Foreword
By Andrew Weil, MD
Developing a healthy lifestyle requires information and motivation to apply it. Your everyday choices about eating, physical activity and stress management, for example, all influence how you will feel tomorrow and your health risks later in life. It is our choices that individually and collectively determine how gracefully you will age.
Adopting healthy routines, and sticking to them, is key. A practical tip I often give is to spend more time in the company of people who have those routines down. If you want to improve your diet, eat with people who know about and are in the habit of making healthy food choices. Eating well is a foundation of good health. It can help you feel well, give you the energy you need, and cope with routine ailments, from colds to lack of sleep. Long term, it will reduce the risk and delay the onset of the chronic age-related diseases.
For years I have urged people to include several servings of fresh organic fruits and vegetables in their daily diets, and to choose produce that covers all parts of the color spectrum. The medical evidence linking fruits and vegetables to good health is overwhelming. And now, so too is the new evidence that organic fruits and vegetables deliver more nutrients per average serving, including the all-important protective phytonutrients like polyphenols and antioxidant pigments.
Getting in the habit of choosing organic food whenever you can will ensure that you and your family get the nutritional benefits nature provides. It is a cornerstone on which to structure a lifestyle that will promote and maintain health lifelong.
Andrew Weil, MD Board Member, The Organic Center Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine University of Arizona March 2008