I simply have to share this lifestyle advisory with you.
Did you know these facts?
- The things that protect your heart also protect your brain from dementia—exercise, eating well, and avoiding cigarette smoke.
- Both the brain and the heart need adequate blood flow.
- When blood vessels become unhealthy, risk for heart attacks, strokes and dementia increases.
- Blood vessel damage can be minimized! Live a healthy lifestyle, and keep your blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol within safe ranges.
- Since people are living longer, 75 million people worldwide could have dementia by 2030.
- Atherosclerosis can begin as early as childhood!
I read these facts in the Union Leader newspaper yesterday in Lisa Rapaport’s advisory article “Heart health affects the mind, too”. Two things in Lisa’s article surprised me.
- 75 million people worldwide could have dementia by 2030. That is a lot of people with dementia!
- The fact that blood vessel damage, atherosclerosis, can begin in childhood!
Health begins in childhood!
I think back to my own childhood. Often my Grandma fed me fruits and vegetables freshly picked from her garden. For breakfast she cooked eggs, homemade pancakes, oatmeal, and other healthy foods. No sugary cold cereal. She lovingly cooked everything. I loved Grandma’s home cooked food!
Then my thoughts turn to what we observe in Walmart. There is a rack of sugary cereals with very little nutrition in them just inside the door–“Frankenberry” and cereals like that. We watch families walk past and hear children beg their parents for these foods with little nutrition and too much sugar. Unfortunately, parents usually give in and buy these junk foods.
Watching this scene in Walmart almost every time we enter makes me feel sad. These kids are being set up for health problems later in life! Diabetes, heart problems, weight issues, and more. Silently, I thank my Grandma for the health benefits she gave me by cooking healthy food for me as a child.
Parents, please do not allow your children to decide what foods to buy. If they beg for unhealthy, sugary, and fatty foods at the store, please find a babysitter to watch them while you shop. Or you might swap babysitting services with a friend’s parents so you both can go to the store without your kids.
It is important to raise your children in a healthy lifestyle. Eat well, exercise, and do not expose your children to cigarette smoke!
Need ideas for easy recipes? Spend time in your kitchen cooking as a family. Your kids will have many fond memories of this event!
And if you have space and time, plant a garden and spend time caring for it as a family.
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I know this article will not be the most popular article I have written. But I had to speak my mind about this issue since children are our future. We need to take good care of our future!
Soar like an eagle over life’s storms and enable your children to do the same. Heed this advisory and live a healthy lifestyle!
Let the encouraging words in these near a river posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
When it is time…
Overcome your depression!
Get a good night’s sleep tonight…
How can you help yourself every day of your life?
