Why Do We Need to Consider Nutrition and Eat Healthy Foods? (A Lecture for Nutrition Month)

I was tasked to deliver a short lecture last Monday (July 14) for our students to commemorate Nutrition Month.  This was how it roughly went…

Good morning.

I am here to deliver a short lecture on the significance of being concerned with eating nutritious foods.  Some of the details I will be sharing here are merely taken from your Health lessons.   Nonetheless, I hope that at the end of this short lecture, you will realize the relevance of eating healthy in your lives and be compelled to do your best to maintain a healthy diet.

   

Part 1 – The Body’s Need for Proper Nutrition

Let us start this with a simple question.     

It’s a misconception to think that one is “malnourished” when he or she is thin, and someone is “healthy” when he or she is fat.  Being “well-nourished” is NOT defined by how thin or fat you are, but whether you have the right amount – emphasis on “right amount” – of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional components that the body requires to function.  Both being too thin and too fat are usually indications of malnourishment – meaning the “right amount” of nutrition is not being met. 

How can we make sure that we are getting the right amount of nutrition from our food intakes?  That’s what the food pyramid is for…

Many nutritionists consider this as the most definite, most comprehensive way of determining the right amount of food intake to ensure that we get the appropriate amount of nutrition that the body needs.  It’s very easy to understand: those that are in the base are the kind of foods that you need to take the most, and as it grows closer to the tip, the less you have to eat such kind of foods.  I will not discuss the food pyramid in detail.  It’s just to introduce or remind you of what guide you can use for a healthy diet.

Part 2 – Some Consequences of Not Getting Proper Nutrition

Now, let us proceed to look at some of the most common diseases that arose whenever there is lack of nutrition in the body, and some of the foods you can eat to avoid them. 

Part 3 – There is a Reason Why They Are Called “Junk” Foods

When we eat healthy foods, the body gains access to and breaks down necessary nutritional components like vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and amino acids so it can repair bodily wear-and-tear and refurbish cells.  However, in junk foods, there is a deficiency of nutritional components in them or none at all.  Aside from that, the toxins in junk foods put strain on the body because it has to work extra hard to flush them out of itself. 

Eating too much junk food can also lead to serious conditions…

Part 4 – Some Tips for Eating Healthy

Here are some basic tips for you as you start adopting a healthy diet…  

 

Part 5 – The Theology of Eating Healthy

As Christians, the Scriptures have provided some implicit insights with regards to the need to eat healthy.   I found four.  Let us read...

      

As Christians, our bodies are the temple of God.  We have a responsibility to take care of it, to keep it healthy.  Moreover, we need to glorify God in all our actions – and the Scripture openly includes eating, since it was the chosen example.  Do you think we are glorifying God in our eating if we are deliberately and gratuitously consuming stuff that can give harm to “God’s temple”?  There are consequences if we are not faithful stewards of these bodies God has given us. 

Eating should not be an end itself.  We should be conscious that eating is designed by God to give “fuel” to our bodies so that we can do the tasks that He entrusted to us and carry on His will in our lives.  I am not saying that it isn’t right to derive pleasure from eating, but, again, it should not be the end purpose itself.  We don’t enjoy earthly delights just for the sake of enjoying earthly delights itself.  Every pleasure we choose to partake in should always lead us to the glory of God (that is for another topic).    So, as we enjoy eating fried chicken, we always need to remember to thank God with each bite for the pleasure it gives us (delicious foods and meals in general are God’s gifts) and remind ourselves that the enjoyment we are deriving from eating  fried chicken is nothing compared to the enjoyment found in God alone. 

Lastly, there is no actual forbiddance in eating junk food.  It is not sinful to eat chips or drink soft drinks.  But, again, whenever we allow ourselves to exercise our freedom – and that includes eating junk foods – we need to think well if it’s beneficial to us, if it will help our purpose of glorifying God.        

It is up to you to make a decision out of your personal conviction from the Holy Spirit.  But let these Scriptures be your “food for thought” on your choices regarding your diet.  A Christian will always need to consider the glory of God in everything that his life touches on.     

Part 6 – Conclusion

In closing, I guarantee you this: Eating healthy will greatly help you in your school work.  I want you to ponder on this.

Kim John, stand up and please read the slide…

Zion, please read the next slide…

Next, David Daniel, please stand up and read…

Lastly, students, let us all read together…

Amen.  You can forget everything what T. Bernel has said to you, but just remember this one thing: to glorify God in all things, even your food choices, fitness, health, everything.  Glorify God in all things.      

Thank you very much for listening.   

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What My Left Eye Feels Like

This is no exaggeration.  (Almost.)

To be fair, this is not the first time my eyes screamed “Get us checked up!”

In the past, I would experience this feeling of “wormy” irritation behind my eyes (usually, my left) days or weeks at a time, then it would eventually subside. 

Before, I would delay any opportunity or refuse any invitation of going to an eye doctor.  Never wanted to wear glasses.  I perceived it as an inconvenience.   

But this time around, I won’t mind going.  In fact, I would gladly welcome any (free) chance of getting an eye check-up.   I would gladly wear glasses.  Having to wear glasses is waaaaaaay preferable than having an irreversible eye condition.  

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Talking about my mortality (or am I a hypochondriac?)

I have been thinking of my health and mortality lately. Since I caught bronchopneumonia that turned into primary complex tuberculosis back before high school, I have never been that healthy. Sure, I got well after a year of medication but I did not get back to the one hundred percent - it is very rare I feel one hundred percent physically well. I often have headaches, easily catches colds, so weak when I have a flu… the list goes on. I grew accustomed to feeling like this that it now seems normal to feel not normal.
Before college, I decided not to eat too much junk food. It was the advice of the nurse when she took my high blood pressure (I was found to have high-blood pressure) during the medical exam.  Got to watch my health.
It feels I grew weaker every year since I caught primary complex (and I grew weaker and more prone to sickness when I had mumps late in high school). I recently did some pull-ups, I barely made three when I used to do at least seven a few years back. Now, I am a little afraid to try the push-ups. I used to do at least fifty, how much can I do now? If you ask me if I am physically fit, the answer is yes. I am physically fit (even my cardiovascular endurance is fine for someone who had primary complex), but I am not that very healthy.
I don't understand what's happening to my health… it's not really failing but it's not very good, either. Maybe you will suggest it is only psychological (suggesting that I am a hypochondriac?). Maybe… but I really can feel that I grew weaker, that I am not very healthy and am very prone to illness. I do not know the reason (maybe too much radiation from the PC). Am I slowly dying? No, not that … but, then again, according to one joke, "you begin to die after you were born", so in that sense, I am definitely "dying".
But I say that life is precious. Life maybe is hard but it is beautiful and good. As I think of my health and mortality - I realize, healthy or not, we are all "prone to die." A person with no cancer is actually as prone to death as with one with cancer, since, chances are, the healthy person with no cancer might get hit by a bus (morbid illustration but at least I was able to make my point). Mortality is not really determined by your health or statistics.  When it's your time to die, you die. That is why we all have to appreciate life while we have it. But I do believe that true Life comes from God. And even death is no match for the Life.

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Smoking Ban in Legazpi City

There was a city ordinance declared late in my last year of high school that bans smoking in public places in the city. Legazpi City is campaigning to be a “smoke-free” city. That was a nice ordinance – I support it a full hundred percent. I hate passive smoking since it damages me more than the smoker himself. With that ordinance, passive smoking will be minimized.
I find it amusing the jeepney drivers that start to light their cigarettes when their jeepney went past the borders of Legazpi into the town of Daraga – and then throw their cigarettes when they pass the border of Daraga and Legazpi, entering Legazpi City.
I find it amusing when students go to the other side of Bicol University to smoke their cigarettes. You see, the large Bicol University main campus is in the Legazpi City-Daraga border - meaning one part of the campus is in Legazpi and one part is in Daraga.
There was once a time when there was a smoker in the public jeepney I rode. Then suddenly the driver said the smoker should extinguish his cigarette since its illegal and they might get into trouble. The smoker quickly threw his cigarette.
But there was one time a smoker was caught in the jeepney I was riding in by a cop on a motorcycle. The driver warned him too late and he was too late in throwing his cigarette, the cop already saw him. The cop made him come down the jeepney and gave him a ticket – but not before lecturing him that “smoking is illegal in public places in Legazpi, and that all Legazpenos should know the rule.” Not only that, the cop also lectured the driver that he is partly responsible for it because he did not told the smoker to throw his cigarette. After fifteen minutes, the jeepney finally was allowed to go. I admired that cop for that. But I saw him again weeks after the incident – with a comrade of his, another policeman, was smoking and he just looks on while his companion chain smokes in the middle of the city. Bummer! I cannot help it but only to smile in amusement.
I do not know if the “No Smoking” ordinance in Legazpi City will be effective. I can still see smokers smoking in public. Heck, back in high school, our principal was smoking in the front of our school – and my high school is in the Legazpi part of Bicol University. Sheesh…
I am not sure if Legazpi will really become a “smoke-free” zone. I can only hope – and wait and see.

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