“Fatal Ignorance towards Nutrition”
By Zafeera Sahar
(Nutrition Student at UAF)
“Have you not seen the price of apples?”
Exclaimed the man in bed no.4 of the hospital’s general ward. Being admitted the previous week with the complaint of continuous vomiting, as a patient of uncontrolled type 2 diabetes with a diabetic foot, chronic hypertension and grade 1 obesity, he had been at the hospital for nine days. Nine days of IV drips, costly medicines, painful injections, their side effects, improper and pricey cafeteria food, travel fare of the patient’s family/attendants, the fatigue everyone, from the patient to the family members had to go through, the break in the flow of a normal life and the mental and emotional baggage that comes with all this. But the price of apples is high. And of course it will stay that way for ever, unless, he compares it with all that he (and everyone around him) is going through. Only then, the price of apples would not be that high anymore and the price of a good life would finally be higher, for him to not just give it away that easily.
A healthy diet, a healthy lifestyle- good nutrition, especially in Pakistan, is not a priority of the general public. When I entered the field of nutrition and dietetics, one of the first things we needed to learn was, how to clarify the difference between a doctor and a dietician to the people, because everyone here seems to have a very hard time in understanding so. The common dialogue we use is, “a doctor prescribes medicine to treat the disease and its worst outcomes while a dietician prescribes a right diet to PREVENT the disease and its worst outcomes”. The later sounds so wonderful, right? A few simple steps in your daily routine and a life free of disease, extra trouble, pain and problems. But no.
It is unbelievable, the extent to which people like to push away their health. They ignore it as far as they can. Ignore it till the worst comes to worst. Ignore it till they can’t ignore it anymore, because then, nothing is in their control. Sadly, ignore it to the point of no return. And then have to live with the consequences, for the rest of their lives.
Why do people ignore their health and don’t adopt a healthy lifestyle?
There are multiple reasons for that and more than one of these can be found in a single individual. Two of the common reasons, which are mainly just excuses are, lack of time in the busy course of life and that the “healthy foods” are expensive. Other reasons might have to do with laziness, procrastination, lack of motivation, education or awareness, lesser opportunities and availability, finding exercise and physical activity strenuous, peer pressure for unhealthy eating, mental health issues, non-serious behavior and using ignorance as a defense mechanism to avoid accepting that they might have or be at risk of a disease.
What we need is, to make people clearly understand that whatever the reason they are turning a blind eye to a healthy lifestyle is, it would only worsen the situation, which would in turn take a lot more effort than it would’ve taken for them to take care of it before hand.
Time, money, and effort- the very things people want to save by not changing their lifestyle are exactly the things they have to spend the most when they get sick. And what remains the point of it, when you can’t enjoy the time you saved or the money you made, because now your body has retired?
A healthy diet is an expensive diet, is a wrong belief and a self-restriction. Nobody says you have to buy fancy oils, premium nuts, packaged milk, out of season fruits and vegetables and the vast variety of products with many health claims to live a healthy life. All you need is a normal, well balanced diet, in amounts appropriate to your specific caloric requirement with an incorporation of adequate, well timed physical activity- and you are good to go!
Most people will say, “It sounds easy but it really is not”. Well, your job is not easy, right? Running your house is not easy, right? Waking up in the morning after a tiring day before. is not easy, right? But you do it, you do it all, right? Why? Because you HAVE TO, right?
What I want people to understand, to set in stone in their minds, is that this is not an option. Choosing healthy is what you have to do. Especially, if you want to continue all those other activities that are so important in your life that you can’t seem to find time for yourself.
To tell you the truth (which all the happy people who prioritized their health would tell you too), only the beginning will be a little hard. Soon you’ll get used to it and living a healthy nutritious life would not seem like an extra effort. It would become a second nature to you which you will actually start to enjoy.
Try and see for yourself, how addicting a healthful lifestyle really is!
