Category Archives: Healthy Lifestyle

The benefits of a healthy lifestyle are legion. Helping folks in Southwest Florida live longer, happier and healthier lives has always been a commitment for NCH. We are now being joined in this noble pursuit by many organizations including the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce and Collier County Health Department, just to name a few of the leaders.

Integral to this effort is individual responsibility. Daily pursuit of healthy activities and behaviors needs to be ingrained into our core values. In addition to daily exercise and avoiding tobacco, what we eat has a huge influence on the quality and length of our lives.

In the very interesting 2006 book The China Study, father and son authors, T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell, describe many long, complicated and sophisticated demographic studies that point to the benefits of a plant-based diet. These benefits include living longer, feeling younger, being more energetic and controlling weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. Plant-based diets can also decrease the risks of suffering from many diseases including cancer, heart disease and mental deterioration.

Eight interrelated principles have been shared which, in general, are just good common sense.

1. Nutrition represents the combined activities of countless food substances, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. By combining foods you achieve a biochemical bonanza according to The China Study, all of which interact to be beneficial.

2. Vitamin supplements are not a panacea for good health. Isolated nutrients do not make up for a healthy, varied diet. Over the past decades more money has been spent on vitamins, based on marketing rather than evidence. Very few people who have a reasonable diet benefit from any vitamin supplement. In fact, the amount of vitamin spilled over into the urine equals what is ingested when folks already have a reasonable diet. The message is to consume vitamins in food, not as supplements.

3. Virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods are better than those found in plant-based foods. Eating animal-based foods is markedly different than plant-based foods in terms of the excess cholesterol found in animal foods, versus appropriate amounts of beta-carotene, fiber, folate, Vitamin C, and some of the minerals that are bountiful in plant-based diets. Maintaining a low protein diet has been shown to be beneficial. There is one exception and that is Vitamin B12 which is necessary and not found in abundance in plants. As man evolved we lost the ability to make Vitamin B12 in our bodies, though some other mammals still can.

4. Genes do not determine disease on their own. Genes activated by environmental factors such as poor diet, tobacco use or lack of exercise can cause disease. However, if genes are not activated, even though these genes may predispose to disease, there may not be any harm. There are huge variations in the incidence of disease in people with essentially the same genes. Environment including diet plays a large role.

5. Nutrition can substantially control the adverse effects of noxious chemicals. We understand that a good diet can ameliorate some of the effects of noxious forces around our surroundings. Obviously, a better solution is to remove the noxious environment. For example, trying to make a healthy potato chip is not nearly as effective as avoiding potato chips.

6. The same nutrition which prevents disease in its early stages can help slow down disease in later stages. Diabetics can improve at any stage of their illness with good diet control. Heart disease at any stage can be helped by a diet low in salt and cholesterol. Dont give up because you got a late start.

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The Doctor Is In: We are what we eat: More evidence proving that mainly plant-based diet is best

At the heart of the 'French Healthy Lifestyle Alliance', scientists, politicians and economists suggest innovative solutions to combat cardiovascular diseases and obesity. Excercise is the starting point, they say. EurActiv France reports.

TheFrench Healthy Lifestyle Alliance ("Alliance France pour le Mieux Vivre) recommends a comprehensive approach to improving peoples lifestyles. The group, established by the International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk (ICCR), a North American organisation, brings together French doctors, economists and politicians, who all agree on the importance of exercise as medical treatment.

Activity for longevity

Inactivity is the number one avoidable cause of death in the world, ahead of tobacco abuse, according to a 2012 medical study cited by Martine Duclos, a university professor and member of the alliance.

The professor declares that physical activity must be placed at the heart of childrens education.

Physical activity is not one of our cultural traits. It is different to northern Europe where physical activity is centre stage in childhood. Time spent sitting down in childhood shapes our behaviour for the rest of our life. Furthermore, cardiovascular diseases start in childhood, which explains the importance of making children aware at such an early stage.

Everyday actions suffice in increasing activity. She highlights that it is important to promote a positive message, and explain that activity does not necessarily have to be intensive exercise, one must simply be active every day. This means choosing the stairs over the escalators or walking short distances instead of driving.

According to Martine Duclos, exercise fends off cardiovascular diseases and lowers cholesterol levels.

The risk of developing cardiovascular diseases is 30% less likely for patients who do exercise, a minimum of 30 minutes five times per week, which is accompanied by a balanced diet low in sugar, salt and fat. For patients suffering from hypercholesterolemia, exercise can sometimes avoid the need for treatment or allow for a reduction of the prescribed doses.

10 billion of potential savings

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Sport touted as the best medicine against heart disease

EACH week the Evening Times will turn the spotlight on one of the dozens of local businesses determined to succeed.

Dimitris Kourtoumpelidis and Vassilis Xanthopoulos of Dionysus Quality Products

They are the future for Glasgow and the west of Scotland's economy and are working hard to achieve success in the face of continuing economic hardship. Many businesses are struggling to take off because of the economic downturn, and this column will offer advice for potential start-ups and small businesses.

Each company will answer the same questions about their business and their answers will appear each Wednesday.

This week we talk to Dimitris Kourtoumpelidis and Vassilis Xanthopoulos of Dionysus Quality Products

Who are you?

We are a family of Greek origin now living in Scotland; Vassilis, Desy, and Dimitris.

As children we watched as our grandma gathered herbs from the garden for cooking or to prepare natural remedies, and so from a young age we understood the benefits nature can bring to our everyday life.

What does your

business do?

Follow this link:

'Our products support a healthy lifestyle'

Home > News > business-india-news

Kolkata, Mar 26 : Direct selling health & beauty FMCG company, Amway India on Tuesday hosted an awareness campaign on the wellness of women, here, in a bid to celebrate the International Women's Month and to educate people about the need of nutrients and healthy lifestyle among women.

The campaign, a part of the series of wellness campaigns across India, aims at creating awareness about the need for a wholesome diet and nutritional supplements for modern day women to ensure proper preventative health care.

Dr. Pritpal Singh, an eminent consultant in nutrition management and preventive measures of lifestyle disorders, elaborated the importance of certain nutrients at the later stages of women's lives like menopause.

While, Dr. Anindita Roy, Head of Nutrition Department, Manindra Chandra College, spoke about the importance of calcium, magnesium and iron at adolescence and pregnancy stages of women.

Dr. Pritpal Singh said, "Women should be cautious choosing their diet in their mid-thirties. Indian women experience menopause earlier than their western countries counterparts and the onset of menopause starts as early as 47 years."

Singh added, "Sometimes, it occurs at a younger age. During this time ovaries have stopped production of eggs and estrogen and progesterone hormone levels start depleting in the premenopausal phase. Soy Protein, Omega 3 fatty acids, Iron, Calcium are some important nutrients a woman should eat more in her mid-thirties."

Speaking of the awareness campaign, Diptarag Bhattacharjee, Vice President, East, Amway India said that, "Today's urban woman, exposed to stress at work and family life ignore a healthy life style and good nutrition in her daily rigmarole of responsibility and encourage in binge eating."

Bhattacharjee said, "Mounting work pressure and growing demands at home leave no time for Indian women for either rest or physical exercise. It is high time to sit back, relax and plan their diet and lifestyle to brace up for the next phase in life."

Bhattacharjee added, "We at Nutrilite have come up with a complete women's range of dietary supplements including Nutrilite Tri Iron Folic, Nutrilite Cal Mag D, Nutrlite Bone Health, Nutrilite Hair, Skin & Nails and Nutrilite Black Cohosh and Soy to cater to various nutritional needs of Indian women."

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Amway hosts campaign on wellness of women