Cat Wilson and her husband attended the Iron Hand Vinyard Wine Bar Vegan Brunch on Oct. 15 and enjoyed sharing the wild mushroom flatbread, tofu scramble and challah french toast.

By Cathy Wilson
Guest Columnist

According to Science Journalist, Max Luavere, a recent study found that being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in your 30s shaves 14-16 years off of your life. Diagnosed in your 50s, lose six years of life.

Type 2 diabetes is a food disease — a preventable food disease.

You may respond with — “my doctor didn’t say that,” and you would be right. Sadly, our healthcare system is more of a sick-care system. We go into the system when we are sick, not when we are well and wanting to remain so, and certainly not for nutritional information.

I’m not blaming the doctors; the protocols they trained under were to respond a certain way based on the symptoms presented.

The standard American diet is currently: 54% processed products, 32% animal products, 10% veggies, fruits & nuts and 4% whole grain.

The 10% veggies, fruits and nuts says it all for me. Flip these numbers and you’ve got it right. I find it amusing that we’ve become so conditioned to eating unhealthy that whole foods plant based eating is considered dieting, disordered eating or just weird.

Whole Food equals food without an ingredient list; veggies, fruits, raw nuts & seeds.

Plant-based — it grows intact from the ground, a tree, a hothouse or hydroponically, greens, beans, mushrooms, onions, brown rice.

We are coming up on the holidays folks and you can decide to eat your way through it because it’s only six weeks long and: I hate vegetables. I hate salad. I hate mushrooms. I hate beans. I can’t give up cheese.

You either see opportunities or obstacles — it’s always been your choice.

Fall in love with taking care of yourself. Fall in love with the path of healing. Fall in love with becoming the best version of yourself and respect your journey.

You are a product of your decisions — yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows.

Do your research, find a buddy, move every day, write down what you eat and take a look at it. Remember the GBOMBS: Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds.

To your health

Cat Wilson lives in South Bend and transitioned from a vegetarian diet to eating a plant-based diet over two years ago. She may be contacted at [email protected].