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Living healthy is always much easier to talk about than to actually accomplish. I haven’t shared this aspect of my life here on this blog. Since I have gone through so many changes here lately, now is the time!

I have had a life time fascination with nutrition from majoring in biochemistry/food nutrition in college, to yoga, martial arts to managing a health food store - I have spent much time on this subject. I have done my share of unhealthy things but have reached a point in my life where I cannot put pollutants in my body.

Vitamins and Minerals

Do you need to take vitamin and mineral supplements? I believe it’s a good idea to take a multi-vitamin everyday. Make sure the vitamin passes a standard dissolution test. This is simply to assure that it actually dissolves in the digestive tract. It should say on the bottle that it does! Many popular supplements pass through the system giving you expensive urine!

I personally take 1000 mg of Ester-C (in my opinion is the best form of vitamin C) every day. I also take a beta-carotene supplement (the precursor of vitamin A). Vitamin A is not water soluble and can be poisonous! Beta-carotene is converted into vitamin A as needed. Finally I take an oil based vitamin E gelcap. I take all of these with a meal for maximum absorption.

Anti-oxidants

The above supplements pretty much have it covered. I recommend not to go herb and vitamin crazy as many people do. Lots of fads come and go while many advertisers of course, try to capitalize on you by selling you tons of unnecessary and sometimes detrimental supplements! You don’t need to waste your money on all that junk.

Aside from beta-carotene, vitamin-E and vitamin-C, the following are my personal loves for healthy living!

Green Tea

Ah yes! In my opinion, after a lifetime of studies, nothing is healthier than delicious green tea! It is ultra rich in natural anti-oxidants. They mostly consist of polyphenols and catechin (which has powerful anti-cancer benefits).

Green Tea is by far my number one, daily beverage. I love it hot or cold and never does a day go by that I don’t have some. Americans drink brown tea (fermented tea) which is healthy but no where close to green tea. While I could write all day about the benefits (antibacterial, antiviral, anti-cancer) I prefer a simple approach.

If you tend to drink brown tea which is heavily sweetened, take it upon yourself to switch. Once you get used to drinking green tea, you will acquire a taste for it. I never add sweetener or lemon. I have learned to enjoy the natural aroma and delicious quality in it’s most natural state.

If there is only one thing you ever do in your life for health, green tea is by far my #1 choice. It’s anti-oxidants are hundreds of times more powerful than both vitamin-C or E. When you’re sick or taking antibiotics, green tea can compliment the effects and make it even more effective.

Compared side by side with orange juice, green tea is by far the better choice. That is not my opinion, it is a fact. I love it so much, I drink it several times per day and could never say enough about it! In America, you can buy it in any grocery store.

If you’re wondering how a popular brand like Lipton Green Tea compares to imported brands, it is fine. Lipton makes a very high quality product which is just as good as any from a health food store usually sold at a much higher price. If you are from Asia…well, you guys have it made. Green tea is the most popular beverage in most Asian countries and Americans should start drinking it every day, if they aren’t already!

Sugar

Most of us love sugar and candy, but it is not good for you. I highly recommend against consuming sugar in large quantities. Sugar is bad for you. It rots your teeth and causes more health problems than any other single product on Earth. Alcohol is bad, but sugar in many respects, is worse!

Advertisers love to sell sugar and people love to eat it. Remember, no matter what you think, sugar is by far the worse thing you can eat next to saturated fat.

What happens to excess sugar in your body? It is converted into fat in the liver through a process called lipogenesis. Then, it is stored on your body as fat! Eating fat doesn’t make you fat, eating excess sugar is what makes you gain excess fat in most cases. Genetics play a large role in stored body fat. No matter your case, eliminate sugar (especially in soft drinks) from your diet.

Fat

Fats and oils are not bad for you. Just certain kinds are bad. You have probably heard of HDL (high density lipoproteins) and LDL (low density lipoproteins). Just remember high is good, low is bad! Milk fat(drink skim milk or low fat) and red meat are loaded with LDL or trans-fatty acids which clog your arteries. Cold water fish and fresh nuts are loaded with HDL, which actually remove cholesterol from your body.

I don’t eat much red meat and I don’t eat pork of any kind. According to cannibals, pork tastes exactly like human! That’s why I don’t like pork…yeeeeech. I mostly eat poultry and fish (fish is my favourite meat). Vegetarians have to be careful of protein deficiency by eating legumes or taking a protein supplement.

Olive oil is really good for you. It is loaded with mono-unsaturated fat and nice big amounts of oleic acid which is very good for you.Try to get extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil and consume it every day.

My all time favourite fat is flax seed oil. It is the most beneficial of all oils in the human diet. To keep it simple, just remember that flax seed oil has all the good fat you will need in one source. Loaded with linolenic acid (which is found in mother’s milk), flax oil is my #1 pick for an oil supplement. It should be cold pressed. It is stored cold in the store. I take a tablespoon full with every meal.

A Balanced diet

What does that mean, a balanced diet? I would say from a nutritionist standpoint, it means that meals should be balanced with proteins, carbohydrates and fats. With diabetes being so prevelant, it is important to eat meals balanced this way.

Here’s a real world example you can understand. If you eat a baked potato, an hour or so later, your blood sugar will spike. During this time, the excess sugar is converted into fat as I discussed earlier. To prevent this, the potato should be eaten with both protein and fat!

This slows down the digestion of the starches (sugars) and causes the blood sugar to stay even! This is my #1 health tip of all when it comes to blood sugar control. This is necessary for diabetics and will help those of you who don’t have diabetes from ever getting it. This is where our good friend flax seed oil can help. Taking a tablespoonful of flax oil with every meal is very good at evening out blood sugar which is great for your health.

It may sound crazy, but if you are trying to lose weight, adding flax oil can help you out immensely. Adding fat to your diet can actually help you lose weight! Read up on how diabetic patients should eat and you will find the BEST way to lose weight. I cannot say enough about how important it is to keep and maintain blood sugar levels.

Fresh whole foods and diets

No matter what I say about supplements, nothing is more important than eating fresh, whole foods in their natural form. Fresh vegetables and fruits should be a part of everyone’s diet. The world we live in isn’t perfect and many fresh veggies don’t have all the nutrients they should because of poor farming methods depleting many minerals from the soil.

Many of you have developed a fast life style on the run, and eating whole, natural foods is next to impossible. We get lazy and who wants to cook a super nutritious meal 3 times a day? All I’m asking is that you take some time to consider your health. It is what will keep you here to enjoy your life!

It’s really not that hard to eat at least one healthy meal per day. It just takes practice and developing a habit.

I only have one thing to say about diets. I call it the “D” word. The fact is, if you go on a diet, you’ll go off of the diet. It is better to adopt solid nutrition habits that you employ everyday as part of your life. Don’t over do it and try to make drastic changes overnight.

Keep it simple! I hope this little post is helpful to some of you. Though I am pretty much a health food junkie, I rarely discuss it. I was trying to think of a interesting post that I could write quickly off the top of my head (my favourite way to write) and boom! Here you have it!

Coming up, I’ll be writing much more on this fascinating subject! I’ll be featuring links and other sources to help get you interested in health and well being. I feel great today and this is the most positive thing I’ve written in a while. ENJOY

The beautiful photo of a Green Tea Plantation is from Marmot.blogs.com