It all starts in your kitchen

You are one of the guests at the Queen’s Gala Dinner. Tables are filled with all mouth-watering meals and you just cannot wait to start feasting. It is an all-you-can-eat buffet and you are ravenous. When some small pleasantries and talks have been completed, it is now time for the guests to eat. Then it hits you! You are on a strict diet. Holly molly! You have made a personal pledge that this year you are going to diligently work on your out-of-order body weight. Even the Queen would not force-feed you her delicious banquet. You slowly looked away with some teary eyes, trying to hide your pain-filled face from other guests as you heavy-heartedly sit back on your chair. Instead, you opted for the green-salad that has been on the table ever since you got here. It is a small consolation and a very heavy price to pay in order to reach your year target. Good Lord! Dieting is very difficult. You hear yourself whispering as you sip on the bottled water next to your half-finished bowl of green vegetables. You are envious on the lean and cylinder people next to you eating everything and anything without remorse. Yes! These are some of the few people whose genes allow them the luxury of eating gluttonously on almost everything. Unfortunately, you are not blessed with such genes, your diet matters. You are among the many who has to be careful of what they eat and when to eat. Many people, as you have already noticed a surge in obesity, have a very low tolerance to carbohydrates. For many, it is enough to just smell the fresh aroma of baked bread to get fat. You and many other people across the planet should limit your carbohydrates intake, or eliminate it completely from your diet if you want to get slim and lean. Fear not, carbohydrates are absolutely not necessary for your body. They are not essential. Look! Ever since you were young, you were told to eat a balanced-diet. But the reality of the matter is your plate has been comprised of more than 70% of carbohydrates, while the remaining portion has been protein and a little bit of fats. How has this advice worked for you till now? You really do not have to tell me, but all you got to do is stand in front of the mirror, maybe half naked, and tell me what you see. The person staring right back at you is not the person you recognise as yourself 10 years ago. You have bulged out of proportion. No! it is not age that has drastically reduced you to the shape you are in right now. It is not lack of activity or motivation either. It is the type of food that you have been feeding your body for the last 20, 30, 40 years. What you are witnessing is the negative feedback your body is sending you. It is the response letter to you following what you have been feeding yourself. Right now, you might be very cautious with your weight, but in reality, it is your health that you should be worried about. If you want to improve your health and ultimately your weight, maybe the kitchen is the right place to start. Traditionally speaking, a woman’s solace is primarily in the kitchen. It was the interaction with food preparation that women were able to forget their worries even if it was for a little while. The kitchen was seen as the sanctuary where men were forbidden to intrude. To the traditional women, the kitchen is the place where peace was prepared in the form of delicious meals. The modern kitchen however, with its sophisticated cooking utensils and cutlery has failed miserably to provide the kind of food that does not only leave men satisfied, but also obese while still hungry. Modern pantries are filled with highly processed foods that will take 0 to 5 minutes of preparation. These are fast-foods prepared in micro-waves and come pre-cooked by some machineries from across the continents. Most have had to travel thousands of kilometres before reaching your nearest grocery shop, and would still sit there for months before reaching your kitchen. Gone are the days when fresh meant “freshly picked from the back garden”. Once upon a time, fresh meat meant recently killed by your neighbour who is skilled in skinning the cow or sheep. “Fresh” these days means your food has been lying in the freezer for months before finding its way to your kitchen. This could mean, it has been picked or killed months or a year ago somewhere across the world. Pre-cooked means your food has been immersed in some chemicals that will ensure their “freshness” until they get to you. Nothing much is said about these chemicals, even if mentioned, they are normally written in a jargon that will leave your mind wondering what they mean let alone what their effect will be on your health. If you still have a traditional mentality like many of our rural brothers and sisters, then picking fresh vegetables from your own garden will not only save your money but will also have a positive impact on your health. It might still be a challenge for many of us who reside in towns to have our own fresh meat killed by us; but our local butcher is still far a better option than the nearby grocery store that sells pre-packaged meat from other countries. Nothing is far healthier than food prepared from scratch in your own kitchen, where meat still looks like meat and cabbage looks like “hloho ea Mokhehle” (a popular joke comparing a cabbage with Ntsu Mokhehle’s head). Eating real food is surely the only option we have in these days where everything is highly processed and filled with chemicals that have proved harmful to our already frail health. Your well-stuffed grocery unit is only as good as the food supplies in it. It is what you prepare that determines the direction of your health and that of your family. The food you prepare can only predict the quality of your health in the long run. So, in order to stay ahead of the pack, make sure you eat your greens from the local vendor, grown locally or produced by you from your own garden. Meat, should be purchased from local farmers or butcheries. “Buy local” has never had so much meaning in a time where food kills more people through metabolic diseases than it did in the past. Fighting metabolic syndromes and their repercussions should start from our own kitchens, where real foods are prepared as was the case back in the past when diabetes, obesity, cancer, dementia and other related diseases were unknown. Tšepang Ledia