How to Eat, Lose Weight, Look Great, and Enjoy Your Life, Part III

by

John Stephen Mauldin, MLA (not AI assisted)

All right reserved, copyright © 2025

   Eating late in the evening is predominantly a social habit, not founded upon healthy behavior. Consider the other members of society. Most of them lose their youthfulness too soon, have ill health, and are overweight. Dining early redirects healing energies from digestion to other parts of our bodies. It helps us lose weight, too.

   Indeed, we allow our bodies to rejuvenate and repair by eating dinner earlier than 6 pm. Some people feel that is intermittent fasting. However, others believe we must wait 18 hours between meals for intermittent fasting to work. I developed the regimen of eating breakfast after 9 am and dinner before 3 pm, which allows 18 hours between meals. Anyone can acquire that habit. However, it is unnecessary.

   Yet some things are imperative counterparts to the plant-based lifestyle:

1.      A daily supplement of vitamin B-12 is mandatory to maintain a positive mental outlook.

2.      A quality protein powder made from vegetables without sugar or dairy ingredients ensures that we have enough protein.  

3.      I recommend taking a quality, daily multivitamin.

4.      Iron absorption is essential to understand, notably because it maintains healthy blood. The Harvard School of Public Health states that “Iron is a major component of hemoglobin, a type of protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to all parts of the body. Without enough iron, there aren’t enough red blood cells to transport oxygen, which leads to fatigue.

   “Iron from food comes in two forms: heme and non-heme. Heme is found only in animal flesh like meat, poultry, and seafood. Non-heme iron is found in plant foods like whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, and leafy greens.”

   Furthermore, iron’s bioavailability differs significantly from meat to plants; meats, poultry, and seafood are richest in heme iron and more readily absorbed than non-heme. Plants with iron and vitamin C are the best choice to ensure iron penetration since C vitamins increase iron absorption. 

   Also, some studies suggest that eggs, walnuts, tea, coffee, soy, milk, and all dairy products inhibit iron absorption and should be eaten a few hours before or after eating iron-rich foods to ensure proper absorption. And some plants contain both iron and iron blockers; for example, although rich in iron, tofu negates iron retention since soy, the principal ingredient in tofu, is an iron blocker. Several cases of such contradictious vitamins and minerals occur in plants, and it is helpful to identify them.

   We are, indeed, what we eat. Yet it is more accurate to say that we are what we absorb. Remember, we can eat adequate amounts of iron, yet not nutritionally ingest it unless accompanied with vitamin C. That is why we should often plan our meals with iron-rich food complimented with foods high in C vitamins.

   I could write another essay, indeed, another book about iron. So, those wishing to eat a vegetarian, vegan, or raw vegan diet should individually assume the responsibility of learning about iron absorption because it is vital to elementary health.

5.      Variety is necessary. We benefit significantly from eating multi-colors of food each day. Brightly colored fruits and vegetables represent different phytochemicals, which provide various health benefits that help us receive a balance of essential nutrients. Also, dark green leafy vegetables, particularly those of the cruciferous variety, are excellent counterparts to brighter-colored foods.

   Those five points are fundamental to the plant-based lifestyle. So, you might wish to carefully follow them.

    Please know that if you are accustomed to eating steaks, hamburgers, fried chicken, french fries, bread, pasta, pizza, cheese, milk, fried foods, and other items on the Standard American Diet (SAD), you may feel weak and have stomach aches after eating healthily. That is symptomatic of living food cleansing your body of toxins that may have accumulated for decades. Everyone experiences such detoxification symptoms. But take your time. The discomfort will pass. Living food will heal you, and soon you will enjoy the benefits immensely.

   In recapitulation, if I continued to eat the SAD diet, I would still be forty pounds overweight or more, arthritic, a chronic cold sufferer, and burdened with the list of disorders described earlier, all of which I overcame with life-giving food.

   So, dear friend, that is how to eat, yet it is not the only way. Indeed, I encourage you to take your time, easing into the right way to eat for you over several months or years if you wish to try this lifestyle or its variation. For example, I was a vegetarian for several years until I discovered the unmerciful treatment of dairy cows. Consequently, I became a vegan. Now I eat mostly raw vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds, and I feel like I am growing younger.

   Nevertheless, we journey along separate and unique vectors. And so, I do not presume that what suits me will, therefore, be right for you. As I wrote at the beginning of this essay, you may kindly take or leave these ideas with my humblest best wishes for your goodwill.