Reader's Digest Health Rules

“A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, an good news gives health to the bones.” (Proverbs 15:30)


I find the Reader’s Digest June 2011 issue’s ‘Health rules for eating well’ very helpful. These rules are so simple to follow yet few are doing because we want 'convenience':

• Eat ‘food’ not anything ‘edible’: Most of items on the supermarket shelves do not deserve to be called food, rather they are just edible food-like substances, highly processed.
• Eat food that will eventually rot: Food processing seeks to extend the shelf life of food often by removing nutrients that attract fungi, bacteria, hence render them less nutritious.
• Eat your colours: The colours of many vegetable reflect the different anti-oxidant phytochemicals they contain which protect our cells.
• The whiter the bread, the sooner you’d be dead: White flour is not much different from sugar. It offers none of the good things such as fibre, Vitamin B, healthy fats in wholegrains. Large spikes of glucose can cause havoc on our insulin metabolism.
• Eat mostly plants, especially the leaves: We will consume far fewer calories if our diet is mainly plant-based.
• Stop eating before you’re full: Ask yourself not ‘am I full but is my hunger gone’ so that you will not over eat.
• Eat sweet food as you’d find them in nature: Natural sugars almost always come packaged with fibre which slows down their absorption. It is better of eating fruit rather than drinking juice.
• Break the rules once in a while: It is better not to be obsess with these health rules which is bad for our happiness and health. There will be special occassions to indulge ourselves. What matters most is your eating habits on a typical day.
• Pay more, eat less: Spend more for better food,we will probably eat less of it. If high quality food tastes better, we will need less to feel satisfied.
• Avoid good products that contain more than ‘five ingredients: The more ingredients in a packaged food, the more highly processed with many additives, enhancers and preservatives. For example, if you eat a comb of banana, the only ingredient is banana.