By Johnny Coomansingh
Sometimes we spend time arguing about what we should eat and drink. Water, good clean water is good to drink but so many people avoid drinking this essential ingredient for good blood and health. Although it’s good for them, some individuals say that they don’t like the ‘taste’ of water. In her later years, we had to force our mother to drink water. She complained that her blood pressure was high so I firmly told her that she’s cooking with too much salt. “But ah like salt,” was her reply. What can we really do when some people are set in their ways? A few days ago I met someone who said that he doesn’t drink water. He substitutes the water with two 20-ounce bottles of Coca Cola every day. How good is that I can’t say. There is a statement that says: “One man’s poison is another man’s food.” I will not judge this individual because there is another statement I know: “Man know thyself.”
A third maxim I learnt was: “What is joke fuh yuh is death fuh crapaud (frog).” The boys in the village on rainy nights took pleasure in kicking crapaud. While they were having fun kicking the crapaud, the animal was slowly dying. It’s the same story a certain neighbor said when we suggested that he should not be smoking. He declared: “Cancer cures smoking.” Our food habits are just the same. Without exaggeration, there’s probably a fried chicken restaurant on every corner in Trinidad and no matter what the cost, in terms of money and health, the people keep flocking to buy fried chicken, potato chips and sugary soda. I have also noticed that all the jams and jellies on grocery shelves in Trinidad now contain High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). HFCS is not really good for human consumption. In 2012, Kalifa Clyne in her article ‘Health Minister: Obesity on the Rise’ published in the Trinidad Guardian stated:
“Obesity in Trinidad and Tobago has jumped from 25 to 55 per cent in the last ten years according to Health Minister Dr. Fuad Khan. Khan said these figures include cases of obesity among children. He made the statement to reporters after yesterday’s 3rd Executive Board meeting of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). “Women in T&T are becoming fatter,” he said. “Every time I look at the local fast food industry I feel like I’m losing the war.” The minister said the ministry is trying to put a national schools’ policy in place to look at getting young children to change their ways of thinking. “T&T is reviewing the National School Health Policy with the Ministry of Education and other key stakeholders to give a new direction in the promotion of students’ health from pre-school to university, as well as looking at a policy for reducing childhood obesity,” Khan said.”
What we drink and the food we eat is one thing. Nevertheless, up comes food safety issues. I am of the view that many food outlets in Trinidad are not up to snuff when it comes to food safety. Food borne illness is serious! I know because I’ve been there. Food safety requires a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) system to prevent contamination. The health sector should put more emphasis on this aspect of food production. I know what this is all about because I studied Food Production and Food Safety in the College of Human Ecology at Kansas State University. I was even certified in Food Safety by the American Restaurant Association.
I am almost sure that it was sometime in the early 1970s that I took ill with a bad case of food borne illness. As far as I could recall, I ate lunch at my favorite restaurant in Sangre Grande. The meal was pleasant but I had no clue what was to happen to me the next day. I woke up to ready myself to attend church but that was not to be. My system went into reverse and surely I reversed into the toilet about 18 times for the day. That was enough to have rendered me totally dehydrated. After the ‘disaster,’ I survived with enough strength to make for myself some ‘flour water.’ My mother instructed that we should take a little flour water if we were having symptoms of diarrhea, but there was no ease. The next day the news was bad enough for a visit to the drug store. Indeed, we all thought that the little Lomotil tablets would have worked. My problem went on and on but I did not visit the doctor. I thought that my problem would go away by itself.
With all my bowel troubles, I had to sail to Tobago to meet up with my friends. I chanced the sailing. During the night, the sailing was relatively calm, no problems at all until I arrived at my destination. As soon as I found out exactly where I was supposed to be I asked permission to visit the loo, and there I remained for quite a while. After completion of the ordeal, the hostess asked: “Are you feeling okay? You don’t look so well child…you look so pale.” Although I was in pain, I briefly explained to her my situation. She smiled and said: “Go and rest… I will help you to get over the problem.”
I never saw this lady before; I hadn’t the slightest inkling about who she was. By the way she was dressed with head wrap and all, I figured that she belonged to the Shouter Baptist religion. Kindly, she did as she promised. Every morning before breakfast she presented me with a large enamel cup full of a black tea. I didn’t know what this tea was made from but I had faith in her and drank every drop. This ritual went on for nine days, and what rejoicing; my dilemma dissipated. I was well again. It could be that this Tobagonian woman used some herbs (bush medicine) mixed with shavings from the coals she burned on her fireside. After some research later on in life I found that activated charcoal, that I never do without, is one of the best medicines for bloating and loose bowels.
Concerning the use of activated charcoal, I prescribed its use to one of my former bosses. I am not a medical doctor and no seerman. However, because of my perception, there are observations I make and draw conclusions about things and people in the environment. Expressions on the faces of individuals speak volumes if we look carefully at them and listen, not just hear them. Observing the discomfort as the woman in Tobago observed mine, is something we develop over time; practice makes perfect.
Every Monday morning we would both meet to discuss the plans for the week. On this particular morning, this young woman, this boss of mine was quite uneasy; uneasy enough to interrupt our discussions several times to visit the toilet just beyond the corridor. She was ill and I knew it was bad. I surmised that she went to a certain restaurant for dinner the night before. She was quite alarmed, and without guessing, I told her that I knew about her whereabouts. I told her that I knew exactly where she went, and what she ate for dinner. There was no denial in her eyes. Moreover, I told her that she is having a terrible day because of the shrimp that she ate. She had a loose bowel, hence the reason why she was relentlessly visiting the toilet.
Without any hesitation, I went to my vehicle, took out two charcoal tablets and came back to her. “I will give you these two activated charcoal tablets, and you’ll be fine in a record ten minutes.” She took the tablets and drank half of the glass of water. I said to her, “…it seems that you do not drink too much water, but I insist that you drink all the water to allow things to work.” Ten minutes elapsed and there she was sitting at her desk. She did not get up once during that period to go again. She smiled and said: “I feel well. It’s amazing, but how did you know all this about me?” I had no answer for her but that was one soul I convinced.
Eating the right foods and the correct amounts is the answer to many of the troubles we experience, especially with our stomachs. So many of us suffer with reflux esophagitis or simply reflux. This anti-peristaltic condition, this constant burping upheaval of acid could be due to what we are putting into our alimentary canal. We are the ones to check on what works for us. Change up the diet a little. Read more about what we should feed into the system.
Some of us feel lazy, sick, listless, depressed, hopeless, and totally out-of-it. One of my brothers who oftentimes use words out of context once said that he was feeling seldom as he lazily slouched on the banister. That was after he ate a big bowl of sancoche (a boil up of ground provisions, split peas and salted meat). Stephan Reis, talk show host on Breaking Dawn advised that your health begins with your stomach; what you put into it. In other words you become what you eat.
I am not one to advocate what people should eat, when they should eat and how they should eat. However, my mother used to say: “Eat little and live long.” Yesterday we celebrated Mother’s Day and although she departed this life at 95, I celebrated her with the song titled ‘She gave all she had’ that I created about her. Here’s a snippet:
“Ah piece ah pigtail, dasheen, fig and dumplin’
Boil up with split peas, look it bubbling…
Then she cook the same seim she pick in the yard
With rice, and salt beef, yuh know life was hard.
Ah piece ah coconut bake, butter and cheese
Tuh wash down with skim-milk-infused cocoa tea
And sometimes ah piece ah saltfish and two tomatoes
Dat is wuh she gih we tuh help we tuh grow.”
I am now in my senior years. I have lived through some trying experiences related to food borne illness in Trinidad, the United States, and Jamaica. What I know is that we must always be willing to change. Adjusting my pattern of what I consume is only part of the changes.
I have realized that flour, white rice and any form of pasta is not good for me so I’ve supplanted those products with small quantities of complex carbohydrates such as cassava, dasheen, eddoes, tannia, yam, sweet potatoes, green bananas, and plantains, a daily intake of water cress and something proteinaceous. Given my sedentary lifestyle, I am more apt to adjust, adopt and adapt to a better way of living. We all could do it but it takes a proactive approach to accomplish what’s best…eat well and eat safe.
