you want to omit the cheese, no problem. It will still taste delicious.

This can be a snack or serve it as a side salad with your main meal.

Here's an interview with the author - Barry Estabrook. Sad, but true, the tomato has succumbed to industrial farming and it ain't what it used to be. Moral of the story: If you can, grow your own. I do and they are delicious.

If you fast-forward to 28:45 of this interview, you will learn something new about those wonderful shrimp you purchase at the supermarket. Once again, I feel like Howard Beal. "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

And here's one of my favorite Summertime snacks.

What kind? Just by looking at the two, which one would you choose? 

Always go for the wild Salmon. The one on the left is wild Sockeye Salmon. 

The farm raised Salmon (the one on the right) is fed an unnatural diet (pellets) that gives it its color. If the Salmon wasn't dyed, it would be the color of Tilapia. And, presumably no one would buy it.  As you can tell by the color, it even looks sickly.

Be sure to go wild!

Do you remember that guy who went on the Twinkie Diet? The results are in:

Source: HBO Bill Maher - In response to the new cigarette packaging

That's the headline for the article that states: Less than half of people having angioplasty surgery for heart disease were taking the best combination of drugs before their procedure, new research shows. This could mean their surgery was not needed.

Candidly, that's the reason I live a healthy lifestyle. I know that most of us believe science, medicine, and technology have "figured out" how to make us healthy, but they all have a long way to go. By living a healthy lifestyle, most people can avoid many diseases and the meds that are required for them.

To read the article, click it.

Let's make this simple:

There are thousands of diet concepts on the market. I call them "diet camps". This is not a camp that you attend. It's a belief system. Typically, people in these diet camps do not budge from their respective camp. In fact, they will present all types of research that demonstrates "how right they are".  They will also tell you what's wrong with all the other diet camps.

The spectrum runs form vegan (if it has a mother or a face, do not eat it) to paleo (meat eaters - fat ain't the villian). Interestingly, all of these diets work. That's the good news. However, all of them are partially correct. To a large degree, it's what they omit from their diet that plays a major role in their health.

They all omit or minimize these types of foods: fast food, junk food, processed food, sugar, soda, candy, cookies, cake, and more. And, they add a good dose of exercise. In regard to exercise, find one or more that you enjoy. For example, I enjoy running, biking, hiking, kayaking, and weight training. Bottom line: For good health, you must exercise.

In addition to the "diet camps", experts have advice about what to eat. They discuss nutrients, macro-nutrients, micro-nutrients, leptin, ghrelin, insulin, and much more. While that's important, it could not get much simpler than this:

Information is not sufficient to motivate most people to make sustainable lifestyle changes. - Dr. Dean Ornish

I agree with Dr. Ornish. However, for me, once I learned that the American food system is toxic and causes a tremendous amount of disease, it motivated me to change my lifestyle.

In this presentation, Dr. Ornish makes many interesting observations. My favorite is his input about telling someone to stop smoking. It's a great insight into the real problem of changing one's lifestyle.

I am no fan of big-pharma. Sadly, they peddle disease. So, I thank Bill Maher for this hysterical rant about them. Pass the veggies as I take a pass on meds.