Naomi was hopelessly lost. As she drove, absolutely nothing looked familiar. She noticed a fluttering in her stomach. She had to admit that she was in a lovely area, with large shade trees and a lovely lawn, but there were no houses where she could stop to ask directions. And the road seemed so narrow. She was starting to feel confused again. And there was nowhere to turn around. So she stopped the car and placed the gearshift into park.

Some time passed before a groundskeeper noticed the car on the golf course cart path. He called the police. A patrolman checked Naomi’s identification and called her husband. The police officer then notified the state driver’s licensing authority that Naomi should be retested.

Knowing when and how to take away the keys to the car is one of the most troublesome issues facing families who have a loved one with the illness. As we age, our eyesight and hearing may worsen. Depth perception plays tricks. Our reaction time slows. These elements of normal aging may interfere with our ability to drive a motor vehicle safely. For someone with Alzheimer’s disease, these normal processes are complicated by additional symptoms related to the disease’s effect on the brain. In fact, studies show that a person with Alzheimer’s disease has twice the chance of being involved in a motor vehicle accident as a driver of the same age without the illness.

While a person in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease may retain the ability to drive a motor vehicle, as the disease progresses, the time is likely to come when he or she is no longer safe behind the wheel. At the same time, the person with Alzheimer’s disease will cling to whatever sense of independence he or she can.

The American Psychiatric Association says that some Alzheimer’s patients with moderate impairment and all severely impaired patients pose unacceptable risks to themselves and others behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Even those in early stages of the disease may be unable to drive even short distances safely. Depending on the individual, family members and others have a responsibility to assess the situation and, when necessary, step in and take away the keys.

Warning Signs

How do you know when to restrict driving privileges in a person with Alzheimer’s disease? Trust your instincts. If you feel uncomfortable riding with him or her-or letting your children ride along-you may have unconsciously decided that the time has come. Another indicator is the person’s inability to follow a recipe or perform simple household tasks. These types of activities require some of the same mental abilities necessary for safely operating a motor vehicle.

Deterioration in the ability to concentrate, as well as impairment of judgment seen in people who have Alzheimer’s disease, add to the concern about such patients driving motor vehicles. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, some things to watch for include the following:

1. Getting lost.

Anyone can get lost in an unfamiliar area. Those with Alzheimer’s disease may become disoriented and be unable to find his or her way in familiar locales.

2. Ignoring traffic signals.

Failure to notice or obey stop signs, traffic lights or other highway markers may mean the driver didn’t notice them. In addition, the driver may have lost the ability to associate the sign with its meaning. He or she may see the sign, but not know what it means.

3. Lack of judgment.

Inability to estimate the speed of oncoming traffic, deciding whether to stop for a yellow light or slide through the intersection, or becoming confused at a four-way stop sign are some examples of poor judgment while driving. Being slow to make decisions-or making poor ones-when driving can result in accidents that can harm the driver, as well as others on the road.

4. Driving too fast or too slowly.

Erratic driving at inappropriate speeds can indicate a lack of concentration, as well as poor physical coordination. It may also indicate poor judgment.

5. Anger and confusion.

You don’t have to have Alzheimer’s disease to experience road rage. Frustration during driving can make anyone flustered or angry. If the driver has Alzheimer’s disease, however, watch for frequent occurrences of anger or confusion, as well as inappropriate or exaggerated reactions, while driving.

Taking Away the Car Keys

If your family member’s ability to drive is impaired, you have a moral responsibility to take action to keep him or her off the road. However, accomplishing this goal may not be easy. Any suggestion that car keys be relinquished could be met with resistance, frustration, anger, or hostility-especially when it comes from a family member who may already be providing care by assisting with activities of daily living like bathing, dressing, and meal preparation.

Ask the Doctor

Many Alzheimer’s families turn to the loved one’s physician for help with the issue. Your loved one may more easily accept advice not to drive from a health care professional he or she has an established trust relationship with. For one thing, a doctor is often seen as an authority figure. For another, such a third party can discuss the situation objectively and dispassionately with less chance of offending your loved one on a personal level. Many doctors understand the need for this intervention and will be willing to comply with requests of this nature from family members. In some cases, doctors will write the words “Do Not Drive” on a prescription slip. In others, you may need to ask the doctor to file a request for re-examination of your loved one’s driving abilities by the state driver’s licensing authority.

Contact the State Licensing Authority

All states have a system in place to require retesting of persons with mental or physical impairments. However, state laws and re-examination processes vary. They may include medical evaluation, as well as written and road tests. Laws also vary concerning who is authorized to request re-examination. They may include police officers, judges, state’s attorneys, physicians, family members, neighbors, friends, or other drivers. In some states, all older drivers must take driving tests for annual renewals. Check with your state’s driver’s licensing authority to see what rules and procedures exist for revoking driver’s licenses for impaired drivers.

If your loved one’s driver’s license is ultimately revoked, he or she should get a state issued photo identification card to use for check cashing, air travel, and other uses.

Protecting Insurance Coverage

Even with a doctor’s advice not to drive, or a driver’s license revocation, a person with Alzheimer’s may still get behind the wheel. He or she may forget that driving is no longer allowed. Or, stubbornness, anger, or frustration may encourage him or her to grab the keys and hit the road. If that happens and an accident occurs, serious consequences-beyond the risk of personal injury or death to the driver, passengers, or others-may result.

For example, although some state laws require insurance companies to honor claims involving insured motor vehicles, even if driven by an unlicensed driver, an insurance claim can be challenged. Insurance coverage may be cancelled. And future applications for motor vehicle insurance can be denied. In some states, insurance companies can cancel policies if a driver’s license is revoked, regardless of whether an accident has happened or not. Should a driver without coverage become involved in a motor vehicle accident, his or her assets will be at risk from claims by accident victims for property damage or personal injury.

These issues are particularly important for an unimpaired spouse of a person with Alzheimer’s disease. Insurance cancellation will jeopardize the spouse’s insurability. Acceptance under a new policy may be difficult because of the spouse’s older age. And the new policy may cost much more than the previous one. State insurance laws vary, and some states have regulations pertaining to such situations.

One option is for the impaired driver to exclude himself or herself from the policy, enabling the unimpaired spouse to continue insurance coverage. But if the excluded driver drives anyway, a claim for personal injury or property damage to the driver’s car may not be honored to the full extent of the policy’s limits. (Liability claims by others would likely be paid, however.) If that happened, the policy would most likely be canceled.

Action Steps for Family Members

Depending upon your loved one’s abilities and desire to drive, regardless of driver’s license status or doctor’s orders, family members can take steps to prevent an impaired driver from operating the car. Here are six steps you can take:

1. Sell the car. If the car won’t be driven, it makes sense to sell it. However, Americans love their cars. Some even name them the way they would name a pet dog or cat. If your loved one is attached to his or her motor vehicle, your suggestion to sell it may meet strong objection, even if the impaired driver seems to understand that driving is no longer allowed. If the loved one wants to keep the car, or is comforted by seeing it in the garage or driveway, you can disable the car so it can’t be driven.

2. Hide the car keys. If the car remains in the family, someone must control access to all copies of the keys. Lock them in a safe place unknown to the impaired driver.

3. Replace the car key. If the impaired driver resists or refuses to hand over his or her set of keys, quietly replace the car key with one that looks like it, but that doesn’t work in the vehicle.

4. Remove the tires. Removing the tires will disable the vehicle, but in some residential areas, parking a car on blocks is not allowed, except-perhaps-in an enclosed garage. Check with your local jurisdiction before taking this step.

5. Disable the vehicle. Ask a mechanic to show you how to disconnect the car’s battery or how to disconnect the coil wire between the coil and distributor. If a spouse or other household member needs to use the car, reconnecting them is relatively easy.

6. Park the car elsewhere. Park the car down the street, around the corner, or out of sight in a neighbor’s garage to make it inaccessible.

Look for Alternatives

A person who has been driving for decades and who takes pride in his or her independence will likely resist attempts to restrict driving privileges. That independence is difficult to give up, especially in neighborhoods without good public transportation systems. The person may not want to burden friends or family to get where he or she wants to go.

In modern American culture, driving is important. For many, it involves self-esteem and status as well as mobility. For these reasons, those who have Alzheimer’s disease are unlikely to admit difficulties they are experiencing when driving. So, family members and physicians must balance the person’s convenience with the safety of the driver, as well as passengers and other drivers on the road.

When restricting driving privileges becomes an issue, you can ease the transition by investigating alternative methods of getting from place to place. Here are some choices you can make available to your loved one in place of a personal motor vehicle.

1. Friends and family.

Are you willing to provide all or part of your loved one’s transportation needs? What about other family members? If friends say, “let me know if I can do anything to help,” suggest they give your loved one a ride to the grocery store, hairdresser, or doctor’s appointment. You can also ask for volunteers at your place of worship.

2. Public Transportation.

Gather information about bus routes, train schedules, and taxi services. See whether they offer discounts for older individuals or those with disabilities. Calculate round-trip fares from your loved one’s home to frequently visited locations, such as the grocery store, doctor’s office, barber shop, or library.

3. Government ­funded transportation.

Investigate availability of government-funded transportation for people with disabilities. Inquire about how to qualify for such programs.

4. Delivery Services.

To reduce the need for trips outside the home, look for pharmacies, office supply stores, restaurants, and other businesses and organizations that deliver goods and services to the home. Find a courier service that operates in your area, or see whether a taxi service will perform that function. Look into the Meals on Wheels program in your area.

About The Author

William G. Hammond, JD is a nationally known elder law attorney and founder of The Alzheimer’s Resource Center. He is a frequent guest on radio and television and has developed innovative solutions to guide families who have a loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s. For more information you can visit his website at BeatAlzheimers.com” target=”_new www.BeatAlzheimers.com

mailto:support@Alzheimers-Resource-Center.com support@Alzheimers-Resource-Center.com

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And the males are the very sensitive ones when it comes to this subject matter. Society dictates that they should be macho and must possess sexual prowess.

But there is such a thing as Erectile dysfunction or ED. It is a condition in which a man in unable to get or maintain his penis erect sufficiently for sexual activity. This condition affects millions of men worldwide.

There are many causes of ED and experts have blamed diabetes, heart disorders, and high blood pressure. For the psychological factors, there’s depression, anxiety, and fear. Medications may also cause ED like sleeping pills, anti-depressants, and blood pressure-lowering drugs. Harmful substances can also be the culprit like cigarette and alcohol.

Drugs have been formulated to combat ED and we are know familiar with names like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. Of course, there’s also the many contraptions used to achieve an erection like vacuum pumps and penile suppositories. Some men would opt for surgery and hormone therapy.

Ancient medicinal knowledge though has revealed to us that there are herbal plants used in boosting sexual performance and they are the following:

Gingko Bilboa

Gingko Bilboa is an extract from an ancient tree species native to China. It is widely used to enhance memory and other mental abilities because it can reportedly increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain. Its beneficial effect on blood circulation is said to extend to the penis, thus helping those with erection problems.

Ginseng

Used in traditional Oriental medicine for centuries, this very famous root is believed to increase vitality and improve overall well-being. These effects alone, according to researchers, are usually enough to make someone become more active sexually. Other researchers say that ginseng also helps relax the artery walls, resulting in increased blood flow to all parts of the body including the sexual organs.

Yohimbe

The bark of this tree has long been used as an aphrodisiac in Africa and as a treatment for impotence in Europe. A purified extract called yohimbine, has even gained US FDA approval as a treatment for men with ED before Viagra became available. Just like with PDE5 drugs, yohimbine works by increasing blood flow to the penis, and it may have an effect as well on brain chemistry.

Horny Goat Weed

Also known simply as epimedium, this herb with a very catchy and suggestive name is popularly used in China for its various sex-enhancing effects. It reportedly increases sperm production, and it also raises the level of the male sex hormone testosterone, which is directly linked to sex drive.

These sites about good-herbal-health.com/ alternative medicine and halds.com/ good health are both dedicated to help you find the best information available about menopause and other health issues.

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Do you get enough sleep? Chances are you don’t. Many people living in modern industrial societies suffer from a chronic, and worsening sleep deficit.

Until a few decades ago, most people lived lives so very different from ours that we would scarcely recognize them. Until fairly recently in human history the majority of people lived in small villages or on farms, not in big cities. There were no electric lights. There weren’t any faxes or e-mails. There was no Internet, and no television. Once the sun went down, most of the day’s activities came to an end.

People worked very hard physically, and only a very small minority had what we would call “white collar” jobs. And most people, on average, slept nine to nine and a half hours each night.

For most of us today, an average of nine hours sleep each night is an impossible dream. In our very busy schedules, something has to give, and quite often the choice many of us are making is to cut back on our hours of sleep.

If you listen to, or read some of the popular current guides to success, you will usually be instructed to work hard, play hard, study hard, be more outgoing, and gain every advantage you can. The struggle to the top can be ruthless. Why, even the struggle to stay where you are and not to lose your place can be ruthless.

Where do many of these success guides and gurus tell you to cut back? Why, on your hours of sleep. They’ll tell you that sleeping more than five or six hours a night is a waste of time. They’ll tell you that the world is moving ahead while you are dozing, and that you’ll never catch up if you indulge your desire to sleep. If you snooze, you lose!

They’ll tell you that you don’t really need those extra two or three hours of sleep each night. That it’s just a bad habit you’ve developed. That it’s self-indulgent. That a full night’s sleep is the booby prize for losers in the game of life.

Unfortunately, this advice goes against thousand of years of human biology.

It’s true that some of us really do need only five or six hours of sleep each night, but those people are in a minority. Most of us require seven, eight, or even more hours of good quality sleep every night in order to function at our best intellectually, physically and emotionally.

In sleep deprivation experiments conducted on volunteers, it has been found that even a few days of sleep loss produce a marked negative effect on a person’s mental abilities. It becomes much harder to focus mentally and to process information. Decisions take longer to make, and are of poorer quality. Learning and remembering new information becomes more difficult, and it becomes harder to recall information that was previously learned. Creativity declines, while mistakes increase.

A person who hasn’t had enough restorative sleep will have difficulty handling technical machinery. In addition, lack of sleep causes emotional impairment and difficulty with mental processing. As people become more sleep deprived, they may experience more depression and mood swings. Tempers flare more often, and sleep deprived people become less cooperative with others.

Lack of sufficient sleep is believed to have contributed to many well-known accidents, such as the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, the near meltdown at Three Mile Island, and the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. It is believed that lack of sleep contributed to poor decision making in each of these incidents, with disastrous results.

If you add to these examples the many hundreds of thousands of other accidents every year caused by sleep deprivation, it becomes clear that cutting back on our sleep may not really be the solution for greater productivity we are looking for.

If you are studying for important exams, you will be better off getting sufficient sleep the night before, rather than spending the whole night desperately trying to cram more information into your head.

Remember that your brain uses its sleeping hours to process the information of the day and to consolidate new memories. Cutting back on sleep in order to study instead will interfere with this process.

If you want to be more creative, to remember better, to get along better with your family and co-workers, you will probably find that getting more sleep, not less, maybe just what you need to function better!

This article is taken from the new downloadable book by Royane Real titled “How to Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better, and Be More Creative”. To learn more about how you can improve your brain power, download it today at royanereal.com royanereal.com

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I read a lot about the
topics of health and especially diets. I have been experimenting with
diets since 1990 and keep journals about my
observations. Over time I tried several very different diets - ranging
from the politically correct ones to highly controversial, along with diets
of my own design. My general observation is that a healthy diet plays an essential
role in the overall scheme of well being.

Why eat healthy?

Eating the natural foods humans are well adapted at utilizing, enhances
ones ability to cope with the reality of every day life. This in essence
improves the probability of living a longer, healthier life. Quality food consumption becomes
especially important in the present world of high stress and pollution -
making a healthy diet an essential aspect of modern self health care.
(Although food is not the only aspect contributing to health or disease, it
is significant enough to consider it’s effects seriously.)

I think anybody who seriously tried living healthier through a better diet,
proper physical activity, adequate rest, and by addressing mental and
spiritual factors have experienced a vast range of natural health benefits.
Common benefits are overall better health and a sense of well being, better sleep,
improved physical endurance and strength, sharper mental abilities and lower
sleep requirements. Further more, no or little time and money and energy is
spend on doctors, hospitals and health insurance bills.

What is a healthy diet?

Since this article deals with healthy eating, a question remains
to be answered: what constitutes a healthy diet? Unfortunately, there are
more opinions about this than there are health experts. To further complicate
the matter, dietary concepts change over time, leaving most people confused and uncertain
about what or whom to trust. One solution to this problem is to become sufficiently
knowledgeable about the relevant subjects and rely on common sense to draw basic
conclusions. Along with personal experimentation, such an approach will
enable one to establish healthy eating habits. This takes time and energy, but considering
the long lasting benefits a healthy diet can provide, the effort is more then well worth it.

In order to determine the minimal basic requirements of a healthy diet, I
concluded that it is safe to start with the following two objectives:

examine human diet over time - the foods humans consumed since the arrival of our species.
examine diets of ethnical groups known for their good health.

Looking at the type of diets humans lived on through out pre-history, provides good
insights into the kind of foods human body should be well adapted at utilizing and dealing with.
Further, the diets of certain ethnical groups that are well known for good health -
the people of Okinawa(Japan), traditional cultures in the Mediterranean region and many hunter-gatherer
societies - suggest certain health promoting dietary habits. Upon closer examination, two main
denominators emerged:

diets are based on natural, whole or minimally processed foods in accordance to heritage.
diets are lower in calories compared to a typical western diet.

In the context of present time, one can therefore make two general assumptions in regard to
the question of what constitutes a healthy diet: 1) generally, the less a food is processed the better.
2) eat less - eat what is adequate, do not over eat.

Generally, the less a food is processed the better

The reason for this is simple. For 99.9% of human existence, our species
lived on foods that were either raw or minimally processed. The technology
needed to increase food processing did not exist until very recently.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that our bodies are best adapted at
utilizing and dealing with the raw or minimally processed foods which sustained
us for hundreds of thousands of years: fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts and seeds.

Often, the more recent the food is, the more likely it is to be less beneficial
or even directly harmful - possibly due to lack of full adaptation to such foods.
For example, it is estimated that food cooking started about
500 000 - 250 000 years ago (depending on the source, the range may vary). During
this time frame, it is likely that human species have at least adapted in some way to cooked
animal and vegetable foods. On the other hand, the beginnings of grain consumption
are much more recent. Evidence of earliest known, systematical collecting of grains
for food goes back to about 23 000 years ago - giving less time for
adaptation to grain based foods.

Now, let’s fast forward to recent times and consider all the new, human invented,
highly processed foods so common today: fast foods, pizza, sweets, chips, convenience
foods, canned foods, etc. along with the dramatic rise in heart attacks, high blood pressure,
stroke, cancers, diabetes, kidney problems (and all the complications that arose from these
conditions) during the past 100 years or so.

Considering the declining health of most western
nations as opposed to good health of the ethnical groups described above, it seems reasonable
that the most recent food inventions are directly harmful to human health.
Further, it has been repeatedly observed that as ethnical groups around the
world adopt the modern western diet, their health dramatically declines and they develop
the same diseases that are so common to westerners. Not to mention the fact that
the above mentioned diseases were far less common among westerners
themselves barely 100 years ago.

The more a food is processed - through excessive cooking, pasteurization,
homogenization, high heat, mechanical processing, etc, - the less natural and nutritious it becomes to a point
of becoming a harmful burden to the body, rather then a useful and health promoting food. Some
industrial processing practices deprive food of their nutrients to such a high degree that the food
has to be “enriched” by artificially adding some nutrients back into the food. This is especially
true of flours where vitamins are added back in after the processing is done.

A good diet is based on natural, whole or minimally processed foods. A large portion
of it should consist of foods that can be eaten raw, such as fruits and vegetables.
Fermented or cultured, unpasteurized foods such as kefir, yogurt, cheeses, miso, sauerkraut and pickles
are considered highly beneficial. Cooking should be minimal and only applied to foods that
must be cooked in order to be edible. Ancestral heritage also plays an important role
as certain foods may need to be excluded or emphasized.

Eat less - eat what is adequate, do not over eat

During the past several decades, food in the western and westernized nations became
increasingly affordable and more readily available then ever before in
human history. This very fact combined with the enjoyment food consumption brings,
results in all too frequent over eating. Which again leads to the above mentioned health
problems.

In the past, as in the traditional way of living among the ethnical groups mentioned
earlier, food consumption has always been significantly lower. Food quality, on the other
hand, has always been higher. Resulting in a lower food intake, but of nutrient dense foods.

Finally, as an interesting note, it has been repeatedly confirmed through laboratory experiments on animals,
including monkeys, that cutting down calories considerably lowers their susceptibility
to diseases and prolongs their life up to 50%. It is believed by many,
that life long caloric restriction can have similar effects on humans.

Health promoting eating habits

Over time, through reading and experimenting, I gradually arrived at several
basic health promoting habits that in my experience are the most important:

Avoid or minimize:

Avoid all junk, sweets, canned and convenience foods - including
all foods with added sugar: most commercial yogurts, kefirs and juices, fruit and soft drinks.

Avoid all refined or overly heated fats: margarine, any oil that is not cold
pressed, leftover fat from cooking, all foods that contain hydrogenated or
partially hydrogenated fats and trans fatty acids (read the labels). Such
fats are considered to be among the most health damaging foods.

Avoid consumption of fish and water animals unless certain they came from unpolluted waters.
Especially predators should be avoided as the toxins accumulate in them in
far greater quantities.

Keep the intake of foods high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) low - mainly
nuts and seeds and any products made from them (mostly oils). PUFAs are unstable,
they oxidize readily resulting in harmful free radicals. High PUFA intake have
been repeatedly linked with cancer, heart and inflammatory diseases.

Do not cook meat or fat at high temperatures while exposed to air. Such practice
will avoid fat and cholesterol oxidation - believed to be responsible for build up
of arterial plaque and injury to arterial cells. Grilling and frying is especially
harmful. Boiling is probably the safest way of cooking meat.

Minimize or eliminate consumption of foods frequently contaminated with mycotoxins: alcoholic beverages,
wheat, rye, barley, corn and peanuts. Mycotoxins are poisonous substances produced
by certain molds and fungi which cause a wide range of health problems including cancer,
asthma, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

Emphasize and do:

The more natural and less processed the food the better. Emphasize whole, fresh foods.
Replace white rice with brown rice; white bread with whole grain bread; sugar with
small amounts of raw honey or dry fruit; pasta with millet or whole grain pasta; canned
foods with fresh; candy and other sweets with dry or sweet fruit;
etc. Organic foods are best as they are higher in nutrients and do not contain
harmful pesticides, hormones or antibiotics found in conventional foods.
Always choose fresh over frozen, dried or canned foods. Fresh foods taste better,
have more nutrients in them, have no added salt, sugar or unhealthy additives.

Enjoy simple meals. Generally, the
simpler the food preparation the more nutrients are preserved and the easier it is to
digest. Simple meals are easy and quick to prepare and use fewer
resources like electricity and water - thus are more environmentally friendly and less costly.

Only cook foods that need to be cooked in order to be edible (beans, grains and some vegetables).
Foods that are edible in a raw state (fruits, most vegetables, sprouts, nuts and seeds)
should be consumed on a daily basis and preferably with every meal. Raw foods are higher in nutrients,
which to some degree get lost during cooking, and are easier to digest. At least 50% of
the diet, by volume, should consist of raw foods.

Steam vegetables that need to be cooked - steaming preserves more nutrients which
when boiled leech into the water. Do not overcook. Cooked vegetables should be crunchy
when you eat them, not soft.

Chew food well (simply chew it longer) and eat at a comfortable pace. This improves
digestion which already starts in the mouth while saliva gets mixed with the food.

Variety in diet is very important - to prevent allergies, malnutrition and to lower
exposure to natural and man-made toxins found in many natural foods.

Always properly wash fruits and vegetables before consumption. This lowers the
exposure to agricultural chemicals (used to cultivate conventional plants) and harmful microorganisms.
Peel the skin if washing is not sufficient.

Nuts and seeds should be soaked before consumption - to lower or eliminate natural
anti nutrients like enzyme inhibitors. Soaking makes them much easier to digest.
Do not eat more then a few handfuls a week as they are high in PUFAs and difficult
to digest.

Grains (except amaranth, millet and rice) and beans must be soaked before
consumption. This lowers or eliminates anti nutrients like phytic acid which inhibits
mineral absorption that can lead to mineral deficiency.

Fruits are best eaten alone as a snack between meals. To improve digestion only eat
one type of fruit at a time.

Regularly consume unpasteurized fermented/cultured foods like sauerkraut, miso,
pickles, kefir, yogurt, etc. These are pre-digested foods that are high in
probiotics (friendly bacteria) and enzymes which provide numerous health benefits.
Start with what your ancestors consumed and later experiment with other foods
as well.

Regularly consume enzyme rich foods: sprouts, raw honey, grapes, figs, avocados,
bananas, papayas, pineapple, kiwi, mango and fermented/cultured
foods (see above). Enzymes obtained from raw foods ease the digestion by reducing
the body’s need to produce digestive enzymes.

Consider the diet your ancestors ate for thousands of years - you will most likely
do very well on such a diet due to the long period of adaptation to it.
For example, the traditional Chinese diet is high in carbohydrates and low in fat and protein;
Europeans, on the other hand, have been eating less carbs and more protein and fat;
North American Indians did not eat grains.

Drink adequate amounts of liquid through out the day. Water is best. Under normal conditions,
most people need 2-3 liters of liquid/day.

Unless very hungry, do not eat for 3-4 hours before bedtime. That way the nightly fast
can be prolonged considerably. This gives the body more/adequate time and energy to perform the
countless nightly tasks that are so essential to good health. (Rather then digesting the
just eaten meal)

Eat only when hungry and do not overeat regardless of food. I found this to be among the
most important of all health promoting habits.

Good sources of protein:

any meat that comes from organic, free range animals that are fed their natural diet (hard to find)
when not organic: lean poultry meat (high fat cuts are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids which oxidize readily during cooking and in the body; toxins accumulate in the fat)
beans
fresh, soaked or sprouted nuts and seeds
raw fermented milk products: sour milk, kefir, cheeses, etc (hard to find)
wild game
eggs

Most commercial meats including pork and beef, unless organic and not fed corn/grains/beans,
contain antibiotics, hormones and too many polyunsaturated fats - thus should be avoided.

Good sources of carbohydrates:

vegetables
fruits
whole or minimally processed fresh and mold free grains: rice, oat, amaranth, millet, barley, wheat, etc.
beans
potatoes

Good sources of fats:

avocados
butter
fresh, soaked or sprouted nuts and seeds (mostly source of omega 6)
coconuts or coconut oil
full fat raw milk products (cheese, milk, cream, etc) from pasture fed cattle
olives or first cold pressed (extra virgin) olive oil

Shopping

I always try to find organic foods to avoid harmful substances like hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, etc.
The most contaminated fruits are: raisins, cherries, peaches, strawberries, mexican
(winter) cantaloupe, apples, apricots, Chilean (winter) grapes. And the most
contaminated vegetables are: spinach, celery, green beans, bell peppers, cucumbers,
cultivated button mushrooms, potatoes and wheat. Lean poultry is probably the safest meat
to eat if not organic.

Meal examples

What follows are weekly meals that closely resemble my diet at the time of this
writing. When planning meals, the key idea is to have variety in diet and to rely on
food combinations that agree with ones digestion.

TBS = table spoon
tsp = tea spoon
/ = or

any fruit eaten alone
0.5L sour milk, 300g potatoes, fennel
0.5L kefir, 50-100g oatmeal, 25g raisins
0.5L plain yogurt, 300g grapes/2-3 bananas
50-100g oatmeal, 1-2TBS honey, cinammon
½ salad head, 1-2 tomatoes/pepper fruit, ½ cucumber/squash, 1-2TBS olive oil
medium avocado, 1-2 bananas, cinammon
50-100g brown rice, 1-2 hardboiled eggs, 2-4 radishes, 25-50g leeks, 1-2TBS ground flax seeds, 50g sprouts
50-100g amaranth, 1-2 steamed parsnips, 1 steamed onion, 1-2 steamed carrots, celery stick, 1tsp freshly grated raw ginger, parsley, 1TBS olive oil
200g mung bean sprouts, 1-2 carrots, 25-50g leeks, 25g soaked pumpkin seeds/almonds/sesame seeds
½ steamed broccoli/cauliflower, 1-2 tomatoes/pepper fruit, ½ squash/cucumber, 150g turkey/chicken breast, 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, 1TBS olive oil
100g buckwheat sprouts, 2 carrots, florence fennel stick, 25g sprouted sunflower seeds, 25g raisins
50-100g amaranth, steamed onion, steamed asparagus, florence fennel stick, 1tsp freshly grated raw ginger, parsley, 1TBS coconut oil
50-100g millet, celery stick, 2-4 radishes, 25-50g leeks, 25g pumpkin seeds

I plan meals loosely, 1-2 days ahead. The meal preparation is very simple: meat and
eggs are boiled in water, vegetables that need cooking are steamed. Since certain food vitamins
become more bioavailable once exposed to low heat cooking, it is a good idea to alternate
between cooked and raw vegetables. For example,
Bio-carotene found in carrots becomes more absorbable after light steaming.
I adjust the quantity of food according to how physically active I am during the day.

In addition to the above foods I also take vitamin and mineral supplements and
drink bottled water. I use spices and salt. Kefir and sour milk are made at home
from organic full-fat, unhomogenised pasteurized milk. Sprouts are home grown as well
for maximum freshness. Both are very easy to make and require only few minutes of
daily attention.

Final thoughts

Although a healthy diet can enormously improve ones health, it is only one essential part
of healthy living. The other parts are proper and adeqaute physical activity,
mental and spiritual well being, and adequate rest. All need to be addressed in order to
achieve better health.

An important thing I learned while experimenting with diets and other health
related approaches is to always pay attention to the signals from the body. It is essential to
do this - in order to maintain good health - and adjust accordingly. As one gets
better at reading the body, it becomes natural to self diagnose a lot of minor problems (which can
become major if not paid attention to) and remedy them by simply adjusting the diet or other aspects of life.
Finally, we are all different - what works for one person may not work for another - thus it’s
important to experiment with ones diet to find out what works and what doesn’t.

Disclaimer: This article represents personal views and should
be treated as such. Implementation of any ideas contained
herein can only be done at own risk.

(If you found this article helpful, you may return the favor by buying a poster of one of my images at art.eonworks.com/gallery/gallery.html www.art.eonworks.com/gallery/gallery.html.)

Copyright © 2005 Dawid Michalczyk. All Rights Reserved. This content
may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation, information and links intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit
format. Author’s email: dm@eonworks.com

Dawid Michalczyk is a freelance illustrator and an artist. He enjoys learning
about health, anthropology and computers. He loves to ride a bicycle
and does it almost every day. To see examples of his work and other writings
visit his website at art.eonworks.com art.eonworks.com. He can be reached at mailto:dm@eonworks.com dm@eonworks.com

Tags: allergies, asthma, cholesterol, diet, Heart, mental abilities, mineral, multiple sclerosis, sleep

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Tags: allergies, asthma, cholesterol, diet, Heart, mental abilities, mineral, multiple sclerosis, sleep