Living the healthy life
I refer to the news item Minister promotes healthy lifestyle in The Jakarta Post on July 27. I would like to contribute some ideas on the matter based on my reading of some health literature. First, based on Random House's Eat Smart (1984), a healthy lifestyle is very much determined by the variety and moderation of foods we consume. Further, it says that about 40 different components including vitamins and minerals, amino acids (from proteins), fatty acids (from animal fat and vegetable oil) and calories supplied by proteins, fats and carbohydrates are needed to maintain normal bodily health. Since no single food will provide all of these together, a number of food varieties must be eaten everyday.
Second, Michael Castleman, in his book Nature's Cures, suggests that we should be ready for change. Some habits like smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction and compulsive gambling are clearly destructive. So, just stop all these bad habits and do some other constructive things like sports, reading etc.
This is also supported by Welder in his Men's Fitness magazines (1996) who cations us that heavy drinking -- more than six drinks a day for a man -- according to most experts can cause cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver, heart disease, accidents, birth defects, ulcers, psychiatric problems and cancer of the esophagus, colon and rectum.
Another threatening habit is smoking. Still according to Welder, if you smoke, you ignore the warnings. Statistics like a 73-year lifespan for you versus 81 years for non-smokers (and 400,000 smoking related deaths annually) bounce off your armor. Another key factor to healthy lifestyle is having a good night's sleep. In this case, Welder says healthy old people often cite healthy sleep habits as one of the keys to their longevity. One study concludes that when healthy humans are deprived of sleep for three days, their immune systems go on red alert; level of monocytes, granulocytes and other natural killer cells rise as though sleep deprivation was itself some type of invading organism. Go to bed earlier and wake earlier to beat everyday chores.
ODO FADLOELI
Bandung