National Complementary and Alternative Medical Association (NACAMA), has advised Nigerians to eat balanced diet as preventive medicine against known and emerging diseases.
The national president of NACAMA, Prof Peter Katchy gave the advice yesterday in Enugu while speaking on the 2021 World Food Day and the need for Nigerians to eat right and healthy foods.
The celebration is themed: “Our Actions Are Our Future – Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment and Better Life.”
Katchy said with good and nutritious food especially balanced diet, Nigerians have a chance to live healthy and fulfilled lives.
He pointed out that our surest survival strategy is to protect the body from illnesses by eating right- nutritious and healthy foods, adding that it is the best and the most rewarding approach.
He said, “We have the state of our health in our hands, because we are part of our health, as we are part of our diseases.
“It is true that our diseases have their root in food, which means that the food we eat has the capacity of nourishing us as well as planting a seed of illness or illnesses.
“When we eat a balanced diet, the cells in the body will be nourished, their activities will be optimal and we will enjoy a feeling of well-being.
“This emphasises that it is our individual responsibility to stay healthy, because no two persons own a body.
“When we talk about food, we are referring to the raw material that builds, maintains and repairs the body. We have two classes of food – balanced food and junk food.
“A balanced food contains the necessary nutritional chains of life in their right proportion and quality. A junk food contains a certain limited percentage of what nourishes us, and the other percentage nourishes the doctor’s pocket, because junk food causes malnutrition and ill-health.”
The NACAMA boss also warned against denatured foods through over processing, or wrong methods of cooking, while advocating for the consumption of more fruits and vegetables in meals in order to get the daily needed vitamins, minerals and fibres.
