I read a lot of non-fiction books and blogs related to medicine, to health, to disease and mostly to nutrition. This helps me to learn about this important topic and to stay on top of my health. The more I read and learn, the more convinced I am that all chronic disease including auto-immune disease are directly linked to diet and lifestyle. I am not saying that diet alone is responsible for causing disease but it is a driver and one that is easily modified to better mange health.
When given the proper care, our body carefully regulates itself to maintain the appropriate level of a host of important factors including temperature, Ph, blood volume, and hormone levels. It repairs itself at a cellular level and allows us to perform optimally. This is how it was designed. Chronic disease, including auto-immune disease, occurs when this ability to regulate itself is compromised.
How Does It Get Compromised?
Remember the health puzzle that I discussed a while back? My health puzzle has 8 pieces that need to be in good shape to feel at our best. These are: “Positive Relationships”, “Meaningful Activities”, “Healthy Environment”, “Exercise/Movement”, “Eat Real Food”, “Mental Health”, “Financial Security”, and “Spirituality”. When one or more pieces of the health puzzle are not fitting correctly or missing we become run down, sick and ill. The body’s ability to maintain and repair itself gets compromised when one of these eight pieces isn’t in good shape.
Think about the care it takes to keep your car running smooth. It takes the right gasoline, oil and regular maintenance. If we are the main driver of the car, we need to pay attention to these things and take care of them before something serious occurs. If we forget to put in gas, eventually, the car is going to stop working. If we ignore the odd smell, the rattle that keeps getting louder or the sputter every time we turn it on, things will only continue to get worse.
If we are not the driver, just the occasional passenger, we are not responsible and can afford to ignore the warning signs. We can try and alert the driver to the risk of running out of gas, causing an accident or breaking down on the highway in the middle of rush hour. But as the passenger, we can’t force the driver to take car of the problems. As the driver of your own health, it is up to you to take care of yourself to optimize your health. No one can manage this for you!
Ignoring health problems does not make them go away, it allows them to worsen and increases the risk of more serious illness. What have you been ignoring about your health recently? How about your loved ones? Which area of the health puzzle can you tackle right now? Where could you make the biggest impact with the least effort? Small changes can make a big impact on your health. Here are a few suggestions, that fall under the “Eat Real Food” piece of the puzzle, that are pretty easy to implement and can have a positive effect on your health.
- Throw out your store bought salad dressings and replace with a good quality extra virgin olive oil and a nice balsamic vinegar. (Store bought dressings are filled with unhealthy vegetable oils and sugar).
- Toss out all of those unhealthy oils (vegetable, corn, canola…) and replace with coconut oil, avocado oil, and extra virgin olive oil. (Unhealthy vegetable oils are filled with omega6 fats which we already get way too much of in our diet).
- Eat 1 salad every day to increase your veggie count. I toss in the normal lettuce, tomato, carrot and peppers. I also love to add sliced apple, oranges, grapes, walnuts, hard boiled eggs, avocado, sunflower seeds. Once you start experimenting, the possibilities are endless.
- Top that salad with a good quality protein and call it a meal! Add chicken, tuna, tofu, shrimp or salmon.
- Commit to not buying any products with added sugar. Sugar is added to so many foods that you wouldn’t suspect. Think canned corn, tomatoes, deli meat, and even prepared meats.
- Try a Whole30 or similar elimination diet to see how good you can feel eating a healthy diet. The book that discuss this way of eating is called “It Starts with Food” by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. Although eating this way includes plenty of meat as a good source of protein, they give suggestions for vegetarians who want to give it a try.
- Commit to eliminating just gluten for 30 days. Many of us are intolerant of gluten which is found in bread, cereals, grains etc and it is now being linked to a host of medical issues. For more information check out “Grain Brain” by Dr. Perlmutter and “Wheat Belly” by Dr. Davis.
Stop letting the food industry, your family members, the drive thru at the local fast food joint decide how you should eat. Get back in the drivers seat and take charge of your health! I’d love to hear what changes you make in 2020 to improve your health. Drop me a note in the comment section!
Lake Girl
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
I’ve been doing a “half-plate” challenge this month. At least half the plate at each meal should be fruits and/or veggies. I’m eating healthier breakfast and lunch as a result.
I like the sound of that challenge!
I had to look up omega-6–I know my omega 3s, but not 6! What do you think about articles that say to balance them out instead of cutting out 6? https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/no-need-to-avoid-healthy-omega-6-fats
Thanks for the article! From my understanding we would ideally eat a 1:1 up to 1:4 ratio of omega3 to omega6. If that balance is more like 1:6 than it would make sense to simply up your intake of omega3. For many of us, that balance is way out of whack with ratio’s closer to 1:12 and as high as 1:25. I guess any steps we take to get them more into balance would be good!