Many people would like to adopt a healthier lifestyle but don't know where to begin. When you consider all the conflicting information published daily in newspapers and magazines, as well as, the various opinions and diets prevalent in the health and nutrition world, adopting a healthy lifestyle can seem confusing. In reality, it's rather simple, if you have the right information. In this book you will find thirteen simple, applicable principles to help you change those old, unhealthy habits, without sacrificing any of life's fun. They are easy to adopt and include practical, daily exercises to help set you on the path to a longer, healthier life. The author believes in enjoying life and sees food as playing a major role in that enjoyment. The key principles he proposes in What Are You Doing to Your Body? offer users the chance for a healthier life that they can truly enjoy! The earlier we start healthy living, the better we'll be in our later years. We only live once. Why not make the best of life's wonderful journey? Alon Biran is a certified nutrition consultant and graduate of the Global College of Natural Medicine. His lifelong passion for health and nutrition is founded on the idea that simplifying and going back to our roots, rather than calorie counting and stringent diets, is the way to go. What Are You Doing to Your Body? Thirteen Simple Changes Can Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life By Alon Biran iUniverse, Inc. Copyright © 2010 Alon Biran All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4401-7829-0 Contents Acknowledgements..........................................................................viiIntroduction..............................................................................ixFirst Thing First.........................................................................xiiiChapter 1: Eat What Nature Intended.......................................................1Chapter 2: Refrain from Refined...........................................................11Chapter 3: The Art of Food Combining......................................................18Chapter 4: Exercise & Breathing: The Ultimate Maintenance Program.........................27Chapter 5: Detox: The Most Important Thing You Can Do for Your Health.....................37Chapter 6: To Dairy or Not to Dairy, That is the Question.................................45Chapter 7: Fats: The Good and the Bad.....................................................51Chapter 8: Supplementing for Life.........................................................57Chapter 9: It's All in the Elimination....................................................64Chapter 10: Minimize ACNFFPD Consumption..................................................68Chapter 11: Peace Within..................................................................74Chapter 12: Soul Food-Our Primary Nourishment.............................................80Chapter 13: The 90/10 Rule................................................................84Last Things Last..........................................................................89Resources.................................................................................91 Chapter One Eat What Nature Intended Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. -Albert Einstein Let's take a step back from the daily rat race for a moment and look a little more closely at ourselves. Do you realize that we are really just upright apes with extremely developed brains? That's right, according to The American Museum of Natural History, genetically our DNA is a 98.8 percent match with chimpanzees! And what do these close cousins eat? Let's have a look: 1. Orangutan: Living in the treetops of the rainforest of Indonesia, this large, gentle red ape is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97 percent of the same DNA as humans. Their diet is made up of bark, leaves, flowers, a variety of insects, and most importantly, over three hundred kinds of fruit. 2. Gorilla: Gorillas are predominantly herbivores, eating mostly plant material. They forage for food in the forests during the day. They eat leaves, fruit, seeds, tree bark, plant bulbs, tender plant shoots, and flowers. They have been known to eat various parts of over two hundred different plant species. Occasionally, gorillas supplement their diet with termites and ants. 3. Chimpanzee: Chimpanzees are omnivores (eating plants and meat). They forage for food in the forests during the day, eating leaves, fruit, seeds, tree bark, plant bulbs, tender plant shoots, and flowers. They also eat termites, ants, and small animals (they have even been known to eat young monkeys). A close look at these diets tells us that our closest relatives thrive predominantly on plants, roots, and fruits, supplementing occasionally with animal source protein in the form of prey or insects. It o