I count myself lucky. My 40th birthday is long gone, and I don’t have any major health complaints. But I did notice that it takes me a lot longer to recover and bounce back from even a common cold. This displeases me. So I started looking into how to protect my lifelong health.
Does my slow convalescence herald my inevitable demise? The arrival of pain, discomfort, and embarrassing bodily occurrences?
Alarm bells imperceptibly tinkling in the distance, I set out to find out how I can prevent or at least delay my physical deterioration.
Preferably, through my favorite activity – eating.
How To Protect Your Lifelong Health With Food
When talking about food as medicine, it is important to remember you are not trying to replace medical treatments or legit medicine.
Instead, you are looking to enhance the existing treatments you might be already receiving. Or, if you’re thus far disease-free, you might possibly even prevent more serious diseases from progressing.
Just by changing your diet.
When you change what you eat, you change the balance of nutrients your body gets to work with.
If you aren’t eating well-balanced meals, you might be deficient in certain vitamins and minerals without realizing it, thus weakening your overall health.
This article is going to talk about certain types of diets and food choices for specific physical ailments.
Heart Health
Let’s start with the heart. You absolutely can improve and protect the lifelong health of your heart just by changing your diet.
Did you know that there are about 70 million people in the U.S. alone that have heart disease?
And that doesn’t even mention how many people in other parts of the world suffer from it.
But heart health goes beyond heart disease.
As well as protecting your heart from disease it’s critical to increase and maintain its strength, so that it may serve you longer and better.
With our sedentary lifestyle, it is common for people to neglect their cardiovascular health until a major problem occurs.
But by changing your diet now, you can arm yourself with effective preventative measures against further complications.
Simple Heart Health Diet Changes
To begin with, here are some basic guidelines for improving your heart health through your diet.
Get your healthy fats. People often consider all fats to be equal. But this is not the case! There are healthy and unhealthy fats. You want to avoid saturated fat and vegetable oils, but definitely enjoy some of the healthier fats. Healthy fats are in nuts and seeds, fatty fish, olive oil, and avocado. These fats are great for your heart health.
Enjoy whole grains. Whole grains contain essential B vitamins that your body needs to maintain good cardiovascular health. When choosing bread, pasta, and similar foods, go for the whole wheat or whole-grain varieties. Some healthy whole grains also include quinoa, brown rice, and sprouted grain bread.
Eat rainbow fruits and veggies. To get a variety of produce in your diet, which is important for heart health and so many other areas of your health, try to aim for different colors. This is the easiest way to get a good balance of nutrients.
Don’t skimp on the dark chocolate. Chocolate is not your enemy! You just want to be careful to choose the healthiest type of chocolate when it comes to heart health. Which means going for dark chocolate. This treat contains important nutrients, including antioxidants, which are great for your cardiovascular health.
Changes In Diet Can Protect the Lifelong Brain Health Too!
Believe it or not, you can improve and protect the lifelong health of your brain too. You can even reduce your risk for Alzheimer’s and stroke just by switching to a healthier diet.
But it’s important to remind you that this doesn’t mean you stop going to the doctor. However, it means being proactive and making sure you are getting all the right nutrients that feed your brain and help it to function its best.
Here are some general food tips that can help with your brain health and memory function.
Fill up on omega-3 fatty acids. Another good reason to eat more healthy fats with omega-3 fatty acids is for proper brain function. You can get these from fatty fish like tuna and mackerel, salmon, nuts, and seeds.
Look for foods high in choline. Choline is important to help with your brain’s neurotransmitters. Foods with a lot of choline include peanuts, eggs, flax seeds, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, and oats.
Get those antioxidants. Antioxidants have so many health benefits for your entire body but also for your brain. They are especially helpful in protecting you from free radicals. Get more antioxidants from foods like kale, spinach, blueberries, strawberries, and dark chocolate.
Look for these important vitamins from your food. There are some other vitamins and minerals that are also great for brain health. It is easy to add these foods to your diet to encourage proper balance in your meals. These include:
- B vitamins – Your B vitamins are absolutely essential. It’s easy to get with whole grains like quinoa and brown rice, as well as oats.
- Vitamin E – Vitamin E is a really important antioxidant. It helps with the fatty tissue of your brain, for example. Leafy greens, broccoli, nuts and seeds usually contain a good amount of vitamin E.
- Zinc – You also want to make sure you are getting enough zinc. This is great for improving your cognitive balance. Get zinc from foods like sunflower seeds, soybeans, dairy, egg, and red meat.
Chronic Pain
Doctors usually recommend some minor dietary changes when they have a patient with chronic pain. What they recommend depends on the condition leading to their pain.
So keep in mind if you have a disease like Crohn’s or Fibromyalgia, that your doctor will have a specific diet for you to follow.
However, more general forms of chronic pain often happen due to the inflammation in your body.
This is what makes many sources of pain much worse. So it makes sense that choosing more anti-inflammatory foods can help.
Anti-Inflammatory Foods
Inflammation can be a bad and a good thing at the same time.
While it can assist your body in defending itself from an injury or infection, chronic inflammation can result in weight gain or diseases. Like lupus, stroke, heart disease, and more.
The risk of inflammation is increased by low activity levels, inflammatory foods, and stress. However, research shows that some foods can combat inflammation.
Here are six anti-inflammatory foods.
1. Green Tea
Green tea is one of the healthiest beverages that you can have in your diet. It minimizes the risk of cancer, obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other conditions.
Numerous of its benefits result from its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Particularly a compound called EGCG.
EGCG prevents inflammation by minimizing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines as well as damage to your cells’ fatty acids.
2. Avocados
Avocados are a superfood and one of the healthiest fats you can consume. They are rich in potassium, fiber, heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, and magnesium. They also have tocopherols and carotenoids that are associated with a reduced risk of cancer.
Moreover, there is a compound that minimizes inflammation inside your skin cells. According to research, participants in some studies experienced reduced levels of inflammation markers. Its anti-inflammatory properties are so potent that eating avocado can offset the undesirable effects of less healthy food.
3. Broccoli
Broccoli is highly nutritious and a very popular vegetable. Whatever diet you’re on, broccoli will fit the requirements. Along with kale, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower, it’s a cruciferous vegetable. And all of them are good for you.
Studies have revealed that consuming a lot of these vegetables results in a reduced risk of cancer and heart disease. This is linked to their antioxidants’ anti-inflammatory impacts. Broccoli is filled with sulforaphane, which is an antioxidant that combats inflammation.
4. Fatty Fish
Fatty fish are an excellent source of protein as well as omega-3 fats. Even though all fish have these omega-3 fats, some fish are better source because their content is high.
They include anchovies, mackerel, herring, sardines, and salmon. Omega-3 fats can decrease inflammation that can result in metabolic syndrome, kidney disease, diabetes, and heart disease.
According to studies, participants who consumed salmon or Omega-3 supplements experienced a significant reduction in inflammation.
5. Berries
Berries are small fruits that are filled with minerals, vitamins, and fiber. Even though there is a wide variety of berries, the most popular ones are strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries.
Berries are rich in antioxidants too. The antioxidants in berries have anti-inflammatory properties that can decrease the risk of getting diseases.
Your body produces NK cells that assist in ensuring the optimal functioning of the immune system. According to research, men who ate more berries had increased levels of NK cells.
To Protect Your Lifelong Health Avoid These Foods
While you should talk to your doctor about specific diet plans for your heart health, some common foods to avoid include:
Saturated fats – You get these from deep-fried foods, vegetable oil, vegetable shortening, and foods labeled as partially-hydrogenated.
Refined sugar and fats – You don’t have to go sugar-free but try to limit your refined and added sugars and refined fats.
Sodium – You also want to be careful about how much sodium is in your diet, especially if you already have high blood pressure.
Hope this brief summary will help you implement some beneficial changes that will keep you rock’n’rolling for a long time!
Disclaimer:
This article was written by Zuzana Halliwell. I am not a doctor or health professional and cannot be held liable for the information written here. This article is meant to provide information about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. The content is based on my own personal experience and on information provided by medical professionals that is available to the public. It is not intended to provide medical advice. Do not use it as an alternative to seeking help from a medical professional.
