Why Absence of Sickness Does Not Equate to Health
It’s amazing that today, we still don’t acknowledge that diet and lifestyle are the major contributors to our health problems. It could even be said that almost all human issues may be attributed to poor diet and environmental toxicity. The term malnutrition is often associated with starvation, yet malnutrition is a very real thing for many following a typical Western diet. You wouldn’t pour diesel into a petrol engine and expect it to run properly, so why would you put junk food with minimal nutritional value into your body and expect it to operate at its optimum potential? It seems obvious, yet you only need to look at an average supermarket’s shelves to know that what constitutes popular food is barely food at all. It may fill a gap, so to speak, but soon after eating what is essentially synthetic, your body will send hunger signals to you again to fulfil its requirement for proper nutrients. Understandably, people often shy away from looking after their health. It is a bit of a minefield with so much conflicting information out there; trying to process it all and apply critical thinking when only anecdotal experience is available is enough to give most people a migraine.
The absence of sickness is different to the presence of health
People often think they can call themselves healthy if they are not sick – this is not the case. Sickness can take many years to manifest, and as is the case when one takes vitamins and does not see an immediate result, consumption of pesticides and heavy metals due to lack of education may not show results in the short term. It is a sad fact that many people will not begin to try and take care of themselves until they have had a health scare; not something like the common cold (which may seem normal, but is, in fact, not if you have a healthy immune system) but a difficult-to-shift illness that causes concern over the long-term wellbeing. The problem with this approach is that by the time you see the symptoms of your illness, it has probably taken hold of you at a deep cellular level, and your immune system and poor, overworked liver will be working overtime trying to fight it. If that is the state of affairs, it will take a serious amount of consistent effort to return to a place of good health. The good news is that if you go through this, you will likely come out of it healthier than ever. Of course, you wouldn’t have had anything to compare it to previously, which is why so many people don’t realise that they are unhealthy. Once you reach the heightened levels of vitality that come with a clean, adequately fuelled body, you won’t want to go back – we guarantee it.
What are the first steps to take toward good health?
The key to improving nutrition and health is to take it one step at a time. If you’re fortunate enough not to be tackling a health condition, then you have more freedom to play around with. There is a lot to understand, but taking it slowly means not suffering information overload. The first steps might be as simple as researching the best superfoods and finding ways to incorporate them into your diet. You can then choose one thing that you know isn’t great for you and replace it with one thing that is. You could commit to ditching the vices one by one. For example, forgoing the morning coffee and replacing it with a delicious drink made from raw cacao powder and almond milk. Nicknamed "black gold" by the Spanish, the cacao pod is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on Earth, containing around three hundred chemical compounds. Drinking raw, unprocessed cacao will taste better than coffee and give you an equal high (without that damaging adrenaline rush) due to the endorphins and serotonin released in your brain when you consume it. Promising yourself to replace one bad thing with one good thing at regular intervals is a sensible, viable and even fun route to good health. The MediMush team is here to help if you're stuck for ideas. We love to see smiling, happy, healthy faces and are sure we can contribute in many ways to your new healthy lifestyle.