12 General Health Tips
12 health tips that WILL dramatically
increase your health
- Stop smoking - If we
are a smoker or someone who receives significant secondary
smoke, stopping the inhalation of this deadly concoction
of carcinogens is the most important single thing that
we can do to increase your well-being. Smoking damages
the immune system more than any other activity and is
the chief cause of cancer and heart disease. In the light
of current public awareness on the dangers of smoking,
smoking is nothing more than slow suicide.
- Reduce stress - When
we are stressed, the body is awash with adrenal hormones
such as cortisol which have a devastating effect on the
immune system. For this reason, it is important that
we live lifestyles that do not chronically trigger the
fight and flight response. This means that we have to
take responsibility for our emotional states and the
activities which affect them. Strategies might include
daily relaxation exercises, yoga, meditation, country
walks, time away form (or with!) the children, marriage
counseling and a change in career. These are priorities
and not luxuries.
- Cut out dairy products -
Milk and cheese are two of the most unhealthy and unhelpful
foods available and should be avoided. Most people erroneously
believe that dairy products are a great source of calcium;
although they contain calcium, there is evidence that
there is actually a calcium net-loss in those who drink
milk or eat cheese because the calcium used up in processing
the proteins. Taking a calcium supplement balanced with
magnesium is much healthier, as is limiting protein to
slow or prevent calcium being released from the bones
to buffer the increased acidity from our standard high
protein diets. dairy products also contain high amounts
of growth hormones which can accelaterate the proliferation
of cancer cells. (And if human babies cannot be breatfed,
then mothers might consider goats milk as an alternative,
which has a kinder nutritional profile.)
- Take food supplements -
Despite what "experts" tell you, a balanced
diet CANNOT give you all the nutrients you need to maintain
optimum health. This is a dangerous fallacy and one that
is dangerously repeated ad nauseam by many doctors and
old-school nutritionists. The world we live in now is
vastly different from the one in which the human species
evolved: we face huge amounts of pollution which requires
more nutrients to neutralize, and our food is mass produced
which means that it is invariably grown in depleted soils,
picked unripe and/or grown with pesticides/hormones.
Coupled with modern eating habits, and you have a deadly
concoction of a high-calorie low-nutrient diet and an
unhealthy toxic overload. This is why nutrients are vital
for optimum health. A good multivitamin and mineral supplement
is a good thing to take as is a good antioxidant complex.
However, unless it is for short-term therapeutic use,
avoid mega doses of nutrients. It is far better to supplement
in small doses once the above lifestyle changes are implemented.
- Cut out sugar and reduce refined carbohydrates -
Sugar and other refined carbohydrates make up a huge proportion
of our modern diets. The problem with this is that it
means that we tend to have chronically high levels of
insulin in our blood in order to cope with this. This
can lead to insulin-resistance and a whole host of symptoms
such as excess weight, tiredness, mental fuzziness, diabetes,
heart disease, strokes and eye problems. In fact, the
latest research indicates that sugar is worse for you
than fat. It is important to remember that some savoury
carbohydrates such as potatoes, white rice and bread
can trigger the same problematic response in the body.
We should focus on wholefood carbohydrates
that have a low glycaemic index such as whole grains
and vegetables.
- Take flax seed oil or an EFA supplement
daily - Essential fatty acids are very important
to include in the diet, and flax seed oil is a pleasant
tasting non-fish source. Take at least a tablespoon
a day with meals. This is one of the most essential
nutrients missing from the modern diet. It is also
the switch that turns off hunger and so can help to
reduce cravings and appetite. Make sure you buy refrigerated
oils contained in opaque or dark glass bottles as these
oils degrade very quickly in light and air. Alternatively,
increase the amount of fresh fish in the diet.
- Exercise regularly -
A sedentary life is extremely bad for your body, leading
to a whole list of problems which tend to accumulate
as we age. It is important that we get to move all the
fluids around inside of us by simple stretching, weight
resistance and cardiovascular exercise. Exercise helps
the body to be a lot more efficient and is a great tonic
for depression and other low mental states. Remember
that exercise MUST include all three exercise elements
of cardiovascular work, muscle strengthening (especially
as a person gets older) and comprehensive stretching
(for example, simple yoga - very important but often
discarded).
- Drink more water - Water
comprises 85% of our body's weight, a figure that decreases
as we get older. Try not to drink too much tap water
as this contains chlorides, fluorides, and other pollutants.
It is important to either filter water or drink bottled
water. If you are going to drink bottled water, pick
one with a neutral or alkaline pH. Most nutritionists
would recommend drinking at least a couple of litres
of water a day… at least! If you receive your fluids
from tea and coffee, remember that this doesn't count
as they are diuretics — they encourage your body
to expel water.
- Avoid processed fats -
Processed fats are very bad for the body… eating
them over a prolonged period of time greatly increases
the chance of heart disease and cancer. Vegetable fats
tend to be worse than animal fats because more processing
is usually involved in their production. In fact, butter
is a lot better for you than margarine. The homogenisation
of fat, as in milk, can also increase the likelihood
of heart disease. The best fats are unprocessed vegetable
oils (such as olive and flax seed) and raw butter.
- Take enzyme supplements with meals -
If you are eating a large meal, it is advised that you
included an enzyme supplement with the meal to aid the
digestion of the food. Our bodies of course can produce
all the enzymes needed, but the modern diet is so heavy
that the enzyme production can be exhausted as we become
older. This means that the whole metabolic system works
less efficiently and we do not receive the nutrients
from our food that we need.
- Eat a predominately alkaline diet -
Make sure that a large proportion of your diet consists
of green leafy vegetables (spinach is fantastic) and
fruit (provided it is not too sweet). Seaweed is also
very alkalising as are green foods such as edible algae.
Avoid acid forming foods like meat, hard cheeses, excess
grains, sugar and alcohol. The body does not work very
efficiently when the pH drops and many serious diseases
actually flourish in acid environments. Acid forming
foods also leach calcium from the bones leading to brittle
bones.
- Buy Organic and GMO-free -
Although this is the last on the list it could well turn
out to be the most important. Organic food is often seen
as a luxury rather than a necessity, but the truth is
that nobody really knows what the accumulative long-term
effects of pesticide residues and genetically modified
ingredients is on our health. The evidence just isn't
there. But what we do know is that the body has this
annoying habit of accumulating poisons, and we know that
many of these chemicals are virulent carcinogens. So
it is just a matter of time before we realize just how
damaging these are on human health and the health of
the planet.
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