“When you have your health, you have everything.” I don’t know who said it first, but it’s true!
In fact, this message is more important today than at any other time in our lives.
As we grow older and face our future health with some trepidation, we as individuals are tasked with taking the best care of ourselves we can to avoid chronic disease, acute illness and accidents that may lead to a requisite hospital stay.
While we can’t shield ourselves from every ill—and short of becoming a nation of paranoid recluses (that’s not good for health either!)—there are steps we can take to lower our risk of accidents and illness. Along with looking both ways before crossing the street, and wearing a bicycle helmet EVERY time you ride your bike, there are multiple opportunities every day to manage the things we can control, such as the food we choose to eat and our lifestyle choices.
Choosing organic foods daily will help reduce exposure to toxins like herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, hormones and antibiotics. And don’t forget, you have the same opportunity to reduce your toxic burden when it comes to personal grooming products, household cleaners and even how you care for your lawn. We get some healthy exercise too when we manually weed our gardens rather than use toxic chemicals like Roundup (perfectly manicured lawns have always looked unnatural to me. I like dandelions!). And, you get to say NO to Monsanto.
If you have the real estate, consider growing your own produce. There’s nothing like walking out to your own garden to gather fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs for your next meal. The nutrition content of fresh picked produce surpasses anything we get at the store, even if it’s organic.
Stay healthy, and you’ll be wealthy the rest of your life!
To your health!
Leyla Muedin, MS, RD, CDN
