Extreme.
Over this past weekend I watched the documentary Forks Over Knives. One of the resounding questions that has stuck with me is which is more extreme, eating a plant based diet or having your body cracked in half for open heart surgery?
When we hear of someone changing their habits or lifestyle so dramatically we say or think, “wow, that seems extreme”. Yet, when someone has open heart surgery we don’t see it with quite the same extremeness. We seem to have been lulled to the fact that open heart surgery is almost normal, we all know someone (friend, family member) who has undergone this ordeal and it seems to happen with relative frequency. How many people do you know on a plant based diet?
Another fact that got my attention is that open heart surgery (bypass or otherwise) is merely a treatment of symptoms caused by heart disease. It is essentially a (rather large, painful and high risk) band-aid. Surgery does not cure the heart disease. The patient is still sick. Surgery has then prolonged the life of this sick person. Why do we view radical eating habits as more extreme? Wouldn’t it make more sense to adopt a lifestyle that is healthy and sustainable (on many levels)?
The film definitely got my attention, definitely got me thinking. I’m not eating a plant based diet just yet. However, I can say that if I’m going to be extreme, I would much rather have it be in the way of health vs. disease.