According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average man in America lives 4.9 fewer years than does the average woman. While that number has slightly improved in recent years, there remain a number of primary factors that men should address to minimize their health risks.

One of the main health risks for anyone is weight gain. People with unhealthy eating and poor exercise habits are more likely to experience high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and incidents of stroke, and coronary artery disease. Losing weight dramatically reduces the odds of needing to battle these health issues. 

We Are What We Eat

The link between diet and disease is as old as mankind and as varied as cultures, ethnicity and generations. Indigenous people understood that the fruits of the earth were both their substance and their cures. Historically, eating was a means to stay alive, and not the big deal that “civilized,” developed countries make it out to be.  We have become consumed with food to the point that now food is consuming us.   

What is it about the way we currently eat that fosters disease? The simple answer is that our food is produced, processed and preserved, and hardly anything is natural about most of what we eat. Look at the labels on most of the food in your pantry or refrigerator and you’ll probably have a hard time pronouncing the ingredients, let alone understanding what they are. Even sadder, the things we can pronounce and identify are not pure, having gone through their own chemical warfare of processing, refining and modifying. 

Overburdening the Body

The amount of food we consume, the number of hours required to digest it, the saturation of synthetic vitamins and minerals in food, and the flood of chemicals and toxins that occur when we eat poorly cause undue strain on the body.  Overeating and poor eating also puts an extra burden on the salvia glands, the hypothalamus and pituitary glands, the adrenals and the thyroid, gall bladder, pancreas, stomach, liver, kidney and bladder. It causes the body to spend excessive time breaking down fats, creating insulin, retaining and releasing water, regulating and re-regulating blood pressure, and adjusting and readjusting hunger, thirst and body temperature.  

As a result, we deprive our bodies of essential rest and maintenance while assaulting it with an onslaught of artificial chemical, hormones and medicines.  Most of these artificial agents have the compounding side effects of increased appetite and weight gain while temporarily masking symptoms.  Thus, we silence our bodies’ alarm systems, which normally alert us to imbalance and breakdown. Instead of seeking real solutions, most people believe in the magic pill and continue to increase their consumption of the very things that are causing disease.  This downward spiral is lethal.

Eating for Better Health

Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, milk and honey will often eliminate many preventable diseases and the need for the medication. A diabetic’s blood sugar reading will drop if they stop eating processed foods and start eating all the fresh (and sweetest) fruits they can find.  While our bodies can digest and process organic, fresh foods, we actually need chemicals to digest and metabolize the processed, chemical-laden foods.  We heal with whole foods, herbs, teas and aromatherapies, whereas we get sicker from the side effects of most of the medicines we ingest. It’s ironic that people will pay hundreds of dollar for doctors, medical tests, prescriptions, and over-the-counter medications and supplements, yet complain about the cost of organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.     

Americans complain constantly about how tired they are, while a simple solution exists. Most people will sleep better, awake more rested, and have more energy and less illness if they would stop eating at 6 p.m., giving their organs a chance to rest and rejuvenate.  It’s best to eat our main and heaviest meals in the afternoon, allowing ample time for digestion, and only eat when we are hungry.   

The recipe for a long and healthy life is to eat, drink and merrily consume the foods that truly nourish us. When we’re following that plan, the body can take care of itself.

Shima Kidd, is the president of Infinite Possibilities, a Holistic Health and Wellness Center specializing in a body cleanse that results in weight loss through the elimination of processed foods. Eileen Connolly is the company’s Vice President of Corporate Communications. Infinite Possibilities is located at 1132 Main Street in Peekskill, New York, and at 2519 Highway 35, Building A, Suite 101 in Manasquan, New Jersey. For more info call 914.788.9355 or 732.223.5433 and visit
InfinitePossibilitiesNY.com.