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Changing food habits

Many lifestyle diseases can be averted — or contained — if we alter the way we eat. And what we eat

We are creatures of habit. Over time, we develop patterns and routines to which we become accustomed. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, humans have needs that are stacked in a pyramid hierarchy. The basic human needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements including the need for food, water, sleep and warmth. Once these lower-level needs have been met, then we move up to more psychological needs such as safety, love, esteem and self-actualisation.

The basic needs keep us alive. This is why daily habits revolve around patterns and 
routines that ensure that we get our critical supply of them. However, when things go wrong with our daily routines, we develop lifestyle illnesses and diseases. Lifestyle-induced illnesses are hard to cure because averting them means, often, we need to change habits we have become used to the point of mindless acceptance. As people now live longer, our unhealthy habits have more time 
to do damage, resulting in longer-term illnesses to which our diet and lifestyle are major contributing factors.

Recently, two people I know were 
diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Based on their experience, as well as those of others 
I have seen in the past, it is not an easy 
thing to grapple with. Having a diagnosis of a lifestyle disease means that to treat or cure the condition, you have to change everything you have allowed to become routine in 
your life — from what you eat to how you live. As one who has had to lead change communication campaigns, I know change is never easy. If it were, we would always be on automatic self-improvement.

When it comes to our diets, we 
develop an affinity and fondness for 
particular tastes, textures, combinations and volumes and even to how they make us feel afterwards. The physical nature of food incites reactions in our bodies that we get accustomed to. It is easy to use food to self medicate when we have other issues or ailments because they cause chemical reactions that seem to pacify an immediate need. That’s 
exactly why life always seems better after a large bowl of pasta or a huge bucket of ice cream (can you feel me?).

If we use food in an unhealthy manner and combine that with lifestyle habits like lack of exercise, desk jobs and smoking, our health spirals out of control. Isn’t it ironic that the very things that make us feel better in the short term actually make us worse over time? Meanwhile, healthier food options (not always the tastiest) and exercise (physically strenuous) seem like punishment in the short term but cures us in the long term.

If you (or your loved ones) have been recently diagnosed with a lifestyle 
disease, do not lose hope. While it is hard to change the way of life we have been accustomed to, it is not impossible.

Depending on the severity of the case, gradual adjustments may be possible so ease into the changes in a sustainable way. Go for the big impact modifications first and then add all the other elements that will revamp your health and life over time. The thing is that, health wise, we can become accustomed to feeling less than well if that is how we feel everyday. The moment we begin to feel better is the moment when we realise just how bad we felt before. Remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The trick is to keep going one step at a time. Here’s to your health!