5 Things to Reduce or Eliminate to Improve Your Health 

All opinions are mine and mine alone.

5 Things to Reduce or Eliminate to Improve Your Health 

Eating a healthy diet will supply your body with everything it needs to ensure your well-being. Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet (SAD) is often rich in processed foods, artificial sweeteners, fat, and salt; and it is often poor in fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, legumes and whole grains. 

Although the idea of eating a healthy diet is a complex, controversial one, let’s take a look at some steps you can immediately take to improve your health. 

5 Things to Reduce or Eliminate  

1. Addictive substances:

There is no point in cleaning up your diet and making healthier food choices if you’re sabotaging your efforts through an addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, or recreational drugs. However, this is easier said than done because will-power alone may not be enough to quit your cravings or help you weather withdrawal symptoms. If this happens to be the case, you may have to get professional counseling or help from drug detox centers. 

1. Alcohol: Because alcohol is such an ingrained part of our social life, often considered a necessary beverage when watching sports with friends on television or when attending a big party, it’s often not considered a drug. However, it’s a depressant, which means that it will depress cognitive functions. Although lauded as a beverage to relax and reduce inhibition, it fulfills these positive aims in a negative way–by impairing your ability to see things as they are, to think about them clearly, or to speak about them articulately. 

1. Cigarettes: Ironically, cigarettes still remain popular in some social circles despite a long history of litigation that has publicly deprecated the advertising efforts of tobacco manufacturers. Besides the noxious effects of tar sticking to skin, clothes, and tar, cigarette smoking has been linked to a wide number of cancers—mouth, bladder, and lungs. In addition, it’s has played a role in breathing disorders like chronic bronchitis and emphysema, as well as identified as a risk factor for greater risk of heart diseases. 

1. Recreational Drugs: Is it really bad to smoke weed, drop acid, snort a powder, or pop a pill? Despite a relentless “war on drugs campaign” not everyone is willing to admit that recreational drugs are harmful; however, many studies on the use of recreational drugs suggest that they are as dangerous as anecdotal evidence suggests. 

2. Gluten:

Gluten has a life-threatening effect on people with celiac disease and an adverse effect on people with gluten sensitivity. Gluten is a naturally occurring protein found in grains like barley, wheat, and rye. If you’re sensitive to it, you’ll experience it as a gastrointestinal irritant because it triggers off an inflammatory response in your gut lining. 

3. Sugar:

While it’s difficult to avoid ubiquitous substances like sugar in your food, you should be aware that sugars like high fructose corn syrup and sucrose are “empty” calories that create insulin resistance, which, in turn, makes you more vulnerable to certain types of diabetes. 

4. Salt:

An excessive amount of salt in your diet in combination with a low intake of water can make you vulnerable to strokes and increase your risk of having a cardiovascular disease. 

5. Packaged foods.

Packaged foods make food preparation far easier. Although your busy lifestyle might make it difficult to only shop for fresh foods, reducing your reliance on packaged foods will improve your health. As an example of why packaged foods aren’t good for you, let’s look at two common preservatives used in packaged foods: sulfites and sodium benzoate. 

• * Sulfites are used as preservatives because they prevent food from turning brown or becoming discolored. They have been linked to allergies and can prove particularly harmful if you have any asthma-related sensitivities. 
• * Sodium Benzoate is used as a preservative because it stops food from fermenting and it prevents the acidification of foods; consequently, its most commonly found in fruit juices and sodas. Although generally considered safe, certain individuals experience side effects like nausea, which may lead to vomiting. It has also been known to cause dizziness, lightheadedness, and mild hyperventilation. It also causes stomach irritation in people with stomach ulcers. 

By making an effort to clean up your diet, you will optimize the health benefits of drinking herbal teas, taking natural food supplements, eating whole foods–like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds–and consuming healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and proteins.