Guide to Healthy Living

Health Tips from Mayo Clinic
(Mayo Clinic is one of the top medical centers in the world. Their site also gives good diagnostic guides for all medical problems) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dietary-guidelines/MY01594


Drink Lots of Water (but Beware of What's in It)
More than 70% of our body is water. The brain has higher water content than other cells.
Water is a powerful solvent that helps remove wastes and toxins from our body.

1. Before sleep, drink a glass of water. After 8 hours of sleep the body will be very dehydrated. So immediately after waking up, drink at least 2 glasses of water and wash face and back of neck with water to moisturise the skin

2. Make sure you drink lots of water throughout the day. DO NOT wait until you are thirsty. Water here refers to plain water or liquids from fresh fruits like fresh coconut water or fresh soya bean drink, and not 'contaminated water' in liquids like coffee, tea, canned juices and soft drinks which are highly acidic and harmful to our bodies (see notes below on man-made foods and drinks).

3. Reduce the invisible poisons in drinking water
Pipes corrode over time. Many house pipes are made of copper or plastic because they are cheaper than steel pipes which are less liable to corrosion and decomposition. Copper pipes corrode quickly into poisonous copper oxide (which gives a bluish tinge to water coming out of unused taps).

Plastic in plastic pipes and plastic water containers decompose into toxic powders that cannot be seen by the naked eye. [Note: When I advise people shopping for water bottles not to buy plastic ones, the response I always get is 'but the label says it is BPA free'. But they never wonder why the label only say ONE toxic chemical is not present. What about the other toxic chemicals?]

Pipe water supplied by water utilities and swimming pools are treated with Chlorine to kill germs and bacteria but that same chlorine is highly toxic to our bodies (our cells are not very different from bacteria). Chlorine is one of the most poisonous element known. Public swimming pools have much higher concentration of chlorine than pipe water and their water is therefore very poisonous (therefore do not use such pools too often). Many poisonous insecticides and weed killers etc. are compounds with Chlorine as a component.

To reduce the level of toxins in water we drink, do the following:
- do not use water from long unused pipes for drinking. Drain a few liters from the taps before collecting for drinking purposes (keep the initial few liters for washing purposes). This is especially the case early in the morning when water had stayed in the pipes overnight
- use activated carbon filters: activated carbon absorbs dangerous chemicals including Chlorine
- keep water overnight in a steel container or steel cooking pot (do not use plastic water bottles) to give time for the dissolved chlorine to escape into the air
- boil water before drinking: heating cause the water to lose some of the Chlorine in addition to killing bacteria
- use glass, ceramic or steel water containers and bottles (do not use plastic ones)

4. Drinking slightly alkaline water MAY help because ingestion of meats and man-made foods which are highly acidic upsets the pH balance in our body. Alkaline water also dissolves oils and fats (one cause of stroke and heart attacks) better. Investigations found that water in some parts of the world where the people tend to live longer are slightly alkaline (because their water sources are in areas with alkaline rocks etc).

Meats and water with dissolved chemicals (due to pollution, corrosion and chemical treatment etc) and all the man-made foods tend to be acidic and upset the pH balance in our body if not neutralised. Cancer thrive in acidic environment.

There are water treatment units sold publicly that make water slightly alkaline. In 2011, I bought steel capsules containing organic stones (containing alkaline sources like calcium etc.) that can be used for 3 years selling at S$50 each.

But BEWARE:
- although drinking slightly alkaline water does no harm, there is no scientific proof that it makes a lot of difference either (because it gets neutralised immediately by acid in our stomach). Our body is a very complicated system and simply drinking slightly alkaline water is not the 'solve all'. It is better to minimise pH imbalance in our body by simply avoiding too much acidic meat and manufactured food/drink intake, and drinking lots of water throughout the day!
- One multi-level marketing (MLM) company I know of sell 'Kangen machines' (from Japan) that produce 'ionized alkaline' water for S$5,000 but there is no proof that they work (the MLM was also giving most of that money out as 'bonuses' to the various levels of introducers!)

http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-admire-her-old-water-and-not.html


GENERAL EATING GUIDE
Go Vegetarian Once a While and not eat meat for 1-2 days or regularly not have meat during alternate meals. You will feel very clean inside and fresh after that! Your faeces will not stink like when you eat meat. Note: A low-meat diet will make you sensitive to people who eat too much meat as they would smell of the animals they eat e.g. chinese people who like pork smell like pig when they get near to me which turns me off!

Eat easy to digest foods like fruits, soups, curds and porridge. Meats that are difficult to digest and the toxins they contain stress the body and shorten life span.

Avoid pre-cooked hawker food and utensils. If have to, take food served in hot & plain soups.

Never over eat, stop once you feel full. Over eating increases metabolic rate of cells which shortens their life span.

Do not lie down on couch or sleep after meals. Try to keep standing or go for a walk for 30 minutes. Otherwise make sure to sit upright. This is to avoid 'acid reflux' which is the back-flow of acid from stomach into oesophagus which will 'burn' linings in oesophagus resulting in 'chest burn' sensation.

Do NOT eat or drink acidic liquids 3 hours before sleep. Do not have oily and fatty food including milk and acidic drinks (like coffee, citrus fruit juice and soft drinks) at least 3 hours before going to bed. Consuming fatty and acidic food before sleeping triggers acid production in stomach that may 'burn' stomach ('gastric burn') and oesophagus ('acid reflux'). If hungry, drink hot milo, horlick, oat, sesame etc. (these drinks are starch based which require less stomach acid to digest). Use low fat milk if needed.

List of Good Foods:
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/10-foods-for-fabulous-abs.html


Healthy Breakfast Regime
- drink at least 2 glasses of water after waking and before eating
- eat 1 half-boiled egg or sandwich with fried egg
- avoid coffee and tea (malted drinks etc are better)
- brush teeth after eating (not before)
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2001/02/what-smart-chinese-feed-their-children.html
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/dental-care.html

[Note: caffeine in coffee and black tea (as opposed to chinese and green tea) are acidic and thickens blood. Thick blood results in bad circulation and reduces its ability to dissolve and remove oil/fat and harmful substances from body and blood vessels thus contributing to strokes and heart attacks. Green and Chinese tea on the other hand thins blood and helps in dissolving oil/fat and harmful substances]

Eat Lots of Fruits, Nuts, Beans and Vegetables
They are all great sources of vitamins, anti-oxidants and essential minerals (only plants can produce vitamins, animals cannot). Like egg is to animals, fruits, nuts and beans are the 'future children' of plants. Because of that, nature 'invests heavily' in them to ensure survival of the species by making sure they contain all the best and important ingredients for growth and health of their young!

Eat freshly cut fruits. Do not eat cut fruits left on stalls without ice or not in fridges. They may be infested with bacteria after long expsoure.


Take Traditional Chinese Herbal Soups
Chinese long ago had experimented with various herbs and found the ones that are most helpful in maintaining good health. Traditional Chinese soups containing ginseng, 'tang gui', red plums, etc are good anti-oxidants and body cleansers. http://www.chinese-traditional-food.com/chinese-soups.html

Take them every 1 to 2 weeks and change the variety of soup and herbs each time.


Fight Bad Bacteria with Good Bacteria (the Indian Way)
Indians long ago found out that yogurt is good for health because it contains good bacteria. Our body, especially our gut, is full of bacteria. We can never get rid of them. In fact, we need good bacteria to help digestion and control the spread of bad bacteria. The cells in our body also contain ancient 'captured bacteria' that perform functions critical to our cell survival (you can say our body is a collection of bacteria!). Excesive bad bateria can cause big tummy, illness and cancer. Our body need good bacteria to function properly.

Take a few spoonful of yogurt 2 or 3 times a week (I recommend traditional indian yogurt sold by indian traditional shops - 300 cc for $1.20 - cheap and good).

Or drink 'lassi' which is prepared by mixing a few spoonfuls of yogurt and a pinch of salt in a glass of water. It is a tasty health drink!

[Note: bad bacteria (from gut) that get into our blood causes plaque to form in blood vessels (like plaque in teeth/gum) and is one cause of heart attacks and strokes]


Eat Freshly Prepared Food (Not more than 4 hours)Recently, the Singapore government came up with a law requiring all food caterers to label their food preparation time and warned people not to consume food more than 4 hours old because bacterial growth is significantly higher when kept beyond 4 hours.

When consuming home cooked meals:
- consume immediately after preparation
- place unconsumed food in fridge immediately.
- do not consume food kept in fridge for more than 2 days (bacteria can still grow in cold conditions, just slower).

When re-heating frozen foods:
- use normal ovens versus microwave ovens. Normal ovens produce real heat while microwave ovens do not (they use magnetic induction which is different from heating)
- re-heat for at least 4 minutes in medium or high temperature
- leave food in oven a few more minutes after that to let the heat inside continue killing bacteria

When consuming outside food:
- avoid pre-cooked foods or re-heat them before consuming
- order food that will be cooked only when you order it
- food served in hot or boiling soup is preferred as the hot water helps kill bacteria
- if not sure, pick Indian briyani rice and food cooked in curry. Their spices have natural anti-bacterial properties (and India's gift to humanity)

[Notes:
- it is better to avoid outside food because most sellers use MSG which is poisonous
- they also do not wash ingredients properly
- hawker center tables and utensils are extremely dirty
- I always order dishes fresh out from the kitchens if lucky to see them being brought out]


Avoid All Man-made Foods, Sauces and DrinksAll canned and packaged foods and drinks (like soft drinks), and man-made sauces (tomato sauce, salad dressings etc), food sweeteners (like artificial sugar) and taste enhancers (like MSG) are poisonous and bad for health. They are not natural and do not exist in the natural environment!
Such 'manufactured' foods and drinks are made to last a few years because it is 'essential for business' (not health). It takes a few months to transport them from their factories to supermarkets around the world where they sit on shop selves and in people's kitchen cabinets for months before they are consumed. The reason why those foods and drinks can last so long is because they have been treated with chemicals (also known as 'preservatives') that kill off bacteria and germs, and stop them from growing. If those chemicals are poisonous to germs and bacteria, they are also poisonous to the cells in our bodies which are very similar in makeup to bacteria (read up about human cells).

Those chemicals also tend to make the foods and drinks acidic which is harmful to our bodies. Acids for example, dissolve the calcium in our bones resulting in under-development of bones and osteoporosis (weak bones) in old age.

[Note: If we leave a piece of fruit or meat on the table it would turn bad within a few hours because bacteria has started to eat it and multiplied. So how can those same things last for years in cans and plastic containers/bags?! Their manufacturers do not have magic. They are just using poisons to kill bacteria and stop them from re-growing! Those chemicals will have the same effect on our bodies except that it takes a longer time to take effect (and before we see their effects like cancers) because of our bodies' ability to heal itself. But the body can only do so much. Excessive dosage of those harmful chemicals would inevitably overwhelm the body's defences]


Avoid Farmed and Burnt Meat
All farmed animals (including farmed fish) contain high levels of man-made chemicals like growth hormones (to make them grow fast) and anti-biotics (to keep them from falling sick and die).

All these chemicals are not only toxic to our body but they are difficult to get rid off and therefore remain in our bodies for long periods. That is also why farmed meats should be avoided (more than farmed vegetables) - the toxins collected in those animals remains there and get passed on to us when we eat them. That is why cancers are highly related to the amount of meat consumed.

Over heating or burning foods like meat also change their chemical properties and make them highly toxic. So avoid burnt and barbequed meats, and fried foods!

But because protein is important for our health, one should not avoid meat entirely. Take them in small amounts. Beans, eggs, fish and seafood are better sources of proteins.

Avoid western foods. They use lots of meat and man-made sauces. If have to, choose fish burger or fish fillet.


Why Fish and Seafood?
One reason is because they live in water and water is a great solvent and cleanser! There is a higher chance that toxins in them will be removed by the water they swim and breathe in round the clock. Sea fish and seafood are preferable to fresh water ones for 2 reasons: the sea is less polluted than ponds (because of sheer size) and there is better chance that they are wild fish instead of farmed ones.

Another reason is they contain good Omega-3 oil and other minerals like iodine.

But BEWARE: seafood like mussels, cockels, clams and prawns are 'vacuum cleaners of the sea' meaning that they eat all the dead and 'dirty' matters at bottom of sea. Therefore toxins will accumulate in them - the bigger they are the more toxins. So choose the smallest sized ones!

[Notes: A friend of mine related this story. He has a businessman friend whose chicken farms supply chickens to KFC for the whole of Malaysia. That man told my friend that he does not eat chicken and advised my friend not to eat chicken. This was what he said 'in Nature, it takes a chicken 6 to 9 months to mature but we can do it in less than 2 months. How do you think we do that? We pump them with growth hormones!'

My mother also heard the same thing from small chicken farmers near my sisters home in a small town - they do not eat the chicken they sell, the ones they eat are 'kampung chickens' not fed with those chemicals.

Some chicken sold by supermarkets are labelled as 'free range' chickens. The 'theory' is they get to run around and are therefore healthier but it is just hype. They still feed them with lots of hormones and anti-biotics.

The same friend also told me about a friend he knew who died of intestinal cancer at about 40. That man liked to eat fried mee so much he had them every day! Intestinal cancer is one of the top killers in Malaysia and Singapore.
A cousin of mine died of intestinal cancer at age 41. I heard that he and family used to like eating satay a lot (burnt meat). When we visited him at home after he was diagnosed with that problem, we talked about the need to cut down on meat consumption. His response was 'yes, we cut down on meat a lot already'. So when we were invited to have lunch with them I was surprised to see that 3 out of 4 dishes had meat! Then I told myself that they did not know what they were talking about.]


Get Lots of Fresh Air
Like man-made food, 'modern' houses are all made with man-made materials like cement, fiberglass, asbestos, plastics, paints etc. which are all not natural and in many cases toxic. Those materials vaporize into the surrounding air and build up if those air is not expelled into the outside. That is why extended use of air-con is not healthy - they necessitate sealing up the house (to save energy) which result in accumulation of those toxins and reduction of oxygen level as they are used up over time.

For the same reason, air-coned public areas like malls and offices are the 'best' conveyors of air-born diseases like flu etc.

To maximise introduction of fresh air and keep house cool:
- have in-door live plants. They help absorb some of the toxins and introduce fresh oxygen into the air (the same way water plants treat water)
- create unblocked passages for fresh air to pass through house e.g. opening 1 window but closing all others stops air flow
- help push air into or out of house by placing fans at strategic locations along air passage preferably at entry and exit points like windows and door entrances
- make sure the fan assisted air-flow travel in one direction e.g. by not having 2 fans blowing in opposite directions


Have Regular Exercises and Sunlight
Exercise for at least 30 minutes 3 times a week. Exercise keeps the body and bone in shape.

Sunlight is important as it helps body to produce Vitamin D that cannot be gotten from any food. But too strong sunlight is dangerous because too much UV causes skin cancer. That is why brisk walks in early morning or evening is best (make sure to wear shoes with good 'shock absorption' to minimise damage to joints).

Have stretching exercises like bending, turning, sit ups daily.

Preferably children should play games daily with friend especially team games against team opponents. Team sports help to develop the brain, strengthen bones and muscles, develop hand-eye coordination, promote team work and helps children learn to read body language!