Good health is a very precious gift, a blessing never appreciated until it is lost. One look into the society and it becomes very evident that diverse forms of ill health and diseases are wide spread. These desperately sick persons are moving to all sorts of places to seek the very health they took for granted until they lost it in the vain pursuit of pleasure and fame. These individuals are mostly taken advantage of by some unscrupulous persons who promise some quick fix method for their health problems.
It is crystal clear from both experience and research that the lifestyle choices we make have a telling effect on our long term health status. Hence anyone who wishes to enjoy vibrant health must endeavour to make informed and prudent lifestyle choices to make such a wish a reality.
Diet is the single most influential lifestyle factor that impacts our health and our dietary habits must be tailored to ensure optimum health. It is the recognition of this fact that culminated in the saying “you are what you eat”. This is also buttressed by the famous saying by Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, thus “let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food”
This article is looking into the health implications of our dietary habits and how we can enhance our health by adopting appropriate and healthy dietary habits. Our dietary habits tell of the upbringing and training we received as individuals from diverse cultural and social backgrounds.
In modern times, the typical African or local dietary habits and delicacies are being abandoned in favour of the western diets and lifestyle and this has resulted in the increasing prevalence of the lifestyle induced diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, stroke among others.