The cornerstones of health: a balanced diet, regular sleep patterns, and investing in health.
**Fourth point: Maintain a balanced diet and regular sleep schedule.**
Among the many factors in human life, diet has the greatest impact on health. The ancients stated regarding health preservation: "The spirit governs the body, essence nourishes the vital energy, vital energy benefits the essence, and food sustains the vital energy. Food is the foundation of life for people, the basis of human vitality." This statement highlights the importance of "essence, vital energy, and spirit" to the human body and the connection between them. It also points out that essence, vital energy, and spirit originate from food; food is "the foundation of life for people," demonstrating its crucial role in strengthening the body, improving health, and prolonging life. This is the reason behind the common saying, "Food is the first necessity of the people."
Research by nutrition experts shows that the leading causes of death among Chinese residents are all significantly related to diet. Therefore, paying attention to dietary health, adjusting dietary structure, and cultivating healthy and scientific eating habits are important topics for current health preservation.
By exploring and inheriting the essence of ancient Chinese dietary health preservation, and combining it with my personal experience in health preservation, I would like to propose a five-character mantra for healthy eating: Drink soup before meals, which is better than any medicine; eat until you are 70% full at each meal, and follow the "3-4-2" rule for three meals; combine coarse and fine grains in a good way, and combine meat and vegetables cleverly; make sure the food is delicious whether it is hot or cold, and chew slowly.
**Drinking soup before meals is better than any medicine.**
Through changes in my personal health, I've discovered a wonderful method for maintaining health through diet. From childhood, I was physically weak and frequently ill. If I didn't eat a proper meal, I would experience nausea, acid reflux, stomach aches, and become extremely thin. My mother received a folk remedy from an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor: "Drink soup before meals, and you'll never get sick." She made sure I had millet porridge with every meal, and I've maintained this routine ever since. This has made me increasingly healthy. This method has become a great treasure for maintaining good health, surpassing even doctor's prescriptions.
**Eat until you're 70% full at each meal, and follow the "3-4-2" rule for three meals a day.**
There's a famous Buddhist saying about diet and health: "Eating more is eating less, and eating less is eating more." This saying is both insightful and scientifically philosophical. It means that eating less at each meal, without harming your health, will lead to longevity, while overeating at each meal will harm your health and shorten your lifespan. As the saying goes, "Overeating harms the body," leading to a shorter lifespan. In this sense, long-lived people can eat for several more decades, so eating less is actually eating more, and eating more is actually eating less. It's truly a secret to health and a summary of the dietary experiences of many centenarians.
But how do we properly arrange the proportions of our three daily meals to meet the normal physiological needs of our body's organs? Many nutritionists and centenarians tell us that a 3:4:2 ratio for our three meals is optimal. This is calculated on a scale of 5:30 for breakfast, 40 for lunch, and 20 for dinner, just as we often say, "Eat a good breakfast, a full lunch, and a light dinner." This is because during the day, the workload is high, and energy consumption is high, so our diet should meet the body's nutritional needs. At night, when we need to rest, our organs should also rest, so we should eat less. Otherwise, if we eat too much, even though we are resting, our internal organs are still working tirelessly, which is not only detrimental to health but also harmful. Many people eat a lot at night, and the excess energy is stored as fat, leading to weight gain and potentially cardiovascular disease and diabetes. There's a folk saying: "Eat less at night, sleep better all night."
Experiments by American scientists have shown that mild hunger can help prevent some common diseases, thereby potentially extending lifespan. This is because cell death is a major factor in aging, and mild hunger can stimulate the body's potential to save cells from death. This aligns with the experience of traditional Chinese medicine regarding dietary health, which states, "To maintain good health, maintain a slight hunger and cold."
**A perfect combination of whole grains and refined grains, a clever mix of meat and vegetables**
For men's health and wellness, an important factor is to have a diverse diet to ensure that the body receives a variety of nutrients, vitamins, and trace elements in a balanced manner to meet its needs. It is crucial to avoid picky eating and unbalanced diets.
Regarding food combinations, our ancestors summarized their experience in achieving a diverse and balanced diet very early on. The *Suwen* (Plain Questions) chapter "On the Timing of Visceral Qi" states, "...grains nourish, fruits assist, meats benefit, vegetables supplement..." This is a very reasonable nutritional recipe, embodying comprehensive and balanced nutrition and food diversity, demonstrating high scientific validity. For people to enjoy health and longevity, they must base their diet on grains as the staple food, vegetables as a supplement, meat as a side dish, and fruits as auxiliary nutrients, combining them skillfully. This essentially reflects the good dietary habits of our ancestors. A picky diet, focusing only on refined grains and neglecting whole grains, leads to insufficient vitamins; focusing only on whole grains and neglecting refined grains, leads to insufficient carbohydrates; focusing only on meat and neglecting vegetables, leads to excess fat and insufficient carbohydrates; focusing only on vegetables and neglecting meat, leads to insufficient protein and trace elements. Therefore, we advocate a reasonable dietary structure, which is conducive to health and longevity.
**It should be palatable whether hot or cold, and you should chew it slowly.**
Foods are categorized by their properties of being cold, hot, warm, or cool. In daily life, we should pay attention to adjusting the types of foods with these properties according to our body's actual needs to avoid imbalances in Yin and Yang caused by a long-term preference for foods that are too cold or too hot. For example, foods that are warm in nature include mutton, beef, dog meat, rice, wheat flour, longan, lychee, ginger, garlic, and chili peppers; foods that are cool in nature include duck meat, duck eggs, mung beans, cucumber, winter melon, and black fungus.
The temperature of food consumed also matters, with different preferences for hot or cold dishes, which significantly impacts health. Diets should be tailored to each individual's physical condition and needs, aiming for both palatability and health benefits.
How to make good use of the chewing function of teeth and the mixing function of tongue and saliva in the mouth while eating is a science that should not be underestimated. If not used properly, it will affect the absorption and utilization of nutrients in food, causing illness and shortening lifespan. If used properly, eating will not only be an enjoyment of delicious food, but also a good way to supplement nutrition, prevent disease, and promote health and longevity.
I had an old comrade-in-arms who always finished his meals in a flash, downing them in five minutes. Some superiors even praised him for eating like a man, wolfing down his food. I always advised him against it, saying that this habit would cause illness. As it turned out, this comrade frequently suffered from stomach pain after meals and died of stomach cancer before he turned 40. Therefore, I've concluded that the key to health and longevity is to eat slowly and chew thoroughly to avoid illness.
Men should also prioritize regular daily routines and a structured lifestyle. A regular and scientifically sound daily routine is a crucial factor for health and longevity. Medical researchers, through studies of centenarians, have found that a regular sleep schedule is a vital condition for health and longevity. Scientific research has discovered that a regular sleep schedule can create a beneficial stimulus to the central nervous system, promoting the normal physiological functions of the body's tissues and organs. The ancient medical text, the *Huangdi Neijing*, states: "Eating and drinking in moderation, maintaining regular daily routines, and avoiding excessive labor, one can live in harmony with one's spirit and fulfill one's natural lifespan, reaching a hundred years before passing away." This illustrates that in daily life, a regular and structured lifestyle leads to health and longevity; conversely, an irregular and unstructured lifestyle, violating the body's physiological norms, results in weakness, illness, and premature aging.
**Fifth Tip: Invest in Health, Reap Happiness**
Foreigners tend to overspend money to save for health. Chinese people, on the other hand, overspend their health to save for money. Some argue that men should exchange their youth for money before 40, and then use that money to buy health after 40. While youth can be exchanged for money, buying health with money is not guaranteed, as the damage caused by disease is irreversible. I believe the idea of "being willing to invest in health" is more feasible. Investing in health encompasses a wide range of things, including choosing a suitable home environment, purchasing sports and fitness equipment, arranging leisure and entertainment activities, and selecting health supplements and medications.
Today, with improved living standards and stable social development, we live in a time of peace, prosperity, and abundance. In this context, people live happily and contentedly, and all aspire to good health as the foundation for successful work, increased income, and harmonious family life. Therefore, one of the most pressing concerns for people today is maintaining good health and achieving longevity.
In this regard, many people pay attention to maintaining a healthy body, a balanced mental state, and good social interactions and interpersonal relationships. They are often in their seventies or eighties, but their physiological and psychological age remains as vibrant as that of someone in their fifties or sixties. On the other hand, some people, due to neglecting their health, become frail and exhausted in their forties, even dying prematurely. In particular, some middle-aged intellectuals die young, causing irreparable losses to the country, their careers, their families, and themselves, which is truly regrettable.
I've visited some elderly people's homes, and their conditions were truly appalling. They've toiled their entire lives for their children, buying them new houses and villas, while they themselves still live in damp, cold, and dilapidated old dwellings. These places lack sunlight, have poor air quality, are dirty and chaotic, noisy, and cramped. Yet their children say, "They're so old, why should they live in nice houses?" What kind of talk is that?! As people age, they become frail and suffer from illnesses, their immunity declines, and they deserve even more care in terms of health. Investing in their health is precisely how children show filial piety and society shows humanistic care.
One day, an elderly man came to our hospital. He looked radiant and walked with a light step, appearing to be only 60 years old. However, after talking with him, I learned he was actually 82 years old and had come all the way from Thailand specifically for medical treatment. He was an entrepreneur who had handed over his business to his children and grandchildren. He lived on a farm estate with a woman in her forties. Although he had four generations under one roof, his interest in sex remained undiminished, and he enjoyed satisfying sex twice a month. He said he felt like a young man, filled with romantic love and appreciation for his wife. He felt happy, fulfilled, and lived a carefree life. His sexual function had always been excellent, and his wife was very satisfied. However, in the past six months, it had declined somewhat, with erectile dysfunction. He wanted to consult a doctor to help him regain his virility. After examining and diagnosing him, I confirmed that he had decreased sexual function and prescribed traditional Chinese medicine. He found it quite effective after taking the medicine. Since then, in addition to continuing to take the traditional Chinese medicine, he has also come to Tianjin every six months for me to examine his pulse and carefully maintain his health.
There was also a 78-year-old man from Shanghai, the owner of a private enterprise. He came to Tianjin from Shanghai every two or three months for checkups and treatment at our hospital. He used to suffer from benign prostatic hyperplasia and frequent urination, but since seeing me three years ago, his benign prostatic hyperplasia has been cured. To maintain his sexual function, he has consistently taken tonics and supplements for the past three years to maintain a strong libido and good health. He claimed that he and his wife have a harmonious marriage, he is full of energy, and he is free from illness.