PREVAILING CHRONIC ILLNESS, HOW FOOD IS INVOLVED

While  playing around this afternoon online, I came across several go fund me projects to help people with chronic illnesses get treatment. The rate of kidney failures and liver problems of recent is so alarming that everyone is scared more per day.

The question is what exactly is cause of this chronic ailment? Why do we have it so much and not restricted to any particular gender, area or work space. The truth is many are even battling with it quietly and they dare not talk about it. Is it possibly linked with the spirit in Aso Rock as depicted by a recent occupant of the seat of power? Or maybe with change in environment and work ethics we may be having less rest and all that. The question is, “what are we doing differently”? The body is balanced and as a scientist, I believe in automatic repairs by body cells, what exactly is causing organ break down these days. Should we be scared?

One of the major influences of body balance is what you ingest. As a matter of fact, to correct a failing condition, you are expected to ingest something else for the body balance to be restored either as drugs or as supplement. It means there is a high probability that what affects our body comes from what we eat the most. No man survives without food or water, but believe me, food and water can also kill a man straight up like a fowl. Many of us are familiar with food borne diseases like typhoid and Cholera which we believe are deadly but we do not consider that there are long term food effects that we ignore that are deadlier than these two. Now Diabetes is seen as a food problem but no one is asking how the condition developed in the first place, no one is asking what put pressure on the kidney or liver for them to pack up. The liver fights toxins that get into the body, as a matter of fact; one of the best ways to identify poisoning is through the inflammation of the liver. What if the liver fought too much toxins and couldn’t cope anymore? What about if the kidney tried to maintain balance but the toxicity in the body fluid was just too much and it had to pack? Are we ingesting so many toxins in our food, so much that our organs cannot cope anymore and they are packing? The questions on every lip are “are we safe” and “who may be next”

Are we paying attention to what we eat and drink? I have seen so many people talk about eating habits and alcohol habits and all, but what if the toxins are in our regular food? What if they are in additives we eat and drink. You have heard how you are supposed to eat fruits more and vegetables, have you considered that the fruit might be ripened with calcium carbide? What if the vegetable was sprayed with pesticide or grown with fertilizer? Chicken is indeed better than red meat to reduce fat but have you wondered if the chicken had veterinary drug residue? What if it was fed with steroids before slaughtering and you are directly ingesting drugs? Have you seen a traditional oil palm processing before? Are you sure you are eating the right thing? Oh, what about beans and the spray of pesticide against weevils(read my article on not dying with beans)? So while eating the right combination, how can you be sure it is safe?

We need to get our food from safe sources only and help food handlers to understand how poisoning can happen through their actions..

Food handling in Nigeria is causing havoc and really we need to address this and stop wasting lives of precious relatives. It is much more about the safety of what you eat than the content of what you eat. This is an urgent call to food professionals to make a voice for safe foods and help stop this disaster from happening.  I will be highlighting how to identify safe foods and additives to avoid by next post.

PS:  there’s a new platform to buy and sell safe foods alone. It is being organized by professionals. Watch this space for it. 200,000 people die of food poison annually in Nigeria – Prof. Ihenkuronye - Premium Times Nigeria http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/96700-200000-people-die-of-food-poison-annually-in-nigeria-prof-ihenkuronye.html