In a breaking news story, Michael Kahn of Reuters news service reported today that scientists in Britain at the University of Cambridge together with their colleagues at the Medical Research Council have completed studies that reveal that just "Four Health Changes Can Prolong Life 14 Years".
In a study of over 20,000 healthy British men and women conducted from 1993 - 1997, the Four Health Changes that contributed a significant difference in the longevity of those who have adopted these changes into their lifestyle and those who have not are: giving up smoking, exercise, drinking in moderation, and eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
Of these the greatest significant benefit to longevity was the lifestyle change to give up smoking, which led to an 80 percent improvement in health, the study found. This was followed by eating fruits and vegetables.
Whilst at first sight these findings would come as no surprise to most people, since there has already been much supporting evidence gathered over the years on these lifestyle aspects, what was noteworthy about this study was that it is one of the first to actually Quantify the combined impactof these lifestyle changes. Details on how this study was conducted can be found in the source article.
Significant to the subject matter of this blog on My Uri International Business was the finding that eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day was the Second most contributing factor to prolonging longevity.
Let me explain why this aspect was a foundational key to launching my Uri International Home Business and why Brett Rademacher and his Urilife network marketing team played such a vital role in helping me build a business that not only helps me generate unlimited residual income but that actually contributes to the health of my family by providing us with a product that significantly boosts our daily intake of fruits and vegetables through a concentrated wholefood (whole food) based nutritional supplement. I am talking about The Feast and the other core products from Uri International, Beyond Berries and The Feast Supercharged.
Whilst most readers of this blog would probably consider "giving up smoking" as a most difficult challenge due to the addictive nature of the habit, few of us have actually considered how difficult it is to break out of our acquired eating habits so as to incorporate at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day !
No Kidding ! Think about it for a moment. Did you get your 5 servings of fruits and vegetables today ? How much did you get ? Has this left you with a deficit ? What impact is this having on your health ?
These are apparently serious questions, serious enough that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a special initiative that started out as the "5 A Day" Program but which has recently been updated to the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters (TM) campaign ... apparently in recognition of just that ... that the American diet is in dire need of as much fruits and vegetable consumption as possible, and that More is definitely Better !
Now let's go back to the question again, "How many servings of fruits and vegetables did I consume today?" and "How many servings did my lifestyle and caloric intake actually require?" To answer the latter I went to the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters web site that is a CDC initiative in partnership with the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH).
By using the easy-to-use calculator based on my age, gender and level of physical activity above and beyond the normal level of light every-day activity (which for today was less than 30 minutes and equated to a caloric intake requirement of 2400) I should have consumed a minimum of 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables today.
What is considered a "cup of fruit"? The website helps you out with this question too and to summarize, it appears that 1 small apple would count as a cup whereas 6 baby carrots would count as 1/2 a cup.
A quick analysis of my meals today would show that I consumed perhaps 1/2 cup of fruit for breakfast through the consumption of a small banana, 1/2 cup of fruit for lunch by way of some apple in a fresh kefir smoothie and maybe 1 cup of vegetables through some carrots and spinach that were in a stew my wife prepared to go over some rice-like barley. I also drank a glass of organic apple juice which would have counted for 1 cup ... so essentially I consumed possibly up to 3 cups ... much less than the recommended 5 cups. Had I engaged in any moderate to heavy exercise I would have needed to consume at least 6 cups today !
Now what about you ? How did you fare? What about yesterday, or the day before ? Be honest ... are you consistently eating anywhere near this government recommended intake of 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables?
My guess is that you are not and statistics show that you are not alone. According to the American Journal of Preventative Medicine (April 2007 issue) in 2002 only 11% of the American population managed to consume the daily intake guidelines set by the USDA even though many of the guidelines include Tomato sauce, Ketchup, pasteurized juice and even French fries as a serving ! Worse still, approximately 62% did not consume any whole fruit servings, 75% did not consume fruit juice and 25% reported eating no vegetables at all !!
Does that sound like we are winning the war and does it underscore the point that the CDC's Fruits & Veggies-More Matters (TM) campaign faces a very difficult challenge?
What is equally of concern is the fact that what little fruit and vegetables that Americans do consume in their daily diet, much of this lacks the nutritional value that it could have. A lot of our food is overcooked thus killing the life in the enzymes and destroying the proteins. I read a good example ... someone suggested that you try and cook a bean, for example, or an almond and then plant it and see if it will sprout. The answer is obviously NO ... it has been killed !
Then there are issues with fruits and vegetables being picked way before they are truly ripe in order to facilitate transport and handling to minimize damage. This means that it has had less time to mature and fully absorb all the nutrients from the soil nor had sufficient time to develop all the beneficial vitamins and complex beneficial plant proteins that contribute to flavor and health. In addition, much of our agriculture is done on soils that are increasingly depleted and lacking the soil structure that healthy earthworm rich organic soils display. Not too speak of the heavy pesticide usage on conventional crops, and now also the dubious issues that are being raised in relation to GMO (genetically modified) crops.
In a study of over 20,000 healthy British men and women conducted from 1993 - 1997, the Four Health Changes that contributed a significant difference in the longevity of those who have adopted these changes into their lifestyle and those who have not are: giving up smoking, exercise, drinking in moderation, and eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
Of these the greatest significant benefit to longevity was the lifestyle change to give up smoking, which led to an 80 percent improvement in health, the study found. This was followed by eating fruits and vegetables.
Whilst at first sight these findings would come as no surprise to most people, since there has already been much supporting evidence gathered over the years on these lifestyle aspects, what was noteworthy about this study was that it is one of the first to actually Quantify the combined impactof these lifestyle changes. Details on how this study was conducted can be found in the source article.
Significant to the subject matter of this blog on My Uri International Business was the finding that eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day was the Second most contributing factor to prolonging longevity.
Let me explain why this aspect was a foundational key to launching my Uri International Home Business and why Brett Rademacher and his Urilife network marketing team played such a vital role in helping me build a business that not only helps me generate unlimited residual income but that actually contributes to the health of my family by providing us with a product that significantly boosts our daily intake of fruits and vegetables through a concentrated wholefood (whole food) based nutritional supplement. I am talking about The Feast and the other core products from Uri International, Beyond Berries and The Feast Supercharged.
Whilst most readers of this blog would probably consider "giving up smoking" as a most difficult challenge due to the addictive nature of the habit, few of us have actually considered how difficult it is to break out of our acquired eating habits so as to incorporate at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day !
No Kidding ! Think about it for a moment. Did you get your 5 servings of fruits and vegetables today ? How much did you get ? Has this left you with a deficit ? What impact is this having on your health ?
These are apparently serious questions, serious enough that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a special initiative that started out as the "5 A Day" Program but which has recently been updated to the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters (TM) campaign ... apparently in recognition of just that ... that the American diet is in dire need of as much fruits and vegetable consumption as possible, and that More is definitely Better !
Now let's go back to the question again, "How many servings of fruits and vegetables did I consume today?" and "How many servings did my lifestyle and caloric intake actually require?" To answer the latter I went to the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters web site that is a CDC initiative in partnership with the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH).
By using the easy-to-use calculator based on my age, gender and level of physical activity above and beyond the normal level of light every-day activity (which for today was less than 30 minutes and equated to a caloric intake requirement of 2400) I should have consumed a minimum of 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables today.
What is considered a "cup of fruit"? The website helps you out with this question too and to summarize, it appears that 1 small apple would count as a cup whereas 6 baby carrots would count as 1/2 a cup.
A quick analysis of my meals today would show that I consumed perhaps 1/2 cup of fruit for breakfast through the consumption of a small banana, 1/2 cup of fruit for lunch by way of some apple in a fresh kefir smoothie and maybe 1 cup of vegetables through some carrots and spinach that were in a stew my wife prepared to go over some rice-like barley. I also drank a glass of organic apple juice which would have counted for 1 cup ... so essentially I consumed possibly up to 3 cups ... much less than the recommended 5 cups. Had I engaged in any moderate to heavy exercise I would have needed to consume at least 6 cups today !
Now what about you ? How did you fare? What about yesterday, or the day before ? Be honest ... are you consistently eating anywhere near this government recommended intake of 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables?
My guess is that you are not and statistics show that you are not alone. According to the American Journal of Preventative Medicine (April 2007 issue) in 2002 only 11% of the American population managed to consume the daily intake guidelines set by the USDA even though many of the guidelines include Tomato sauce, Ketchup, pasteurized juice and even French fries as a serving ! Worse still, approximately 62% did not consume any whole fruit servings, 75% did not consume fruit juice and 25% reported eating no vegetables at all !!
Does that sound like we are winning the war and does it underscore the point that the CDC's Fruits & Veggies-More Matters (TM) campaign faces a very difficult challenge?
What is equally of concern is the fact that what little fruit and vegetables that Americans do consume in their daily diet, much of this lacks the nutritional value that it could have. A lot of our food is overcooked thus killing the life in the enzymes and destroying the proteins. I read a good example ... someone suggested that you try and cook a bean, for example, or an almond and then plant it and see if it will sprout. The answer is obviously NO ... it has been killed !
Then there are issues with fruits and vegetables being picked way before they are truly ripe in order to facilitate transport and handling to minimize damage. This means that it has had less time to mature and fully absorb all the nutrients from the soil nor had sufficient time to develop all the beneficial vitamins and complex beneficial plant proteins that contribute to flavor and health. In addition, much of our agriculture is done on soils that are increasingly depleted and lacking the soil structure that healthy earthworm rich organic soils display. Not too speak of the heavy pesticide usage on conventional crops, and now also the dubious issues that are being raised in relation to GMO (genetically modified) crops.
