A food Lifestyle for Preventing Depression and Anxiety

A food Lifestyle for Preventing Depression and Anxiety.

The best and healthiest diet for preventing depression,anxiety and weight gain is probably the traditional Asian diet. We can even look at it as the Asian food lifestyle and not just a diet. Obesity is very rare in Asia. Did you ever wonder why many Asians are naturally slim and very healthy? The answer is not far-fetched. It is their diet! Since their childhood time, they have learned from their elders the healthy way to eat by choosing the right natural food combination and colors.

Asians do not try to lose weight - never! It is naturally they reach their ideal weight because of their natural and healthy diet. However, in America and some other western countries, people consume a lot of processed foods instead of natural diet, hence chronic diseases such as heart disease, obesity, cancer, diabetes, etc have been on the alarming increase. It's now time the advanced countries change their eating habits and learn the Asian food lifestyle.

The peoples of Asia are among the healthiest and happiest on the planet. The Japanese, Chinese and Korean are among the people who have lived the longest in the world. It is because of their diet that Asians have youthful appearance and health. Their diet is typically very low in saturated fats and does not contain preservatives and artificial ingredients. Asians take their foods in fresh and very natural form.

The traditional Asian diet is based on plant foods. It incorporates various ingredients and foods like vegetables, seeds, roots, nuts, fresh fruits, seaweeds, rice and beans. Some people believe that the Asian Pyramid Diet is vegetarian. This is not true. The Asian traditional diet does contain fish and meat but these are very minimal in consumption and they are usually served as side dish. We can easily argue the fact that Chinese cuisine is the most prominent of all Asian cooking styles, with various region-based styles.

The most fundamental difference is between southern and northern styles of Chinese cuisine. Southern dishes emphasize tenderness and freshness while, because of the colder weather, the northern dishes are comparatively oily and the use of garlic and vinegar tends to be more favored. On the contrary, Japanese cooking mainly emphasizes frequent deep-frying (such as tempura and so on) by applying vegetable oil or, the other way round, raw foods (such as sashimi and sushi).

The Asians use various kinds of fruits and vegetables when they are cooking. Some of them include scallions, cabbage, leafy greens such as spinach, bananas, grapes, guavas, melons, pineapple and jackfruit. The leafy vegetables are dark green in color and are packed with nutrients and vitamins. They are very good for detoxifying your body and keeping your skin young and supple. Of all the known Asian fruits, the pineapple is perhaps the one Asians love most.

The traditional Asian diet does not feature dairy and so it is rarely consumed. Because Asians consume a variety of calcium-rich plant foods, osteoporosis is very rare in Asia. The calcium that is found in milk or dairy products is a very poor substitute for the calcium found in plants because the former is very difficult for the human body to absorb. This is why many people in the western countries still suffer very much from osteoporosis, even though they consume a lot of dairy products every year.

Asian tea is one of the Asian favorite beverages. It is a safe and very healthy drink because it contains antioxidants and vitamins that help you fight cancer and reverse aging effects. Asian tea is also rich in metabolism boosters that are effective for fat burning or natural weight loss.

Now, here is a very helpful advice for you:

When you remove alcohol, meat and processed food from your own diet and start consuming large quantities of whole grains, vegetables and fresh fruits, you will begin to lose weight naturally. Don't remove regular exercise from your lifestyle because this is also among the Asian lifestyle. It will help you lose weight and keep your body very healthy.

Copying the Asian centuries-old food lifestyle will help you remain vigorous, youthful and slim. Exercise your body only in ways that it will react favorably to. Then you will reap the greatest benefit without using too much effort.

If you need the best diet advice, take it from the East. If you compare the shape of the average American to that of the average Asian, you will quickly remember that Americans, with all of their super foods and diet fads, are the most obese people on the planet. The Chinese, however, has a culture that, for thousands of years, has stuck to a balanced and moderate diet plan. The Asians have established simple diet principles that Americans can all practice so as to enjoy a healthier life.

If you eat like the Asians, you will look thin like them. When the Asians eat like you (an American), they look not thin like you. The paramount principles are moderation and balance. You do not need to consume Chinese food or even any Asian cuisine every single day. The cuisines in various countries are very different as explained in the previous chapters; but all the cuisines adhere to the exactly the same principles: a simple whole grain diet, some slightly cooked vegetables, and a small quantity of every other thing. Too little or too much of any one of these things is not good for you.

All foods have advantages and disadvantages. A good diet should be diversified, like a good stock portfolio. If you take the same food every day, you become overloaded in that one sector. Then you become more prone to that sector’s dangers, and simultaneously you miss out on the remaining good things that are in the market.

The bottom line is if you take smaller quantities of more foods, then there is no single one of them that can have too much influence on you.

Nutritionally, white rice is much better than brown rice. Brown rice looks like white rice that is enclosed in a thick brown hull. Eating brown rice is like eating a walnut without stripping off the shell. The hull contains nutrients although the biological availability is very poor. It takes the human body plenty of effort and time to try to dissolve or break the shell down. This process utilizes energy which is taken from the body and, hence, slows down the body’s metabolism. Remember that the paramount principles are moderation and balance. So, don't consume white rice every time. Consume all the grains, not excluding brown rice. The more the amount of processed food you consume, the more your body will find it hard it to un-process it. Therefore I strongly advise you take more simple grains than pastas and breads.

It is better to consume cooked vegetables than consuming raw ones. I do not deny the fact that cooking destroys a small quantity (about 10%) of the nutrients in vegetables, but the rest (90%) is then made available by cooking the vegetable. Your body has to cook and heat whatever that is raw and cold that goes into your stomach. This processing utilizes your body’s energy and takes it some time, and eventually slows down your metabolism. It is from our digestion that we get all the energy we need, that is, our body strives to extract life and energy from the food we consume and excrete the waste that we do not need. When you cook outside your body, the load is lightened and then your digestive tract only does the work of a filter. In other words, it sieves the useful stuff, sends it to your tissues and then sends the bad stuff to the tissue paper. Therefore I strongly advise we eat various types of organic and locally available vegetables.

It is not the amount of calories we consume that determines how much of obesity we will have. Calories are immaterial. For example, an average Chinese man takes between 25 to 40% more calories than an average American man. Even a sedentary office worker has more calories but less obesity. This is as a result of the difference in the kind of calories the office worker takes and how he or she prepares them. When you consume calories from their natural sources, you will get a more steady energy release, be able to satisfy your hunger, and find it easy to eliminate your body waste. When eat junk foods like snacks, cookies, sodas, artificial sweeteners, etc, your blood sugars will rise sharply, make you hungrier, and slow down your digestion. I strongly advise you never allow yourself to get hungry. Instead, just consume natural and good food.

Eating some red meat will do your body good. Many Americans take large quantities of red meat and this clearly explains why many of them have numerous health issues. Vegetarians nearly get it right; only they go a little too far. Avoiding meat usually will give some improvement in the short term, but it will always create a long-term deficiency. It is recommended by the Chinese that we take specifically 2 ounces of mammal meat 2 times every week. They say a small quantity of fowl and fish are good for our body as well, but we really need to rotate these with a little mammal. Contrary to general belief, dark meat is better than white meat, beef is better than chicken and yolks are better than egg whites. We get the best when we consume a little of every food. Once, a renowned Chinese medical doctor said,

"Vegetarianism is best for monks who live in the shelter of a temple and are seated for days in meditation".

Those of us who live an active lifestyle require a better source of an active food.

Let us discuss a little about the ethics of meat eating. It is my belief that our creator loves carrots too. There is a life force in everything that He created. Everything wants to reproduce and grow. So it is impossible “not to do harm" and survive. Everything must eat something. Human beings should be grateful to the creator for the lives He had given unto us so that ours can continue.

Avoid Dairy as much as possible. It is designed by the creator only for infants to change to substance in their body. Human beings are the only known animals that consume dairy after infancy. Although dairy truly contains calcium, but an amino acid called Casein overwhelms the calcium. This actually deprives your bones of calcium. A better and useful source of calcium for your body is green leafy vegetables and it has less bad effects.

Here is a fact that is taught by the Chinese medicine: dairy changes in adults into a substance known as phlegm which manifests in various ways: mucus, fat, sinus, mental fog, infections, respiratory problems, tumors, fibroids and skin conditions. Although a little amount of dairy will not do you harm when consumed, but a large quantity of it is not good for your body. It is water at body or room temperature that should be your primary beverage. Your second beverage should be the green tea. Every other fluid, not excluding coffee, should be taken only occasionally.