While you may not be ready to follow my advice 100% of the
time (even I don’t follow my advice 100% of the time) here are three simple things you can do which will have profound effects on
improving your health and how you feel on a daily basis.
Make Water Your Beverage of Choice
Making water your beverage of choice has two significant
impacts. First, most people simply do
not drink enough water. Water is
essential to life. Our body is made of lots
of water and our body utilizes it in many complex chemical reactions that are
the basis of life. Of course this leads
to the next logical questions – how much and what kind?
How much water should you drink? That will vary with how much water you eat
(yes vegetables, fruit, and even meat contain water). My rule of thumb – if you are running to the
bathroom every 30 minutes you are probably drinking too much water! What kind of water should you drink? Yes, we hear about the chlorine, fluoride, chemical,
industrial waste, antibiotics, and hormone residues in our drinking water
supplies; the BPA in the plastic bottles; and all the different kinds of water
systems you can have installed in your house (reverse osmosis, oxygenated, etc). It can become overwhelming.
My advice is to just drink water and not
necessarily worry about all that stuff.
I really don’t think too many people have gotten ill and died from
drinking too much water on a regular basis.
The heart of the issue is more likely all the other toxins we consume
which eventually overwhelms our body’s ability to detoxify itself. Yes, filtered water that you drink from a
glass container is probably optimal, but the simple first step is to drink more
water.
The second benefit of water as your choice of beverage is
that you drink less of other unhealthy choices such as: soda (both diet and
regular), fruit juices (yes, even those with “no added sugar” are still loaded
with sugar), and some other ones that I won’t mention here as they are more
controversial (okay, I’ll mention them – soy, other processed “milks” and
pasteurized milk as well). Perhaps some
of you will even drink less alcohol.
Make Your Own Sweet Treats
While it would be best to eliminate sugary treats at least
if you make them at home you can avoid among the worst ingredients being used
in commercial baking – white sugar, white flour, and trans-fats. You can substitute with raw cane sugar, maple
syrup, or stevia for white sugar; you can use organic butter or coconut oil
rather than margarine, soybean oil, vegetable oil, or other trans-fats; you can
use almond flour, coconut flour, gluten-free or whole wheat flour rather than
white flour; and you can use organic pastured eggs.
Among the unhealthiest foods you can consume are white
sugar, white flour, and trans-fats which are prevalent in commercial baked
goods. While I am not advocating mass
consumption of the alternative I suggested, at least it is healthier, and you
can control the ingredients.
Alternate Omelets (eggs) and Protein Shakes for Breakfast
As I’ve written in previous articles protein is an extremely
important nutrient due to the many functions it serves. While it is presented in the main stream that
Americans eat too much protein, the actual truth is that most do not eat
sufficient protein. One of the main
reasons for this is what our food manufacturers have decided to call breakfast
foods – cereals, waffles, pancakes, bagels, muffins, and a whole variety of
other processed foods. These products
(notice how I won’t call them foods!) are typically all carbohydrate and no
protein.
Therefore, to start the day in
a healthy manner and to provide your body what it needs, I recommend a
breakfast based in protein. Protein
shakes made with fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and oils or omelets (eggs and
vegetables) are the ideal foods to “break the fast.”
Once again we see two benefits here - one from inclusion and
one from exclusion. Inclusion is eating
the healthy and body building proteins.
Exclusion is not eating high sugar and fat storing carbohydrates.
Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and
Educator. He works with individuals, groups, and at corporations to create
individualized nutrition and wellness programs. His office is in Mequon, WI. To
learn more or to schedule an appointment, e-mail at bernie@brwellness.com, call (262)
389-9907 or go to www.brwellness.com.
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