It is impossible to know in advance which events will become ‎significant milestones in our lives. Any encounter, emotion, object or ‎date on the calendar has the potential to be life changing.‎

Of course you might decide to take control of your destiny; make a ‎conscientious decision to create a new habit. After all, everybody ‎knows that it is possible to create a new one in just 21 days. ‎

But is that so? ‎

Welcome to the Information Age! Today it is all too easy to distort ‎facts and spread half-truths. Many years ago, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a ‎plastic surgeon, realized that it took at least 21 days for his patients to ‎get used to their “new” self-image. The words "at least" vanished ‎somewhere between the lines, online, forever lost.‎

According to a recent study in London, an average of 66 days is ‎needed to create a new habit. The earliest adapter was able to form a ‎new habit after only 18 days. The latest adapter, however, took a ‎whopping 254 days to form a new habit!‎

So forget the 21 day myth…‎

I can’t for the life of me recall who recommended that I read “The ‎China Study” but it certainly became a catalyst for change on my ‎journey to me.‎

The China Study describes a comprehensive epidemiological study ‎conducted in China in cooperation with American and Chinese ‎scientists. The study focused on the relationship between nutrition ‎and chronic disease, specifically animal products (protein) and chronic ‎disease. This book rocked my world. For the first time I became ‎painfully aware of the relationship between our eating habits and ‎chronic disease. The power of choice at the end of our fork became ‎crystal clear: vote daily for or against your health. An absentee ballot ‎to be tallied daily and your good(?) fortune to be delivered back to ‎you some time in the future past…‎

In his book, Colin Campbell presented real life examples over and over ‎again which shook me to the core. The link between the consumption ‎of animal products and chronic disease became increasingly clear. It ‎was thought provoking and prompted me to make changes in my life. ‎Passages of his books “The China Study” and “Whole” are forever ‎embedded in my mind:‎

Whether they may be in Israel, Europe or the United States, seven out ‎of ten of all the leading causes of death each year are from chronic ‎disease. This list includes heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many ‎others “done in” by the “good life”.‎

With the aid of just one independent variable, the percentage of ‎dietary animal protein, scientists were able to completely turn on and ‎turn off cancer in laboratory mice. The sick were completely cured and ‎then made to fall ill again. The all or nothing results were so startling ‎and characteristically “unscientific” that the team had to repeat the ‎experiment time and time again.‎

Many graphs displayed the consumption of milk by country alongside ‎rates of cancer or osteoporotic bone fractures. I was flabbergasted and ‎dismayed by my milk pushing psyche…‎

I found myself sifting through yet more and more data, all culminating ‎in a similar conclusion. I certainly did not feel like I was being ‎pressured in one way or another to come to any foreseen conclusion. I ‎was left completely to my own devices.

I was sucked into a story, by no means fictional: ‎
Life as a flurry of chronic disease.‎..

I grew up Jewish in the midst of a devout Christian community. I am ‎no stranger to proselytization‎. Not for one moment did I feel as if I ‎was being preached at but rather given data and left to my devices to ‎draw my own conclusions.‎

I especially liked the analytical tools which the author presented to ‎the reader: to facilitate, formulate and judge the data by self.‎

How effective is a health intervention?‎

Remember these three words: Rapidity • Breadth • Depth

        Rapidity: How quickly is change felt?‎

Breadth: How many biomarkers does the intervention affect? Does it ‎affect a broad range of symptoms and illnesses?‎

     Depth: Is the change powerful and far-reaching or barely noticeable?‎

I fell asleep listening to the recording "Whole". Awoken from a dream, ‎for once traces remained in my consciousness. Like all dreams, the ‎dream was strange: full of remnants from the past, present and future; ‎people and places found not as I was accustomed to seeing them.‎

One thing I can remember clearly. I can relay in vivid detail what was ‎on the table when Colin Campbell came to dinner, WFPB: delicious ‎delectable and delightful Whole Food Plant Based Nourishment♥

Do you have any idea what the connection between the elephants and this post is? Please comment below 🙂

T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II, MD, The China ‎Study, BenBella Books, 2006‎

T.Colin Campbell, PhD with Howard Jacobson, PhD, Whole, BenBella ‎Books, 2013‎