Diet Basics for Optimum Health

Learn diet habits that lay the foundation for excellent health and well-being

Every time I travel outside of the United States, I reawaken to the fact that Americans are in the midst of one of the most serious epidemics of all time. We live in the richest country in the world and are probably the most health-conscious society on Earth. Still, the standard American diet emphasizes more meats and refined foods at the expense of raw, unrefined vegetables. It’s largely responsible for obesity being totally out of control.

We Must Change

Americans spend more than $120 billion a year on fast food; in almost every fast-food chain, you can now double the calories of a meal for less than a dollar. And obesity is showing up earlier in life—to the point that more than one-third of American children are overweight, and we’re seeing “adult” diseases, such as diabetes, in kids.

No one quick fix or magic bullet will solve the problem. Every year, hundreds of books on weight loss are published. Pharmaceutical firms continue to scramble to find a "cure" for obesity. Every month we learn about some new appetite-suppressing hormone and the efforts to duplicate or manipulate these hormones artificially. But until the underlying problems are addressed—namely what we eat and how we live—these efforts will result only in frustration, and the average consumer will lose far more of his hard-earned money than fat.

How to Start Improving Your Health

I'm aware that eating habits are hard to break, and even harder when psychological, hormonal, and financial factors are involved. To further complicate matters, there isn't a single solution that will work for everyone. But there are some key steps you can take to make a tremendous difference in your health almost immediately:

• Cut out sugar
• Maintain a slightly alkaline body pH
• Increase your intake of some of my favorite healthy (and delicious) foods—things that, in my opinion, everyone should be eating
• Use distilled water instead of tap or bottled water

More Dr. Williams Advice on Overall Wellness

• Three exercises you must do
• Why you need supplements for complete nutrition
• How proper breathing techniques improve health