BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA

Mrs.Debo Thompsom is an acclaimed traditional medicine practitioner with numerous awards to her credit. During a recent chat with Vista Woman, this 70 year old CEO of Loftie Natural Medicine who believes the eating habit of most Nigerians is destructive, bemoaned the carefree attitude of Nigerians towards digging dip into the  nutritional essence of the food they eat.

Hear her:   I actually noticed that the more I wanted to know more about plants, the more knowledge I had revealed to me. For instance, when I was writing for Vanguard Newspapers many years ago, I wrote about Dyspepsia. Out of interest, I later found that we have a very simple remedy for it. This remedy is even something we ignorantly throw away in the dustbin. I’m talking about cocoa shell here!

Dyspepsia is a state of hyper acidic condition in the whole body. It’s a state at which certain uncooked and secondary substances cannot be digested. The problem may be gall-bladder or liver inactivity. It is caused by eating too much processed, synthesized and devitalized foods. That is what majority of Lagosians eat, especially at fast food joints- no live food, everything is overcooked or over processed. Dried and grounded cocoa shell is simply what is needed to correct this state of health. However, out of ignorance, people sit down for hours in the hospital; waiting to be helped.

We are in the jet age now with a lot of technological advancements which sadly, we have approached wrongly in Nigeria. Overseas and in some developed countries, people have  ample knowledge about how to eat right to improve on their health. But here in Nigeria, we feel that eating processed foods is what shows that we are educated and exposed. Why on earth should children be fed with junk meals in the morning before they go to school when they are supposed to start the day with fruits or light breakfasts like cereals? This shouldn’t be just cornflakes but wheat and others that can easily be digested.

In fact, children are supposed to eat food with roughages, especially before they go to school in the morning. They shouldn’t be forced to eat heavy food in the morning when in fact they are not ready for food because of the time.

Normally, we have three circles in a day, and these three are broken into eight hours. You’re not supposed to eat heavy food in the morning. Mid-day till 8 o’clock in the night should be the last time you should eat food. More importantly, you should eat food with common sense i.e eat vegetable, protein, etc.

Mono diet is actually suggested for most meals nowadays because it helps you know which food you’re allergic to. When I consider the lifestyle of the olden days and that of now, I find that we’ve moved to the synthetic era here, and it’s obviously causing lots of diseases like cancer. People no longer eat right!  In fact, in a day, if care is not taken, many people end up not eating fruits, vegetables or taking enough water. When you go down memory lane, you’ll remember that our ancestors would often roast or boil yams and eat them with palm oil and raw pepper! That contributed to what made them live longer.

At any time in the village also, people  eat fruits and vegetables. Whereas, when you come to town, fried foods are encouraged! Food already rotten in the fridge are being given to people.  The more you eat food stored in the freezer for a long time, the more sick you become because you’re not taking anything fresh which nature requires of us.

When my kids were growing up, I made sure they ate fruits everyday. I could remember I used to give them carrot sandwich to take to school. I think we have to re-order our lifestyles by eating right. I for instance have been regenerated just by learning to eat right. When I was 35 years of age, I was looking very sick; compared to how I look now at 70.

Some mothers would say they are unable to give fresh foods to their families because of their tight schedules. They use this as an excuse for  storing foods in the refrigerator for weeks. But I want to tell such mothers today that they are doing nothing but breeding sick families! Of course you can store certain foods for one week in the freezer(not fridge) because that is the only way you can prevent bacteria, but not for weeks! I encourage people to eat at least one uncooked food in a day; it’s wrong to eat only cooked food throughout the day.

Also, instead of eating polished rice all the time, I recommend ofada rice! Even all these noodles that we give to children to eat these days are really not food. I often tell this to my grand-children and every other child around me: “Each time you are served rice anywhere without salad or beans or vegetable, tell them your mother said you should not take it!” It’s as simple as that.

How can a child be living on noodles or semolina which are synthetic to the core? Actually, what makes a human being is the type of food he or she eats. Nature has provided everything we need. It’s just that we have to use it with common sense. We push the blame to our economy, but I don’t think it’s the economy that is preventing us from eating right. The problem is that we are not making it a choice to eat what we should eat. When children are given the right food, even their memory develops well.

If we claim it’s the bad economy, I want to categorically state that money is flowing nowadays in the economy more than it used to in my time. By eating right, we can save on the money spent on hospital bills as a result of bad eating habit. I’ve seen cases of people taking cold water in the morning under the disguise of adhering to the four glasses of water recommended. That’s wrong! Warm water is what is recommended!

Taking a cold drink after eating a lot of oily food could congeal the oil in the heart!  This is why we have a lot of heart-attacks and deaths here and there.

I am a natural healer, but I believe in regenerative health; the reordering of lifestyle to enable one feed better and live better. By so doing, the quality of life will become better.’