Sunday, October 19, 2008

Will a Good Diet Alone Make You Healthy?


Will a Good Diet Alone Make You Healthy?

Many raw fooders, vegans and vegetarians seem to think that diet is the only thing that matters as a factor in having good health.

Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Yes, diet is extremely important since it's the stuff that we put into our bodies that will either feed and nourish our cells, or harm them and cause disease . And diet alone will go a long way towards helping your body to heal itself and grow strong again.

But there are other factors, too, that are often overlooked.

We've talked a little about most of them already, but they bear repeating because each of them is vital to our good health:
  • Exercise
  • Sunshine
  • Fresh Air
  • Pure Water
  • Proper Rest/Sleep
  • Managing Stress/Attitude
I remember being so inspired many years ago by James F. Fixx, the author of The complete Book of Running, that I began running myself. I hadn't been doing it for long when I was shocked to hear that he died while running.

Did that mean running was dangerous? My enthusiasm for running greatly diminished.

I really didn't know much about good health at the time, but since then I have wondered if there were other factors involved. I wondered what he ate, and if he got enough rest and sleep.

We now know that his cholesterol levels were above 250, and an autopsy revealed blockage in Fixx's three main arteries of 95%, 85% and 50%.

Clearly exercise alone isn't enough for good health.

On the other hand, many old farmers I've known lived a nice long time and were fairly healthy. They sure got lots of exercise with all their hard work, and while they ate animal products, apparently the exercise worked off a lot of it.

Of course, the animal products from 50 years ago and longer were not nearly as deadly as they are now. (More on this in another article.)

If you go for any length of time without proper rest and sleep, it will affect your desire and ability to exercise, you may make decisions, get sick more easily, and so on.

If you don't get enough sunshine, you will begin to feel depressed, which will of course affect every area of your life.

It's like the spokes of a wheel - all of the spokes are important to make that wheel go around smoothly.

I'll go into this more next time. Just remember that anywhere you start changing things for the better is a step in the right direction!

No comments: