Doctors, Good Nutrition and Healthy Living.

Good nutrition & genetics

Genetics play a vital role in human nutrition which is why I always emphasize that nutrition is not an exact science. Fundamentally we all must eat and our foods should primarily be sourced from plants. Animal foods are fine provided it is not eaten excessively personally I think adults shouldn’t have more than 3 ounce of red meat especially, per week other animal and poultry by products such as butter, eggs, milk (goat milk is a lot easier on metabolism than cow’s) etc. are fine IMO.

It is also reasonable to eat a wide variety of foods to allow us have as many sources as is possible to derive nutrients: micro and macro alike for optimum health and this is why I oppose restrictive and fad diets.

So because humans are living things I object to the mainstream idea of treating nutrition as an exact science as if humans are robots and clichés like drink 4-8 glasses a day, even the very scientific recommended daily intake– RDI model seems inorganic–maybe it’s just me.

fresh produce are healthier than manufactured food items

Fresh produce including fruits, vegetables, dairy and eggs

There are so many contradictions out there about food. Media outlets as well as the key players in the food industry are responsible for most of the misinformation floating around. Media outlets, in a bid to ramp up revenue publish scientific results in a way that favours the food industry. It is worth mentioning that several of these studies are sponsored by key players of the food industry.

Most cant tell what constitutes good food

You will be amazed at how confused people are about nutrition this question was asked on Quora. Nutrition is simple, it shouldn’t require ‘expertise in high sciences’ to get it right but as with most things humans just build walls of unnecessary complexities around it. To buttress my point about how most adults are clueless about real and good nutrition as a result of distorted information put out there by media outlets, apparently there are those who consider twix chocolate to be vegetarian. And then there is vegan avocado chocolate bar. Adults eat these things believing them to be health food– I digress

Doctors and nutrition.

This article is primarily to share my personal encounter of my doctor’s misguided nutrition, here goes the story.

I suddenly was unable to focus no matter how hard I tried and there were a few other symptoms so off I went to my doctor’s. A series of test after, the result returned– anemic. Came as no surprise I always was low in iron in those days.

So my doctor; elderly, pleasant, half-caste gentleman our family doctor for many years. Patiently explained the result and wrote out prescriptions and then closed that consultation with this advice ‘be sure to eat plenty of greens’ I nodded ‘and eat meat preferably liver’ I frowned but said nothing thanked him and left. Now, here is why I frowned for about 3 years up to that time had not eaten red meat not even a bite and here was my doctor advising that I do.

I voluntarily gave up meat not for ethical or environmental reasons but purely an health concern decision. I gave up red meat when by body failed to metabolise meat. I observed I end up constipated for days on end after consumption so I gave it up willy-nilly and here is my doctor advising otherwise.

So what do you think I did? Complied? Yep– I trusted by doctor’s judgment though I had my doubts but I wanted to get better. Unfortunately within a few days of going back to consuming meats: liver and other innards (common in my part of the world) I suffered the most intense constipation of my life. For the entire period till I got relief, woke up every morning with a pounding headache which was never the case in the past needless to say I quit meat consumption yet again.

Do your own research

Years later researching the many symptoms that were ravaging my young body I came to understand how my doctors advice was wrong not that I blame him it is clear they get limited nutrition classes in medical school it may change in the future

I found that low digestive fire and poor digestion respectively were responsible for the constipation and a host of other ailments I struggled with back then. All these symptoms have since been eliminated completely as soon as I corrected my dietary choices, ditching manufactured foods and replacing with real whole foods and beverages rich in minerals and vitamins and incorporating herbal remedies as a part of my dietary regimen.

A healthy meal plan– the key to good nutrition and healthy living

TWO WEEKS NIGERIAN MEAL PLAN

Poor nutrition is one of many risk factors of poor health ergo if you take your nutrition seriously guarding jealously over what you consume as food and beverage you would have reduced your exposure to poor health by at least one factor, tobacco and harmful use of alcohol are some of the other risk factors of poor health.

Our sample meal plan above hardly useful if you are not Nigerian. It is however worth mentioning that all meals are made from fresh produce(the bane of healthy nutrition): beans, yam, taro, sweet-potato etc. Only basmalti and regular long grained rice used for Chinese style meals and Nigerian jollof rice respectively are the only manufactured products.

Other staples such as garri, lafun, elubo isu (yam flour) are food products subjected to traditional, minimal food processes. Traditional food processes in contrast to industrialsed factory produced products retain most of the nutrients of the raw produce. Manufactured foods are often fortified with synthetic vitamins and minerals as the the highly industrial process often has stripped the end product of all fibre, vitamins and minerals. the implication is most overtly processed food and beverage are not that much different from chaff or cardboard. So reducing their consumption to the barest minimum is to your advantage.

All vegetables used are fresh produce and coconut and palm oil are used for all cooking these are far healthier option than regular vegetable oil and are readily available locally.

Nutrition and common-sense

Calorie count is a big thing within health and fitness circles and as with RDI though I recognise it is only a guideline it nonetheless seem impractical and unnatural the fact of the matter is if you consume nutrient dense food and beverage you wont need to count calories or check RDI. There will be a healthy balance of appetite and satiety your body and mind will be in sync there will be no excessive eating or malnourishment. the rigid dictates of unreasonable and impractical food rules leave many people perplexed as shown in this Quora question. Why in the name of calorie count or RDI should a person be restricted to two cuts of fish if what they truly want say for dinner is a whole fish with mixed vegetable?

what counts and matters the most in nutrition are Nutrients. Making the conscious effort to eat as close to how nature intended serves us well which implies less of foods with toxic ingredients. Our ancestors fed nutritionally, no scientific data or information, no calorie count, no RDI were needed, they simply employed common-sense and I figure it served them, otherwise we wont be here.

Eat well, eat healthily!