The Best Return on Investment for Your Consumption Voucher

Written by Denise Tam, Holistic Nutritionist

We’ve all received our second payment of our Consumption Voucher. Though there may be basic things you need, oftentimes, if you think about it, it’s more of a want, than a need, and the novelty of that new thing quickly dissipates. So to truly get the best bang for your buck, choose things that can bring happiness to you in the near and far future.

The United Nations, Goal #3 of ‘ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages’ is essential to sustainable development. The UN focuses on life expectancy which is important, but I like to highlight the concept of health span.

Having gone through a gruesome journey with the side effects of chemotherapy, I now understand and put great value on health span. With severe edema that limited my use of lower and upper limbs and eventually a loss of hearing in my right ear, I decided to stop the chemo all together and focus on true healing. I mustered up courage to tell my doctor that,

“even if I survived cancer, this is not the life I want to live.” 

After spending two and a half years, which also involved a lot of money and time to restore health to my body, I am thankful for the health I have now, and very aware of  the importance of investing in our health today. The famous quote rings true more than ever in our high stress, highly toxic world…

“Invest in your health today, or your sickness tomorrow.”  

So I want to encourage you to use your consumption voucher to invest in your health, be it functional lab work to determine nutrient deficiencies, food intolerances that may be suppressing your immune system or causing unnecessary allergies or to check on heavy metals that need to be detoxed out. It could mean adding one more fitness class to your workout schedule, or purchasing healthier foods, supplements and body care that would bring health and vitality to your body.

The value from a new phone, laptop or earbuds depreciates with time. So if you want the best return on investment for your consumption voucher, invest into your health which will be around a lot longer than that handbag. 

This month, as a way to give back and encourage wellbeing for all, I’m offering my 45 min online consultation service at 20% off where I can guide you in optimising your diet, schedule and supplements to increase your health span. Please send any inquiries to info@foodforlifehk.com 

If you’re still not convinced to invest in your health, here are some food for thought

- According to the Blue Cross Blue Shield study
“Millenials are seeing their health decline faster than the previous generation, both physically and mentally. While poorer health among Millennials will keep them from contributing as much to the economy as they otherwise would.”

- “I don’t have time to work on my health” is like saying  ‘I can’t go to the gym until I’m in shape’

- top financial advisors say that ‘health determines wealth and vice versa,’ where studies show that those who have higher incomes generally have greater health spans and vice versa. 

- better health can reduce personal healthcare costs in the future, which is good financial planning. You can factor in daily expenses like supplement or food costs much more than sudden emergency expenditures.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with my top basic supplements 

Multivitamin : Today’s ways of farming and the health of our planet means even the best of organic diets may be void of some nutrients. Further, the constant stress on our bodies deplete our bodies of some essential nutrients. I like to take a multivitamin to ensure my base is covered. It’s a great first step before looking at individual nutrient needs since many nutrients work synergistically together. 

Probiotics : 

A healthy gut is the first step in having health in the body. Everything leads back to our GI tract. From our immune system, to our mood, and of course simple digestion. Taking probiotics is a daily practice for me, together with a variety of vegetables to feed the probiotics. I also like rotating probiotics to get a variety of strains.

Omega Oil: Every cell membrane in our body is made up of a lipid layer. If we don’t have enough (healthy) oil, or if we take unhealthy oils, our cell membrane can become rigid, which makes it difficult for toxins to be released out and nutrients to enter in. Omega 3 and 6 oils cannot be made in our bodies and so we must rely on foods or supplements to give us these essential fats for life.

Further reading: The ONE nutrient you can’t live without!

Detox supplement: Before any kind of protocol, detoxification is important. It doesn’t matter what we put in if our bodies are full of toxins, our bodies will not be able to work optimally to absorb the nutrients. Every so often, it’s important to clean up our ‘house’ as a reset to the body.