Healthy Living is the number one goal among North Americans. However, 80% of the population do not know that cooking healthy, eating healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables, and making healthy choices can mean the difference between life and death. I have written this health and fitness article so that people can make healthy choices for their own personal health care and well being.Here are 25 ways to eat and drink healthy:1. Do not drink iced water, especially not with meals. This interferes with flow of your digestive juices and impairs digestion.2. Drink a cup of fresh pure water, at room temperature, the first thing in the morning and last thing at night. You should drink it hot only when you are constipated. In that case, a little lime or lemon may be added.3. Drink six to eight glasses of water every day, approximately one glass for every fourteen pounds of your body weight. Drink mineral water to be on safe side.4. Do not drink water with your meals, but drink it half hour before or two to three hours after your meals so as not to disturb the process of your digestion by diluting the digestive juices.5. Sip the water slowly, never swig it down at once.6. In order to restore life elements of the water lost in boiling or processing, pass it through the air, pouring it from one cup to another. You will soon notice that this gives a slightly invigorating and stimulating effect, which is absent in dead and devitalized water.7. It is better that you eat fresh fruits and vegetables than to drink fruit or vegetable juices.8. Do not keep juices standing, as they will lose their precious enzymes. Apple juice for instance loses one third of them after 30 minutes and all of them after two hours.9. Coffee, tea, alcohol and chocolate are not recommended because tannic acid, theine, caffeine and theobromine are stimulants.10. Milk is really a food, not a drink. You should have it in small sips. Otherwise, it will likely produce indigestion.11. It is not the amount of food you consume that nourishes your body, but only the amount the body itself can assimilate.12. Choose carefully the foods that fit your system, choose them just as carefully as you choose a shirt, a hat or a tie. You have to try different food combinations until you figure out which health food suit you best. Make health choices such as steam fresh vegetables.13. Avoid all devitalized foods like canned food, polished rice, white flour and white sugar. Use unpolished rice, whole wheat flour and brown sugar or honey.14. Another healthy choice is to chew your food carefully and slowly, especially if it is the starchy kind, so that it may be properly mixed with saliva, otherwise starch will be waiting for digestion for several hours.15. Toasted bread is better than fresh. Do not eat it with liquid. Drink before eating the bread, as starch should be converted into glucose by saliva.16. Eat only one starch to a meal. For instance, if you have rice then omit potatoes, bread, macaroni starchy pudding and so on.17. If you suffer from gas, it is advisable to plan your meals so that you do not eat protein and starch together; and especially not with cooked sulphur foods like green peas, cabbage, broccoli, eggs, turnips, and so on because gas is produced by sulphur working on the starch.18. Do not throw away the water in which vegetables have been boiled but use it for gravies, soup or for drinking. Potato water is excellent as it alkalizes the body.19. Fried greasy foods as well as rich dishes should be avoided altogether, because these digest more slowly than fat itself. Fat is the last to leave your stomach, carbohydrates is first and then proteins.20. All saturated fats, such as lard, butter, margarine, eggs, and dairy products will increase the blood cholesterol level and can be classified as unessential fats.21. Any diet which is high in saturated fat is dangerous. So you should eat a balanced meal, a high fat and low protein diet inhibits the function of enzymes.22. Remember, it is not only the calories and amount of fat that decide the nutrition and health, but the quality of fat. Bacon, for instance has caloric fat value only. It contains nothing else, neither vitamins, nor minerals.23. Six cups of fresh raw cabbage juice a day keep peptic ulcers away.24. The richest source of protein is soya bean. Two pounds of soya been flour contain as much protein as five pounds of cheese, five pounds of boneless meat or six dozen eggs or 10 liters of milk. Soya bean is the only non-acid forming protein.25. The most essential rule about food, however, has nothing to do with quality, quantity or preparation, but with your mental attitude at the time you are eating it.I hope that you will use this health and wellness article to make healthy choices when you start your person health care program. If you have any health questions or comments be sure to check out our Health Fitness Site for more health and fitness articles.Eat, drink and be healthy.

Are you the parent of a child with autism or a learning disability receiving special education services? Are you new to the special education arena and would like to be educated on some tactics to look for? This article will be discussing 8 tactics used by some special education personnel, to prevent parents from being equal participants in their child’s education.Tactic 1: Intimidation, bullying and lying! Some special education personnel try very hard to be intimidating, so that parents will not fight for services for their children! Intimidation could be loud voices, threats, condescending to the parent, or making the parent feel inadequate or uncomfortable!Tactic 2: All of the above; but with a smile on their face! It absolutely gets me when a special education person opens their mouth and states something not truthful, when they are smiling! I wonder if they think that the lie will not be realized by the parent, due to their facial expressionsTactic 3: Quoting laws that do not exist, to make it seem like they have more power than they do! As an educational advocate and parent I have seen this many times myself. Example: Mrs. Jones the law allows us to not give services to children if we run out of money (not true)! Or Mrs. Jones the law says that we can suspend your child for as long as we want to due to their behavior (not true)!Tactic 4: I have heard from many parents that their special education personnel have actually changed educational records so that they could win a dispute with the parent! What I have seen is records added to a child’s file (that the parent did not know about) to document things that have happened. This is why it is critical that parents get copies of their child’s entire educational record (especially during a dispute) and keep it for future reference. If you end up in due process with your school district check all records that they are using to make sure that they match the records that you have!Tactic 5: Refusing to identify, and accept disabilities in a child that make them eligible for special education services. Many parents must get independent evaluations (at their own expense) to prove that their child actually has a disability, and is eligible for special education services!Tactic 6: Misinterpreting test data to show that the child does not need special education services! I have heard many special education personnel state that they do not believe low test scores and that the child does not need services because of their low test scores. This is untrue; whenever a standardized test shows that the child is below their age and grade appropriate peers in an area, the child should receive special education services so that they can make progress in their education.Tactic 7: Use delay or deny tactics. A lot of special education personnel try and delay the parents request for special education and related services. They may ignore parents request for testing for eligibility, or just use any tactic available to delay the request! When delay no longer works many personnel just say no; which is of course is denial! Stand up to these tactics by documenting all requests in writing!Tactic 8 (this happens to be my favorite): Exaggerate or make up discipline problems so that they can change the child’s label or placement! Some school districts want to put Emotionally Disordered or Behaviorally Disordered labels on children so that they can put them in alternative placements, and deny needed special education services.Parents need to keep the focus on the child’s academic and educational needs, and not give in to school districts focus on behavior only. If a child is struggling academically it may show in their behavior!By understanding these tactics you will be on your way to being an effective advocate for your child! They are depending on you!