- Two crucial health truths that get ignored
- Here’s why governments don’t really care about your health
- Want a post-lockdown detox? If you overindulged a bit these past weeks, there are just NINE of these natural detoxers left in stock: click here to find out more
There are two sure-fire ways to get healthy.
The first is to get out and about regularly – walking in the fresh air every day, letting the sun hit your skin.
The second is to eat whole foods, during the seasons when they’re at their best, ideally grown in the local area.
It sounds simple, right?
But these two fundamentals are the secret of good health.
Keeping your body moving and eating fruit and veg that are brimming with nutrients.
If you can do this often enough, you’ll be on the right track to a longer, less pain-ridden life.
These activities stand the test of time – as people have been able to do them for hundreds of years!
Yet it’s a truth that many businesses and media companies tend not to emphasise.
After all, these activities are low cost ways of staying healthy.
Whole foods are free from corporate control – there are no ‘diet versions’, ‘fat free versions’ or ‘low carb versions’ that can be manufactured and marked up in price.
No fancy labels that can be stuck on them. No branding. No patents.
These foods are what they are.
It’s the same going out on daily walks…
You don’t need specialist machines, gym memberships, designer sports gear or accessories.
Which means there’s not much to write about or sell.
From a business perspective, these two health fundamentals are boring and unprofitable.
But that’s why The Good Life Letter was originally set up.
The idea was to take things back to basics and help people understand some of the essential steps they can take – naturally and inexpensively – to feel better mentally and physically.
Nothing too radical!
Just tweaks and additions here and there, that’s all we recommended.
You don’t need to be Tom and Barbara to enjoy the Good Life
If you watched the TV show The Good Life in the 1970s, you’ll remember how the main characters, Barbara and Tom, went to extremes to achieve self-sufficiency through their garden.
Well, we never expected readers to go that far.
Simply to understand the benefits of a slower, more natural life, eating nature’s medicine at its freshest.
With that in mind, an ideal 21st Century ‘Good Life’ would be to get plenty of exercise and fresh air by growing a food larder in your own garden – even if it’s just some peas and beets to add to your dinner now and then.
Of course, unlike Barbara and Tom, we don’t all have large gardens in which to do that.
Which is why allotments are so popular.
In my view, they should be championed! Everyone without a garden should have the right to grow their own food!
The very act of being outside, expending energy, getting some sunlight and being in touch with nature is enough – never mind eating the produce.
So I was shocked to read on the BBC last week that allotment land has declined by 65% from its peak in the ‘dig for victory’ era.
The article stated that those lost allotments could have provided 6% of the British people enough fruit and veg to hit the government’s five-a-day target.
Why then, the decline?
Well, it’s the same story with school playing fields and parks…
Since the 1980s, successive governments have overseen the selling-off of green spaces – or underfunding them, so that they become shabby, crime-ridden and dangerous.
Just to give you a few examples:
- Bristol City council cut expenditure on parks to zero last year
- Newcastle has cut its budget for parks by 90% since 2010
- The borough of Bexley in London has allowed development on its green spaces
What happens when you do this is that fewer people get safe open spaces in which to walk, exercise and play games.
This has a real impact on health.
The most underprivileged (and vulnerable) will lose out
We cannot all afford to have gym memberships, cross-trainers in our homes or private fitness coaches.
What’s more, lots of people don’t want to do ‘fitness’.
They aren’t sporty and they aren’t particularly confident in their bodies, so they aren’t going to get Lycra-clad and hit the streets on a jog or speeding on a bicycle.
What they want (and need) is space to roam, away from car fumes and crowds.
If those spaces are available they’re more likely to walk for longer and get the health benefits.
There has never been more need for this…
The coronavirus means that we need to keep our immune systems healthy with sunshine, exercise and good food.
And yet the authorities are taking away parks and allotments.
It’s often the most economically vulnerable who lose out the most.
I don’t mean to get political, but as a writer of a natural health newsletter I think this is really important.
Parks, playing fields and allotments allow people the chance to enjoy the good life, or at least a BETTER life, even if they live in small flats in crowded cities … and even if they are on low incomes.
Surely, whatever side of the political spectrum we are on, we can all agree that people deserve some space.
Not much to ask is it?
Anyway, that’s my tuppenceworth!
Finally today, on a lighter note…
Did you overindulge during lockdown?
During the lockdown people seem to have fallen into two camps…
Some have used it to become fit and super healthy…
While others have turned to food and drink to make the isolation and anxiety more bearable…
Or just from sheer boredom!
If you’re in the latter camp and you fancy a bit of help with a detox, there are just nine of these detox teas left in stock.
This special blend could help calm the gut, support your digestive system and give your liver a boost.
As long as you’re quick off the mark to respond, you can probably get one if you click here: Detox Tea
