Why Should People Choose a Healthy Lifestyle?

If you live in the United States, you can expect to live around 78.7 years, the average life expectancy as of 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A healthy lifestyle during those years can group you in with the nearly 7 in 10 people in the U.S. considered to be in excellent or very good health. However, choosing bad habits, such as a poor diet, lack of exercise, irregular sleep patterns and smoking or excessive alcohol use, might lump you in with the 38 million people who are limited due to one or more chronic health conditions. The choice is yours.

A hiker stopping to eat a healthy snack in nature. Photo Credit Remains/iStock/Getty Images.

The Benefits of a Nutritious Diet

It can be satisfying to indulge in your favorite unhealthy foods, whether it’s burgers and fries, pizza and soda or cake and cookies. However, too many of those indulgences, and you’ll join the 35.7 percent of people in the U.S. who are obese, as of 2009-2010, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. When you choose to eat a healthful, moderate-calorie diet that avoids added sugars, unhealthy fats and too much sodium, your risk for diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancers goes down.

The Perks of Physical Activity

An active lifestyle works hand in hand with a nutritious diet to keep your body in tip-top shape. Make the choice to exercise regularly -- 30 minutes of cardio a day, with two strength-training sessions a week -- and you improve your chances of living a longer and healthier life. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, benefits of regular exercise include prevention of diseases such as osteoporosis, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes; reduced symptoms from depression and anxiety; better heart, lung and muscle fitness; and better quality of sleep.

The Advantages of Sleep

When it comes to sleep, it’s all about moderation. You don’t want to sleep your days away, but getting the recommended amount of sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle, says “Health” magazine. While you catch some ZZZs, your brain strengthens memories, improves on skills you learned and boosts your creativity. You might also enjoy the benefit of weight loss or maintenance -- when you’re tired, certain hormones that drive appetite increase in your blood, David Rapoport, director of the NYU Sleep Disorders Program, told “Health.” Make adjustments to your lifestyle to get seven to nine hours a sleep a night, the amount recommended by the National Sleep Foundation.

The Rewards of Skipping Alcohol and Tobacco

Avoiding cigarettes and alcohol requires making two separate lifestyle choices. However, according to the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, the two habits often go hand in hand, meaning that if you drink regularly, you’re more likely to smoke -- and vice versa. Alcohol consumption increases the risk of liver disease, certain cancers, cardiovascular disease and alcohol toxicity, while smoking boosts chances of lung disease, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease. If you choose to drink alcohol, keep it to one to two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women, says Harvard School of Public Health. A healthy lifestyle means skipping the cigarettes entirely.

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Effects of Bicycling on the Body

Bicycling can be one of the best aerobic workouts you can do to improve your cardiovascular health, muscular endurance and strength. The Department of Health and Human Services recommends most healthy adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week, or 75 minutes of intense aerobic activity. Biking is a way to achieve the suggested amount of aerobic activity and have fun, too. There are, however, some risks associated with biking to be cognizant of.

Bicycling can strengthen your heart. Photo Credit Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images.

Improve Your Cardiovascular Health

Riding a bike gives you the same cardiovascular benefits as any other aerobic exercise. Your cardiovascular health refers to your heart and blood vessels. Jonathan Myers, a doctor in exercise and cardiovascular health, states that people who get 30 minutes of modest activity a day, such as cycling, will experience benefits linked to cardiovascular health. This includes an increase in exercise tolerance, weight loss, lower blood pressure, reduction in bad cholesterol, increase in good cholesterol and increase in insulin sensitivity.

Moderate and Intense Aerobic Exercise

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bicycling is an effective way of getting the suggested amount of moderate or intense aerobic exercise each week for optimal health. During a moderate aerobic workout, your heart rate goes up, you break a sweat, and your breathing quickens but not so much that you can't carry on a conversation. During an intense aerobic workout, your heart rate goes up quite a bit, you sweat, and your breathing is deep enough that you cannot easily carry on a conversation.

Strengthen Your Muscular System and Endurance

According to the Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation, a week of inactivity can reduce the strength of your muscles up to 50 percent. Bicycling activates most of your body's muscles. As you pedal, you use your hamstrings, glutes, quadriceps, shin and calf muscles. Your abdomen and back muscles stabilize your body, and your shoulder and arm muscles support your body at the handlebars. The harder you pedal and the more hills you climb, the more you will strengthen your muscular system and build endurance.

The Benefits Versus the Risks of Biking

NPR reported a study that was conducted by the Institute for Exercise and Sports Sciences at the University of Copenhagen; the study found that among 30,000 people living in Copenhagen over 14 years, those who biked to work lowered their risk of death compared to sedentary people. NPR reported numerous other scientific studies around the world also showing that biking lowers people's risk of death. Biking on the street can be risky, however; according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, bike riders account for 2 percent of traffic deaths.

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Meal Plans for Food Lovers

Planning meals and snacks can be tricky if you absolutely love food. A hearty appetite can make it easy to down too many calories with junk foods and sweet treats, so you need to anticipate what you’re going to eat and carefully study ingredients and nutrition fact labels to make smart, healthy choices.

A woman looking at a list on her smartphone while grocery shopping. Photo Credit LDProd/iStock/Getty Images.

Nutrition Information

Knowing more about the type of nutrients that fuel your body effectively can help you plan smart meals and snacks. Soft drinks, candy bars, chips and other junk foods contain high amounts of sodium, cholesterol, saturated fat, simple carbs and sugar, which don’t provide lasting energy or meet your body’s nutritional needs. When you read food labels, look for high amounts of whole grains, dietary fiber, low-fat protein, vitamins and minerals and low amounts of added sugar, fat, cholesterol and sodium.

Energy Density

If you like to eat often, one helpful tip is to seek out foods with low energy density levels. According to MayoClinic.com, such foods have high amounts of fiber and water and low calorie and fat counts, and they are ideal for weight loss and healthy weight maintenance. Examples include fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nonfat dairy products. Focusing on such foods in your meals and snacks can help you keep your daily calorie totals under control and get a maximum amount of healthy nutrients.

Sample Plan

A healthy meal plan that allows you to eat often might include five or six small meals per day instead of three main meals and snacks. Try choices such as a small egg-white omelet with vegetables, wheat toast with nut butter and fresh fruit, a high-protein smoothie, broth-based soup, a green salad with nuts or seeds, lean meat with steamed vegetables, hot whole grain cereal with milk and fruit, a vegetable wrap, rice pilaf, low-fat casserole or nonfat yogurt and granola. For snacks, consider fresh veggie sticks and hummus, whole-grain crackers and low-fat cheese, low-fat granola bars, pieces of fresh fruit or single serving containers of yogurt or milk.

Considerations

When your goal is to eat healthfully, planning can make a world of difference. Grabbing fast food or restaurant meals may be more convenient than making food, but according to HelpGuide.org, prepared items have greater amounts of fat, sodium, calories and cholesterol than homemade foods, so it’s worth the time and effort to create your own grub. Try shortcuts such as making extra food in advance, using frozen or canned fruits and vegetables and buying healthy, mobile snacks that you can take with you on the go. To make food that tastes great without excessive calories and fat, flavor items with fresh or dried herbs and spices instead of using liberal amounts of butter or oil.

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LIGNITE

Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft brown combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat content. It has a carbon content around 60–70%. It is mined all around the world and is used almost exclusively as a fuel for steam-electric power generation, but is also mined for its germanium content in China. As of 2014, about 12% of Germany's energy and, specifically, 27% of Germany's electricity comes from lignite power plants, while in Greece, lignite provides about 50% of its power needs.

Lignite and Lignite briquette.

Characteristics

Lignite is brownish-black in color and has a carbon content around 60–70%, a high inherent moisture content sometimes as high as 75%, and an ash content ranging from 6% to 19% compared with 6% to 12% for bituminous coal.

Strip mining lignite at Tagebau Garzweiler in Germany.

The energy content of lignite ranges from 10 to 20 MJ/kg (9–17 million BTU per short ton) on a moist, mineral-matter-free basis. The energy content of lignite consumed in the United States averages 15 MJ/kg (13 million BTU/ton), on the as-received basis (i.e., containing both inherent moisture and mineral matter). The energy content of lignite consumed in Victoria, Australia, averages 8.4 MJ/kg (6.5 million BTU/ton).

Lignite has a high content of volatile matter which makes it easier to convert into gas and liquid petroleum products than higher-ranking coals. Unfortunately, its high moisture content and susceptibility to spontaneous combustion can cause problems in transportation and storage. It is now known that efficient processes that remove latent moisture locked within the structure of brown coal will relegate the risk of spontaneous combustion to the same level as black coal, will transform the calorific value of brown coal to a black coal equivalent fuel, and significantly reduce the emissions profile of 'densified' brown coal to a level similar to or better than most black coals. However, removing the moisture increases the cost of the final lignite fuel.

Lignite mining in Western North Dakota, United States (circa 1945)

Uses

Because of its low energy density and typically high moisture content, brown coal is inefficient to transport and is not traded extensively on the world market compared with higher coal grades. It is often burned in power stations near the mines, such as in Australia's Latrobe Valley and Luminant's Monticello plant in Texas. Primarily because of latent high moisture content and low energy density of brown coal, carbon dioxide emissions from traditional brown-coal-fired plants are generally much higher per megawatt generated than for comparable black-coal plants, with the world's highest-emitting plant being Hazelwood Power Station, Victoria. The operation of traditional brown-coal plants, particularly in combination with strip mining, can be politically contentious due to environmental concerns. An environmentally beneficial use of lignite can be found in its use in cultivation and distribution of biological control microbes that suppress plant disease causing microbes. The carbon enriches the organic matter in the soil while the biological control microbes provide an alternative to chemical pesticides.

Reaction with quaternary amine forms a product called amine-treated lignite (ATL), which is used in drilling mud to reduce fluid loss during drilling.

Geology

Lignite begins as an accumulation of partially decayed plant material, or peat. Burial by other sediments results in increasing temperature, depending on the local geothermal gradient and tectonic setting, and increasing pressure. This causes compaction of the material and loss of some of the water and volatile matter (primarily methane and carbon dioxide). This process, called coalification, concentrates the carbon content, and thus the heat content, of the material. Deeper burial and the passage of time result in further expulsion of moisture and volatile matter, eventually transforming the material into higher rank coals such as bituminous and anthracite coal.

Lignite deposits are typically younger than higher-ranked coals, with the majority of them having formed during the Tertiary period.

Resources

The Latrobe Valley in the state of Victoria, Australia, contains estimated reserves of some 65 billion tonnes of brown coal. The deposit is equivalent to 25% of known world reserves. The coal seams are up to 100 metres thick, with multiple coal seams often giving virtually continuous brown coal thickness of up to 230 metres. Seams are covered by very little overburden (10 to 20 metres).

Types

Lignite can be separated into two types. The first is xyloid lignite or fossil wood and the second form is the compact lignite or perfect lignite.

Although xyloid lignite may sometimes have the tenacity and the appearance of ordinary wood, it can be seen that the combustible woody tissue has experienced a great modification. It is reducible to a fine powder by trituration, and if submitted to the action of a weak solution of potash, it yields a considerable quantity of humic acid. Leonardite is an oxidized form of lignite, which is also contains high levels of humic acid.

Jet is a hardened, gem-like form of lignite used in various types of jewelry.

Production 

Lignite mined in millions of metric tons

Country	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2011	2012	2013
China	n.a.	24.3	45.5	47.7	125.3	136.3	200.9
East Germany	261	258.1	280	–	–	–	–	–
West Germany	108	129.9	107.6	–	–	–	–	–
Germany	–	–	–	167.7	169	176.5	185.4	183
Soviet Union	145.0	141.0	137.3	–	–	–	–	–
Russia	–	–	–	87.8	76.1	76.4	77.9	73
Kazakhstan	–	–	–	2.6	7.3	8.4	5.5
Uzbekistan	–	–	–	2.5	3.4	3.8	3.8
United States	5	42.8	79.9	77.6	71	73.4	71.6	70
Poland	n.a.	36.9	67.6	59.5	56.5	62.8	64.3	66
Turkey	n.a.	14.5	44.4	60.9	69.7	72.6	66	63
Australia	n.a.	32.9	46.0	67.3	72.1	71	73.5	63
Greece		23.2	51.9	63.9	56.5	58.7	61.8	54
India	n.a.	5.0	14.1	24.2	37.7	42.3	43.5	45
Czechoslovakia	82.0	87.0	71.0	–	–	–	–	–
Czech Republic	–	–	–	50.1	43.8	46.6	43.5	40
Slovakia	–	–	–	3.7	2.4	2.4	2.3
Yugoslavia	n.a.	33.7	64.1	–	–	–	–	–
Serbia and Montenegro	–	–	–	35.5	–	–	–	–
Serbia	–	–	–	–	38	41.1	38	40
Kosovo	–	–	–	–	8.7	9	8.7
Macedonia	–	–	–	7.5	6.7	8.2	7.5
Bosnia and Herzegovina	–	–	–	3.4	5.6	6.3	6.3
Slovenia	–	–	–	3.7	4	4.1	4
Montenegro	–	–	–	–	1.9	2	2
Romania	n.a.	26.5	33.7	29	31.1	35.5	34
Bulgaria	n.a.	30	31.5	26.3	29.4	37.1	32.5
Albania	n.a.	1.4	2.1	30	14	9	20
Thailand	n.a.	1.5	12.4	17.8	18.3	21.3	18.3
Mongolia	n.a.	4.4	6.6	5.1	8.5	8.3	9.9
Canada	n.a.	6	9.4	11.2	10.3	9.7	9.5
Hungary	n.a.	22.6	17.3	14	9.1	9.6	9.3
North Korea	n.a.	10	10.6	7.2	6.7	6.8	6.8
Source: World Coal Association.  U.S. Energy Information Administration· 1970 data from World Coal (1987) (n.a.) no data available, (–) country did not exist yet or does not exist anymore

Gallery 

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  Opencast mining Schleenhain in Saxony, Germany.

References 

1. ^ ^a b c Kopp, Otto C. "Lignite" in Encyclopaedia Britannica
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9. ^ Blatt, H., Middleton, G. and Murray, R. (1972). Origin of Sedimentary Rocks. Prentice-Hall Inc., New Jersey. ISBN 0-13-642702-2.
10. ^ ^a b Department of Primary Industries, Victorian Government, Australia, ‘Victoria Australia: A Principle Brown Coal Province’ (Fact Sheet, Department of Primary Industries, July 2010).
11. ^ Mackie, Samuel Joseph (1861). The Geologist Original from Harvard University: Reynolds. pp. 197–200.
12. ^ Tan, K.H. 2003. Humic matter in soil and the environment: principles and controversies, CRC Press, 408pp.
13. ^ "World Coal Association – Resources". World Coal Association. 2014. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
14. ^ "Production of Lignite Coal".  U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2012. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
15. ^ Gordon, Richard (1987). World coal: economics, policies and prospects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 44. ISBN 0521308275 OCLC 506249066.

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