Good for you and me

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

It just occurred to me. There is something missing, something that needs to be straightened out in the explosion of health and wellness information that we are experiencing these days, when there seems to be a “breakthrough” every hour heralding the health, wellness and medical values of our food sources.

I recall in the past that these had come regularly, but far in between. Remember the so-called water therapy, which called for people to drink lots and lots of water to counter disease and illness? I also recall the alogbate scare, when news spread that this leafy vegetable fostered some vague illness. Suddenly, no one was eating alogbate and our markets were emptied of these leaves that are almost a staple in the Pinoy diet. There were also the findings about eggs that were countered years later by opposite findings; and the butter studies, which were also questioned down the years.

Now, we are bombarded with studies about the wondrous qualities of the mangosteen, the noni and the acai berry, blue and all sorts of berries, lemon grass, ginger, carrots, watermelon, grapes, coconuts and what have you.

These studies sell us “breakthroughs” as though we do not know the one verity the human race has known since he began life on this earth: food is nourishment. In other words, we shouldn’t really jump up and down knowing ginger juice and oranges can fight infections, that grapes have heart-healthy minerals, that watermelon can help thin your blood. We are eating them, hey, because they taste good and also because they sustain and nourish us, not simply by alleviating our hunger but also by fighting elements in our bodies that endanger our naturally-good state.

One tragic consequence of this explosion of information we are witnessing is that it can lead to an over simplistic interpretation of things with disastrous results. Some people can drink carrots in overwhelming volumes their skin turns orange, and I don’t think all that surfeit of beta-carotene provides a properly-protective shield against cancer. When the skin that is meant to be white or brown turns orange, something must have gone wrong in there.

Such is our need for health and wellness that we have plunged in and take these studies for gospel truth. Without bothering to examine things closely, we are now learning how to eat things raw and thus take in as much of their natural goodness, juice them for the live enzymes, munch and chew them for the fiber. Yet, sometimes, these raw fruits and veggies can give one a raw deal, indeed: what about the unseen and living microbes and organisms in them?

There is also this overwhelming material about the goodness of canned tuna, some people can replace their hot and slow cook meals with it, not realizing it must be packed in preservatives – I think sodium? – that, when taken in big quantities, can be disastrous.

As in anything, there is a process that we must learn, some missing puzzles that we must unlock to properly deploy these “breakthrough” findings and make them work for us. One does not drink a gallon of ampalaya juice and expect one’s blood sugar to go down simply because it has been discovered and validated that this bitter fruit has blood-sugar lowering qualities.

Too, one does not lick rock salt simply because the test show one has “low sodium”. Our bodies are far more complex than that. There must be a proper dose, and the right gestation period for these things to work out. What these are, most often these “breakthrough studies” do not say.*

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