Healthy Living

[Allan]

Healthspan has many articles. Here is what you need
http://www.healthspan.co.uk/articles/ar ... spx?Id=186

There are many recommendations in the whole article. My doctor said that he could do nothing except give me painkiller, I am following just about all recommended here, I might even add the ginger now I see it listed, The cost of the supplements is relatively modest, I spent more on all this on osteopaths with no benefit at all.
Allan

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Allan, that makes for some interesting reading,
and their prices seem very good too.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[Allan]

I particularly like this article by Dr Desmond Morris. (Remember The Naked Ape?)

What is your favourite? Lots to choose from
Allan

http://www.healthspan.co.uk/articles/ar ... spx?Id=171

[richard p]

my father is eighty this week, 30 years ago the docs recommended fusing the lower vertbra due to arthritis, slight risk of total paralysis if it goes wrong. anyway he went the diet and supplements route, ive recently decided to put a padlock and chain on his extension ladders and lock up the chainsaw!!!!.
it does appear that most of the modern diseases and ailments are triggered by the rubbish in the mass diet. most thinking parents are now aware of the impact of colourings on childrens behaviour. our local school will only do kids discos on a friday evening cos the teachers dont want the kids the day after theyve overdosed on sweets and coca cola.
the big question is whether a diet high in fresh home produced veg and fruit will supply adequate levels of vitamins and mineralswithout resoting to supplements.
there is a theory that the live enzymes in fresh produce are even more important.

[Jenny Green]

I think I read something in last week's New Scientist about the downsides of supplements. Some studies have tracked the effects of supplements that were very popular, such as Vitamin C, and found that there was either no benefit or negative side effects. It seems that a diet high in fruit and vegetables is measurably healthier for you, but taking some of the 'key' chemicals such as antioxidants doesn't have the same effect.

[Allan]

Thank you Jenny. I am aware of this topic but it doesn't invalidate all other supplements. I don't think members of the forum would see the need for extra vitamin C anyway, what with broccoli,tomatoes, strawberries, fresh produce before the vitasmin C is lost, even the humble potato in the amounts we eat gives a very high proportion of the necessary vitamin C. If you have as much fresh vegetables as possible, preferably raw, including some with a high red content, I think you will find that you will have enough anti-oxidant. I would also be very wary of an all-in-one pill, better to select according to ones own needs and there is a lot of advice on the Healthcare site to help with such decisions.

[Jenny Green]

I just went and looked up the article and it's referring specifically to antioxidants - Vitamins C & E, polyphenols and betacarotine. The results of some trials are actually quite alarming. In one study on betacarotine was stopped when the results began to show that lung cancer rates were UP 17% for the people taking the supplement (people in the study were those at risk of lung cancer). Another review of 19 studies on Vitamin E supplements showed an overall increase in mortality.
So for antioxidants at least it's plain old fruit and veg for me!

[vivie veg]

I believe that the daily guideline for Vits given by the government are wowfully inadecate, especially as a few years back the British guidelines were REDUCED to the European standards.

I will quiet happily take 5g of pure vitamin C per day (even more if I have a cold...have not had one for a long time!). Not only is it an antioxident but also a pain killer. To get the same in fruit and veg would involve eating a mountain of it....and I do that sometimes!

Obviously picking your own, just minutes before eating it raw cannot be beaten. I wonder how much vits are left in the product on the supermarket shelves, especially if you only do a weekly shop and the product then spends a further week or more in your cupboard? Would it have had a decent amount of vits when first picked, if like Toms and banana many produce is now pick unripe and artificially ripened.

Ditto meat and eggs etc. Due to warm weather I had to resort to buying in eggs and the quality of FREERANGE eggs from Tesco were terrible even though they had a long BBE, but a local producers were great, even after keeping in the fridge for a week.

On a different tack, you might like to look at the link below. It concerns using diet (huge amounts of organic fruit and veg juices as well as veggy meals, liver injections and coffee enemas) to cure many degenerative diseases (including all cancers), admitted it is not easy to follow the regime, but if you were in a life or death situation what would you go for?

http://www.gersonsupportgroup.org.uk/

Must go I have veg to tend!

[Jenny Green]

Coffee enemas! Whoa there! I don't like coffee even via the usual route!

[Allan]

Keep at it, folks you are doing fine. I thought that Healthy Living/Lifestyle deserved a place on this forum. it is a shame that it is under this backwater subsection, what it's got to do with that is beyond my feeble brain. I ought to have words with Mr. P-H, if he is reluctant to change things a joint heading of Harvesting AND Lifestyle would be more effective in attracting the curious. Comments please.
Allan

[richard p]

the vitamin daily requirements are the amounts alleged to be necessary to prevent certain defficiency diseases NOT the amounts that may produce benefits for a healthy person eg for vit c the daily dose recommended is to prevent scurvy not the dose to ward off colds.

juicing is supposed to enable one to take in higher amounts of the beneficial bits and you can use up surpluse of over mature stuff, juiced 6 inch beetroot and coarse runner beans this morning an added orange helped though its a pain cleaning the machine after beetroot.

[Tony Hague]

Please don't use "lifestyle" as a heading! We'll get idiots talking decking, patio heaters and garden lighting.

[Allan]

Personally I don't go for juicing.Roughage, fibre etc. is a vital part of the diet, helping to avoid constipation etc. It tends to get removed from the modern diet such as by juicing instead of eating the whole food. Processed white bread is perhaps the worst enemy of roughage. A particular problem is cancer of the colon, quite common these days and this is linked to lack of roughage.
Re sliced bread they have to put a preservative in the bread and this can caues my wife allergic symptoms so we have to have home baked bread.
I will make a note of allergies for further discussion, a hot topic with my wife and a cause of much unnecessary suffering in the modern society where there are so many allergens around us all the time.
I would avoid raw beetroot juice as it can give the runs but carrot juice in moderation is good as a means of breaking down the cells which prevent one getting the nutrition of the carrot. Otherwise grating the carrot does a similar job.
Point certalinly taken about "lifestyle". Thank you.

Later
I have just had a quick websurf on Google on the terms healthy living. Very humbling the amount of effort already put into this topic. For instance £300 million of government funds have been put into setting up a network of healthy living centres across the UK. The BBC gives the topic good coverage or so they say. Whether all this gets through to the people who most need it may be another matter entirely.
Good health to all
Allan

[vivie veg]

Allan,

Although the above amount sounds a lot, it equates to just £5 per person, given that the UK population is over 64 million. Also the Government allocate money to healthy living campains, but the money rarely gets spent in these areas as A) there are not the people inplace to champion these causes and expand this area, B) the Budget get side traked towards the end of the financial period to something that is overspent.

It would be nice to see the health service getting a proper handle on diet by ensuring that this is given priority in preventing and assisting the recovery from diseases. Hospital food has been a standard joke for many decades. I don't know what the current standard is, but the last time I was in hospital (giving birth to my daughter 14 years ago) the food was cheap processed food with no fresh veg or fruit and I ended up with consipation after just 24 hour! Lunch consisted of packet oxtail soup, white sliced bread and egg sandwiches (white bread), I missed dinner being in the delivery suit, but they had saved me a white bread cheese sandwich. Breakfast the next morning consisted of a choice of cereals (none were whole grains or added fibre) and toast (yes white sliced bread) my husband had bought me in fruit, but apples and banana, which are both binding fruits! I eventually escaped at 11 am to go home and have a huge bowl of salad.

My father was in hospital 3 years later for several weeks having heart surgery and the food was of a similar standard then. Their solution to constipation was to give him tablets to get things moving!

Re juicing, I only have a liquidiser and will use this to make juices...admitted they are rather thick because they keep the fibre. It make lovely yogurt smoothies too, using natural yogurt from Aldi (39p for 500g) and any fruit.

This year I have been involved in a Health and safety road show, Unfortunately it seemed that more people were involved in the organising the event than showed up, leave the stand holders plenty of time to talk to each other! The Healthy eating brigade were towing the government line with 5 a day, low salt, low processed carbohydrate and low fat, high GI carbohydrates and advocating juices to get your children to have their 5 a day. But the diabetic team where steering you away from sugary foods (fruits are high in sugar) and limiting other carbohydrates. The dental team were saying that the only safe drinks are milk and water, as the other including natural juices contained either sugars and or acids which would damage your teeth. So taking all that on board we have now starved to death! My daughter also pointed out to me (cause I had forgotten at the time) that no matter how much juice you drink you can only count it as one portion, because it is lacking in fibre. Having said all that I would say that over 50% of the people manning the stalls were overweight (including myself, but I was on the safe driving stall)

My partner has a theory....does the Government really want us to live longer? If we do then the cost of pensions will go shooting up, social services and health care cost for the elderly would go up, etc. Ideally they want us to keep fit until we retire and then die of a nice sudden heart attack or stroke.

[richard p]

allan most people juice for vitamins and enzymes in addition to eating their normal diet to provide adequate fibre. its only the weight loss people who try to use juices to replace meals.
regarding milk, there is evidence that after its been homogenised the chopped up fat molucules will pass through the gut wall undigested which can cause problems. also the fat in milk is required for the body to use the calcium so skimmed milk is a waste of time as a source of calcium. our local supermarket sells a whole milk that is unhomogenised but still pasturised,.