Choose to Live Long & Die Healthy - Keys to Eating Healthy and to Good Nutrition

"When you don't have your health, what do you have? - Brett Rademacher

It's sad but true that most people don't think much about their health...until they lose it. Think about it for a long serious minute. If you don't have your health, what do you have left? The pleasure of your existence and the significance of your purpose usually depend on being healthy enough to enjoy your life and do something with it.

I'd like to share with you some more keys to good nutrition and tips to eating healthy that just might help you to live to a ripe old age of 120 years and die healthy.

Here's an illustration to consider. If I were to offer you $10 million for both of your eyes, would you sell them to me? On the one hand, you could sure use the money to help you achieve your purpose in this life and really enjoy yourself while doing it. On the other hand, you wouldn't really be able to enjoy yourself that much without the use of your two eyes. You could have your $10 million dollars, build a beautiful house in the Swiss Alps, and yet never have the pleasure of seeing the beauty all around you including the mountains, forests, wildlife, snow, your house and your family. In other words, to lose the use of your eyes would defeat the whole purpose of getting the money.

Now, think of how this illustration relates to your health. If I were a big food manufacturer and restaurant owner, and I were to offer you cheap, great tasting food (including junk food of all kinds, fast food of every type, packaged foods of every variety and taste, canned foods that were highly convenient, sweet foods that were simply delicious loaded with fats, sugars, and carbs, etc.), would you sell your future health to me by buying my food?

You might say, "Well, what do you mean? I don't have to sell you my future health to eat your food. That's ridiculous!"

The TRUTH is - every time you eat unhealthy, denatured, packaged, man-made processed foods from the supermarket and from restaurants, you are selling your future health and will some day reap what you have sown into your body - sickness, physical health problems, and illness of all kinds imaginable. Most people just don't want to hear this, but it's true nonetheless. "What you sow, you will reap." This is a natural and spiritual law.

The above illustration reminds me of the story of Jacob and Esau. As you may remember, Esau came in from hunting and was tired and very hungry. Jacob was relaxing and enjoying some good lentil soup he had made. Esau asked his brother if he could have some, and Jacob told him he could IF he would sell him his birthright. Esau then sold Jacob his birthright for the price of a bowl of lentil soup! Can you believe that? Esau gave up all of the inheritance rights and blessings of the first born son, just to satisfy his hunger for some soup.

Now, how does this apply to you and me today? Every day, in every town and city across America, this tragic story is relived by millions of people. Every day people "sell their birthright to health" to the food manufacturers and restaurant owners of America, just in order to satisfy their hunger for something that tastes good to them (junk food, fast food, fattening food, whatever). People are literally trading away their health for ill-health. They are exchanging their future health for present gratification.

I strongly encourage you and admonish you to value your health birthright for what it is - a gift from God for you to enjoy throughout your whole life. Don't despise your health birthright, as Esau did, and sell it for some unhealthy processed food that will satisfy your stomach only temporarily, but that will eventually rob you of your health and enjoyment of this life.

One last thought. Do you want to end up in a nursing home or a hospital bed dying of some terminal illness when you're 45, or 55, or 65, unable to enjoy the second half of your life with your family and friends? If you're not sure, then go visit a hospital ward and a nursing home and meet the people there who are dying prematurely of dreaded illnesses. Ask them what they would give to have their health back and to have another 50 years to enjoy it. Then ask yourself if you want to follow in their footsteps and end up like them wasting half of their lives. Do you really want to die young and die unhealthy, or would you prefer to live long and die healthy when you're 120?

The choice is yours, and you make it every day. Every time you put something in your body, food or drink, you are making the choice for a healthy future or an unhealthy premature death by illness. It's your choice: health or ill-health, based upon healthy eating habits or unhealthy eating habits. What will your decision be today? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?

CHOOSE LIFE!

CHOOSE TO LIVE TO BE 120 YEARS OLD.

MAKE THE CHOICE TODAY TO DIE HEALTHY AT A RIPE OLD AGE!

Valuing Your Health Is a Key to Eating Healthy & a Major Tip to Good Nutrition

I would like to give you some more tips to eating healthy. These keys to good nutrition begin with how much you truly value your health and are willing to spend to protect it and preserve it so that you can live a long healthy life.

A few days ago I was driving to Charlotte on Highway 77, and I saw a huge billboard: CIGARETTES CHEAP

I immediately started thinking about what the real message was behind that sign, and I wondered how it related to people's health.

Here we had an agricultural product that has been the cause of millions of Americans getting lung cancer and dying prematurely. Here we had a product that has been proven over and over again to be a deadly killer of Americans. Here we had a product that has been shown to be extremely addicting because of the nicotine it contains, resulting in millions of Americans being addicted to this "chemical drug" found in cigarettes.

Sadly, the billboard was somehow overlooking all of those extremely harmful negative effects and trying to promote cigarettes on the basis that they were "cheap." In other words, it was saying something like this: "Stop and buy our cigarettes because they're cheap. Don't worry about the fact that they will make you addicted to nicotine, and that they will cause cancer to start taking over your lungs and kill you prematurely. We want you to buy our cigarettes because they're cheap. We sell them to you cheaper than anyone else. We will save you money, so buy them from us."

The billboard message is also communicating the message that to lose your health is cheap. Getting lung cancer and mouth cancer is cheap. Your health isn't really worth much because you are willing to give it up in order to smoke our cheap health-destroying cigarettes.

If you simply replace the word "cigarettes" with another word that represents what cigarettes are symbolic of, you will see what the true message behind the billboard is. For example, "Lung Cancer Cheap," or "Premature Death Cheap," or "Incurable Physical Health Problems Cheap," or "Expensive Health-Destroying Addiction Cheap." This is basically what the message is behind the billboard words, "Cigarettes Cheap."

Now, let's take a minute and think about how this billboard's message relates to health. If you asked most people, they would tell you that they value their health. Unfortunately, most people really don't value it enough until after they've already lost it.

This billboard makes me wonder why people buy cheap food that is unhealthy, loaded with bleached refined processed flour, sugar, fat, and salt, and filled with preservatives and toxic additives like aspartame, high-fructose corn syrup, and MSG. Why do people spend their hard-earned money to buy highly processed supermarket food that is not good for their bodies? Why do people spend money on unhealthy and addictive junk food and fast food that makes them fat, destroys their bodies, and loads their systems with dangerous and harmful toxins that cause all kinds of physical health problems? Why do people shop for the lowest priced items like white bread, or refined sugar, or white flour, or soda?

I'm sure there are many reasons for this kind of behavior that include the way that they were raised, what they have been taught, what they have been modeled by their parents and friends, and what they have been misled to believe by the advertising lies of the food manufacturers. There's still one more important reason...

I believe one of the biggest reasons why so many Americans buy and eat unhealthy food day after day - is because it is CHEAP. In other words, what they buy and put into their bodies is determined by the cost of the food. The cheaper the food, the more of it they will buy. The more costly the food, the less of it they will buy. That is to say, that their buying and eating decisions are based primarily on the cost of the food. The billboard that most Americans are paying attention to says something like this: "FOOD CHEAP."

Now, what exactly does that billboard message "Food Cheap" communicate? The message is that as long as the food is "cheap," then you should buy it. Your buying decisions should not be based on true nutritional value of the food, but rather on the cost of the food. This means that food manufacturers can focus on producing the cheapest "foods" possible because there are millions of Americans that will buy them just because they're cheap.

What's the deeper, unspoken message in the billboard, "Food Cheap?" It would have to be that your health is cheap, therefore buy unhealthy food. To put it another way, since you place no true value on your health, we will make it easy for you to buy our products for the simple fact that they are cheap. The real meaning of the sign could be rewritten to this: "Cheap Extremely Unhealthy Food That Will Destroy Your Health & Cause You To Die Prematurely."

Let's do a little comparison. "Food Cheap" versus "Food Expensive." "Unhealthy Sickness-causing Food Cheap" versus "Nutritious Health-promoting Food Costly." Or better yet, let's look at the overall long-term costs of cheap food. "Health-destroying Sickness-causing Unhealthy Food Cheap Now But Will Cost You Years of Doctor & Hospital & Pharmacist Bills and Eventually Your Life" versus "Nutritious Health-promoting More Expensive Food Now But Will Not Cost Your Life or Future Health Bills Later." When you look at it from this perspective, you will see that there really isn't any "cheap food" for people to buy. It may seem "cheap" when they buy it, but in the long run it will cost them much much more when they spend untold thousands of dollars on doctor bills, hospital bills, surgery bills, pharmacy bills, lost wages from work, etc.

Daily Quotes: "Up to 90% of deaths annually are self-inflicted by unhealthy lifestyle!" - Paul Bragg

"A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings!" - Hippocrates, Father of Medicine 400 BC

Replacing Bad Foods with Healthy Alternatives is Key to Eating Healthy & Good Nutrition

I have a sense that some of you were overwhelmed by my list of 20 things never to eat. That list is not simply my opinion, but rather it is backed up by lots of research and scientific evidence. If you don't believe me, then I encourage you to do your own research on each one of the 20 things to avoid. I promise that you'll find ample evidence to support the fact that these 20 "foods" are very unhealthy and damaging to your health.

So, where do we go from here? Begin by replacing each of the "bad food" items with a healthy natural good nutrition alternative. You may not know of any good alternatives, which is the purpose of today's posting. I want to share with you alternatives for you to replace the processed foods with natural unprocessed foods. Following these recommendations is one of the keys to eating healthy. Are you ready? Here we go...

MEATS - Replace the unhealthy meats (pork, deli luncheon meats, shellfish, fish without fins & scales, and farm-raised fish) with healthy meats including: wild deep-water ocean fish that have scales and fins, organic natural-fed kosher lamb, beef, turkey, and chicken, in moderation. Look for good sources of these healthy meats in your area.

SWEETENERS - Replace unhealthy artificial sweeteners (aspartame, Nutrasweet, sucrulose, Splenda, Saacharin, white sugar, high-fructose corn syrup) with these healthy alternatives: stevia, raw organic unheated unfiltered honey, raw agave nectar, or organic raw-evaporated sugar cane juice from the health food store.

SALT - Replace refined & processed table salt (sodium chloride) with a full-spectrum natural unprocessed hand-mined salt such as: Himalayan Krystal salt. It has 74 essential minerals and trace elements that harmonize with your bones and enzymes. On the other hand, table salt contains only 2 things: sodium and chloride. I strongly encourage you to go on-line and research this for yourself. You can find quite a few good companies on the internet that are selling Himalayan crystal salt, sometimes called pink salt. It is much healthier than even sea salt, which today is subject to increasing environmental pollution. My family and I love our Himalayan Krystal salt because it not only tastes great, but it also is continually replacing minerals and trace elements that our bodies use and need every day to function properly.

OILS - Replace the highly processed and man-made oils and fats (hydrogenated oils, trans fat, Canola oil, margarine, shortening, Crisco, cottonseed oil, palm oil, Olestra, Olean) with these very healthy alternative oils: extra virgin olive oil, extra virgin coconut oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, avocado oil, and raw butter. These natural nutritious oils and fats are healthy in moderation and will provide your body with the good kinds of oil it needs.

DAIRY PRODUCTS - Replace all milk and dairy products made from pasteurized and homogenized milk with these healthy alternatives: unpasteurized & unhomogenized RAW milk and dairy products made with raw milk such as raw cheese, raw butter, raw yogurt, raw kefir, raw cream, etc. Do a little research and find a place where you can buy these raw milk products.

REFINED & PROCESSED FLOURS, GRAINS, AND RICE - Replace all bleached white refined flours, bleached white grains and rice, with the following: unprocessed organic whole wheat grains, unrefined organic 100% whole wheat flour, organic 100% whole buckwheat flour, organic whole corn flour and corn meal, and organic unprocessed brown rice.

FAST FOOD & JUNK FOOD - Replace fast food and deep-fried foods with healthier alternatives including: home cooked meals, home made sandwiches, salads, etc. And replace all junk food and food labeled as "fat free" or "sugar free" or "low carb" or "diet," all of which are loaded with artificial sweeteners, fats, MSG, and other bad preservatives with the following healthy choices: fresh fruits, fresh berries, fresh greens and vegetables, raw carrots, raw nuts, raw seeds, organic non-GMO popcorn, celery and raw peanut butter, etc.

SODAS, DIET SODAS, CANNED JUICES AND BOTTLED JUICES, & TAP WATER - Replace these very unhealthy drinks with the following healthy alternatives: natural spring water, Artesian well water, fresh organic fruit and vegetable juices that you make yourself with a juicer, and home-made herb tea and iced-tea.

MICROWAVED FOOD - Replace all microwaved food with food that you heat up the old-fashioned way on the stove, in the toaster oven, or in a convection oven.

FLUORIDE TOOTHPASTE - Replace this toxic chemical found in your toothpaste (and tap water) with toothpastes that are made with healthy all-natural ingredients and do not contain any fluoride. You can find a whole assortment of fluoride-free toothpastes at your local health food store.

In SUMMARY, there are a lot of very healthy and nutritious alternatives out there for you to choose from during the painful process of eliminating the bad "foods" from your diet. The good news is that after a while, you will no longer miss those unhealthy "foods," and you will begin to actually crave live whole foods that are super healthy for your body. Remember, it's a process. Don't try to eliminate everything overnight. Start with eliminating 1 or 2 things at a time and replacing them with healthy nutritious alternatives. Over the course of a few months, you will be able to eliminate over 90% of the bad "foods" and replace them with truly good foods that will make you feel much better and help your body function at its peak performance. By the way, feel free to post any questions you might have, and I will try to answer them in future postings.

Daily Quote: "Eat to live, and not live to eat. Many dishes, many ailments." - Ben Franklin