Bad News, Good News
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Bad News - Good News
Looking at things from different sides is more or less the reason I write these newsletters every week. I firmly believe that one of our greatest threats to continued freedom and prosperity is how diluted, divisive, and de-humanizing our public conversations have become.
There are many jokes and fables about good and bad news. Like the two shoe salesmen who were sent to explore new market opportunities in faraway places.
The first salesman sent his telegram and it said:
"This is not a good market opportunity. People are not wearing shoes."
Later the second salesman sent his telegram. He reported:
"This is a fantastic opportunity. People aren't wearing shoes."
How do you typically look at things? Are you a half glass full or half glass empty type of person?
I am clearly a glass-half-full kind of a guy. I prefer living my life that way. I enjoy looking at problems and trying to figure out what the silver lining is. It's not that I like problems. Like most people, I prefer not having them. But living life expecting not to have problems is really not that wise, considering we all encounter problems and sooner or later, quite significant ones. I usually say that "the misery of uncertainty is far better than the certainty of misery."
This is probably also why I love entrepreneurs so much. They are people who typically see opportunities when others see problems. They are also much more comfortable with the curvilinear aspect of life. In fact, many of the best ones thrive in chaos. And looking at the world today, it's pretty much chaotic, don't you think?
Valor Equity Partners is a very successful investment firm that I have the great fortune to be in business with and learn from. They are good people doing really good work. They intentionally invest in opportunities (businesses and founders) that are what they call "pro-entropic". Entropy is a word associated with the laws of thermodynamics and often represents the degree of disorder and randomness in a system.
I think it is smart, whether considering your own habits and attitudes or assessing the same in others, to be more aware of entropic qualities. Again, we might prefer a world with less change and fewer problems, but that's not going to happen, so we might as well be more ready for the change that we know is coming. As Heraclitus reminded us: "The only constant in life is change.”
So, with that gentle intro, I do have some really bad news and some really good news.
Are you ready?
The Really BAD News
Far too many people live very unhealthy lives. Depending on the country, we are talking 30-75% of entire populations suffer from lifestyle diseases that shorten life spans and limit well-being. This is bad enough. Humanly. But also economically. In many places, we spend more money treating preventable diseases than we spend on other valuable and critical services like education, transportation, and defense.
The Really GOOD News
We know how to avoid and reverse some of our most prevalent chronic diseases. Without surgery or medicine. Just by changing our lifestyle. And oftentimes, not even that much.
I want to be PERFECTLY clear. There are diseases, far too many, that still lack effective treatments. I know that. But I leave that in the hands of all the capable scientists that are passionately and tirelessly working towards finding cures for them.
What I am talking about here are chronic diseases that are almost exclusively the result of the way people live their lives (basically sleep, stress, exercise, and diet). If we could harness behavior changes en masse around a few key areas, it would not only bring better health to humanity and improved economics for everyone, but also be of joy and value in and of themselves.
For some reason, we don't want to talk about this much and we certainly don't spend nearly enough of our collective investments committing to lifestyle as medicine. It is truly a tragedy. It's like we don't see it and like the shoe salesman can't see all the vast opportunities that come along with recognizing this very obvious fact.
Take Covid as a case in point. We have spent trillions of dollars and endless media chatter around just about everything BUT the lifestyle choices we could all commit to in order to improve our immune systems. We are happy to debate vaccine boosters, but never talk about the immune boosters that include eating more plants, exercising more regularly, breathing better, and sleeping more. Just to name a few.
New York Times wrote a long article last weekend that had beautiful graphics, and incredible analytics on all things Covid. Except, there was one glaring absence. They failed to mention that well over half of the people who have died from COVID so far had underlying health conditions that could have been prevented with lifestyle modifications.
I recognize that changing habits is not as easy as taking a magic pill or a one-time injection. And we will need structural changes to how we grow food, how cities are designed better for walking and biking, how healthier habits are rewarded and incentivized, etc before we will see systemic changes and improvements. I get that. My point today is simply that we could start by at least admitting and promoting the importance of lifestyle choices and making them more front and center as a key ingredient towards better health. After all, it’s a matter of life or death.
Also please consider health broadly. It's not just about typically well-known chronic diseases. It's also about our mental health while we are living. I am convinced that our current unhealthy lifestyles are contributing to the anger, divisiveness, mean-spiritedness, and complete collapse of our public discourse as well. When you feel better you ARE better. Not only will we live longer and better by focusing on healthier lifestyle habits, but we will also improve our collective capacity to address many other challenges we face as well.
While there are many aspects of lifestyle, food is probably the most important one and certainly the one nearest and dearest to my own heart. Changing how and what we eat has been part of the story of my own life's journey. And I can assure you, I have the scars to show for it. I have failed more than I have succeeded.
Changing our food systems and our personal food habits requires more than political and personal will. It requires something akin to a social revolution. We need cultural reinforcement, systemic re-engineering, and lots and lots of changes to the way we grow and produce our food.
And this is NOT about blame. Or shame! As you know, I spent a good part of my early career with McDonald's. I learned invaluable lessons and gained lifelong friends that I still cherish. Wanting people to eat better is NOT at all inconsistent with the values of McDonald's. Why would it be? But as my former CEO often said after we failed to try to sell more healthy options: "Mats, if parents can't get their own kids to eat broccoli, why is that my problem?" He certainly had a point.
This is hard. And it is far more difficult than asserting blame on one particular company or person. We live in a culture that sadly is obsessed with pointing fingers at others as the key theory of change. This is not working. We are about to prove what Gandhi warned us about many years ago: "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."
Changing our lifestyles, in general, and our relationship with food, in particular, will literally take a whole village. It will take all of us. And there has never been a better time to start than right now. If you don't take my word for it, read the latest European study on obesity from the WHO (which also proves this is not just an American problem).
We need a complete and full commitment to regenerative and restorative health. It starts at the farm and goes all the way to our fork. And a little change will go a long way for most people. We know from science that losing 10% of weight has tremendous health benefits. And over 75% of Americans are overweight so this affects 3/4 of us. I know, because I am most often one of them!
Lastly, people often ask me what my food philosophy is. I try to be less prescriptive for two reasons.
First, I haven't found something that works perfectly. Otherwise, I wouldn't personally have any problems. This is hard. Let's just be honest about it. And let's not beat ourselves up over it.
Second, people are VERY different. People struggle with different things. There is no BAD food. Just bad lifestyles. You can certainly have desserts, fast food, and all the food you love. But the size and frequency of those occasions will completely depend on your personal circumstance. One size does not fit all.
There are endless resources out there. Below, I have selected a few of the favorites that I track and use almost daily. I have listed them in a sort of "chronological" order in how they changed my own thinking, hoping that this might be helpful to you, as well.
Let me also clearly state that there is no perfect truth out there. All of these people (and many others) offer inspiration and direction towards a healthier lifestyle. Ultimately it is our own job to design what works best for us. Einstein reminded us that in theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. So when it comes to lifestyle the best theories are those that you put into practice!
Dean Ornish is the pioneer in lifestyle medicine. He has studied comprehensive lifestyle changes and their effects on health for over 40 years. He has written many books. His latest is here.
Michael Pollan's books are all beautiful and powerful. The "starting" point could be Food Rules which distills what he has learned into practical and simple rules for eating.
Gary Taubes has written many books that best "explain" how we got here and what many of the problems are. I recommend reading all his work, but if you want to pick one I would go with this one.
Dr. Mark Hyman has also written profusely about this. His podcast is helpful, and his cookbooks are something we use often in our home (this one particularly).
Dr. David Katz has a great weekly post that I read. Read this one which is very much on the theme of my post today. He also wrote this piece in Huffington post in 2014 that is really good about treating health like wealth and obesity like drowning.
A few "newer" books that I recommend would be Satchin Panda's Circadian Code around the benefits of intermittent fasting, Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis, and Robert Hariri's book Life Force, and Professor David Sinclair's book Lifespan and Dr. Perlmutter's Drop Acid. In them, you can also find important topics beyond food, such as the benefits of intermittent fasting, the power of sleep, nose breathing, sauna, cold plunges, and other hacks for a healthier life.
And lastly. My favorite part. Listing the companies doing important work and trying to be helpful to people and their health. And, yes, I am biased as I am working with all these great companies.
Rōti. Better than ever. Order for yourself, your colleagues, and your family. The Mediterranean diet served daily. Crave Better!
Sakara. They do an incredible job sending you food that will truly impact your health.
ITRIM (Sweden and China) - for those that are committed to changing their lifestyle for good. For those in the US, ITRIM has partnered with Monj.
Picadeli – great, affordable salads found in grocery stores in Europe and now in the US
Eat Love. Great tech platform helping you shop, cook, and eat better
Yes, many of us NEED chocolate. And for those occasions UNREAL is your friend.
Fatty15 - we have confused our relationship with fat. We need them. This is a vegan, saturated fat packed with health benefits.
Mixt - great company serving deliciously healthy food
If you have questions or comments on any of this or ideas that can help us live healthier lives, please engage.
