I recommend the Mark Bittman book A Bone to Pick that collects his columns and essays on food and agriculture.

He should win a Nobel Prize for his rigorous intelligent and rational thinking on the topic.

My contention is that a person should stay away from chemical-laden processed foods and foods with sugar and added sugars. If you do that you’re well on your way to being in better health. Plus not eating meat is also a better option for our health and for the planet.

Pesticides contaminate groundwater. They cause cancer. Industrial agriculture is far from sustainable even though Monsanto is now claiming it is in magazine and TV advertisements. Or was it DuPont or Synerga claiming industrial agriculture is sustainable. Either way those claims are false.

Kind bars I found out have “natural flavors” that are actually fake chemicals.

The equation is simple: garbage in equals garbage out. I care too much for the planet and for everyone living on it to advocate for “business as usual” in farming practices.

If you live in New York City or Philadelphia I recommend shopping online from FreshDirect because you have tons of healthful food choices like Amy’s Organic. Amy’s offers black beans and quinoa, lentil soup with low sodium, tofu and hash browns, and vegetable lasagna. All these prepackaged healthful food are perfect to heat in the oven when you come home from the gym and are too tired to cook. Or when you simply don’t have the energy to cook.

I do not recommend a “garbage in, garbage out” lifestyle or way of thinking.

At HealthCentral I will continue to write about strategies for living a full and robust life when you have a diagnosis. Stay tuned there for new news articles I have planned through January.