The key to achieving good health is really quite simple. About now youre undoubtedly thinking, if it is so simple, why is the health level of the overall population declining at a record pace?
Of course the key to how one becomes healthy and maintains health is not difficult. In fact you may already know several of the things you should be doing to improve your health. It becomes complicated when we are faced with choices that are less than healthful and they cloud our judgment. These distractions compete for our attention with more healthful alternatives that may not seem quite as exciting.
We must allow ourselves to become focused by gaining an understanding of what is required in order to get the big prize – a healthy life. Basically there are three parts we need to master including proper nutrition, fitness, and finally the motivation to keep on track with both.
Proper nutrition, or healthy eating, is probably the most basic and easiest to understand principle of good health. Virtually everyone is aware when they are eating something that is healthful versus a food that is void of nutritional value.
Many times the simplest method of including a majority of healthful foods in the diet is to focus on good foods to eat rather than on bad foods that should not be eaten. As with most things in life, focusing on the positive usually produces the best results. Try to include as many fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains as possible in each days meal plan. By including a large amount of good foods each day, you will find that theres little room left for the not-so-good foods. Proper nutrition will be nearly automatic.
Unlike nutrition, fitness is a bit more difficult to incorporate into daily life. The primary reason for this is that everyone must eat in order to live. Achieving proper nutrition simply means making the right choices for something you are going to do anyway. Activity, however, is not something we must do every day. Even though we should move every day, we wont suffer major consequences immediately if we dont. Instead, the price will be paid years down the road.
The key to increasing ones fitness is to build upon the activities already in place. For example, walking is an activity that most people perform every day. To get the most of this daily activity, expand the amount of walking you do. For example, park in the back of a parking lot to increase the number of steps it takes to reach your destination. Once inside a multi-level building, take the stairs to move from floor to floor rather than the elevator. Start with small changes and build from there.
Once you have increased your natural activity level it is time to focus on developing a fitness routine. Start slowly with just a short period of time devoted to your program each day. Even ten minutes is a good start. The key is to start a program and stick with it.
Sticking with it is where the motivation factor comes in. Motivation is tricky and its different for everyone. Many people are motivated by doing something routinely and building on it. If youre one of those people, consider yourself lucky and just get started with your health plans.

The rest will take care of itself.
For the rest of us it is important to find what motivates us. Maybe its buying a new workout outfit or trying a new healthful recipe. Many people like to read fitness magazines and search online for new tips and exercise techniques. Others read inspiring stories and quotes.
Whatever it is for you, find it as soon as possible and hold on to it. Getting motivated is the number one key to achieving your health and fitness goals.

Even if some fast foods restaurants use regular cooking oil, the pre-cooked fries are already cooked in unsaturated fats before they get to the eating place. From one piece of KFC chicken you will get 7 grams and form a medium portion of French fries you will get 14.5 grams of fat.5)Pizza, pies and cakes and any deep fried food are all forbidden foods. Deep fried foods are very bad for your health and contain lots of fats. You should always avoid eating them.  6)Pastries contain lots of fats. As an example doughnuts are cooked in unsaturated fats and lots of fats are used in producing the dough. Instead of buying them try to cook them at home using much more good for your health ingredients.  7)Constantly snacking on candy and chips is a incredibly bad for you eating habit. Potato chips and popcorn are full of fats and chocolate candy is jam-packed of unsaturated fats.8)All those good for your health breakfast foods: cereals, toast… contain unsaturated fats, but in small quantities. The nuts found in many cereals are jam-packed of fats but they are the good good for you kind of fats.9)Chocolate and cake can contain huge amounts of fats. You just have to be careful. To always make the right choice you will have to read their label and see how many fats they contain. A piece of chocolate or a piece of cake contain much more unsaturated fats than regular candy.10)Coffee, whip cream, ice-cream, toppings all contain loads of unsaturated fats. Use skim milk for your coffee.You cannot do away with all the unsaturated fats from your diet even if you tried your greatest. What you can do is cut down the daily intake by making the right choices. For example you can use olive oil in your salads or for your food preparation. It’s full of flavor and delicious.

What are nutrients?

Every molecule in the body

is created by Nutrients & there are more than 45 nutrients. These nutrients build molecules, cells, and tissues of the body.

We get energy from Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats that we eat. These are called macronutrients. These macro nutrients are broken down / metabolized to give energy to the body. Vitamins and minerals (called micronutrients) are not themselves metabolized for energy, but they are important in helping the macronutrients convert to energy.

What is a healthy diet?

The optimal diet has to be individualized to meet your unique needs. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) food pyramid suggests that we use fat “sparingly,” and that our daily diet include 2 – 3 servings of dairy products; 2 – 3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, or nuts; 3 – 5 servings of vegetables; 2 – 4 servings of fruit; and 6 – 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice, or pasta.

These are general guidelines. Healthy diet is dependent upon many factors like: age, gender, body size, pregnancy, and status of health. A clinical nutritionist or nutritionally oriented doctor can help you determine what type of diet is best for you.

While you know it is important to eat a healthy diet, it isn’t always easy to sort through all of the information available about nutrition and food choices.  Nutrition has a vital importance to human well-being.  Nutrition should play a leading role to improve our quality of life. Nutrition is a key for reducing your body fat percentage. 

Better nutrition means stronger immune systems, less illness and better health.  Better nutrition is a prime entry point to ending poverty and a milestone to achieving better quality of life.  Safe food and good nutrition are important to all.  Basic nutrition knowledge is constantly taking shape every day, producing new diet trends to an ever growing audience of people who want to know the latest and greatest ways to achieve their physical fitness goals. 

Get nutrition facts and discover how you can use dietary recommendations to improve your health.  As you grow older, getting a nutritionally rich diet becomes even more important.  The link between nutrition and health is necessary to achieve optimal health.  Good nutrition is a clear path to optimize our quality of life. An important starting point for achieving optimum health is to achieve optimum nutrition and get the proper nutrients from the food.  Diet and nutrition are the principle preventive measures against diseases. 

Reading labels and eating a diet rich in vitamins and nutrients is optimal for healthy nutrition.  Research confirms that good nutrition in the early years of life is crucial for human growth and mental development. The study of human nutrition dates back to the 18th century, when the French chemist Lavoisier discovered that there was a relationship between our metabolism of food and the process of breathing.

The field of clinical nutrition has evolved into a practice that is increasingly incorporated into mainstream medical treatment. The term “nutritional supplement” refers to vitamins, minerals, and other food components that are used to support good health and treat illness. 

A clinical nutritionist or nutritionally oriented doctor can help you determine what type of diet is best for you. During the initial part of the visit, the clinical nutritionist will ask you questions about your medical history, family history, and personal lifestyle.  In hospitals, nutrition is used to improve the overall health of patients with a wide range of conditions.  Effects of exercise and nutrition on postural balance and risk of falling in elderly people with decreased bone mineral density: randomized controlled trial pilot study. 

Proper nutrition is a powerful good: people who are well nourished are more likely to be healthy, productive and able to learn.  Good nutrition benefits families, their communities and the world as a whole. Malnutrition is, by the same logic, devastating.

Healthy Lifestyle

Healthy people are stronger, are more productive and more able to create opportunities to gradually break the cycles of both poverty and hunger in a sustainable way.  Healthy eating is associated with reduced risk for many diseases, including the three leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, and stroke.  Healthy eating is fundamental to good health and is a key element in healthy human development, from the prenatal and early childhood years to later life stages. 

Healthy eating is equally important in reducing the risk of many chronic diseases.  We spend a lot of money on food, but there are ways to cut costs and still serve healthy delicious meals.  When you choose healthy foods instead of sugary or high-fat foods you can actually improve your health by adding extra phytochemicals and fiber.  Breakfast foods should be healthy but they have a tendency to be high in fats and sugar. 

We always hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so why ruin a healthy breakfast.  Good nutrition is vital to good health, disease prevention, and essential for healthy growth and development of children and adolescents.  Fiber is an important part of a healthy diet. 

Many of us work very hard to eat healthy meals, but struggle with the urge for candy, cookies, cakes, ice cream and anything else full of sugar and sweetness.  Most experts agree that snacking is a part of a balanced and healthy diet, as long as the snacks don’t pile on empty calories. 

When your best efforts go awry, and you order pizza or serve another meal that doesn’t exactly fit into a healthy diet, you still have many options for making it healthier.  Just about everyone knows that fruits and vegetables are a very important part of a healthy diet.  Having a well-stocked pantry and refrigerator can be a busy cook’s best weapon in the war against resorting to fast-food, high-fat, unhealthy meals.  Fresh oil is a source of essential fatty acids, which help keep the skin healthy and the hair shiny. 

We believe eating sensibly, combined with appropriate exercise, is the best solution for a healthy lifestyle.

Foods

When you choose healthy foods instead of sugary or high-fat foods you can actually improve your health by adding extra phytochemicals and fiber. The goal is to balance negative foods with positive foods so that the combined rating for all foods eaten in a single day is positive. 

If you want to restrict your caloric intake without feeling hungry, find foods highest in any vitamin or mineral or lowest in carbs, saturated fats, or sugars.  Our general state of health is partially driven by the types of foods we consume. To make vegetable oils suitable for deep frying, the oils are hydrogenated, so trans fats are commonly found in deep-fried foods such as French fries and doughnuts. Trans fats, beyond a limit, are not good for our health. 

Hydrogenation solidifies liquid oils and increases the shelf life and the flavor stability of oils and foods that contain them.  Other sources of trans fats are vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, and other foods.  Since trans fats increase a products shelf life, many pre-prepared foods and mixes (for example, some pancake mixes and pizza dough) contain trans fats. 

The solution: Whenever possible, eat whole, fresh, and unprocessed foods.  When buying packaged foods, put in at least as much time into reading labels and selecting products as you do when choosing a shower gel or shampoo.  A good diet is central to overall good health, but which are the best foods to include in your meals, and which ones are best avoided. 

Fast food has become much more popular of late and all over the world the out cry regarding harms of fast foods is on increase. 

Be aware that there is little scientific information about the effect of so-called functional foods –foods to which vitamins, minerals, herbs, or other dietary substances are added — despite their growing popularity in the market place and claims of beneficial effects. 

Some common foods, including nuts, wheat gluten, dairy products, fish, shrimp, soy, bananas and eggs may trigger allergic reactions.

Fat

Fats add taste to meals and give one a feeling of fullness when eaten.  When you choose healthy foods instead of sugary or high-fat foods you can actually improve your health by adding extra phytochemicals and fiber.  Breakfast foods should be healthy but they have a tendency to be high in fats and sugar.  The human brain is almost entirely composed of unsaturated fatty acids. 

You deprive yourself of more than fats when you go for the fat-free or low-fat salad dressing.  We need fats to absorb all the beneficial elements of salads and other fruits and vegetables.  Learn which are the right types of fats, to create beautiful, supple skin, and a healthy body. 

Eating more whole foods is a good way to replace many of the processed snacks and foods that have a lot of extra sugar, fat (including trans fat), salt, and other things added to them and a lot of good things taken out, like fiber.  In addition to food labeled fat-free and low fat, healthy low fat foods include most fruits and vegetables. 

Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats (called macronutrients) are broken down (metabolized) to give the body energy.  For example, lowering fat and cholesterol intake and adding whole grains to the diet can prevent atherosclerosis (plaque build up in the arteries), which can lead to heart disease or stroke. 

Fish is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential components of cells and can protect the heart from, for example, fatal arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythm).  Omega-3 fatty acids found in cold water fish (such as herring, tuna, and salmon) have been reported to reduce inflammation and help prevent certain chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. 

Safe food and good nutrition are important to all. Basic nutrition knowledge is constantly taking shape every day, producing new diet trends to an ever growing audience of people who want to know the latest and greatest ways to achieve their physical fitness goals. 

Did you know that you can drastically decrease your chance of heart disease and cancer by eating a healthy diet and following the recommended nutrition guidelines? 

Proper nutrition is a powerful good: people who are well nourished are more likely to be healthy, productive and able to learn.  Good nutrition benefits families, their communities and the world as a whole.  Malnutrition is, by the same logic, devastating.

By: Pradeep Mahajan

And then there’s okra. Okra’s in the same plant family as hibiscus and cotton – and tastes like it. I’m a vegetarian. Vegetables are meant to be my friends, but that sticky substance that oozes out of the pods when they’re cut makes me think okra suffers from SDS – Seventh Day Syndrome. If God hadn’t rested on the seventh day, okra could have been improved.
Bread is said to be the staff of life, but there’s bread and then there’s bread. Unrefined bread is the good one because it still has all its healthy fiber. Refined bread – white bread – is the bad one because it only tastes good – and with peanut butter it tastes even better.
One of the first things I learned about food as a child was that food that doesn’t taste good is good for you. The second thing I learned was that I had to eat all of it before I could have dessert.
Dessert was always some form of sugar and I still don’t understand why sugar isn’t good for us. It’s a carbohydrate. Our bodies convert carbohydrates to energy. Am I the only one with enough energy to think sugar should be one of the basic food groups?

But fast food isn’t particularly good food and as you watch your toddler happily dunking greasy chips and chicken nuggets into sugary ketchup and sauce, you determine that you’ll be stronger net time and resist the temptation of a fast food fix, knowing deep inside, that this is a resolution you’re doomed to break.

Don’t beat yourself up about his. Fast food franchises are there to answer our most basic need – to eat. And when you’re an exausted working parent, you’re only human for giving in from time to time. It’s important that you keep your fast food meals limited though to avoid compromising your own and your family’s wellbeing. Try to stick to the following guidelines:

Don’t let fast food become a habit. Limit your visits to outlets to a couple of times a month at most. Make those fast food meals a special treat that you and your children can enjoy together.

Ask for nutritional information. Many fast food restaurants will provide, upon request, a nutritional breakdown of their menu items and this can be used to help you guide your selections.

Try to be as “healthy” as possible. More and more fast food chains are offering “lighter” “leaner” and “healthier” options across their menus. Pizza is a nutritionally sound selection as is a baked potato and broccoli. Hunt around at the salad bar and as well as all those mayonnaise-drenched salads you’ll probably be able to find grated carrots, chick-peas and green and leafy accompaniments to your meal. Frozen yoghurt is a good choice for dessert and why not order a carton of milk or orange guice instead of soda or a high fat milk shake. This will help make your meal a lot healthier.

Compensate at home – OK, maybe lunch wasn’t nutritious, but you can provide an after-dinner extra. Snuggle up with a great book from Scruffy’s Bookshop and nibble on carrot, fruit or a whole grain muffin as a treat when you get home.

Finally – don’t spoil your outing by feeling too guilty. If you’re not overdoing the excursions to fast food outlets, then you’re not putting your children’s health in danger. So hold the guilt, relax and enjoy.

terview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Renegade Roundtable, which can be found at http://www.RenegadeRoundtable.com. In this excerpt, Dhrumil Purohit shares on his journey to a raw food lifestyle, including the benefits and the challenges.
Renegade Water Secrets with Dhrumil Purohit, the lead contributory, visionary and creator of welikeitraw.com and giveittomeraw.com.Kevin: Well, let’s get right into it. For those people who have never heard of you, they soon will, and why don’t you just tell us a little bit about how you started into
this and how you got to where you are now.Dhru: Sure. First of all, again, thank you for having me here. And everybody who’s listening in, it’s an honor to be here. The thing that I enjoy the most is connecting with other individuals, and that drives everything that I do. So to connect and build communities, that’s been such an important part of my journey and that’s actually how I got started.
My dietary journey started where at a conference I heard Ingrid Newkirk. She’s the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She was talking about milk, blah, blah, blah this, and dairy cows blah, blah, blah, that and at that time my level of consciousness wasn’t hip to maybe the plight of certain animals. But she mentioned something that really hit me, she said, “Blah, blah, blah, if you get rid of milk then you might see your acne go away.” I was in high school at the time, I’m trying to talk to girls, I’m trying to be a more social individual, but even though I had been raised vegetarian, coming from an Indian background, I always dealt with acne. So when she said that I said, “Ok, you know what, she say’s that in about a month’s time you can start to see a major difference, so let me get rid of the dairy in my diet.” So when I got rid of the diary in my diet, naturally people ask you, “What the heck are you doing?” So you have to read up on it and you have to get educated a little bit and that’s when I finally started to understand and make the connection, that even though I was brought up vegetarian I had never really understood fully the connection between food and health.
Then once that started, for a year and a half, as many people there have kind of gotten their start, I was a processed vegan. I was eating soy burgers and tofutti and carbitarian totally all the way. The finally one day at a health food store, in the aisle, I’m shopping for my produce and I see this guy who I’ve seen like a hundred times before shopping at the same organic co-op. And I always noticed that the whites of his eyes are really white, he was a very fit gentleman, he looked fairly young as well.
So I went up to him and I finally said, “Hey bro, what is it that you actually do? What is it that you eat?” And he was like, “Oh, man I’m into raw food.” And I was like, “Raw food, what is that?” And over the next 40 minutes, this gentleman, who’s name is actually Nature Love, kind of over the next 45 minutes gave me a full breakdown of the relationship between food and why raw food matters and how it can improve the health. And from that day, which was the year 2001, that’s when my journey really began. It was on that day.Kevin: Wow, that’s pretty nice. Let’s just get right into it here. What are some of the biggest challenges that you encountered from that day till now that really stand out in you head, that say, “This is what happened, here’s how I dealt with it and here’s how I’m better because of it?”Dhru: Sure, absolutely. Well one of the things that I talk about a lot is the physiological challenges and I noticed that… I’ll give you a specific example, when I first started my journey after meeting Nature, the next day Nature, after I met up with him in the aisle, he came over to my place to show me and my roommate a little bit about raw foods. And when Nature told me that he was 40, and this guy literally, like… there’s photos of him on our website, welikeitraw.com, you can see how fit he is, how young he looks. When he told me he was 40-years-old I totally flipped. I was like, “OK, I’m doing this today.”
So that was the first biggest challenge that I faced, I went 100 percent overnight embarking on raw foods. And what kept me going solid 100 percent for the first 8 months was discipline and excitement. Sheer excitement because I was looking forward to the future. I kept on thinking that in the future this will all be worth it and I’ll be at some place where my health and everything else will click and it won’t be as tough as it is now. And then discipline, which is simply one desire that’s trumping another desire. I had this desire to look fit, to be energetic, to be healthy, and then I also had this desire to eat a donut or eat this, or eat that.
But my desire for being fit and healthy was strongest. But the challenge with discipline is, after a certain time, because discipline comes from a place of desire, discipline will always fail you. At some point in time discipline will always fail you because resisting your desires is… well it’s resisting your desires. It’s still a desire that’s inside of you. So for eight months solid I was going through the physiological challenges of wanting to stick to this thing, I felt good, but I had all these desires inside to try different foods, to eat different things.
And it was right around that point, that after I, at the time I considered it “‘failing.” I failed on my raw food diet by yo-yoing back and forth; I realized that there was a better way, a smarter way, a more intelligent way to approach diet. And, yes there were some very practical things that I did to improve my relationship with food. Having more green smoothies, having some transitional foods, things like that.
But overall I saw that the biggest shift, the thing that benefited me the most, and now I’m seeing that it’s benefiting so many other people as well too, is that to actually ask yourself, “Why am I doing this in the first place? Am I waiting for the future to be better than the present moment? Am I doing this because someday I think things will be better?” It’s all right to have goals, it’s all right to have health goals, it’s all right to build a foundation, but the biggest challenge that I see is that a lot of people have, regardless of whatever dietary regimen they’re trying to follow, if they’re trying to just eat healthier, or exercise more, they are their biggest enemy because of these physiological battles they play with themselves back and forth.
It’s easy to open up a book and know what to do. There are so many nutrition books and websites that are out there that give you great information now, especially with things like Goggle. And you can see what you can do.
The same thing goes with exercise. But when you look at it, it’s not that people have a problem with information they have this physiological battle with identifying themselves with certain goals and living in the future instead of bringing their attention back into the present moment.Kevin: So you said in that first eight months you were living in the future, correct?Dhru: Yeah, I was living in the future. I was just constantly thinking that things will be better, it’ll be easier. I’m eating towards some future goal; I’m eating towards some future goal of being fit in my ideal version of what I had as fitness in my head. And then also along with that I was identifying with something, my ego was identifying with the concept of being 100 percent raw.
Which, I’m sure Kevin, you’ve seen with the excellent work that you do, a lot of people probably write in to you that say they need to be 100 percent raw but they can’t. And that’s just some arbitrary goal. That doesn’t mean that I was actually any healthier, I was just fixated on this concept of being 100 percent raw.
So instead of being 100 percent healthy and just enjoying and having a beautiful relationship with food, I was focused on this arbitrary idea of being 100 percent raw because I thought that it would bring me something that wasn’t something that I had with me right then and there at that moment. I was looking to diet as a way to fulfill me, which is an exact example of people that have really bad challenges with food. They’re looking to food for fulfillment. People that go through, I don’t want to speak personally, because I haven’t gone through this, but from what I’ve read, individuals that suffer through bulimia and other eating disorders, often what they’re looking for in certain ways is that they treat food as a vehicle to fulfillment, to fulfill them even if they don’t want to eat it. They’re rejecting food as a way to fulfillment with something to fulfill themselves with something that isn’t with them right then and there.
I know it starts to become really abstract, but the easiest way to say it is that just take a look at anything that you’re doing in your life right now. And if you’re running off of shear discipline, if you’re running off the hope that someday in the future that you’ll make it, the chances are that you’re going to face so many more struggles along your journey.
As opposed to the flip side is, everybody wants a challenge, everybody is down for a good challenge and the difference between a challenge and a struggle is the added dimension of resistance. When you go through a struggle, when you’re yo-yoing in your diet, when you can’t stick to your exercise plan, when you’re having a hard time doing something that you want to do, that’s a struggle.
And what accompanies a struggle is resistance. You’re resisting something; you’re resisting something that you’re not ready to be at a level that you want to be at. Maybe you need to go slower. Whatever it is that you’re resisting, because you’re resisting it you’re using discipline as a way to kind of mask that, to kind of keep your eyes not focused on the total picture. And then you end up sending yourself back further because you haven’t actually taken baby steps to build a proper foundation in whatever journey you’re trying to make progress in.

to eat to stay healthy. The skinnier the band of color, the less foods you need to consumer in that category, and vice versa. As you will notice, eating a variety of healthy foods is best. The goal is to eat foods from each color band each and every day.
As you’ll notice when reviewing the new pyramid, some bands are fat on the bottom and get thinner as they reach the top. Why? Because foods are not created equal. While apple pie contains apples, it is not as good for you as a freshly picked apple straight form the tree! The same is true for a tomato vs. ketchup. The less nutritious variety of the food is depicted at the top thinner part of the pyramid, with the more nutritious item featured on the bottom.
One of the most important aspects of the food pyramid is the way it explains how many servings of individual categories a person should eat every day. This includes:
Grains:
It’s important for children to eat 4-6 ounces of grains every day, depending on their age, while adults need more than 6 ounces to meet their daily requirements. Remember, whole grains are best.
Vegetables:
Vegetables are especially important to a healthy diet. Children should eat 1/2 to 2 cups per day with adults consuming 2 1/2 cups or more.
Fruits:
Fresh fruit is a very important nutrient for a well balanced diet. Keep in mind that while fruit juices and packaged fruit count on the slimmer part of the pyramid, fresh fruit is always best. So, how much fruit should you eat every day? Children need 1-1/2 cups per day, and adult 2 or more.
Milk and Other Calcium-Rich Foods:
Calcium builds strong teeth and bones and should be consumed on a daily basis. Children need a minimum of 1-2 cups of milk (0r other calcium rich food) every day, while adult (especially women) should be consuming 3 or more cups of dairy a day.
Meats, Beans, Fish, and Nuts:
For all of the iron and other important nutrients you need to stay healthy eat 3-5 ounces per day (for children) and 5-8 ounces (for adults).
Not sure that you’re eating the right amounts of food every day? Be sure to check your diet against the new food pyramid guidelines on a regular basis to ensure that you’re eating a well balanced diet for optimal health and fitness.

Freshly cut floating plants are harvested as these have the least amount of pollution.
With the growing amount of research being done on Fucoidan, more beneficial properties are being found, and we will find even more uses for this essential sugar.

This marvel of advertising to influence consumers rivals that of big screen TVs and S.U.V.’s for city dwellers. Not only do these people pay for water, often carry these heavy, bulky, cooler sized jugs up flights of stairs. On top of that all they have to do in most cases in America to get as much clean, cool water as they would ever want in their lifetimes – only by turning on the water tap.
Demineralised water is not always good for you. Health conscious consumers should and need to be aware that while some water types are good for you – demineralised may not and indeed may be “demineralizing ” your body and bones.
First of all – what is demineralised water? Demineralised water is water that is said to be completely or almost completely free of minerals. This demineralised water is produced any of a number of way including – boiling (distillation), deionization, filtered through a thin membrane (many of the “pure” water machines that you see in retail outlets along with the large cooler type jugs) or electrodyalisis.
Health experts have also reported that the longer that you drink this “demineralised” water, the more likely are of flushing out vital minerals in your body and as well placing your body into an acid state.
It has been known almost to the beginning of time that minerals in drinking water are good for your health. The beneficial aspects and properties of the minerals and constituents of drinking water (nowadays we refer to it simply as “tap water”) were mentioned in the Vedas of ancient India. In the book Rig Veda, the properties of good drinking water were described as follows “Sheetham( told to touch) , Sushihi ( clean) , Sivam ( should have nutritive value, requisite minerals and trace elements) , Istham ( transparent) , Vimalam lahu Shadgunam ( its acid balance should be within normal limits )
Not only can demineralised body have long term health concerns for your body including leaching away the calcium in your bones, but generally the taste is poor, being described as flat. On top of that demineralised water will often not quench your thirst – especially in comparison to regular untreated water.
If you think that demineralized water can play havoc with your and your family’s health – both in the short term and long term look at what it can do to regular household pipes and plumbing. Demineralised water is harsh and very very aggressive. If put into pipes and storage tanks the demineralised water is very aggressive and will attack these metal pipes – leaching the metal and other materials from the pipes and other plumbing materials used in water plumbing. This is the reason why homes can never have plumbing for this safe product “demineralised water”.
If that is what demineralized water can do to metal pipes and plumbing imagine what it can do to your sensitive insides of your body.

Anxiety is no stranger to any of us and in fact everyone needs to feel anxious sometimes, through this natural emotion the body enables a reaction which pumps adrenaline – the hormone stimulant into our systems.

Adrenaline is enormously important for spurring us on to do challenging and uncongenial tasks, helping us to cope with difficult situations.

Today, our lives seem to be ruled by constantly running from one emotional problem to the next, and unfortunately this is considered to be ‘normal’ life.

This is another excellent reason why ‘good food good health’ has to be part of everybody’s everyday regime, helping our immune system tackle the stress and strains put on our bodies.

Normal anxiety has almost always a cause of which we are aware – such as an exam coming up or an important interview etc, and causes different amount of pressure depending on the individual.

Anxiety becomes problematic when apprehension or worry is experienced for no apparent reason or when situations are deemed far worse than warranted.

A great deal of how we deal with anxiety depends on each individual and their outlook on life and character.

Even though anxiety is an emotional state, physical symptoms can be induced by it. Previously, it was believed that these symptoms were ‘all in the mind’, but it has been proven that some people really do feel pain and become ill from the effects.

The most common affect is of course the need to urinate frequently, of which I am sure we have all experienced, this is definitely myself before flying anywhere.

The most reported symptom of enduring anxiety is pain in the back, head, chest and abdomen. Some sufferers become nauseas and actually vomit. Diarrhoea, dizziness and muscular tension are also common problems.

In the worst cases panic attacks can sometimes occur which generally involve sweating profusely, palpitations and abnormally deep breathing.

For some chronic sufferers it is a vicious repeating cycle, as they can become anxious about being anxious, recurrent attacks that can happen over a period of years – this is known as chronic anxiety. In these cases medical attention should be sought.

Insomnia is another well-known side effect, and this again only adds to the anxiety felt by the sufferer by laying mulling over the problem that is causing concern, making the smallest of problem often seem a giant hurdle in life.

The best self-help to allow your body cope and keep good health under duress is to make sure you are eating good food. A diet rich in vegetables, raw fruit, salads and plenty of proteins will give you a good balance and help to keep your immune system on top.

Carrots, and especially carrot juice is believed to have a calming effect on the nervous system. Camomile tea is another favourite.

Many vitamins are said to help, Vitamins B and C are attributed to help in coping with anxiety and stress, functioning of the central nervous system is said to be improved with Vitamin E, and also calcium, magnesium and zinc minerals.

So by eating a varied nutritional diet these vitamins and minerals should be easy accessed for good food good health to be obtained, otherwise dietary supplements can be taken, but always check with your physician.

The other easy self-help method to try and overcome anxiety is breathing exercises. Controlled breathing exercises calm and relax you. If you have read my previous article on Visualisation Therapy, which I use for relaxation, you will see how easy it is to use and how it can have amazing effects on yourself and your outlook on life.

Many people who suffer from anxiety often tend to dwell on fears and problems making them ill, instead of being positive and this really needs to be addressed. Try to adopt a positive attitude and be kind to yourself, although make sure you are not too indulgent.

Chocolate really does have that good feel factor and a little of what you fancy can be helpful, as so can a glass of wine lift your spirits, but using this as a crutch or using too much obviously has its own side effects.

Aromatherapy is another good mood enhancing remedy, as we all know nice smells lift our spirit and essential oils are a good way of achieving this.

A combination of lavender, sandalwood, clary sage and basil help with panic and anxiety, but if you suffer headache with your anxiety or even muscle tension add camomile and marjoram essential oils.

Why not try using these oils in a pot burner while having a relaxing bath to rid yourself of your daily anxieties.

Listening to music is another great method that helps us to relax, why not try listening to some on a personal stereo or MP3 whilst waiting for that appointment or whatever it is that has you feeling anxious.

Music that appeals to us generally lifts our mood, and sometimes by listening to ‘natural sound’ such as water, whales etc can have a beneficial effect.

Uncovering the root of your anxiety is necessary to help alleviate this problem and talking things through with a good friend can really help or in more severe cases a psychiatrist can be of assistance.

I feel that our outward look on life really does help or aggravate our fight with anxiety throughout our lives, and that by eating good food for good health and keeping a positive attitude can only help to fight the symptoms, maintaining a healthy immune system to keep our bodies in tip top condition.

Remember visualisation is positive food for the brain.

Sandra & Ted