Why Embracing a Healthy Lifestyle Matters More Than Ever

Detoxification is the first step towards dietary change that improves your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. On average, a person carries around 2 to 8 kilograms of excess waste in the colon! The inner surface, with its twists and folds, covers the area of a tennis court. It's clear that within such a large area, there are plenty of hiding spots for waste.

To maintain health, it's vital for food and waste to pass properly through the digestive system. When waste doesn't move correctly in the colon, it accumulates, decays, hardens, and causes numerous issues like constipation, parasites (such as Candida and Helicobacter pylori - a stomach bacterium), stomach aches, digestive disorders, compromised immune system, weight gain, chronic diseases up to cancer, and even mental illnesses like depression.

A wise person takes proactive measures for their health, as our sacred Torah advises, preventing illness with a healthy lifestyle to enjoy a fulfilling life, enabling them to serve Hashem with joy.

What constitutes a healthy lifestyle? Consuming wholesome foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds, legumes, grains, and nuts. Additionally, everyone needs clean air, regular exercise, proper breathing, pure drinking water, a joyful heart, timely sleep, spiritual life, music, a functioning social environment, sunlight, and most importantly, solitude (direct communication with Hashem daily). These elements facilitate a life of joy, contentment, purpose, and true health.

Modern individuals haven't learned their bodies' and minds' natural needs. They pursue careers but neglect how to maintain and nourish themselves properly. Consequently, we encounter people today with diseases stemming from poor nutrition and an unhealthy lifestyle far removed from nature. Today, men, women, and children alike suffer from malnutrition, subsisting on toxin-laden food. Once the body receives essential nutrients in conjunction with the aforementioned healthy lifestyle, the body and mind function harmoniously, achieving overall health, with Hashem's help.

No sensible person would fill a diesel-engine car with 95-octane fuel. The car would break down within minutes and stop running. So why does this sensible person consume cola and pizza daily? Just like a car, the body doesn’t function differently. If we fuel the body with the wrong thing, it'll eventually stop functioning—though thankfully after decades of unhealthy living rather than minutes like a car. Praise be to the Almighty Creator who designed us with resilience. There is repentance in the world, and often, there is a chance to turn back even on health matters.

Moreover, wise consumption for the family is essential. Supermarkets have endless products catching our attention. Food companies aim to sell the most products at the highest price. Usually, consumer health is not a consideration. They lengthen shelf life by loading products with strange chemicals that halt or slow natural decay. To enhance taste, artificial flavorings, sometimes addictive substances, and often excessive salt (stimulating taste buds and appetite), sugar, and fat are added. For aesthetics, colorings are used to make food appealing to the eye. Avoid these chemical additives, particularly in regularly consumed products accumulating as toxic waste harming our health. Thus, consumers must be smart—consume foods as they are, without processing or preservation. Regard anything in a package with suspicion, and read product labels (small print included). Ingredients should be clear and understandable. If unfamiliar terms, likely obscure additives, are listed in foreign languages, it's probably because they are unhealthy.

Besides toxins in food, drugs, equally damaging, also exist. Western medicine attributes illness to external factors: bacteria, viruses, etc. It prescribes medications for every ailment, making the sick dependent, helpless, and reliant on medicines, sedatives, surgeries, etc., until death. However, people must understand that illnesses represent toxin accumulation in the body's organs according to one's genetic weaknesses.

Remember, illnesses lead to premature death, which people sometimes forget. What do the sages say about timing death? In the Talmud and Midrash: "Ninety-nine die from negligence (neglecting health), while only one by divine decree." Although each person was allocated a predetermined lifespan from above, personal choices can shorten it. The sages reveal only one person in a hundred dies at their predestined time, while the rest perish prematurely due to health neglect! This discovery necessitates learning the fundamentals of health management, applying them daily, as the verse urges, "Take care of your soul," extending your life by adhering to health rules and environmental preservation to earn those extra years for developing and building your personality and spiritual world.

I wish you, dear readers, to reach venerable age in good health, filled with joy and strong faith in Hashem. By doing so, you will avoid many troubles and live better, more energized, joyful, and lively lives to serve the Almighty.

"...It is decreed above that one will heal through a certain remedy, through a certain person, on a certain day" (R. Nachman, Likutei Moharan, Tnina Torah G').

R. L. Orpeltz is a naturopathic doctor (N.D.), sports instructor (B.Ed) and conducts detox and weight loss workshops.

To purchase the book 'The Secrets of Nutrition – Detox, Heal, Lose Weight Easily' visit Hidabroot Shops