The Foundation of Health: Diet and Exercise

One should strive to maintain good health by taking a balanced diet and exercising regularly. - Atharva Veda


If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health. - Hippocrates


Small changes in diet and exercise can prevent type 2 diabetes from developing or slow it in its tracks. - The American Diabetes Association (ADA).


If you go to the American Heart Association's (AHA) website, you will also see that they recommend changing your diet and regular exercise to maintain your heart health. Can you see a pattern developing here? The above quotes were chosen from amongst many other similar ones because they show a huge span of consistent belief about what is needed to be healthy. The Vedas, Hindu scriptures, were composed from earlier spoken verse about 1000 B.C. Hippocrates, a Greek physician from around 400 B.C. is the "father of medicine in the western world". And, even modern health organizations like the ADA and AHA, believe in the importance of good diet and exercise. So why are we still confused about basic health issues?


The devil is in the details. This is where the confusion comes in. What exactly is a balanced diet? What exercises should I do, how often and for how long? These are the questions that we will begin to answer in this first series "The foundation of health". Making the right health decisions is important for all of us and luckily the information is out there if you just know where to look for it. We also look at how making the right health decisions can improve our lives in many ways.


Note! In any of the ancient writings on health, diet and exercise were viewed as an important foundation for having a full, happy life. Being healthy doesn't just keep us out of the hospital. It is a great treasure because it allows us to be active and vital in our daily lives. This post serves as an introduction to this series but further posts will focus on the specifics of diet and exercise. In the final post in this series we will look at how we can integrate diet and exercise into our lives in a way that is both meaningful and fun. Enjoy!