SELF-CARE, OTHERS-CARE: ALKALINE DIET, HEALTHY LIFESTYLE TO THE RESCUE

I am an advocate of eating healthily to fight diseases and keep them at bay. Researching into how one can stay healthy using diet control has led me into the discovery of alkaline or ketogenic diets. By alkaline diet, I mean diets that keeps your body alkaline, maintaining your blood pH at 7.35, a pH at which causative agents of diseases are incapacitated. Alkaline diets consist of fruits and vegetables, alkaline water inclusive. Genesis 1:29 says “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat\". The designer of the human body (God) has stated it all in the owners manual(Bible) what we need to feed the body with. We feed mostly on acidic foods (meat, dairy, carbohydrate, oils etc.) No wonder diseases are ravaging the human body. The need to maintain healthy lifestyle cannot be overemphasised. The root of good health is nutrition.

Some years ago, we lost a loved one, a family member to cancer. I therefore decided to use my professional training as a Nutritional Biochemist to research into our local foods that can prevent/manage cancer and other debilitating diseases.

I have a routine for healthy lifestyle. Upon waking up in the morning, I do proceed for 30 minutes brisk walking around the estate where I live. On return, I do prepare warm lemon juice extracted with the rind and drink on an empty stomach. This will be followed by preparation of fruits for breakfast (watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes, apple, carrot, beetroot, pineapple, pear etc.), all diced into a big bowl. This is my breakfast eaten about 10am depending on my schedule of work. Sometimes I have to carry it to work if there is need to leave home early. This will keep me on till I return home in the afternoon. I only carry my alkaline cup/water along to drink.

My lunch is 2 cups of juice from a conglomerate of fruits (watermelon, pineapple, apple, citrus grape, tomatoes, beetroot, lemon, carrot, cucumber, aloe vera, turmeric, ginger, garlic etc) and coconut oil. The juicing is usually done over the weekend with a Philips Viva collection juicer and electric citrus juicer and the juice stored in the refrigerator. This is followed by a cup of sour sop leaf tea after 30 minutes.

Dinner is the main meal of the day and it’s eaten usually between 4pm and 6pm. It is usually the local unpolished rice or plantain flour meal(called ‘amala’ in the local dialect) or fermented corn pudding (‘eko’ in the local dialect) each eaten with a lot of cooked green leafy vegetables soup and dry fish/local chicken/snail. Another 30 minutes of walk will end the day.

This diet/lifestyle that I started a little over a year ago has taken me off several pills. I have stopped using anti-hypertensive drugs (lisinopril combined with moduretic for effectiveness) and my BP is under control. These are drugs that I have used for about 10years. I equally stopped my arthritis drug. The alkaline diet has replaced the routine drugs. I equally have not had catarrh, cough, sore throat or cold for over a year now. I am healthier and my friends says I look younger. My food has become my medicine.

This discovery has pushed me out on several occasions to attend uninvited some breast cancer/health awareness programmes. I discovered that the NGOs only have medical doctors but no nutritionist in their company. I have serviced two different NGOs in this capacity and have had to lecture in 4 different programmes free of charge. All I do is lecture on my routine but go deep down to explain how I prepare the different local diets and give tips on dos and don’ts to live healthily. The Hausa man(from a tribe in Nigeria) will ask you if you want to sell a drug to him whether you have taken it before and whether it worked for you, if your answers are in the affirmative, he is ready to buy your drug. Likewise I bring my personal experience to bear in all my teachings.

My greatest joy is when I see participants and doctors who spoke before me take note as I begin to talk. This gave me the assurance that I have information that is not at their disposal. The manner in which people throng me to collect my phone number after each talk and the accolades I receive makes me want to do more. The request by conveners of such programmes to team up with their foundation is an assurance that I am on the right track. I do counsel a lot of cancer patients. A friend had leukemia and after 2 regimen of chemotherapy of 6 cycles each, costing about #4m ($10,000), he was still going into comma. I detailed him on do's and dont's and within 1 month he recovered fully. His testimony up till today and that of others pushes me out at every opportunity to give health talk. My slogan is ”eat alkaline diet, drink alkaline water”. The Bible says ”my people perish for lack of knowledge“. Knowledge delivery to my people at every opportunity is a sine qua non. I see it as service to humanity.

Eating healthily is a lot of hard work. It is not for the lazy one. For Adam and Eve to tend the garden of Eden, it was full time job. We need to plan our work schedule to be able to incorporate these healthy lifestyle into our routine. Those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness.

In all, the awareness has been only in the state capital. There is need to reach out to women and girls in the rural areas as well. Wonderful ladies, join me in this crusade of healthy living and join hands with me to stem the tide of untimely death due to terminal illnesses in my community.

How to Get Involved

Training on how to brush up my public speaking and presentation skills and also how to set up a non-profit organisation to reach out to women and girls in the rural areas who cannot afford the cost of going to the hospital.