Posted by nolvas on August 23, 2009, at 4:29:14
In reply to How do I start?, posted by Dima on August 22, 2009, at 21:09:14
Eating healthy is about removing as much of the refined and processed foods in the diet as possible, secondly you must choose a balance of essential nutrients that the body requires.
Elements of the Mediterranean diet and Stone Age diet are reasonable sources of information to start with. I believe its not about one specific diet but just about eating the correct natural non processed foods in the right balance. We eat absolutely nowhere near the amount of fruit and vegetables a day. Here in the UK it's recommended to eat 5 portions a day which is the bare minimum.
http://oclinic.com/health/mediterranean-diet/CL00011
http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Hunter-Gatherer%20Mayo.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet#Medical_research
I'm not recommending to stick to one of the above diets religiously, I'm just offering those diets as building blocks to a healthy diet, and to give ideas.
Fish for example may be an essential requirement in the human diet for some people but it can be heavily contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury. Fish contains the Omega 3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, if you are a vegetarian we get these fatty acids from conversion from another Omega 3 fatty acid ALA. The conversion ratio is controversial. If you don't wish to eat fish then you can supplement with fish oil, if you don't want to do that then there's expensive supplements that get DHA and EPA from algae.
Anyway this is what I believe can help in trying to fix your health problems :
Healthy diet - ideally no processed or refined foods at all, and plenty of foods mentioned in the Mediterranean diet just to give you the building blocks of a healthy diet. One you have this in place you can refine your diet to suit you and research some free healthy diet plans on the internet.
Secondly and cruially important is exercise, even if you suffer fatigue it's important to adopt an exercise plan, starting off light and gradually changing the exercise plan to suit your needs. There's an overwhelming amount of information on the net about this. A combination of aerobic and anerobic exercise will suit most people at least 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes.
Thirdly Cognitive Behaviour therapy can tackle the emotional and mental areas of your problems, very useful for tackling anxiety and ocd.
Lastly and in can be in relation to CBT is relaxation. Find a relaxtion technique that works for you. Just listening for 30 mins a day to a relaxation CD can help or try something different such as meditation, yoga or autogenic training.
I recommend this book it's a highly regarded book on CBT techniques, very useful.
http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Behavioural-Therapy-Dummies-Psychology/dp/0470018380
(Couldn't get the double quotes feature to work on this link for some reason, sorry)
Good luck :)
poster:nolvas
thread:913554
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20090727/msgs/913602.html