“Women need to give themselves permission to have good health,” says Dr.
Alving.
And,
if a woman takes better care of herself, the trickle down effect benefits
her family.
Even
in this modern world, perhaps we don’t realize how much, as women, we
affect the health of those around us.
As a
mother of a family of five, I know I still have the main influence on what
my family eats, a large factor in maintaining a healthy body and heart.
Dr.
Shoshana Zimmerman, a naturopath from the San Francisco area (www.tipsforhealth.com),
told me that “the most important thing to understand is that heart disease
does not happen overnight.”
“Nobody gets heart disease because they’re not on drugs,” she says. “You
get heart disease because you’re not taking self-responsibility, getting
enough exercise, or on the right diet.”
Taking a positive and encouraging approach, Dr. Zimmerman advocates a
daily diet regimen of making sure you have three servings each of protein,
colored fruits, and colored vegetables.
Dr.
Earl Mindell, author of Earl Mindell’s Diet Bible, says reading the
labels of the foods that you buy is one of the best things you can do.
Labels will tell you if there’s hydrogenated oils, and how much saturated
fat and sugar the food contains.
Dr.
Mindell is also a big advocate of using basic supplements, eating fish
(poached, grilled, baked – not fried), and staying away from a lot of
white sugar, white flour, and salt.
He
told me “The public is much more intelligent that they used to be, and
they have more information. We live in a time in which it’s so expensive
to be sick…so people are turning toward prevention.”
I
have to admit that after talking to Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. Mindell, the
amount of diet-related information is initially overwhelming – what foods
to avoid, what foods to add, all the supplement possibilities.
Luckily, I feel at least more comfortable knowing that exercise, a big
component to a healthy heart and mind, is not so complicated…matter of
fact, I got up and took a long walk after all my diet research.
The
best conclusion I’ve found is that it’s just like Dr. Zimmerman says,
we’ve got to take self-responsibility.
My
approach has been to make little changes at a time, because every healthy
step in the right direction is a good step to take.
I
say learn more about and choose healthier foods, add some basic
supplements to your diet (try
www.drweil.com and its free Vitamin Advisor as a good start), and get
regular exercise.
And,
I endorse Dr. Alving’s suggestion that women form into groups of two or
three, making a pact to start moving more and have a healthier diet.
As with any dietary or physical activity change, be informed and consult
your healthcare practitioner as needed.
Terra
Wellington
is a
national authority on creating a wellness lifestyle.
www.terrawellington.com
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Wellington
