Let’s Talk About It— Day 19 of 30Guests in 30Days

Gradually, the voyage continues. Ladies and gents, it's Day19 of Let's Talk About It on DETAILS.

We currently live in a very fast paced world, and this speed currently cuts across many areas of our lives. It’s only logical to have inventions that make life easier for us, isn’t it? But then, we are so focused on how it makes life easier for us, the ease it brings makes us blind to dangers our fast paced world may be exposing us to in certain areas of our lives most especially our health.

Have you ever observed, noticed or wondered how certain diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, obesity, kidney failure amongst many others, (commonly referred to as lifestyle diseases) are becoming much more prevalent in our present age and time and have you ever wondered why these diseases were not common in the older days?. What could be the problem?

Lifestyle diseases are diseases linked with a person’s way of life, like smoking, excessive drinking, unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity etc. 

Now let’s take a look into a day in the lives of our ancestors and a day in our current lives and make some comparisons.

Our grandparents would usually wake in the morning and head to the farm or go to hunt by walking or a bicycle if they could afford it, get some work done on the farm, walk back home or to the market to sell farm produce and engage in some more activities before the close of day. Their meals for the day would usually also be produce gotten fresh from the farm and cooked.

On the other hand, usually a young individual in this current age wakes up in the morning, maybe have a little cereal as breakfast or nothing at all before heading to work by car/bus or any vehicle, you get to work and are seated staring at your computer for hours getting work done, probably order some snacks and drinks for lunch and then by evening you’re going home in a bus/car etc, you get home exhausted and famished, you quickly whip up some noodles to eat, watch a little tv or scroll through your phone for hours before retiring to bed, this if you don’t have some left over work to be done. You get a few hours of sleep and then the cycle continues again.

If you can’t tell the difference, let me point them out already, our ancestors (the use of the word ancestors sounds funny to me😅 but let’s stick to ancestors) were physically active without even having to go to the gym, did they even have one😅? Then they ate more of unprocessed foods, cassava, eba, garri, there was no instant noodles for them, there was no sausage, cakes, biscuits, meatpie and so on to eat while in our current age, we are hardly engaged in any physical activity and we consume more of processed foods.

So if you’ve ever wondered why certain diseases are becoming more common, here’s a pointer.

The interesting thing is that these lifestyle diseases are no longer diseases commonly found in the elderly but also in young ones and if you have a record of these diseases in your family; your parents, grandparents had or have these diseases, you should pay more attention to your health and it’s best you begin to take caution now.

Now what’s the remedy to this virus of speed that has befallen us?

It’s pretty simple, I’m not going to be asking you to walk everyday to work from now on or eat only vegetables just to live a healthier lifestyle, that’s going to be unrealistic. There are many practical steps you can take to live healthier but I’d be sharing seven (7) with you.

1. Plan Your Meals: Planning your meals makes it much easier to eat healthy meals. Eating healthy meals tomorrow begins with planning today. You can make plans for a whole week by stocking up with everything you’d be needing for the week and then prepare them ahead for the week and store in your refrigerator or freezer or even make plans daily.

For example, today you already decide you’d be having yam and eggs for breakfast, rice and chicken stew with vegetables and an apple for lunch, snack on garden eggs or a few fingers of banana, then beans for dinner etc. That way you can buy those things ahead of time and prepare them and not have an excuse like, I was so hungry and there was nothing else to eat but meatpie. Some people have snacks and drinks to eat everyday and that’s not a healthy way to live.

2. Limit Processed Foods As Much As Possible: I understand that processed foods are easily accessible, easy and fast to prepare and usually also really tasty but it puts you at risk of certain diseases like hypercholesterolemia, cancer, high blood pressure etc, especially when consumed frequently because these foods are usually high in trans/saturated fat, sodium etc and are usually of little nutritional value. And remember, from point 1, if we can make plans ahead, it makes it a lot easier to eat healthy.

3. Include Fruits and Vegetables In Your Diet: Answer honestly, how often do you consume fruits and vegetables, and how often do you consume snacks and drinks, then compare. An average individual needs between 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

When you don’t consume fruits and vegetables as you should, you deprive your body of micro nutrients and minerals that your body needs for vital functioning. Instead of stocking up your fridge with chocolates, and biscuits, you can stock up instead with fruits and vegetables, because you tend to easily consume foods you have around you. It’d be easy for you to eat fruits if you have them around you.

4. Drink Enough Water: You need about 2-3 liters of water daily. Yes I’m aware we live in a fast paced world and I know how carried away you get trying to quickly submit that memo, respond to that email etc. So you can set a reminder to drink water at intervals.

5. Get Enough Sleep: Getting enough sleep of between 7-9 hours daily has proved to have benefits like improved moods and immune system, better memory and productivity, etc. Try to avoid bright lights while going to bed, make sure your room is a conducive environment to aid sleep e.g a neat room, good mattress and pillow, clean sheets etc.

6. Practice Mindful Eating: Try as much as possible to pay attention to your meals while eating, feel and enjoy the taste of your food, this would help you build a healthy relationship with food, appreciate and enjoy your meals more. To do this, you would need to avoid distractions like pressing your phone/watching tv while eating, chew your food slowly and savor the taste, observe what your food looks like and how you feel while eating it.

7. Be Physically Active: A lot of people think only people trying to lose weight should exercise. I’m sorry to burst your bubble but everyone needs exercise. To maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need at least 30 minutes of exercise daily and the benefits of exercise are numerous and an example of one of the benefits is improved sleep. Practical ways to stay physically active daily include walking, dancing, skipping, cycling, swimming and you can also register at a gym. Try not to sit in a spot for long hours without moving around.

Diet is a universal medicine and can be a preventive one at that. So you don’t have to wait till you sit across a doctor, hearing him diagnose you of anyone of these lifestyle diseases, and then a dietitian telling you how to now manage these diseases with your diet before you decide to make these changes. You’ve heard from a dietitian today how you can reduce your risks of developing these diseases with your diet/lifestyle and I’m hoping you pick one or more or all of these practical steps I’ve given you to maintain a healthier lifestyle and start to practice them.