Let’s live a healthy life

Taking care of oneself is not a task that begins at age 40 or that only the elderly should do. Taking care of our body inside and out is the greatest sign that we love ourselves and those around us. Not ourselves, because we want to reach advanced ages in good condition, and those around us, to be as many years with them. To do this, we must follow a balanced diet, abundant in fruits, vegetables and olive oil, exercise moderately and avoid harmful habits such as stress, tobacco, alcohol …

If you are a lover of the Mediterranean diet, Cortijuelo de San Benito is your shop, in Las Rozas de Madrid or our online shop, where you can buy the best olive oils from Spain: oro Bailen, Castillo de Canena, Oro del Desierto, Casas Hualdo, etc. and from the best production areas: olive oil from Jaén, Baena, Sierra de Cazorla oil, Sierra Magina, Priego de Córdoba, Montes de Toledo …

If you don’t know how to buy a good olive oil, you should read our article: Where to buy extra virgin olive oil

Healthy Living Tips

Having a healthy life is not as easy as it seems. In the world where we live of consumerism and sedentarism do not leave it as easy as it seems. Continuously we get our eyes, unhealthy consumption habits of industrial food, comfort everywhere that makes us increase our hours of sedentarism, harmful habits such as smoking and alcohol abuse, stress, pollution of the air we breathe …

To lead a healthy life, consists of looking at all the planes in which we move: what we eat, what we breathe and our mental and physical occupation.

Nutrition:

A healthy diet is the basic pillar of a healthy life, we are going to give you here some very useful advices on feeding.

Follow the Mediterranean diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes and extra virgin olive oil.

2. Carry out the four meals of the day: breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner

3. Eating slowly and with relaxation

4. Avoid saturated and trans fat.

5. Avoid fast food industrial products

6. Do not smoke and drink in moderation

7. All meals should be paused and relaxed. The meal should be a moment of relaxation and enjoyment.

8. Reduce salt consumption as much as possible

9. Drink about two liters of water a day

Exercise

Exercising every day is another key to a healthy life. So stop going everywhere in the car and get used to walking. Sign up for a sport or physical activity and burn calories.

Photo 1. Hiking in the Picos de Europa

Mental occupation

The exercise of the mind is fundamental to have a healthy body. A healthy body without a healthy mind is impossible. For this, it is essential to human relationships, avoid stress and do mental exercises.

Benefits of a healthy life according to a scientific study

Millions of deaths caused by cardiovascular disease could be prevented each year if more people followed the Mediterranean diet, as demonstrated by recent research, which analysed the consumption habits of the people of the United Kingdom.

This study, which is the first of its kind, studied the actual data of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom. The study analysed the consumption habits of around 24 000 people in Norfolk, a population in the UK, over an average period of 12 to 17 years. In this study the researchers found that 12.5% of heart attacks and deaths from heart attacks could have been prevented. If we take these figures to the rest of the people in the UK, the Mediterranean diet, which uses olive oil as its main fat, could prevent 19,000 deaths out of the 155,000 that occur each year. If we estrapolate this from the rest of the world’s inhabitants, the numbers could reach millions of people who can be saved each year.

Dr Nita Forouhi, author and head of the Cambridge University Epidemiology Unit Medical Research Council study, said: “We estimate that 3.9% of all new cases of cardiovascular disease or 12.5% of heart deaths in our UK study population could have been avoided if the whole population followed the Mediterranean diet.

Furthermore, according to Forouhu: “The Mediterranean diet is descriptive non-prescriptive, ie the Mediterranean diet recommends that we base our diet on the consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and fish and the main source of fat recommends that it be extra virgin olive oil. Together with a low consumption of pre-cooked products and a moderate consumption of fish. In addition, a glass of red wine is recommended at every meal.

The greatest difficulty the researchers in this study had was isolating what percentage of their diet was similar to the Mediterranean diet. This study began in 1990.  After an enormous amount of literature compiled and with references from the Mediterranean diet pyramid produced by the Mediterranean Diet Foundation, they calculated a way to score the family of meals consumed. The highest score would be a diet with 15 elements of the Mediterranean diet. They found the highest score among the participants of 13.1 and the lowest of 3.

This study found that people who had, that is, more elements of the Mediterranean diet in their daily meals, were less likely to suffer heart disease and die as a result of it, taking into account other problematic factors such as smoking, weight, and physical activity.

Diet as a whole is the most important thing

According to Forouhi, the conclusion of his work indicates that so-called super foods, such as kale and certain forest berries, promoted in society, are good for health. As well as the reduction of certain products in our diet, such as sugar and fats. However, what is of vital importance is the set of all the food we consume.

In other words, it is more important to eat a balanced diet, with fruits, vegetables and extra virgin olive oil, and not eat the well-known super foods, than an unbalanced diet, with great restriction of sugar and fat, and to gorge on super foods.

People suffering from heart disease are recommended to follow the Mediterranean diet in the UK. However, this study extends this recommendation to all sectors of the population.

According to Dr. Louis Levy, head of nutrition at Public Health England: Following the Mediterranean diet is another advice given to the population to strengthen their health. But they also recommend reducing the consumption of sugary, greasy and salty foods and drinks. In addition, you should be aware of the calories you eat in order to help protect your heart and the overall health of your body.

Healthy living and sport

Any way of life that is not accompanied by sport or physical exercise will never be a healthy life. People should abandon the comforts that our way of life gives us, and go to the places on foot. We should take as usual to do sport and sweat the shirt.

For any exercise we do, if we do not sweat the shirt, it has not been a real sport.

Healthy Living Blog

Our blog is mainly about extra virgin olive oil, raw honeys and natural cosmetics. All these topics are always approached from the point of view of health and knowledge of nature. So, if you want to take care of yourself inside and out, the Cortijuelo de San Benito blog is your blog.

Sources:

El periodic The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/8