Eat Healthy, Live Longer!

While surfing the internet news sites, I came across an article that links to aralifestyle.com . First thing you should know is that this is a site who's articles are sponsored by their advertisers. They state this in their "about us" page.

While they are free to do this, you have to take what is printed on their pages with some care. I can in no way validate the claims they make but any time an advertiser is sponsoring some article that is written, you have to evaluate what you are reading.

With that being said, there is some good information contained within the following article: The Secret To Looking Younger By Slowing Aging.

Here are some highlights from the article:

1) People who live longer eat better and generally eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables

2) The secret is in the antioxidants that help the body fight off free radicals

3) Free radicals happen when an electron is lost from an atom because of stress, toxins or normal metabolism.

4) Over times there can be decreased energy, memory loss, heart problems, weakened immune system and a short life span.

5) Antioxidants help restore the electrons to the cells.

6) In a study published May 5, 2005 in the journal, Science, Dr. Peter Rabinovitch at the University of Washington found that mice that produce high levels of antioxidants live 20% longer and have less age related problems.

7) Antioxidants are primarily in fruits and vegetables. Some experts suggest that we should be eating 10 servings a day instead of what the USDA Guidelines states. Of course, if you follow some of the examples on the USDA Guideline chart in the link referenced previously, you may not be any better off. Processed foods are not the same as whole foods.

While this article goes on to promote a product that you can buy, I will not be discussing that here. Personally, I'm not a big believer in products that you buy to make yourself healthy. Most of the things in these commercial products can be done right in your own home and with ingredients you buy in the store. There is no need to pay excessive amounts of profit to companies with claims a mile long that I feel are had to validate.

The one thing we do in our house is whole food smoothies with fruits and vegetables. I learned about this while at a Qigong seminar with Jeff Primack in Orlando, Florida. Outside of the more expensive Blendtech blender, we buy all the ingredients at our local supermarket. There is no special mix to buy. We've been doing this for over a year now and enjoy drinking our smoothies in the morning. To me, doing it in the way this is done is the best thing we can do for our long term health. For more information on this, please check out the following blog posts

1) Food Based Healing Smoothies

2) Smoothies, A Year Later



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