Happiness

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts…take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.” – Marcus Aurelius

Selfishness

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” – Oscar Wilde

Part 3– Solution for our Food Supply Problem — Part 1

First let’s look at the new FDA pyramid that is now on line. Note that the base now is actually including Exercise & Weight Control. You’ll see an article about Exercise below this one & the Weight Control will be an article to come.

Even since this came out there has been another revision with the vegetables, instead of just ‘in abundance’ they are now recommending 9-12 servings!!! Wow, who does that?? This is why off to the side you now see a bottle of vitamins & minerals.

So why do we need vitamins? What do they do for our bodies? You can probably find a lot information on the internet, but I will give you just a summary of their collective function, realizing that each vitamin & mineral has a specific function for which it is needed. It would really take many articles to develop all the details, maybe I’ll do that sometime, but for now we will keep it general. Basically, vitamins & minerals are needed by our bodies to break down our foods into the individual nutrients & then reassemble these nutrients into our cells. Several minerals are also needed for the structural parts of our tissues. Each vitamin & mineral require different levels of intake for us to have optimal health. This is where the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowances) come in to help us know how much we need. RDA’s were originally generated by observing the actual diet of apparently healthy individuals. Individuals vary in their needs, circumstances such as high stress, or even some drugs can affect the bodies ability to use nutrients. You can find a list of some of these risk factors on pages 6 & 7 in the book “Choices” by Bill H. McAnalley, PhD & friends. As discussed in part 1 the decline of the nutritional value of our foods also makes the strict adherents to the RDA values somewhat suspect. Dr. Bruce Ames, Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of California at Berkley, concluded that “Remedying micronutrient deficiencies is likely to lead to a major improvement in health and an increase in longevity at low cost.” Could the low cost be one of the reasons we don’t hear much about this? Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association recommended to the physicians that since people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone therefore “it appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements.”

Any trip to the drug store, Wal-Mart, or even grocery stores that includes the vitamin & mineral aisle you will see a vast array of choices. How do I know which is the best? Which ones should I take & how much? I’ll tackle that question next time.

Measure of Wealth

“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” — Bernard Meltzer

Healthy Skin

“Healthy skin is created from the inside out, beginning with your thoughts and diet. If you consistently choose healthy foods that your body can digest and assimilate, and you lead a balanced lifestyle that includes adequate rest and activity, you can expect to have a healthy glow and tone
to your skin.

Wealth vs. Life

“Wealth is the ability to truly experience life.” –Henry David Thoreau

Personal Accountability

“Personal accountability is not about changing others. It’s about making a difference by changing ourselves. Personal accountability. The power of one.” The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller

Truly Succeed

“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.” — Maya Angelou