If you think what is considered healthy is always changing, consider that we are being influenced by advertising hype and the interests of those doing the research.
Research has its place and it is used in this book, but it is always helpful to answer these questions:
- Who profits from me believing this?
- Who profits from this lotion, vitamin, diet, weight-loss strategy, pill, or surgery?
- Do they have my best interests at heart?
Many health-seeking people are very confused about what is healthy because the research results are always changing. One day, Echinacea is proved to be the cure for everything. The next day, week, month, or year, it is proved to be the cure for nothing. One day carbohydrates are bad, and the next day they are preventing colon cancer. In with vitamin D…out with vitamin D.
A common question is, “How do I evaluate the mountain of health information that I read?” If you google “health,” it will come up with thousands of different perspectives and different cures. Staying healthy is very unsensational and is based on easy guidelines.
Everyone should be his own physician. We ought to assist and not force nature. Eat with moderation what agrees with your constitution. Nothing is good for the body but what we can digest. What medicine can produce digestion? Exercise. What will recruit strength? Sleep. What will alleviate incurable ills? Patience.
– Voltaire
Fresh Ideas to Extend Your Expiration Date
Ask these questions to determine what is healthy:
1. What are the lifestyle choices someone living at the turn of the 20th century would have made compared to the choices I am making now?
In terms of nutrition, they ate mostly fresh, unprocessed foods. Exercise was a part of their daily lifestyles. They also had reduced chemical and toxin exposure from their environment and the products they used.
2. What is the most natural choice, and am I making that choice?
3. Are my decisions based on hype and fads or on what is actually good for me?
4. Where is this info coming from and who benefits from me buying this supplement, vitamin, food, or exercise plan?
Long-term, sustainable health choices are very simple. They include the very things that make plants flourish and other mammals healthy: good food, clean environment and water, movement and activity, exposure to sunlight, and adequate rest. If you apply the concepts of what keeps the planet healthy to you own life, then fads are a thing of the past and healthy decisions are easy. Pick strategies to deal with stress, health, nutrition, and movement plans that are sustainable for a lifetime. This is a life plan, not a two-week vacation.
Learn More
The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from People Who’ve Lived the Longest, by Dan Buettner, is a great book for health advice from centenarians from different cultures.
The Blue Zones blog includes articles, recipes and healthy tips at bluezones.com/blog.
This website contains quizzes to assess your vitality, determine your biological age versus healthy life expectancy based on your life habits, and includes suggestions for improvement: apps.bluezones.com/vitality.
