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How to Improve Your Health in 2024: The 5 Tenants of Health YOU Can Control

how to improve your health

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We live in a time where we’ve been conditioned to disconnect from our instincts and power in order to follow the guidance of others, especially when it comes to how to improve your health. With this external guidance comes the promise of solutions but most of these so called “solutions” turn a profit for someone else and keep the average person ill or reliant on someone or something (i.e. a pill) to improve their health. We’ve taken a step back when we rely solely on “experts,” big pharma, and the government to determine what our bodies, hearts, and minds need. Unfortunately, much of what we’re led to believe is “good for us” is muddled by nebulous systems with ignorance or, even worse, nefarious intentions. I’m here to tell you that this system that we call healthcare is broken. So, that’s the bad news.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s the good news: You have the power to improve your health by simply focusing on five essential areas in your life. It’s a simple formula for healthy living: improve the quality of food, water, and air you consume while reducing stress and toxins. That’s it. If you’re new here and that sounds overwhelming, I absolutely understand, and I invite you to stick with me because one of my strengths is breaking things down into manageable, bite-sized bits.

The System is Broken

The more I learn about the big systems we’ve been conditioned to put our trust in, the more disturbed I am. There is a common theme I see in medicine, nutrition, education, recycling, environmental health, childbirth, and mothering/parenting: Someone made a decision to skew the truth in order to turn a profit or take control of a situation, and then put the onus on the average person to deal with the ramifications, which, of course, they cannot adequately manage.

Recycling

Come with me for a brief detour of a great big picture example that’s easily accessible: Go watch the episode titled Recycling Sham from Netflix’s docuseries Broken. In the episode, you’ll learn that the companies in the petrochemical industry who make plastics KNOW that plastics are harming our environment in more ways than one. To combat this, they decided to start the recycling movement in the 1970s, putting the onus on society to manage their problem while they continue to crank out even more plastics.

The sham is that, as of 2022, just 5% of plastics are actually recycled. Unfortunately, most plastics end up at the dump because they cannot be recycled. There are so few recycling plants that take recyclable items, it’s costly to recycle, and there are too many different kinds of plastic to really be able to recycle effectively at recycling plants. What this means is that all the hours and energy we’ve spent recycling in our homes, schools, and offices has been for naught. The real solution is for petrochemical companies to take responsibility for how they’re impacting the environment and stop making so many plastic products. Certainly, we can individually reduce our plastic use as much as possible, and the reality is that it’s hard to purchase anything without plastic these days. Our health is absolutely impacted by all of this plastic from our constant and nearly unavoidable exposure to it, and by the toxins released in the environment from its creation.

Let’s shift gears and take a look at one of the biggest shams in nutrition: the food pyramid.

The Food Pyramid

USDA’s original food pyramid from 1992

Long before the food pyramid was created, all the way back in 1916, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) began establishing guidelines on feeding young children and selecting food. This transformed over the years to give us the well-known food pyramid in 1992.

Why Are Farming Experts Setting the Standards for Nutrition?

Now, you might be wondering why experts in agriculture would be setting standards for nutrition. That’s a great question, and it leads us to reveal a conflict of interest. The agricultural industry has a vested interest in selling what it grows, and, of course, turning a profit. The industry benefits by having more people believe that they need to eat more grains because gains are healthy.

So, in 1992, the USDA publicized a food pyramid that encouraged people to eat a lot of grains, which are easy to grow, easy to store, and easy to make lots of products out of. Grains are not easy for the human body to digest, however. On the flip side of that, the food pyramid discourages consuming fat, which is expensive and intensive to extract, and essential for brain health. Basically, what it boils down to is that the food industry- the Sugar Research Foundation, in particular- paid scientists to skew the research and say that fat is bad without alerting the public of any of the concerns that come from sugar.

The people doing all the work- the farmers- aren’t reaping the rewards from this, but more executives in the food industry (think Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Monsanto to name a few) who rigged the system for their financial benefit, and who have large sums of money to throw around to force the system to swing in their favor. These businesses spend millions of dollars on lobbying in the food industry annually. This leaves the food and agricultural industry left telling society what’s “healthy” based on what they grow and produce instead of what is actually healthy for the human body. With obesity and type 2 diabetes at all time highs, it’s clear that something isn’t working here.

Let me wrap this up in a neat little bow. The food industry, who has a vested interest in finance, not health, paid off researchers to withhold data about the detriment of sugar and pointed the finger at fat. To replace fat, people started eating processed low fat foods, and processed foods nearly always contains sugar. While grains aren’t great on their own, most of the grain-related foods people buy are encouraged to buy thanks to the food pyramid are refined grains (bread, cereal, pastries, cakes, crackers) which are processed with (you guessed it!) sugar. Sugar is addicting, so the more of it you eat, the more you crave, meaning the more you buy and the more you line the pockets of the food industry executives. Sugar also causes inflammation, which leads to disease in the body. The Wall Street Journal just came right out and said it: the food pyramid correlates to obesity. The food industry cares about money, not health.

What To Do: How to Improve Your Health

After all of that gloom and doom, there are absolutely things within your control that you can focus on as you learn how to improve your health. You have more autonomy and control than you were probably led to believe. So, let’s set the record straight: Doctors can be helpful, but they don’t know everything; pills can be helpful when they’re needed; and the food pyramid is a scam that leads to obesity. But you are always a wealth of knowledge about your own body and you have resources at your disposal to help you live a healthier, happier life.

Eat Real Food

“Food has the power to heal us. It is the most potent tool we have to help prevent and treat many of our chronic diseases.”

–Dr. Mark Hyman

I always start with food. What you put into your body matters, and you have the power to make a choice about what you eat for every meal and every snack. Basically, you can choose to eat real food as much as possible, or you can live on autopilot and consume fake, processed food.

All of the products that the food industry pushes and advertises are processed foods- think chips, macaroni and cheese, cereal, bread, and store bought tomato sauce. Processed food has chemicals, additives, and sugar pumped into it to preserve it and make it more addictive. Real food, on the other hand, has nothing added (except pesticides, but that’s a different topic). By real food, I mean vegetables, fruits, meats, and seafood- plants and animals that were alive and went through minimal processing before reaching our plates.

The food industry’s problems with real food include that it’s impossible to produce in mass quantities since most people don’t grow their own food anymore, real food rots quickly, and real food is available seasonally. Kraft macaroni and cheese can be made and sold year round, plus sit on the shelf for months before it’s purchased; bell peppers cannot be grown year round depending on the climate and last only a few days once ripe.

Benefits of Real Food

Because of the challenges with growing and keeping real food, it is more expensive to purchase outright than processed food, especially if you choose to buy organic. Think of this like an investment, however, because if you invest in eating real food, then you’re investing in your health, both short and long-term. You lower your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illness by eating diet built on real foods. That being said, you also improve the functioning of your immune system, allowing you to fight off common colds and illnesses more easily because you’re getting more diverse nutrients, vitamins, and minerals from real food which allows your body to function at its best.

On top of the physical health benefits, what you eat impacts your mental health. One way we see this play out is through the brain-gut connection. The more nutrient-dense, real food you consume, the happier and more balanced the bacteria in your gut are. While this leads to fewer gastrointestinal discomforts (cramps, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, etc.), it also directly connects to your mood. Gut bacteria produce neurotransmitters that directly impact the chemicals and hormones that contribute to our mood, like dopamine and norepinephrine. There’s plenty of research out there linking imbalanced gut bacteria to depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Basically, the more real foods you eat, the better you’re going to feel.

Another way mental health and what we choose to eat is connected is through the impact physical disease has on our mood and mindset. When we’re sick, we feel awful. When we’re chronically sick, it can be downright miserable with no end in sight, and it’s really hard to enjoy life when you don’t feel good all the time. Since eating real food reduces the risk of illness, it also increases the chances of you living a happier life without managing chronic illness. If you’re curious about how real food can help to manage chronic illness, or want to take a deeper dive into the science of real food, check out this post.

4 Reasons Why Eating Real Food Matters

How to Eat Real Food

To eat more real food, I have three simple recommendations for you:

Drink High Quality Water

Another factor you can control when exploring how to improve your health is the quality of your drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency and Congress with their Safe Drinking Water Act assure the public that tap water is safe to drink, but much like the recycling system and food pyramid, the system is broken and convoluted. You might be thinking about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan that began in 2014, which is probably the most publicized water concern in recent times, but notable concerns for tap water are more common than you might think. In 2022 alone, E. coli from potential sewage contamination was found Baltimore, Maryland’s water supply; jet fuel leaked into the drinking water in Hawaii, sickening thousands of people and causing neurological concerns; arsenic was found in NYC’s tap water, and a water plant in Jackson, Mississippi failed, leaving residents with leaking sewage in their water and a boil water notice plus high levels of lead in the water. Sadly, these concerns remain in Jackson, even though we’ve already moved into 2023.

Aside from these crises, regular tap water contains all kinds of contaminants from industrial and agricultural chemicals that can cause significant health concerns, like cancer, infertility, nervous system damage, and hormone and endocrine disruption. In the United States, we also add fluoride to our tap water, which is rather controversial. According to the CDC, the intention of fluoridating the tap water in the United States is to prevent tooth decay. That sounds great in theory. In practice, however, research shows that there is no correlation between fluoridation and decline in tooth decay. On top of that, some research shows that even “normal” amounts of fluoride exposure can lead to neurological concerns and reduce IQ in infants.

How to Improve Water Quality

It can be helpful to know what you’re working with before trying to change the situation, so I recommend starting with learning about the contaminants in your tap water. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a comprehensive and helpful guide to learn more about the quality of tap water in your town.

To take control of your health, find a high quality water filter to remove contaminants from your drinking water. Brita is a popular and accessible water filter, but heed caution before purchasing. Research shows that Brita filters tend to be superficial: they improve taste and odor of water, but don’t actually filter out toxins like lead, fluoride, chlorine, and bacteria. And since the filter isn’t designed to kill bacteria, old Brita filters end up becoming a breeding ground for bacteria, reducing the quality of water even further. Also, another reason to steer clear of Brita: they’re owned by Clorox, the bleach company. I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust a company built on promoting a chemical for everyday use that we should use only sparingly.

Do your research on high quality filters that remove the most contaminants within the price point that’s accessible for you. Years ago, I invested in a Berkey filtration system. Unfortunately, it’s been discovered that Berkey’s filtered water is inconsistent in the results in produces, which led me to find a different solution. I currently use Greenfield Water Solutions filters, which fit the Berkey system and work really well for my family. I’d love to get their whole house system at some point so even the water we cook and wash with will be filtered. You can view the results of their filters here.

Here are some other high quality filters I’m familiar with but haven’t tried that warrant further exploration:

Breathe High Quality Air

Most people have had some consideration for how the food or water they’ve consumed has impacted them at some point. That’s why a lot of people drink coffee every morning- they’re wanting the caffeine pick-me-up. Most people have also considered the quality of outdoor air at some point, learning about pollution in school and smelling the exhaust fumes from trucks or construction machinery. Something rarely considered is the quality of indoor air, and it can have a big impact on your health.

Considering that the average person spends 90% of their time indoors these days and we take about 20,000 breaths a day, it’s time to take into consideration the quality of the indoor air we’re breathing in for the majority of our lives. Indoor air gets contaminated and polluted by mold, bacteria, chemicals, and VOCs (volatile organic compounds), all of which can negatively impact our health.

Mold

I’ve written several posts on mold and its hazardous effects after facing mold toxicity myself. The data is skewed regarding the prevalence of water damaged buildings, unfortunately, but even the EPA has data showing that approximately 85% of buildings in the United States have had water damage at some point. Mold loves to grow on paper and wood products. Our homes are built out of wood and drywall, which is a recipe for disaster when moisture comes into contact with building materials. Mold releases mycotoxins, which are neurotoxic, meaning they negatively impact the nervous system when we breathe them in. We have some research to document the neurotoxic effects of mycotoxins on the body, but overall, most of the research is hidden and skewed due to the politics of toxic mold. Mold is something I wish I’d known the impact of without having to experience it because once a person becomes sensitive, there isn’t a way to reverse it.

How to Address Mold to Improve Indoor Air Quality

To address mold in your home or work environment, it’s essential to hire an Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) inspector to explore your space from top to bottom and pinpoint the sources of water intrusion and/or moisture. Once you know how moisture is getting in, that issue must be resolved before remediating, or else the moisture and mold problems will continue. The next step is to find a remediator who will utilize the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) standards. Unfortunately, the mold industry isn’t regulated due to the politics I referenced earlier, and run-of-the-mill mold inspectors and remediators are not going to be helpful to you and your health in the long run. They don’t treat mold like a toxic, biohazardous material, and they address the problem superficially, at best.

If you are stuck in mold, air purifiers can be helpful as a temporary solution, but air purifiers are not a long term solution to living in toxic mold. You cannot heal in a moldy environment. Imagine having a peanut allergy yet being required to live or work in a peanut factory. You will never feel your best; you will constantly be in fear of living, working, and playing; and your capacities will be limited because of it.

VOCs and Chemicals

VOCs are found in a lot of the everyday objects we’re exposed to indoors.

VOCs escape into the air we breathe in gas or vapor form, so they cannot be seen. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, VOC levels are 2 to 5 times higher indoors when compared to outdoors. Symptoms of VOC exposure include headache; dizziness; memory impairment; nausea; irritation of the nose, eyes, and throat; cancer; and damage to the nervous system, kidneys, and liver.

Improve Air Quality with Air Purifiers
How to Reduce VOCs to Improve Indoor Air Quality

There are three simple ways to improve your health when it comes to addressing air quality impacted by VOCs:

  • Use air purifiers
    • I was disturbed and disappointed while researching VOCs for this post to discover only limited research to validate that air purifiers can remove VOCs, and actually found a study from 2021 that may demonstrate that air purifiers actually have little to no impact on reducing VOCs. Do your own research and use your discretion here. I recommend exploring these three brands to get started:
      • Air Doctor: I have Air Doctor air purifiers throughout my new construction home and can smell that they have removed the new house smell (which is actually VOCs off-gassing) from the rooms where they’re kept. Their website references no science in relation to their filters removing VOCs, however.
      • Intellipure: I keep an Intellipure air purifier in my basement and I’ve been impressed with how easily it has reduced the new house smell in such a large, open space. Their website also lacks research in relation to how their filters address VOCs.
      • Germ Guardian: Germ Guardian air purifiers can be purchased from Amazon and are at a much more affordable price point than the other two I recommend investigating.
      • NOTE: If you are interested in an Air Doctor or Intellipure air purifier, I highly recommend waiting until Black Friday as both companies offer notable discounts.
  • Allow products to off-gas before use
    • Off-gassing can be done by opening and storing new furniture in the garage or other space to air out for awhile before use.
    • Because there is limited regulation of the chemicals used in products, there isn’t a specific time frame for off-gassing. This also means that some items continue to off-gas throughout their lifetime without an end in sight.
  • Buy low toxin items (often marketed as nontoxic)
    • These items will cost you more, unfortunately, which is a theme that you will find. The standard across the board is that unhealthy is cheap and healthy is expensive. I wish the standard was calibrated to be health-driven instead of profit-driven. Here are some examples of low/nontoxic items:
    • My recommendation, and how I navigate this is, to prioritize what’s most important and then investing in non/low toxin items
      • My mattress is super important because I’m going to spend 8 hours every night laying directly on it, so I choose to buy low toxin and am a huge fan of Nectar mattresses. They’re more affordable than many of the nontoxic brands and CertiPUR-US Certified.
      • I’m going to spend a lot of time around my furniture, so the quality of it is important to me, and it needs to be within reason price-wise. As a solution, I have purchased a lot of IKEA furniture. I have some qualms with IKEA and the safety of their products. On the other hand, I appreciate their policies that ban many toxic substances, like PFAS, Chlorine, flame retardants, and BPA. I consider IKEA to be low toxin and affordable, so I feel okay about shopping there at this time.
      • Ditch the toxic cleaning supplies for gentler, low/non toxic swaps. I shop for cleaning supplies at Grove Collaborative, settling for low toxin products, like Mrs. Meyers brand. I also keep it simple and frequently clean with vinegar and baking soda.

Reduce Toxins

Exploring chemicals in air quality is a great segue to exploring how to improve your health by reducing toxins. Since we already covered the toxins we breathe in, I want to dive into the toxins we put on our skin.

Both cosmetics and skincare products contain formaldehyde, coal tar, pthalates, carcinogens, parabens, fragrances, and BHT, to name just a few. You are welcome to explore the ins and outs of these specific toxins, but to summarize, most of them can cause cancer and/or act as endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors interfere with the body’s hormones, causing reproductive harm, diabetes, obesity, and issues with the immune system, nervous system, cardiovascular system, brain development, and metabolic health.

How to Reduce Toxins

Considering that the skin is the biggest organ of the body, having an awareness and intentionally choosing products to nourish and care for your skin is imperative for your health. What you put on your skin gets absorbed into your body. Choose nontoxic cosmetics and skincare products as much as possible. You can use the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Healthy Living app to get educated about the products you currently use and find healthier swaps. All you do is scan the barcode of a product and the app pulls up the ingredients for you to peruse along with a toxicity rating for each ingredient. Another app I love is Think Dirty, which functions similarly.

Here are a few of my favorite clean, low toxin skin and beauty products that I use daily:

Reduce Stress

Ah, we made it to the fifth and final tenant of health that you can control! Thanks for sticking with me! Aside from air quality, this one might feel the most nebulous because it’s not about something tangible that you can buy. It’s about how you feel. We all know the feeling of stress- that feeling of pressure or threat. Manageable stress is short lived and can be helpful and even positive, challenging us to do our best work, solve a problem, or rise to the occasion. Chronic stress, on the other hand, is a detriment to our performance, relationships, and health.

If you’re going to hang out with me, you know that I’m going to extend the invitation (ahem, many invitations) to explore what’s beyond mainstream culture. Prepare yourself for an unpopular opinion: Chronic stress has become a badge of honor in society. We’ve normalized working too many hours, not sleeping, not prioritizing rest and taking vacation days, and giving up our needs for fulfillment in exchange for external validation from others where we’re seen as a hard worker or go-getter. The hustle mindset is not sustainable. This a dangerous mindset to have because glorifying stress perpetuates poor health on so many levels.

How to Manage High Stress Times

Stress and Mental Health

Let’s talk symptoms and then diagnoses. Here are some symptoms of stress in relation to mental health:

  • Irritable
  • Sad
  • Angry or aggressive
  • Feeling powerless
  • Exhaustion or fatigue
  • Frequent worries
  • Insomnia
  • Racing thoughts
  • Panic attacks
  • Feeling overwhelmed
  • Feeling burnt out
  • Social withdrawal
  • Low self-esteem/poor self-image

Long term and big picture, stress can contribute to depression and anxiety.

Stress and Physical Health

Let’s explore the physical impacts of stress in a similar fashion with symptoms and diagnoses:

  • Headaches
  • Stomachaches
  • Diarrhea
  • Constipation
  • Frequent colds from a reduced immune system
  • Increased blood pressure
  • Increased heart rate
  • Pain in the body- lower back pain, chest pain, neck pain, etc.
  • High cortisol

Physically, long term stress contributes to hypertension, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hair loss, and gastrointestinal concerns like ulcerative colitis. If you want to learn more about how stress impacts the body, I recommend learning about the autonomic nervous system.

How to Reduce Stress to Improve Your Health

First, you have to know how you’re impacted by stress. For me, I know I’ve reached my threshold for stress when I race around from thing to thing, my mind is moving at lightening speed, my shoulders are creeping up towards my ears, my lower back is aching, and I’m squeezing many muscles in my body. It’s so uncomfortable. On top of that, emotionally, I’m irritable and short, and tend to assume the worst about others. When I notice I’m feeling that way, that’s my cue to slow down and consider making shifts in my life to reduce the pressure to get something done or show up a certain way.

Second, figure out what helps you to slow down and enjoy life. Not escape life, not be distracted from life, but be present and in bliss. Here are some ideas:

  • Spend time in nature
  • Meditate
  • Improve your sleep
  • Paint, draw, sculpt, create
  • Garden
  • Practice yoga
  • Practice gratitude
  • Take a walk
  • Change jobs
  • Learn something new just because it interests you
  • Deep breathing
  • And there are many more ideas in this post on the art of self-care

If you classify yourself as an overachiever, here’s a helpful guide to putting on the brakes, and some thoughts on common road blocks to slowing down to get you ready for the journey ahead. We all deserve to live a life of meaning, fulfillment, and joy.

Of course, as you know, the Meaningful Bits of Life blog is all about quality over quantity, and that rings true in these five areas of health. A huge part of living a meaningful life is feeling empowered to live life on your own terms and to take responsibility for yourself and your health to improve the quality of your life. You can learn how to improve your health on your own by looking into these five areas of your life and making intentional decisions about what you put in and on your body and how you manage stress. And when I say health, I mean holistic health. Focusing in on these five areas can improve your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. So, go forth, live meaningfully and healthily!

How to Live a Meaningful Life

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