November 01st, 2015

     Wouldn’t life be great if you could do whatever you wanted without having to deal with any negative consequences? Imagine going to work only at your convenience, without a fear of losing your job. Or being able to speak your mind to rude individuals without any repercussions. What if you could party all night and wake up the next morning without any ill effects? As we know, the world doesn't work like this. We don’t live in a fairy tale. Each of our actions has a consequence, whether good or bad. The same holds true with how we treat our bodies. Sadly, ignoring this fact makes it no less real. Our bodies may be resilient, but everything has a breaking point. Just as a diet of natural, whole foods can make you energetic, alert, and healthy inside and out, a diet of overly-processed fast foods  can bring on weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and a host of other maladies. So when deciding on what to eat, instead of choosing the easy, tasty, or cheap option, consider what the consequences of your choices can lead to. Are you promoting health and wellness in your body? Or are you simply eating whatever gives you momentary satisfaction?

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    Let’s compare your body and hungry stomach to a vehicle that’s running low on fuel. You spot a station selling cheap gas. After investigating, you find that the quality of the inexpensive fuel doesn’t compare to that of the other stations which offer clean, undiluted gasoline. Would you simply fill 'er up anyway and hope that your vehicle can sort things out? Or would you take a little more effort, time, and money and choose a better fuel? It’s not even a question, right? You wouldn’t want the contaminated fuel clogging your vehicle’s fuel lines and wrecking its engine, causing you to spend far more on costly repairs! The same concept should apply when choosing the right fuel for your body. However, since you can’t simply get a replacement as you can with a broken-down vehicle, far greater care must be taken!
    There are numerous bad "body-fuels" that are extremely popular and readily available. Here are just a few to be aware of: Anything deep-fried, e.g french fries, onion rings, cheese sticks, and yes, fried candy bars. Because of the large amount of harmful fat that deep-fried foods contain, you are doing your body a service by avoiding them completely. Next are foods with high sugar content. Candy, soda, and ice cream are the usual suspects, but did you know that flavored yogurt, tomato sauce, salad dressing, and even canned soup can also contain gobs of the sweet stuff? It's true. Another silent culprit is sodium. A diet high in sodium can cause irreparable damage to your heart, especially if you are over 50. So consumers, please beware!

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