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Eat Real Food to Lose Weight and Gain
Health
Clean-up and Decorate Your Home. You’ll Feel Better
Menopause: Take The Hot Flash Opportunity
Grief
When You Become Middle-Aged, You’ve
Got To Take Care Of Your Body
Osteoporosis - A Result of
Malnutrition (not only in women)
Being Happy Is A Choice Anyone Can
Make
Awareness & Healing With Guided
Imagery
Why Are You Eating What You Are
Eating Right Now?
Links to
more Great Information
www.EZineArticles.com
www.SelfGrowth.com
http://bestezines.com
___________________
Take Care of Your Body.
Feel Better & Have More Fun.
Many
of us are fortunate enough to have had decent health through the first half of life but
eventually we pay for the misuse and inattention to our bodies. What we put in and on our bodies are
extraordinarily important. Did you know that
hot flashes and hormone fluctuations can often be reduced just by eating a healthy diet? And, that you can sleep better by eating
earlier and not eating sweets, including ice cream, in the evening? How about that old fashioned glass of milk? Calcium is mandatory for muscle relaxation. Relaxation is a necessity for sleep. Did you have charley-horses with pregnancy? Do you now? That
glass of milk will help. It also has protein
to help you sleep through the night. If you
awaken, eat a few nuts. The blood sugar will
level out making it easier to drift back to dreamland.
Youth
keeps you feeling good and thinking you have great health but most of us don’t think
seriously about maintaining it until it ever so slowly begins to slip away. With age taking care of yourself becomes almost
mandatory if you want to feel good and live longer.
What
is health? My dictionary defines it as
physical and mental well-being; freedom from disease.
That makes sense but what does it really mean?
We have all heard of people who are healthy one day, then dead the next and
not because they got run over by a truck. What’s
the deal with cancer. A seemingly robust
person all of a sudden has it and only a short time to live.
Why does that happen? While
physical and mental well-being can be indicators of good health, that clearly is not the
whole picture.
Think
about two people who eat spoiled food. One
gets violently ill with vomiting and diarrhea unable to manage both at the toilet. The other may have a bit of a stomachache that
antacids and a few hours on the couch seem to manage.
Which one is the healthy individual? Who
is retaining toxins in their body and who is dumping it out?
Most people don’t like being sick but sometimes nature is attempting to
bring the body back into homeostasis or balance. Being
sick can be healthy.
The
words holistic and natural healthcare overlap in meaning.
Natural medicine uses herbs, vitamin and mineral supplements and other
remedies closely derived from natural sources. It’s
a bit relative to the individual’s philosophy as to the extent of what being natural
is. Holistic medicine or healthcare looks at
the entire person to find out what is not in balance.
It may incorporate natural medicines as part of the treatment. It also may incorporate chiropractic, energy
medicine, acupuncture, massage, nutrition, and other therapeutic methods for the body,
mind and/or spirit. The root cause is
addressed rather than a disease process. Why
did the disease begin in the first place? What’s
out of whack?
Good medicine should address nutrition. Everything
you put in your mouth counts. Everything. Natural and holistic medicine suggests you only eat
real, unadulterated food. That pretty much
means the organic, fresh, cooked at home variety. As
you probably know, processed and most restaurant food is high in salt, sugar, the wrong
kind of fat, and has been chemicalized for preservation or to make a prettier color. This is a nightmare for your body to deal with. As you’ve aged you might have noticed some
effects of wrong eating such as a sensitive stomach, heartburn, gall bladder removal,
diabetes, feeling sluggish, increased allergies, bowel difficulties or stiff joints and
arthritis. Just remember that whatever you
consume has to be digested properly. For that
to happen, all the necessary digestive enzymes must either be included in the food itself,
which get destroyed by over-processing, or be produced by the various organs. The stomach has to be acidic enough to digest
protein and minerals without which meat will rot causing that feeling of too much acid. The intestines must have good motility and the
kidneys must be healthy enough to get rid of the toxic waste quickly. Don’t want to absorb that stuff! To be healthy the digestive system has to be
functioning to absorb the nutrients and to expel the unwanted waste. Even if you don’t have any digestive
disturbances I recommend a broad range of digestive enzymes from the health food store
because after the age of thirty stomach acid diminishes and few enzymes are left in food
after cooking.
The
upside of natural and holistic medicine is that there is little toxicity involved whereas,
allopathic medicine (western medicine that routinely uses drugs or surgery) does have
adverse effects. Drugs, whether
over-the-counter or prescribed have their repercussions.
All are toxic. Look in the PDR
or watch television advertisements to see for yourself.
Anything toxic that goes into the body, which is everything artificial or
chemically made, has to be filtered by the liver or kidneys and excreted as waste somehow. That may be fine for awhile if everything in the
body is functioning to a high degree, but these days our world is deluged with chemicals. We are subjected to an overwhelming amount of
toxins everyday and the less we breathe, absorb or consume the better. But, what happens when someone has genetically weak
organs or over the years has bombarded their body with chemical after chemical? The struggle becomes nearly impossible.
Illness, cancer or degenerative disease is the result
For
optimal health eat real food and lots of fruits and vegetables. All processed foods including white flour, sugar
and the obvious packaged foods should be kept to a minimum.
Care for your body more than you do anything else because it houses your
mind, keeps you mobile and provides quality of life. The
filters can’t be changed like in your car or vacuum cleaner. And, you can’t go out and buy a new one. Minimize chemicals in and on your body. Change your eating habits and you’ll feel
better. Acquiring new tastes may take time but
for your health, it’s worth it. Remember
that food is your medicine and that there are better things to do than entertain or
comfort yourself with junk-food. Besides, this
is the time of life when joy and fun ought to be filling you. Maximize your pleasure by feeling good and healthy. Enjoy yourself. |
