These Good Health Habits can improve everyone's health.

by Webmaster, All4NaturalHealth.com

Looking for a quick read of good health habits?

There is a wealth of information on natural health and healing on this website, and on the internet and various books out there. But if you do not have the time, or simply do not have the interest, to do extensive reading, then this page and section would be perfect for you.

On this page are a list of basic good health habits which, embraced and carried out, would definitely have a positive impact on anyone's health. With this list, you will be able to formulate a good health plan for yourself.

Most of these good health tips are virtually free, while others replace the habits and things which you may currently be doing or using.

Good Health Habits Part 1: Diet and Nutrition
These good health habits are important; after all, as the saying goes, you are what you eat! Understanding nutrition, food and diet is thus important. You could also learn more through our many nutrition health articles.



• Filter your source of drinking water.
  Our water supplies are contaminated with various chemicals, while chlorine and fluoride are also carcinogens. Distilled or Reverse Osmosis would be ideal. If you can't afford those, a simple ceramic carbon filter is better than nothing.

  Preferably, filter your shower water too, as the pores on our skin absorb a lot of the chlorine which is in it.

• Drink more water
  Water is critical to good health. Our bodies are over 80% water! Water carries out many functions in the body -- it lubricates, carries nutrients, flushes toxins, cools, etc. Many diseases have been linked to dehydration or lack of water. Sodas, coffee, alcohol etc do not count; in fact, these are harmful beverages which actually dehydrate your body. Freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices as well as herbal teas are good. This is perhaps THE most important of this list of good health habits.

• Go vegan
  There are different schools of thought as to whether humans are meant to eat meat, and whether going vegan would result in any nutritional deficiencies. Personally, I believe that we do not need meat -- after all, there are millions of healthy and strong vegetarians in the world (Click here to learn more about the numerous health benefits of vegetarian diets). In fact, vegetarians live longer than meat eaters. Eating animal flesh contributes to a long list of diseases -- heart disease, kidney disease, cancer, among others. This is partly due to the fat in animal flesh as well as the fact that our bodies generally find it difficult to digest meat. To make things worse, commercially-farmed animals today are bred in terrible living conditions (e.g. they are not able to roam around freely or get any sunshine), injected with hormones to make them grow faster, fed dubious food (e.g. diseased animal parts), injected with and fed drugs and steroids when they fall ill, and their flesh is chemically processed in order to keep longer. I don't want to be eating all this rubbish. If you choose not to go vegan, then at least eat less meat, or look for organic meat.

• Eat a variety of whole and natural foods
  Whole foods have many health benefits. For example, they contain more nutrients and fiber than processed foods. The nutrients in whole foods are also better assimilated by the body. By eating a variety of whole foods, we would thus be getting all the different nutrients which we need; try to have a colorful diet - i.e. fruits, vegetables, beans, etc of different colors. Processed foods, on the other hand, are unnatural and often contain a load of chemical additives and preservatives. Our modern day diets are a disastrous combination of too much processed foods and very little whole foods.

• Eat organic
  Commercially farmed vegetables and fruits are often genetically modified or sprayed with chemical pesticides. We are ingesting all these harmful toxins every day, at every meal, and the buildup causes disease in the long run. Eating organic reduces our intake of these poisons. Organic produce also contains more nutrients, which are natural and thus better assimilated by our bodies. Click here to read more about the health benefits of organic food.

• Eat more raw foods
  Raw foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, have many health benefits. For example, they contain more nutrients, enzymes and phytochemicals than cooked foods. They also have an unexplanable factor, the "life" factor -- these are living foods obtained fresh from nature; seeds, for example, have the potential to grow into huge plants and trees. Cooked foods are often devoid of or lacking in nutrients and difficult for our bodies to digest. In fact, there has been research which states that, after consuming a cooked meal, our bodies' immune system goes into overdrive to try and combat the large amount of toxins being produced! Many people actually advocate fully raw diets. The reality is that cooked foods generally taste better, and would be difficult to give up. The more raw you can eat, the better.

• Drink some fresh fruit and / or vegetable juice everyday
  Freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices are power-packed nutritional blasts -- they contain many vitamins, minerals, enzymes and phytochemicals essential for good health. Because the juice has been removed from the food fiber, the nutrients are more absorbable by the body, and the body is also saved the effort of digestion. In addition, the juices is a source of water for the body.

• Take a whole food supplement
  Our soils today are depleted, and even organically grown foods do not contain as much nutrients as they once did. Further, our bodies are subject to more stress and toxin intake today than they ever were. Thus, I believe some form of supplementation is necessary. However, I don't like vitamin and mineral pills because I have my doubts about the sources of these nutrients. Some of them have been found to originate from waste metals and even sewage sludge! I prefer my nutrients to come from natural foods, grown within nature. Barley grass , alfafa grass, wheat grass , spirulina -- these are some of the more popular ones. I take one which mixes a few of these foods, termed nature's "superfoods".

• Avoid poison and toxic intake in your food
  Avoid foods with unnatural and chemical additives, preservatives, coloring and flavoring. Learn to read food labels. Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, refined sugar and all kinds of drugs. These substances weaken you and accumulate in your body, causing long-term harm.

  You could learn more by reading our sections on Understanding Nutrition and Nutrition Health Articles.
  
  

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  Good Health Habits Part 2: Lifestyle
  Besides food-related ones, there are many other living-related good health habits which can be picked up. Indeed, living a healthy lifestyle is critical for good health.

• Get enough quality rest
  Have at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. Try to go to bed by 10pm, as the best period for the body to repair and heal itself is between 10pm and 2am. Try to sleep in total darkness, or in as little light as possible. This is an important, but often ignored, good health habit.

• Exercise regularly
  Humans were made to move. Our blood and lymphatic circulation, blood oxygen levels, heart strength, lung capacity, elimination systems, fitness, mood, etc are all improved with exercise. Modern day living and modern technology have reduced us to such sedentary beings that we are sorely lacking in exercise. Thus, in the modern day context, this is also one of the important good health habits.

• Sweat
  Sweating is a major channel for our bodies to detoxify. However, most of us hardly move and hardly sweat anymore. Sweating can be achieved mainly through exercise, saunas or sunbathing.

• Get more oxygen in
  Our air today has less oxygen than it did a hundred years ago. On top of that, it is heavily polluted with toxic gases. Add in the fact that most of us don't exercise regularly and practice shallow breathing, we are not getting enough oxygen into our cells and tissues. Poorly oxygenated cells are a major cause of many serious diseases, including cancer. You can get more oxygen into your body by learning to breathe deeper, meditating, exercising, and going to more oxygen-rich places, such as nature reserves. It's also a good idea to use an air purifier in the house and office. This is another of the important good health habits. After all, oxygen is the most essential nutrient of all -- without it, we die within minutes, if not seconds. At the very least, learn to breathe deeper all the time, and get into the nature reserve once every few days.

• Improve your circulation
  Blood and lymphatic circulation are critical to move nutrients to and remove wastes from your cells. Besides exercise, there are specific ways to improve your circulation, such as rebounding, foot reflexology and dry skin brushing.

• Get some sunshine
  One of today's greatest health fallacies is that the sun is harmful to our health. The sun is the source of all energy on Earth, and humans have lived in harmony with the sun for thousands of years. Suddenly the sun is bad for us? Was God dreaming when he created the sun? The result of this fallacy is widespread Vitamin D deficiency in the first world today -- sunlight is necessary for our bodies to create Vitamin D -- and Vitamin D deficiency is linked to weakened immune systems and a host of diseases, including osteoporosis and cancer. Having said that, try to avoid the midday sun -- the mornings and evenings are the best time to sunbathe, and don't get burnt. Sunscreen lotions contain many harmful chemicals which are absorbed by human skin and, in my mind, are more dangerous than sunburn itself, so I totally avoid them. If you consume a highly fresh and raw diet with a high amount of antioxidants and little or no processed foods, your body will be very well protected from sunburn. Personally, I find this to be one of the more important good health habits, and a very enjoyable one too!

• Keep poisons out of the mouth and teeth
  Many people are not aware that mercury amalgams (commonly called silver amalgams) are very dangerous. Mercury, which is extremely toxic and causes many serious diseases, is constantly leeched and swallowed into body, 24 hours a day. Root canals and decaying teeth are also harmful, as the infections produce toxins which constantly poison the body all day round. Cleaning out your teeth is a very critical good health habit!

• Wear natural clothing
  The skin is the body's largest organ and it needs to "breathe" in order to remove gaseous and liquid wastes. Wool, cotton, silk -- these are natural. Polyester and other man-made materials hamper our skin's function. These artificial materials also contain undesirable chemical compounds.

  Click here for more tips and articles on living a healthy lifestyle.

  
  
  
  

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  Good Health Habits Part 3: Detoxification
  Our bodies are carrying out detoxification every single moment we are alive. If our diet and lifestyle are clean and wholesome, our bodies should be detoxifying effectively. But, nonetheless, it still needs some help from time to time, especially in view of how toxic our lives are today. Think of full body detox as regular 'servicing', the same way you send your car for servicing.

• Clean your colon; consume more fiber
  Many natural healers and even medical doctors believe that "death begins in the colon". Our modern diets are filled with sticky, starchy foods and are very low in fiber. The result is slow, sluggish and clogged up colons. Toxins are stuck in our bodies and reabsorbed, causing auto-intoxication and weakened and overworked immune systems. In the long run, diseases develop. You can improve your colon health and function by consuming more fiber. More intensive cleansing can be carried out by taking colon cleansing herbs or supplements.

• Detoxify your other organs
  Besides cleaning your colon, it is a good idea to undertake periodic detoxification of your other body organs and systems. This can be done using liver flushes, kidney flushes, juice fasting, blood purification herbal teas, various herbal concoctions, castor oil packs, etc.

• Sweat more
  I know sweating was already mentioned under "Lifestyle". But I'm emphasizing it because it is a really good and important way for our bodies to detoxify. Consider this the 'advanced level'. An excellent way to sweat a lot is to use saunas, especially infra-red saunas.

  Click here to learn more about how to detox your body.

  
  

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  Good Health Habits Part 4: Living Environment
  Our bodies are absorbing the harmful chemicals surrounding the environment today. It is thus imperative that we clean up our living environment as much as possible.

• Use natural cleaning and other agents
  The regular detergents, soaps, shampoos, toothpastes, perfumes, etc which we come into contact with today contain many chemicals which are toxic to our bodies, some even carcinogenic. Although we don't directly ingest them, these chemicals are absorbed by our skin and we also breathe them in. Natural agents, on the other hand, are free from such harmful toxins.

• Remove poisonous agents from the house
  Beware of other harmful chemicals such as turpentine, arsenic, insecticides, paints, etc. Again, even though we don't ingest them, we are constantly breathing in their gaseous fumes. On physical contact, our skin may also absorb them. Do your best to clean out such poisons from the house.

• Avoid clutter
  This includes physical clutter in your house and your office, as well as mental clutter. Physical clutter cramps our lives and affect our health. Further, they contain dust and breed bacteria, which also weaken our health.

  More good health habits can be picked up by reading our section on Living a Healthy Lifestyle.

  
  
  
  

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  Good Health Habits Part 5: Non-Physical Aspects
  Very few people realize this, but these good health habits are critical.

• Have a positive mental outlook
  Love life, have an attitude of gratitude, have a positive attitude and mindset, and be positive about the future. Do not be governed by fear. A positive outlook is critical for good health and recovery from serious diseases.

• Have a bright and healthy mental and emotional state
  Smile and be happy. Have a sense of humor, and laugh more. Manage your stress levels and reduce worry and anxiety. Avoid dosing yourself with bad news and negative people; the TV news and newspapers are filled with unnecessary bad news -- if possible, avoid them. If there are issues, such as grief, manage and deal with them. Mental and emotional stress and trauma suppress our immune systems, and also release many harmful toxins into our bodies.

• Cultivate your spiritual health
  Trust in God. Pray and meditate. If necessary, carry out spiritual cleansing. Importantly, celebrate life; celebrate everything!

• Develop a healthy relationship with yourself
  Learn to listen to yourself, as well as to express yourself; suppressing your thoughts and feelings and keeping everything to yourself is very bad for health. Very importantly, learn to love yourself. When we dislike ourselves and / or our bodies, our bodies react accordingly and start producing ill health.

• Help others
  Many natural healers and spiritual teachers stress the importance of helping others in achieving personal good health. My take is, what goes around comes around; when we help others, somehow, we are helping ourselves too.

  More good health habits can be picked up by reading our section on Living a Healthy Lifestyle.
  
  
  

Most of these good health habits are simple to understand and can be easily picked up. However, they are actually quite difficult to master! But if they can add to your QUALITY and QUANTITY of life, don't you think it's well worth it? I certainly do!

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about these good health habits. I also hope that this list of good health habits will help you to formulate for yourself a good health plan, and you can then be well on the road to good health!

Here's wishing you a healthy life ahead!

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