|
25th July, 2010
KOTA KINABALU: The human body is an intelligent mechanism with a self-healing ability and one does not need a PhD in nutrition or be a doctor to take care of their health, said a renowned pharmacist.
“Our body is always healing, our body knows what to do and we should give it what it needs,” said Dato’ Dr Rajen M during the ‘Cancer, Cholestoral and Caveman – What You Should Know’ seminar held at Hyatt Regency near here yesterday.
The seminar, jointly organized by Total Health Concept’s subsidiary Holista Colltech and Joy Pharmacy Sdn Bhd, was aimed at creating awareness of cancer, cholesterol and modern ways of maintaining health, as well as ways increasing awareness of a healthy lifestyle and motivating families to eat and live well.
Dr Rajen, a notable speaker from Kuala Lumpur, said when it comes to their health many people disregard their inner voice.
“Our body knows that to do. Even in sleep our body goes through a detoxification process.” he said. “When we live in harmony with nature and give our body the right environment we tend to get sick less,” he added.
Dr Rajen said the caveman’s diet is much healthier compared to modern diet and we ought to consume more ‘real’ food and less ‘fake’ food as practiced by cavemen millions of years ago.
“Real food has low GI (glycemic index) and can be taken raw or on its own and is spoilable and colourful. Examples are eggs, vegetables, fish, nuts, meat and grains,” explained Dr Rajen. “Fake food on the other hand has high GI and has been processed and commercially produced such as noodles, cornflakes and popcorns among others. Our body has no defence against fake food.”
He said whenever we consume ‘real’ or natural food, our body’s defence mechanism tells us when to stop eating but when we take ‘fake’ food we tend to overeat and our body has no defence against this kind of food.
Dr Rajen added in choosing our diet we should stick to two basic guidelines: Can I eat the food raw? Which came first?
“The sort of food that ‘came first’ is healthier and good for us as they are natural not processed – the kind of food our forefathers and grandparents eat. For example, before you choose what to eat ask yourself whether the food has been heavily processed or contains more synthetic sugar or other unnatural ingredients,” he said. “Citing some examples, durian is better than wholemeal bread and we should choose butter over margarine.”
He said where possible we should eat food in its raw form as it is nature’s perfect food. He said raw food contains more vitamins and minerals and get spoiled quicker compared to processed food which tends to last longer.
Dr Rajen also pointed out that the body’s number one enemy is sugar – even rice should not be consumed too much due to its natural sugar content and should be eaten sparingly.
“Rice after having being cooked is vitaminless, fibreless and enzymeless. In fact a bowl of cooked rice contains 10 teaspoons of sugar,” he elaborated. “Sugar is so toxic there is no part in our body that stores it and too much sugar will only be converted into body fat.”
Citing an example, Dr Rajen said the average Malaysian takes about 50 teaspoons of sugar in their daily consumption of noodles and rice.
“A nasi campur contains 10 teaspoons of sugar, teh tarik has two teaspoons of sugar and even our favourite beverage like Milo contains 40% of sugar,” he said.
Dr Rajen is a member of the Ministry of Health’s standing Committee in Traditional Medicine and a member of the Alumni Research Causus and Industry Advisory Panel of University Sains Malaysia. He holds a doctorate in Holistic Medicine from the University of LaSalle, USA.
|
