How interesting!
I read Andrew Weil's
Eating Well for Optimum Health when it was published in 2000. Throughout the book there are "healing stories" about people who improved their health and changed their lives by changing their eating habits. This one appealed to me from the minute I read it:
"At ninety-three, Roy P. Drachman, one of the leading citizens of Tucson, Arizona, remains mentally sharp and physically active. He attributes his good health to a change of lifestyle he made forty years ago as a result of reading an article in an issue of Forbes magazine. The article described a man who saw his friends and contemporaries dying of heart attacks and strokes and then went to his doctor for advice and got a prescription for a healthy diet and a regular exercise. "I took the article home and gave it to my housekeeper, and I've followed the diet ever since," Roy told me.
"Roy's diet emphasizes chicken, turkey, fish, and vegetables, while avoiding meat and high-fat foods. "My sin is Mexican food," he says, "but I only have it once in a while, maybe twice a month." He describes his daily routine as follows:
"I arise at about 7 a.m. every day. The first thing I do is drink a large glass of water, about sixteen ounces. Then I do fifteen minutes of floor exercises prescribed for my ailing back. I have fewer aches and pains since doing them. I next take a hot shower followed by a cold shower, then shave and get dressed. I eat the same breakfast throughout the year: a large bowl of sectioned pink grapefruit and one piece of whole wheat toast. In summer, when peaches are available, my fruit is fresh peaches with the one piece of toast. I drink no coffee or other beverage except water and a small can of grapefruit juice with Metamucil, both in the morning and in the evening just before retiring.
"I usually walk two miles every day. I walk in the late afternoon in the wintertime and before breakfast on the beach in the summer months, when I'm in La Jolla, California. When I'm in Tucson, I go to the office every day, getting there no later than nine. I stay until 4:30 in the afternoon. In La Jolla I work out of my house. I have never considered retiring.
"For lunch I nearly always eat a bowl of soup, sometimes with a piece of bread. About once a week I'll have a very small piece of fruit pie, of which I only eat the fruit, or a scoop of ice cream. For dinner I eat a very large bowl of salad -- lettuce and vegetables with a small amount of dressing. The main course for dinner is a serving of vegetables, either boiled or steamed, and a very small piece of chicken, turkey, or fish (three or four ounces). I usually have a small glass of white wine before dinner. I haven't had any hard liquor for the past twenty-one years -- not because it was a problem but just because I feel better without it. And I never smoked a cigarette in my life. I'm moderate in my habits. I retire about 10:30 or 11 p.m. and get about eight hours of sleep a night. I think getting the right amount of sleep is important.
"Roy Drachman continues to be a civic leader who sits on many boards and is active in community affairs. As to his philosophy of life, he says, "The only religion you need is the Golden Rule. I tell my kids -- your life is under your control to a great extent, including your health and your reputation. I feel the lifestyle choices I made forty years ago are responsible for my remaining healthy and active. Deciding to be conscientious about my diet was central to that change."
I did some research and found that Roy Drachman died in 2002 at the age of 96. I couldn't find a cause of death, but I'm assuming it was old age. His habits were pretty moderate, and he lived a long, apparently healthy, life.
His way of eating (plus a couple of other things) forms the basis of my diet
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."
