Dear Editor,
I have come to realize that a great majority of people don’t really know much about the kind of diet needed for the proper functioning of their bodies, as well as how to keep healthy or even minimize the possibility of the onset of sickness or decease.
We eat to stay alive. We eat because we know our body needs food and drink. So we eat to live, but we don’t eat to stay healthy. There is a difference. You can eat all the junk or fast foods available. Yes, it will keep you alive, but not healthy. Sooner or later it will cause you to develop some kind of disease, taking you in and out of the doctor offices, hospitals, pharmacies, and in the worse cases eventually to the morgue.
But, how much does good nutrition have to do with our health and well-being? Continual decline in health and rise in disease increased when man began to process his food. When we moved from eating our foods directly from the soil to modernized, mechanically-processed factory foods.
From a Global Health review over the past decade, it has been reported that there is an increase spending on health. Each year doctors see more patients; a growing number of medicines are prescribed; ambulances and aero-medical services attend to transport more people; hospitals and emergency departments are busier, and more surgeries are performed.
In spite of more breakthroughs in medical science, technology and inventions, man is experiencing a decline in overall health, and is losing the battle against the rise in sickness or killer diseases. Medical science today is facing an uphill battle against incurable diseases that refuse to bow to man’s wisdom and technology.
So where do we go from here? Very simple, prevention is better than cure. We need to change our way of eating. From a survey it has been reported that in America an estimated 150 billion dollars alone per year is spent on people suffering from chronic diseases. More than 75 per cent of this nation’s population has to take some kind of prescription drug on a daily basis. Now you might say, well what does the impact of America’s health and consumption of quality food have to do with us here in the Caribbean? Bear in mind that most of the food we eat comes from the US. Is it any wonder why today we are confronted with many ailments, just to mention a few, such as obesity, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, stroke, diabetes, Autism, and now the increase of cancer on this island?
Most of us, because of our busy modern stressful lifestyle, don’t even have time to cook. So it’s easier to order or pick up a readymade, over-the-counter, quick-fix meal or sandwich on the way. We feel that should do the trick, because it will save time or prove beneficial. But, later on the consequences will become evident as our bodies will begin to react to how we have been abusing it through consuming the wrong diet.
It was Hippocrates who once said: “Let your food be your medicine, and medicine be your food. The good philosopher wasn’t referring here to any kind of food. He was talking about quality food. The proper nutritious kind of food that benefits our bodies. Foods that are capable of healing, rebuilding and strengthening our inner organs to function properly, and heal themselves.
I once met my house doctor just before he died, who I hadn’t seen in a long time. His reaction to me was: “But, I don’t see you.” I kindly responded to him: “That’s because I am keeping healthy.” Later on he died of some sickness. So, in the end I even managed to outlive my own house doctor.
Throughout my years of doing research and building my wisdom on how to keep healthy and minimize sickness, as a senior I am now enjoying the best of health every day. There is so much to say about this topic, more than enough to write a book. The secret of health and avoiding disease is keeping the laws of health. Matter of fact God, Himself, gave us the right kind of food to eat in the Garden of Eden. When you buy a new car or any kind of new appliance or electronic device, it will always come with a handbook or manual of the manufacturer to instruct you how to operate it; because as the creator of the product, he knows best. If you disregard the advice given then you will be in for trouble. Prevention and following the laws of nature will always be better than the cure.
A health conscious citizen
Name withheld at author's request
