by Penelope A. Domogo, MD
July is Nutrition Month and I love this year’s theme – Healthy diet, gawing habit – FOR LIFE! It captures what we want to do to be happy and well. This theme is so good that we are adopting it as the theme for Health Sunday celebration in the Episcopal Church in the Philippines on the last Sunday of July.
Let us discuss this theme, one phrase at a time. First, what is a healthy diet? There is still a lot of confusion about what a healthy diet is. A healthy diet is the right foods at the right amount and at the right time. What are the right foods? You don’t really need to memorize – just see what the Creator gave to you, growing in your locality or from a similar locality as yours and in season. Do you think the scientist or the factory knows more than the Creator? I don’t believe so. So when nature (that is God’s creation) provides mangoes at this time, then it is okay to eat mangoes at this time. What do we get from mangoes? A lot – beta-carotene, Vitamin C, calcium, etc. Mangoes also give us a lot of sugar- fruit sugar – it is called fructose. Fructose is a simple sugar so it is not advisable to eat much. Do you know that God gave mangoes in limited quantity? In nature, mango trees bear fruit only once in two years. Some people, however, want to change this nature in pursuit of money. So they spray chemicals to force mangoes (and oranges, etc.) to bear fruit even before their time. It is like making a woman deliver a baby in 5 months instead of 9 months. It is what some livestock raisers do to pigs and chickens so they would mature prematurely. What I am appalled with is that they do this all for money, no other. So, I repeat, there’s no need to memorize what to eat. Just eat what is natural. Natural is organic and in season.
Aside from being natural, what to eat should be varied. Variety and diversity is the rule of nature. It doesn’t mean that because mangoes are in season will you eat only mangoes 3x a day. God provided a lot more plants other than mangoes. I say “plants” because some people think that variety means eating hotdogs today, eggs tomorrow, adobong pork kinabukasan. There is a lot of confusion again over this idea of variety of foods so may I recommend the macrobiotic grouping which is based again on nature. The food groupings are whole grains, root vegetables, sprouts, leafy vegetables, fruit vegetables and legumes. This way of grouping foods is based on the principle that we get the best energy and power if we eat the whole plant- even if it is not the same plant but we eat all the different parts of the plant daily. This is very rational and scientific. When you analyze the food contents of the various plants, you will see that roots have a different proportion of nutrients if we compare it to the leaves. We have discussed these food groups in detail in previous issues. If we eat all the parts of the plant, then we will be ensured of getting the correct proportion of nutrients as provided by the Creator, not by the machine, and nourish the different organs of our body. Who ever experimented that we need 500 mg. of Vitamin C everyday?
Wait, how about the other foods from nature? Okay, fruits you can eat in season if you have them. If you don’t have mangoes in your area, it is okay if you don’t eat mangoes. There are other fruits. How about fish? and meat and eggs? Again, what God gave sparingly in nature, then we eat them occasionally. Fish can be eaten more frequently as they grow faster naturally but again, if you don’t have fish in your area, that’s okay. You can get ALL the nutrients from a variety of plants. I repeat, ALL the necessary nutrients.
As to the right amount of food, we have discussed in the previous column that your stomach is only as big as your fist, naturally. You can stretch it by overeating but again, just think that the amount of food that fits your fist is enough. It is hard to convince ourselves but that is how the Creator designed our stomach which should be the measure of the right amount, not the cup, nor the calorie.
As to the right time of food intake, we again base it on nature, on how our body is designed by the Creator. The Creator gave hunger as a sign to eat. The feeling of hunger, though, can be psychological and therefore, false. You see the clock and it is 12 noon and immediately, you feel hungry. Our farmer forebears didn’t eat until a certain amount of work in the farm was finished. Most authorities nowadays say that for better digestion and a happier stomach, allow 3-4 hours in between meals. Also chew your food well.
Second phrase of the theme is “gawing habit”. This entails a conscious effort of the individual to make healthy eating a habit, not just only during Nutrition Month or Health Sunday. Eating healthy once a week will not make Juan a healthy boy. He needs to eat healthy everyday and if he likes, he can eat all he can on his birthday. We all know habits are hard to change so the lesson here is that we start the habit as early as possible. This leads us to the last phrase “FOR LIFE!” – it is written in capital letters and punctuated by an exclamation point for emphasis, obviously. We cannot underestimate the importance of this phrase. The foundation of our health starts from the womb so a pregnant woman needs to start eating healthy even before she gets pregnant. If the mother is eating healthy, chances are her child will eat healthy, too, and the cycle will go on. How else are children introduced to bad food if it is not through their parents or caregivers? To our dear readers, children don’t know a thing about healthy food so please don’t ask them “Anya kayat mo nga kanen, anak?” Giving the burden of deciding to the child is child abuse. They are not in a position to decide for themselves thus it is the duty of parents and caregivers to decide what foods to give to the child, because, nowadays, there is such a thing as bad and good foods. Why, do you think, did God create parents? Habits of parents become habits of their children. Habits, though, are not formed in isolation. We, in the community, also need to do our part and nurture healthy eating habits and other healthy habits of individuals and families. We will talk about this next issue. May we all be well! ***
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“Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and revering him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land…” Deuteronomy 8: 6-7a
