Nurturing Holistic Wellbeing: Mind, Body, and Diet
Have a happy and rewarding life is easier with a healthy body and mind. The pain, discomfort, and fatigue are obstacles to our wellbeing. However, to maintain good health is not enough to trust in doctors. We must know ourselves what we can do to maintain and improve our health.
It can analyze the issue of health from several perspectives. First, we consider the diet. Spiritual practitioners usually abandon, or at least reduce, intake of animal protein such as meat because this kind of food involves the suffering of other sentient beings. Apart from the ethical considerations that support this decision, health is another factor to consider. Numerous studies have shown that eating meat is unhealthy because it increases the risk of circulatory diseases, cancer, and other degenerative diseases.
Statistically, people who follow a dairy vegetarian diet have a life expectancy greater than that of those who eat meat. The body’s ability to digest and metabolize animal protein is actually very limited, and excess protein is broken down into sugars and toxic acids. Eating animal protein increases the acidity of our tissues, which has been recognized as a contributing factor to the onset of degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis and cancer. Other kinds of food that produce excess acidity in our body are fats, sugars, and processed foods. Therefore, if we want to maintain and improve our health, we must begin to reduce our intake of carbohydrates, sugars, denatured and saturated fats, and animal protein.
Although the best diet for each of us depends on the formation and disposition of our body, all would notice a positive change in our health if they increased the intake of natural foods: fruits and vegetables (both raw and cooked), unsaturated fats (cold-pressed plant oils), and carbohydrates from whole grains. Moreover, for people with weak digestive systems, it may be useful or even necessary to take mineral supplements, vitamins, or enzymes.
To have good health, we must exercise. This improves our circulatory system and regulates the functioning of our organs and tissues. Often, people engaged in a spiritual journey, along with many others, tend to neglect this aspect of maintaining their health. Those who exercise usually engage in swimming or running. These activities help us to maintain our health, especially if we practice them regularly, and provided you do not push our body beyond its capacity.
To better use your time, spiritual practitioners attempt to perform physical exercises that improve their ability to mindfulness and help them cultivate a greater degree of inner consciousness. Practices such as Tai Chi and Yoga are beneficial for both body and mind. Other physical exercises, like the Buddhist practice of prostration, help us to maintain a more positive and receptive mind. Whatever form of exercise you choose, it is important that we practice regularly to maintain our health.
Another aspect of health is knowing to give our body time to rest and recover. This means that we must avoid excessive activity, which can lead to a reduction in our resources, energy, and zest for life. We should try to be careful when using our physical and mental resources, and know when to pursue our activities and when it is more appropriate to rest and sleep. Of course, we should not take the rest of our body and mind as an excuse for laziness, but rather as a way to recover our energy and vitality. Sleeping too much is just a waste of time.
The most important factor in the state of our health, and often goes unnoticed by modern medicine, is our mind. All diseases, in one way or another, have their origin in the mind. This is not easy to understand. The way in which our health depends on the mind is extensive, but here is a brief explanation. All our minds are set up on wind energy circulating through subtle channels running through the body. The idea that our body is crisscrossed by canals and energy is taken by the Chinese acupuncture, by different schools of yoga from India, and Buddhist teachings. These systems have in common the belief that the balance of subtle energies in our body is primarily responsible for good health.
Why do internal energies become unbalanced? Emotional disturbances interrupt the flow of internal energy. When these disturbances are prolonged or become patterns of behavior, they cause alterations in the functions of our body and ill health. Therefore, anger, frustrations, anxiety, unfulfilled desires, and so on, are the true causes of disease. Our health also depends on the footprints imprinted in our mind by karma. The negative karma are traces caused by harmful actions committed under the influence of uncontrolled mental states.
Therefore, for good health, it is important to work with the mind. This means that we gradually: (1) identify and abandon negative mental states, (2) purify our mind, and (3) improve our ability to be happy. This is the very essence of spiritual practice.
If necessary, we can use increasingly known holistic therapies like homeopathy, acupuncture, naturopathy, Bach flower and California remedies, and the techniques of kinesiology, and various forms of massage. Also, if symptoms persist or are severe, we must go to conventional doctors. However, more natural ways to promote health, such as those mentioned in this article, should enable us to maintain our physical and mental health.
Eating Right Keeps the Body Healthy
Fruits, vegetables, and nuts are just some of the foods that are part of a group of antioxidant chemicals called flavonoids. Growing evidence suggests that flavonoids, part of the group of polyphenols, keep humans healthy, fighting cancer, cardiovascular disease, and degenerative diseases. FLORA, a project of EUR 3.3 million EU-funded, is helping people understand the link between diet and health, in addition to the beneficial effects of flavonoids on humans. The findings of a study of flowers have been recently published in the Journal of Nutrition.
15 Apr 2008 | CORDIS
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? So far the biological and protective activities of various flavonoids have been thoroughly studied in vitro in cell-based assays, “said researcher and lead study author Dr. Marie-Claire Toufektsian Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble ( France). “However, this approach has an important limitation: it is extremely difficult to assess accurately the nature of all flavonoids absorbed following consumption of plants present in a given meal.”
In other words, “cells grown in the laboratory alone are not sufficient to study the complex mechanism of absorption of flavonoids in food,” he said. For this reason, the researchers decided to study the effects of intake of plants rich in polyphenols is about animals. Two types were chosen for the study of maize, one containing anthocyanins, a type of flavonoid, and the other was a corn variety without anthocyanins.
The grains of these two kinds of corn were fed to rats as part of their diet for a couple of months. The researchers measured the anthocyanins levels in urine and plasma from rats in two groups and then paid special attention to if there were changes in the myocardium (heart) and signs of myocardial infarction or heart attack.
“We found that chronic consumption and effective absorption of anthocyanins in rats was more resistant to heart attacks,” said Dr. Toufektsian. “That is, infarct size was reduced significantly in rats that had followed the diet rich in anthocyanins.”
Dr also said that while the results are promising, one must take care since the cellular mechanisms of protection are not yet clearly determined. “There may be differences between humans and rats, for example in terms of metabolism and absorption of flavonoids,” he added.
It is also important to consider the amount of anthocyanins ingested by rats. “The rats that were fed anthocyanin-rich flavonoids were about thirteen times more anthocyanins than most people who follow a normal western diet, in which the daily consumption of flavonoids is relatively low and the average intake of anthocyanins is estimated which is 12 milligrams per day, “explained the scientific coordinator of Flora, Maria Benedetta Donati at the Catholic University of Campobasso (Italy).
The researchers also examined the Mediterranean diet due to its content rich in flavonoids. “The content of anthocyanins in the traditional Mediterranean diet is much higher than the Western diet, which might explain why the Mediterranean diet helps protect the heart,” said Dr. Michel de Lorgeril, also from the University Joseph Fourier .
The FLORA project hopes http://www.flora-flavonoids.eu/cms/> now follow the study through research conducted with human volunteers on the beneficial effects of anthocyanins from blood orange juice, one of the most generous sources of flavonoids
Given the great public health scare caused by the snuff at the present time, natural treatments are erected as a healthy and effective alternative to control the habit, while side effects and to everyone.If it has a strong will, snuff can be defeated in this way, always bearing in mind that natural products will do anything to trick the body into believing it is receiving the nicotine dose needed to avoid withdrawal symptoms This would bring about a state of calm and relaxation. Like what happens with nicotine patches, the doses are being reduced gradually, but instead of using natural chemicals are used, most herbs. When withdrawal symptoms are almost imperceptible can be removed from treatment.