It's Your Health!

Purpose

Cancer, Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Cholesterol, and the "need" for medical care has skyrocketed. Why?

What are your unknown unknowns about health?

There are many very important, maybe unknown facts written by doctors, professionals, and health advocates that you may or may not have learned about, partly because your doctors may not know what they don't know, or in some cases, maybe these new discoveries are not being taught or encouraged due to risk? This page is a starting point for you to consider some options that you may want to explore in more detail. It includes a table of Health Educational Links for your further motivation and education.

Introduction

Hippocrates said, "A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings."

If you take care of your body, science shows you can live a happier, healthier, life.

All the workings of the body are a miracle, a pure miracle! It houses our brain, our thoughts, and our spirit. It can be very resilient and forgiving, so it makes it hard for someone who feels good to think about taking better care of it. I think for many, including myself, it's not until something may be going wrong that we stop to think about what we may want to change to take better care of it. If you are honest with yourself, you will realize that by learning how, and by doing the work to maintain a healthier body, you will benefit from this work throughout your life.

What matters?

Seems our bodies are designed to be Herbivores (plant-eaters)

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. - Albert Einstein

• Did you know that, the intestinal length (veganfoodandliving.com) of a human is long, like that of plant eaters (Herbivores)?
• Did you know carnivores (meat eaters) have short intestines so that the meat doesn't stay in too long and rot?
• Did you know that "in nature, animals that are meat-eating carnivores don.t have seminal vesicles (wiki). The only animals that have both prostates and seminal vesicles are herbivores . vegetable-eating animals, such as bulls, apes and elephants." Expert Don Coffey from Johns Hopkins Medical Center said "In other words, man, a meat-lover, has the makeup of an animal that should be a vegetarian." (elephantjournal.com.com)

From a purely biological (anatomical) point of view, science and nature indicate that humans are designed to be eating plants, like other Herbivores.  Intestinal length, stomach acidity, saliva, shape of intestines, etc. Just look at Are Humans Carnivores or Herbivores? (stevepavlina.com), and Ten physical differences between meat eaters and plant eaters  (waoy.org).

What does the Bible say?

For those who follow the bible, See God created us to live on a plant based diet by my friend Dan L.

Is a plant-based diet worth it?

To reduce health issues, including the chance of having cells become cancerous, there is a lot of research that a plant-based diet with vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and mushrooms are the healthiest foods to eat. There is also research that raw instead of cooked is better for various reasons. Prescription for Nutritional Healing (amazon) recommends that a diet should be 50% raw. Why would it be different? It's because the chemistry changes from the heat; that's explains why foods taste different when they are raw verses cooked. Heat can cause many changes; Does Cooking Food Reduce the Vitamin Content (healthyeating.sfgate.com) shows how it adversely affects vitamins for some. Fact or Fiction: Raw Veggies are Healthier than Cooked Ones (scientificamerican.com) lists pros and cons for some veggies. For example, broccoli may lose some vitamin C, but is better raw than cooked since heat damages the enzyme myrosinase, which can help kill precancerous cells! Uncooked vegetables and fruits contain necessary enzymes that can be killed when cooked.

• I remember watching a video where they had two Petri dishes with cancer cells in each of them. In one Petri dish, meat was added to the dish and the cancer cells continued to grow. In the other Petri dish, plants were added to the dish, and the cancer cells died!
• Mighty elephants are vegetarians, and get their protein from what they eat. Humans can get all the protein they need from a vegetarian diet.

A friend recently found research that indicated that an acidic diet could cause inflammation in the body, and this can cause many health issues, including cancer. There are many who believe that it can be healthier to incorporate a diet with a more alkaline PH, or at least a more balanced PH diet. It turns out that a plant-based diet is great for that, with just a few exceptions! See Acid-Forming and Alkalinizing Foods (healthydirections.com) and Acid/Alkaline-Forming Foods Printable Chart (alkalineforlife.com). Note that if you look carefully, there are discrepancies between the two lists in some cases. In addition, if you look at the chart for Acid and Alkaline Forming Foods found in Prescription for Nutritional Healing (amazon), you also see some discrepancies. For example, eggs in drdavidwilliams.com are considered alkalinizing, whereas it's listed as acid producing in Prescription for Nutritional Healing  (amazon) and Acid/Alkaline-Forming Foods Printable Chart (alkalineforlife.com). Some discrepancies include eggs, Brazil nuts, some beans. Thus, more research is suggested. See acid vs alkaline foods (google). Note that of the pages say that diet may not change blood PH, but regardless, pages all seem to agree that a plant-based diet has many health benefits.

What I found interesting was that I had already read about some of the many benefits of a plant-based diet, and then I learned that for the most part, if you follow a plant-based diet, you almost automatically are eating foods aimed at a better (Alkaline) PH.

So is a plant-based diet worth it? Consider watching or reading what many doctors say in the links below.

If you're interested in eating more plants, but not quite excited about some of the flavors, consider using a nutra-bullet (amazon) or similar, and make your own shakes & smoothies. I have a model 1201 nutra-bullet. They are yummy, and provide great energy and clarity resulting from a plant-based diet. Several people have asked, so here is what I put in my smoothies. I love my morning smoothies :)

What if you like eating almost all foods?

If your taste buds are anything close to my taste buds, they respond favorably to just about every kind of food including meat, fish, chicken, fried foods, processed meats, as well as vegetarian foods. The word "diet" may seem to have a subconscious feeling of lack (instead of abundance), and may feel hard to accomplish.

Here are some tips that helped me, and may help you:

• Watch enough of the videos below and consider further research of scientific publications for validation. That's what I did. They provided me with a huge wake-up call of the truth. They provide motivation! Seek truth in your life.
• Think of your eating habits like a compass. Let's say "north" on the compass represents a pure (mostly raw) vegan diet, and that is the "direction" you would ideally like to follow. Realize that sometimes you may head "east", "west", or even "south" with what you eat, but in time, you will tend to head more "north." Maybe the "magnetic energy" so to speak, of how you feel both physically as well as mentally will help guide you in the best direction for you. That plan has worked very well for me, but a different plan may work better for you.
• If over time you start to stray, re-watch some of the videos. To achieve a goal, changes in life usually require repetition. See Life Changing Tools.

Diet and beyond

There is strong statistics showing so many health problems can be prevented, or even cured, with diet. If you watch and read some of the links below, you will see so many benefits from healthy diets, and some of the dangers of a poor diet.

In addition, it's also very important to understand the "quality" and nutritional value of foods you consume, regardless of diet. Processed foods loose nutritional value verses fresh foods, and processing (such as frying) can actually be unhealthy. Equally important is to understand if you eat the perfect "balanced" diet. To have that balanced diet, learn what is needed for optimal health. Once you do, you can learn how to adjust what you eat, and if you don't have time in your busy life for the optimal diet, maybe you might need supplements. For example, watch Foods That Heal & Foods that Kill (youtube). The amazing details start at about 4:30. If you choose a vegan diet, look at The Vegan Diet . A Complete Guide for Beginners (healthline.com) and google "balanced vegan diet" (google).

Maybe the biggest benefit is how you feel. What you put in your body affects how you feel. Ask people who switched to vegan diets if they feel better. Best yet, try it yourself and see how you feel! I know that when I switched towards a plant-based diet, I felt so much better in many ways.

A great friend of mine was diagnosed with COPD and high prostate test results. After watching What the Health (wiki), he did more research (including several of the following links) and switched to a plant-based diet and his next physical showed excellent improvements in his lab test results! Watch the videos and see scores of others who have positive results.

I invite you to consider trying a plant-based diet for a month or more, and see how much better you feel. Use the compass method if you need to. Once you adjust your mind to thinking of how you feel better instead of what you have been programmed to like short term (think of how many ads promote meats), all that will be left are the benefits of feeling better, both mentally and physically.

Health Educational Links

Below is a list containing links to diet, as well as other health issues. I expect this list will be improved and extended as time and resources permit. Furthermore, on most other pages, links to external sites are include the source in parentheses, whereas here they are listed in the Comments section. Thanks go to my friend Richie and others for several of these great links! If you have any additions that you think can help, please contact us below.

Exercise

Scientific evidence shows you can live a happier, longer life through exercise.

Did you know that exercise increases life span, reducing aging?

I first learned that exercise promotes mitochondria from watching a PBS show by Miranda Esmonde-White (pbs.org), where she said pretty much that when you stop exercising, the cells in your body stop supporting mitochondria, and your body starts to die. Exercising delays the aging process.

Mitochondria are the parts of cells that turn what we eat into forms of chemical energy used to carry on living. Mitochondria also has other important roles, including making sure some cells do die if they start to grow uncontrollably; mitochondria prevent tumors and play an importing role in preventing cancer (mrc-mbu.cam.ac.uk).

For information on how exercise helps mitochondria, see:  Exercise prevents cellular aging by boosting mitochondria (medicalnewstoday.com), Effects of Exercise on Mitochondria Content and Function in Aging Human Skeletal Muscle (ncbi.nim.nih.gov), and Quantifying the Effects of Exercise on Mitochondria and Other Cellular Structures (fightaging.org).

Did you also know exercise releases dopamine and helps with depression?

See Exercise, pleasure and the brain (psychologytoday.com), Does Exercise Release Dopamine? (livestrong.com), Regulation of brain function by exercise. (nih.gov), Exercise and Depression (webmd.com)

Experts say exercising on a regular basis helps in so many ways. Over the years of going to the YMCA, I've heard many comments about exercise! Some will say it's hard to get here. Some will say I'll be glad when I'm done, or I feel good after I exercise. However, the best answer is that exercise helps you feel better all day long (if you can exercise in the morning). Regardless when you exercise, it helps throughout your life.

Emotions

If you search "stress creates cortisol"(google), you will find there scientific evidence about how stress can cause so many problems, Psychology Today says the "stress hormone" is public enemy no. 1. Consider check out some of the results from the google search. In addition, many studies show that negative emotions can decrease your quality of life and lifespan.

Closing Thoughts

Realize that like most things in life, healthy diets and life changes takes time and patience. Changes require you to re-program your subconscious thoughts from what you are used to doing, and at first, your subconscious may give you unhealthy messages like "I ate this before for years and was ok."  Let's say you find you want to make a change to a plant-based diet after learning about the benefits discussed above. You may start strong, but then those old thoughts may come back. If that happens, consider re-reading or researching more on the health benefits of your decision, and consider committing to never giving up! Two steps forward, one step back. With time, repetition of eating healthier foods will win. The healthy foods start to taste better and better, and knowing you're eating foods that are so healthy for your body and mind helps, you feel grateful about the fact that you are being caring and loving to your body and mind. Not to mention, you feel better, are more energetic, and have greater clarity. For additional help, see: Life Changing Tools.

It seems that in many cases, if you have some kind of disease; consider researching to see if any dietary changes can help to improve it. For example, if you have ulcers, read A Glass of Cabbage Juice a Day Keeps the Ulcers Away (allseasonsintegrativehealth.com). After a long time with ulcers and several doctors, my friend Dan L discovered the solution that solved his problems in hours, on the web. He uses doctors, but also researches anything important on the web, and it was good for him that he did!

See also Knowledge.

Thank YOU for reading this!

By David Morgan