Overcoming Poor Eating Habit

Written by Prince Assandoh-Mensah in 2016

Food has its foundation from the Bible and right in the early days of creation, in the Book of Genesis, man was given authority to take plants and animals as food. (Genesis 1:29-30). It’s one of nature’s gifts to humanity and a necessity for survival.

Food is meant for the good of humanity; to build strong and healthy bodies to be able to carry out our daily activities and fight diseases.

It’s so unfortunate that in current times, it’s the opposite that happens. The number of people diagnosed of diseases associated with food is on the rise. Incidences of obesity are not reducing; in a similar manner high cholesterol and food related anaemia are on the rise.

The most unfortunate is how these diseases are affecting the young and the productive class of the population. Gone are the days when High Blood Pressure is a disease of the aged, today even teens are at risk.

Reasons for Poor Eating Habit

Why are people not eating right? Is it because they are unaware of the right diet? The United States Department of Agriculture concluded in a 2000 survey that regardless of what people know about health, they choose not to improve their diets.

A lot of people can recite good eating tips off head but may find it difficult to practice them. Reasons accounting for this include

• Schedules

Most people may not have the time to eat good meals due to busy schedules. At times, they even forget to eat due to loads of work and deadlines. Usually handy foods become the only option. These foods may not contain all the needed nutrients in their right proportion for optimum health.

Ideally, eating is not an activity that needs to be done aside our schedules. It needs to be included in our schedules. In fact, it’s part of our daily activities.

Remember, you will never settle your diesel car for petrol even if you have to drive an extra kilometre to get the right fuel because you know the car will break down with the wrong fuel. In a similar manner you cannot settle a nutritious diet for a handy food.

• Culture

People will eat in a certain way and manner due to their cultural exposure.  There is an old Ghanaian adage that goes like, “The tongue is an alien to delicacies that are aliens to his master’s pot.” At times, our beliefs also affect our eating habit. In some Ghanaian cultures, pregnant women are barred from eating eggs.

As already established from the Bible, food was made for man. It’s good to balance our diet with different food types in order to get the needed nutrients for healthy growth. No particular food contains it all; I mean, all the nutrients in their right proportion. Eating one particular food continuously means that, you are missing all the nutrients that are not found in that food which your body may need.

• Ignorance

Have you ever notice the ignorance people display when you visit a Waakye joint? At times, buyers go like, “Hajia, add one egg and fish to the waakye. Please do you have ‘yiemuadeɛ’ (internal organs of cattle)? Please add one and one soft wele (skin of cattle).”

Another one is when some women cook stew and add macaroni as a source of protein. Should I even call it ignorance or misinformation? Sometimes I wonder where on earth people get their dieting information from.

The cost of eating wrongly is much more expensive than seeing a professional dietician for the right information.

• The Use of Processed Foods.

The modern day Ghanaian believes that, “Processed foods are healthier than fresh foods”. People even go to the extent of thinking that, the use of processed foods is a sign of good living. In actual sense, processed foods are not any better than fresh foods, no matter how fortified they are.

Rather, food tends to lose some cardinal nutrients during processing. As much as possible, it’s better to go for fresh foods instead of processed food for healthy living.

Building Healthy Eating Habit

Developing a good eating habit requires a lot of effort. It’s not just a matter of reading a book on diet overnight and thinking it will result in a lifelong good eating habit. We need to prepare ourselves psychologically and keep a written plan of whatever changes we want to make.

That will not be enough if we don’t commit ourselves to the plan. We also have to make it a priority to know more about our diet. We need to read more to know more and ask the right questions from the right the source.

Healthy living is an important aspect of our lives and it’s prudent we hold it to the highest esteem.