Nutrition

Nutrition is one of the five facets of good health and an extremely important one as many health problems arise from poor nutrition.  In my case you could say: I used to be a Whopper with fries but now I’m a Zucchini.  I chose to change my eating habits because; “you are what you eat.”

We have just entered a new year and many people have made a New Years resolution to lose weight and start exercising.  While this is a very good choice, many people will not follow through.  It’s hard to break old habits and start new ones.  In my case, it was necessary to start a new life style after I found out that I was pre-diabetic.  I started to cut back on sugars, breads, pasta’s and pastries. After 60 years of eating what I wanted to, now it was time to go the straight and narrow path.  Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for a crisis to arise before you start taking care of your body.  The bible tells us that our body is the temple, just something we’re using while we’re here, our earth suit.

Just think about it, everyday we are bombarded with news stories telling us how sick we are then we watch TV daily and are informed of some new drug that will cure what ails us.  On top of that, we all know of someone who has recently been diagnosed with a health problem.

According to the American Heart Association, deaths from cardiovascular disease have gone from 28.9 % of all deaths in 2001 to 36.3% of all deaths in 2004.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) calls diabetes “disabling and deadly,” and the numbers of people in the United States diagnosed with diabetes has more then doubled in the last 15 years. Roughly 25% of all adult Americans are obese.  The CDC has called obesity an epidemic because it kills almost 500,000 people a year.

In an attempt to protect themselves and their families from frightening and serious health problems, many Americans are changing their diets and are turning to herbs, supplements and exercise.  We live in a world of daily decision making, I can only hope that those reading this article will take heed and start a new outlook on their nutritional habits.  I thank God daily that I live in America and have the blessings that come with this great country.

Dr. Joel Desaulniers