“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
— I Corinthians 10:31

In this article, we would like to present to you some of the latest health information that has come across the Internet. This is in the interest of informing you-the reader, and also it is done to help you liver longer and better! We trust this will be a blessing.

Living Near Fast Foods Ups Stroke Risk
A recent study has shown that neighborhoods in America that have plentiful fast food restaurants appear to have a higher risk of stroke. Each additional such restaurant increases the chance of a stroke by 1%. The reason for this is that the foods served in these places are high in sodium (or salt) content and high in fat. We can also add that these foods are cheap and affordable by a person with any level of income.

Each year in America 800,000 people have a stroke. This is related to age, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and sedentary lifestyle. Except for age, we are looking at factors for stroke that are preventable.

One sad reality we see in our country is that African American neighborhoods tend to have a lot more fast food restaurants! Take a drive across America and you will see that this is true. In fact some of these restaurant chains may have advertising that targets African Americans. The best thing we can do is to avoid these places, limit how often we go if we do visit them, and try to make healthier choices from the menu. We will thrive best if they never see our faces!

Slight Cut in Salt Intake Would
Mean Fewer Heart Attacks, Deaths
If Americans cut just one gram of salt from their daily diet, there would be fewer cases of heart disease and more than 200,000 fewer death over a decade. The more salt we can cut out the better.

Americans today are using more salt than they did in the 1970’s. Currently, Americans consume 9-12 grams of salt a day and much of this comes from processed foods. This tells us that you never have to sprinkle salt on your food to get far too much salt! We need to cut our salt intake down to 5-6 grams daily, but for some of us 2 grams is what we need. We need to learn to read labels or even if we have to, buy a book that gives us clues to how much salt is in the food we eat. It appears that reducing your salt use can help you to live longer.

Want to Lose Weight?
Just Eat less, Diet Study Suggests
A study was done that compared these types of diets:

• Low fat average protein
• Low fat high protein
• High fat average protein
• High fat high protein

It was found that no one diet was really better than another. The bottom line is that if you want to lose weight, eat a heart healthy diet and watch your calorie intake. In other words eat less, and do not be swayed by arguments that a certain type of diet is better than all the rest when it comes to weight loss.

Study: Obesity shaves years off life
Being obese takes years off your life and in some cases may be as dangerous as smoking! The study used a measurement referred to as the BMI or body mass index. This can be found by looking up your BMI on a chart using you height and weight. Overweight people have a BMI from 25 to 29. A BMI of 30 or greater defines obesity. A BMI above 40 can cause loss of as much as 10 years of life–similar to the effect of lifelong smoking. The bottom line is to measure your BMI, and you can find this on the Internet by just typing in “BMI”. Find out what your goal weight should be to live longer and healthier.

The bottom line here is that there is abundant information that by adopting a few healthy habits, we can have a better quality of life, and a longer life. We need to avoid the fast foods, eat less fat, eat less salt, eat less calories, and make healthy food choices. We need to control our weight, our blood pressure and our diabetes if we have it.

May God help you to thrive and live better!