From Baskin Robbins To Food Revolution: How To Create A Healthy and Sustainable Planet?

Ocean Robbins is author of the newly released book, 31-Day Food Revolution: Heal Your Body, Feel Great, & Transform Your World. He serves as CEO and cofounder of the 500,000-plus-member Food Revolution Network—one of the largest communities of healthy eating advocates on the planet. Ocean has held hundreds of live seminars and events that have touched millions of lives in 190 nations. His grandfather founded Baskin-Robbins, and his father, John Robbins, walked away from the family company to write bestsellers like Diet for a New America and to become a renowned health advocate. Now, Ocean is on a mission to transform the industrialized food culture into one that celebrates and supports healthy people and a healthy planet.

If you are interested in the topic of food for health, also make sure to check out my interview with Dr. William Li on how to Eat To Beat Disease.

How Ocean Chose Health Instead of Ice Cream

• Ocean’s grandfather was the founder of Baskin Robbins
• Ocean’s father walked away from the family business and wrote a health book instead
• Ocean’s parents raised him in a log cabin with healthy foods
• Ocean followed his own health journey
• Founded a non-profit called YES! and trained 650,000 youth leaders around the world

What’s Wrong With The Food System

• Rainforests are bring cut down to produce food for livestock
• Pesticides and fertilizers are being used to mass produce food
• Livestock production is fueling overconsumption of resources
• Indigenous people are fighting for their cultural survival
• People are getting sick with diseases unheard of just a few generations above
• It takes 12 pounds of grain or soy to produce one pound of feedlot beef
• 80% of agricultural land goes towards livestock production
• Ocean believes reducing our meat consumption can reverse most of these challenges and help us bring a food revolution

Food Revolution Network

• Ocean launched the food revolution network in 2012 with his father
• 700,00 member strong – with food revolution summits and online courses
• They discuss how to change the way we grow food, how we process it and how we consume it
• Education and advocacy to empower individuals to take charge and be agents of change

31-Day Food Revolution Book

• Grandpa started 31 flavors of ice-cream, so Ocean did 31 days of food revolution
• Part 1: Detoxify to clear out toxins
• Part 2: Nourish yourself with healthy foods
• Part 3: Gather – social side of food, how to create communities and relationships
• Part 4: Transform – political activist side of food and how to change our current food system
• Go here to get the 31-day food revolution book

What Are Ocean’s Top Principles For Food?

• Eat more whole plant foods, veggies, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes
• IF you eat animal products, make sure they are pasture raised or grass fed animals, or wild fish
• Eat healthy fats from nuts and seeds, avocado oil, olive oil
• Nurture the good bacteria in your gut by eating fiber and prebiotics
• Eat less sugar, processed food and junk food
• Get away from bottled oil, canola, soybean oil corn oil, soybean oil
• Conscious sourcing is important: go organic if you can
• Find fair trade certified for coffee, sugar and chocolate

What About GMO’s – Genetically Modified Organisms

• GMO’s were expected to bring bigger yields, drought resistant crops, improvement in flavor, nutrition and less pesticide consumption
• Studies show none of these hold up 30 years later
• Many GMO plants are pesticide producers – there are pesticides inside the cell of the plant (BT – which may impact gut bacteria)
• The other issue is that these GMO’s are glyphosate resistant.
• Farmers happily spray glyphosate on GMO crops ti kill the bugs – but glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor, increasing risk of cancer and killing good bacteria
• To avoid GMO’s: you can go organic or certified GMO
• Or/and avoid the big GMO crops: corn, soy, canola, sugarbeets, alfalfa and cotton

Learning to Prepare Your Own Food

• The best restaurants are under pressure to cut corners and save costs, so sometimes they can add additives
• You can use the savings from buying restaurant food and instead buy healther food from the supermarket
• Restaurants also have to cover a lot of overhead costs and make some money as well

Where To Find Ocean Robbins?

• Sign up for a Food Revolution Summit
• Get the 31-Day Food Revolution book