Vertemnus (detail), by Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1591 WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
Changing the way we think about food may be the key ingredient to improving the health of local communities • BY SCOTT ALESSI
2020 PLAN
Taking a collaborative approach to addressing societal challenges, including community health disparities, is one of the four institutional
priorities of “Plan 2020: Building a More Just, Humane, and Sustainable World,” Loyola’s five-year strategic plan.
LEARN MORE:
LUC.edu/plan2020
“I’m not anti-meat,” says Dr. Terry Mason (BS ’74). It’s an odd thing to say for someone whose diet is almost entirely plant-based. It’s even more curious when you consider that Mason has just spent the past hour talking about the connections between staples of the American diet—processed foods, sugary drinks, dairy products, and yes, meat—and the most common illnesses in this country. But Mason, the chief operating officer of the Cook County Department of Public Health, isn’t a critic of any one food in particular. He does, however, want you to change the way you eat. “I’m not anti- anything; I’m just pro-health,” he says. “And I look at the food supply in America as the number one threat to our health.”
Mason hasn’t always been a proponent of
healthy eating. After decades as a urologist, he transitioned into the field of public health in 2009 and began to learn more about the links between diet and disease. It led him to radically shift his own eating habits, and now Mason starts each morning with a shake that usually includes blue- berries or blackberries, vegan protein powder, and fresh kale. With mounting medical research to back up his concerns, he’s made it his mission to spread the word about the dangers of the American diet. “It’s about what helps you and what hurts
you, and I’m not going to make any apologies for saying certain foods hurt you,” he says. “Because
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