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The absence of any of the Health Essentials I will list can have a detrimental effect on your overall health. Some are more important that others.

What would you say the one thing that is most essential for your health?

If you said good quality food you were wrong. Most of us could survive 30 to 60 days without food. I have watched the progress of a man on a hunger strike who went over 60 days before he died of starvation.

If you said water you are getting closer. Most of us can hang in there for over 4 days without water.

You probably figured it our by now. The most important Nutritional need is Air. Most of us would have a hard time lasting more than 4 minutes without air.

The air we breathe needs to be clean. Our bodies were designed to handle a limited amount of naturally occurring pollutants in a given day. If we are assaulted by more than we were designed to handle our bodies will become overworked and could exhibit adverse symptoms.

If you live where air pollution is common or work in an environment that is polluted you should consider moving or changing jobs. The short term financial benefit to living or working in a polluted environment is not worth the long term health risks.

Note:

An individual, suffering from protein poisoning, will be far more sensitive to even normal, natural, pollutants.

Indoor air can be more polluted that the outside air. Many of us need an air purifier to clean the air. I plan to give you more information on this subject later.

There are many diseases that are related to air pollution. There are many more that are aggravated by it.

Smoking is an obvious source of toxic pollutants. A person who has clean lungs will have a violent reaction when smoke is introduced into their lungs. When you smoked your first cigarette (unless you were raised around smokers) your body told you that it did not like what you were doing. After a while it was able to tolerate the smoke. toleration, is no indicator of whether you are being harmed or not.

Temperature Maintenance

We need to maintain our body temperature. It should be obvious that we need to maintain our body temperature. If you have ever spent too much time in cold conditions without adequate clothing you know what can happen if you get too cold.

It can bring on the cleansing symptoms of a fever or a cold. Or if you get too cold it can kill.

On the other hand too much heat can kill as well. When our bodies bring on a fever as a body cleansing measure any interference can kill. Our bodies know how to maintain body temperature. Very few people actually die from a fever. Many die from the heroic measures used to lower a fever.

We need to be very careful what we do to lower a fever. It should be helpful to understand that a fever is a body instituted event designed to speed up the elimination of toxic substances from the body. If your body is not overloaded with toxic substances it is not likely that you will experience a fever.

Pure water

Pure water is an important essential to health.

We need to replace all the water we lose each day with pure water.

Some of the best sources of pure water are raw fruits and vegetables. Distilled water is a good option for many who need a little extra. There are other purifying processes that remove the toxins and inorganic minerals from the water.

If you need more water that you get from raw fruit and vegetables, you need to reject coffee, tea, soda, bear, and all other beverages other that pure water.

Your body uses water to transport nutrients into your body and toxins out.

The water in fruits and vegetables is loaded with good nutrition. The beverages that are available are loaded with toxins that interfere with your body in some way.

If the water you drink is already polluted with toxins, and negative nutrition, your body will have a hard time dumping the toxins, and dead cell debris, it is trying to get rid of.

Most municipal water system have chlorine and fluoride added to the water. Both are toxic. Chlorine kills the friendly bacteria and enzymes in our digestive system so even if you get enough to eat you will be malnourished. Fluoride makes the teeth brittle so they brake easier and it is very toxic.

Food

An adequate supply of living food is needed to promote a high degree of health. If your food supply consists of primarily dead (cooked and processed) foods it will be hard for your body to stay healthy.

We were designed for a specific diet. According to Genesis 1:29, that diet is raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

It has been proven that the enzymes in Living food have a lot to do with our state of health. There are many books on this subject. One I like is “Enzyme Nutrition” by Dr. Edward Howell, available from Hallelujah Acres.

Sunshine

Like the plants we eat, we need Sunlight. One reason I recommend walking outdoors for exercise is that we need sunlight on our skin and eyes to produce vitamin D. No, Cows milk is not a good source of vitamin D. The vitamin D added to cows mild is not the same as the Vitamin D our bodies produce. Pasteurization makes it useless.

It is amazing low little skin surface area, exposed to the sun, will give us all the vitamin D we need. Also our bodies store enough vitamin D to keep us going for several days. So if you are not able to get out every day it is not a problem.

Exercise

Without exercise we slowly lose our muscle mass and become unable to function. The older we get the faster we lose muscle if we remain inactive. We were designed to be in motion for at least part of every day.

Our people are becoming more and more sedentary. Our lifestyles are a prescription for poor health. There is a lesson devoted to this subject.

Sleep

The cleaner your body is on the inside the less sleep you need to restore energy. However we all need sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep you will not be able to perform as well, and your health will suffer.

We recharge our nerve energy while we sleep. Also, during sleep we do the bulk of body repair and toxin removal. So, adequate sleep is a must.

The amount of time you need depends on your state of health. If your are clean inside you may be able to get by with 6 hours of quality sleep. If you are toxic inside your may need 10 or more hours per day.

It has been proven that a short nap in the middle of the day can reduce the amount of sleep you need at night.

Assurance of Life and its means

We need to feel safe. We need to be assured that we will have a safe environment to live in. We need to be assured that we will have enough to eat. If we live in fear, even if all other needs are met, we can develop disease.

Cleanliness

It has been said that “cleanliness is next to godliness”. Well our bodies dump some of the toxins we need to get rid of through our skin. Regular cleaning of the skin helps the body by removing the food bacteria need to multiply, thus reducing the potential odor you could have. Cleanliness in our environment has been of far more value in the fight against disease than all the drugs ever created.

Creative useful work

A lack of creative, useful, work can lead to all sorts of things that effect our overall health.

Other people

We were created gregarious. That means that we were designed to need interaction with other people. Interaction with animals can be a good substitute. However it is not the same. We need positive, nurturing, relationships.

Emotional Poise

Perhaps our most important non physical need is emotional poise. This is where our spiritual health fits into the picture. It effects all other parts of our life and lifestyle. It is my opinion that it is hard to have a high degree of emotional poise if we don’t have a close relationship with our creator.

We were created for the specific purpose of communing with God and serving our fellow man. When we are out of fellowship with our creator we lack a significant key to exceptional health. If we only serve ourselves we can become very lonely and unfulfilled.

Concluding Thoughts

This course has never been meant to be the final authority in the field of health. It was meant to spark your interest in further study. To give you a springboard to a brighter future. Through our forum, Chatroom and links to other materials we seek to guide you into a state of health you may have never thought possible.

Hallelujah Acres has courses and books to further your knowledge of what it takes to live in a high state of health.

Charles Snyder is a Health Minister who teaches on the subject of health. This is one of the lessons in his health course. He will cover each of these items in more detail in future articles. You can contact him through his web site.

arthritis-back-knee-pain-free-health-restored.com/ arthritis-back-knee-pain-free-health-restored.com/

On that site you will find information on the subject of health and his story of how he overcame arthritis.

Exercise is recommended for just about everyone, and if you suffer from high blood pressure it is no different. Exercising and maintaining a healthy lifestyle overall can, in fact, help you reduce your high blood pressure and prevent heart disease and other common ailments associated with high blood pressure. However, there are a few special considerations to remember when you are exercising if you have high blood pressure and, as always, check with your doctor before starting any new exercising program or routine.

Before you begin a new exercising program, check your blood pressure at a doctor’s office or hospital regularly. If your numbers are consistently 180/110 mm Hg or higher, you should take steps to reduce this to a more normal level before doing any kind of intense exercise or training. The same is true if your blood pressure is moderately high but you suffer from other conditions, such as diabetes or breathing problems. However, even at this point, you can begin an exercise program by simply doing less-intense motor activities such as walking.

Once you have your blood pressure more under control, your goal should be about 30 minutes of physical activity for five days out of the week. This means that you should break a sweat and be slightly out of breath, but there is no need to overdo it.

There are, however, certain activities that people with high blood pressure should avoid in order to reduce the risk of worsening the condition. Lifting weights is the most popular example. Because this is very stressful on the heart, if you have high blood pressure, weight training is discouraged.

Highly intensive cardiovascular workouts are also not good for people with high blood pressure, as blood pressure levels rise significantly after very difficult physical strains on your body, and these higher levels could be very dangerous in someone who already has high blood pressure. A good rule of thumb is to simply know your own body. Push yourself in your training, but don’t overdo it.

Yoga and other Eastern slow-movement exercise routines are especially useful for people with high blood pressure, as they tend to work the body in a more heart-friendly way. Warm up and cool down for these, as well as any exercise program is very important. While you may primarily think of warm up and cool down times as preventative measures you take to avoid cramps and injuries, remember that the heart is a muscle too. By warming up and cooling down, you slowly raise and lower your blood pressure, rather than causing dangerous spikes.

There is almost no one in the world who cannot benefit from moderate exercise. If you get little or no exercise currently, speak to you doctor about finding a routine that is right for you.

Over time, exercise cannot only help you lower your weight and cholesterol, but also your blood pressure. Exercise promotes a healthy lifestyle in general, and so by choosing a program that fits your needs you can live longer and be more healthy than you have ever been before.

Grab your free copy of Paul Johnson’s free natural-blood-pressure-reduction.com/?source=ez Blood Pressure Reduction newsletter – Overflowing with easy to implement methods to help you discover more ways to find relief from natural-blood-pressure-reduction.com/bloodpressure.html?source=ez” target=”_blank High Blood Pressure Symptoms and tackle the natural-blood-pressure-reduction.com/blog/2006/10/03/exercising-vs-high-blood-pressure/ causes of high blood pressure naturally.

With LA fitness now being a global brand their LA weight loss centers are not far behind. With television commercials and the website both boasting great success for some. Here we review the la weight loss diet.

What is the LA weight loss diet

The LA weight loss centers were established in 1984 and are owned and run by LA fitness. They combine their fitness centers with a weight loss program to incorporate a new lifestyle for their customers.

So successful is the LA weight loss program that they are able to open new weight loss centers in their own right. Combining fitness and weight loss in this way makes this a viable diet to explore.

What happens at the LA weight loss center

First you are given an appointment with an LA weight loss councilor. There you’ll discuss your goals, what the diet entails and what it can do for you.

You are advised what you can eat in terms of protein, vegetables, fruits etc. plus there are the “LA Lite” bars. These are soy protein snacks that you purchase from the center as part of the plan. You are also given a chart of allowable foods as part of the plan, a fitness program and a schedule to meet with a councilor 3 times a week.

The LA weight loss program guarantees results

For their part of the plan they’ll guarantee you’ll reach your weight loss goal and they put this in writing to you. This sounds very good but the program is very rigid and if you stray once you void the guarantee since the guarantee is dependant on you following the program.

On a positive side the fitness program is group based and can be a good source of support as there are other dieters there with you. Having the councilors at the fitness center makes the plan convenient for time and travel purposes. But meeting 3 times a week is still alot for some.

The LA weight loss diet overall

The councilors you meet are payed using commission based on the “LA lite” nutrition bars they sell you. So these expensive extras are heavily promoted. These bars are snacks and yet form part of the program and guarantee so you’re locked into buying them.

The LA weight loss diet is basically an expensive calorie controlled diet with exercise thrown in. This is something you could do for yourself at a fraction of the cost. However if you have money to burn and you need someone to nag you 3 times a week, then it really could be for you. People have had success with it but we think, overall, if you’re on a tight budget then we’d recommend you spending your dieting dollars elsewhere.

By Simon Gould. Taken from fitnessbegin.com fitnessbegin.com – the wellbeing resource

The aspiration of women in many from all over the world, especially in those that are more westernized, to be thin, skinny, and slender is evident and visible in everyday life. This drive and desire is fed by the many television programs, magazines, weight loss advertisements and programs that portray an ideal figure and image that women should align themselves with and live up to. The injurious effects of this never ending talk of pounds, ounces and kilograms is clear when you hear of the world’s latest generations of girls are suffering and growing up with eating disorders.

Many different types of eating disorders exist, such as, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, overeating, but some of the common denominators in the cause of most includes; emotional insecurity, lack of identity, low self-esteem or self-worth, the feeling/perception of ‘not being good enough’ and anxiety. The question that should be asked in relation to why such eating disorders occur, is what is creating or perpetuating the causes for these eating disorders, or for example, what is creating or perpetuating the feeling in girls that they are not good enough, enough for them to stop eating.

It can be a harmful act of power to go against ones biological need, to continually refuse food when you are hungry and your stomach is churning. However, this act of power is often all that many women and girls with eating disorders feel they have in their possession, or are able to express. The idea or behavior that starving oneself is a positive act of power, rather than a negative one is made visible in the perpetuation of eating disorders, an idea in which to affect women all across the globe in such large proportions has obviously been created by some very influential cultural forces, rather than by some individual girls own feelings. It is evident, when you observe television programs, magazines and film clips that these influential cultural forces, ones that most people in western nations are exposed to on a daily basis, project images of how women should look, feel, dress, behave and of course eat. Sex appeal and attractiveness is an intelligent and influential marketing strategy that is used to increase product and program popularity among consumers, but the messages that are being communicated to audiences must be considered.

It’s quite easy to blame individuals who suffer from eating disorders for their own problems, but what people should understand is the problem often does not lie with the individual or their life style. It often lies with the popular culture expressed through the media and what individuals are constantly exposed to. Women and young girls are being desensitised to images of unnaturaly skinny models in the media, and those images then become accepted and normalised to a standard that expresses what all women should look like to be considered attractive, harmful standards that many try and live up to in order to feel ‘normal’ and accepted in society. What many film clips, magazines, advertisements and movies fail to portray, is the complex and unique dimensions that make up a woman, and instead, concentrate on appearance and sex appeal rather than the originality of spirit.

The over simplified representation of women in the media as sexual objects or products has reduced them to conventional artefacts that exist to look beautiful, thin and sexy for the outside world to look upon. It is the dominant cultural forces of today that create and perpetuate the causes for eating disorders in women and young girls, where women are constantly being typecast into a sexual role by the media, and this is harmful to the thought patterns of viewers and consumers of all ages, because it suggests that a woman’s value lies only in her sex appeal. The average woman is not a size six or six foot tall. What people are seeing is the finished product, a creation, of what the media portrays a woman should look and behave like, rather than the image of a ‘real’, ‘everyday’ woman. The type of sexual attractiveness used in media and advertising is conveying the wrong messages to people around the world. It is casting a sexual mould for women to be set in, and conveys that a woman’s worth is valued only in her sex appeal.

These negative messages are creating insecurities, lack of identity, low self-esteem, and a feeling of ‘not being good enough’ in women right from a young age, messages that need to be challenged, ignored and changed in order to combat their power in perpetuating eating disorders around the world. Women and young girls need to be taken out of the exposure of harmful messages, and be opened up to positive, encouraging and true messages that state how women and girls are beautiful because they are beautiful, that they are good enough, because they are good enough, and that they are worth more than they could ever imagine.

This article has been supplied courtesy of Ray Darken. Ray often writes and works closely with

So what is how to prevent acne really all about? The following report includes some fascinating information about how to prevent acne–info you can use, not just the old stuff they used to tell you.

How to prevent acne is one of those irked questions people have been asking themselves since the beginning of time. The first humans to walk the earth undoubtedly marveled at the sun and stars, wondered why they were here, what greater purpose there was to their lives, thinking of how to prevent acne once and for all. Today, we still wonder the same things, and its clear we haven’t really made many advances toward finding a cure for acne.

There are many different theories out there on how to prevent acne, and while I suspect that most of them are nothing more than just theory, none of them works completely for everyone. The theories on how to prevent acne seem to fall in three different categories; diet, stress, and skin care. Of all the different ideas on how to prevent acne, the ones based on changing your diet seems to be the biggest myth to me. It doesn’t seem to matter even in the slightest what I am eating, and I do eat everything, because I love my mouth.

I could be eating nothing but the finest, healthiest foods, and still get massive outbreaks, even when I am on a strict diet. Stress and skin care are much better areas to focus on in acne prevention, from what I have learnt and experienced. Learning how to prevent acne has been a process Ive been mastering since I was a teenager. Over the years I’ve come to realize one sorry and unfortunate fact; acne seems to be impossible to prevent or cure completely. While I can usually prevent somewhere in the vicinity of 90% of the acne I would normally get, that still leaves a fairly significant proportion of acne that gets through.

Even though there isn’t a direct connection between staying active and exercising a lot, such measures are proven to lower stress and so indirectly are very great methods to prevent acne. Exercise seems to be the best way to prevent everything bad in life, doesn’t it? You are not only preventing acne in a roundabout way, but you are also preventing all kinds of cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, while boosting your body’s ability to fight off many more common diseases as well. Incidentally, many of these diseases also seem to have a stress component to them. Skin care is getting the most attention as a way to prevent acne, and probably for many good reasons.

Using just an acne face wash and a simple acne body wash every day does indeed seem to go a long way to reducing my outbreaks. From what I have seen, I think stress is underestimated as a cause of acne. Of all the theories I’ve examined on how to prevent acne, the one theory that deals with lowering stress levels are the most effective for me in the long run.

Alexander Marlin

Having suffered from acne for years has finally made a site showing you

There are so many good ways to get fit and maintain good health through exercise and no one method works for everybody. That’s why it’s good to have a choice of fitness methods to use. One home fitness exercise that has been gaining in popularity in recent years is pilates. A lot of people have heard of pilates but don’t really know much about it though.

Essentially, the pilates exercise system is named after it’s founder Joseph Pilates, who suffered from several childhood sicknesses and so worked constantly on strengthening his body and improving health through exercise. He developed a system of low impact isometric movements that emphasize strength and grace of body movement. It’s a completely different approach to fitness exercise than used by most people today.

Pilates does not emphasize many repetitions of a particular exercise. Instead the quality of the movement is more important. Emphasis is also placed on the mind/body connection as the movements are carried out as well, and attention is paid to correct breathing practices to help the exerciser stay in a relaxed and controlled state of mind.

Many pilates exercises focus on what is called the core of the body made up by the stomach and back. Joseph pilates believed that if the core of the body was strong it would prevent many common injuries. For this reason, pilates is often used by people who suffer from some sort of back pain, as that can be triggered and sustained by weaknesses and imbalance in the core muscles of the body.

Interestingly enough though, pilates is a very gentle and low impact method exercise and so even those in poor health can often improve their strength and stamina using the gentle pilates exercise system. It’s always good to have your doctor approve any exercise routine in which you might engage, but many doctors are very favorably inclined toward the use of pilates for their patients.

Another great advantage of pilates exercises is that they don’t take long to do. Since the quality of the body movements are more important than simple repetitions, many pilates exercises routines can be accomplished in 10-15 minutes right at home. This works very well for many busy, on-the-go people today who are also concerned about maintaining good health.

So if you are thinking about starting a new exercise routine, or just want to add to the one you already have, give pilates a good look and see if it can help you get fit and stay in shape.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including fitness. You can find homefitnessconsumerreview.com/pilates-exercise.html free pilates exercises and learn about homefitnessconsumerreview.com/index.html pilates sample exercises by visiting our Home Fitness website.

A high blood cholesterol level has been linked to one of the leading causes of deaths in the United States – high attacks. Even seemingly healthy adults, both men and women, can fall victim to this deadly disease if left unchecked.

Cholesterol forms fatty plaques in the arteries that ultimately lead to the obstruction of normal blood flow to the heart. When this happens, a heart attack or some other form of cardiovascular disease can inevitably be in the offing.

There are many reasons why a heart disease develops. Some of these may include a high blood cholesterol level, sex (generally, men are more predisposed to cardiovascular diseases than women), age (older people are more prone to developing heart diseases) and an unhealthy lifestyle. While you cannot do anything with some of these factors (like sex and age, for example), you can definitely make some lifestyle changes to minimize your chances of catching these life threatening diseases. Here are some surefire ways to help you live up to a hundred!

Eat healthy – The American Heart Association has formulated a dietary guideline designed to prevent the development of cardiovascular diseases. The daily total allowable fat, cholesterol and protein intakes should not exceed the figures specified in the guidelines for maximum protection.

The guideline likewise specifies that complex carbohydrates should constitute a large portion of a person’s diet (preferably more than 50% of the daily calorie intake) while keeping sodium intake to no more than 3 grams per day. Alcohol intake should also be limited to one or two ounces per day.

Adopt a healthier lifestyle. To prevent cardiovascular diseases from catching you and your family unaware, it would be best to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Here are some tips that may just give you a new lease on life:

•Get moving! What would be wiser than starting a regular aerobic exercise routine? Exercise can bring you tons of benefits. It can help you keep off excess weight and maintain your cholesterol level at a safe level. A 30 to 45 minute routine performed 5 days per week can help you achieve your goals. Just be sure that you choose an activity that accelerates your heart rate and keep it up for about 20 minutes. After some months of regular exercise, you will be ecstatic to find out that your LDL (also known as the “bad cholesterol”) to HDL (the “good cholesterol”) ratio is tipped to a favorable balance!

•Throw your cigarettes in the waste bin! Smoking elevates your LDL levels so start quitting right now!

•Avoid “yo-yo” dieting. Losing weight and gaining it back repeatedly may cause your cholesterol level to rise.

•Understand that there is no miracle cures for your cholesterol problem. One week, the focus was all on rice bran. The following week, oat bran and fish oil took the center stage. While it is the American way to constantly look for shortcuts, there simply are no magic or miracle cures when it comes to your health. So, be extremely cautious whenever someone recommends these miracle cures to solve your cholesterol problem.

•Institute good lifestyle habits for the whole family – You heard it right. You need to have your whole family adopt a healthier lifestyle. Even if a certain member of your family has a low risk of developing a heart disease, it doesn’t mean that he or she is excused from this healthy change.

Understand that the risks increase as one ages. So, it would be wiser to adopt good habits while it is not yet too late. Remember that it is better to be safe than sorry!

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to cholesterol-guided.com/ Cholesterol

If you’re not sure what a paraliminal CD is or how it can help you with weight loss, then here’s a brief overview:

A paraliminal CD is very carefully crafted. It is designed to confuse your conscious mind by reading two different stories simultaneously. One story for each of your ears. It follows that it is best to listen to a paraliminal weight loss CD on headphones.

The stories talk directly to your subconscious mind. They are surprisingly easy to listen to. Despite the different messages being played to you, you’ll find that your mind will likely “tune in” to just one of the stories at any given time. Oftentimes, it will seem like a brand new experience even when you play the same CD for a subsequent time. That’s because your mind will be consciously listening to a different part of the story.

So how can paraliminal CDs help you to lose weight?

They help reprogram your mind so that you no longer experience the yo-yo effect that so many traditional diets bring with them. If you’re currently on a diet, whether it’s Weight Watchers or another program, then listening to a paraliminal CD will help reinforce the weight loss program.

By getting your subconscious mind on track, listening to a paraliminal weight loss CD on a regular basis will make your weight loss much easier to achieve. You won’t get instant results (after all, it took you a while to add the pounds in the first place) but by following a regular listening program, you’ll start to notice the pounds drop away.

Find out more about personaldevelopmentreviews.org/index.php/2007/04/08/paraliminal-cds/ paraliminal CDs and how they can help you with your weight loss at personaldevelopmentreviews.org/index.php/2007/04/08/paraliminal-cds personaldevelopmentreviews.org/index.php/2007/04/08/paraliminal-cds

I was out recently with some friends and we stopped at a fast food joint. I hate fast food joints, but sometimes everybody else wants to go there, so you just have to make the best of it and find something at least somewhat healthy. If you’re forced to eat fast-food, here’s a tip to make sure that you’re not doing much damage to your body…ALWAYS AVOID the soda and anything deep fried including french fries, hash browns, and anything breaded like chicken nuggets, chicken patties, or breaded fish sandwiches. These are all absolutely soaked in deadly trans fats from the industrial hydrogenated vegetable oils they use to fry all of these items.

Remember, as I’ve said before, I’ve seen studies indicating that as little as 1 gram of trans fat per day can have serious degenerative internal effects in your body such as inflammation, clogging and hardening of the arteries, heart disease, various forms of cancer…not to mention packing on the ab flab. That’s as little as 1 gram! Consider that a typical fast-food meal of a breaded chicken sandwich (or fish sandwich), along with an order of fries can contain as much as 10 grams of trans fat! Add on a cookie or small piece of pie for dessert (which are usually made with deadly margarine or shortening), and now you’re up to about 13 grams of trans fat with that entire meal. If 1 gram a day is slowly killing you, imagine what 13 grams is doing! And that was only one meal that you ate. Some people are consuming 20-30 grams of trans fat per day, and not even realizing what they’re doing to themselves internally. Please realize that nobody, I mean NOBODY, is looking out for your health, except for YOU.

Anyway, back to the topic of how to avoid this stuff and eat a reasonably healthy meal on the rare occasion that you’re forced to eat fast-food. As for drinks, avoid the sodas…they’re nothing but heavily processed high fructose corn syrup which will surely end up as extra belly fat. Water is always the best drink, but if you need something with flavor, try unsweetened or lightly sweetened iced tea. At breakfast, the best choice is an egg, ham, and cheese on an english muffin (not on a croissant, which is full of nasty trans!), or a fruit & nut salad. At lunch or dinner, the best choices are a grilled chicken sandwich, the chili, a grilled chicken salad without croutons (again…croutons = more trans), or even just a plain cheeseburger. The main take-away point from this little fast-food article is that the nastiest stuff at these fast food joints are the sodas and fries, and any other deep fried items.

For any of you that have seen the movie “Super-Size Me”, you saw how eating fast food every day absolutely destroyed that guy’s health, but did you happen to notice the one guy that was the king of eating big macs (or some kind of burger)? I don’t remember what kind of burger it was, but basically this guy has eaten these fast food burgers almost every day of his life for the past 30 years or something like that. Did you notice that he stated that he almost never eats the fries or soda, even though he eats the burgers every day? And he’s not necessarily overweight. Now I’m not saying that fast-food burgers made with their refined white bread and low quality beef and cheese are the healthiest thing, but the point is…it’s the fries and sodas that are the real health disaster.

Alright, so next time you’re out at one of these places, remember these tips and choose smart!

By the way, if you haven’t heard yet, McD’s is adding a nutrition label to all of their food wrappers beginning in 2006. Remember that as little as one gram of trans may cause some internal harm and now you can actually see how many grams of trans fat you’re eating right on the food wrapper. That might change your mind about finishing it!

Visit truthaboutabs.com/Training-and-Nutrition-Articles.html truthaboutabs.com/Training-and-Nutrition-Articles.html to receive your own personalized metabolic rate calculator as well as 5 of my secret hard-body workout routines – both FREE, with no purchase necessary.

Michael Geary is a nationally dual certified personal trainer (NCSF-CPT, AFAA-CPT), and author of “The Truth about Six Pack Abs” ©2004-2005.

We are often told: for better health we should eat 5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily. The reasons for this are convincing enough, better health, anti-aging, improved fitness and a host of others, but like anything else we need to know just how to a fruit and vegetable diet, staying on it and making it fun and not boring.

Many factors do determine one’s success at eating such a diet that involves a high amount of fruits and vegetables and being the very basis of the dietetic lifestyle emphasized in the drugless fraternity, let’s go over the proper methods applicable based on years of research and experience on just how to eat these substances for optimal health.

Fruit and Vegetable Diet: How to eat your Fruits

1. First eat whatever is in season till you are satisfied. Wait ten minutes and treat yourself to 7-10 medium sized dates, wait 10 minutes and eat a stalk of celery or a leaf or 2 of plain lettuce.

2. Try to stay calm and immobile as much as possible after eating sitting upright for 10-15 minutes. (Although laughter does aid with digestion, of course when undertaken in moderation)

3. Do not eat acid fruits except for tomatoes after 2 pm on any occasion, not even their juices. They are best assimilated in the earlier part of the day.

4. Wash all fruits thoroughly (plain dishwashing liquid may suffice) but be careful to not have them sitting in the soapy water so long as to absorb the suds, wash briskly and rinse right away. Then immerse or soak in drinking water to ensure that you don’t consume tap water. Of course this is not necessary for bananas.

5. Do not store fruits in the fridge or where they are covered, let them breathe as much as possible.

6. Limit yourself to 5 oranges a day, if need be for that many and let your taste buds judge for you.

Fruit and Vegetable Diet: How to eat your Vegetables

1. Rinse your leafy vegetables under cold running water and re rinse with drinking water.

2. Don’t use soap to wash them because by nature they will absorb the suds which you might end up ingesting.

3. Store them in a clean plastic bag that you should pick up from the stores where you purchase them fresh.

4. Leave a little breathing space for the leaves by not sealing the bag shut.

5. Keep them in the fridge and pull out say 20-30 minutes before use.

6. For root vegetables all needed is the brief rinse and peeling before they are cooked in drinking water without salt.

7. Vegetables are best saved for night times, although they are powerful cleansers, they are not as proactive as fruit and thus would give you a much calmer sleep, not unless you have done a fast of a few to several days and are breaking it with fruit.

8. Try to consume leafy veggies within 5-7 days after purchasing them from the store.

In adhering to the suggestions listed above and with a wise combination of this dietetic lifestyle, proper exercise and mental attunements, you are well on your way to achieving bountiful health, improved fitness and longevity.

Foras Aje is an independent health researcher and founder of Bodyhealthsoul.com. He writes on bodyhealthsoul.com/index.html Healthy Weight Loss Tips and invites you to stop by his site for up to date information on Natural Health and Wellness.