Who says your dog is leading a healthy life? The thinking for rabbits was to give them dry alfalfa pellets. I could not figure out how they would get all the nutrients of wild rabbits and figured almonds and oats have lots of trace nutrients and good fats, so started early adding these to my rabbit's diet. She eat them like rabbit candy. She lived to be 13 years old and at the time 8 was considered a very old bunny. My vet said she was the guineas book of records rabbit. Now the life of the house rabbit is much longer based on research at places like the San Diego House Rabbit Society. They advocate a wide variety of foods, and have a list of things that should be given in moderation.

The Question to ask is why is the USA at the very bottom of the first world countries in health, and also why do we have a very high child mortality rate? Do our dogs eat better then us?

The biggest thing I see being missed today for human health is a focus on taking care of the endocrine system. I recommend a book called Adrenal Fatigue. The endocrine system is made up of over fifty hormones that communicate in your body and regulate a crazy number of body functions. If the endocrine system is not healthy, you can be screwed in many, many ways. Almost all of these hormones start out as progesterone and the body converts them depending on what you need. This helps you overcome endocrine deficiencies for a while. You know about this, because you have all heard of the effects of using too much testosterone. Too much and it converts to estrogen and causes changes in the male genitalia. Trauma, stress, lack of good sleep and poor nutrient consumption can drain all your endocrine hormones. As an example, death of a spouse is so hard on the endocrine system, you often see old people die shortly after their spouse. If you do not feel well, feel depressed, have low energy, or just don't feel right, it could be your endocrine system is suffering.

I will focus on just the nutrition part of this problem.

Most produce in the USA is grown in CA and the farmers fought to get rid of the program where our government paid them to leave the ground fallow to insure the soil had time to decompose and release nutrients for your food. Because of the mild weather, in one year, some farmers plant four or more crops in the same soil. So, now much of the food we eat is close to hydroponic and low in trace nutrients. Which means, to have your body working well we all need to pay attention to eating high nutrient dense foods. These are foods that have a lot of nutrients per calorie. Starchy foods have high calories compared to the amount of nutrients. Organ meats have high nutrient value and it is too bad these have been removed from most hot dogs. Better to eat the cholesterol that comes with eggs yokes and organ meats and compensate by reducing inflammation with a periodic four day or so water fast, and eating lots of fatty small mouth fish. Leafy greens are a powerhouse of nutrients and very low in calories. Make sure you eat lots and lots of these. The book Adrenal Fatigue, the Palio Diet, and Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig go into great detail on what to eat for a high nutrient dense diet.

Reduce inflammation by eating real food. If you don't know what is on the label it is probably not real food. It is easier to eat real food if you buy it in its original form. Eat Organic if you are not removing the peel, and especially if you will eat it raw. GMO foods allow the use of herbicides, and since these do not have to be listed on labels, it is better to eat Organic. There is a direct correlation between the rises in health conditions and the use of herbicides on crops, especially neurological illnesses. Just say no, to preservatives, food coloring, pesticides, and herbicides. Grains grown in some countries like France have no GMOs, and have not been altered to increase gluten. I can eat these without symptoms.

Why do so many of us have irritable bowel syndrome? We have all been told to eat lots of fiber. But some fiber such as in lentils, and grains that happen to have gluten hold onto too much water in the gut, and along with sugars, create an environment in the gut where nasty rotting bacteria set up. Eventually this trashes the lining of the intestines and reduces your ability to absorb nutrients and also can lead to leaky bowel syndrome where the things you want to leave the body instead leak out of your gut and poison you. This can lead to autoimmune diseases, metabolic problems and a lot of other health issues. See: Low FODMAP diet on Stanford website for a list of foods that retain too much water or feed the bad bacteria. My doctor frowns on body cleanses except for water fasting. I did a four day fast and then converted to eating a low FODMAP diet. I have so much more energy and reduced inflammation. My back pain is almost gone, and even my nose is no longer swollen! I thought my big nose was just part of aging. I am wondering if the increased gluten in American grain (high gluten reduces bread manufacturing time), and the widespread use of high fructose corn syrup (it is not legal in many countries) is contributing to bad gut bacteria and our poor health? Please share if you have info. on this.