We are living in a so-called modernized society with rapid advancement in science and technology, which change the way of our life styles: We do not need work hard in the farm and still have enough food to fill the refrigerators; We do not need cook very often because of the abundance of fast, processed, and canned food everywhere; We do not need walk a lot but can still reach every corner of the earth; we can learn any happenings without leaving home because of all kinds of electronics equipped at home; We do not need worry much about the risk of flu to kill us anymore because of the availability of high-tech antibiotics to kill bacteria or virus; we do not need worry about the difficulty of cleaning our home because of all kinds of available effective chemical cleaning agents to make the work much easier.
Admittedly, technology extends our ability and creates convenience for our daily life. However, are we happier or healthier?
Look at America, a nation with the most advanced science and technology but also a country with the highest percentage of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritics, and obesity. The advancement of science & technology also bring the side effect for your health.
Agriculture modernization can produce more food that can feed more people but also causes health problems. The fast production of crop/vegetable/fruit in a large scare is realized with the help of fertilizer. Gradually, our land contains only carbon, phosphor, and potassium and is lack of most minerals that human body need. Accordingly the food and fruit produced from these lands cannot meet the need of our body to the necessary minerals that causes many chronic diseases. In addition, farmers often use insecticides to protect plant/crops from the insects but reduce the amount of antioxidants in the food and fruits. The worst thing is that the vegetables and fruits are usually harvested before they really get ripe for convenient storage and transportation, which cause the lack of super-antioxidants produced when they are fully grown. The remaining antioxidants are partially often damaged during cooking. As a result, our body is lack of radical species scavenger. It have been confirmed that free radical species are the root of theses common diseases such as aging, diabetes, cancer, and heart attack etc.
Fast/canned/processed food save our time and provide us with convenience but also cause the health problems. Nowadays, people are getting busier and busier and have no time cook at home. It looks fortunate that the market is filled with low cost tempting fast food and convenient canned/processed food and many people consider these foods as primary menu and gradually form a habit to eat these foods. Unfortunately, fast food contains high calories and saturated fats that are found to contribute to obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterols, strokes, heart attacks and few types of cancers. For canned food, the heating process during canning destroys ~1/3-1/2 of vitamins A and C, riboflavin, and thiamin. For every year the food is stored, canned food loses an additional 5 to 20% of these vitamins. As a result, canned food contains less nutrients but more artificial flavors and preservatives that may cause cell mutation and even cancers. Processed meats such as sausages, hot dogs, bacon, jerky and lunch meats are full of sodium nitrate which is added as preservatives that are considered as precursor to cancer.
Modern transportation speeds up our commuting and travels but also accelerate environment pollution as well as generate a large amount of noise, which causes pollution (for our air, water, and food) and stress; and accordingly threatens our health.
Nowadays most families are equipped with high-tech electronic products such as TV, Home Theatre, computer, cell phone, and telephone, which help us kill most of our spare time and know the events in the world at home. On the other hand, it also keeps us at home, no longer going out for exercise and enjoying the freshness and serenity of nature, and no time to visit friends. More seriously, these electronics also produce silent noise--radio waves to pollute our space and harm our health.
The advancement of medical science makes us become more dependence on medicine (especially antibiotics) to maintain our wellness and pay less attention to our food and the exercise, which cause the imbalance of nutritious and fat accumulation. Sooner or later, our immune system was gradually weakened and loses the ability to defend the invasion of bacteria. The side effects of these medicines with a long-term and over dosage taking will trigger cancer and various chronic diseases as well as the ineffectiness of our body to those medicines.
We get used of using synthesized chemicals to clean or “fresh” our home. However these chemicals just de-color or “hide” the odor rather than really remove the dirty/harmful contaminants. These chemical will cause diseases associated with our breath system, especially for children. For example, the antibacterial ingredients in detergents do not really kill bacteria in our kitchen utensils but may cultivate super bacteria.
These days life is not as easy as what we imagine. For some reasons, we have to work hard, sacrifice the time with our family, and stand for more pressure and stress from our work, which will eat our wellness and is the top reason for people to smoke, addiction to alcohol and drug, and even suicide.
Obviously we cannot be back to old days with traditional life styles.
What can we do for a change? Can we be back to nature?
- Eat what you know: Try to shop food at farmer’s market and cook more at home with those raw and fresh materials; Be away from fried meats
- Supplement some nutrition extracted from natural plants
- No electronic devices at bedrooms
- More outdoor activities
- Listen to more peaceful music
What else?
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