What is a Calorie?

The first thing you need to know is what a calorie is supposed to represent.

When asked, most people will say that calories are the amount of energy that is stored in the food that they eat, and, basically, that is correct. But that it is not the whole story. If you take the common nutritional wisdom about calories as truth, then you would say that every food has energy in it and that certain foods contain more energy than others. For example, by common caloric measurements, both proteins and carbohydrates have about the same amount of energy stored in them (about 4 calories per gram) and fat has over twice the energy (9 calories per gram). This is where the wisdom behind keeping fats out of your diet comes from: there are more calories in fat than in protein and carbohydrates.

Okay, that is all well and good, but let’s stop for a minute and find out how this “energy” is determined.

A calorimeter is a scientific tool that is used to measure calories. To use it, scientists place a food in the calorimeter and then burn that food to ash and measure the amount of energy it took to change that food from its original state to ash. Scientists will tell you that a calorimeter is a good substitution for what happens in the body (but don’t you believe it).

Caloric Consequences

If believed that a calorie was a calorie no matter what, you might make this kind of calculation:

Let’s say that you were eyeing that piece of cake and you found out that the cake contained 300 calories. In your mind you think, “hmm… 300 calories, I think I can burn that off by a little bit of exercise.” So you sit down at your desk and you calculate the amount of exercise that you need to do to burn off that amount of calories. It turns out that if you were running around 9 minute miles (not too fast), you would burn around 775 calories in an hour. [click here to see how many calories you burn per hour] So, you figure that you only have to run for around 20 or 30 minutes to burn off that piece of cake.

If you have ever tried this, you know how crazy this can be. Most people I know who have tried this approach to weight loss stop because they are too frustrated. I’ve had people report to me that they have exercised for one to two hours a day and still can’t lose weight. Shouldn’t that much exercise burn off the calories that they are consuming?

The answer is no, but let’s see why it isn’t so.

It Not the Calories

Using calories as a way to measure what you should be eating can only take you so far. The reason this is true is that you simply are not a calorimeter, you are a living being and not some laboratory tool. Something happens when you consume carbohydrates that is different from what happens when you eat proteins or fats… regardless of calories.

Let me show you why:

Imagine that you have a certain amount of energy your body needs and then you eat something sugary. In the first scenario, you are using exactly what your body needs; you are eating the exact same energy that you are using. If we were to graph that relationship, it would look something like this:

In this first scenario, your body is acting exactly like a calorimeter, you are burning all the energy that is coming your way.

The situation is exactly the same if you are eating sugar energy from carbohydrates and the energy you consume is under your energy needs, like this:

But what happens when you are eating more energy than your body needs at the moment?  This is the situation were your body no longer acts like a calorimeter and calories don’t matter any more:

When you consume energy over your basic energy needs, your body now has a problem: what to do with that extra energy? Well, you probably know the answer to that question. Your body stores those extra calories as fat. This is what makes carbohydrates unique. This is what makes the thoughts about calories obsolete. This is what makes carbohydrates much worse than fats and proteins and this is what no one is telling you: calories don’t matter as much as blood sugar especially when you are talking about weight loss.

To lose weight, yes you need to burn more calories than you are consuming, but you also have to keep your blood sugar from spiking too high and causing your body to store that extra energy as sugar.

Let me first tell you that your body has its own built-in water calculator and it just doesn’t have to be that complicated and that there is a wholly different way you can look at water intake that just might surprise you.

Your Body’s Calculator

Here is the problem with the five to ten 9-ounce glasses theory: While that sounds like good advice, it makes a blanket statement for everyone without ever considering who you are, where you live and what you are doing. You could be a person who lives in the North Pole or you could be living on the equator. You could be very skinny or you could be large. You could be a couch potato or you could be an ultra-athlete. How can any blanket recommendation of ten glasses of water really apply to all of you?

To personalize water intake, you need to be able to measure how much water your body needs. Fortunately, you have a built-in measuring system that can tell you exactly what your water needs are: the color of your urine.

It works like this: the color of your urine (barring taking certain vitamins that change the color) should be light colored or clear. If your urine is yellow or bright yellow, then you are not getting enough water. So, whether you are a runner, a slacker, a north or south dweller, enjoying the sun or the snow, you can determine your own personal water needs by simply looking down when you visit the bathroom. Some days you will need a lot of water and some days you won’t, it depends on many factors.

But here is something else you want to think about:

You Don’t Need Extra Water

Maybe you don’t need to drink any water, or at least you might not have to drink that much.

If you are following a diet such as what I recommend (80 percent vegetables or fruits and 20 percent proteins) then you will find that you are not that thirsty and that you pass the pee-test for having enough water. The reason why you don’t need to drink as much water is two-fold. The first is that there is a lot of water in fruits and vegetables and that they provide your body with a lot of its water needs.

The second is that eating grains requires a lot of water; if you are not eating grains and sugar, you automatically drop your water needs. This is because grains and sugars don’t contain much water and need water to be able to move them through your system. I also think that many people are allergic to grains and this makes your body hold on to more water than it normally would.

I, personally, only drink one or two glasses of water a day unless I’m out running or biking. This is a dramatic change from when I used to eat a lot of grains and I would drink many glasses of water each day.

The first was a YouTube video:

There is this great viral video of comedian Lewis C.K. that I wish I could show you. The video clip on YouTube was pulled because of a copyright claim by NBC Universal. (Here is the video, hope it still acts like link: Everything is a Miracle)

In the video clip, Lewis was talking with Conan O’Brien and he was describing how there are so many amazing things in our lives such as cell phones, computers and even flying in a plane, but we are so spoiled and don’t appreciate just how amazing these things are. He told the story of sitting in a plane that has just installed Wi-Fi and he was on the plane surfing the web when the Wi-Fi stopped working. The guy next to him was exasperated, “This is bullxxxx”. Lewis was amused that the guy next to him was already expecting to surf the web while flying through the clouds, even though – as Lewis puts it – “this technology had only been in existence for a total of 10 seconds”.

The second was my friend’s comment on depression:

I have a friend, Bill, who is also a life-optimizing coach. He spends his days helping people in business become more successful and is starting to work with artists to help them find success and continue their artistic pursuits. He and I were having coffee when he told me what he thought caused depression.

Depression, Bill says, is the difference between expectations and reality. People become depressed when they start measuring in their mind where they think should be and compare that to where they are. Think about it: you think that you should have more money, but you don’t; or, you think you should be thinner, but you are not; or you should be smarter, braver, cuter, funnier… Depression occurs when you start measuring and because most people are so far away from where they think they should be, there is an epidemic of depression.

To Bill, curing depression is all about controlling expectations. Not that you shouldn’t shoot for the stars, but you should be more grateful for where you are and what you have.

Coalescence

These two ideas met in my mind and have created a way to look at the world: Look at everything in your life and think that it is a miracle. Instead of controlling expectations as my friend Bill suggests, think about raising your amazement at everything you have and everything you see.

These words that you are reading started in my head and then have traveled through the air and wires and have ended up in your head. The computer you are reading this on is an amazing thing. The place where you are sitting is a maze of incredible events and happenstance: The birds near you, the trees, the buildings, the cup, the floor, the clouds, the big blue ball we call home… all of it is amazing!

Every time you step into a car and drive a million things have to go right for you to reach your destination: the car has to run, you have to drive, the lights have to change colors, the other drivers have to avoid you. And most of the time, everything works in perfect synchronization.

These observations have created my New Year’s mantra: Everything is a Miracle, Everything a Blessing.

I am not denying the state of the world. There are truly horrible things happening every day. I am, however, suggesting that, when we can, we tune our minds to higher things and appreciation.

My favorite quote comes from Anne Dillard and it goes like this: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” Why not spend your days and your life in constant amazement at everything around you. You will be happier, more fulfilled, and filled with more joy.

I wish you the best in health and happiness for the new year.

Dr. Scott

I love books, a few of the books below have changed my life; not too many gifts have that ability, so most of this post is about books. But I’ve also included a few gadgets in case your health nut is into that kind of thing. So, take this post as a gift list for health nuts, or take it as a reading list for staying on track; either way, here are my suggestions for what to get a health nut for Christmas, or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.

Best Books:

	The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan is one of the best books in recent memory on the subject of food and how far we have moved from considering food something to nourish our bodies instead of a commodity.Pollan’s examination of our food chain is fascinating and you will never look at food the same after reading this book.
	Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallow is a interesting read and cookbook all rolled into one. Fallow fights against what she calls the dietary dictocrats, those that decide what we are supposed to eat based, not basing their decisions on any real understanding of human nutrition. I agree. Most of what passes for dietary recommendations is based on what we are eating not on what we should be eating.
	Joseph Mercola’s The No-Grain Diet: Conquer Carbohydrate Addiction and Stay Slim for the Rest of Your Life is a great resource for anyone looking to avoid those foods that act like sugar in the body. Dr. Mercola and I share the belief that the foods that you put in your mouth matter and that much of the disease we see around us can be reduced by changing what we eat.
	Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine: Improving Health and Longevity with Native Nutrition This is one of the not as well known books, but a great one along the lines of the Paleolithic Diet. Ronald Schmid’s book changed my life and, as a naturopathic doctor, he has studied nutrition better than most health practitioners.
	Sugar Blues is a classic and should be read by everyone. This is the first of the sugar books that showed the connection between sugar and disease. It is a shame to think that this book came out in the 1970s and we are now consuming more sugar than we did then. There is now much better research on the addictive and harmful aspects of sugar consumption, and, hopefully we can reduce that trend.
	Sugarettes . Okay, I had to put my own book in here. My hope is that Sugarettes is a wake-up call and the government and that scientists start taking a closer look at the harmful aspects of the diet we all seem to be eating with little regard for our health.

What about other gadgets?

	Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor Watch This Polar heart rate monitor is relatively simple and inexpensive. A great starter heart rate monitor.
	Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor This heart rate monitor packs a big punch in a little package. Heart rate monitor and GPS to determine distance. Great for the health nut/tech geek.
	Polar FT80 Heart Rate Monitor Watch Okay, enough heart rate monitors, right? I have been coveting this one for a while just on its cool looks. But it not only looks cool, it can actually act as a health coach, helping you throughout your training.
	Plantlife Aromatherapy Massage Oil- 3 Pack Who doesn’t like massage? These are great plant-based massage oils that can help those tired muscles after a good workout, or just sooth after a long day at work.
	Body Back Buddy Massage Cane These massage canes look strange, but I wouldn’t let anyone take mine because it is so helpful to find those tight muscles you just cannot reach yourself. I use mine all the time when I’m taking a break in front of the computer.
	Homedics PA-5H Therapist Select Hand Held Percussion Massager (Includes Heat and 2 Attachments) Are you too tired to give a massage, try one of these. Ten minutes with one of these and you will feel great. These electronic massagers also do a great job at loosening up those very tight muscles.

Gifts for the Health Nut

Well, there you go, gifts for the health nut in your life. I hope you have a great Holiday season.

So, you can imagine how much fun I am at parties! While I’m not above drinking a glass of wine, I really don’t drink much. I wrote a book on sugar addiction, so I don’t eat sweets. I found out while researching Sugarettes that there are foods that act like sugar, so I really don’t eat grains. I have long stayed away from dairy, so no cheese or eggnog either. I tend to wake up early, I practice yoga and I run, bike and stay in shape. Needless to say, even though my diet and exercise plan is very similar to the way humans are supposed to be living, I’m often the odd person out and my diet becomes the source of conversation.

The conversation always seems to head in a certain direction and ends up sounding something like this:

Other Person: “You don’t eat (insert: sugar, cheese, grains…)? Why not? “

Me: “No I don’t eat (insert: sugar, cheese, grains…). I don’t eat (insert: sugar, cheese, grains…) because I don’t think they are the best foods for humans to eat. “

Other Person: “Oh, I eat everything. I don’t care. You know, you eat well and then you die anyway, might as well have fun.”

I call this the Hit by a Train theory: you live a good life, you avoid bad foods, you are good to other people and then you are hit by a train and you die at a young age. Why bother?

Well, there are actually very good reasons to bother. Let’s start by taking a look at the odds.

What are the Odds?

A quick look at the odds will answer a lot of the question about why you should bother.

Here are the odds for some of the major diseases and accidents:

• Diabetes: 1 in 3
• Heart Disease: 1 in 5
• Cancer: 1 in 7
• Accidents: 1 in 22

Clearly, you are much more likely to get diabetes, heart disease, or cancer than you are to die of an accident. And all of these diseases are preventable by the way you choose to live your life.

How Was Your Trip?

While the above statistics may be enough to convince you, here is another thought to think about. If you have cancer, or diabetes, or heart disease, how enjoyable is your life?

Recent research shows that diabetes cuts 14 years off of your life, but that is not all. When measuring quality of life, that number jumps to 20 years lost.¹ What this means is that people who are diabetic lose their eyesight, their kidneys stop functioning, they have heart attacks, they lose limbs to amputation. In essence, they lose the ability to live their lives the way that they want to, losing the quality of life.

When asked about death, most people claim that they are afraid of it, but they fear something even more: People fear losing control of their bodies, they fear that someone will have to take care of them and change their clothes (and diapers), they fear losing what they enjoy in life. They hate the thought that they are alive, but cannot live: they cannot play golf, or play with their grandkids, or travel, or finish their life’s work.

This is what is lost when people have cancer, heart disease, diabetes or other preventable diseases; the loss of quality.

Make the Most of Your Life

Making the most of your life means taking a longer view on life and not just focusing on the moment. Sure, sugar tastes good, but how long does that sensation last?

Yes, you might be hit by a train not matter what you do, but being healthy means two things. First, it means that you stay healthy enough to live your life the way you want to live it. Second, if you are hit by a train and you happen to survive, then you are more likely to bounce back quicker when you are healthy than when you are not.

Health is an investment. You make little “deposits” every day and it pays off for the rest of your life. Enjoy yourself, but find enough balance to invest in your health also.

1. K. M. Venkat Narayan, James P. Boyle, Theodore J. Thompson. Lifetime Risk for Diabetes Mellitus in the United States. JAMA. 2003;290:1884-1890.

For the past twenty years, I have done yoga every morning. But there are periods in my life when I get busy and decide to stop doing yoga because I simply don’t have the time.

As I write this post, I’m struggling to sit in my chair because yesterday I bent down to pick up something off the ground and hurt my back. What amazes me is that what I was just picking up a small toy (nothing heavy) and the pain in my back far exceeds what I was doing. I’d be fine if I had been outside picking up rocks or moving something else heavy and my back hurt, but — come on — this much pain from a simple movement to pick up a toy?

Here is the thing: I know my back can go out easily; I spent the early part of my life generally abusing my body and everyone in my family also has back pain. I know that that my back needs my attention and that is why I do yoga every morning… except when I don’t.

There are times of the year when I get very busy and this is one of them. With birthdays, holidays, and the work that needs to be done promoting my book, I have had a lot going on lately and have missed my yoga sessions. I could easily blame my back pain on a variety of causes, but the only real cause is me and my stupidity. My back pain  is the result of me not doing what I need to do to take care of my self. That simply.

Illness as Teacher

Illness has actually been teacher for me on more than one occasion; in fact, I would say that illness has also been a guide.

Many of you have read my story, and know that illness is what led me to becoming a doctor. The first illness was (no surprise) back pain. I had been working as a carpenter when I injured my back one day, trying to keep a very heavy structure from falling over. I ignored the pain and continued to work. The pain in my back progressively worsened to the point where I woke up one morning and couldn’t get out of bed. My wife talked me into going to see a chiropractor and the moment I stepped into the chiropractor’s office, I knew I had found what I wanted to do for the rest of my life (illness, however, had another idea for me).

Later, as I was preparing for chiropractic school when I became ill due to exposure to chemicals. The chemicals damaged my liver and while I didn’t know it at the time, I had chemically induced hepatitis. All I knew at the time was that I felt bad and was unable to exercise (or even walk) without feeling extremely exhausted. When I decided to seek care I found out that my chiropractor was out of town, so I went in search of another doctor and that is when I found Naturopathic School. The rest, as they say, is history.

Illness can be Random

There is no doubt that illness can be a random event, but I like to think of illness as telling us that we aren’t taking care of ourselves. My back pain today is a not-so-gentle reminder that I need to return to my yoga practice. My yoga practice is not just something nice that I do, but a necessity.

For you, it may not be yoga, but walking, eating better, getting more sleep, spending time with the ones you love… That cold you just “caught” may be a sign that you need to slow down and take better care of yourself. That heart disease is a message that you need to focus much more on your health.

I’ve known cancer patients and others stricken with serious illnesses who have taken this illness-as-teacher approach to their illnesses and who have dramatically changed their lives and improved their conditions.

In my way of thinking illness sends gentle reminders first and then the illnesses and “reminders” get worse over time.

Remember, there are many reasons why you might be sick: harmful chemicals will give you cancer, infectious diseases can strike anyone, injuries do happen. I’m not denying these causes of illness, I’m only saying that the best way to think of illness is as a teacher; regardless of cause. You need not feel guilty that you have somehow caused your illness either; that is not a healthy way to think. You are, however, responsible for where you find yourself and how you react to a situation.

Thinking of illness as a teacher means that you prioritize your health just as you would other parts of your life. You health is just as important as a new cell phone, a new house, or anything you would want to spend money on.

Illness can be a great teacher and a place to begin your journey back to a healthier you.

We do a lot of strange things, and unfortunately for our health, they often lead to illness. As a whole, our memories are short, we think that the things we do every day are the things that humans have always done, but this is just not true.

To determine what we should do, we often look to other people for help; scientists call this “social proof”. Social proof is fine when everyone around you is acting in accordance with their health and their happiness, but as you might guess from all the unhealthy people you see every day, this just isn’t the case. We have slowly moved from healthy living habits to destructive habits and the movement has been so slow we have barely noticed it. I’ve gathered together some of the weird things humans do that can seem perfectly normal because everyone else is doing them, but are not.

If you are looking to improve your health, you might want to steer clear of what everyone else is doing.

• Not Sleeping When We Are Tired: Look around you: dogs, cats – even the mice in your walls – all lie down and sleep when they are tired. We don’t do that. What do you do if you are tired? If you are like a lot of us, you reach for coffee. Animals don’t do that, they lie down and sleep when they are tired. There are actually two issues here: the first is that amount of sleep you need and the second is sleeping during the day. It can be a bit hard to determine what is normal for the amount of sleep we need, but looking at animals, they are sleeping much more than we are and they tend to break up their sleep into smaller chunks. You might need eight hours of sleep, but maybe your number is six or ten hours. You should also consider adding a nap into your routine. Next time you think you need a pick-me-up from your coffee cup, try a short nap. I’m a big fan of the nap and try to catch one every day; it is the best way I know to “reboot” my brain for an afternoon in front of the computer. Here is a great page for information on napping and a no nonsense guide to napping.
  
• Not Relaxing: You relax don’t you? You go home, sit in front of the television and relax. Right? That is not what I’m talking about. You, your body, your mind, and your soul need a time out. I’m not talking about sitting in front of the television, but true relaxing, just hanging out and doing nothing. To understand what I mean by relaxing, try picturing a day at the beach. The beach seems to be one place in our society where it is okay to just sit and do nothing (if you didn’t pack in toys, radios…). Try to set aside a small portion of your day for pretending you are on the beach. Just sit and stare at the clouds or your ceiling or whatever. Do nothing, just let your mind wander. If you are into prayer or mediation, this is a great time to practice that.
  
• Eating Grains:
  I know what you are thinking when you read this: of course it is normal to eat grains; the government recommends that grains make up most of our diet, it has to be normal. But, once again, eating grains seems normal because everyone is doing it, but grains are not optimal food for humans. Humans have only been munching on grains – in any large amounts – for the last 7,000 years. Sure, that sounds like a lot of time, but it actually is not. Our bodies have not adapted to the large amount of carbohydrates we put into them. High blood sugar which results from eating grains is responsible for more ill health than smoking cigarettes (see my book Sugarettes). Try replacing grains with fruits and vegetables at every meal. You will be astonished at how much better you feel.
• Wearing Shoes: Putting shoes on your feet seems pretty normal, right? Actually, your foot is incredible complex and wearing shoes all the time can be harmful to your feet. I suggest you spend at least part of the day waking around without shoes. A great trick is to get a plastic bucket and fill it with small stones (like pea gravel) spend ten or 15 minutes just standing in the gravel. It gives your feet a massage and rebuilds many of the muscles that have atrophied due to shoe wearing. There are also shoes from Terra Plana called Vivo Barefoot shoes that have a Kevlar bottom so that your feet can have the barefoot experience while still looking like a normal shoe.
• Being Inside: We live most of our lives inside and this is just not healthy. Not only is the air pollution inside a home or office often much worse than outside, we are also not getting enough sunlight. We have grown afraid of the big bad sun and have forgotten that it has a lot to do with our health. Yes, you should not be out in the sun long enough to get a bad burn, but skin cancer has a lot less to do with our exposure to sunlight than previously thought. It appears that skin cancer may have much more to do with the lack of essential nutrients than sun exposure; some research suggests that it is the lack of sunlight that causes cancer. We get vitamin D from sun exposure and that vitamin is so essential to our health that you should consider supplementing if you are not getting enough (I like cod liver oil for vitamin D supplementation).
• Drinking Calories: If you think, like I do, that eating foods as close to the way that they are presented to us in nature (non-processed) is the best way to eat, then you have to question consuming calories in liquid form. Think about it, if you go back 10,000 years, how many drinkable foods were available on the planet? Only water (okay, and, breast milk). Drinking calories only becomes a problem when those calories are mostly sugars. Sugars in liquid form are absorbed rapidly into our bodies and create all sorts of havoc including: weight gain, diabetes, heart disease and maybe even cancer. Our bodies are woefully unprepared for calories to come in a liquid form. If you are going to do only one thing for your health, I strongly urge you to stop drinking soda and fruit juice.
• Stretching Before Exercise: Okay, I don’t count this as a major health hazard, but there is a great recent article that shows stretching is not such a good idea for athletes.
• Not Moving our Buns Around: We sit a lot! We sit in cars, we sit at work, we sit on the couch… humans are professional sitters. Our ancestors had far more muscle mass than most of us do today. Muscle mass is one of the keys to not only how long we live, but also to general health and weight loss. You need to get up and move your buns around every day and build up your muscle mass. Walking is perhaps the best exercise you can participate in, but swimming, cycling, running, hiking and anything that gets your heart rate up, are all great. Exercise is so important that you should prioritize it over everything else that you do: exercise is a vitamin, exercise is a drug, exercise is the fountain of youth. There are hundreds of research studies that show that exercise helps with weight loss, depression, anxiety, heart health and works as an anti-cancer activity. Get off your buns and move them around a bit every day.
• Not Going to The Bathroom When We Need to Go: Once again, look to the animal world and find one animal that will stop its urges to go to the bathroom. Ignoring the urge to urinate has been associated with a higher rate of urinary tract infections, but it is especially harmful when you hold on to a bowel movement. Constipation is a major source of illness and increases the risk for hemorrhoids and even certain cancers. Constipation often leads to more constipation. I know it is hard, because of how we live our lives, but try and not ignore your body’s urges.
• Cooking Foods: As I mentioned earlier, it is best to eat foods as close to the way that they are presented to us as possible. When we cook foods, they lose vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. The most grievous of losses are the loss of essential fatty acids, or EFAs. Most of us don’t get enough essential fatty acids and EFAs are one of the few supplements that I think everyone should take (one again, I would recommend cod liver oil to get your EFAs).

Well, there they are: the Weird Things Humans Do. I’m sure I missed a few; feel free to add them into the comment section. When you look at all the strange things we do you start to realize just how un-normal normal can be. Health is a matter of breaking free of the things most people do and charting a way through the world that prioritizes your health.

If you get in a car wreck, break your arm, or if you are having a heart attack, you know what to do: Head straight for your local medical doctor or hospital. That makes sense.

The problem arises when you have a chronic illness such as asthma, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, diabetes or even cancer. If you have one of these conditions, you now begin to wonder where you should go. You have a wide variety of practitioners to choose from medical doctors, naturopathic doctors, acupuncturists, and an equal variety of approaches both medical and natural.

Worse still is if you know you don’t feel right, but no tests any doctor runs find anything wrong with you. While the choices seem overwhelming, they are really a choice between two competing medical ideas.

Two Roads Diverge in the Woods

When you have a chronic illness or you are just feeling sick and tired, you are standing at a crossroads, but this crossroads is maybe not what you think. You are not standing at a crossroads between natural medicine and conventional medicine, but at the choice between choosing symptom relief or supporting the natural healing mechanisms of your body.

What most people don’t realize is that a path to health, especially when they have a chronic disease or simply don’t feel right, is a choice between these two competing thoughts. Let’s take a look at both of them.

Symptom Relief

Symptom relief is a great idea. You are feeling bad and you want to feel better, so you reach for something that is going to make you feel better. Everybody does this. The question you want to ask yourself, though, is how long do you want to go for just symptom relief?

Imagine for a moment that you have a problem with anxiety. A great solution for that anxiety is alcohol; it has the ability to remove the symptom of anxiety from your body and if it were considered a medicine, we would say that it is fairly effective – it works pretty well. But you can see the folly in thinking that drinking a beer is a good solution for anxiety. Along with the “medicine” comes a whole host of side-effects that are undesirable, the same holds true of many medicines. It may work for a while, but it is not a long-term solution.

Symptom relief is a good approach for the short-term, but you want to employ other strategies when you are dealing with a longer term illness.

Supporting Your Natural Healing Mechanism

Here is the thing that you need to understand about your body: it wants to be healthy. There is a natural healing mechanism inside your body that only needs to be supported to help you heal from almost any illness. You know and trust this natural healing mechanism when you get a minor injury such as a cut on your finger.

Think about it, you are cutting vegetables for dinner and the knife accidentally nicks your finger. If you are typical, you don’t run out of your house and to the Emergency Room for a minor cut. You support the natural healing mechanism of your body by washing off the cut and then putting a band aid over it. You then forget about it because you trust that your body will heal the cut. In a few days your take off the band aid and your body has already repaired much of the damage. In a few weeks, you won’t remember the cut or see any evidence that it ever happened.

Think about what a miracle that is! Wound to perfect skin… all in a few weeks.

You could also do the opposite: not support your body’s healing mechanism. Imagine if you had that same cut, only this time you didn’t clean it, rubbed it in filth and allowed it to become infected. That same cut might blossom into a larger infection, the wound might not close, and you could end up being very sick or having a scar from all the damage.

When you Feel Sick and Tired

Wouldn’t it be nice to trust that same natural healing mechanism that heals your minor cut also can heal your chronic disease? Choose symptom relief if you must, but also choose to support your body in the exact way you supported it when you got that cut: create the conditions for your body to heal itself. Just like the cut, your body needs your help to create the right conditions for health.

Here are the best ways to create the conditions for health, no matter the disease you might have:

• Food: Eat food as close as you can to the way it is found in nature. This means food that is minimally cooked and is free from preservatives, additives, and colorings. Fill your plate with as many vegetables and fruits as you can. Avoid sugars and foods that act like sugars in your body, such as many grain-based foods. Eat foods that are organically grown if possible.
• Exercise: Get out of the house and move your buns around. Walking is enough, but think about riding a bike, running, playing tennis, swimming – whatever you can do.
• Laugh: Take clues from kids and find the humor in everything you can and be ready to play at any moment.
• Sleep: Consider sleep to be a medicine. Take whatever means necessary to get enough sleep. Many people with chronic illnesses need more sleep than the rest of the population. Take a nap if you need it.
• Supplement: You are probably not getting enough nutrients and should consider a good multivitamin and a good essential fatty acid supplement. Don’t go overboard with supplements, though, I have had patients bring me large bags full of every conceivable supplement. It should be simple; most people need only a few supplements.
• Take time off: you need to relax as much as you need food and exercise. Relaxing means that you choose any activity that breaks you out of your routine and gives you a chance to be alone with your thoughts and your desires and not be run by your schedule.

While this might seem like a simply list, it is actually hard for most people to follow and that is why so many of us are sick. Know that the investment in yourself takes time, effort, and sometimes money, but that the investment is well worth it.

Do you find yourself scratching your head when you read the latest news? One headline suggests that coffee is good for you and the next reads that it is not good for you; another headline says alcohol is great for your health and then another tells you that it is not. What about a high protein diet, or a high carbohydrate diet, or an all-grapefruit diet? Do you choose bottled water or filtered water? What about using a microwave?

If you are confused, you are not alone.

One of the problems we have is that there is so much health information out there that it is often hard to decide what is good for you. The other problem, and one that I think is the root of all this confusion, is in understanding what is truly important versus what is not. What health advice is worth investing your time and effort in and what it just simply good advice.

Since we are all busy, let me try and give you some guidelines when dealing with health information, let’s start with alcohol and coffee.

Sitting on a Fence

There is something I call the Health Fence that a lot of health advice falls under. If one day you read that alcohol is the fountain of youth and the next day you read that it has the potential to do harm, then it belongs on the Health Fence. What you have to understand about the items that end up on the Health Fence is that they are both good and bad for you, often depending on the dose.

On the Health Fence are things like coffee, wine, and sunshine. Coffee is good for you, but not if you are drinking 3 or more cups a day. Wine, likewise, has health benefits, but not if you are drinking more than a glass or two a day. Sunshine is essential for your health, but if you are out in the sun long enough to have a severe burn, then it is not so good for you.

Don’t be confused by conflicting studies with items on the Health Fence; just understand that all of these items can be either good or bad for you depending on how much you use or are exposed to them.

Other Health Confusions

Besides items that end up on the Health Fence, let me give you an idea of how important the rest of the confusing health questions.

• Obesity: Being overweight or obese has received a lot of attention in the last few years, with a few popular books suggesting that weight has little to do with health. The truth, though, is that there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that associates increases in weight with many diseases including diabetes, insulin resistance, heart disease and some cancers.
• Smoking: There is no confusion about smoking; it is bad for your health and you should stop yesterday if you are a smoker.
• Sugar: Sugar is every bit as harmful as cigarettes and I describe the extent of the damage in my book Sugarettes. While the medical community says little about the harm done by sugar, very soon they will realize what a health tragedy sugar is and reverse their stance.
• Fast food: Eating fast food means, for the most part, that you are eating processed foods that are often overcooked and that are full of additives, preservatives and colorings. There are, however, healthier choices when picking up something quick. Some fast food restaurants serve made-to-order burritos, or Asian-style foods, or even sushi, which are all relatively healthy. Choosing from these healthier fast food restaurants is much better for your health.
• Chocolate: Chocolate itself is healthy; the sugar that usually surrounds it is not. If you must eat chocolate (and, yes, I know for some of you it is a MUST), find a low-sugar alternative to your typical high-sugar chocolate treat.
• Artificial Sweeteners: There is no question that these are bad for you and you should avoid them. There are many good books about this subject; educate yourself before you ever put these chemicals in your body again.
• Bottled water: There is no doubt that bottled water is not your best choice when you are thirsty. From the plastic chemicals that leach into the water to the environmental problems with dealing with the plastic, using filtered or even tap water is often your best choice.
• Margarine: Thank goodness that the truth about margarine is finally out! Avoid this plastic-non-food as it is very bad for you and your health.
• Exercise: There is no question that exercise is good for you, so stop reading this right now and get out and move your buns around. Exercise has so many health benefits that it should be called the fountain of youth. Exercise has been shown in research studies to improve insulin resistance, heart disease, depression, longevity, insomnia and a long list of other conditions.
• Microwave cooking: Microwave cooking falls in that sort of in-between space. Yes, microwaves destroy vitamins and other nutrients, but so does almost every way of cooking. Microwaves have the potential to alter the structure of proteins and fats, but it is unclear how harmful this may be; once again, it is probably a matter of dose. I generally recommend eating foods as close to their original state as possible, but cooking foods occasionally in a microwave shouldn’t be a problem.
  
• Dietary Fat: Is fat good for you or bad for you? The answer to that question depends on the type of fat you are talking about. The good fats are essential fats found in fish oil and flax oil and in many foods. The bad fats are artificially hydrogenated and trans fats (such as margarine). The lack of good fats in most people’s diet is a major cause of illness and you should consider supplementing with fish oil if you don’t already.
  

What Else?

Do you have any other health concerns that you are confused about? I’ll keep updating this post as your questions come in. Use the comments at the end of the post, or submit a question using the question link.

I’ve created this list of top Health Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make because it will give you an idea where to best focus your energies. Yes, you should consider which bottled water you should be drinking (if you should be drinking any bottled water), but the areas Health Mistakes below are where you are going to get the most bang for your buck. Some of them are not easy (actually most are not that easy), and the reason why most people don’t do them. But choosing to take care of you requires a bit of dedication because we live in a world that supports our ill health and not our good health.

Take a look the following Health Mistakes and see how well you are taking care of yourself.

Not Investing in Yourself

Most people will throw money at a new car, new TV, or new cell phone before they will spend the extra money on their anything to do with their health. You, by the way, are worth spending money on; once you’ve lost your health, you’ve lost everything (including your new cell phone). Investing in yourself means not only making sure you visit your naturopathic doctor, chiropractor or other health practitioners, but that you also you consider your health a priority and invest in yourself by buying supplements, reading books about health, getting massages and exercising.

Eating Sugar and Foods that Act like Sugar

This is probably the toughest one on the list and the topic of my book Sugarettes, but there is not a single thing you do every day that will cause more harm to your body than eating sugar and foods that act like sugar. When your blood sugar rises, your body pays the price.

Not Getting Enough Sleep

Sleep is so important; it should be considered a vitamin in itself. There is good research that shows that not getting enough sleep harms memory, concentration, mood and poor sleep even has been linked to heart disease. How much sleep should you get? The answer is individual to each person, but it is generally recommended to get somewhere between 7 and 9 hours of sleep.

Not Exercising

Outside of the food that you put into your mouth there is nothing than can have a bigger impact on your health than maintaining a lifetime exercise program. Exercise improves blood sugar control, can help with weight loss, improves mood, reduces anxiety… exercise is so powerful it is almost a panacea. Walking is enough, but cycling, running, swimming and other forms of exercise are great.

Not Relaxing

Here is the funny thing, we all know how to keep busy and get things done, but very few of us know how to truly relax. In order for the body and mind to rejuvenate, we all need a rest period. This can be as simple as taking a 15 minute walk after lunch. Better yet, try taking a week off every year to focus on relaxing; this is not a typical vacation where you are running around, but a time to just hang out and do nothing.

Avoiding the Sun

If you are typical, you are probably a bit sun-phobic, but you shouldn’t be. The dangers of the sun have been highly overblown. Yes, you should avoid being burned, but we need sun like we need water and food. We tend to live and even travel in boxes that block out the sun and fresh air. Get out of your boxes and see the real world.

The Best Investment You’ll Ever Make!

Focusing on your health is well worth it; especially as you age. Some of the above tips are hard, but working on your health will pay great dividends. When asked what they fear the most, older people tend to fear having to have someone take care of them in their old age. Do you really want someone dressing and feeding you? You can avoid this kind of fall into ill health by making a small investment in your health over time. Start Today.