No, this won't be a political statement, as my readers know by now. One motto I always follow with this blog is to share stuff that I feel would be useful. If some person reads about a post I might have written about the Dead or Red Sea and got some useful information, wonderful. Admittedly, postings about roadkill are not everybody's cup, but by and large, I believe people get something out of this blog.

Although I mainly write about travel, I also like to write the occasional post about lifestyle, including health. I am in my 50s, and over the years had health issues that included high cholesterol and high blood pressure. These are not conditions I want to keep, safe to say. In my family, we have a long history of people dying of heart attacks, so I am warned. Following more skyhigh cholesterol readings, I finally decided something would have to give and decided to drop all meat...this was about four years ago when I arrived in Frankfurt. You read that correctly. Dropping meat in Germany. This means I would go without the brats, without the schnitzels, without the Kassler. I know: nuts, although nuts actually became a more regular staple in the absence of meat. The result: my cholesterol went down, my blood pressure stabilized, and I didn't even have to give up the good German beer. 

But something was missing. I worked out regularly, avoided the car whenever I could, drank plenty of water. Now, I needed to find a good health routine regarding the rest of my nutritional plan. Too many times, I cheated. Although I wasn't eating meat, Liebi and I would have regular cheese platters, which, eventually, would...see if you can guess. Right, I became a candidate for statins again.

Next, I decided to go pescatarian. I was going to explore all options of being a vegetarian, and I never had anything against fish. So, I would have fish once or twice a week, with me or Liebi cooking vegetarian recipes on the other evenings. Then came the last step. I sighed. I had tried everything, gone keto, pesca, veggie, caveman, astronaut, etc. I intermittently fasted, yet I still didn't feel quite right. Now I dared myself to do the last one, which was vegan. Let's do it.

I don't think the transition was hard. I had lived in Morocco and Jordan and dined largely on plant-based food, which was the best food I ever tasted. But this was different. Now I would jettison Brie and Gruyere. Bye-bye to Pizza. Yogurt. Turkey on Thanksgiving. Not easy. All this in Germany's alpha city Frankfurt, a place with exquisite restaurants, as Liebi and I would learn.

The changes after adopting a vegan diet were amazing. After only four weeks, I could feel the blood running in a body which previously had been...what's the word, clogged perhaps? I was sharper mentally, found that I had become a more productive person overall. People thought I had lost my mind, like I was openly grazing on the living room rug. The fact is, though, is that I drew a line as to what I would feed myself with. There are foods and non foods. Apple...food. Doritos: non food, or junk, not useful for the body. 

In addition, I knocked out added sugar. The results are that I feel like 20 again. 

This is not to say that I won't return to cheese and meats and fish again some day. But why change the diet if I feel the best I ever felt as an adult? Doesn't make sense to me. So I eat brown rice, quinoa, couscous, soy, the whole nine. I tell people not to pity me, and they don't, for the most part. 

That's my public service announcement. Stay safe and healthy, folks.