Our bodies are designed for movement and manual work, like a highly-tuned car.

Tragically, in the West the hard work habits of the past have disappeared in favor of high technology.

In the past 50 years our lives have changed so much and so fast that it is difficult for us to keep up to date with how our lives are affected.

Why walk if you can ride in the comfort of a car? Why get up to change the TV channel if you can use the remote control? We have labor-saving devices to do our housework. We can talk to neighbors on the telephone. Shop on the Net.

Hey! You don’t even need to walk to the post box to post a letter — you can send an e-mail! It is a fact of modern life that our bodies are not getting the exercise they used to get in the past. If we don’t use our bodies they go into decline — they get stiff — muscles waste. Food gives the body energy. If we don’t use that energy, we put on weight.

Weight slows us down! It almost seems as though all this high technology is designed just to keep us sitting on our bottoms, turning into couch potatoes. In the modern, hightech world, we must accept that to keep our bodies supple, healthy and strong we must take exercise, and we must make time for it. Exercise must have a place in our lives. If we are to value our future good health, we have to find time for exercise.

Exercise must be part of our daily routine.

We keep our teeth healthy by routinely brushing them. We keep our bodies healthy by routinely doing a little exercise. You can always make time for things that are important to you, and your health comes first! So, you don’t feel like exercise? Fine, do it anyway! Move! That! Body!

Health watch

Multivitamins Taking a good quality multivitamin is especially important in the Middle East, as much of the fruit and vegetables are well traveled and will have lost some of their vitamin content in the process. No matter how good you think your daily food intake is, take daily vitamins as well. You never know which nutrients you might be missing, and taking a multivitamin every day is easy and painless. Vitamins and minerals contribute to your long-term health and well-being. In addition to a multivitamin, a calcium pill is also a good idea, especially if osteoporosis runs in your family. The supplement Permea Plus contains a full range of vitamins and minerals, as well as antioxidants.

Recipe of the week

Prawn and feta pasta

Serves: 2 Ingredients and method

Fry 1 small onion, finely chopped, and 1 crushed garlic clove in 1-tsp. olive oil until soft. Add 1 small can chopped tomatoes with mixed peppers.

Crumble in 60g feta cheese, plus 60g prawns, drained, and stir until the cheese melts. Cook 85g pasta shells (dried weight) for 10 minutes. Drain well and add to the tomato mixture. Serve with large green salad; drizzle with 1-teaspoon fat-free dressing.

Ask Alva

I am always reading your column in tabloid and I really like your health tips. If it is possible, I would appreciate if you can give me more tips on slimming and diet program. As you mentioned for today's tip, people who have slower metabolisms are the ones who get fat very fast. I have a very slow metabolism and I am overweight. Is there any way that I can make my metabolism faster? Thank you and I hope you will reply on this and provide me some slimming tips and diet program. — Vivian Forouzan

Our metabolism can slow down and change as a result of going on too many diets, and especially when yo-yo dieting, as the body feels it is under siege. However, if you stick to a sensible nutritional diet it will return to normal.

The best way to boost your metabolism is to take regular exercise, because exercise tones the body and increases muscle, which in turn burns more calories. The more you exercise and the fitter you are the faster your metabolism. Send to guidean177@ naturalhealthlines.com for a free copy of my Healthy Eating Guide and find out how to follow a sensible, balanced diet.