What do you do when you know you have a physical problem but do not want to deal with it?
Before you respond, let me give you some advice: do something about it now, not next week, next month, or next year. Do not procrastinate or pretend it does not exist. I did all those things and I’m regretting it now.
My situation got so bad (this was pre-Covid) that I finally had no choice but to go get myself checked out.
Sure enough, I was informed I had a condition. The diagnosis took some time and speculation on the doctor’s part. After multiple tests and X-rays, they finally found a name for it.
But it went by a set of letters that disguised esoteric medical terms that I did not even know how to spell.
Finally, I was told I had an auto-immune disease. A what? That is a disease that is an admission of ignorance on the medics’ part.
I say that because it does not get close to specifying what the problem is, how it came about, or how it can be cured.
I was left with my five letters, C-TEPH (Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension). It started long before Covid but I waited a long time to address it, and it got worse as a consequence.
I was left with several prescriptions and told they would help but not cure the chronic condition. Chronic, I discovered, meant it would never go away, meaning there was no cure, according to medical science.
That is when I got down to researching foods, especially as the haematologist told me I could no longer eat my beloved spinach, sukuma wiki, and terere (amaranth).
I had to figure out what was good for me to eat and what was not. I also discovered that the right kind of food could help to improve my condition, and maybe even cure it.
I have learned to love researching foods and finding out what they contain. I even discovered I do not need to eat red meat or lots of carbohydrates or processed foods.
Fresh fruits and vegetables, and legumes such as lentils and beans are generally the best things to eat.
Not everyone will want to become a vegetarian, and even I occasionally eat fish or chicken.
I know eating proteins is essential to staying strong and making sure my immune system is being fortified. But red meat is not the only protein in your diet.
Nowadays I eat veggies until they are coming out of my ears, I know how healthy they are. I believe many Kenyan communities had very healthy diets in pre-colonial times.
For instance, the Kikuyu love their githeri (maize and beans) and also their mukimo (potatoes boiled and mashed with peas, maize, and greens of all types), both of which are healthy foods.
The Luos eat lots of fish, which is extremely good for protein and all sorts of vitamins and minerals.
Every Kenyan community learned what vegetables and fruits were edible and restorative, and which herbs to take when they had specific maladies.
Many indigenous and ancient food practices have been lost and forgotten, displaced by Western eating practices, some of which are delicious, but non-restorative to the body.
One of the discoveries I have found is that simple spices are also good for the body. You may already be consuming these nutritious traditional foods, but again, I must advise that the use of too much cooking oil can destroy the progress one might be achieving.
I confess I am now an extremist when it comes to eating fats. I don’t, as a rule. I boil and bake and cook with various spices, starting with garlic and ginger, tomato and onion. They go into all my hot meals.
