I have a confession. A weird one. I am not a foodie. Every time I say
this out loud someone exclaims ‘WHAT?! WHO doesn’t love food?!’ Wait a
moment. I didn’t say I don’t love food, I’m just not a big fan. Food
doesn’t excite me as much as it does to other people and even when I do
get excited, it lasts only a few minutes. I could be extremely hungry
and complain of my pangs, yet once the food is placed in front of me, I
would be the first to leave the table. I feel like food is overrated.
But that’s just my opinion right? It takes junk food or something really
special for me to properly eat it. So yes, I’m a junkie and I’m sure
many people my age are junkies too. Its just a thing nowadays. However,
for someone who has had several health issues, I have grown to be
conscious of my eating behaviours.
I came to realize that when you are this young you feel all the
energy flow in you and you never imagine the worst getting to you. So
you eat whatever looks appealing to your eyes. I do know too that we
have the weight freaks who are so scared of gaining weight so they diet
as they marvel at those who eat and eat whatever they want without
gaining weight. Obesity is bad, we all know that but that aside, the
food we consume does affect our health even when it isn’t visible on the
weighing machine that you keep checking everyday.
In my opinion, social media plays a role in all this food obsession
thing. It has been a trend for people to continuously post images of
food and restaurants they visit every other day. Most of the times, food
posted is junk and I think that many youth have started to believe that
junk food potrays class or whatever else people convince themselves. So
those watching are drawn to live similar lifestyles and tend to copy
the same behaviour of ordering burgers and lots of fries and pizza or
whatever else, just so they can have the ‘images for the gram’. I am not
saying this applies to everyone but social media without a doubt
pressurizes so many youth to adapt behaviours just to fit in.
I have two friends who almost always have sweets or a bar of
chocolate or any snack in their bag. It has become a routine for them.
Or others would always make a point to buy pizza or fries whenever they
go out. So once I asked them, imagine how healthy you’d be if you walked
around with an apple or any fruit instead?
The quote that says ‘you are what you eat’ is as true as it can ever
be. Most of the time we overlook the long term effect of what goes into
our bodies because we are blinded with our seemingly nice and youthful
physiques.
If you look around now, almost all the people in their fifties
nowadays have knee problems or having to literally drag their feet to
walk or have diabetics or blood pressure or being over-weight. It is
quite rare to find a fully healthy man or woman with that age. Yet, our
grandmothers era would stay maybe until their 70s to start having health
complications. I assume that our generation will have complications
even at earlier ages of 30s or 40s.
I know I know, nowadays you get whatsapp clips talking how almost
everrrything is bad for your health. Rice made of plastic, sugar having
mercury, noodles being harmful, dairy milk bars having AIDS virus
inserted, sausages made from goats and sheep who were just shoved into a
machine before even being slaughtered lol. I mean, I get how annoying
it is everytime you crave for something and someone reminds you of that
clip that you watched on how a certain food is bad for consumption. But
all that aside, we very well know of the ABCs of what is healthy and
what is not. Don’t say ‘YOLO’ (You Only Live Once) because trust me, you
wouldn’t want to shout YOLO once you are diagnosed with diabetics and
your leg has to be amputated or when your child wants to play football
with you and you can barely run five minutes without breathing heavily
like a pregnant woman.
All I’m saying is, eat responsibly. Know how to balance your meals.
You are allowed to have cheat days and treat yourself every once in a
while. Your body is like a trust given to you by God so treasure it.
Don’t put trash in it. Take care of it as you would care of a house that
you are a guest in. Take a walk sometimes. Work out. Drink water
oftenly. Sometimes when you are drawn to buy a junk, buy a fruit
instead. Train yourself to be food conscious and eat while being fully
aware of what you are taking in. You may not realize the benefits of
doing this now, but someday definitely, the older you will appreciate
this.
This is a reminder to myself first (of course) and to you my dear
reader. May God help us in this mission of eating and being healthy.
Ameen
