What is a healthy diet? It’s not about counting calories, measuring portions or cutting carbs. You won’t really find a healthy diet on the lite menu at your favorite restaurant and you certainly won’t find it at the local fast food joint. A healthy diet is all about what you eat rather than how much you eat.
If you think the latest fad diet is your panacea to health, you are in for a big surprise. Losing weight, staying healthy and getting back into shape after many years of diet neglect is not about fads or eating in some radical new way for six to twelve weeks and then going back to the way you used to eat.
The best thing you can do to keep yourself healthy is to eat a healthy diet…all the time, not just when you want to lose weight. Eating healthy is a long-term lifestyle choice, something you need to do for your entire lifetime.
But what is a healthy diet? Is it what we have been lead to believe – milk for strong bones and teeth, protein in the form of lean beef or chicken and maybe a “healthy” microwave dinner if we are “on the go.” Unfortunately this diet is what is identified as the Standard American Diet or the SAD.
And what’s so wrong with the SAD?
Well, has it made us a healthier people? Are we better off as a nation because of it?
With all of the health studies, advanced health care, the war on cancer dating back to the 70’s, and the most advanced technology available on the planet we have to ask ourselves why do we still need to spend $1.3 trillion a year on health care in the United States. Why aren’t we getting any healthier?
Other pertinent questions about your health beg for answers such as, why after more than 30 years since the “War On Cancer” was declared, do we still have an increasing cancer rate. Yes, we have many more people surviving, cancer but the rate at which people are getting cancer is increasing. We have come a long way in taking care of sick people, but we haven’t made any progress as a nation in preventing those people from getting sick.
Why do more than 15 million people in the United States have diabetes? Why do we still have more heart problems today than we did 30 years ago? Why is more than 50% of our population on some kind of prescription drug?
We spend more per person on medical care than any other nation in the world. Why is this happening in a country that seems to be able to solve nearly any technological problem? Why can’t we solve our medical problems? How would life be different for us if we were to be a nation of healthy individuals?
The secret to a healthy diet and a healthy life is living food – fresh vegetables, fruit, juices and green leafy salads. The answer to a healthier you is summed up in three words, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s not a secret, it’s a lifestyle.
Living a healthy life and having a healthy family is all about eating a healthy diet, every day of our lives!
