Your Health: The Most Important Thing To Protect
It is hard to get away from news about the Covid-19 virus, and I understand how it can be frustrating, it’s all we hear about!! And I am no different, I want to write about this pandemic but from a different perspective. Bear with me!
If the older people in your life are anything like the ones in my mine, they have lots of sayings! Right? My father’s favourite is
“You have nothing if you don’t have your health.”
He is totally right! This pandemic has shown us clearly how this is unfortunately accurate.
I read a very interesting article from Italy, they have discovered that 99% of those who died from Covid Virus had other illness. In fact:
48.5% who died had 3 or more illness
25.6% who died had 2 other illness
25.1% had 1 other illness
Less than 1% who died had no other illness
So what were those illnesses?
More than 75% had high blood pressure
35% had diabetes
30% had heart disease
Did you know that Cardiovascular Disease is the #1 killer in the States, killing 1 person every 37 seconds? That’s approximately 647,000 people per year.
Canada is not that much better Cardiovascular Disease kills 1 in every 12 Canadians
Cardiovascular Disease is preventable in most cases. Did you know that at the turn of the 19th century heart disease wasn’t even in the top 10!! The top 3 killers were:
Pneumonia
Tuberculosis
Diarrhea and Enteritis together with diphtheria
What the heck happened?
Our diets and lifestyle changed.
To a diet with higher amounts of red meat, dairy, eggs, sugar and chemicals which are all directly related to incidences of CVD (cardiovascular disease) and its complications.
CVD and its complications are not inevitable results of aging, despite what Big Pharma wants you to believe.
It is part of their business plan for you to believe we all need blood pressure medication after a certain age. Don’t misunderstand me there is a time and a place for pharmaceutical drugs.
But, maybe we need to address poor diets and sedentary lifestyles and the correlation to CVD. All you have to do is look at the most comprehensive study on diets done to date, and that is The China Study.
The China Study examines the link between the consumption of animal products (including dairy) and chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and bowel cancer.[4] The authors conclude that people who eat a predominantly whole-food, plant-based diet—avoiding animal products as a main source of nutrition, including beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and milk, and reducing their intake of processed foods and refined carbohydrates—will escape, reduce, or reverse the development of numerous diseases. They write that "eating foods that contain any cholesterol above 0 mg is unhealthy."[5].
The China Study was published in 2005, 15 years ago. Why is CVD still an issue?
Well as many of my clients tell me, change is hard. I understand.
Big Industry of the meat, dairy, and processed foods still deny any relationship between their foods and CVD and high cholesterol.
Did you know there are 90 year olds in the Himalayan Mountains with no CVD! They do not require medications to control their blood pressure or their cholesterol, amazing, I know! That is the power of a mostly plant based diet and an active lifestyle and it is possible for you as well!
Our health should be at the top of all of our priority list and this pandemic has only highlighted exactly way. When our health is not a priority and we eat poorly, don’t manage our stress and are inactive the negative consequences go far beyond pharmaceutical drugs. In today’s Covid-19 environment poor choices can be deadly.
Start small and slow. Rome wasn’t built in a day, another fantastic saying from the old folks!
Have one meatless dinner per week
Include one extra vegetable at lunch and dinner
Get at least one fruit in at breakfast
Cut down on fast/processed food
Try new recipes
Ask for help
Try this Chickpea Sandwich for a healthy lunch
If you have any question, concerns or want more information please feel free to reach out to me, I would love to help!
Stay safe and healthy,
Best,
Sarah
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