A glimpse on how to stay healthy

I still vividly recall my childhood days wherein my mother is forcing me to eat vegetables like “ampalaya” also known as bitter gourd, “repolyo” or cabbage and “talong” or eggplant. I don’t know then what benefits will I derive from eating those bitter, round, long and tasteless vegetables. I prefer to eat meat, chicken or pork together with softdrinks and sweet desserts.

My perspective regarding this vegetable had changed during my high school days and upon learning its contribution to a person’s health. I found out that I need those vegetables especially when I traced my family’ medical records showing we have a history of hypertension, diabetes and high blood. From that day up to now, I eat those kinds of vegetables. I now feel the need of eating vegetables especially that I’m getting older, starting to experience hypertension and my test shows that my blood now carries a high amount of sugar. Listed below are the benefits a person can derive from eating vegetables:

     Ampalaya or Bitter ground - It is useful as cough and fever remedy. This helps reduce sugar and good for persons with diabetes. Ampalaya prevents cancer and disinfects and heals cut or wounds.

     Repolyo or cabbage- This vegetable is rich in various vitamins such Vitamin A which protects your eyes and skin, vitamin B that boost energy metabolism, Vitamin C that is an anti-oxidant and burns fat and Vitamin E that is anti-oxidant too that plays great role in the skin integrity.

     Talong or Eggplant - Just like ampalaya and repolyo, Talong or Eggplant carries a lot of vitamins. Its fiber contents help our digestive process and work against coronary heart disease.

 Eating sweet and delicious meat, pork and chicken is really enjoyable. But one must reposition himself if he wants to have a healthy living. It is not bad to eat meat or pork once in a while, but you must balance your meal with good and healthy vegetables. Let’s enjoy life by providing our body the vitamins it need.

Rainy Season is now around the corner…diseases also makes their presence felt!

At last! Rainy season is here and we can temporarily escape the warm weather. However, whenever the rainy seasons starts to make us feel cold the diseases also starts to make their presence felt. Yes, those diseases during the rainy seasons will make themselves active and will start to threaten our healthy living.

The following are some of the diseases that the rainy season brings because of the wet and humid weather condition:

1. Gastroenteritis - this is a condition that causes irritation and inflammation of stomach and intestines. This is an infection
caused by bacteria or parasites in spoiled food or unclear water.

2. Typhoid fever- this is a bacterial infection of the intestinal tract and occasionally the bloodstream caused by a unique
human strain of Salmonella.

3. Cholera- is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacteria vibrio cholerae.
This can be derived in eating or drinking water contaminated with this kind of bacteria.

4. Dengue- this is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a virus.

5. Leptospirosis - this is the disease present in floodwaters that was contaminated with urine of infected animals like rat.

Don’t let those diseases ruin are enjoyment of rainy season. Let’s be aware and do preventive measures to avoid those diseases.
Always remember the saying that “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure!”, so let’s be ready and always strive to stay healthy!

Glass of Water Please…

I am so thirsty that day so I asked my son to get me a drink. He asked me what I want “Water, Softdrink or Ice Tea?” Being a sofdrink and Ice tea fanatic, I asked for an Ice tea since I’m limiting my softdrinks intake because of its sugar content. I believe during that time benefits of drinking Ice tea than water is almost the same since they are both in a liquid form.

Until one time while searching for a book to read, I found a book discussing the importance of having sufficient water intake and its comparison with other liquid drink. I’ve realized that I’m right in avoiding softdrinks since majority of this contains sugar and calories that need to be digested like food. Ice tea and other drinks on the other hand also contain calories, flavoring, coloring and other preservatives that can irritate stomach lining. It also put additional work for the liver and kidney to detoxify and dispose them which can only be done if there’s enough water in the body. Though drinking other diet liquid drinks without sugar, black coffee and clear tea do solve the problem, they present other difficulties.

Drinking beaverages other than water contains calories add unwanted fat in the body causing a rise on blood sugar and slows the digestion process. Plain water on the other hand goes directly to the stomach. Water does not require processing, nor digesting and does not irritate body function.

With the information I learned, I am now decided to minimize if not totally eliminate intake of other liquid drink like softdrink, ice tea and juices with preservative. I’ll increase my pure water in take as much as possible. The next time I got thirsty, I will just ask for
“A glass of water please..!”

Drinking Beer… proper or not proper?

Drinking beer or any alcoholic drink is often said as one of the popular past time being enjoyed by man or even women. Though it is not applicable for all times, I still believe that drinking session will always be a part of any celebration. There are times that happiness and success are being celebrated with friends thru a bottle of beer. On the other hand, problems and loneliness are sometimes being shared by friends by means of drinking. Hence, I may say that drinking beer also serves as an outlet to express any kind of feeling.

Using the premise mentioned above, I may conclude that drinking is not bad. But the question is “Why does drinking beer leads to more problems, accident and crime?” Is drinking beer…proper or not proper?

On my point of view, drinking beer/ may be considered as a proper past time for individual provided he/she drink it moderately. Drinking beer moderately will help reduce risk of having stroke and heart disease. Beer can also help increase the level of HDL (good cholesterol) in the body. It is fat free and aids to restful sleep and promotes relaxation. There are other benefits that can be derived in drinking beer provided we DRINK MODERATELY.

When drinking of beer goes out of hand or become excessive, the benefits mentioned on the previous paragraph becomes a negative factor that will affect your health. Drinking more alcohol increases danger in alcoholism, obesity, stroke, breast cancer, high blood pressure and other. Sometimes drinking too much leads to trouble, suicide and accidents. Hence, drinking beer on this case is not proper.

But the questions still remain… is drinking beer, proper or not proper? Well it is up for the person to decide. As for me, it is proper as long as it is moderately consumed and gives more benefits than harm. Come and let’s drink moderately!

Healthy living: The best gift one can ever have!

Whenever I looked back at my childhood days, I still vividly recall the advice given by my mom and dad which is to practice a “Healthy living attitude”. Healthy living? At young age then, it’s a vague word that needs further explanation. It is a terminology that gave rise to a lot of questions on my innocent mind. Does eating vegetables and right foods will give an assurance that I’ll be able to practice a Healthy living attitude? Or can I acquire it by avoiding vices like cigarettes and alcoholic drinks? Questions that slowly being answered as I reach the age of maturity.

From what I learned from school coupled by experiences I had in life, I can now simply define Healthy living as an individual’s behaviour or attitude of preventing and controlling factors that will have a devastating effect on one’s health. A person on my own point of view, who does not drink or smoke but cannot be immediately considered as a Healthy living individual. This is because avoiding vices is not a sole indicator of Healthy living. It is the same thing that a person who is suffering mild illness such as high blood can’t be considered a healthy living individual.

I define a person who is practicing healthy living attitude whenever he prevent and control factors that will bring negative effect on his health. Preventing is a stage wherein you avoid to acquire negative factors for your health. Controlling on the other hand, is a stage wherein a negative factor (illness) had started to affect your health but you are doing something to reduce, minimize or totally eliminate it from your body.

Hence, we have to practice the act of preventing and controlling to have a healthy living behaviour. Let’s PREVENT illness for our body by following the food pyramid guide combine with right exercise. For those who are unfortunately carrying illness, let’s practice CONTROL by limiting (if avoiding it is impossible) intakes or acquisition of factors what will worsen the illness.

Admittedly I drink a little and smoke a little…but I considered myself as Healthy living individual because I avoid factors that will give me other illnesses. As to my drinking and smoking habit… I controlled it a lot and I am starting to eliminate them as part of my routine.

Let’s practice Healthy living because it is the best gift we can give to ourselves.