We all age. It’s a natural process our society is obsessed with stopping and even reversing. People resort to some pretty barbaric practices in their attempts to look younger. These folks of course are missing the can’t stop the clock, it’s really about how gracefully you age.
When you age with grace, no matter how many years you have been on this earth, you will reflect vitality, energy and yes, a certain mature youthfulness.
My mom is a great example of graceful aging. In her late sixties her hair in grey, her skin less firm than it was when she was 20, but what the heck, so is mine! She walks and moves with bounce and energy. Her eyes are bright, her mind sharp and her skin reflects the joy she find in her active life. So what’s her secret? It’s simple, she eats real whole foods, no artificial junk, she drinks clean water, she’s active, hopeful and engaged.
Enough about Mom, let’s get back to aging. Aging is natural and normal, disease is not. Disease and aging begin and end with free radical damage. So in essence we age as a result of free radical damage. More specifically, our cells age as a result of free radical damage.
Cells get sick because free radicals (atoms that are missing an electron) steal electrons from the atoms of our cells. When a cell becomes damaged in this way it either dies, or replicates in a damaged contributes to sickness, cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes and general premature aging.
So how did you pick up those free radicals?
• Smoking
• Stress
• Pesticides
• Pollution
• Medications
• Poor food choices
• Food additives
• X-rays
• Excessive Exercise
• Chlorinated water
• Heavy to name a few.
The solution is antioxidants
Antioxidants have extra electrons to give to the free radicals so they will stop stealing them from our cells. They are found in fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, grass-fed animal meat and dairy. Cholesterol is an antioxidant, so it SOD and Coenzyme Q10, just three of many very powerful antioxidants our bodies make to specifically fight oxidative stress.
In a nutshell, we are antioxidant deficient simply because we don’t or can’t eat enough QUALITY food. This is why antioxidant supplements are so popular and yes, even necessary for some folks who can’t get what they need from their food.
What is quality food?
Organic produce, raw milk, chemical and hormone free grass-fed animal meat and eggs. Good, healthy, natural fats from animal sources (butter and lard), coconut oil, olive oil and stable nut oils are full of antioxidants. Fermented vegetables (like sauerkraut), raw milk, yogurt and kefir are historically high is healing ingredients. And soaking nuts and grains makes them exceptionally nutritious.
Of course, reducing unnecessary free radical damage is important too. Stress and poor diet are at the top of the list. A diet that causes a lot of free radical damage is one packed full of sugar, vegetable oils (margarine, soy, cottonseed, canola and safflower oils fall into this category). Processed grains, especially breakfast cereals, pasta, white breads and crackers cause cellular damage and are totally non-nutritious. Meat from animals treated with hormones and produce treated with pesticides bombard our cells with tons of chemicals that then result in even more free radical damage.
Here’s a pretty amazing concept your doctor isn’t telling you
Symptoms are not the cause of illness or disease; they are just the messengers telling you that something is going wrong in your body. Treating symptoms doesn’t lead to health; it actually prolongs illness and postpones true wellness.
• A heart attack is not the cause of heart disease – It is a symptom
• Cancer is not the cause of the disease – It is a symptom
• When you cough or sneeze or get stuffy sinuses, these are not the cause of colds – they are just symptoms.
It might sound crazy, but what causes a stuffy nose could be the same thing that causes a heart attack or cancer…cellular damage caused by free radicals attacking or radicals left un-confronted because we do not give our bodies enough of what they need to defend themselves.
Scientists believe that free radicals are a big cause of all known diseases.
I’m talking about heart disease, arthritis and even cataracts.
In radicals are the reason we age ungracefully…Healthy traditional food is the answer…Supplements will take you to the next level.
