Obviously the standard American diet is not the smartest choice… But what is?
In my continuing effort to answer this, I feel this short video does a great job to inspire and enlighten.

The truth about human nutrition is not something newly discovered – but to most people its often inconvenient and therefore easily “forgotten”

Once again it seems that science confirms that fresh, whole, organic and raw foods are the right choice for a healthy life.

8 steps to a longer and better life! Rejuvenate yourself and stay younger.

Learn in short and precise words about 8 important ways that help you stay as young and happy as possible, as long as possible.
No non-sense, only highly effective tips that are compiled after careful observations, experiences, scientific research and actual tests.

1. Joy
Quality friends, healthy family relations, music you love, do something you like for a living…

Remember we are human beings – not human doings. Avoid stress and destructive atmosphere. Don’t think problems will fix themselves! Take actions to resolve sources of problems in your life, even if it means quitting a job and completely changing your life.
Start doing it now…  The longer you feel miserable the weaker becomes your power to act.

2. Sleep
Make sure you get enough sleep. I strongly disagree with the claim that just 6-8 hours should be sufficient. Also try to going to bed earlier – around 10 optimally.

Especially if you do hard work or a lot of sports, more sleep is needed.

My advice would be around 10 hours. Remember that humans evolved in tropical regions where it is dark for about 12 hours. Fire and artificial light was not used until very late stages in human evolution. Something as important and profound as the need for sleep does not change that fast. That’s not how evolution work.

Try to sleep on an empty stomach – you should not be hungry, but try not to eat a lot the last few hours before you go to sleep.

Stay away from caffeine and alcohol at least 7 hours before bedtime. With either of these substances – or any other powerful stimulant in your blood, you sleep pattern will dramatically change and your deep sleep shortened. This is not something you want on a regular basis! During deep sleep, growth hormones are released and your body repairs and rebuilds.

3. Water
Are you (de)hydrated?

A simple test is to ask yourself how many times a day you need to go!?… Between 7 and 10 times should be fine. Also the color is an important indication of your hydration level. Your urine should have little or no color, except perhaps in the morning or first time after exercise.

An important tip here is to drink ½ liter of water before you go to sleep and again just when you get out of bed – 30 minutes before your breakfast.

4. Diet
Raw Fruit and Vegetables!

Have you ever questioned your diet!? Asked yourself what you would eat if you were on your own in the wild? Do you look like a predator that is capable of chasing down an animal? Try to catch a wild rabbit! Good luck! We are back to evolution and it has been well proven that humans were almost exclusively fruit (and vegetables) eaters, until very late stages of our evolutionary development. As we all know, recent science also prove that a high percentage of meat, dairy products and other animal food sources in our diet, is responsible for most of our “lifestyle” diseases.

Because of the well documented science plus my own personal experience where I have seen people with different serious illnesses healed through a strict raw fruit and vegetable diet, I have to recommend a diet based primarily on organic fruit and vegetables with as little animal sources as possible.

Also all kinds of grains are not something I see as a natural food source. The science tells the same story, but I will cover this aspect in another post in my blog.

5. Exercise
Back to evolution once again! Throughout our evolution, moving our bodies has been a natural and necessary action when collecting food, avoiding dangers, etc. Important systems as the lymph are based on our body being active. Not only the lymph is depending on what we now call “exercise” so if you want to stay young, you need to stay active – every day! As you perhaps realize 5 minutes a day is far from enough.. On the other hand it’s not hard to get enough exercise.

A brisk 30 minute walk will do you a lot of good.

I recommend finding an active hobby that you find really fun. Optimally this will include step 1 and form a strong positive synergy. An example could be riding your mountain bike in the forest, playing tennis, badminton, or whatever… Try to pick something that requires a relatively high hart-rate, unlike bowling for instance.

6. Mindfulness.
Start noticing the world around you more – ‘wake up’.

Ever come across this concept before!? It’s becoming increasingly popular these days.

Let me describe the essence:

A wise man once said: “make everything you do a mediation”. This means focusing on what you are doing right now. There is nothing more important than this very moment. You might be thinking a little planning probably wouldn’t hurt? True! Then focus on your planning. Not on what you’re having for dinner later, except of course if that is what you are planning for! Get the idea?

Think about kids. They are almost constantly completely absorbed by what they are doing.

Mindfulness is remembering how your mind worked as a kid, remembering what it’s like to admire and be fascinated by things around you, noticing details, focusing.

Don’t train your mind to multi-task. Your brain isn’t build to work that way and it will not do you good.
Another way of expressing what mindfulness is about is getting of AUTO PILOT. Wake up and notice the world around you. Notice the colors, details, feel your emotions. Be more alive!!

7. Stop abusing your body
Since you are still reading, this is probably common sense to you, I will mention it anyway.Avoid anything that affects you body though chemical stimulation.

- Tobacco
- Coffees and soft drinks with caffeine.
- Refined sugar

This will burn your candle in both ends, and dramatically shorten your life.

8. Breathe…
How often do you breathe relaxed (where your belly is moving in and out)The power of deep and natural breathing is overlooked and forgotten by most people. If your body is stressed your breathing will probably not be deep and relaxed.

Try to focus on your breathing now and then and try to make it deeper, more relaxed and notice your belly moving. Relax your chest and the rest of your body. Notice if any part of your body is tense.

Do this, as often as you like to loosen up and do at least 5 really deep breaths.

——————————————————————————————-

A few words…
I know it’s almost impossible to follow all these “steps” in a normal life.
Of course a great night out with friends is worth “breaking” the sleep rule now
and then.
Use these advices – which are what they are – with common sense.
If you have questions ask away in the discussion bellow.

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity,
answered:
“Man………because he sacrifices his health in order to make money…
Then, he sacrifices money to recuperate his health……..
And then…….he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the
present;
The result being that he does not live in the present or the future;
he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really
lived.”

A little bit of inspiration!

]]> http://www.health-tips.eu/stay-young-and-healthy/feed/ 3 http://www.health-tips.eu/how-to-beat-sugar-addiction/ http://www.health-tips.eu/how-to-beat-sugar-addiction/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:12:58 +0000 admin http://www.health-tips.eu/?p=99 As discussed in our introduction, humans have been categorized as frugivores. This means we are natural sweet-seekers, which is also supported by the fact that we taste sweet on the tip of our tongues.

This should hopefully start to relieve some people of any bad conscience they might have every time they find themselves craving something sweet even after a meal.

Because we are sweet seekers we also have a natural (strong) need for the pleasure the sweet foods give us. This is why you rarely feel truly satisfied even when exceeding your caloric as well as nutritional needs.

Let’s look a bit more into the varieties of sugar cravings and how to solve them, based on 3 categories.

1.       Chemical addiction to sugar

2.       Sweet taste natural craving

3.       Low caloric craving

4.       Under-stimulation / boredom.

First we have the really mean one. Chemical sugar addiction can be quite hard to shake because your body has become addicted to the way your body reacts to the simple refined sugars. This reaction is far from natural and therefore hard to replace with a natural and healthier stimulant. How tuff getting out of this addiction is, of course depends on the volume your body has grown accustomed to to.

But there is a way out…
Gradually cutting down on your sugar intake (checking everything you eat for added sugar is vital for your overview) while dramatically increasing your intake of fruit will actually take the edge of your cravings quite rapidly.
Remember that the fruit you eat should be fully ripe. Bananas for example should not be green anywhere but have brown spots. This is when they contain the maximum amount of natural healthy sugars.
Try to vary as much as you can and find your favourite sweet fruits. Don’t be afraid to experiment with tropical fruits that look or smell strange, for example Durians.
If we say a normal size banana has 100 calories and an average size apple approx. 60 calories, you should try and get around 1000 calories of fruit to remove your desire for refined sugar in the beginning. Don’t be afraid that all this fruit will make you fat – It wont unless you have a sedentary lifestyle and eat more than 3000 kcal’s a day.
So try to start your day with a big smoothie (at least 1 liter) of bananas and different frozen berries in your taste… Try for example around 7-8 bananas and a cup or 2 of blueberries and raspberries.

You probably heard it before but nothing beats sugar cravings like exercise… This is an extremely important point and vital to succeeding because muscles work as glands that produce lots of hormones crucial for a body in balance and general well-being. Furthermore your brain is stimulated by the same ‘happy’ hormones as the ones that “over-reward” you when you eat sugars.

Second one (the natural sweet craving) is nothing you should worry about, but instead satisfy – with natural sugars found in fruits. Simple really.
Try and feel what your craving are for. And try to analyze it. Could this craving be satisfies by fruits? Or would you rather have a big greasy chocolate bar? If so that leads us to the last category:

Third one is caused by eating too few calories / nutrients. When under eating your body often searches for something dense in calories – like chocolate. Now instead of giving in to this craving, instead try and eat a big meal of fruits – wait half an hour and then have a very big salad. This will give you both the energy you need as well as nutrients, vitamins etc. Try and stay away from oil. Instead put some avocado (not more than 1 pr. day MAX) or a handful of seeds or nuts. For example pumpkin seeds, almonds, brazil nuts etc. Do NOT overdo nuts. They are very concentrated and will quickly overload your system.

A stimulated brain is a happy brain. We all need healthy, natural stimulants to feel satisfied. Eating is one such stimulant, exercise another, physical pleasures a third, your hobby a fourth, just to name a few examples. Basically anything that makes you happy and you enjoy doing.
To be in a natural balance you to balance the proportions of all these stimulants – and get ENOUGH of them… If not stimulated you will feel a void and sadly this is often filled with unhealthy or too much foods. And as we  know, anything in excess is bad for you. So spice up your live with a varied set of activities you enjoy. And keep challenging yourself both mentally and physically.

Summary:
To beat a sugar cravings we have to move ourselves “back to nature” to a degree where the body’s natural balance restores itself and cravings fade and disappear. How far you want to go and how successful you want to be, is up to you. Changing something as fundamental as your eating habits is no easy task, but quite possible and comes with great benefits.

Key tips:

• Replace sugar with natural sugars. Get plenty of healthy sweet foods.
• Exercise. Various intensity, optimally every day.
• Meet your needs naturally. Stay stimulated, challenged and entertained.
• Simply do not buy any sugar products – make sure you always have ripe fruits and perhaps raisins if you should start craving sugar heavily.

A few reminders:

• Always eat fruits at least half an hour before any other meal depending on the volume.
• Don’t be afraid to eat a LOT of fruits… Eat until you are truly full and satisfies. If you still crave something else – have some more, then wait 10 minutes.
• Drink a lot of pure, clean water. Drink half an hour before any meal and not 2 hours after (small sips are ok). This is to avoid diluting the digestive enzymes and juices.

Ever wondered what the truly natural diet for human beings consists of!?
Ever considered that meat between slices of bread perhaps isn’t what our bodies are designed by natures evolution to thrive on?

Then what is our natural diet?

The answer is simple really, and you probably already know it.

Imagine being in the wild in a tropic area. Certainly the easiest way to satisfy your hunger would be picking the variety of sweet juicy fruits hanging from the threes… Or perhaps have some vegetables, nuts or similar easily accessible foods.
Not surprisingly these foods will cover all human nutritional needs – this is a fact.

This is why humans did not have to eat animal foods until the very end of the evolutionary development.
Only animal foods that were eaten by our predecessors, were the ones directly available – that means insects etc. just like many primates do.

The higher intake of animal foods started because of 2 factors:
1. Cultural reasons – our creativity, curiosity, desire to experiment with foods. Often inspired by carnivores, thinking we would gain their speed and strength if we are like they did.
2. As an alternative food source that enabled our predecessors to leave the tropic areas.

The fact that we are only partly adapted to survive on animal foods is obvious. Try looking at your natural hunting tools:
Teeth?
Hands?

We don’t really have any natural scary weapons able to do much harm, now do we?
I mean let’s face it – you’re not even able to catch your neighbours cat, unless it wants you to.

Our digestive tract is clearly adapted to eating fruits and vegetables and therefore matches the design of other frugivores, this is why our digestive enzymes and fluids are nowhere near as strong as those, animals that live on starches or true carnivores, can produce.

So how do we use this information and benefit from it?

It is a well known fact that a species deviate to far from from its original diet, problems occur.
Humans are no different.
On our present mainstream diet (SAD – Standard American Diet) we quickly become overloaded with waste matter and body must work much harder trying to digest the unnatural foods. Not able to do this completely and successfully, the body has to deal with partly digested matter that enters the bloodstream.
This is dealt with by our immune system and puts a lot of stress on the systems.

This site is about implementing a natural diet to the degree that suits and benefits each individual. Doing so can be a short-cut to solving many chronic diseases and ailments naturally.

We are aware of the fact that going 100% natural is almost impossible these days unless you live in a tropic region where foods of great quality are abundant. But great improvements in health can be achieved by following some very simple rules of thumb, that will probably seem quite obvious once understood. The degree of change is all up to you.

Follow us to lean more on many interesting health topics.

Teeth Show Fruit Was The Staple; No Exceptions Found

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