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FAT
By John Grace
President, Barbados Diabetes Association
What we eat will affect our feet. And for
that matter many other parts of our body.
Do we know how or why and if the effect is
good or bad and in what ways? This is the knowledge we need to
ensure that we keep well and fit and avoid developing diabetes,
cardiovascular problems, heart attacks and many forms of cancer.
Over the years we, in Barbados, have made
many strides in economic progress, and unwittingly these have
led us down a path that has proven detrimental to our Good
Health.
Through ignorance or by choice we all now
live in, or aspire to, a modern lifestyle that is sedentary, and
at the same time our eating habits have been influenced in a
detrimental way.
If we look back a few decades, the
non-communicable chronic diseases were found occasionally in the
aged and the better off in the community. On reflection, we can
see that when we retired from sports or work, no one realized
that the well-earned rest was the start of the trouble.
Those who were fitness buffs were looked
upon as odd and wasting energy. Today we can reflect that those
in their nineties and others who have reached a hundred years
old, all kept on with their active lifestyle which also kept
them mentally alert. Similarly they ate as they had all their
life and that did not include fried foods.
Without realizing it we have been led down
the path of wanting to eat what we see others eating. Is it peer
pressure because of what we see in the media and fancy
magazines?
No matter what it is that attracts us, do we
stop to think, is this good for me, my body and my system? What
does it contain in the way of ingredients, particularly
chemicals, salt, sugar, white flour and particularly fats?
Similarly it is known that foods when preserved or processed
contain more than average fats to improve the taste.
It is time we all made it our business to
know of the contents and composition of the foods we eat, and to
learn and apply our knowledge of how the contents and
composition of the foods we eat affect our bodies and systems.
Fats, sugar, salt, starches and added chemicals all have an
effect on the various systems and organs that cause our bodies
to function. Some are good, others not so good and others
positively bad, as also is the excessive consumption of any or
all of the above.
Take fats specifically; small amounts of
fats from certain vegetable sources and certain varieties of
fish can be tolerated by our system and are beneficial and
necessary for our well-being. Others like hard fats from meats,
hydrogenated fats like margarine, fats from dairy products like
milk and butter are not easily digested and should therefore be
minimized in the daily meals. Products like pastry, gravies,
fried foods all have a high percentage of fat and some of these
fats cannot be digested, and remain in the body for three
months.
As these fats mix in our systems with other
foods they help to clog them up and the results over time are
manifested in diabetes Type 2, heart attacks or some forms of
cancer.
In Barbados a large number of our children
are chubby, a large number of our women have a waist measurement
of more than 35 inches and many of our men have a waist
measurement in excess of 40 inches. These are the first signs
that you are at risk of developing diabetes, heart attack,
stroke or some forms of cancer. In Barbados, these conditions
are responsible for over 64% of our Deaths and some at an
unnecessarily young age.
In 2002 the World Health Organisation issued
a Protocol on treatments for various illnesses and conditions,
and for ALL chronic illnesses the first treatment was:
a) Cessation of Tobacco use
b) Moderated eating habits
c) Increase in physical activity
Our Associations realise that prevention is
possible and urge each and everyone in Barbados to educate
themselves on what is good for a fit body so you can get and
keep well.
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