What is the secret to good health?

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Website owner:  James Miller

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What is the secret to good health? It is my belief that the vast majority of people could have good health and long lives if they managed themselves right. Sadly, I think that most people do not manage themselves well and develop health problems at young ages and die long before they would need to. And the reason is lack of understanding on how to have long, healthy lives plus lack of prudence and self-discipline. What is the secret to good health? I would list the following:

1. The right type of diet.

2. Keeping your weight down at a healthy level.

3. A habit of daily walking.

4. Avoiding habits that damage health such as smoking, drinking, or using drugs.

From what I have seen, I think most Americans are in poor health. I think being overweight is the biggest culprit in most cases. Excess weight places extra, unhealthy stress on every organ and system of the body. It stresses heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, back, joints, everything. And continual extra unhealthy stresses day after day, month after month, year after year on organs and systems has a cumulating effect and takes a toll. It does damage and brings health problems. Then people start taking medications, at first a few and then more and more, and soon things start getting complicated and medications start interacting with each other and hidden allergies appear that the doctors don’t quite understand and things just go down, down, down.

And behind America’s weight problem is the typical American’s love of pleasure, tendency toward self-indulgence, habit of continual “treating themselves”. They treat themselves to candy and cake and pie and sugar-loaded sodas and lots of juicy steaks. They live really good. And they pay for it. With the typical American, “pleasure now” trumps all else. It trumps wisdom and prudence. They have these powerful appetites and these appetites rule them.

It has occurred to me that the cook of the house is an extremely important, strategic person in a household. Far more so than most people would ever guess. The cook of the house probably buys the food, makes the decisions on what the meals will consist of, and prepares the meals. People may not realize it but most of the health problems of America probably can be traced back largely to the cook of the house, her attitudes, ideas, and cooking habits. It is just an unfortunate fact of life that usually the better tasting the food is, the worse it is for you. There are just a lot of types of cuisine that taste really great but are very bad for health. I suspect there are a whole lot of really great cooks who are personally responsible for their family’s health problems. There is just too much good cooking and good food in the house. And too little concern about healthy food, healthy eating. The husband wants good food and the wife fixes good food and they both, along with their children, pay the price. Life is all about habit. Good habits and bad habits. We all live by habit and think nothing about it. Well, habits make or break a person. To give you an idea of what I mean let me give you some quotes:

The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and

abstinence, to live as if he were poor.

Sir W. Temple

Eat to live, and not live to eat.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

Dine with little, sup with less:

Do better still; sleep supperless.

No wonder Tom grows fat, th' unwieldy sinner,

Makes his whole life but one continual dinner.

Eat few suppers and you'll need few medicines.

Many dishes, many diseases.

I saw few die of hunger; of eating --- 100,000.

I have always been the cook in our house. I don’t like cooking and the meals in our house have always been very simple. I have been continually tweaking our diet for years. We eat a lot of rice. It is the big staple of our diet. We have it about every day. Parboiled rice. It is cheap and very easy to fix. I bring it to a boil, cover it with a blanket, and it cooks by itself. We also eat a lot of beans. I think they are a healthy food. We never fry and avoid oil and greasy food. We eat no beef, occasionally ham, some chicken, turkey and tuna, but most of our meals are vegetarian. We always omit the salt, try to keep sodium at a minimum. And we avoid sweets and never eat deserts. It has been years since I have had any cake or pie. For a number of years now we have been having vegetable-fruit smoothies for breakfast. I strongly recommend them. We try to avoid the “whites” — foods made of refined flours or ingredients. We eat only whole wheat bread. Although we eat some meat I believe the healthiest diet is a vegetarian diet.

We essentially never eat out at restaurants. The exception is an occasional $1.00 sandwich at a fast food restaurant.

See:

On Health

How cheaply can one eat?

I am 81, take no medications, get a physical every year, and am in good health as far as I know. I think my disciplined lifestyle has a lot to do with it.

I believe the government should stay out of peoples’ lives as much as possible, that everyone should be free to live as he wants to live, make his own choices. It is the responsibility of each of us to act intelligently and prudently. If people act and live foolishly and then pay for it, it is no ones’ fault but their own. I have little sympathy for them.

Of course all of this presents a real dilemma for the pleasure-loving American. If his love of great food, great eating, brings health problems and an early death, what is he to do? Give them all up just to live a little longer? That is just a lot to ask of a person! It is like asking one to give up smoking or alcohol or drugs.

Back to the dinner table! Bring in that juicy steak from the grill! Think about diet some other time!

20 May 2021