How to Avoid the 8 Things That Wreck Your Health

No one wants to feel miserable, battle multiple medical problems, and take lots of medicines.  Yet that is what most Americans are doing the last 10 years of their lives according to the World Health Organization. In this article, I will teach you how to avoid the 8 things that wreck your health.

Things That Wreck Your Health Study

Recently, Dr. Christopher Murray, from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, led a team of the top 100 scientists to discover what was wrecking the health of Americans.  After digging through countless studies evaluating 291 different medical conditions, they identified those things that were most likely to wreck your health.

Dr. Murray and his team's findings were published in an article entitled, U.S. burden of disease 1990 to 2010.  Below are the top eight things that wreck your health and what you can do to reverse these medical conditions.

1. Unhealthy Diet: 14 quality years lost

Even more than smoking, the number one thing that will wreck your health is a bad diet.  Indeed, an unhealthy diet can literally turn the last 14 years of your life into one big health nightmare.

Sadly, most Americans have no idea they're eating an unhealthy diet.  For example, a recent NPR survey reported that 75% of Americans say they are eating healthy.  This is despite the fact that studies show Americans are eating way too much sugar and processed foods and far too few vegetables.

Fortunately, this is something that can be easily reversed.  While there is a lot of confusion about what is a healthy diet, eating right is really quite simple.

For example, there are three things that all experts can agree on when it comes to what is a healthy diet.  These three things are as follows:

1. Minimize/avoid sugar (this includes other sugars like processed carbohydrates).

2. Minimize/avoid processed and prepared foods.

3. Eat as many vegetables as you can (goal of 6 servings daily or two per meal).

If you can do these three things then you are 95% of the way to eating healthy.  Indeed, most of the patients I see everyday in my clinic have heart conditions which can be traced back to violating one of these three healthy diet principles.

2. Smoking: 12 quality years lost

I don't need to go into much of a discussion here.  Smoking ages you fast and turns the last 12 years of your life into a living hell.

3. High BMI: 11 quality years lost

A BMI over 25 will rob you of 11 quality years of life.  To find out if you are overweight and what your BMI is, follow this link.  If your BMI is 25 or higher, below are three things you can do to get back to a healthy weight.

1. Eat healthy to control hunger

To stop feeling hungry all the time, give up sugar and processed carbohydrates like bread, cereals, pasta, bakery items, white rice, etc.  Second, minimize or avoid processed and prepared foods. Lastly, eat as many vegetables as you can with a goal of at least six servings per day or two servings with each meal.

2. Exercise to boost metabolism.

3. Eat only what your body needs.

Besides eating healthy to control hunger and exercising to increase metabolism, there are two ways to eat only as much as your body needs.  The first is to practice mindful eating and the second is to make yourself accountable for everything you choose to put in your mouth.

The goal of mindful eating is to eat based on real hunger not emotions.  Some examples include using a smaller plate size, turning off electronic devices while eating, eating slower, only eat when sitting at a table, take a break mid meal, eat with your non-dominant hand or chopsticks, put your fork down between each bite, try to identify every ingredient in your meal, or knowing where everything you eat comes from.

The second strategy is to make yourself accountable to someone or something.  This is the strategy that works best for me.  With this approach,