Improving Health Through A Balanced Diet And Active Lifestyle

admin

May 4, 2013

The food that you put into your body has a direct impact on your health and wellness. Choosing to eat a well-balanced diet can offer many benefits, including a healthy body weight, reduced risk for heart and kidney disease, protection against preventable diseases like type 2 diabetes, and so much more. In order to feel your best, the body needs fuel in the form of nutrition packed foods so that you stay energized and focused.

The key components of a balanced diet

A balanced and nutritious diet should consist of all five food groups. That includes dairy, meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains. People can forgo meat for meat substitutes which provide the necessary proteins and iron. Fresh foods are always better than pre-packaged, so using as many fresh ingredients as possible is the best way to prepare your meals.

Fuel for staying fit and feeling strong

Food is what provides the body with all of the fuel that it needs to keep the organs, muscles, bones, and immune system running properly. You can dramatically improve your health simply by changing your diet and being more active in your daily life. Without the proper fuel, your body will slow down, excess weight will stick and be harder to take off, and you will feel sluggish and less focused.

A healthy heart

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death among women, and it affects millions of men, as well. Scientific research has proven that the best way to fight cardiovascular disease is by maintaining a well-balanced diet and an active lifestyle.

foods to eat for a healthy heart

Boosting the immune system

The immune system is the body’s line of defense from sickness and disease. Filling up the body with the right amount of vitamins will ensure that it can continue to fight off bacteria and germs. You can avoid communicable illnesses like the common cold and flu, as well as more serious health problems.

Keeping costs down

Health care costs are currently soaring in the Unites States because so many people are suffering from weight-related health issues. Many of the conditions are preventable, if only individuals would opt for a more active lifestyle and a nutritious diet. By filling your body with fresh vegetables, fruits, protein, and plenty of vitamins and minerals, you can reduce your own personal medical costs. Leading an active life, as opposed to a sedentary one, is more likely to decrease your annual doctor visits.

Making better choices

Each time that you go to the grocery store, you are making choices about your diet and wellness. Opting for seasonal produce, lean meats, and foods packed with calories and carbohydrates that will provide the necessary fuel for energy is the smart way to shop. Avoid processed food items, as they tend to be full of sugar and empty calories that will only pack on extra pounds.

healthy grocery shopping options

Moderation and variety

Many people wrongly believe that healthy foods are not as tasty or desirable. The key to making the switch to a better diet is to eat specific foods in moderation. If you make a change towards healthier meals and snacks, you can allow yourself sweets on occasion. The trick is to not over-indulge and limit yourself. Selecting a variety of food items will prevent you from tiring of a specific food, as well as provide many necessary nutrients and vitamins.

The need for a nutrition rich diet and active lifestyle cannot be underestimated. Only you can control what foods you eat. Taking the steps to improve your health and wellness can lead to a longer, healthier, and happier life.

Watchdog For Mental Health

admin

April 10, 2013

In 1969, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) was established to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights and to clean up the field of mental healing. For well over a century, psychiatric theory had held that because neither spiritual matters nor the mind could be measured with physical instruments, they did not exist and had no place in mental health treatment.

Typical psychiatric practice meant that patients were treated like animals—they were stripped of their legal rights and possessions, brutalized and ware- housed in degrading conditions. Inmates were terrorized with electric shock treatment, often as punishment and without consent. Psychiatric lobotomies and other psychosurgical procedures destroyed minds and lives. Powerful neuroleptic drugs caused irreversible brain and nervous system damage making patients sluggish, apathetic and less alert. Furthermore, patients were assaulted and sexually abused—all under the guise of “therapy.” Any claim of a scientific basis was a hoax.

Consider the story of Hollywood actress Frances Farmer, who over a six-year period in the 1940s appeared in 18 films, three Broadway plays and 30 major radio shows, all before the age of 27. Then, suffering from a series of failed relationships and addicted to amphetamines for weight control, Farmer was admitted to a Washington State psychiatric hospital. Raped by orderlies, prostituted by hospital staff to soldiers from a nearby military base, locked in a cage, subjected to electro- and insulin shock treatments, given ice-cold “shock” baths, powerful, debilitating drugs and psychosurgery— Frances Farmer’s personality and career were destroyed.

Unlike many, Farmer survived and was able to tell of her experiences: “Never console yourself into believing that the terror has passed, for it looms as large and as evil today as it did in the despicable era of Bedlam. But I must relate the horrors as I recall them, in the hope that some force for mankind might be moved to relieve forever the unfortunate creatures who are still imprisoned in the back wards of decaying institutions.”

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is that force.

Inspired by visionary humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard—who identified the abuse inherent in psychiatry’s acts when he said, “There must not be any influential group dedicated to man’s degradation,”—CCHR today is the preeminent international psychiatric watchdog.

Established by the Church of Scientology as an independent social reform group and co-founded by Dr. Thomas Szasz, professor emeritus of psychiatry, CCHR is responsible for many hundreds of international reforms gained through testimony before legislative hearings, its own public inquiries into psychiatric abuse, and its work with media, law enforcement and public officials.

This publication details some of the investigations, major changes and reforms CCHR has helped to bring about. Through CCHR’s diligence, thousands of victims of abuse have been rescued; patients have regained their legal and civil rights; mental health acts around the world have prohibited the arbitrary use of electroshock treatment, psychosurgery and banned deep sleep (narcosis) treatment and insulin shock. Legislation now exists to ensure psychiatric rape of patients is dealt with through the criminal courts, and many hundreds damaged by psychiatric “treatment” have been compensated.

Today, psychiatrists’ power to coerce parents into putting their children on very dangerous psychotropic drugs condemns us to a deepening drug culture and the subversion of the family unit. Seventeen million children worldwide are prescribed antidepressants that cause violent and suicidal behavior. This includes children younger than one year old who are now being prescribed mind-altering drugs. Millions more of our young are prescribed a stimulant that is more potent than cocaine. Therefore, CCHR’s job remains formidable and its watchdog role of preventing human rights abuses all the more vital.

For many psychiatric victims, CCHR is their only hope, the one group willing to listen that will not attribute their very serious complaints to the “delusions” of “mental illness.” Through CCHR’s work, countless lives have been saved or salvaged from the personal degradation that follows in the wake of psychiatric treatment. Today, CCHR proudly continues its watchdog role with over 130 chapters in more than 30 countries numbers that keep growing year after year in what is nothing less than a global fight for the dignity and decency of man. More vital than ever, CCHR’s work will only be complete when psychiatry’s fraudulent practices are eliminated and it is held accountable for its harmful treatments and human rights violations.