What do healthy people have in common? My guess would be the following 10 things! How many of them apply to you?
1) They are "immune" to health and dieting trends (because they know it's all marketing)
Whether it's a raspberry ketone craze, the latest belly fat banishing diet, or the newest reincarnation of a low carb diet, healthy people laugh because they know health trends usually have nothing to do with BEING healthy!
They stay far away from these sorts of trends and avoid loading up on supplements + superfoods + 'eating the rainbow.'
2) They love and support their local farmer
Giving some love and appreciation to the local farmer that grows your food is yet another way to support small sustainable farms over factory farms and monocropping.
3) They listen to their body more than a doctor, and don't trust any one person to make their health decisions for them
In the world of Western Medicine, it can be dangerous to trust any one medical opinion as bond. Healthy people get a second opinion when something feels wrong, and they seek out natural alternatives whenever possible.
4) They know that health starts with spending time in the kitchen
It's pretty hard to be healthy if you can't spend a few minutes in the kitchen everyday preparing food.
5) They see food costs as an investment in "healthcare"
Healthy people are aware that many pharmaceutical drugs are just a synthetic imitation of plant compounds. In order to patent a drug, you need to synthetically alter it because nothing found in nature can be patented. So you see aspirin inspired by the salicylic acid in white willow bark, and valium inspired by compounds in valerian root. Take this as further confirmation that real food is indeed medicine!
6) They vote with their fork, especially when it comes to GMOs and pesticides
When it comes to eating, healthy people walk the walk, not just talk the talk! They choose organic, local and non-GMO foods whenever possible over the alternative.
7) They take pride in eating nourishing foods that their great grandmothers would recognize as food
Would your great grandmother smother margarine on her toast or cook her foods in canola and soybean oil — something that her body didn't crave? I don't think so.
8) They look for short ingredient lists, and know what they are putting in their body
Before processed food, there were NO INGREDIENT lists, just home-cooked food! Take that as a clue and always keep your ingredient lists on the shorter side, always make sure you can clearly pronounce and identify them!
9) They listen to their body and eat what they want when they want it
Your body is much smarter than you give it credit for, and your cravings will usually mirror macro-nutrients (carbs, proteins, fats) or micro-nutrients (vitamins, minerals) needed by your body to maintain health!
10) They eat ENOUGH food to get the nutrients they really need!
Any time you limit calories or food intake, you restrict the nutrients you consume! Healthy people know this and eat ENOUGH of the right foods to satisfy their body and their nutritional bank account!
What else do healthy people do? They keep their nutritional debt under well under control. Take the quiz below to find out if your nutritional debt is holding you back from truly being healthy:
Agree or disagree with these 10 habits of healthy people? Please share in the comments!
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Also published on Medium.
Vanessa
Fully Agree!
rachelle
Fully agree!
becca
This is a list of ways to improve health/eat more healthy but it’s an incredibly reductionist view of health and doing all this does not guarantee you are a healthy person.
Jan-Hein
It makes live so easy. Just common sense. I love nature
Heather
they start out thin and healthy already!??!!!! It's easy from there!
Deena
I started out NOT thin and very unhealthy. Doing the above things have changed my life! My body slowly (over a few years) went to its healthy state-including my weight.
Tess
I started out thin but very unhealthy, my boyfreind started out fat and bloated, with all kind of intestant and skin problems. This kind of eating, which is my choice (I'm became a foodie and I love it), changed my life but his even more. He is now slender without intestant and skin problems, feeling good about himself and even getting intrested in sport.
April
Just cuz ur thin doesnt make you healthy. Im toned & thin-ish but if i ate anythingni wanted i can easily gain weight! Plus the first 10 pounds are always the hardest...
Deborah Anthony
Nope, did not start out thin and healthy. It's never easy, but it's always worth it. Doing healthy things can be hard. Being unhealthy and overweight can be hard. Pick your hard.
michelle
Fully agree!!!!
momo
Do you even know what GMO stands for and why it's bad for you. NO because its not bad for you. Did you know that they can make GMO peanut butter that has the allergic reagent removed so EVERYONE can eat peanut butter and no one will get hurt. did you know they can make fruit and vegetables that has delayed enzymatic browning which can help reduce the amount of waste, furthermore helping world hunger.
thali
gmo's have been around for a couple of decades...how long does it take to end world hunger?? that used to be a good argument, but clearly that is not the reason we are using gmo's. nice article..
Gudrun B
right on! GMOs only fill the pockets of some and do more harm to those who consume it than the producers will ever admit - it would stop the flow of their income!
Nancy gaebel
are you kidding me. Where have you been? There was no such thing as diverticulitis in year 1900. Where do you think it came from. Over processed Gmo foods. And chemicals. Wake up.
Brian Bray
Nancy Gaebel: There was no such thing as diverticulitis in 1900 because nobody knew what it was, talked about it or had a name for it. Not because it didn’t exist. Like many other diseases we’ve put a name to since then. You wake up.
Trinity
Think of it like this: it has taken billions of years for all these plants and animals to develop and form this beautiful world. Billions of years of evolution and adaptation to make everything how it is. We humans come along and think we know everything about DNA so we decide to go in and mess with it. There is a reason why plants rot, there is a reason why we form allergies. To go in a change the structure of an organisms DNA is "playing god" we humans have only been around for so long and we think we can manipulate everything around us for our benefit. It's sick. We don't know everything about DNA.
Reww
You're painfully misinformed to the point of stupidity. ALL of our food is GMO, you uneducated twit. Do some research and stop the bed wetting nonsense
melissa
Excuse me? All our food is Genetically Modified Organisms? Almost all processed foods contain GMOs (corn, soy, and canola are some of the most common) and also crop contamination, but not ALL food is GMO. I'm confused where you have gotten your info or what your point is. Also, being rude and name-calling doesn't help your argument...
April
Using foul language to prove a point? You sound really uneducated. Try proveing a point by using factual comments.
Alethea
i have to agree with the above poster, GMO foods are not all harmful. While I enjoyed the list, the inclusion of this very trendy issue was disappointing, after acknowledging trends should be ignored.
Yes GMOs require rigorous, continuous research, but this issue is better left to the scientists who work in the field, than the court of public opinion.
~a healthy person
Deborah Anthony
I will not be leaving any issue to the scientists who work in that field. I am responsible for me, and it's up to me to do my own investigation.
April
Genetically modified organism! & no thank you! If you believe what your actually saying, thats on you, but dont try to fool the people who arent eucaducated on the topic about your nonsense...
Katherine Perry
I agree with bein aware of what your eating but foods grown now especially from mass farming do not have the same mineral and vitamen values that they had even 50 yes ago. I do believe in supplimenting with supplements .
RD
Wow, what there is a bunch of nonsense and lies dressed up as wisdom, in among some statements so obvious as to be pointless!
First, there is nothing special about your local farmer. Or why should I buy from my local farmer but you shun his produce? That is insane!
Second it is VERY dangerous to disregard what doctors are telling you. Steve Jobs died because he took the "natural alternative". With western medicine he would almost certainly have survived his cancer. There is no reason to think natural is best: where it is effective it has been incorporated into western medicine (digitalis) or even improved on. No, turning salicylic acid into aspirin is not for the patent, or else why can I buy aspirin in the UK where the patent has never been recognised?
Third, GMOs are perfectly safe, and organic food is not only no better than any other food (stop pushing the lie that it is grown without "chemicals"; not only is everything chemical, but artificial chemicals are allowed in organic agriculture and there is no evidence they are safer than others that are not) but in many cases worse. Several have been shown to have more potentially harmful fauna living on them.
Also campaigns against GMOs kill millions, because they have prevented such crops getting to poor farmers in developing countries. No, Monsanto does not deliberately sterilise the plants so the farmer has to buy new each year, and has stated that it will never do so (that is one of how many lies that anti-GMO crusaders have told you?). Golden wheat alone could save the eyesight or lives of millions each year.
Organic food on the other hand is a disgusting indulgence by the rich, selfish class.
Organic agriculture is not sustainable. Yields (in almost all situations - except where poverty prevents good, modern agriculture) are far lower, requiring much more land to be dedicated to agriculture, doing far more environmental harm (remember that some artificial chemicals are used, and that cow dung is more damaging to the rivers than controlled doses of modern fertiliser).
GMOs (which I used to oppose on completely separate grounds to health, until I learnt that the grounds were environmentalist lies) on the other hand have been demonstrated to reduce use of pesticides, increase yields so reduce land use and can of course be tailored in nutrition for people who rely on one grain for almost all their food.
Listening to your body's cravings can be sensible (mostly micro-nutrients when ill or pregnant) but fat people crave pizza and chips, are you saying that is good for them? Ill people don't want to eat, yet the medical advice is that they should.
Have you ever seen the ingredients list of an apple? It would be pretty long, and contain some E numbers. My home-made food contains a huge ingredient list, as I love mixing flavours. It is also really healthy, which is why I am.
Gudrun B
"GMOs (which I used to oppose on completely separate grounds to health, until I learnt that the grounds were environmentalist lies) on the other hand have been demonstrated to reduce use of pesticides, increase yields so reduce land use and can of course be tailored in nutrition for people who rely on one grain for almost all their food."
you are dreaming! GMOs were supposed to reduce the use of pesticides - now we hear every where that they need more pesticides! beside the fact that the seeds are patented and only profit the "owner" - you go ahead and eat them!
Carly
RD you're ignorance & arrogance is astounding. People who want to eat the way humans did before the introduction of modern food technology (which is barely a few decades only) before cancer and many auto immune diseases where around, have every right to do this- and, they have every right to fight for this. Anyone, including you and Monsato, and the scientists working for them, are not only 'jumping the gun' in the message they are pushing regarding GMOs safety, they are doing more damage to the worlds ecosystem. Yes world hunger needs to be addressed, but playing God is not the answer. The arrogance behind the belief that we as humans can know what's best, can know more, can create our own design that is more effective than the evolution prececing today's ecology is completely illogical. A few decades of biased research is not going to cut it with a public that takes the time to find direct research sources and sees for themselves, in black and white, just how misleading these modern claims of 'safety' are.
Joe Balogna
Hold on now before you go around calling other ignorant. Cancer has been around for a long time, archaeologists discovered a 3,200-year-old skeleton whom died of cancer. The rates of cancer haven't increased so much as our ability to correctly diagnose it. Yes there are some food additives that are potentially carcinogenic, but you find these same things in toothpaste and soap and the air you breathe and the sun you bask in, so it's hardly a deciding factor.
Secondly there has been more research into the safety of GMO's before they were released to the public than there is for most over-the-counter medicines. They aren't mad scientists blindly splicing DNA into "frankenfoods", they are experts who know what they're doing. There is tried and tested method with which they follow, you wouldn't walk over to a construction site and start telling them what they're doing is wrong and unsafe when you yourself know nothing about construction, you would naturally assume that they know how to build a house because they've done this countless times before. When they nail two pieces of wood together they don't get any unexpected results, same goes with genetic engineering. Nobody is "playing god" any more than when engage in selective breeding, or reattach a severed arm, or take penicillin instead of dying as "god" would intend. The problem is that the so called "research" that denounces GMO's has all been disproven shortly after, however the public still sites these flawed studies and pseudoscientific speculation (like when they tried to blame GMO's for the bee's dying, when the evidence clearly shows common systemic pesticides were the problem)
There's a lot of misinformation and fear mongering on the internet and daytime TV regarding GMO's, best to leave it to those who actually know what they're talking about or become someone that knows
Brian Bray
You don’t find it the least bit worth exploring that people are generally healthier (both physically and mentally) and living longer than they were before the introduction of modern food technology?
CIL
RD .. you are clearly passionate about this subject and you appear to be well informed. I not know what GMOs are and I don't even care.
I have to say that your sentence :
Organic food on the other hand is a disgusting indulgence by the rich, selfish class.
certainly got my attention.
I can see that some people may get offended but I am disappointed that they resorted to name calling.
At the end of the day, we all want the entire human race to have clean water to drink and enough food to eat.
And we all want our loved ones to be taken care of in hospitals so they can have long, happy and healthy lives.
The inequity between those that have and those that haven't won't be resolved in my lifetime nor my children,
grandchildren or great grandchildren but right now we do need to look at the big picture and not just focus on
ourselves.
If every single one of us buys cheaper food and donates what we have saved to third world countries, in time the
western world could actually make a REAL difference.
May the real meaning of CHRISTmas - LOVE ,PEACE, JOY, and HOPE fill your hearts and may the giving of presents
make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
God Bless
skywatcher
Have you all forgotten or don't know that the UK wastes half, yes half of all food produced every year, as does the US, so nobody should have to go hungry or eat GMO, it's just another ploy to depopulate, in my humble opinion, peace
Traci
As a Nutritionist, I find it very difficult to believe you are a registered dietitian.
Chef
RD...you are a troll.....logic and reason will always prevail over your misinformation
Gwynne Nation
I totally agree! And incorporate all of them into my eating habits. That why I have my own garden as well as buy produce and meats from local farmers. When people ask what kinds of food I like, my reply is I eat what the Lord provides and nothing else!!
Brian Bray
So I guess you wouldn’t go for cancer treatment then, because the Lord provided your cancer.
Rachael @ Love Yourself Green
I was proud to say yes to every single one! 😉
Jackie
Good list! It is up to each individual person to ensure that they are healthy and eating the right foods. I do not use pesticides or herbicides in my garden, I just grow a little extra so all of us dependent on the food have some. So what if I have to cut out where an insect has eaten. GMOs are totally unnecessary and, regardless of the propaganda to the contrary, very unhealthy. GMOs are banned in many countries around the world, why do we allow them in this country? Read labels to ensure you are not getting any "modified" ingredients in your food and read lists of food that is now genetically modified and steer clear!
Mimi
Eat the way our great grandparents did? You mean the ones whose life expectancy was 50?
Naturalwifey
I thought that too, but I just learned that life expectancy is calculated as an average. There was a higher infant mortality rate in the past so that brought down the average for everyone else. I thought that was pretty fascinating!
Brian Bray
That is part of the story, but not the entire story. Science and medical advances have also played a huge role, as well as state sponsored dietary recommendations and education. The average also isn’t nearly as high as it could be today if more people actually took the recommendations seriously.
Lauren
Amen! The only way to live healthy!
Traci
As a Nutritionist, I find it hard to believe that RD is actually a registered dietitian. To the author of this article, I completely agree with everything stated, especially the fact that cutting calories means losing nutrients..
GT
I'm getting SO sick of the whole good v evil argument over GMOs. Keep the acronym itself in mind, and what it means! An organisms genetics can be modified in many ways and for many different reasons. The reasons and end results vary drastically. Yes, Monsanto has used GMO in unethical ways to dominate agriculture and squash whoever could be competition. On the other hand, many of the life saving drugs we take for granted come from, or themselves are, GMOs! Stop with the knee jerk reactions to a simple acronym that can mean MANY things. Before jumping on the hatewagon, consider what the organism is, how it's being modified, and for what purpose. Environmentalists cringing at the term GMO is equivalent to the way Christian fundamentalists react to the word "science." It destroys all possibility of meaningful thought and debate. Stop letting your conditioned reaction to the term get in the way of what it actually means! The truth is never black and white, and GMOs are neither good nor bad. As intelligent beings with a level of control bordering on the divine, we need to look at thse problems and possibilities on their own merits!
Jaelan
Thank YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
edikoisi
wow totally agree. i myself started eating raw a few months ago without even knowing there is a word for it. it was all my bodies oppinion that it didnt wanted meat no more, i just had to stop giving it to it. now i feel really good and the fact that im doing something beneficial for my body is making me happy
Bob Smith
Enough of the trash-talking of GMOs. You're all so conditioned by biased media outlets that you forgot how to think for yourselves (or maybe you didn't know how in the first place). There are going to be chemicals in everything you eat. Even if you grow your own food, there are going to be chemicals in the plants that have been absorbed from the ground via their roots. You're only fooling yourselves if you think eating "non-GMO" is going to have any benefits of eating otherwise.
And before someone calls me a troll or misinformed, please, show me an article from a well-established, non=biased, and reputable source that says that including GMO products in your diet is even remotely dangerous, unethical, or otherwise detrimental to your health. Until then, please keep your nonsense to yourself.
No, I'm not a dietitian. I do, however, possess enough common sense to realize when someone is likely just fearmongering (and most likely very ignorant). Hipsters and religious fundamentalists come to mind.
Jaelan
PREACH!!!!
3green00
It had me until the ridiculous non-GMO nonsense. Non GMO people are also probably anti-vax. Same twisted logic.
Jaelan
Agree
LM
Well meaning, but naive. Especially #7. I don't where or when your great-grandmother was raised, but my great-grandmother was a young woman during the great depression and butter was rationed. Everybody ate margarine. Then shortly after the TV dinners of the fifties and boxed cake mixes, etc. became popular. Voting with their forks sounds like a lovely idea, until you take income and family size into account. What kind of training/certification/education does a "nutritional therapist" need? I've never heard that particular title before.
Shannon
We have been growing our own fruits and veggies on Towers at our house. It is so awesome to have the farmer's market right or my front door!
Dave S.
Truly the best in nutrition is eat fresh, as much as possible organic, foods. Avoid processed foods. Go and be active outdoors. I agree with your laid out details here. Also, in my case, I take supplements specifically for me. Meaning, I had some blood works and found out which vits or minerals I am deficient with. Supplements aide for a specific purpose, I truly believe there is no one size fits all. But hey, good points you laid out here. Keep it up!
Lal
Why is there nothing about exercise??? You can eat healthy all you want, but if you don't exercise, it doesn't make a damn bit of good.
Mary Titus
I am very happy and proud to see that I do all of the habits listed here. Therefore health is a habit for me.
Andrea
I really loved 9 and 10. I think there is a general sense of deprivation and misery with beginning a healthy life style when, in fact, it's largely the opposite. A journey to wellness truly starts with honoring our natural instincts and the personal need of our own individual bodies. I really appreciated this post!
Kelsey
Reading this makes me realize how lucky I am to be where I am in life. There are some areas I falter a little, but it is in small bouts, and I know the ways to change it for myself. Also makes me feel less crazy when I get slack at work for my "diet" and how I "eat so healthy" and that I have "such dedication and commitment to my diet". I have tried to make my point, but it has gotten to the point where I pretty much smile and nod, but know in my mind where I stand.
wen
God knows best! "don't fool with mother nature"
Kimberly J.
So glad to have finally been educated to this by my local chiropractor!
Holly
A few areas on here lack education. Also where is exercise??
Wendy
I just signed up today on this site and already I regret it....it's the same as facebook. People are here to teach, educate and inform us here BECAUSE we want to improve our lives. Some of these postings are mean and I think sticking to the facts and not being negative is a route most of us should take. Isn't there enough bad mouthing and rudeness on social media already? I think Catherine is trying to educate us and we can take it or leave it, but please refrain of meanness here, if possible. I'm looking for direction on my health and I'm hoping to find some of it here. Thank you.