Steps to better health. Part 3

Cancer has ravaged our modern society. Scientists and doctors struggle to find a cure, hoping to save the lives of millions. Wouldn't it be great if we could just change our diet and eliminate our risks? Of course, this is impossible owing to the outside influences on us such as various amounts of radiation, pollution, artificial medicines, etc. But we can make a difference. We can lower our risks. Cancer is shown to be linked with free radicals. These free radicals are hitting you all the time. You can never really be protected. But what causes free radicals?

Radiation: You are hit with radiation in varying amounts at all time. We know that radiation damages cells.. this is the principal behind radiation therapy for cancer patients. To destroy those damaged cells. It's well known that it damages healthy cells as well and this is what happens on a day to day basis. Radiation comes from a few basic sources. The sun for one. Your best defense against this is sun block. Enjoy your tans.. they're killing you. A second source is common background radiation. This comes from many industrial sources. Factories, radiology labs. X-rays from the dentist or the ER. There's not much you can do about these. Another place is your microwave. By irradiating your food, you are creating a greater risk of cancer. Free radicals have also been linked to aging, autoimmune diseases, arthritis, and mental degenerative diseases. Russia outlawed the sale of microwaves in 1976, realizing the problems that they cause. Microwaves have gotten better over the years, but it will never be good or healthy. Try cooking your foods on the stove or in the oven. It may take longer, but it's healthier and may help you lose weight as you can't eat as much or maybe you won't want to take the time to wait 20 minutes for a hot pocket. Not to mention you would eat less microwave meals, thus reducing your sodium.

Tobacco: Sorry, there's no way to get around this but to give up smoking.

Excersise: Sorry all you fitness buffs but it's true. Any process that produces stress and increases the intake of oxygen can lead to an increase in free radicals. I'm not saying that you should be a coach potato, but bodybuilding is not necessary to be fit. Nor is going to a gym every day as long as you control your caloric intake.

High fat food and sugar: Again, there's nothing to do but cut back or eliminate these from your diet.

Cooking: Even if you get rid of your microwave, cooking in and of itself causes free radicals (see my blog on raw foodism). What is considered cooking? If it's heated bove 116 degrees F then it's considered cooked. Again, in the first part of Steps towards better health, I talk about how early man would have mostly been a gatherer. In addition to eating vegetarian most of the time, this also would have been considered a rawist diet, especially since learning to cook your food came much later when weather got colder and meat was depended on more.

What are free radicals? A free radical is an unstable oxygen atom. The atom has a nucleus with two electrons circling it. A free radical is created when one of those electrons gets pulled away and the atom becomes unstable.

What can you do about it? Well, you can start by leading a healthy lifestyle. Stop smoking, use sunscreen, stop using the microwave and reduce your intake of cooked food by eating more raw fruits and vegetables which contain radical fighting antioxidants.

What are antioxidants? Antioxidants are any substances that prevent or slow the oxidation process. Free radicals cause oxidation. Antioxidants work by donating an electron to a free radical so it becomes a stable oxygen molecule. Antioxidants are found in most herbal teas, fruits and vegetables. (this is why a vegetarian or better yet, a rawist, diet is beneficial)

Steps to better health. Part 1

Obesity is an epidemic in America today. Studies show that 70% of children 10 years old have a 33% blockage in their arteries. That's a percentage used to not be seen until adulthood. Diabetes is no longer classified as adult onset since it's more and more common in children. What can we do about this? What can I, as a parent, do about this?

For starters, I and my son are vegetarians. Is that healthy? Is that safe? Yes. We get all of our protein, all of our vitamins and minerals.. ALL of our daily nutritional needs without eating dead flesh. Many people say, but people are meant to eat meat! We're naturally omnivores. To these people I say you are only partly right. In the early days of man, gathering was much more common than hunting. During most of the year a vegetarian diet sufficed with people only relying on meat during the winter months. Some recent studies show that early man may very likely have hunted very little on their own, mostly scavaging and even then they would cut the flesh from the bone and discard it, favoring instead the nutrition filled marrow in the bones. Even assuming that this is wrong and man did actually kill most of his own food during the winter months (and we know they did at least some of the time) the human digestive system never evolved to be able to handle this type of protein. Meat is one of the hardest foods for our bodies to digest. It sicks in our digestive tracts for up to eight hours. If you know anything about digestion, you know that this is a horribly long time. Is there any good reason NOT to be a vegetarian? If you have one, please, i would love to hear it.

I've also heard people say that they've never heard of a vegetarian doing anything great. Here's a short list of great vegetarins:
Einstein
Van Gogh
Da Vinci
Pythagoras
Hans Christin Anderson
Susan B Anthony
Buddha
Elvis
Charles Darwin
Ganhdhi
Whoopie Goldburg
Sarah McLachlan
Plato
Jesus- may or may not have been vegetarian. there's much debate on this subject and it's hard to know for sure since so much of the bible is either altered or later added parables., however, some other books such as the dead sea scrolls contain passages where jesus supposedly preaches about a vegetarian diet. (http://www.essene.com/GospelOfPeace/index.html)
Just to name a few

Mind, being a vegetarian means eating properly in order to get all of the nutrients you need. (note: eating meat does NOT mean you're getting all of your nutrients) so do your research.

The health benefits of a vegetarian diet is vast and many. Vegetarians all have lower risk of obesity, hert disease, kidney disease, mental degenerative diseases, cancer and stroke.