Chapter 6 Exercise, Nutrition and Health.
If you sit much of the time, for most of the days and months, you are like a fish that does not swim and a bird that does not fly. If this goes on, naturally the lazy fish and bird will not live long healthy lives, and neither will you. For hundreds of years, humans kept strong and fit in their livelihood of hunting and farming, which included ploughing, harvesting, and running after the same fishes and birds! The wild-goose chase cooled with the advent of the industrial revolution, followed by computers and robots. Soon man became a mistress or mirror of his TV, a lame duck without muscles, ravaged by „modern degenerative diseases like high blood pressure, gout, heart attack, and other stress-related disorders which cost the world billions of dollars a year. The world should now stop eating and sleeping like a pig, and take on some exercise. The truth is that good health does not take care of itself, and if you assume it will, you may well lose it!
I belong to a fitness club here, and I would strongly advise youngsters to do some walking and running each day. Go swimming, and have a game of tennis or Ping-Pong once or twice a week. Games are exercise and hobbies and they are fun, so you need not run after the ducks and geese all the time. Swimming is perhaps the best, because it involves most body-parts, which eating and gossiping do not. In addition you can help your parents with lawn-mowing and errand-running too. The benefits of exercise are obvious: More oxygen, better circulation for your blood, the burning of excess fat, opportunities for your bodies and muscles to do what they are made for, and furthermore, the feeling of well-being, radiance, vibrancy, self-confidence, mastery and power, which are worth a lot of money, if not priceless.
An important part of exercise is breathing. The all-important oxygen, coupled with nutrients, are carried by your blood, and circulated all over, from head to toe, converting food into energy, and giving you life. At the same time, oxygen purifies the system and stimulates the electrical process of every body cell. Breathing also supports the lymphatic system, which disposes wastes and toxins, and takes part in the nutritive and immune processes. Medical experts have experimented and found that shortage of oxygen seemed to play a role in making cells malignant or cancerous! Little wonder that the minute you take a deep breath of fresh air you feel good; and little wonder that my friends who do Yoga or Tai Chi remain so healthy and young. Their intake of oxygen is enormous. You must therefore make exercise and deep breathing your number one daily routine.
Can a Boeing 747 lift off without air intake and the right fuel? Now that you have good air inflow, your fuel is food and nutrition. Although meat and fish provide much protein and energy, as needed in the days of hunting and farming, the accent nowadays is on water-rich intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. They provide numerous important vitamins and minerals; and dont forget, almost 80% of your body is water! Doctors also maintain that enough fluid is needed by your system to flush out the poisonous waste products from cells and tissues. You are reminded that amazingly, all the beautiful and powerful animals thrive on grass, leaves and fruits, like elephants, gorillas, horses, pandas, and so on. If you eat more fruits and vegetables, you can compete with handsome Black Beauty or Ching Ching, if you eat only dried and dead meat, you will look more like hyenas and vultures, yes you will.
Lets go on a more serious note. All food intake by humans contains the following in varying proportions: 1. Proteins. 2. Fats. 3. Carbohydrates. 4. Water. 5. Vitamins. 6. Mineral salts.
Proteins are combinations of organic compounds known as amino-acids; about a dozen of these amino-acids are derived from foods, and almost an equal number is manufactured by the body itself. Basically, proteins build and repair tissues, and are a source of energy. Meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, and even vegetables provide most of our proteins. Fats are also found in similar foods. They comprise glycerol and fatty acids, provide energy, energy reserves, maintain the body temperature against the cold, and supply fat-soluble vitamins too. Carbohydrates give energy too, and are found in wheat, rice, dairy products, various crops, fruits and vegetables, and they include starches and sugars.
The energy value of food is measured in calories. A sleeping man needs about 1,600 calories of food a day, but a drain-digger needs 4,000 or more, to replace energy used. Water is everywhere, in your foods and drinks, and it is very important, because no fluid in the world dissolves things better than water! So water dissolves, digests, transports, flushes and excretes.
Vitamins are essential for proper growth, health upkeep, and defence against illness. They are called vitamin A, B Complex, C, D, E, F, K, and P-P. You must always bear in mind that stale or overcooked fruits and vegetables lose much of their good vitamins and minerals. Eat them as fresh as you can. Mineral salts are calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, iodine, chlorine, zinc, selenium, fluorine, phosphorus, and sulphur. Quite a mouthful, but do not worry, these are age-old names, and they will not turn you into a volcano or robot. Before you fall asleep here in boredom, I will raise my voice a little here and say: All vitamins and minerals are found in all fruits, vegetables and edible things. The wise approach is to eat widely, a great variety of things, instead of dwelling on a few, then you will not suffer any deficiencies. My strongest pieces of advice are:
1. Eat a great variety of foods.
2. Have more water-rich fruits and vegetables.
3. Take less variety at one meal to ease digestion.
4. Resist overeating, count the calories and keep trim and slim. Research has shown that over-eating shortens our life span.
5. Minimise your exposure to X-ray, radiation, sunlight, alcohol, smoke, exhaust and other pollutants.
6. Eat punctually at the regular time everyday, and chew slowly.
7. Have regular exercise, and sufficient rest and relaxation.
8. Maintain excellent personal habits and hygiene.
9. Safety is part of health. Guard against injury and accident at all times.
10. Overall attitude, values, responses to situations, thoughts and feelings affect physical and mental health enormously. Do not overlook the importance of sleep. The body and mind at rest can perform repair, maintenance and rejuvenation work. Recent research on sleep revealed that lack of sleep will invite illness, create havoc, and drive people a little round the bend. Be careful, poor diet and insufficient rest are now accepted as one of the causes of delinquency, crime, and even some mental diseases.
Health is, at any moment in time, more important than wealth. You will appreciate it more if wealth is the only thing you have left! In fact, health is wealth; it is part of happiness, and with it, you can live longer, acquire more wealth, and contribute to society! In sickness, everything goes haywire and you go cuckoo. Those who overlook health in their quest for wealth usually end up losing both. For a sports champion, health is the be-all and end-all of life. Even for a TV star, an airline pilot, a school teacher, or anybody at all, health is paramount. As you gradually advance with the good habits of exercise, taking satisfactory diet and rest, you will experience changes in yourself. Your outlook will be positive, your mind will be alert, your eyes will sparkle with enthusiasm and intelligence, and you will live a most fulfilling life.
A persons self -realisation and self-mastery hinge around physical, intellectual and moral development, which require a sound body, an expanding intellect, and a virtuous heart. You cannot have happiness and success without good health, period.
"Let your food be your medicine." - Hippocrates.
"Even in the green herb have I given you all things." - Genesis 9:2.
"The world belongs to the energetic." - R. W. Emerson.
"Ill health, of body or of mind, is defeat... Health alone is victory." - T. Carlyle.
"The human body is the best picture of the human soul." - L. Wittgenstein.