I’m not a physician (I only have a BA in Medicine and I never practiced as healer) and certainly not your physician, so I’m not giving medical advice to anyone. However, some ideas I have could be helpful – but not instead of going to the doctor when you should.
Why do people get chronic high blood pressure – the silent killer?
In more than 90% of the cases the doctors don’t know. But I think I do. This insight may be used to prevent it. If it also could be helpful for people who already have this dangerous condition is up to your doctor to assess, but normally it may be too late for that.
Medical scientists are searching for decades already why some people get a chronic high blood pressure, with no success. That’s because they’re looking in the wrong places. They study afflicted patients and try to find out what sets them apart. To what does this compare?
Say, there are people who all day long, bang their head against the wall. Some of them develop headaches, some of them even fractures of the skull. How silly it would be to try to find out why some get these consequences and others not. The solution is: do not bang one’s head against the wall all day long anymore.
We know that people on a Western diet consume 800% too much salt. Asking why some get chronic high blood pressure is silly. The solution is: stop over-consuming salt. When I ate too much salt, I get thirsty and pee it out within a day. (I imagine that if I’d do that twice a day, I might end up with it accumulating, the body “getting tired” of removing enough.) Less salt does not mean that food must lose its taste. Hear me out.
The main reason for too much salt intake is habituation. And it started because much of what people tend to eat is not tasty. Things will shape up once we are getting out of the habit to add so much salt and eat more tasteful real food.
Experiment: Take a bite of something salted you like and then a bite of the same thing without salt. Do you notice that, though the second bite doesn’t taste like the real thing, the only difference is the taste of salt? Then you are ready to gradually (or at once) stop adding so much salt.
Another parallel way is to eat less and less tasteless stuff. Meat is tasteless. We burn it on the outside and spice it up to give it taste. Something that we do not need to do with vegan protein, like lentils, peas, whole wheat, beans, mushrooms. We could add herbs, but why would we taste-bombard food that has a wonderful taste of its own?
White flour produce (bread, pasta, rice) tastes like nothing. You need to add salt, sauce, onions, anything to give it taste. But whole wheat bread or pasta and whole grains and rice taste so awesome, they don’t need much/any makeup at all to be rich in taste. Same with cooked (better: steamed) vegetables and vegetable soup. No salt needed at all.
For instance: cook whole macaroni in lots of water. Poor off this water and cook in it (cut to big pieces) carrots (long time), pumpkin and sweat potato (20 minutes, don’t overcook) and grated beetroot (after putting out the flame). Add nothing and you have a majestic orange or red soup.
Yes, the whole wheat macaroni is sometimes thrice as expensive as the white, but it satisfies and prevents you from overeating and eating sweets and other expensive stuff. It satisfies because you need to chew and because of the wholesome ingredients. White pasta can only satisfy from eating bulk amounts and for a very limited time. Same with bread. In the end, the expensive whole stuff is cheaper than the white stuff.
And if in the beginning, it’s hard to enjoy, only add 25% whole (pasta, bread, flour) to your white stuff. Once you’re used to that, make it 50%. Then 75%. And then 100%
Coffee and tea are so disgusting that in the beginning at least, many people need to add milk and sugar to camouflage the revolting taste. Drink water instead. If you insist on a taste, add a little citrus, lemon or apple vinegar. Choose taste, not drugs.
A complete no no is to cook pasta or rice in salty water. The salt disappears into the food, so that a lot of salt needs to be added to taste any of it. Meanwhile, you give the body a lot of useless salt to remove. Cook starch dishes without salt; then add some towards the end, if at all.
In short: eat more real food with good tastes. Add less salt. Live better. Live longer. Tell others.
These opinions do not replace consulting and listening to your physicians.
MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. *
As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. *
This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Of the 15 (!) books he has in mind, the next two are about homosexuality in Judaism and new rabbinics. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2600 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog that also may contain updates to Times of Israel posts, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. *
He's getting ready to publicize books on: "Free Will, "Judaism and Homosexuality, "His parents in the Holocaust, "Judaism, "A New Torah Translation and "A New Hebrew Grammar, "Co-Counseling, "Vegan Facts, "Immortality, and more. *
Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He agrees that in a post-truth world, that's irrelevant, but then this is for the record. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. *
Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. *
Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. *
He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. *
He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. *
He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. *
His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. His posts are spell, grammar, and style polished by AI, but all written by himself. *
To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. *
His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
