Eating Habits and Disease

If you REALLY think about it, there is an obvious correlation between eating habits and disease. If you exclude consequences of lifestyle choices (I’m referring to smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, etc.) and contagious diseases, most of the remaining ones are related to eating habits.

Consider such common maladies as heartburn, allergies, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and even colon cancer to name a few examples: most of the sufferers could have prevented their health problems and some may be even able to reverse their conditions still by changing their eating habits. And yet, so few believe in the power of nutrition and so few are willing to change! To those of us committed to green living, disease prevention, maintaining good health and living not only longer but healthier, it’s hard to believe just how many people don’t value themselves enough to change their eating habits.

You are what you eat, it’s as simple as that. The knowledge is in place: most people are aware of it and still, the majority chooses disease, pain, degeneration and earlier death. Incredible, isn’t it?

I spoke with some people who would like to change their eating habits (and lose weight) but struggle without guidance. Here are the most important steps:

1/ proportions: whatever you’re eating, make sure that you eat more vegetables and fruit than anything else
2/ portions: we eat to live as opposed to living to eat. (People who eat less feel better and live longer…)
3/ know your enemies: sugar, white flour (and products that contain them), fatty meats, soft drinks, processed foods and fast foods shouldn’t be consumed at all
4/ understand that nobody is born with the skills to drive a car or cook. Whenever you begin something new, there is some learning involved. Smart eating habits and healthy food’s preparation are learned.

Too many still believe that being a vegetarian or a vegan is akin to entering a convent. In other words, they see it as a sacrifice and a life of deprivation. It isn’t. A vegetarian or a vegan doesn’t feel deprived; he or she is just as satisfied as you’re after a good meal but doesn’t have the many unpleasant, severe and minor complaints as those who follow the mainstream diet.

Living Green – in many aspects of life – is based on common sense. We’ve all heard the expression “limited natural resources” when it comes to petroleum, for instance. Forget petroleum for a moment, your own natural resources are limited, too. Natural resources have to be managed wisely; it applies to global resources and individual ones. Eating wiser will help you feel better, strengthen your resistance to disease, restore your energy, help you lose weight, live better and longer.

 

Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash