By
Dr. Tom Bolan
I have studied diet and nutrition and the impact they have on health and wellness for over 35 years now and one thing seems to be universal. The fact is that there is a massive amount of information out there. The problem is that most of it is actually misinformation, so I am going to attempt to dispel the myths and blast through the inaccurate information out there in this article. It is too big a task for a single article, so this may become a series, but let's see how far we can go together, shall we? My goal is to provide you with the simple tools that you need in order to be able to immediately apply what you will learn from reading this.
The Bible says in the book of Hosea that "the people perish for a lack of knowledge", but I think it goes beyond a simple lack of knowledge. Most of the people I speak with consistently on the topic of nutrition already know a lot about what to do, what to eat, and the type of foods to avoid. Most of us have either heard or read hundreds of different things about what makes up a good diet, about eating a "balanced diet", or the importance of getting enough vitamins and minerals. The problem for most of us is that we can't seem to apply the things we already know we should be doing. And we definitely do not apply them on a consistent basis.
Let's define two different terms here. One is knowledge. The other is wisdom. Knowledge could be defined as what you know. Wisdom, on the other hand, is learning to apply and live by what you know or the knowledge you have. Do you see how these are two completely different things? When you put to good use the knowledge you receive, that is when it could be considered wisdom. True wisdom is living by the principles of how the body was designed to work. Trust me when I tell you that applying what you learn is much more powerful than simply knowing something. My job is to convey wisdom about nutrition and diet, not merely to provide you with more useless information.
The Bible also says that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The body and the mind are a gift to you from God, but how we take care of them is your gift back to Him. Who do you think is responsible for learning how to take care of our minds and bodies the way God intended? Yeah, it's yours and mine! You must commit to doing whatever it takes in order to take care of your body and maintain it at its highest level of function. You must stand by the right things and do them consistently, even when they are difficult, or different that what you are used to doing.
Anyone could do it if it were easy, but you DO NOT want to do things the same way everyone else in America is doing them. If you do you will get the same results as everyone else- cancer, heart disease and diabetes are rampant in this country. What's being done and the way that the information is being applied is not working! In fact, it is failing miserably. You do not want to fall into "the world of 5 out of 6". Does anyone reading this article know what "the world of 5 out of 6" is? Strap on your seatbelts because this is a frightening statistic. 5 out of 6 Americans are dying every year from heart disease and cancer. Now, as if that isn't outrageous enough, research has proven that these conditions are totally preventable if you know what you are doing and if you are making the right choices in your lifestyle. The problem is, they are not the most popular or the easiest choices.
I'm talking about things like not smoking, eating a healthy diet, exercising daily, drinking lots of water, getting your nerve system functioning at 100%. You will only fulfill the destiny that God had in mind for you by committing to a healthy lifestyle which means making good choices consistently over time. You can see why this is not information to simply be aware of. It is information that you should devour and learn as much as you possibly can so that you can stay out of the world of 5 out of 6 that everyone else lives in. If you are living, eating, and making choices the same way everyone else is, which side of the 5 out of 6 do you suppose you will end up on?
You can't learn enough about diet and nutrition and lifestyle choices in your entire lifetime. And just as you thought you learned what you needed to know, you'd have to change what you are doing because the information is constantly being updated in order to keep up with the latest, cutting edge research. The benefits will last you your entire lifetime, which, by the way, will be longer if you put it to good use. The more information that you have on nutrition and healthy lifestyle choices, the more likely you are to do something with it.
Now, the foods we eat, or what we would call our "diet", play an integral part in this process. They are a critical influence on the quality of life you will experience both now and in your future. What we eat is often the difference in protecting your future health when combined with taking proper care of your nerve system, managing your stress, and getting consistent exercise.
I was giving a lecture/seminar in Denver a few years ago, and I was making a point that there are certain foods that can really make you sick and weak. I mentioned that there are others foods that can really help you live extremely well. So I was making a point that there is one specific food that can really make your life absolutely miserable for the rest of your life when I saw a little old man in the front row raise his hand. He had to be 85 years old with an elderly lady sitting beside him that I assumed was his wife. So this old gentleman piped up and said, "young man, is that food that can ruin your life wedding cake?" He caught a sharp elbow in the ribs, so I knew at that point that this surely was his wife! I laughed until my sides hurt.
The cutting edge material contained in this article is from research journals and studies done at major universities around the country. It is the most current information out there on how nutrition really works in the prevention of sickness and disease. For years, the research has proven that most diseases on the planet have a nutritional component as their cause or at least their main contributing factor. What this means is that your diet is the cause or a primary influence in 70-85% of all disease. Making the changes that I am suggesting in your lifestyle choices is one of the ways to stay out of "the world of 5 out of 6" that I described earlier, so they are not something to take lightly. These changes could very well save your life or the life of a loved one.
We are at the point now in the United States where over 50% of our people consume a minimum of 2 different prescription drugs on a daily basis. Another 28% take four or more medications per day. This has become the status quo of the American population and it is obviously not working to make us healthier. It appears that many people think that the more drugs and medications you take the healthier they will be. Obviously this is not the case, and yet it has become a way of life in the U.S.
Another outrageous statistic reads that over 1 million people are dying every year in the United States alone from the side effects of prescription drugs and from the practice of standard medicine. Somehow, we have bought into the concept that you can take a drug to regain your best state of health. The truth is that simple lifestyle changes are just as effective in most instances. Just simple changes in your diet have been proven to dramatically improve your health and longevity. Dietary changes combat the same conditions and diseases almost as effectively as drugs in most cases. Plus, making lifestyle changes doesn't have the negative side effects!
As Americans we try to take the easy way out, get the quick fix, take the magic pill, and the truth is that it just doesn't exist. According to the FDA statistics, this same 1 million people every year are dying unnecessarily simply because they don't know there is an alternative. Hopefully, you understand why I take writing these articles so seriously. You can't "medicate your way back to health". Regaining your best state of health just doesn't work that way. "Better health through better chemistry" is failing and that model of "health" care is failing miserably. My job is to help you and inspire you to make better choices and smarter decisions in your life regarding your health. I try to propel you in the exact opposite direction as the general population, knowing that no matter what else happens, you will be better off than the average American.
Let's review some other health statistics of Americans:
1. 50 million Americans still smoke. Is there anyone reading this article who is not aware that smoking will kill you?
2. 30% of Americans are classified as obese. Another 70% are overweight. By definition, this means they weigh a minimum of 30 pounds above where they should be for their height and age. The amazing is that this statistic is up 18% in just the last 5 years. Despite the wealth of information on diet, the availability of low-fat foods, the labels on our packaged foods, and such, we are still up 18% in our weight as Americans. This is getting out of control.
3. Only one in four Americans exercise on any level.
4. Only one in four Americans eat the minimum number of servings of fruits and vegetables in their daily diet.
5. Adult onset diabetes is up 39% in just the last 9 years. Statistics from research say that if a disease rises even 2% in a population over a 10 year period, it should be considered a national state of emergency. It should be considered a major health crisis. So adult onset diabetes being up 39% is mind-boggling! What makes it even more unbelievable is the fact that it has been proven that this type of diabetes is capable of being controlled in over 90% of the cases with diet and exercise and managing your stress. Article after article prove this fact, and yet this disease is still increased by 39% from 10 years ago. What are we doing to ourselves?
6. Despite all the billions spent each year on medical research and having access to the greatest medical technology in the world, the rate of cancer keeps climbing up and up and up year after year. No disease has ever been cured by a pill. Did you realize that? Think back over the last 40 years and name one condition that has been eliminated because they found the miracle cure. I am not aware of a single one.
Is it possible we are looking for our health answers in the wrong places? There is no miracle pill or wonder drug. Remember, the latest research is proving that 70-85% of all illness and disease, including cancer, is totally preventable by making these lifestyle changes. I quoted the Bible in Hosea earlier in this article in stating that "the people perish for a lack of knowledge". This could be re-phrased to say that "the people perish from making bad choices". It is obviously not from a lack of information, but from a lack of applying this information in a way that changes lives.
An individual from the National Institute of Health, Dr. James Cleveland found in his research that nothing that you can take, no pill that you can swallow, can help you with an "easy way out" of illness. There are no quick fixes. There are no fad diets that can help you live longer, healthier lives. He went on to show that you must develop new behaviors and modify your lifestyle in order to prevent disease. This is about adding quality to your years of life and not just about living longer. Over 60% of all senior citizens can't even take care of themselves over the age of 65! So it's not just about living longer- it's about living better for longer.
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), changing your behavior and your lifestyle choices can powerfully impact your health and your future. You see, what I am proposing in this article is not just another "cover up the symptoms" approach. It is not simply about feeling better. It is about addressing the underlying cause of the problems that exist in our health.
The truth is that you must change your entire philosophy of eating which I will try to help you better understand throughout the remainder of this article.
From the perspective of your nerve system function, a research study was conducted at the University of Rochester in New York. In this study, they cut the nerves to the digestive organs and immediately, cutting the nerves stopped the body's ability to digest food or break it down into usable components. When you shut off the nerve supply to an organ in the body, it shuts off the life to that organ. This results in malfunction in that organ and eventually leads to disease. In fact, the research proved that the organ simply shuts down and dies. You could be eating very healthy foods, but if the nerves to your digestive organs are not working properly, you could be consuming all of the nutrients necessary to be in great health, but those nutrients won't be absorbed.
I have studied diet and nutrition and the impact they have on health and wellness for over 35 years now and one thing seems to be universal. The fact is that there is a massive amount of information out there. The problem is that most of it is actually misinformation, so I am going to attempt to dispel the myths and blast through the inaccurate information out there in this article. It is too big a task for a single article, so this may become a series, but let's see how far we can go together, shall we? My goal is to provide you with the simple tools that you need in order to be able to immediately apply what you will learn from reading this.
The Bible says in the book of Hosea that "the people perish for a lack of knowledge", but I think it goes beyond a simple lack of knowledge. Most of the people I speak with consistently on the topic of nutrition already know a lot about what to do, what to eat, and the type of foods to avoid. Most of us have either heard or read hundreds of different things about what makes up a good diet, about eating a "balanced diet", or the importance of getting enough vitamins and minerals. The problem for most of us is that we can't seem to apply the things we already know we should be doing. And we definitely do not apply them on a consistent basis.
Let's define two different terms here. One is knowledge. The other is wisdom. Knowledge could be defined as what you know. Wisdom, on the other hand, is learning to apply and live by what you know or the knowledge you have. Do you see how these are two completely different things? When you put to good use the knowledge you receive, that is when it could be considered wisdom. True wisdom is living by the principles of how the body was designed to work. Trust me when I tell you that applying what you learn is much more powerful than simply knowing something. My job is to convey wisdom about nutrition and diet, not merely to provide you with more useless information.
The Bible also says that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The body and the mind are a gift to you from God, but how we take care of them is your gift back to Him. Who do you think is responsible for learning how to take care of our minds and bodies the way God intended? Yeah, it's yours and mine! You must commit to doing whatever it takes in order to take care of your body and maintain it at its highest level of function. You must stand by the right things and do them consistently, even when they are difficult, or different that what you are used to doing.
Anyone could do it if it were easy, but you DO NOT want to do things the same way everyone else in America is doing them. If you do you will get the same results as everyone else- cancer, heart disease and diabetes are rampant in this country. What's being done and the way that the information is being applied is not working! In fact, it is failing miserably. You do not want to fall into "the world of 5 out of 6". Does anyone reading this article know what "the world of 5 out of 6" is? Strap on your seatbelts because this is a frightening statistic. 5 out of 6 Americans are dying every year from heart disease and cancer. Now, as if that isn't outrageous enough, research has proven that these conditions are totally preventable if you know what you are doing and if you are making the right choices in your lifestyle. The problem is, they are not the most popular or the easiest choices.
I'm talking about things like not smoking, eating a healthy diet, exercising daily, drinking lots of water, getting your nerve system functioning at 100%. You will only fulfill the destiny that God had in mind for you by committing to a healthy lifestyle which means making good choices consistently over time. You can see why this is not information to simply be aware of. It is information that you should devour and learn as much as you possibly can so that you can stay out of the world of 5 out of 6 that everyone else lives in. If you are living, eating, and making choices the same way everyone else is, which side of the 5 out of 6 do you suppose you will end up on?
You can't learn enough about diet and nutrition and lifestyle choices in your entire lifetime. And just as you thought you learned what you needed to know, you'd have to change what you are doing because the information is constantly being updated in order to keep up with the latest, cutting edge research. The benefits will last you your entire lifetime, which, by the way, will be longer if you put it to good use. The more information that you have on nutrition and healthy lifestyle choices, the more likely you are to do something with it.
Now, the foods we eat, or what we would call our "diet", play an integral part in this process. They are a critical influence on the quality of life you will experience both now and in your future. What we eat is often the difference in protecting your future health when combined with taking proper care of your nerve system, managing your stress, and getting consistent exercise.
I was giving a lecture/seminar in Denver a few years ago, and I was making a point that there are certain foods that can really make you sick and weak. I mentioned that there are others foods that can really help you live extremely well. So I was making a point that there is one specific food that can really make your life absolutely miserable for the rest of your life when I saw a little old man in the front row raise his hand. He had to be 85 years old with an elderly lady sitting beside him that I assumed was his wife. So this old gentleman piped up and said, "young man, is that food that can ruin your life wedding cake?" He caught a sharp elbow in the ribs, so I knew at that point that this surely was his wife! I laughed until my sides hurt.
The cutting edge material contained in this article is from research journals and studies done at major universities around the country. It is the most current information out there on how nutrition really works in the prevention of sickness and disease. For years, the research has proven that most diseases on the planet have a nutritional component as their cause or at least their main contributing factor. What this means is that your diet is the cause or a primary influence in 70-85% of all disease. Making the changes that I am suggesting in your lifestyle choices is one of the ways to stay out of "the world of 5 out of 6" that I described earlier, so they are not something to take lightly. These changes could very well save your life or the life of a loved one.
We are at the point now in the United States where over 50% of our people consume a minimum of 2 different prescription drugs on a daily basis. Another 28% take four or more medications per day. This has become the status quo of the American population and it is obviously not working to make us healthier. It appears that many people think that the more drugs and medications you take the healthier they will be. Obviously this is not the case, and yet it has become a way of life in the U.S.
Another outrageous statistic reads that over 1 million people are dying every year in the United States alone from the side effects of prescription drugs and from the practice of standard medicine. Somehow, we have bought into the concept that you can take a drug to regain your best state of health. The truth is that simple lifestyle changes are just as effective in most instances. Just simple changes in your diet have been proven to dramatically improve your health and longevity. Dietary changes combat the same conditions and diseases almost as effectively as drugs in most cases. Plus, making lifestyle changes doesn't have the negative side effects!
As Americans we try to take the easy way out, get the quick fix, take the magic pill, and the truth is that it just doesn't exist. According to the FDA statistics, this same 1 million people every year are dying unnecessarily simply because they don't know there is an alternative. Hopefully, you understand why I take writing these articles so seriously. You can't "medicate your way back to health". Regaining your best state of health just doesn't work that way. "Better health through better chemistry" is failing and that model of "health" care is failing miserably. My job is to help you and inspire you to make better choices and smarter decisions in your life regarding your health. I try to propel you in the exact opposite direction as the general population, knowing that no matter what else happens, you will be better off than the average American.
Let's review some other health statistics of Americans:
1. 50 million Americans still smoke. Is there anyone reading this article who is not aware that smoking will kill you?
2. 30% of Americans are classified as obese. Another 70% are overweight. By definition, this means they weigh a minimum of 30 pounds above where they should be for their height and age. The amazing is that this statistic is up 18% in just the last 5 years. Despite the wealth of information on diet, the availability of low-fat foods, the labels on our packaged foods, and such, we are still up 18% in our weight as Americans. This is getting out of control.
3. Only one in four Americans exercise on any level.
4. Only one in four Americans eat the minimum number of servings of fruits and vegetables in their daily diet.
5. Adult onset diabetes is up 39% in just the last 9 years. Statistics from research say that if a disease rises even 2% in a population over a 10 year period, it should be considered a national state of emergency. It should be considered a major health crisis. So adult onset diabetes being up 39% is mind-boggling! What makes it even more unbelievable is the fact that it has been proven that this type of diabetes is capable of being controlled in over 90% of the cases with diet and exercise and managing your stress. Article after article prove this fact, and yet this disease is still increased by 39% from 10 years ago. What are we doing to ourselves?
6. Despite all the billions spent each year on medical research and having access to the greatest medical technology in the world, the rate of cancer keeps climbing up and up and up year after year. No disease has ever been cured by a pill. Did you realize that? Think back over the last 40 years and name one condition that has been eliminated because they found the miracle cure. I am not aware of a single one.
Is it possible we are looking for our health answers in the wrong places? There is no miracle pill or wonder drug. Remember, the latest research is proving that 70-85% of all illness and disease, including cancer, is totally preventable by making these lifestyle changes. I quoted the Bible in Hosea earlier in this article in stating that "the people perish for a lack of knowledge". This could be re-phrased to say that "the people perish from making bad choices". It is obviously not from a lack of information, but from a lack of applying this information in a way that changes lives.
An individual from the National Institute of Health, Dr. James Cleveland found in his research that nothing that you can take, no pill that you can swallow, can help you with an "easy way out" of illness. There are no quick fixes. There are no fad diets that can help you live longer, healthier lives. He went on to show that you must develop new behaviors and modify your lifestyle in order to prevent disease. This is about adding quality to your years of life and not just about living longer. Over 60% of all senior citizens can't even take care of themselves over the age of 65! So it's not just about living longer- it's about living better for longer.
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), changing your behavior and your lifestyle choices can powerfully impact your health and your future. You see, what I am proposing in this article is not just another "cover up the symptoms" approach. It is not simply about feeling better. It is about addressing the underlying cause of the problems that exist in our health.
The truth is that you must change your entire philosophy of eating which I will try to help you better understand throughout the remainder of this article.
From the perspective of your nerve system function, a research study was conducted at the University of Rochester in New York. In this study, they cut the nerves to the digestive organs and immediately, cutting the nerves stopped the body's ability to digest food or break it down into usable components. When you shut off the nerve supply to an organ in the body, it shuts off the life to that organ. This results in malfunction in that organ and eventually leads to disease. In fact, the research proved that the organ simply shuts down and dies. You could be eating very healthy foods, but if the nerves to your digestive organs are not working properly, you could be consuming all of the nutrients necessary to be in great health, but those nutrients won't be absorbed.
