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It was children’s day on the 27th of May. I was at an event to give a talk on good hygiene to the children. In the course of the event, I had cause to use the bathroom. It was absolutely atrocious what I saw there. Children using the bathroom in really terrible ways while their parents watched. 

There were children urinating on the floor! In a bathroom that had modern conveniences! I could not find a toilet that was neat enough to be used…without water on the floor. Disgusting water in which millions and millions of germs were swimming and looking for another home. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough, as soon as they were done with the dirty deed, they all turned and walked right out of the bathroom. No hand washing…infact they were grabbed by the hands and shooed right out of the bathroom. Now this is doubly disgusting! First these children messed a bathroom that (I assume) was perfectly clean when they came in. In the course of that they got some germs on them and on their hands. Now without the hand washing, they were certified to go spread these germs to their friends waiting outside, through holding hands, sharing snacks or even just hugging. 

I was in shock! Please parents, remember that your children’s behaviour, attitude and health lie in your hands. If you don’t teach them how to use the bathroom, how on earth will they learn? If you don’t teach them how to wash their hands, or even how germs get into their bodies, how can they possibly prevent these germs from becoming a problem?

The shock I felt is the same one I feel when I observe people passing dirty places and spitting. My question is, if you found that place disgusting, are you not making it doubly so for people who would pass after you? First they have to deal with the site of your spittle and then confront whatever it was that you saw or smelt in the first instance. Perhaps, this person (person 2) may decide to spit too, for good measure and then we create an unending cycle of filth and disease.

Studies have shown that a significant reduction in the presence of diseases in the world was observed when good sanitation became a way of life. So it wasn’t so much because of the vaccines and anti-biotics, it was mainly due to good hygiene. In fact, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, respiratory infections and diarrheal diseases are known to be the greatest killers of under-5s. The reason is not farfetched, unwashed dirty hands being used to prepare foods, causing diarrhea or unwashed hands being put into mouths by children; people sneezing into their hands and shaking people who in turn inhale these germs…the means of spreading these germs could go on and on. To show how important simple hygienic practices are, it has been shown that in areas where hand washing was introduced, the incidence of diarrheal diseases and respiratory infections reduced by half. Let’s add numbers to this to make it clearer: if there were 20 children out of 100 dying every year from these infections, with the introduction of hand washing, this reduces to 10. From hand washing alone! 

This is so basic, so how come, we still have children who mess up toilets while parents look on in approval? Who is to blame? The Government who hasn’t provided an opportunity for this woman to be educated, so she knows what’s appropriate and what’s not? The lack of  ‘in your face’ health education programs to keep re-inforcing the hygiene message? The parent who should know better…if they have been given the opportunity? The children who go to school and have been taught to wash their hands after using the bathroom (we hope) and yet choose not to practice same? Or perhaps at every point that these lessons ought to have been taught, people looked the other way and felt it wasn’t their problem. That means it’s our collective fault.

We can rectify it today. Teach a child how and when to wash their hands. Teach them to sneeze into the crooks of their elbows and not their hands. Teach them to wash their hands for at least 20 seconds. Teach them to soap their hands properly and teach them to rinse their hands well.

Remember that an ounce of protection is better than a pound of cure…or in popular parlance, prevention is better than cure.

Here’s to a healthier you!

Remember how when we were younger, we would bet on things and to make it more authentic, make it a pinkie swear :D. Those were the days when we didn’t have too many issues to contend with…though it did seem like we had a lot on our plates then! So I smile when my children say, ‘mum, you can’t be more tired than we are; we had to go to school, do tests, then school work, then home work at home and then we still have some chores to do!. The world is certainly not fair’. How do I begin to explain to them that I have to go to work, then do grocery shopping on the way, school run, get dinner ready, supervise their homework, listen to them whine 🙂 and then still do some school work myself?!  Oh, whatever happened to, ‘the higher you go, the cooler it becomes’? Someone clearly sold us a dummy! Anyways, I digress.

 How many of you would swear to do whatever it takes to be healthy, live as many years as possible in perfect health of mind and body? How many would swear to work out everyday knowing that even 30 mins of exercise everyday cuts your risk of a lot of diseases including cancer? How many would reduce their alcohol intake knowing that it reduces their chances of a lot of ailments? We could go on!

It is with these questions in mind that we turn to the disease represented by the colour pink…breast cancer. Angelina Jolie made headlines last week when she announced that she had a high risk of breast cancer and decided to take action to reduce her risk. This involved double mastectomy…which in simple everyday English means cutting off both her breasts!!! A small pause here for all that to sink in….

Note that she didn’t have cancer, a lump, any change in breast size or contour to suggest that something funny was going on. She just had a gene that meant she was more at risk of having breast cancer than other people. So she decided to do something about it. This sounds like common sense and appears to even follow biblical injunctions to cut off any part of your body that causes you to sin, right? It sounds like everybody should know this…’in fact why make a big fuss about it; I’d do the same!’ But here’s the thing, a lot of us prefer to live in denial. We KNOW we have a family history of hypertension, but do we check our blood pressure always…NO. Some of us know we’ve undertaken some risky sex behaviour, do we screen for STIs and HIV…NO. After all, it’s better not to know, right? Wrong.

People, I’m about to utter some earth shattering mind bogging amazing news right now: ignorance is not bliss! In fact it is the not-knowing that constitutes a problem and puts more people at risk. It is for this same reason that breast and other cancers that can be detected pretty early go undetected until the final stages when little or nothing can be done because people do not want to get screened, preferring not to know. This is sad!

There are pre-disposing factors for breast cancer. These factors are things, conditions or situations that affect your chances of getting breast cancer. However having even two of these risk factors does not necessarily mean that you will have cancer; in fact people with no risk factors have been known to have cancer. The point however is that if any of the risk factors are present, then one should be sure to reduce that risk by focusing on preventive strategies discussed here.
  
The risk factors for breast cancer include things that you don’t really have much control over like:
Your sex: women are more likely to have this disease than men.

Your age: the risk of this cancer increases with age.

Race or ethnicity: white women are more pre-disposed to breast cancer, but black people are more likely to die of the complications of breast cancer.

Your genes: about 5 to 10% of breast cancer cases are thought to be hereditary resulting from inherited defective genes. These cancers are found in even young women where they may affect both breasts.

Family history of breast cancer: if a member of your family has suffered from this disease, you have a higher risk of it.

Personal history of breast cancer: the risk of this disease increases if one has had this disease in the past. 

Women who have had a lot of menstrual cycles because their menstrual cycles started early and stopped later in life, around 55 years.

Previous radiation therapy to the chest also increases risk.

Other associations that have been made with breast cancer and increase the risk of having the disease include:

• Women who have had no children or had their first child after the age of 30 years.
• Women using oral contraceptive pills
• Breast feeding has been found to be protective of breast cancer. So ladies, kindly breast feed those little ones.
• The use of alcohol has been very clearly linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. Follow the daily limits that we have advised on previous posts. 
• Being overweight or obese after menopause increases the risk
• Lack of physical activity has also been incriminated. 

So, do you give your word today to do something about these risk factors if they are under your control, pinkie swear? Or are you going to keep hiding your head in the sand? It doesn’t mean danger is not lurking round the corner, it just means you don’t know when it hits you over the head with a big bang.

Do a self breast exam every day…it’s not too much. There are multiple online materials that teach you exactly how to do this. If you feel a lump, nodule, swelling…anything you’re uncomfortable about, see your doctor. Better safe than sorry. Look at yourself in the mirror, naked. You know what your breasts normally look like; if they change shape, colour, contour or your nipples start to look different or give strange discharges, see a doctor…today and not tomorrow. Once you hit 40, get a mammogram done once every two years (some authorities say from age 50. Ask your doctor what works for you based on your risk profile). And if you can afford it, get gene tested for breast cancer. You just might be buying more time and improving the quality of that time you have to spend with a family that loves you to bits.

Be healthy, people!

Here’s to a healthier you!

It’s time to go back to school and shops that specialize in school uniforms, stationery et al are doing brisk business. Daddies and mummies are digging deep to pay the outrageously exorbitant fees that pass for school fees these days (please forgive me if you own a school. I’m actually ‘seriously’ considering starting one myself :D). Anyways, as they say, ‘better soup, na money kill am!’ For the benefit of my ‘aje-butter’ friends, that means that (the) quality (of a soup) is determined by the funds committed (or in the soup case, the funds that went into procuring the ingredients). Okay…certainly long winded, but I kinda guess the meaning came across, yes? Stay with me (and bear with me :)); I’m aging so I tend to use 10 words where 2 could have worked! 😀

The weather appears to be changing too…it appears the rains are upon us again. I am so muddled up with the seasons these days.  When I was growing up, dry and rainy season were so clearly defined that you always knew what to expect at any time…not anymore. Kudos to global warming and climate change! With the changing of the weather usually comes the sniffles.

Do you have a child who appears to catch anything that just moves around in the air? They go to school and will catch a cold provided another child has it? They will get measles, just by looking at a child that has one…even from a safe distance (okay…that’s an exaggeration that was meant to make you smile :D). I had one of those; my daughter would pick up any virus that was making the rounds! My constant prayer everyday was, ‘lord, don’t let this child die’

And so I decided to take things personal. When she was in a crèche, I led the campaign to ensure that children who had the sniffles were kept home and not dumped on unsuspecting caregivers in school. It would amaze you how many mothers do this. I am not passing judgement here because a lot of parents have to work and so staying home to look after a sick child may not be an excuse that is readily understood by bosses. But, the child risks having a medical emergency in school that cannot be handled by caregivers and of course poses a threat to other children who were previously uninfected. If the roles were reversed, you certainly don’t want your child going to school and picking up other people’s germs. I worked with the creche to ensure that all hand held toys were disinfected every morning and after use by the children as their use of the hand held toys (at the crèche stage) simply involved dipping the toy into their mouths and sucking for dear life! Flu and other droplet infections are spread by contact with droplets from someone else who has an infection.

At the primary level, anytime I am invited to give talks, I focus on droplet infections and how they are spread. I teach the children how to wash their hands, for at least 20 seconds, preferably under running water and hot air drying.

The steps to effective hand washing in the ‘perfect’ situation are:

• Wet hands with clean running water and apply soap.
• Rub your hands together to make a lather and then scrub between fingers, under the nails and the back of your hands.
• Continue to scrub for at least 20 seconds.
• Rinse your hands under running water.
• Dry off with a clean towel or hot air dryer.

Okay, not every convenience has a hot air dryer or even running water; if you’ve got one of those toilets, just ensure that you pour the clean water on to sudsy hands and scrub for 20 seconds…the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice.

Remember to teach your children that germs hide in every single nook and cranny, especially in shared toilets. They are on the toilet handles, the tap knob, the tissue dispenser etc. Thus, after using the toilet, wash your hands last after you have cleaned yourself up and flushed. Okay, I heard that snigger…’yeah right! Like anyone has to be taught that!’ Well, actually, quite a number of people have to be taught as we have realized that quite a number of children are not taught this early enough and would have come down with some diseases before this is realized.

Buy them hand sanitizers. Alcohol based sanitizers reduce the number of germs on hands. The children can use these even after hand washing and leaving the toilet, in cases where there was insufficient water. In addition, this is a handy tool for all those times they come in contact with ‘eewy eeckies’ and don’t have the luxury of washing their hands; when they have been shaken by someone they just observed sneezing into their hands etc. The small handy packs of sanitizers fit well into most pencil cases. The sanitizer should be applied to the palm of one hand, both hands rubbed together and product rubbed over the surface of hands and fingers until the hands are dry. Sanitizers that contain at least 60% alcohol are most effective, especially when water and soap are not readily available.

Teach them to sneeze into the crooks of their arms and not into their palms. With this, we will be building the next generation of people who do not go around sneezing (rendering thousands of germs homeless) in people’s faces (finding alternative homes for these germs) or into their hands and then subsequently shaking other people’s hands (ensuring that these germs hit their mark).

Back tracking to toilet training again, teach the children especially the girls, to clean from the front backwards. Many an infection has been caused by faecal matter deposited in places where they have no business being! Girls should also be taught to clean up after urinating as early as possible. This can also aid in prevent infections that thrive in warm and moist places like candida.

So, beyond the books, stationery and inevitable school fees, let’s ensure that our children have the right health and wellness tool kit to survive a new term and come home with those amazing grades we all look forward to!

Here’s to healthier family…and a healthier you!

The good old days! It is just mind boggling for me whenever I realize that I’ve known some people for more than 20 years! Whhaaaat!!! Am I that old? I still remember the shock on my face and the way I looked around in confusion the first day someone referred to me as ‘ma’. Who, me? But I’m certainly no spring chicken no more (sob, sob). I belong to the generation when TV stations started by 4pm and before they did, we all excitedly gazed at the colour bars on our television sets waiting for them to start the day’s business (assuming you had adequately done your home work). Beyond TVs, there were the VHS video machines which our parents may allow us to turn on over the weekends…again, only if homework and house chores had been completed. The only other source of distraction which was acceptable to our parents and could be practiced at all times, was reading. As a child, I read voraciously starting from ladybirds to Pacesetters and, yes, Mills and Boon! Uh! That tall, handsome and rich guy who was to come sweep me off my feet!!! From there I moved on and explored other worlds of books and eventually arrived at the stables of John Grisham…the master story teller, with wit, sarcasm and suspense. I find myself screaming out with laughter whenever I read any of his novels….till today. My driver always steals surreptitious glances through the rear view mirror…almost as if he were wondering when it would be appropriate to scream for help (Help! My boss has gone crazy!) J

Speaking of novels, have you ever wondered how many children we see these days reading a book? They absolutely hate the idea of that, what with television on from morning till forever, with all manner of programs, newer and ‘better’ video games coming out every single day. These children are well versed in spoken English but cannot correctly write down this grammar they so eloquently speak. They do not know synonyms, antonyms, verbs, nouns, adjectives, collective nouns and all those stuff they made us learn (and boy, did you have to learn?!) every single day. These children have lost…scratch that…never even had the opportunity to learn logical reasoning. And so, we are bringing up children who are intellectually and mentally lazy: Unable to think for themselves and certainly not able to think outside the box.

Now, before you al l (or maybe some of you) crucify me for being a party pooper, let me explain that I love the Generation Z children (can we shorten this to Gen Zeezers…just thinking); those children born between 1995 and 2012…I mean, I really have no choice. I’ve got three of them and I love them to bits!  I also do not have anything against these games and I certainly love my TV shows over the weekends. BUT, these activities should not become the focal point of our existence. Younger mothers plop their children down before the television as a babysitting ploy. Our children are beginning to find it difficult to think for themselves, reason a problem all the way through or even make the effort to reflect on anything. They want quick answers and they want it now. They get it from the internet…which is a good thing, but they’ve got to be able to even think about the issues they want to research before getting the easy answers.

The problem has moved beyond the homes to the work places. You interview tens to find one and hundreds to find ten. These young men and women cannot answer the most mundane of questions and sometimes, look around almost like they are looking for hints from somewhere.

What’s the solution? Let’s get these children busy with other stuff. They have to read a book for at least 2 hours every day; where they fail that, withdraw some privileges…and don’t let the puppy dog face fool you!  When they come to you with a problem, get them to think it through and try to figure out a solution before you even offer an opinion; Homework and projects are meant to be done by them. You are only to provide strategic support in terms of asking questions that lead them to question what they have done. We used to play a game when we were young, where we would have a very long word and the contest was to find the person who would make the most words out of that long word. This helped us think of all the words in there and better still, we never looked at a word ‘ordinarily’. We were always trying to figure out how many words could be formed from any word we saw…long or short. It was fun and it is still fun today…at least my children ‘pretend’ to enjoy it…path of least resistance, I guess :D. Remember to try and explain the reasons for these activities you’ve planned for them. Much as it is so cool (I think J) to say, ‘just because mummy or daddy said so!’, it is probably better and helps with building their mental health to explain the benefits of what you are asking them to do. They probably would want to do it without much persuasion subsequently. And, this is a different generation from ours when we did ‘exactly’ as we were told without asking questions….I’m still trying to figure out if this is a good change or not. Oh, the good old days…..What do you think?

Get children to play scrabble…in fact play with them. It builds their vocabulary…even those crazy, I-don’t know-what-they-mean words! Get them to play monopoly…it teaches them the rudiments of financial management and don’t be too quick to solve life’s problems for them. They’ve got to learn that life is full of curves and be prepared to handle what life throws at them. This is called tough love and builds mental health as well as develops their character. We see so many people today who stand for nothing…a man has got to stand for something!

Remember that the more time they spend in front of the television or playing all those games, the less time they also spend outside…playing football, riding bikes, chasing after each other, playing lawn tennis, skipping etc. In fact several studies have linked excessive television watching and by extension all those handheld and computer games playing with a high incidence of obesity and the resulting medical conditions that go with that including Diabetes and Hypertension. This has to stop. Imagine a child who is born into a family of hypertensives and already has to deal with the burden of knowing that he is pre-disposed to same, living a lifestyle that clearly pushes him into that condition. He could have side-stepped this if we, as parents, take the right steps to get them to do the right thing. Please note that playing outside is also a function of neighbourhoods: If safe, pull out all the stops. If not, find other means of getting them to exercise…maybe enrolling in a swimming class in a club, dancing class, organizing play dates with their friends that live in safer neighbourhoods etc.

Please note that children should actually be making about 12,000 steps per day. Do I see you nodding your head and assuming that they must rack this up…what with all the activities they manage to invent per day? Or when they get to school? Get them pedometers…the result will shock you. They don’t!

We’ve got to do something, people, to improve our children’s mental and physical health by giving them more recreational activities than television and game consoles. Let’s safeguard the next generation. They’ll thank you for it at some time in their lives. I once came across the saying,’ by the time you are old enough to know your parents were right, you probably have children who think you are wrong!’ So, maybe not today, but…sometime in the very fuzzy future, there will be an ‘Ahah’ moment and you’ll be glad, you made that happen.

Here’s to a healthier generation of children…and a healthier you!

So you’ve had breakfast, lunch and dinner and you really want to get on with this ‘healthy living stuff’. BUT, you keep getting the munchies…those green monsters that make your tummy growl and hunger for food even when you’ve had a pretty sufficient meal a few hours ago. How do you keep it going? Maybe, it is impossible to actually keep with this whole stuff.

Well, you’re wrong. It is so possible to keep with it.

I am going to give you practical examples of fruits and vegetables in our environment that can take the edge off your hunger and still keep you healthy.

Ever heard the saying, ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away?’ Well, it is true. Eat them raw and include them in smoothies. Same goes for bananas, mangos, oranges and carrots. Water melon and pineapples are also very nourishing and their health benefits are best experienced on an empty stomach. Blue berries, black berries and strawberries contain lost of anti-oxidants that are effective in preventing cancer.  All these can be eaten on their own or added to smoothies.

 Smoothies are fruit juices extracted in a smoothie maker. ..almost like blending the fruits; the smoothie maker goes a step further by removing the pulp so that you are left with the pure fruit juice. Traditionally, yoghurts are added but be sure that be sure that they are then low fat and no-added sugar variety. To be extra sure you are not being fed ‘hidden’ sugars, you could make yours (a cup of milk to four cups of water. Leave in an airtight container overnight. You can add a little amount of ready made yoghurt – unsweetened – to this and then refrigerate).

These fruits and vegetables also come packed with vitamins, minerals and lots of other benefits:

Apples are known to be anti-cancer health promoters and also helpful in reducing blood pressure

Bananas help to keep hunger pangs away as they bring about a slow release of energy

Mangoes mop up free radicals and stimulate the immune system. (By the way, free radicals are produced by the body as part of the natural process of converting food to energy; they can also be extracted from the air and generated by the sun’s action on skin and eyes. These toxic substances can start off a domino-like chain reaction leading to malfunctioning and dead cells and ultimately, a lot of diseases in the body). I’m sure you need a breather here just to digest this 😉 Take a deeeep breath……

Oranges aid the destruction of free radicals (again) that cause skin aging

Carrots promote healthy skin and eyes

Water melon is refreshing and helps reduce blood pressure.

Pineapples aid digestion and help dissolve mucus

Blue berries, blackberries and strawberries destroy free radicals (yet again!) and slow down the signs of aging

Talking about smoothies, do you know you can live on a diet of raw fruits and vegetables made into smoothies for days? Okay, just before you decide on the particular (unpleasant :D) name you want to call me, perhaps starting off with a day and then graduating to three days is a better idea.  Away with the face that says ‘Yuck and all manners of Eew’ . The smoothies do taste good and more importantly are good for you. You come away after three days feeling light and absolutely refreshed PLUS, you will see that tummy bulge reduce…bearing in mind that the quantum of reduction has to do with the initial size. The more the paunch (afo ukwu in Ibo or beer belly in ordinary parlance:D), the less visible the outward effect ( but the inward cleansing and detoxification is constant). Fruits and veggies like celery, beetroot, apples, pineapples, black berries, blue berries, avocado pears, pumpkin leaves (ugu), lemon (with its rind), avocado, cucumber, ginger, cucumber and carrots are some of the ingredients used in their raw state to make different smoothies for the three-day period.  The vegetable, green (as known by ‘us’ Okoros) or efo tete (as known by my Yoruba peeps) can also be added to the blend. Check for these fruits and vegetables  in the fruits and vegetable sections of major supermarkets. Truth is you can mix and match any of the ingredients. My favourite smoothie ‘brew’ is pineapple, water melon, bananas and some mangoes when in season. The pineapples and water melon go in the smoothie maker. Then the smoothie (fruit blend) is added to the bananas and mango pulp in the blender and it’s all whizzed up….Scrumplicious!

For those with a sweet tooth, you can still take a teensy weensy bit of chocolate. BUT, focus on the dark variety.

Lemon has vitamins and possesses cleansing properties. A slice of lemon in cold or hot water is a great energy booster. Taking  a cup of warm water with a lemon slice is a great way to start the day.  A slice of lemon in cold water or blended in a smoothie maker with beetroot with water added to it, is a healthy detoxifying brew for all times. Coconut water is also a good way of preventing dehydration and I have always been baffled by people who break the coconuts and pour away the water. As children growing up in my home, we devised all sorts of schemes to prevent the loss of any drop of the coconut water including using corkscrews at the bottom part that has three indentations and positioning it right over a cup etc. Those were the days (sigh)!

Green salads without all the fatty dressings are also great. Balsamic vinegar is better as salad dressing as it is derived from vines and rich in anti-oxidants. Be wary of the plastic packed varieties of fruit/vegetable salad hawked by fruit vendors which is really a mix of fruit and vegetables and has good intentions at the root of it. But those fruits and veggies spend so much time baking in their plastic packs in the sun such that when they are eaten, they pose more of a health hazard than benefit! Avocado pears with their heart healthy oils can be used as a spread on wheat bread sandwiches and also in salads.

Nuts are also a good way to snack. Almonds, cashew nuts and pistachio nuts are good examples of nuts with fiber, protein and omega 3 fatty acids (the good fatty acid). These nuts are available in all major supermarkets either as mixed nuts or one-nut packs. A small handful of peanuts( or groundnuts) will also not go amiss due to its high content of unsaturated fats and protein. Be sure to go for the unsalted and dry roasted varieties of all the nuts as opposed to the oil roasted ones. Walnuts are healthy and are pretty cheap when in season. They are called ukpa in Ibo and Asala or Awusa in Yoruba. In fact, there some evidence that this could boost fertility in men.  You are absolutely allowed to go nutty here J

Final tip, try eating your food slowly. Make a conscious effort to chew every bite and savour every single bit of it. This gives your tummy enough time to realize that it is actually full and reduces the amount of food you eventually eat and by extension, how often you get the munchies.

So….no more excuses guys. On the go, at home….you’ve got healthy snacking options. Go for it.

Here’s to a healthier you!

It’s Easter! Time to eat, drink and be merry. Every shop I happen to pass through has Easter eggs and Easter bunnies? Funny, I keep trying to remind myself to research this whole Easter bunny thing…origin et al, but I never seem to get very far. So, I still don’t know the origin of that. My children have been on my case to create some Easter traditions, just like we have for Christmas, centered around the Eggs and bunnies. Okay, so I love holiday traditions but…I do like to understand them before we start them off! But I digress…..

This piece is about healthy eating. The best of us would leave our good senses behind and ‘pig’ out during celebrations and then suffer through the next couple of weeks trying to lose all that weight. Ever heard of ‘a second on the lips, a lifetime on the hips?’ Well, that certainly describes this.

There are all sorts of diets and eating regimens available, most of which impose the most amazing restrictions to our diets. But, these more often than not result in yo-yo dieting…I’m on today and off tomorrow. I am skewed towards a more realistic, conscious lifestyle modification that stands the test of time, involves things that are inculcated into everyday life decisions of what to eat, that is more sustainable. What does this involve? Here goes:

Eat more fruits and vegetables.  Eating them in as close to their natural state as possible is, of course more beneficial. We fall into their temptation of wanting to do the right thing but doing it on our terms; this would involve dousing these vegetables in oil and frying them. These vegetables are rich in Vitamin C which is water soluble and so unnecessary cooking strips them of this nutrient. If we’ve got to cook them at all, add them at the final stage of cooking and cook for the barest minimum time: a minute or two. Some of the veggies are of course delicious eaten raw: carrots, lettuce, cabbage etc. These can be used in a salad with a dressing of balsamic vinegar or olive oil as opposed to all the fatty salad dressings out there. The leaf of the garden egg, called akwukwo anara in Ibo and efo gbagba (I hope I got that right?!) in Yoruba is also delicious when eaten raw as a major part of the meal.

Talking about fruits and vegetables leads me to the question, ‘how much of these can we  realistically have in each meal?’. Well, the answer is probably not what you’d love to hear but happens to be true. For a standard dinner plate, half of it should be filled with fruits/vegetables, a quarter devoted to carbs and a quarter devoted to the protein component.  The rule of thumb for the carb is that it should not be more than the quantity in the cupped palm of one hand! I hear your groans J. For the petite people like me (this is more politically correct than saying, ‘short’ or one of the funniest ones I’ve heard, ‘vertically challenged!’), this is a BIG problem! Close your eyes and visualise the tiny portions that can be accommodated in those tiny palms…sigh!

It is tough going initially until your tummy adjusts to this portion…which is in little or no time. For the carbs, it would be great to focus on the complex carbs: brown (or ofada) rice etc. This all boils down to portion control.

We talk about healthy oils: Olive oils, canola oils etc. But really, even these contain pure fat with about 120 calories in each tablespoonful of olive oil, be it light or extra light. To put this in context, consider how much time it takes to burn off 100 calories at the gym and the relative ease with which a tablespoon of oil goes onto our food. Or, remember the Johnny Walker blog where we talked about 10,000 steps per day? If you do those 10,000 steps in a day, you burn between 300 to 400 calories per day and less if you walk mainly flat surfaces! And yet, with one spoon of oil, more than a quarter of all that ‘amazing hard work’ has gone down the drain! SO remember your screams of ‘oh no! 10,000!’ and compare that with the calories burnt and then how much you gained by just adding a drop more oil. If this doesn’t convince you to go easy on the oils, I don’t know what else will! If you come from the Yoruba tribe (please be sure not to tell them I said this :|), then traditionally, cooking involves ladles and ladles of oils like palm oil (which has a high content of saturated fats associated with high cholesterol levels). I remember the first time I was exposed to stew from the Yoruba race, it had so much oil that I couldn’t see the tomatoes! Being a ‘kobo kobo’ girl who was born into a race where we live a diet of vegetables (in as raw a state as possible) and little oil, that was a culture shock and I never quite got used to it (Please don’t let my in-laws know that all that time I pretended to love those stews, I was actually just suffering through them ;)). It was almost as great a culture shock as learning to kneel down to greet. I developed waist pain the first time we travelled to the village what with all that kneeling which my ‘okoro ‘knees were not used to 🙂 Again I digress!

Another bad customer is coconut oil … so if you love your coconut rice, go easy on this. The point is: Use very little oil to cook…you really don’t need more than a spoon or two depending on what you’re cooking. I hear you groaning and wondering how this will taste? But hey, here’s another project: re-training your taste buds. Let them get used to less oil and less salt.

Talking about salt, are you one of those who routinely use the salt shaker in their food even before they taste it? Well that is a habit that’s got to be tossed. Salt has been implicated (in different studies at different times) in hypertension. The rule of thumb is, ‘if you can taste it, it’s probably too much!’

Does this blog mean to send you to that existence that is focused on just being alive and not enjoying life? As a couple of my friends would tell me, ‘na something go kill person’. So live in the moment, enjoy it and go out with a bang! Well, that’s certainly an option but consider this: I hear you thinking (don’t ask me how I hear people think. I’ve got psychic powers like that!) the food that I get to eat using these suggestions are definitely going to be bland! Nope. They don’t have to be. Use spices to add that extra special zing to your food. Thyme, curry, garlic are some good examples of some body/heart healthy spices to use in food and give it a little something extra.

Remember not to skip meals because when you do, you compensate for this later and binge. So for breakfast eat like a king (buttressing the importance of breakfast), for lunch, eat like a prince and for dinner, eat like a pauper! Breakfast could be a nourishing bowl of oatmeal. For those of you who hate it, like my children, some cinnamon (which has amazing health benefits including lowering cholesterol) makes it tastier. Lunch could be wheat meal with vegetable soup and fish; Dinner could be something light like moi-moi.  Remember to keep with the cooking instructions and portions…a handful. An acceptable way of circumventing this or increasing the portion available is to grow taller and of course increase hand span. He he he! Let’s see you try 😀

Here’s to a healthier you!

Dear Diary, you’re probably the only one who really understands how very busy the past few days have been. So, as I race through Lagos traffic towards the airport, I’m actually looking forward to catching up on some much-needed sleep on the plane…

I know quite a number of people who tell me they can’t sleep when they are in a bus, on the plane or in a car. They can’t sleep when there is even a bit of noise, when the curtains are not drawn, when the lights are on or the lights are off! Different variations! Well none of these define me! Once I’m tired, I can sleep anywhere…in the middle of a room filled with noisy children, in a squashed cramped car on a long trip, in the squashed space of a bus, in the tiny economy space of local and international flights and I daresay I can sleep on top of a trailer filled with sacks (I haven’t had this dubious pleasure yet!). In fact, I rather look forward to these trips sometimes because it presents an opportunity to sleep undisturbed. Provided I am travelling alone and not with my family, I am sure that I am unlikely to be disturbed for bathroom breaks, hunger, any sort of telephone call or work emergency. Oh bliss! (Just in case you wondered, I totally, absolutely and completely love my family :D).

So that’s my story. If you’re like me, you would stock up on some good novels to read at some point (when you open your eyes briefly) but if not, you are dreading the 6 or 12 hours (or perhaps even more) flight.

So, plan for it. Whether you’re travelling first, business or economy class, you don’t have to be worn out when you arrive at your destination. If you’re travelling economy, enquire at the booking desk if the flight is full. If it’s not, you could get a seat with empty seats beside you. Almost like flying in business class….albeit devoid of the personal touch, but who cares, right ;). Get comfortable…take off your shoes and….nothing else, please :). This should help minimise discomfort especially if foot swelling occurs. Pressure stockings are also a good idea. Get a travel pillow…those U-shaped pillows they sell at the airports. They are pretty comfy and prevent you from getting a crick in your neck during that long flight. Take walks round the cabin every hour or so to help circulation and stop you arriving at your destination with swollen legs/feet. You could use these walks to network and/or catch up with friends/colleagues/business associates who happen to be on the same flight. For the sleepy heads like me, try some ankle rotation exercises during those small intervals when you are conscious :). Lay off the coffee and alcohol. And drink a lot of water. Yes this may increase your visits to the bathrooms which you really don’t want, what with the long queues of people waiting to use them; but it is much better than getting dehydrated as the air in the cabin is pretty dry and could dehydrate you.

As for the food…perhaps you’re one of those who hate the ‘plastic’ food and laugh at the oyibo’s attempt at jollof rice (I’ve tried explaining to them that the art to cooking jollof rice is only in the gene of Nigerians and jambalaya is not even a close substitute! Please note that the study about the jollof rice-gene interaction has only been carried out in my head…so this is clearly proprietary material right here! :)), then you have no problem because you probably ignore the food. But you could stock up on some nuts (almonds, cashew nuts etc), granola bars, fruits and water to take with you. They are useful during those long lonely hours when you’re waiting for the flight to board and to take onto the plane if you’re going to ‘dis’ (code for disrespect, my son tells me) the food! It’s also most certainly cheaper and healthier than the over-priced airport food which you may be tempted to indulge in. However, if you’re going to indulge, you might want to book online and order the lower calorie options.

Pack some breath mints in your bag. There’s nothing as thoroughly embarrassing…no scratch that! There’s nothing as humiliating as trying to discuss with a business associate who you happened to meet on disembarking from the plane, while trying not to come too close because you know you’ve got morning breath! So be a boy scout! Be prepared!

If you’re, perhaps going for a conference, resist the urge to indulge in all that free food (close your eyes and visualise banquet tables groaning under the weight of all types of food: chocolate fountains, pasta, all kinds of gravy, pastries of different shades and colours, fish, chicken and beef dishes of all kinds!) and look for those healthier alternatives (fruits, salads…not soaked in dressing, quinoa, grilled fish, vegetables etc). Load up on all these…loads of beautiful colours on your plate!

You know all those free books they give you at the conference? Take only the ones you really mean to read. This way you’re not tempted to trash them at the airport when ‘they’ tell you, you’ve got excess luggage! This is becoming a huge ‘international’ joke!

I am actually on my way to a conference and so this advice is as much for you as it is for me! 😉

Here’s to… a healthier you!