Excerpt from The Total Package, Chapter 7

In the early 1500s a Spanish explorer named Ponce de Leon journeyed to the New World in search of the legendary “Fountain of Youth.” While Ponce de Leon never did find the magical fountain that he was desperately seeking, you can begin your own journey to seek your own personal fountain of youth. In order to keep looking, feeling, and thinking young throughout your life and maintaining your zest for life, you do not need to travel to some exotic faraway place as Ponce de Leon did. Your ability to reverse the effects of aging, achieve your optimal weight, lower your blood pressure, strengthen your immune system, fight cancer, feel great, and live much longer than you ever dreamed possible is well within your reach.

As with any journey, it all begins by taking that first step, even if it’s a “baby step.” Yours is a journey to better health—to feeling much more alive and excited about life. Let’s take the trip together. And because the benefits are much too wonderful to wait another second, let’s get started now!

—Balanced Nutrition—

Your Foundation for Good Health

“Let food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.” Hippocrates, known as the Father of Modern Medicine

In order to have a basic understanding of the nutritional habits of most Americans today, it isn’t necessary to read some clinical study from a prestigious medical school. The only thing you need to do is go to your local shopping mall and watch as the people go by. You will soon notice how overweight many of the people are. Yes, our fellow Americans. In a nation that takes such pride in education, it is embarrassing how overweight and out of shape most Americans are today. The stark reality is that Americans are slowly killing themselves, and bad diets and poor nutritional habits are two of the main culprits.

Consider these shocking statistics released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in December 2001 (“Overweight and Obesity at a Glance” fact sheet):

• 61% of adults in the U.S. population are overweight or obese, as determined by the National Institutes of Health Body Mass Index (BMI), 1998.
• Obesity cost the U.S. economy $117 billion in 2000.
• 13.7% of children aged 6 to 11 and 14% of those aged 12 to 19 were overweight in 1999. The number of overweight children tripled in the previous two decades.
• 300,000 deaths each year in the U.S. are associated with obesity.
• 40% of U.S. adults do not participate in any leisure-time physical activity.

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