By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Why do people eat? We eat to live. We eat so that we are strong and are able to do the many things we have to do & for children to grow. We look for food when we are hungry. That is, I think, the original intention of why we eat. However, a lot of people now are on a see-food diet. They eat because they see food, even when they are not hungry or even if they haven’t yet spent the food they just ate.
You see, dear friends, food is a basic need for our survival, growth and development. When we swallow the food, it is broken down into vitamins and minerals, fat, protein and carbohydrates and all the other essential elements that our body needs for activity, regeneration and healing and growth (for kids). Research has shown that it takes about 3-5 hours for the stomach to finish grinding what you ate during the meal so our traditional way of eating is healthy. Early morning, at noon and in the evening. In Kalinga, some villagers ate twice a day. And these people in the past were so strong that they were able to produce their own food and make their own rice paddies and walked great distances. Mothers delivered healthy babies normally. Kaya nga andito tayo ngayon. They spent the food they ate efficiently and well. They were slim.
What happens now that we are eating too much and too often? Because we swallow all those excess foods, sometimes we throw them out or we get diarrhea. But most often, our body takes them all in and has to process all of them. This overworks our organs and so they get diseased and malfunction. Just like any machine.
Let us focus on the excess sugars we are eating nowadays- especially white and brown sugar, breads, cookies and other flour products, sweet drinks, juices, fruits, white rice. These are converted in our digestive system into the simple sugars called glucose and fructose and are absorbed in the blood. Glucose is taken up by the cells for energy but if there’s so much glucose because you ate so much, it will convert this excess glucose to fat and this fat is triglyceride. Fructose, on the other hand, is only metabolized in the liver you can imagine that we only need a little fructose (maliit ang liver e). Again, excess fructose is converted into fat called triglycerides and deposited in the liver. Our blood does not like does like a syrupy consistency so it converts any excess sugar into triglycerides. So don’t be surprised if your blood test shows a high triglyceride level even if you don’t eat taba and you are not alcoholic. These fats or triglycerides will accumulate in the liver as it also accumulates in your belly or thighs. Then you get fatty liver, medically termed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD.
NAFLD was unknown in the 1980s and earlier. Back then, fatty liver was associated with alcoholics. Nowadays, fatty liver is an epidemic, affecting even healthy-looking young adults. So what if the liver is fatty? Well, perhaps the liver can cope with a little fat but if it continuously accumulates, these fat cells will push and damage liver tissue, cause inflammation of the liver and thus enlargement and may lead to serious liver damage like liver cirrhosis. Usually there are no symptoms- it is discovered only on routine examination by ultrasound. It is only when the liver is severely damaged that there are symptoms like yellowing of the skin and eyes. At this stage the damage may be irreversible. So why wait?
How then to treat fatty liver? The good news is that it can be reversed, naturally. Simple, because it is a health issue arising from excess sugars, then just minimize or avoid the following:
1. Processed foods. White sugar is a preservative so all those processed foods that you buy has a lot of sugar.
2. Packaged sweet drinks like soft drinks, sports drinks, juices, are high in sugar. Just read the labels. Filipinos are fond of these sugared drinks- you can see people drinking them every snack time. Milk tea, which is very sweet, is popular among our students. Disaster in the making. Even real fruit juices are not healthy because they are concentrated (meaning concentrated sugar) and have no fiber. Because it is liquid, there is a high tendency to drink in excess.
3. Fruits – eat in season and in moderation. Our tropical fruits are loaded with sugar.
4. Breads, cookies, pasta and other flour products- almost all bread and pasta in the Philippines is made from white wheat flour which is like refined sugar.
5. White rice or well-milled rice- this is only starch because the fiber and vitamins and minerals have been removed by milling. So you will note that when you wash white rice, the water becomes very cloudy because the starch is exposed. Try washing unpolished rice and you will see the difference.
6. White and brown and powdered sugar.
7. Alcohol
Coupled with decreasing the quantity of sugars in your meal, do intermittent fasting also to lessen the number of times you eat (more on this next time). You don’t have to wait for your liver to become fatty before you check your diet. The above mentioned measures prevent fatty liver also, and a lot of other diseases. Excess sugars are also related to diabetes, heart disease, dementia and even cancers. And the earlier you start, the better. Meaning we should start training our babies and young children to eat natural food and at the proper time.***
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“Don’t be like a horse or a mule which have no understanding, which must be controlled with a bit and bridle to make it submit.” Psalm 32:9
