Good Health Habits Part 1: Diet and Nutrition:
These good health habits are important; after all, as the saying goes, you are what you eat! Understanding nutrition, food and diet is thus important. You could also learn more through our many nutrition health articles.
Filter your source of drinking water:
Our water supplies are contaminated with various chemicals, while chlorine and fluoride are also carcinogens. Distilled or Reverse Osmosis would be ideal. If you can't afford those, a simple ceramic carbon filter is better than nothing.
Preferably, filter your shower water too, as the pores on our skin absorb a lot of the chlorine which is in it.
Drink more water:
Water is critical to good health. Our bodies are over 80% water! Water carries out many functions in the body -- it lubricates, carries nutrients, flushes toxins, cools, etc. Many diseases have been linked to dehydration or lack of water. Sodas, coffee, alcohol etc do not count; in fact, these are harmful beverages which actually dehydrate your body. Freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices as well as herbal teas are good. This is perhaps THE most important of this list of good health habits.
Go vegan:
There are different schools of thought as to whether humans are meant to eat meat, and whether going vegan would result in any nutritional deficiencies. Personally, I believe that we do not need meat -- after all, there are millions of healthy and strong vegetarians in the world (Click here to learn more about the numerous health benefits of vegetarian diets). In fact, vegetarians live longer than meat eaters. Eating animal flesh contributes to a long list of diseases -- heart disease, kidney disease, cancer, among others. This is partly due to the fat in animal flesh as well as the fact that our bodies generally find it difficult to digest meat. To make things worse, commercially-farmed animals today are bred in terrible living conditions (e.g. they are not able to roam around freely or get any sunshine), injected with hormones to make them grow faster, fed dubious food (e.g. diseased animal parts), injected with and fed drugs and steroids when they fall ill, and their flesh is chemically processed in order to keep longer. I don't want to be eating all this rubbish. If you choose not to go vegan, then at least eat less meat, or look for organic meat.
Eat a variety of whole and natural foods
Whole foods have many health benefits. For example, they contain more nutrients and fiber than processed foods. The nutrients in whole foods are also better assimilated by the body. By eating a variety of whole foods, we would thus be getting all the different nutrients which we need; try to have a colorful diet - i.e. fruits, vegetables, beans, etc of different colors. Processed foods, on the other hand, are unnatural and often contain a load of chemical additives and preservatives. Our modern day diets are a disastrous combination of too much processed foods and very little whole foods.
Eat organic:
Commercially farmed vegetables and fruits are often genetically modified or sprayed with chemical pesticides. We are ingesting all these harmful toxins every day, at every meal, and the buildup causes disease in the long run. Eating organic reduces our intake of these poisons. Organic produce also contains more nutrients, which are natural and thus better assimilated by our bodies. Click here to read more about the health benefits of organic food.
Eat more raw foods:
Raw foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, have many health benefits. For example, they contain more nutrients, enzymes and photo chemicals than cooked foods. They also have an unexplainable factor, the "life" factor -- these are living foods obtained fresh from nature; seeds, for example, have the potential to grow into huge plants and trees. Cooked foods are often devoid of or lacking in nutrients and difficult for our bodies to digest. In fact, there has been research which states that, after consuming a cooked meal, our bodies' immune system goes into overdrive to try and combat the large amount of toxins being produced! Many people actually advocate fully raw diets. The reality is that cooked foods generally taste better, and would be difficult to give up. The more raw you can eat, the better.
Drink some fresh fruit and / or vegetable juice everyday:
Freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices are power-packed nutritional blasts -- they contain many vitamins, minerals, enzymes and photochemical essential for good health. Because the juice has been removed from the food fiber, the nutrients are more absorbable by the body, and the body is also saved the effort of digestion. In addition, the juices is a source of water for the body.
Take a whole food supplement:
Our soils today are depleted, and even organically grown foods do not contain as much nutrients as they once did. Further, our bodies are subject to more stress and toxin intake today than they ever were. Thus, I believe some form of supplementation is necessary. However, I don't like vitamin and mineral pills because I have my doubts about the sources of these nutrients. Some of them have been found to originate from waste metals and even sewage sludge! I prefer my nutrients to come from natural foods, grown within nature. Barley grass , alfafa grass, wheat grass , spirulina -- these are some of the more popular ones. I take one which mixes a few of these foods, termed nature's "super foods".
Avoid poison and toxic intake in your food:
Avoid foods with unnatural and chemical additives, preservatives, coloring and flavoring. Learn to read food labels. Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, refined sugar and all kinds of drugs. These substances weaken you and accumulate in your body, causing long-term harm.
These good health habits are important; after all, as the saying goes, you are what you eat! Understanding nutrition, food and diet is thus important. You could also learn more through our many nutrition health articles.
Filter your source of drinking water:
Our water supplies are contaminated with various chemicals, while chlorine and fluoride are also carcinogens. Distilled or Reverse Osmosis would be ideal. If you can't afford those, a simple ceramic carbon filter is better than nothing.
Preferably, filter your shower water too, as the pores on our skin absorb a lot of the chlorine which is in it.
Drink more water:
Water is critical to good health. Our bodies are over 80% water! Water carries out many functions in the body -- it lubricates, carries nutrients, flushes toxins, cools, etc. Many diseases have been linked to dehydration or lack of water. Sodas, coffee, alcohol etc do not count; in fact, these are harmful beverages which actually dehydrate your body. Freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices as well as herbal teas are good. This is perhaps THE most important of this list of good health habits.
Go vegan:
There are different schools of thought as to whether humans are meant to eat meat, and whether going vegan would result in any nutritional deficiencies. Personally, I believe that we do not need meat -- after all, there are millions of healthy and strong vegetarians in the world (Click here to learn more about the numerous health benefits of vegetarian diets). In fact, vegetarians live longer than meat eaters. Eating animal flesh contributes to a long list of diseases -- heart disease, kidney disease, cancer, among others. This is partly due to the fat in animal flesh as well as the fact that our bodies generally find it difficult to digest meat. To make things worse, commercially-farmed animals today are bred in terrible living conditions (e.g. they are not able to roam around freely or get any sunshine), injected with hormones to make them grow faster, fed dubious food (e.g. diseased animal parts), injected with and fed drugs and steroids when they fall ill, and their flesh is chemically processed in order to keep longer. I don't want to be eating all this rubbish. If you choose not to go vegan, then at least eat less meat, or look for organic meat.
Eat a variety of whole and natural foods
Whole foods have many health benefits. For example, they contain more nutrients and fiber than processed foods. The nutrients in whole foods are also better assimilated by the body. By eating a variety of whole foods, we would thus be getting all the different nutrients which we need; try to have a colorful diet - i.e. fruits, vegetables, beans, etc of different colors. Processed foods, on the other hand, are unnatural and often contain a load of chemical additives and preservatives. Our modern day diets are a disastrous combination of too much processed foods and very little whole foods.
Eat organic:
Commercially farmed vegetables and fruits are often genetically modified or sprayed with chemical pesticides. We are ingesting all these harmful toxins every day, at every meal, and the buildup causes disease in the long run. Eating organic reduces our intake of these poisons. Organic produce also contains more nutrients, which are natural and thus better assimilated by our bodies. Click here to read more about the health benefits of organic food.
Eat more raw foods:
Raw foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, have many health benefits. For example, they contain more nutrients, enzymes and photo chemicals than cooked foods. They also have an unexplainable factor, the "life" factor -- these are living foods obtained fresh from nature; seeds, for example, have the potential to grow into huge plants and trees. Cooked foods are often devoid of or lacking in nutrients and difficult for our bodies to digest. In fact, there has been research which states that, after consuming a cooked meal, our bodies' immune system goes into overdrive to try and combat the large amount of toxins being produced! Many people actually advocate fully raw diets. The reality is that cooked foods generally taste better, and would be difficult to give up. The more raw you can eat, the better.
Drink some fresh fruit and / or vegetable juice everyday:
Freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices are power-packed nutritional blasts -- they contain many vitamins, minerals, enzymes and photochemical essential for good health. Because the juice has been removed from the food fiber, the nutrients are more absorbable by the body, and the body is also saved the effort of digestion. In addition, the juices is a source of water for the body.
Take a whole food supplement:
Our soils today are depleted, and even organically grown foods do not contain as much nutrients as they once did. Further, our bodies are subject to more stress and toxin intake today than they ever were. Thus, I believe some form of supplementation is necessary. However, I don't like vitamin and mineral pills because I have my doubts about the sources of these nutrients. Some of them have been found to originate from waste metals and even sewage sludge! I prefer my nutrients to come from natural foods, grown within nature. Barley grass , alfafa grass, wheat grass , spirulina -- these are some of the more popular ones. I take one which mixes a few of these foods, termed nature's "super foods".
Avoid poison and toxic intake in your food:
Avoid foods with unnatural and chemical additives, preservatives, coloring and flavoring. Learn to read food labels. Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, refined sugar and all kinds of drugs. These substances weaken you and accumulate in your body, causing long-term harm.
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