As the cost of health care keeps rising each year and employers are reducing health insurance benefits, more and more Americans are turning to preventative medicine by adhering to a number of health and fitness approaches. Preventative medicine can be anything from eating a healthy diet, exercising more, drinking less alcohol, stopping smoking and keeping up with immunizations. It has been known for a long time that eating a well-balanced healthy diet in combination with enough exercise can increase our lifespan and prevent or delay the onset of diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.

Diets high in calories, sugar and saturated fat have been shown to increase the risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, stroke and other diseases. Compared to 50 years ago, portion sizes have doubled or even tripled, which increases the problem of over consumption. With the abundant supply of fast food restaurants, over-sized portions and media ads constantly reminding us how delicious and convenient fast food is, it has become increasingly hard for most people to live a healthy life.

A healthy diet begins with a lot of planning. First, you have to know what your body’s daily caloric requirements are and translate that to a diet plan for each day. It may be hard to picture that a healthy diet will fit into a busy lifestyle, but if you plan your meals for the week in advance and do your groceries in the weekend, it will work. Add a few dinner back-up items to your list in case you have to work late and don’t have time to cook. Based on your daily caloric intake requirements, put together a menu for the week that is both healthy (right balance between the various food groups) and fun to make. In order to see any effects from your diet plan, you have to be able to adhere to it for a prolonged period of time. The biggest threat to any diet plan is boring food.

Because you’ll need more than just a healthy diet, equal attention should be focused on exercise. Now it isn’t necessary to belong to a gym for your health and fitness needs, there are plenty of opportunities to incorporate additional exercise into your life. Walking or biking to work, taking the steps instead of the elevator are just a few examples. Even if you don’t have a gym membership or workout equipment at home, there are many exercises that you can do at home that will boost your stamina and strength. Examples are crunches, push-ups and leg exercises.

Many people supplement their diet with herbs and vitamins. Vitamins can not be made by our own body and have to come through our diet. Even if you eat a healthy diet, vitamin deficiencies can occur, especially during the winter months. Herbs are widely used for cooking, but herbs have also medicinal uses. Many herbs and spices that we use for cooking contain many useful medicinal compounds, such as anti-microbial compounds and anti-oxidants. Herbal and plant extracts have been used for thousands of years for medicinal purposes by the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and in India. In the 15th and 16th century, the use of herbal extracts was introduced in Western Europe. Many drugs we use today, are derived from plant based compounds, such as aspirin and quinine.