I am often asked if it is possible to summarize good health behaviors to a few simple rules that are easy to remember. I have tried to summarize all that I have learned in this field during the last twenty years of integrative medicine practice. This gives twenty tips. I know they walk for me. I hope they will bring you happiness too!
Neuropsychiatrist, author of Guérir ( Pocket, 2005) and Anticancer (Robert Laff, 2010), David Servan-Schreiber founded and directed a center for integrative medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, USA
1. COOK RETRO
Opt as often as possible for a main dish similar to those before the 1950s: 80% vegetables and legumes, 20% at most animal protein. Exactly the opposite of our national steak-fries, with its lettuce leaf that makes the fig and the slice of anemic tomato that accompanies it on the good days. Meat becomes a condiment to add flavor rather than the central element of our plate.
2. MIXING VEGETABLES
Broccoli is an effective anticancer agent and helps to detoxify the body, but its effectiveness is even more potent when combined with onions or garlic - or even tomato sauce. A good habit to adopt: add onions,
3. EATING BIO WHERE IT IS POSSIBLE
But also remember that it is better to eat broccoli with some pesticide residues on it than to eat broccoli (or other vegetables) at all.
4. GROWING FLATS
Turmeric is the most powerful natural anti-inflammatory agent. You can add (with black pepper) to almost any dish and salad vinaigrette.
5. FORGET THE POTATOES
Their starch raises the blood sugar level. And they are so loaded with pesticides that the farmers I know never eat their own produce (unless it is organic).
6. TRY "FISH"
The right pace: three times a week - sardines, mackerel, whole anchovies, which contain less mercury or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) than larger fish, such as tuna. Avoid swordfish and dogfish, which are now banned from pregnant women in the United States as they are contaminated (because of their large size).
7. CHOOSE GOOD EGGS
Prefer "omega-3" eggs or labeled "blue-white-heart", or avoid consuming yellow. Since hens eat mostly soy and corn, their eggs contain twenty times more healthy omega-3 omega-6 than healthy omega-3s.
8. USE OIL
Olive and rapeseed oils are excellent for cooking and salad dressings. Those of sunflower, soy or corn are to be avoided because too rich in omega-6.
9. THINK PHYTO
Thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, mint...: Mediterranean herbs are excellent for your health. In addition to pleasure, they provide many antioxidants, and even anti-cancer agents. Add it regularly to your recipes.
10. LIVE "COMPLETE"
Choose preferably whole and mixed flours - whole and multi-grain pasta and bread - and take them "organic" because the pesticides settle on the grain shell. Forget the white flour as much as possible and cook pasta al dente, like the Italians, to avoid the rise in blood sugar.
11. REDUCE SUGAR
Do not take dessert consistently, or soda and sweet fruit juice. Avoid foods that mention, on the package, sugar in any form among the first three ingredients. Make fruit often, especially red berries, plums and peaches. And, for a taste of "dessert", think of dark chocolate more than 70%.
12. DRINK THREE CUPS OF GREEN TEA PER DAY
Rather than meals.
13. DO NOT ACT LIKE AYATOLLAH
What matters are the basic habits, not the occasional pleasures.
14. TAKE THE TIME TO WALK
Dance or run. Aim for thirty minutes of walking or one equivalent per day. It is enough to walk fifteen minutes to go to the office or go shopping, and come back by walking too. A dog is often a better companion than a human partner. And there is more chance to hold an activity when it brings pleasure.
15. BE SUNNING
At least twenty minutes a day at noon, in summer, without sunscreen (but without developing sunburn). Or talk with your doctor about your blood level of vitamin D and the possibility of taking it orally.
16. AVOID CONTAMINANTS
Ventilate clothes for two hours the return of dry cleaning. Use organic cleaning products (or wear gloves). Avoid heating liquids in kettles or plastic containers, and prefer cosmetics without parabens or phthalates. Forget the pesticides in the house, and as much as possible in the garden. Replace old stoves with Teflon scratches. Filter the water if the area is polluted by pesticides from surrounding fields. Keep your mobile phone away from your body during conversations.
17. CONTACT AT LEAST TWO FRIENDS
Ask for their help during difficult times, even if only over the Internet or by telephone. If they are close, do not hesitate to embrace them more often, as for all loved ones.
18. LEARN A SIMPLE METHOD OF RELAXATION
By breathing to relieve pressure when life feels stuck.
19. MAKE SURE TO MAKE A THING THAT YOU LOVE
Really every day, even if it does not last long.
20. FIND SOMETHING TO DO
Meet in neighborhood, visit to village, and do it really.
