Have you wondered why you are deficient in vitamins and minerals in spite of your daily supplement? Is your supplement ineffective and not able to give you the vigor and vitality you need, or is there something  depleting your body of the essential nutrients that are important for good health?

We have been taking a lot of over-the-counter drugs for minor ailments such as headaches, colds, sinusitis, allergies and others without knowing what harmful effects they have on our body. There are a lot of medicines or substances that we take casually daily, and we confidently believed that they are harmless and good for our body.

These medicines and substances rob our body of the many essential nutrients for normal body functioning. Some of these substances are found in food and drinks that we take daily. The following is a partial list of these substances with the corresponding nutrients they rob from our body. Beware of these medicines and substances that deplete the nutrients in your body:

• Aspirin – Vitamins A, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, folic acid, iron, potassium, and calcium

• Anti-acids – Vitamin A, C, vitamin B complex, calcium, and phosphorus

• Antibiotics – Vitamin K, vitamin B complex, and friendly colon bacteria

• Antihistamines – Vitamin C

• Barbiturates – Vitamin C

• Caffeine – Biotin, inositol, potassium, zinc, and vitamin B1

• Fluoride – Vitamin C

• Laxatives – Vitamin A, vitamin K, and potassium. This does not include herbal laxatives

• Diuretics – Vitamin B2, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iodine, and zinc

• Tobacco – Vitamins A, vitamin C, and vitamin E

• Oral contraceptives – Vitamin B complex, vitamins C, vitamin D, and vitamin E

• Estrogen preparations – Vitamin B6, and folic acid

• Ethanol (alcohol) – Vitamins C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, and vitamin B complex

• Penicillin – Vitamin B6, niacin, and niacinamide

• Synthetic neurotransmitters – Vitamins B2, vitamin B6, potassium, and magnesium

• Sulfa drugs – Para-aminobenzoic acid, and friendly bowel bacteria

• Beta blockers – Panthotenic acid, choline, and chromium

• Corticosteroids – Vitamins A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin D, and calcium

These substances are seemingly harmless, and we sometime indulged in them. Some of us like to have coffee in our breakfast, and smoke a cigarette after meals. When our stomach becomes upset because of indigestion due to our intemperance, we cure it by taking anti-acid tablets or capsules, without knowing that coffee, cigarette, and anti-acid medication can only deplete the important nutrients that are essential to the normal functioning of our body.

Some in their good intention to get rid of their discomfort due to indigestion early during the day, drink coffee and liquor after dinner and puff  a stick of cigarette to relieve the stress of the day. This only worsen his condition, and he consult a doctor for a remedy. The doctor may give him anti-acid, antihistamine, or antibiotic depending on his ailment, and the man’s condition becomes worst.

Let us avoid these medicines and substances that deplete our body of the essential nutrients. Good health is of prime importance to us all. Great material possessions in life are worthless without good health. Therefore, let us strive to be healthy, and live a long life full of joy and happiness.

A vegan lifestyle is indeed the most ideal life for us all. Would you like to know and follow this vegan lifestyle?

What is a vegan lifestyle?

A vegan lifestyle is, first and foremost, a life lived according to will of God. God created us all, and we only borrowed our lives from him. As owner of our lives, God deserves our respect and love.

What is the will of God?

In 3 John verse 2, it says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” God wills that we all be healthy. And how can we be healthy?

To be healthy, we need to follow a vegan lifestyle. In the beginning, God provided us our original diet consisting of fruits, grains, nuts, and vegetables. God originally designed us as vegetarians. We were not created like the carnivorous animals that thrive on animal flesh.

After the Great Flood, when Earth’s vegetation was destroyed, men started to eat flesh meats. Diseases appeared on the surface of the Earth; afflictions and sufferings followed. Men became wicked, and iniquities abounded. Moral values degraded, and men gradually lost their spirituality.

In our modern time, millions are dying everyday because of diseases, accidents, and brutality that are being done under the sun. This is the curse of the law that God forewarned which will happen to men if they continue violating his law.

Is the law a curse? No! The law is holy and honorable. The law did not bring in the curse, but men’s transgression of the law has brought the curse upon them.

What shall we do to be spared of this curse of the law?

We inherited the sinful nature of our forefathers, and we are all sinners. No one is righteous, no, not one. All our goodness and holiness are just filthy rags unto God. No amount of good works can save us. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.

Therefore we need a Savior to retrieve us from the quicksand of sin. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, and that name is Jesus Christ.

We must repent and confess our sins to God; he promised to forgive us and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. When we surrender our lives to God, and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord of our lives, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and we become obedient to the law.

The Holy Spirit of God does the obeying of the law for us, and he sanctifies us daily to follow the will of God. When we are in Christ, we become new creatures: old things are passed away; all things are become new.

God is beseeching us, by his mercies, that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto him. Our body is the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us. We are not our own. We are bought with a price, and that price is the most precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that was shed for the remission of our sins on the Cross of Calvary.

This is the secret of a successful vegan lifestyle. When the Holy Spirit of God is in us, he guides us to a healthful lifestyle that can glorify God. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can resist our intemperance, and start living a healthful vegan lifestyle.

A successful vegan lifestyle follows the eight secrets of health. These secrets are acronymed NEWSTART because we will have a new start in life when we follow these secrets of good health. NEWSTART stands for Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunlight, Temperance, Air, Rest, and Trust in Divine Power.

A vegan lifestyle consists of eating a healthy balanced diet. A balanced diet must have carbohydrates for energy to “go”; proteins to “grow”, and vitamins and minerals to “glow”. A diet consisting of fruits, grains, nuts, and vegetables supplies all these.

We should avoid eating flesh meats. Flesh meats are carriers of communicable diseases. Flesh meats are carriers of parasites, bacteria, virus, and other pathogens that cause diseases such as mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease, bird’s flu and other diseases. Flesh meat eating is the main cause of tumors and cancers, cardiovascular diseases, strokes, and heart attacks.

A good healthy nutrition consists of three square meals per day eaten regularly. Avoid snacks in between meals. Give your digestive system 5 to 6 hours to digest your food. Do not overload it with unnecessary foods.

Avoid junk foods that do not provide the body with nutrients. Sugar-laden foods, such as ice cream, cakes, soft drinks, energy drinks, and other processed foods should be avoided. They are laden with preservatives, colors, additives, caffeine, monosodium glutamate, and other excitotoxins that are harmful to the body.

A vegan lifestyle also requires a regular physical exercise everyday. Upon waking up in the morning, do some bending and stretching exercises at home. Walking briskly in the open air under the sunlight is better. The triple effects of physical exercise, fresh air, and sunlight improve blood circulation, purify the blood, dissolve bad cholesterol, and strengthen the immune system.

A vegan lifestyle must include water. Our body and all organs in it are primarily composed of water, and all bodily functions need water. To be healthy, we need to drink at least 8 to 10 glasses of clean water daily. If possible, drink water half an hour before meals or an hour or two after meals. Do not drink cold water or any cold drinks during or right after meals, for this will slow down the digestion of food.

A vegan lifestyle is a life free from intoxicating liquors and other alcoholic drinks. Alcohol destroys the brain, and other organs of the body. Alcohol has been the cause of so many deaths from vehicular accidents and from brutalities that were done under its influence.

A vegan lifestyle needs water for proper physical hygiene. We need to take a bath daily in order to clean and unclog the pores in our skin for perspiration and proper ventilation of our body. Taking a bath is not only good for blood circulation, but it also supplies the essential oxygen to the body.

A vegan lifestyle is a life full of sunshine. Walk and bask under the invigorating warmth of the morning sunlight. Our body, during the conversion of sunlight into vitamin D, uses up the fats or cholesterol under our skin, thereby reducing the blood cholesterol level in our body.

A vegan lifestyle is also a life of temperance. We should be temperate not only in our eating and drinking, but in our living, and in all our ways. Intemperance is a sin of idolatry when our belly becomes our god during our intemperate eating and drinking.

A vegan lifestyle is a life exposed to the fresh air in nature. To be truly healthy,we need to breathe fresh air that is free from all pollutants. So, let us open up our windows, and let the fresh air ventilate our homes for us to inhale the fresh air from trees and plants  around us.

A vegan lifestyle is a life free from the ill effects of tobacco, cigarettes, and their toxic smokes. Smoking is very dangerous to our health. Out of the hundreds of toxic substances in cigarettes, 22 are proven carcinogens. We are the temple of God; whosoever destroys the temple, the same God will destroy.

A vegan lifestyle is a life with rest. All works makes one dull; so we need rest. Sleeping is one of the best ways of rest. Insomnia causes not only memory loss, but also brings a host of diseases when our immune system is weakened by lack of rest. During sleep, our body rejuvenates and recharges the depleted energy during the day. To maximize the health benefits of sleep, we should sleep not later than 10 o’clock in the evening when the body’s melatonin secretion is at its peak.

And there is the best of all rests that comes with all the blesings of God: the seventh-day sabbath. God not only enjoined all men since creation to keep the seventh-day sabbath holy, but he fuses in it the myriads of blessings for all who will keep it faithfully. Chronobiologists discovered a biological clock in man, animals and plants, and even in inanimate things such as moons, planets, and stars that vibrate in a seven-day cycle known as circaseptan. All our bodily functions such as heart beat, blood pressure, blood circulation, metabolisms, hormonal secretions, and body temperature are synchronized with this mysterious seven-day cycle that is inherent in the whole universe.

And the most incredible thing is that this seven-day cycle is not governed nor affected by external factors such as the movements of moons, planets, stars, or galaxies. When we are not synchronized with this seven-day cycle, by not resting on the seventh-day sabbath, we are not only forfeiting the sure promised blessings of God, but we are bringing upon ourselves ailments and diseases by tampering with this seven-day cycle.

A vegan lifestyle is a life of complete trust in God. Our God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He created everything in this universe, and he is an Almighty God. With such a tremendous power that only inheres in him, we can surely trust him with all our heart. And our trust in him is not futile, for in trusting in him, we  have hope, and in hope, we have peace, joy, and happiness that make our vegan lifestyle a life more healthy, and more livable.