FIRST THINGS FIRST
3
THE
CAUSES OF KILLER DISEASES
To lay the foundation for information that empowers us to take personal control of our health and fitness level, it makes sense to start with the basics of wellness and physical fitness. If the foundation is wrong, no matter how expertly you lay the bricks and mortar going up, you’ll end up with a wobbly and dangerous structure unfit to live in. Knowledge is, after all, power. “If you don’t know where the rain began to beat you,” as Chinua Achebe reminds us from the wisdom of his ancestral Igbos, “you cannot say where you dried your body.” Announcing the top three killers that account for the major percentage of preventable human diseases:
BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER You were expecting to hear something else, eh? But there you have it; as clear and simple as it can be put. I hope I have your attention. See, our body is a biological machine designed to function efficiently with healthy buildingblock substrates, fuels, and nutrients. It is also designed to eliminate toxic waste through various mechanisms – liver, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and sweat glands. We’ve all heard the maxims “you are what you eat” and “rubbish in, rubbish out!” It’s not rocket science, and there’s no magic formula for “cheating the system”. Like every other animal species on earth; our human machine is powered, nurtured and developed through growth from the nutrients we feed it. It’s as simple as that. There are good nutrients and, well, there are bad nutrients. Oh, and then, there are very bad nutrients, otherwise known as junk food. They don’t call it “junk” for nothing! You can’t plant saturated fatty acids and