Food fo the soul

BOITSHEPHO GIYOSE | Monday June 10, 2013 00:00

Hello folks, I am back! With the year already halfway, one needs to re-examine their health and life in general.Are we making any positive progress? Have we made the right decisions to start with? Are we reaching our fitness, health and nutrition goals and the resolutions we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year when we were clouded by the holiday indulgence? I trust you all are.

In a very real and sort of 'in your face' way, knowing too much about nutritin can be a curse. Even though I truly love what I do and am an international nutritionist, at times I secretly long for the days when I could eat and enjoy a meal thinking more about my hunger and filling my stomach, without worrying about how much fat, fibre, sugar, carbohydrate content, vitamins, and so on, I have consumed. Okay you get the picture.Nowadays though, for many of us it's hard if not nearly impossible to just eat and enjoy. It is not only for us who are tummy deep in every new research and finding about how nutrition affects our health, productivity and longevity, but all out there.There's growing awareness of proper diet and nutrition.

Thanks to the barrage of information - some accurate, some erroneous, and most designed to get you to buy a specific product, promising to give you a miracle body and shape overnight. Thus it's hard to know what your body needs.Think back to the time when you could walk into your kitchen and whip up the heartiest meal without counting calories or micronutrients. Better still picture the last time you last picked up and browsed through a menu.

Your thought process probably went like this: 'Hmm I love that sirloin steak with chips and extra onion rings, or how about a double cheese burger and a large coke, or better still some fried chicken wings with a double thick milk shake would do. But what about a salad and grilled skinless chicken breast with just water to drink? Oh no I feel bad, the choices are killing me and my health but just this once; good Lord all that fat and cholesterol.Chicken is supposed to be good right - but fried not sure - burger with whole-wheat bread or white? I wonder how much fibre I'm getting and the protein...? Oh forget it, it's too complicated.' You have been there done that right. It happens to the best of us. 

The trick is always to not get too caught in the actual calorie and nutrient counting, but rather focus on the principles an optimal healthy diet; eating a 'rainbow' assortment of fruits and vegetables, eating natural whole grains, reducing meat and saturated fats, keeping salt intake low, keeping refined sugars to the minimum, drinking sufficient amounts of water, and exercising regularly. Not only will it get you healthier but you will enjoy the new you with less stress. At global level nutrition experts, opinion leaders and indeed government and private sector leaders are getting the message that nutrition is central to human and socio-economic development.More investments? You bet! On June 6, 2013, The Lancet (scientific journal) published a series of papers featuring new data and policy recommendations on global nutrition. The papers are a follow-up to The Lancet's landmark 2008 Series, which helped put nutrition on the global health and development agenda and identified the 1,000 days of a mother's pregnancy until her child's second birthday as the priority window for impact.

For those who are interested, The series consists of four papers and a Call to Action commentary from the authors. Paper One considers the prevalence and consequences of nutritional conditions during the life course from adolescence (for girls) through pregnancy to childhood and discusses the implications for adult health.Paper Two covers the evidence supporting the nutrition-specific interventions and the health impact and cost of increasing their population coverage. Paper Three considers nutrition-sensitive interventions and approaches and their potential to improve nutrition. Paper Four examines the features of an enabling environment that are needed to provide support for nutrition programmes, and how they can be favourably influenced.The Comment examines what is currently being done, and what should be done nationally and internationally to address nutritional and developmental needs of women and children in low and middle income countries.The timing of the series is particularly profound as world leaders prepare to meet for their annual G8 Summit, preceded by the UK and Brazilian governments co-hosting a high-level event on Nutrition for Growth held on June 8.Nutrition is king, do it right!