Men are waking up to the enormous benefits of natural health and nutrition

Friday, January 04, 2008 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: men's health, health news, Natural News

It's time for men to pay as much attention to natural health as women. Currently, women dominate the readership of natural health newsletters and magazines, and they're typically the one member of the household more clued in to nutrition for both adults and children. Men typically lack in-depth knowledge on nutritional issues and are often the ones defending unhealthful diets based on processed meats, homogenized dairy and refined grains. But here's why this trend is changing...

Men's bodies are just as sensitive to unhealthful foods as women's bodies. Prostate cancer, for example, is just as sensitive to synthetic estrogen mimickers in foods and food packaging as breast cancer, and preventing prostate cancer is as straightforward as preventing breast cancer: Avoiding bisphenol-A in plastic packaging and water bottles, avoiding sodium nitrite in processed meat products, supplementing with zinc, green tea, lycopene, various isoflavones, etc.

Thanks to popular culture, the image of men eating healthy diets has been "sissified." Men who eat salad greens, sprouts and tofu are commonly thought of as having somehow lost their masculinity (by the ignorant masses, anyway), whereas those men who gobble down prime rib, milk, pizza, hamburgers, onion rings and sugary sodas are thought of as rugged American men. Real men!

Of course, the truth of the matter is quite different. As nutritional studies clearly show, those men who eat the salad greens, sprouts, superfoods and nutrient-dense ingredients have much higher sperm counts and mobility measurements as well as stronger libido and performance. Few men who pursue healthy diets ever turn to sex-enhancing medications such as Viagra because they simply don't need the drugs! They perform well, regardless of their age.

It's the men who eat barbequed ribs, pizza, fried foods and processed foods that end up firing blanks at the fertility center or having prostate cancer surgery (which leaves you in a state that can hardly be called "manly," by the way). Processed foods devastate reproductive capacity in both men and women, and from a medical viewpoint, nothing takes away the manliness of men faster than following a diet of processed foods. Except, perhaps, surgical castration. But nutritional castration is the next quickest route.

Fortunately, the more intelligent, aware men in society today are increasingly learning and applying principles of nutritional science. Although they remain the exception among the male population, they're exploring the tremendous benefits of healthy diets by learning and applying nutritional know-how to their own lives.

These men, for example, are taking more nutritional supplements than ever before, and instead of pursuing the cheap, low-quality "bodybuilding" supplements that typify the past purchasing behavior of men, they're now consuming brain-enhancing nutrients (like bacopa, Lion's Mane, ginkgo and PS) and immune boosting nutrients (alkalizing greens, medicinal mushrooms, fish oils, etc.). They're turning away from over-processed, over-cooked and over-hyped brand-name foods and learning ways to eat more raw, organic and locally-grown produce.

In doing so, they're challenging the stereotype and expanding their options to include performance-enhancing, disease-preventing nutritional strategies that most men don't even know exist. Among the best strategies now being embraced by in-the-know men are:

• Fish oils (omega-3 fatty acids) for enhanced brain function, immune function, metabolism and cardiovascular health.

• Hemp protein and quinoa for complete proteins from plants (which avoid the chemical contamination found in most animal fats).

• Superfruit antioxidants for protection of the brain, heart, skin, eyes and cellular DNA (these superfruits include acai, blueberries, raspberries, noni, mangosteen, goji and so on).

• Nutrient-dense microalgae (like blue/green algae, chlorella and spirulina) for cleansing the body, protecting the liver, and greatly reducing the risk of digestive system cancers (including colon cancer).

• Mineralization strategies (taking trace minerals, zinc, magnesium, and quality calcium supplements) to boost cardiovascular health, eliminate excess stress, accelerate tissue repair and recovery speeds and resist infectious disease.

• Planned sunlight exposure for enhanced creation of vitamin D which prevents gum disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, heart disease, obesity and all kinds of cancers including prostate cancer.

In future articles, we'll examine these areas in more detail, discussing the best nutritional strategies for physical performance, fertility, brain function, stress adaptation, disease prevention, longevity and much more. We'll also look at the most common sources of the chemical contaminants and food additives that are causing the most damage to men's health right now. Coming up soon: How to stop poisoning your body with 100 synthetic chemicals every morning!