What is Optimal Human Health?

What is Optimal Health? Health is by definition the state of being free from physical and mental illness or injury. Hence, optimal health is a peak or supreme level of freedom from illness.

by Michael Corthell

Exercise your body and give it the fuel that it needs to function properly. Pretty simple, and basic.

There are many reasons why we human beings don't do it—some refusing to even consider eating right, never mind getting some exercise. 

In this article, I present some scientific evidence that may help you break through those excuses and get motivated to take action and get healthy.

Eating right and exercising are at the top of the shortlist of things we all must do to gain and maintain optimal health. Common sense has told us to do this for centuries, but today we know much more about how food and exercise affect our total mind/body makeup through scientific research and evidence.

''Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.'' 

 —Hippocrates

Today we will look at how positive food choices can actually change our genetic make-up for the better, by looking at 'nutrigenomics'.

Nutrigenomics is the scientific study of the interaction of nutrition and genes, especially with regard to the prevention or treatment of disease. These studies have and will continue to tell us what our common sense has told us forever, that good food helps grow and maintain a good body and a well-oiled mind.

The best diet for all human beings in my opinion is a plant based diet —hands down—a whole foods diet that is free from toxins and additives—completely natural. My stated opinion and the opinion of many others is still a very unpopular one. I am going to change that. Many will say, ''Show me the proof.'' I will do that. I'll start with dairy and lactose intolerance. It should be enough to convince you, but there is much more evidence that is available. 

Lactose intolerance, an allergy, has been increasing in western culture for decades. Evidence suggests that a cultural practice the raising cattle for food—both meat and milk products—alters human beings at the genetic level giving us a taste for milk well into adulthood and even into old age. This evidence shows that our diet will shape our genetic function and can alter the genetic makeup of our offspring and posterity as well.

Want a little more proof? This should do it for most of you. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes, are diseases of  'civilization'. Evidences of this theory have been found in studying native populations of the Pima Indians of Arizona and native Hawaiians, who always ate a plant-based, fiber-rich diet previous to contact with European cultures. Their base genetic makeup had evolved to match a scarcity of food, which is absolutely normal when food is less abundant, in other words, their genetics were 'switched on' for fuel (calories) conservation—which was very helpful to their culture when food was scarce but really bad for their overall health when food became instantly abundant.

In the case of these populations of people, the switch has been left in the 'on' position for generations.

(This one topic, this single thing, an optimal human diet, is the key to understanding human health optimization/maintenance and solving most if not all the causes of abject suffering the human race is currently experiencing. It is also the key to solving the health-care crisis in America and maintaining a health home, our planet.)

Optimal human health is a state of complete and total body harmony. A balancing of mind, soul and spirit.

When we are free from mental and physical illnesses, the gates of creativity, joy and fulfillment break wide open. Good food, exercise and Faith are the keys that unlock this miracle.

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The Power of a Plant Based Diet
Dr. Joanne Kong

Dr. Joanne Kong has been praised throughout the country as one of the most compelling advocates for plant-based nutrition today, centered ethically in raising awareness that greater compassion for animals and our planet is vitally necessary for transformative growth and positive world change.  Motivated to become vegetarian over 30 years ago upon learning of the atrocities of factory farming, her lectures promoting veganism have been described as “artfully crafted,” “a positive message about the way our daily choices can make the world a better place for others and for ourselves,” “making a difference and encouraging positive change to happen,” and “enlightening and provocative.” MORE