The year that has passed
- Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 05:10
- Category: Features
This paper turns 17 this January. So in celebration of this sweet 17th birthday, I would like to give a gist of what we have discussed in the past year and beyond. For those who have been reading this column, this will be a review and for those who are only reading now, this is your chance to partake of information needed to be healthy and stay healthy. So this is like a regular birthday party except that the eating comes after you read this column.
This column started one and a half years ago with discussions on how our body is formed, how we grow, and how it works. So you, dear reader, will know how to take care of it- your body, that is. Just like anything from plants to pigs to machines, we need to know how they are made and how they grow, how they work, so that we’ll know how to take care of them. Otherwise, pffft they go.
We discussed about how our body is formed in the womb during pregnancy and how important the diet and disposition of the mother is during this time as the food of the mother is the source of building blocks for the baby and disposition affects how those building blocks are formed. (We cannot separate body, mind and spirit.) These nine months time in the womb is the time of building the foundation of the health of the person – not only its health as a baby but forever and ever- up to adulthood.
We discussed about how our wonderful and awesome Creator forms us according to his laws of nature and that He built us to survive, flourish and be healthy and happy.
We further dwelt on natural childbirth, baby care, nurturing and caring for children. And how our wonderful indigenous culture and traditions on these matters conform to the laws of the universe and thus have brought forth into the world robust, sturdy and caring Igorot men and women.
By January last year, we were already into the built-in protective mechanisms of the body – the skin, the blood, hair, coughing, tears and saliva, vomiting, urination and bowel movement, stomach acids and normal bacteria. These are our major defense mechanisms against any attempt of outside forces to invade our bodies. These are so awesome and so reliable….. as long as we take care of them.
Having finished with our major physical body structures, systems and functions, we then delved into what we put into these systems. So what do we put inside our physical bodies? Food, water and air. We had one issue on proper breathing. Proper breathing is abdominal breathing. One issue on water as the best drink and the best cleanser, no debate on that, I would say.
Most of the issues dwelt on food. Aah, FOOOD! So interesting a topic. Eating has become our favorite pastime. Not only pastime- look at people in the streets of San Francisco, ehe, San Fernando and Bontoc and Baguio- people are not only walking, they are eating at the same time. Since when?
In a nutshell, the message of the universe is: Eat natural – choose food that is organically grown (read “naturally grown”) and in its natural form as much as possible, minimal processing. This is because processing strips the important nutrients from food. So I suggest now, again, (as I have done before) to government (schools, DA, DTI and their LGU counterparts) to rethink what they are teaching people. So its back to basics – rice, beans, camote, gabi, sayote, sabog, safeng, etab, tengba, etc- are best after all! That’s the good news. So now we can fully celebrate the birthday of Zigzag Weekly even with a shoestring budget. How about a treat to Health 100?
