For a Healthier Life

1. Every year on 7 April, World Health Day is observed. In order to celebrate this day, people around the world participate in activities and attend webinars that are related to the topic of health. It is the day that usually marks the beginning of a new campaign that seeks to promote a healthy world.
   How can we celebrate World Health Day practically?
   The answer is by loving ourselves and insisting to live a healthy lifestyle.
   Here are some tips for a healthy life style:

1-Eat a healthy diet:
Healthy diet means diverisity in food quantity. Consume a sufficient ammount of vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and whole grains. An adult needs at least 400g of vegetables and fruits per day. Eat a variety of them, consume them as snacks and in season.

2-Consume less salt and sugar:
Salt put you in risk of high blood pressure. Reduce the ammount of salt in your food. Avoid salty snacks and high sodium products. Manage the ammount of salt that you eat to reach a maximum of 5g per day which equals to a teaspoon.
On the other hand, the intake of free sugar should be less than 10% of the total energy intake which is equals to 50g maximum or 12 spoons for an adult. Sugar speeds up the teeth decay and increase your weight gain. Avoid sugary sources.

Replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats:
WHO recommends reducing saturated fats to less than 10% of total energy intake. Reducing trans-fats to less than 1% of total energy intake.
The preferable unsaturated fats are found in fish, avocado and nuts, and in sunflower, soybean, canola and olive oils.
Saturated fats are found in fatty meat, butter, palm and coconut oil, cream, cheese, ghee and lard.
Trans-fats are found in baked and fried foods, and pre-packaged snacks and foods, such as frozen pizza, cookies, biscuits, and cooking oils and spreads.

Avoid harmful use of alcohol:
There is no safe level for drinking alcohol. Alcohols can lead to addiction, mental and behavioral disorders, liver cirrhosis, some cancers and heart diseases, as well as injuries resulting from violence and road accidents.

Dont smoke:
Smoke can cause heart disease lung diseases strokes and cancers. If you’re a smoker train yourself to stop this bad habit even if this will take effort and time. If you’re not a smoker, fight for breathing a tobacco-smoke-free air.

Be active:
Adults aged 18-64 years should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity throughout the week. Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. This can happen while working, climbing steps, holding bags, cleaning the house, traveling etc..

Get vaccines:
Vaccines protect your body through the immune system. Luckily, vaccines are everywhere now and you can test your immunity to make sure if you need any vaccine or not.

Talk to someone you trust:
Depression is a common illness where it effects more than 260 million person worldwide. Depression can cause a deficiency is vitamins and supplimemts of the body. It might make you feel hopeless but remember you are not alone. Talk to a friend a colligue an family member a friend or a mental health specialist. If you think about harming yourself, call a saving hotline like the Lebanese center Embrace on: 1564.

World Health Day should be celebrated everyday, for a healthy happy life.