Cultivating
healthy lifestyles is essential to
enjoy complete well-being, both physical
and mental. Although this is something
that we all want, often when we take action we look for excuses and end up
eating in an inconvenient way and leading a sedentary life. This is a
shame since to get the
best version of ourselves, it is
enough to incorporate certain habits into our
routine. Like everything, at first, it
costs a bit, however, the reward is very gratifying, because what is better than
taking care of ourselves and those we love the most?
What do we
understand by "health"?
Normally we associate health with the absence of
pathologies, however, it is much more than that. According to the World
Health Organization (WHO), " health
is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being,
and not only the absence of diseases or illnesses ."
As you can see, health goes beyond the body, as it
also has to do with our minds and with our social relationships. Therefore,
to achieve a healthy lifestyle it is essential to work
on these three aspects.
In general, the ones we tend to neglect the most are
the first two, that is, our body and our mind. Therefore, in the following
sections, we give you the keys to taking care of them in the best possible way by
incorporating some habits.
Healthy
Lifestyles: The 4 Pillars of Physical Well-Being
That the mind and the body are closely related is
something we have known for a long time. The Greeks already coined the
expression " Mens Sana
in corpore sana. " For a reason, it would be!
And, the basis of good mental health is physical
well-being. But what exactly does taking care of our body consist
of? Again, the approach is global: it is not enough to exercise, but it is
also necessary to eat a proper diet, sleep well, avoid tobacco and other toxins
and even carry out regular medical check-ups.
Here are some guidelines to cultivate the four
pillars on which physical well-being is based: diet,
physical activity, rest, and the absence of harmful habits for the body.
feeding
- Prioritize raw foods
Today's hectic pace of life makes us often resort to
ultra-processed ones: they are comfortable, tasty, and already cooked. This
is a big mistake! This type of food is the most harmful due to its high
content of sugar, salt, fat, preservatives, colorings, and additives. So
whenever you can, say no to ultra-processed!
Lack of time is not an excuse, since replacing
them with healthy options is perfectly compatible with a lifestyle in which
there is no time. For example, instead of having a muffin
with your mid-morning coffee, you can eat a handful of nuts or a piece of
fruit.
The key is that you always prioritize natural
foods. The less processed what you eat, the better. There are
applications like MyRealFood that allow you to know if a product is ultra-processed,
processed but not very harmful (well processed), or is healthy food (real
food). To know this information about a product, just scan its barcode, and
voila! We have quick and key information for healthy eating.
- Read the labels: avoid harmful
additives, added sugar and trans fats
Get used to reading the labels, as they contain essential
information to know what we really eat. Many
ingredients, such as additives, have nomenclatures by which it is difficult to
deduce whether they are harmful or not. To help us in the task of
identifying them, today we have tools as practical as that tell
us if an additive is "not harmful", "suspicious" or
"dangerous", as well as its origin, which can
be "animal", "vegetable" or "synthetic. To do
this, you just have to enter the ingredient code, for example, E-201. In
this case, we will see that we are faced with a preservative, specifically
sodium sorbate, of chemical or synthetic origin and not harmful.
As a rule, always choose those foods that have fewer
"harmful" additives or, better yet, those in which all are "not
harmful".
In addition to additives, when you read the label you
should also look at the number of sugars and saturated fats in foods. The
former is added to many products unnecessarily, something that has harmful
effects on health. For this reason, always
opt for products that do not have added sugars or
that, if they do, it is in very little proportion. In the same way, try
to always discard foods with saturated fats -
as they increase blood cholesterol and promote inflammation in the body - and
with trans fats., which are even more damaging. The
latter is obtained by an artificial process in which liquid oil is transformed
into solid fat (such as butter or margarine). Until now there was no
European or Spanish legislation that required them to declare their presence on the
label. Luckily as of April 2, 2021, no industrial food for sale in the EU
will be able to contain more than two grams of trans fat per 100 grams of fat,
as recently approved by the European Commission. Until then, if
the label says that the product contains vegetable oils and the term
“partially hydrogenated” or “hydrogenated” appears, it
is trans fat.
- Avoid pesticides and artificial
substances
Today, in order to improve productivity, the
use of pesticides in agriculture has increased. Although
this is regulated, many of the fruits and vegetables that come to our table
still contain traces of chemicals. Therefore, it is better to peel the
fruit before eating it. When you see an apple in the fruit shop that
shines a lot, if you buy it, try to peel it before eating it because they have
probably added "waxes" to achieve that shine so rare in a
fruit. Therefore, peel the fruit, wash the vegetables very
well, or opt for organic products, free of pesticides.
- Do not forget to include at least
five daily servings of fruit and vegetables in your diet
They are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants that
will help you fight
infections, and alleviate the effects of oxidative stress in the body,
one of the causes of aging and
cell damage. These foods also promote intestinal transit and
detoxification of the body, all advantages!
- Moderate the consumption of red meat
It is not about eliminating it from your diet, but
about limiting its consumption, since there is evidence that associates the
habitual consumption of this type of meat with the risk
of colorectal cancer. You can substitute it for
white meat of chicken, turkey, or fish.
- Switch to whole foods
Integral is not synonymous with bland or
tasteless. Quite the opposite! Cereals or wholemeal flours are very
tasty and, the best thing is they contain more vitamins and
minerals, promote intestinal transit, and do not cause rapid increases in blood
sugar levels, as in the case of refined flours.
- Do not abuse alcohol
As in the case of red meat, it is not a question of
eliminating it from your diet, but of consuming it in moderation, since abusing
alcohol has proven harmful effects on health.
- Drink water
Keep your body hydrated by drinking 2 liters of water
a day. This habit will help you purify
your body by eliminating waste through urine, perspiration, and intestinal transit.
Your lifestyle
habits
- do exercise
Exercise is another way to join a healthy
lifestyle. Get at least 2.5 hours of exercise a week,
as below that a person is considered to be inactive. Choose an activity
that you like and practice it, choose to walk instead of taking public
transport or the car, or look for an application to exercise at home, any
option works! The important thing is to stay active because the benefits
are multiple. For example, did you know that physical
activity releases endorphins that make us feel good and activates our immune
system?
In addition, regular exercise affects
your quality of life, as it provides you with more resistance to physical
fatigue and less disposition to falls and broken bones. For this reason,
it is very important to continue practicing it at advanced ages.
- Do not smoke
Tobacco smoke contains thousands of chemicals, of
which at least 70 are carcinogenic… not much more to say.
- Sleep the hours your body needs
If you are one of those who sacrifice hours of sleep
to gain extra time a day, you are undermining your health. Lack of sleep
has detrimental consequences both in the short, medium, and long term. When
we sleep our body recovers from daily activity
and our brain rests and tidies up. Most
adults need 7 to 9 hours of rest to feel good. Getting proper rest
improves memory, protects the heart, and even reduces depression.
Mental
well-being is key to a healthy life
It is of little use to worry about our physical
health if we neglect our mental well-being. So:
- Save your daily time for
yourself
Give yourself a moment each day to do what you like
or relax, without thinking about anything else: be it reading a good book,
practicing yoga or boxing or crocheting. Pampering
yourself is the first step to reducing stress and being comfortable with
yourself and the people around you.
- Share quality time with your partner
or friends
Human beings are
"social animals" . By nature, we need to
interact with our peers and have true and close relationships. Loneliness
has negative effects both psychically and physically, so do not neglect your
emotional ties and cultivate them as much as you can. In this case, no
moderation!
As you can see, the habits
that we propose to lead a healthy lifestyle are simple and available to anyone. Incorporating
them into our routine can be a bit of a challenge at first, but they come with
so many benefits that they make it worthwhile to get down to work and change
bad habits for better ones.
The habits we implement at home also help our families
improve. In the case of the little ones, this can be of great help, since
they are developing their customs and tastes, and therefore guiding them
towards the most beneficial will be something that will remain for the rest of
their lives.
Taking care of ourselves and avoiding
the appearance of many conditions depends largely on our decisions
and behavior. Do you know that according to the AECC (Spanish Association
Against Cancer) approximately 50% of cancers could be avoided with healthy
lifestyle habits? This does not mean that by adopting these types of
habits we will be sure of not presenting this disease, but surely we get fewer
ballots, so it is worth trying, right?
If you haven't already, now is the time to choose
healthy lifestyles and take proactive care of your health and that of your
family. Helping you do this is precisely the goal we have at Veritas.
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