" YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT"

Fabian was a thin little boy, 6 years old, who was brought to see me by his parents for treatment for a skin rash all over his body which was red, itchy and showed signs of being scratched all over the body. His mother said his appetite was poor, and it was hard to feed him. He had suffered from fits and in spite of anti-convulsant therapy which sedated him, was still very difficult to handle. His mother said that he was really a handful; he was rude, cranky, disobedient and hyperactive. I examined Fabian and discovered he was allergic to animal products. I advised his parents to stop his milk, eggs, honey, meats, fish etc. His mother said "he can never do that, he lives on Hamburgers and milk shakes." I explained to Fabian and his family, that by stopping animal products his stomach pain and skin rash would go away and that he would be more calm. We discussed the food he liked and worked a diet which was both agreeable to him good for his health which his mother could manage to produce. He agreed to try this diet and see me again in a few weeks.

The next month a happy, smiling little boy bounded up to me in my waiting room and said "Hello Dr. Manik, I'm much better." The skin was no longer red & itchy and his mother said he was a changed child. Happy, smiling and no longer hyperactive. Fabian saw me again 8 weeks later, his skin had healed completely, he had put on weight and was comfortable. We then reduced his anti-convulsant and over the next few months we took him entirely off his medication. A year later Fabian returned to the US for a holiday and ate hamburgers his favourite food again, within a week he was again surly, unruly, and hyperactive. His mother called me up frantically, with this story I advised her again to keep Fabian off all animal products and the problem would subside; it did and Fabian and his family learnt an important lesson - "If he ate the wrong things he would be sick."

Fabian was unfortunate that because of the pesticides in the hamburgers he had been eating he developed this allergy. By becoming a vegetarian he regained his health.

Helga was a Swedish lady who had moved to India for spiritual purposes. She had turned vegetarian and came to see me saying she was always tired, had no energy, had body ache, and constant indigestion. I examined her and found that she was suffering from severe malnutrition. Her family had been eating meat for centuries with very little carbohydrate. As a result she did not have the enzymes to digest the rice, lentils and vegetables she was eating. I modified her diet, added on more nuts & soya bean products and in a few weeks she was feeling much better again.

Each of us has a unique constitution which requires an individualized diet for our bodies to function optimally. What may be good food for one person may be entirely unsuitable for another person. All foods are not suitable for all people at all times in their lives. Wrong diet is an important cause of illness. Unfortunately these simple facts are often not understood in most families. That is why in a family where everyone eats the same food, people maintain different degrees of health. Some are very well & some are very sick.

To achieve & maintain good health you need a diet which is properly designed to provide you with adequate quantities of all the essential nutrients for you to thrive. This diet has to be tailored and prescribed for you after considering your type of constitution, age, the climate you live in, your occupation, body weight, genetic predisposition, food habits & preferences, disease states, past illnesses and future anticipated health problems.

The constitution of each individual requires different foods for his body to thrive, and our bodies do give us indications about the type of food we need. Often a mother may tell a child "Drink your milk it is good for you," and the child may say "Milk makes me sick." This statement may often be very true as many children are in fact allergic to milk and taking milk may really make them sick. "One man's meat is another man's poison" is a well known saying with a lot of truth.

A car runs best when we use the correct type of fuels and oils in its engine. It runs poorly when we put in other fuels like kerosene & diesel in place of petrol or when we use poor quality petrol or use the incorrect grade of oils. Similarly our bodies run best when we feed it the correct types of food which allow it to function optimally. Foods which contain preservatives, artificial colourings, flavourings, antibiotics, MSG and pesticides, irritate our body and poison our immune system. Diseases which may occur from ingesting these substances, include allergies, auto immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, liver or kidney failure, Cancer and a greater predisposition to many infectious diseases. Food allergies are a common cause of many health problems which are not limited to the digestive tract. These are described in a separate chapter.

"Hippocrates" the father of medicine is said to have started his textbook of Medicine with the words "You are what you eat". Hippocrates was also one of the first physicians to link milk consumption to gastrointestinal disorders. Unfortunately his present day successors in western medicine have forgotten his wise words and have concentrated on drug therapy, neglecting the safe, time tested and effective treatment method of dietary regulation. While we still take the Hippocratic oath, much of Hippocrates centuries' old wisdom, which is still relevant today, has been forgotten in the last century due to the excitement of new scientific discoveries.

Ancient and time tested systems of medicine like Ayurveda believe that many health problems result from an incorrect diet. Hence Ayurveda places a lot of emphasis on analysing the constitution of the individual and prescribing an individualized diet based on the type of constitution to strengthen and preserve his health.

Foods which contain preservatives, artificial colourings, flavourings, antibiotics, MSG and pesticides, irritate our body and poison our immune system. Diseases which may occur from ingesting these substances, include allergies, auto immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, liver or kidney failure, Cancer and a greater predisposition to many infectious diseases.

For a healthy life a healthy diet is essential. We should be moderate in our habits as an excess of anything is bad. The Arndt-Schultz law states "A small amount stimulates, little more sedates and an excess causes destruction ". This is true of all things in life and too much food can kill you. Excess of any food has harmful effects on health. A diet rich in fat can kill you early by causing atherosclerosis and heart disease.

We should eat enough to satisfy our hunger, but not so much as to make ourselves uncomfortably full.

Modern research has shown that vegetarians live longer and are healthier than non-vegetarians. When we are young, we may be able digest food of animal origin like milk, eggs, chicken and meats easily. As we grow older we find it harder to digest these rich and heavy foods. Red meats and fats are appropriate in cold climates where life is arduous. In tropical countries like India, energy requirements to maintain body temperature are lower than in cold European countries, and a vegetarian diet is healthier and more appropriate.

  Vegetables and fruit when eaten raw, give you the full benefit of their vitamin and fibre content. High fibre foods like fruits and raw vegetables, leave a large indigestible residue, which ensure rapid and regular expulsion of the undigested food matter in the form of a stool. In a diet predominantly of animal origin, containing a lot of refined carbohydrates and fats, the residue of undigested food matter is small. This small amount of residue moves slowly along the large intestine causing constipation.

Cooking food makes it easier to digest by helping the breakdown of the fibre in the food to easily digestible starch & protein. Vegetables which need to be cooked should either be steamed, grilled or lightly stir fried in a steel or cast iron wok with a high flame for four or five minutes in the minimum quantity of oil. This form of cooking seals the flavour, vitamins and minerals into the food and the short duration of cooking restricts the inactivation of the vitamins which takes place with prolonged cooking. Boiling inactivates many of the vitamins and removes minerals present in the food. This fact is used in making soups where the minerals and other nutrients migrate into the liquid. Hence water used to boil foods, is rich in minerals and can be used to enrich other food items.

For optimum nutrition we should eat a varied diet with different vegetables, fruit and grain. This is because each food contains different nutrients by way of vitamins, minerals & trace elements. By eating a varied diet, the body is able to selectively absorb those elements which it needs for its growth and well being.

Diet and Biorhythms.

It has been postulated in traditional systems of medicine that each organ functions best at a certain time of day. This concept led western scientists to discover the body's biorhythms, and so decide the optimum time for different types of therapy so as to cause minimal disruption of the body's natural cycles.

The digestive system goes through two cycles; the Eliminative cycle and the Energizing cycle. The Eliminative cycle starts in most people in the early morning (approximately 3 a.m. and continues till early afternoon 3 pm) In the first half of the day, we should eat those types of food, which aid in elimination. These should be foods which are rich in fibre, like raw vegetables, fresh fruits and high fibre cereals like oats. We should also take enough fluids to help the body eliminate the undigested residues of our foods. This is why most of us pass stools in the morning rather than in the evening.

The energizing cycle starts in the afternoon, so if we eat an early lunch at 12 noon it should start with a salad, and be a light meal. The heavy meals of the day should be after 3 pm at teatime or dinner. Many people do not feel hungry at breakfast but feel hungry by 4 pm They should listen to their bodies and eat their heavier meals at this time.

Breakfast should be a light meal consisting mainly of fruit and fruit juice and cereals like porridge, oats or bran. Lunch should ideally consist of salad and rice, vegetable, fish or dal (lentils). The heaviest meal of the day should be dinner followed by rest and sleep.

Conversely about 20% of people have the cycle reversed. These people usually live in cold climates where energy usage during the night is heavy to maintain body temperature. In the morning they need more food to compensate for this usage of energy. For these people their breakfast should be heavy, followed by rest or light activity. Lunch and dinner should then be light meals with lots of salad & fruit. This cycle also changes in climates where there are extreme variations in conditions between summer and winter. The biorhythms also undergo changes and the food requirements change at different times of the year. The golden rule is listen to your body not to your mind & taste buds when deciding on what is the right food for you. If the food you are eating is good for you, you will feel healthy and rested. The stomach should never feel heavy, distended or painful. These are signs that something is wrong with your diet.

Everybody should experiment with both these models and see which one suits their constitution and makes them feel well. We have all seen that in cold climates our appetite increases as the body requires more calories to maintain our body metabolism and temperature. So calorie requirements vary according to the climate, temperature and level of activity.

Our body contains five litres of blood which circulates in different parts of the body depending on the need of each organ. The body has an intricate system of valves, which open and close, sending the blood to different organs depending on their need. When we exercise, the majority of our blood goes to our arms and legs to supply the muscles. When we think, more blood goes to the brain, while when we eat more blood goes to our intestines. We feel sleepy after heavy meals because blood is diverted from the brain, the muscles and the other organs to the digestive tract. A heavy meal makes us sleepy so working after a heavy meal does not allow us to work efficiently. Hence organizations who serve or encourage heavy meals to their employees at lunch, are in fact sacrificing productivity after lunch.

After a heavy meal more blood is diverted to our digestive system, and so the intelligent thing to do after a heavy meal is to sleep. We should listen to the cues, which we receive from our body. To go for walk after a heavy meal is stupid, because we compel the body to divert blood from the intestine where it is digesting the food to the muscles. As a result the digestion of food is incomplete, causing indigestion and malabsorption of the food which may lead to hyperacidity and flatulence. In fact many people get a heart attack after a heavy meal as blood is also diverted away from the heart muscle to the intestines for digestion of food. Eating food till we are over full also compromises the proper blood circulation to the heart as the over full stomach presses on the heart which lies in close proximity preventing its proper functioning.

At meal times we should eat enough to satisfy our hunger but not so much to make us uncomfortably full.