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The "Religion" of Health

3/28/2018

 
"Every argument is a theological argument." - Hiliare Belloc 

I’ve noticed people, including myself at times, treat the pursuit of health as a religion.  In this modern religion, the individual person is the “god” and there are certain dogmas not to be violated like fast food, smoking, or eating fried food.  Smoking cigars and drinking alcohol is also questionable, as is not going to the gym.  Those who stick to the “moral” teachings of the health religion of the self, judge those unfavorably who don’t abide by the dogmas, the unsophisticated people who eat at Cracker Barrel, or like Soul food, or who don’t bicycle or love fried shrimp. 
 
The last thing we ever want to think about is our own death, and the pain it might bring if we don’t live right.  So, we hold up physical health as the highest ideal possible, and even look down on people who don’t abide by our religion.  The priests for this religion are therapists, trainers (like me), doctors, and gurus, acting as counselors, preachers, and life coaches.  They tell us what we want to hear, and assure us with educated talk about tests, procedures, and methods and achieving "our best life- whatever that means".  We analyze our cholesterol, our lipids, and our balance, but also our “self-esteem” and our body fat percentages. 
 
It took me a long time to realize this, but the modern health religion when taken to an extreme, degrades the human experience by tying all of life up too closely with the material and immediate world around us, attaching us to ephemeral objects, at the expense of more fulfilling things.  That’s why I would always feel uneasy about certain things I’d see in gyms and at health classes.   People get anxious and dogmatic about the health religion precisely because it lacks a broader perspective. Like "success" tactics, practicing health tactics can't give you health, just like "success" tactics do not really mean anything without clearly defining what success is.  Success tips can't make you "successful" because success depends on values, just like health depends on living by your values, not on techniques.  
 
The problem with this health religion is that it is a false god, a false idol, holding up a perfectly healthy human body as an idol, that masks the fact that we must grapple with our own mortality and attach ourselves more fully to things that transcend the material world if we really want to be healthy.  Because being healthy is primarily about first premises, about the way we see things.  We can choose to be healthy or not in an instant.  Our attachment to the transcendent things – our families, God, friends, faiths, communities, the moral order of the universe- not to the material state of immediate things is what makes us live a happy, fulfilled, and contented life.  Obsession with health is deep down a type of degraded existence, throwing us into a purely materialistic and decaying world with nothing beyond.  Even an old-fashioned stoic pagan of the pre-B.C. era would be puzzled by our disdain for philosophy and our obsession with temporary health scores. 
 
Think about the people who have heart defects, mental issues, injuries, food allergies, or arthritis.  Are they any less healthy and capable of enjoying life? Are people who don’t go to gyms not healthy? Of course, they are.  I like the example of Winston Churchill.  He smoked and drank every day but he was healthy because of who he was and what he stood for, not because of his health data.
 
No one is completely healthy. No one can meet the perfect health standard for everything.  Health is a right perspective and being able to do want we want to do, and sometimes we must choose to want to do different things.  Health is not about being perfect, but about being in harmony.
 
I used to believe that people should try to “create their own life”, and “you can do whatever you want to do” and all those other clichés. As I have grown and learned more about health, the more I realize that being healthy is much more about contentment and being able to mature into who God created you to be, to change what we can, and accept what we can’t. 
 
The religion of health is a perfectly “nice” religion. Sure, it’s judgmental, but it doesn’t mean to hurt anyone and it usually judges behind closed doors about others.  The health religion has its' sanctimonious "holier than thous" just like any other religion.  
 
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy.  It’s good to take care of yourself and avoid fast food and smoking.  But health is a choice starting now.  Health starts first with how we see things. 
 
We should take care of our body, because it’s our only way to get around and live.  We should treat the body as a temple, like most religions teach.   But exercise, nutrition, and all the other things we do to be healthy are only means to an end.  They are not the ends themselves. 
 
The religion of health the way we practice it often is a distraction.  It is a way to keep us from facing our conscience, our B.S., our pain, and our ongoing mistakes and regrets.  It’s a roadblock for things that really need to be done, one of which might just be relaxing.  Sometimes, just being quite would be the best thing we could do for our health. 
 
I went for a long 4 hour walk last summer and something deeply significant occurred to me that I don’t think would have occurred to me otherwise.  I wrote someone a letter immediately.  But it’s an ongoing struggle with me to stay committed and focused on the simple things, on first things. 
 
Health is more than spin classes, whole wheat bread, and salmon. 
 
The truth is that we never know when our time will come.  This is much better for us to remember than a lot of the dogmas of our modern health religion. 
 
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Read Next:  The Make-Up Day
 

Water- The Miracle Solution

3/27/2018

 
* This is part of a year-long weekly series called "52 Weeks to Eating better than Ever". Click on the side bar for more information and to read the previous essays.

​Water- The Miracle Solution
 
Category- Consumption
 
Water is so good for weight control, appetite suppression, skin care, digestion, muscle function, energy, and overall health that it’s hard to know where to start.  If you just do this one thing- switch from drinking carbonated sugary drinks, or alcoholic drinks, or too many caffeinated drinks, to drinking more water, your health will be dramatically improved. Have back pain? Try drinking more water.  Hungry but trying to lose weight?  Drink water.  Experiencing fatigue?  Drink a glass of water.  Have trouble getting up in the morning?  Drink a glass of water as soon as you wake up.  The human body is made up of about 50-75 % water, depending on age and sex.  We need and rely on it to conduct proper metabolic functions.  Without water, the body starts to die and breakdown from within.  We can go without food for an extended amount of time, around 3 weeks, give or take, but we can only go without water for about 3-4 days.  I have advised many people who are experiencing pain to first try drinking more water, because I know from firsthand experience that if you’re dehydrated, the discs in your spine and neck can become stiff and compromised.  Shoot for 8 glasses per day, but also consider getting water in fruits and vegetables like cucumbers, grapefruit, lettuce, celery, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, cauliflowers, watermelons, spinach, and apples. You’ll look better, feel better, feel fuller, eat less, and have more energy just by simply drinking more water. 
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Read next:  The 1 Thing We're Missing in Order to Be Healthy

Why Fish is So Good For You

3/22/2018

 
* This is part of a year-long weekly series called "52 Weeks to Eating better than Ever". Click on the side bar for more information and to read the previous essays.
​

My parents fed us a pretty healthy diet growing up.  We ate our share of “Little Debbie” snack cakes and pizza, like most kids, but for the most part we ate good, and always had plenty of fruits and vegetables and homemade meals.  When it comes to fish though, I remember occasionally going to eat at Long John Silver’s when I was young, and loving to wear the pirate hats they gave little kids.  It was smart marketing ploy, and the best tasting thing on the menu was the “crispies”- the little pieces of fried batter.  Yum!
 
Of course, as I have gotten older and wiser, I’ve tried to cut out most fried food and don’t miss “crispies.” Fried fish is not as unhealthy as French fries, but anything fried brings destabilizing fats into the bloodstream, disrupting your cholesterol levels and causing inflammation in the body.  Over time, this can add up night time.  I still eat fries or chips on occasion, and fried fish every now and then, but not often.   To put it simply, fried food should be mostly avoided.  It’s not good for you, and has little redeeming value.  Fried food has the type of fats in it which are linked to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.  I know fish and chips taste good, but it should be a rare menu item, not a common one.
 
Though deep fried- fish is not really a healthy option, pan-fried is better.  If you’re going to fry, use a lighter unsaturated oil like sunflower, soybean, canola, or peanut oil and cook at medium heat with little or no batter.  Even better than that is to eat fish which hasn’t been fried.  Fish is one of the best things you can eat on a regular basis, and it’s best to shoot for at least once per week and preferably aim to eat it 2 times per week. 
 
The bottom line:  Fish is high in anti-inflammatory Omega 3 Fatty Acids, also called polyunsaturated fats, or essential fatty acids, which are the types of fats which decrease inflammation in the body, including in the blood vessels, possibly lowering LDL cholesterol in many people.  This could impact all sorts of disease development.  Omega 3 fatty acids have been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, triglycerides, blood pressure, and clotting. 
 
Whenever your body experiences damage or illness, inflammation occurs because of the immune response.  This is good because we need this to stay alive! Inflammation brings in more blood flow, swelling in some cases, the proliferation of cells, and things like white blood cells to aid in recovery.  This inflammation which is good and needed at first can get out of hand, and go on and ultimately do damage and may even contribute to disease.  These Omega 3 fatty acids help to create an anti-inflammatory response in your body which opposes the proliferation of unhealthy responses. 
 
Fish can in turn help you live longer and be healthier, particularly cold water fish.  Fresh water is better for you than farm-raised because of potential contaminants in farm-raised fish but it's more expensive.  Sardines, tuna, sea bass, trout, and salmon among other fish are good options, and it’s better to avoid the bigger fish if you’re concerned about mercury because larger fish contain more mercury.  Pregnant women should avoid fish for this reason.  Flaxseed, walnuts, canola oil, soybeans, and soybean oil are also high in Omega 3s but don’t seem to be as good for you as fish. 
 
P.S.  Give sardines a try.  Trust me, I know many people turn up their noses, but on a piece of toasted multi-grain bread or a cracker, with lemon juice, and / or avocado, they are tasty!
 
Read Next:  3 Big Reasons Your Back Hurts

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The War on Women AND Men

3/12/2018

 
I find it interesting that men are falling further and further behind in school and in work, and suffering much higher rates of depression, obesity, suicide, and addiction, as well as poverty, incarceration, violence, and early death, and yet everything the mainstream media promotes is related to promoting women, and demonizing men and traditional masculine virtues.

There is certainly a war taking place: 
There is a war on women AND it is happening by way of a war on men.
​

Make no mistake: Statistically, it is a lie. Ideologically, it is a strategy.  This ideology's victims, unfortunately, are the poor and working class. The affluent ideologues, many from Ivy League or expensive clique schools, can afford private schools, nannies, psychologists, and housekeepers while they outsource the negative ills of their phony moral posturing on the less fortunate.

Just look at what is happening to the most vulnerable in society and you can see that this anti-family ideology is bogus. I grew up in a traditional family structure, where Father and Mother were a sacred role, and where each helped each other and us, and I am thankful for this.  My father sacrificed for my mother and my mother sacrificed for my father.  They both sacrificed for us.  They were a team and the traditional culture I grew up in was the larger story.  

Other than the wanton destruction of life itself, this is the biggest "social justice" issue of our time, the anti-man and anti-woman ideology of the culture makers. It is not an anthropology, it's an anti-anthropology and an anti-culture, and it creates misery, illness, and death in its wake.  It's not creating men and women, it's creating anti-men and anti-women.  For the first time in history, we are actively promoting anti-women and anti-men in the context of an anti - culture. There is a war on women, I agree, and it is coming indirectly from the war on men.  

What can we do? Grab a life jacket and hop in a life boat!  Start to awaken and help each other be the best men and women we can be and help the less fortunate to have stable traditional families. I like that Tucker Carlson is having some conversations about this too, especially with the most popular father figure on the internet, Dr. Jordan Peterson:

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