Stress Relief, Nutrition Advice & Gardening Tips
For President Obama & The USA

I want to commend you on your determination to lead our country back to health, accountability and integrity. I want you to know that I support you and am happy to assist you in any way that I can, both personally and professionally as an advisor in the area of wellness, nutrition and culinary arts.

The first thing that comes to my mind is how you are holding up, given the incredible array of people and problems you are dealing with. I see that you are fit, love to shoot hoops, enjoy time with your family, and have been able to maintain a sense of humor thus far.

I want to remind you that "you are what you eat." I have seen the White House menus and while they are nourishing, they appear to be a bit heavy on the meat, cream and refined carbohydrates. I encourage you and/or your culinary advisors or chefs to visit the Bauman College and learn about Eating for Health, a diversified plant-based diet, built upon local, seasonal, organic foods. How about an Executive Order to put in an organic garden on the White House lawn with fruit trees (love those DC cherries), root and leafy vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs? (Michelle started digging the garden on 3/20/09—Editor.)

I have witnessed that our previous presidents have aged noticeably while in office. I don't want that to happen to you. I suggest you keep a tea pot going of green and herbal teas with herbs such as ginger, mint, ginkgo, hawthorn, gota kola and dandelion to provide protective antioxidants and keep your circulation strong. The healthier you are, the better able you will be to think and act at the highest level. Read labels to make sure you are not eating disease-promoting high fructose corn sweetener, hydrogenated fats, refined carbohydrates, genetically modified soy, wheat or corn, or feedlot beef, poultry or dairy products with hormones and antibiotics. Talk about a threat to your health security!

Did you know that the water in East Coast cities was recently found to contain 56 pharmaceutical compounds from antidepressants to statins to antibiotics? Make sure to filter your water at the White House.

As our Chief Executive, I hope you will be our chief health role model. We need clean air, pure water, fresh food, physical activity and social teamwork to live well.

The national health problems started when we lost the link with nature and turned over our food and medical system to private industry whose motto is "better living through chemistry." The two billion pounds per year of toxic materials used in farming and manufacturing has contaminated our food system, which has disrupted our metabolism, contributing to the early onset of obesity, diabetes, depression, asthma, heart disease and cancer.

Did you know that more than half the meals eaten today in America are prepared by a food company, not by a family at home? Food companies focus on delivering a standardized commodity, with long shelf life, not wholeness, freshness and nutrition.

Artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and additives raise inflammation, switch on the immune system and alter delicate brain, nerve and hormonal signals. Most people are in the dark about this. The more poor-quality, adulterated foods people eat, the more aggravated they feel, leading to an increase in unhealthy snacks and 'energy' drinks or excessive night time food and drink consumption to put them to sleep. Add stress to this picture and we have the sluggish, sedentary American going to their doctor for pills instead of adopting a health affirming lifestyle.

Drug ads saturate the media, and over $40 billion dollars a year goes into pharmaceutical advertising. We need to set limits and ethical guidelines.

To Restore America's Health, to demonstrate improved health outcomes and cost savings in a SUSTAINABLE way, I suggest we address the cause of our problem first and foremost:

1. Hire nutrition and culinary chefs to teach at the Community Health Centers that have been recently funded. Let's put a premium on teaching people to feed and care for themselves. I have curriculum I am happy to share to train nutrition and health coaches nationally.
2. Fund a series of media lessons that can be accessed by computer on health, diet, fitness, stress management and health culture that reinforce individual efforts. I have produced three courses to date: Eating for Health, Cooking for Health and Nutrition Bandits, each with 12 five-minute segments. Other courses with a similar format could reach anyone with a computer at any time.
3. Recruit and train Wellness Activators who can work via telephone and internet with individuals and families who want education and support to make health enhancing lifestyle changes.
4. Create incentives for individuals, companies and social groups to do Diet and Lifestyle Evaluations.
5. Fund sustainable, organic agriculture and shift subsidies away from genetically modified soy, wheat, corn and canola oil, and feedlot farming of beef and dairy cows.
6. Break up some concrete and cultivate urban and back yard gardens, and family farms.
7. Give out GREEN stamps with pictures of fruits and veggies on them to help reduce the cost of fresh, locally grown seasonal foods.
8. Put Wellness Activators in medical settings to educate clients as well as treat their complaints.
9. Provide access to all healing modalities, such as nutrition education, acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, massage, Tai Chi, Ayurveda, yoga, meditation, energy, prayer and native healing.
10. Purchase property that is on short sale for residential retreat centers where people with need and time but little money can go to learn how to rest, recover and regain the health and life skills they have lost due to injury, illness, aging and financial misfortune.

Mr. President, thanks for taking the time to read this. I am willing to pitch in to plan the program to Restore America's Health. The next time you get a hankering for fast food, don't go there. Have some almonds and an organic apple. I would be honored to be your personal and family Wellness Activator if ever you need one. Peace and prosperity to one and to all.

FEEDBACK: CLICK HERE to email comments and feedback. Please note the title of the article or the author's name. Include your own name or type "name withheld" by request. Thoughtful responses will be published in our next edition.