You probably realize that having a fast food diet combined with being a couch potato is a pretty sure path to aging and disease.

But you may be surprised to learn that research has shown regular exercise may undo the effects of an unhealthy diet!

A study of mice conducted at the Mayo Clinic showed that exercise helped to prevent diabetes-like symptoms by decreasing the effects of an unhealthy diet.

Plus when the mice started exercising, they stopped accumulating belly fat--which is particularly dangerous and can increase your risk of heart disease, kidney disease and dementia.

Not so fast!

If your four food groups are Taco Bell, McDonald’s, KFC and Dunkin’ Donuts you may be shaking with delight right now thinking all you need to do is take a stroll around the block and you’re golden.

Not so fast.

First of all, “exercise” typically means something more than a casual stroll around the block.  

Generally speaking, you should do something for at least 30 minutes a day that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat. 

And if you’d rather stick needles in your eyeballs than exercise, here are my top five tips for success:

• Pick an activity you like or will at least tolerate. You’ll be more likely to stick with exercise if you don’t loathe what you’re doing.
• Get an exercise buddy (or two or three or more!). You’re far less likely to skip a workout if someone is counting on you to show up, plus you can have fun talking and the time will fly by.  (This is a picture from the 2017 Thanksgiving Day kickboxing workout I taught at the dojo where I train.  All of these people are my exercise buddies!)
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• Make your goals reasonable. For example, don’t expect to run five miles when the farthest you’ve ever run is from the couch to the refrigerator and back during a commercial. 
• Celebrate your little victories along the way. It’s easier to stay motivated when you can look back and see how far you’ve come.
• Remember you’ll rarely ever regret working out, but you’ll almost always regret not working out.

Just be sure to get your doctor’s OK first.

A glaring omission from the study

In addition to not specifying exactly what “regular exercise” is, there was also a glaring omission in the study I mentioned above.

The health price of eating nutrient-poor foods!

I don’t care what you do—you can run a marathon every week, but if you’re not nourishing your body with real foods, it’s not a matter of if but merely when will you suffer the consequences.

Here are some examples of what lacking nutrients can do to you:

Heart disease is directly connected to deficiencies in zinc, magnesium, vitamins B6, B12, D, C and E, and folic acid.

Depression can be triggered by low levels of vitamins B3, B6 and B12 as well as vitamin D.

Autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, psoriasis and Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism are linked to vitamin D deficiency.

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are associated with inadequate levels of vitamin B12, magnesium and vitamin D.

Cancer can result from numerous possible deficiencies including vitamins A, D, E and K, folic acid, selenium and zinc.

Type 2 diabetes is commonly seen with deficiencies in biotin, chromium, vanadium, magnesium and vitamin C.

Face the music

Now it’s time to face the music, all you fast and junk food fanatics. You’d better start getting properly nourished or else you’ll be pushing up daisies long before your time.

Even small steps in the right direction can make a big difference! 

I tell my clients to start by making just one healthy change or substitution each day.  That could be things like:

• Swapping out one soda for water
• Cooking a meal at home instead of ordering pizza
• Opting for a side salad with your dinner in a restaurant instead of French fries
• Offering a crudité platter and/or shrimp with cocktail sauce instead of chips as appetizers
• Choosing scrambled eggs, yogurt or oatmeal instead of a donut for breakfast

As you’re making strides toward healthier choices, you can ensure your nutritional bases are covered with Super Core multi-vitamin and mineral formula. 

Not only will Super Core help ensure your body has health-supporting levels of all of the essential nutrients, but its natural antioxidants will help fight any disease-causing free radicals you may be dealing with, and its anti-inflammatories will help curb inflammation—which is a major factor behind chronic diseases including cancer and heart disease!

Support your gut too!

Health begins in your gut—it’s responsible for absorbing crucial nutrients, eliminating wastes and housing most of your immune system!

So it’s essential that you support strong gut health—it can literally save your life.

In addition to having a healthy diet (and avoiding junk food as much as possible), a full-spectrum, multi-strain probiotic formula like Super Shield can help keep your gut microbiome in a healthier balance.

Super Shield’s effective blend of 13 strains of well-studied probiotic bacteria can help support and repopulate your body’s own helpful microbes, so they are better able to carry out their very important functions and keep you healthy (and alive)!

Put the power of nutrition, regular exercise and a strong gut to work in creating the healthiest you that you can be!

To your health,

Sherry Brescia