Almost everything in excess can become bad. For example, water is essential for life and therefore the general recommendation is to drink plenty of water. However, even water in excess can be harmful. In certain conditions (like serious dehydration), people can even die if they drink too much water!

Another example: selenium is an essential mineral that plays a critical role in metabolism and thyroid function, helping also to protect the body from oxidative stress damage. Lack of selenium can cause a multitude of problems, including even a higher risk of cancer. However, too much selenium can also cause problems, like hair loss, nail brittleness, nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, fatigue, irritability, and so on. Similarly, many other nutrients can become toxic if the dose is too high. Thus we can understand that a balance is necessary. 

Of all the different health problems we face nowadays, three are especially significant. In fact, most other health conditions are caused or accentuated by these three. By solving these three problems we become less susceptible to all kinds of diseases, from flu to cancer. Incidentally, all three of them are connected with our eating habits.

One interesting point about health is to understand how disease is cured and how damage to the body is healed. Let’s imagine that someone broke a leg and went to the hospital to fix it. The doctor takes an X-ray to see how bad it is, does some manipulation to put the bone in its proper place, uses plaster to immobilize it, and sends the patient back home with the recommendation to rest and drink plenty of milk.

We can see that the doctor can’t directly fix the bone. All he can do is to create the necessary conditions so the body can heal it, by immobilizing the leg and giving it calcium and other nutrients, so the body has the necessary raw materials to heal it. In any case, all the healing is done by the body. The doctor can just adjust the conditions so the body can heal itself. We can observe that in most other conditions.

The Ayurveda, as well as most other systems of traditional medicine, are based exactly on restoring the equilibrium of the body, so it can heal itself. The most basic condition for this to happen is that the body has the proper raw materials and the proper conditions. That is precisely what our modern lifestyle negates.

There are two essential factors for good health: we need to do exercise, and we need to eat well, maintaining a proper diet. The exercise part is relatively simple: anything that makes one move, like walking, yoga, cycling, or even doing house chores will help. However, when we come into diet and eating habits, things become more complicated. There is so much contradictory advice around that one will have a hard time reaching any kind of conclusion. 

I did a lot of research on this area in the past and reached some interesting conclusions, supported both on the Ayurveda and by modern studies. These are rules of the thumb that you can use to maintain or to regain your health and of your family. 

Actually, having a proper diet is even more essential than exercise. If one can keep a healthy diet, he can prevent many different health problems, keep the immune system working properly, and increase the longevity of the body, without having to spend time and money on different treatments.