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  Because water is a solvent, it helps rid your bloodstream of excess fat, which can help reduce your blood serum cholesterol level. It’s possible that 99 percent of all kidney stones result from not drinking enough water.

  Make It Sparkling Clean

  Notice that the recommendation is to drink clean water. In most places in the world these days, including North America, drinking clean water means avoiding tap water. To ensure that your water supply is clean, use a filtration system. You can purchase an inexpensive water filter or a complete household unit, depending on your needs and your budget.

  Bottled water is often not much cleaner than tap water, and all those plastic bottles are very hard on the environment. Try using one of the hard plastic or steel water bottles and fill it from your in-home filter—just be sure to keep the water bottle clean.

  Recently, some stories in the media proposed to debunk the “myth” that Americans really need to drink up to eight glasses of water a day—that it’s just a ploy created by the folks who profit from the sale of expensive bottled water. These stories also announced that juices, milk, sodas, tea, and coffee do in fact count toward daily fluid intake. Although many people who much prefer to drink four cans of soda over four glasses of filtered water likely breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this on the news, they shouldn’t switch back to their old ways quite yet. The up-to-eight recommendation is backed up by solid research. For example, research on Seventh-Day Adventists found that those who drank five or more glasses of water daily had only half the risk of heart attack and stroke when compared to those who drank only two glasses a day, and that those who were better hydrated had less viscous, “sticky” blood. Risk of bladder cancer has been found to be significantly lower in men who drink the most water. Exercise-induced asthma is caused in part by water loss from the airways; properly hydrating before workouts can help prevent attacks. The risks of developing kidney stones and constipation are both minimized by adequate water intake.

  Some would argue that it’s highly unlikely our ancestors drank up to eight glasses of water a day. On the other hand, they may have consumed more water because they were much more physically active. They also didn’t live in the highly toxic world we do, and they didn’t eat processed food. Drinking water helps your body cleanse itself day in and day out. Sodas, juices, coffee, and tea don’t serve this purpose as effectively.

  Step 2: Get Back to Basics and Rediscover Delicious Whole Foods

  You are what you eat, but if you eat a lot of refined foods, you won’t be a more refined person—you will be a drastically less healthy person. Our national health began a dramatic decline when refined and processed foods were introduced. The rise in chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease and diabetes correlates with the rise in consumption of foods that have all the nutrients stripped out of them and harmful preservatives and additives put in. If you’re eating lots of canned, packaged, preserved, and frozen foods, gradually switch to whole foods. Whole foods are essentially as nature made them. Foods packaged by nature come complete with all the nutrients you need. You get enzymes, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and hundreds of other nutritional substances you need for a healthy, energetic body capable of handling stress and fighting off disease.

  Go for Whole Grains and Legumes

  Grains such as wheat, corn, millet, barley, oats, quinoa, amaranth, and rice are not only delicious, they contain a wonderful potpourri of nutrients as well as fiber. Get reacquainted with whole grains. Try oatmeal or a whole-grain cereal or bread for breakfast. For lunch, have a salad on a bed of brown rice or millet. Add barley to soups and stews, and try corn tortillas with your vegetables. If any new grain upsets your digestion, introduce it more gradually or skip it. Please note that “whole wheat” bread is not the same as whole grain—it’s usually just white bread with some brown coloring and a few flakes of bran added.

  Fresh Vegetables and Fruits: Your Ticket to Longevity

  People who eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits have a lower cancer risk, as well as less heart disease and a lower risk of diabetes. Instead of the canned and frozen varieties, head for the fresh produce section. Treat yourself and your family to daily salads, lightly steamed vegetables seasoned with olive oil and lemon, and a delicious dessert of fresh fruit. Not only will you live longer, you’ll feel better along the way.

  Healthy oils

  One of the primary causes of heart disease in this country is bad fats. This doesn’t just apply to saturated fats (which really aren’t bad for you unless you eat too much of them). It applies much more to the trans-fatty acids found in hydrogenated oils and margarine-type products, which, thank goodness, have almost disappeared from store shelves. However, you will still find them soaking fried foods in restaurants.

  Most of the unsaturated fats found in vegetable oil are rancid, which is also a major health risk. For cooking, it’s best to stick to the mono-unsaturated fats, olive and canola oil. Olive oil is the best—it’s delicious and extra-virgin olive oil is largely unprocessed, so you get all the good nutrients in it. (Use a lighter olive oil for cooking at high heat.) Although canola oil is also processed, it’s the best oil for baking and other uses where you want a very light oil. Used in moderate amounts, butter is also a healthy fat. Many people enjoy coconut oil, which is wonderful for baking. Although it is a saturated fat, research has shown that it can actually help you lose weight.

  Meats, Poultry, and Other Protein Foods

  The verdict is in: the high-carbohydrate, low-fat, low-cholesterol diet doesn’t prevent heart disease, and it has worsened the obesity problem more than it has improved it. Protein, fats, and cholesterol from animal foods and eggs have an important place in a health-promoting diet. These foods provide essential nutrients, satisfy the appetite, and promote better blood sugar balance.

  This doesn’t mean you’re free to eat as many charred spareribs, double cheeseburgers, marbled steaks, or buffalo wings as you like if you want to be in good health. Choose lean meats, ideally from free-range, grass-fed livestock; if possible, buy organically raised poultry and use organic eggs. They are more expensive, but a great investment in your health. Organically raised livestock are not given antibiotics or growth hormones, which collect in the flesh, eggs, and milk of their conventionally farmed counterparts and increase cancer risk and risk of antibiotic resistance in people who consume them. Organic and free-range animals are also fed more wholesome diets, with less contamination by estrogenic chemicals, and so less of these toxic, carcinogenic estrogens collect in the foods that come from them. Wild game, such as venison, buffalo, and pheasant, is a good alternative to conventional store meats; they usually have eaten a more natural diet and their meat has a healthier fatty acid content and higher concentration of nutrients.

  Charring creates carcinogens, so char and burn animal foods as little as possible.

  Fish

  Remember when your mother told you to eat your fish because it was “brain food”? As usual, she was right. Fish is nature’s richest source—outside of mother’s milk—of an omega-3 fat called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA for short), which has been found to be important for the optimal development of the nervous system. Fish is also loaded with another important fat, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA for short). EPA has powerful anti-inflammatory qualities that balance the proinflammatory qualities of other fats and oils. High intake of these omega-3 fats has been found to decrease the risk of heart attack and breast cancer, and the evidence that they protect against allergy, asthma, depression, and other diseases is accumulating quickly.

  There’s a catch, however. The fish we eat has almost all been contaminated by the heavy metal mercury, which is highly toxic to the nervous system—especially in babies in utero and in breast-fed infants (mercury passes readily from mother to child via breast milk). Released by coal-fired power plants into the atmosphere, mercury falls with rain into lakes and streams. Microorganisms consume the mercury, and from that point it moves up the food
chain and into ocean waters as fish eat the microorganisms, larger fish eat the smaller fish, and so on. Fish at the top of the marine food chain are the most contaminated, with mercury levels in their flesh that can exceed one part per million (ppm). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended that pregnant women completely avoid swordfish, shark, tilefish, and king mackerel. Pregnant women are also warned to avoid eating more than 12 ounces per week of smaller saltwater fish, such as cod and tuna, which can contain between 0.17 and 0.60 ppm of mercury. Shellfish are no exception to mercury contamination, with one delicacy—lobster—leading the FDA’s list with an average of 0.31 ppm. Freshwater fish vary in their levels of contamination, but so many of them live in waters polluted with multiple toxic chemicals that they should generally be avoided.

  It seems like a cruel catch-22: oils from fish are important for the health and development of babies and children, but the mercury that contaminates them could cause retardation and adversely affect coordination, intelligence, and memory. The anti-inflammatory omega-3 oils are important counterparts to other oils found in the modern diet and appear to prevent the most common causes of death, but at what cost can we get enough of them?

  The answer is to play the odds as best you can. Eat only fish from deep, cold waters, such as salmon, cod, bass, halibut, sardines, albacore tuna, and flounder, and eat them only two to three times weekly. Avoid large, predatory fish, especially swordfish, shark, king mackerel, and tilefish. Farmed fish may have less mercury in them, but they also may be lower in the omega-3 fats that make fish so nutritious. Be especially prudent about limiting fish intake if you are pregnant, but be sure to add extra DHA to your diet in the form of supplements. The best of these supplements are carefully processed to remove toxins, including mercury. In fact, just about everyone can benefit from high-quality fish oil supplements. We’ll tell you more about these supplements later on.

  Nuts and Seeds

  Unsalted nuts and seeds are excellent sources of healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals. Walnuts and pumpkin seeds are rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats, which have been found to promote cardiovascular health, temper allergic reactions, improve immune function, and even help prevent cancer. Almonds are rich in calcium and magnesium and make a delicious, protein-rich snack.

  Fermented Dairy Products

  Throughout history, healers have used fermented milk—what you and I know as yogurt—as a medicinal food. The friendly bacteria that yogurt contains promote good digestion and help improve the balance of good and bad bacteria in the body. Stay away from those colorful little containers of sugary yogurt sold at most supermarkets. Instead, buy a larger container of plain, organic yogurt that contains live cultures, and mix in your own fruit or granola. Whole milk yogurt is especially satisfying and can be used as a substitute for sour cream. If you must have a touch of sweetness, stir in a small amount of maple syrup or all-fruit preserves.

  Become a Label Reader

  The best way to avoid processed foods and hydrogenated oils is to read labels. Don’t be fooled by products that say “all natural,” “no cholesterol,” or “no sugar added” on the front of the package. These terms are misleading. Checking out the nutrition content label is the only way to really know what you’re getting.

  Processed foods tend to be high in fat, sodium, or sugar. So you say you’ll fix that by purchasing low-fat or low-sodium foods. OK, but watch out for the old shell game. When manufacturers cut down on one of these three, they usually add more of one of the others. For example, nonfat yogurt is usually loaded with sugar or even worse, artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.

  If you’re eating processed foods, you’re not tasting real food. In fact, there’s no taste left. That’s why they add all the fat, salt, and sugar. Again, the only way you’ll know what you’re getting is by reading the label.

  Label reading is really like detective work. For example, sugar goes under lots of names. The suffix -ose at the end of a word stands for sugar. There’s sucrose (common table sugar), dextrose, and fructose (fruit sugar). Watch out for highly refined fructose, which is used in cola drinks and many of the so-called natural soft drinks. Basically, it’s so refined that it’s no different from regular white sugar. By the way, brown sugar is just good old white sugar with molasses coloring. Of course, it’s best to cut down on the sugar in your diet. It’s just empty calories; there’s no nutrition, plus it zaps your energy.

  Simple sugars enter your bloodstream quickly, giving you that much-touted lift. But the catch is that your pancreas is caught off guard by the sugar rush and it releases too much insulin. The result is an in-body processing error that lets you down the hard way: a drop in blood sugar, usually within the hour, that leaves you feeling less energetic, less alert, and more irritable than you were before.

  Step 3: Add Movement to Your Life

  Movement is essential for optimal health. For some of you, exercise is a four-letter word. But once you start moving, you will get more out of life. You’ll notice that your mood is brighter and that life’s little annoyances don’t get to you the way they once did. You’ll have more energy and sleep better than you have in years. Since exercise improves circulation and endurance, you may even find your sex life has renewed vigor—in fact, you may start finding you’re getting as much exercise from your midnight aerobics as from your daily walk.

  Brisk walking at least five days a week for 30 minutes to an hour (about two to four miles) is all you need to do. If you can take a brisk walk every day, so much the better. The most recent government exercise guidelines recommend an hour of exercise every day, mostly due to the fact that previous guidelines didn’t appear to make a dent in the ballooning obesity problem. While an hour of activity a day, if you can fit it in, is better than half an hour, the so-called health authorities are barking up the wrong tree on this one. Even an hour of exercise a day is not going to slim you down if you’re living on a diet full of fattening processed foods and mega-sized restaurant entrées! If you have a weight problem and you’re committed to getting slim, you’ll benefit from trying to work in a full hour a day of exercise in addition to following our dietary recommendations. You can break it up if you like—for example, do 15 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at lunch, and 15 minutes at night. If you’re exercising for health benefits and to maintain your present weight, half an hour a day is just fine.

  It’s essential for children to have exercise daily, preferably at least two hours and preferably outdoors so they can soak up the sun’s rays and get plenty of vitamin D.

  If you have any medical condition that might make brisk walking hazardous to your health, consult your doctor first. If you haven’t been exercising at all, start slowly until you have increased the distance to at least two miles. As you get into shape and your usual walking course feels easier, push yourself to the next level by increasing your walking speed, the duration of your walk, or changing to a hillier course.

  You can walk any time of the day. If you’re a morning person, your energy will be high at that time of day, and if you’re a city dweller, pollution levels are lowest before rush hour begins.

  Movement . . .

  Helps Prevent

  Arthritis

  Back pain and injuries

  Heart diseases

  Osteoporosis

  Stroke

  Type 2 diabetes

  Decreases

  Blood pressure

  Body fat

  Cholesterol

  Rate of cancer

  Increases/Improves

  Balance

  Circulation

  Energy

  Immune system

  Muscular strength and flexibility

  Reflexes

  Self-esteem

  Sex life

  While you are walking, move your arms in time with your walking pace. Most of you should be perspiring a bit after your walk. Your pace should reach 3 to 4 miles per hour. That means you’ll cover a mile every 15 to 20 minutes. Stretch
ing before exercise and cooling down afterward are very important for safe, effective exercise.

  Step 4: Maintain a Healthy Weight

  You can lose weight and never go hungry when you cut out excess fats, refined carbs, and other processed foods; focus on high-quality proteins and vegetables; and move your body. The goal is to gradually create a new, healthier lifestyle. As you change your eating habits and exercise more, the weight will naturally come off. There is way too much pressure on women in our culture to have the body of a teenager for life. Women and men naturally put on weight as they age, which is fine. What you want to avoid is obesity, and we all know what that is.

  Lose the Fat

  You don’t need to cut fat completely out of your diet; that’s not good for you either. But you do need to keep it lower than our national average, which is 40 percent of our daily calories.

  Think of it, if you’re 15 pounds overweight, you’re carrying around a bowling ball with you. Do you have one, two, or three bowling balls? That weight puts extra stress on your heart, plus you’re using up precious energy that could be used doing something you really enjoy. If you reduce your intake of processed foods, eat meats and other animal foods in moderate amounts, and follow the general guidelines given earlier in this chapter, it won’t be difficult to reduce the fat in your diet to 30 percent of your total calories, and you will probably lose weight. For most Americans, this means cutting fat consumption nearly in half.

  Saturated fat has gotten a bad name. It is not bad for you except in excess. In fact, it’s necessary for good health. The problem is that most Americans eat way too much of it. Saturated fat is usually solid at room temperature. It includes butter, marbled meat, and tropical oils such as coconut, palm kernel, or palm oil. Use canola oil in your cooking rather than unstable, unsaturated vegetable oils. When you stir-fry vegetables, use water at the beginning at high heat, then throw in a small amount of oil at the last minute. When you cut the fat to about 30 percent of your daily calories, you dramatically decrease your chances of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke.