What and How Should We Eat? - a Must for a long happy life

The quest for immortality has been futile and will never succeed. Out of despair, let's take a step-down pursuit for long happy life so that we may look nicer, feel better, and live longer as much as what we wish and can.

How?

The answer is to practice Universal Healthy Lifestyle, which consists of:

1. Eat, enjoy, and control the foods, and don't let foods control us;

2. Practice quality mental and physical exercises every single day, but avoid any forms of overindulgence and obsession;

3. Sleep sound and well for at least 6-8 hours every single day, but preferably at night;

4. Meditate to reinforce spiritual and physical connection, and pray if religious;

5. Follow currently available reasonable, realistic medical advice like knowledge, skill, technology, medication, and common sense as needed.

The Theme of the Pursuit

• To make a long happy life come true, we solely rely on our ability to maintain a free-flowing circulation to bring and distribute the needed nutrition to nurture and nourish all tissues and organs of our body. So doing guarantees us to have a best possible opportunity to live a long happy life.

To me, this is a matter of common sense. That is the ultimate goal and mission what the art and science of medicine has been striving for. But the constant bombardment of political correctness and commercialism has fuzzed up the real face of the truth and facts of our daily life and living. As a result, most of people have been misled to believe and count on that more and newer medications and procedures can deliver the trick to materialize the dream for a long healthy happy life.

However, my lifelong learning and practicing medicine fails to confirm and prove it. So, for decades, I have constantly told my patients, medical students, residents, and colleagues: Medication, surgery, sweet talk, and sympathy in the long run have never helped people

much, but the empathy to realize, understand, and accept the available truth and facts of life in conjunction with the actions to practice Universal Healthy Lifestyle will, a lot and for sure.

In reality, believing and practicing the above tends to render such practitioners becoming the most unpopular and dislikable persons on the earth and within the system because that act will confront and counteract the manipulative power of political correctness and commercialism. Despite this social oddity, realizing that only time and life are truly priceless and irreplaceable as well as that only the passage of both is forever, not diamonds as commercially promoted, will foment ordinary souls to pursue such invaluable endeavor.

Among these five points of Universal Healthy Lifestyle, what and how we should eat, of course, should be foremost for us to explore and discuss the issues on how to live a long happy life.

A Reminder of Seasonal Joy and Challenge

Change and change; everything changes and moves. Nothing is standstill although the change and move may be invisible to our naked eyes.

In fact, today, December 22, our beloved sun is reaching and passing its southernmost point of celestial sphere - winter solstice. And our bodies, society, and the world all come along and pursue their fate of one-way street of change and move.

As well, during next few days, we will join the crowd to pass the peak of seasonal festivity; hopefully, there we may capture our share of joy from the flooding of socially graceful smiles, musicals, gifts, and a lot of foods... All these may materialize the real happiness to some, but many may suffer from social, financial stress under the slavery of overindulgence and obsession - that is seasonal challenge! Among these, over-stuffing stomachs poses a biggest distraction for many to keep track on healthy living.

How to Counteract this Dilemma of Living?

How? Here I share the following thoughts with you and hope these will stick and stay with you, and you will make these ideas into actions. They are:

1. Life is not only a one-way street of accumulation and evolution, but also a process of constant struggle to cope with reality, certainty, and uncertainty of daily living for survival, growth, and continuation;

2. Nothing is free and everything comes with a price;

3. No one else can do for us, not drug, not surgery, but ourselves.

Understanding What Have Changed in Food Chain and Supply?

Evolving civilization over time has expanded our space of living. In ancient time, people live on what they can explore and acquire from their reachable geographical boundary as limited as a village; nowadays, the expanse of living has become global and people can

access to almost anything from anywhere.

What should we eat today?

Our continual collection and analysis of experience has brought us and shed light on how to select what kinds of healthy foods we should consume for long happy life. Unfortunately, the undesirable effects of political correctness and commercialism has eroded food quality through food processing and engineering to heighten production, shelf life, and profit so knowingly or unknowingly victimize us as the consumers.

Then, how we can survive inside such pitiful social quagmire?

And what we can do today is to apply all what we know and can reach now, But, remember: Behind what we know always hides a lot of what we still don't know. Nonetheless, the following is what we currently know and advisable:

Principle and Caution for Food Consumption:

1. Eat and drink in moderation without overindulgence and obsession;

2. consume more complex carbohydrate with lower glycemic index such as sweet potato, brown rice, whole grains, etc., and less simple ones that are usually well refined, such as sugar;

3. consume more unsaturated fat but less saturated ones;

4. eating less is better than eating more, barely sufficient is enough, but in balance;

5. consume more produces at their season and freshness, which load more nutritious than those after processing or storage; and

6. rotate a big variety of foods and produces as wide and as many as possible.

What to Eat?

1. Grains - Carbohydrates: whole grains of wheat, corn, oat, rye...; more sweet potato and less potatoes;

2. Vegetables: The greener, the better, such as cauliflower, broccoli, collards, kale, celery, wide variety of peppers, etc.;

3. Herbs and spices: onion, garlic, basil, cilantro, bay leaves, turmeric, cumin, cloves, ginger, etc.

4. Beans – soy beans, pinto bean, kidney beans, black beans, sweet pea, etc.;

5. Fruits: banana, grape, grapefruit, orange, avocado, pears, peach, plum, fig, watermelon melon, kiwi, berries – strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, etc.;

6. Nuts: peanut, hazel nut, walnut, black walnut, pistachio, almond nut, pecan nut, cashew,

7. Meats: chicken, duck, pork, beef, lamb, etc.;

8. Fishes: salmon, tuna, mackerel, tilapia, white fish, trout, mahi mahi, sailfishes, swordfish, marlin, blue marlin, sharks, flounder, octopus, squid, etc.

9. Shellfishes: shrimps, lobsters, crab, clam, sea urchin, etc.;

10. Sea foods:

11. Seaweeds:

12. Eggs: of chicken, geese, duck, fish, etc.;

13. Exotic fruits, ethnic foods, etc.

14. Condiments: herbs, spices, etc., such as those containing

But still, the needed nutrients require a free-flowing circulation to distribute them to nurture all tissues and organs of bodies by

practicing Universal Healthy Lifestyle to put its magic power to work for us.

Remember...

Although most of us, as unguarded public, have been constantly bombarded and hypnotized by a lot of exciting news from the Internet about what a miraculous discovery from a fruit or plant or herb or drug or pill has been confirmed as a means of life rescuer or savior. Trust me, there is absolutely no such a miracle. But if any, the healthy lifestyle that we have been talking about should be still the very core foundation of health medical care as well as the key and magic to longevity and happiness. There's no easy way out although political correctness and commercialism have misled most of us to believe there is such a thing of being best, excellent, perfect, free, cured, guaranteed....

Food Allergy?

The occurrence of allergy to peanuts, milk, wheat, and many other foods has been sporadically reported but with a trend of increase. And its effects may range from itching or irritation in the skin or mouth to poor absorption with diarrhea or stomach cramping even to

shock or death from anaphylaxis - severe allergic reaction. However, no medical providers can predict what may happen to any individuals from food consumption and only personal vigilance and care may and will help.

Best wishes to your health, happiness, and Happy Holidays

Disclaimer

What I described and discussed is based what I have known through lifelong study and practice in medicine, and not intended to replace the timely attention and care from qualified medical professionals. So, if any doubt, consult your medical providers.

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(James) Chin-Ti Lin, M.D.