Good food - the best medicine

By Owolabi Peter

I can’t quite forget this soon, as I regularly remember an excerpt from the Inaugural Lecture of Professor Ramota Karim, a Professor of Food Science, University of Ilorin. She said, “ Mr Vice Chancellor Sir, Ladies and Gentlemen, To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art”. Impacted through that, I couldn’t help but think that I need to start eating intelligently, as thoughts kept coming through, I stumbled on another popular adage that says “you are what you eat”.

However, from ages long gone, the prebasic necessity of life which is feeding or Nutrition according to biological terms, has been ensured reasonably well. But as time passed by, some factors such as increase in chemical application, oil spillage and others rendering the nutritional values of human food lower than by-gone ages, humans then have to augment their meals with drugs, that were chemically prepared to suppress or eliminate diseases brought about by the nutritionally devalued foods.

To say that wasn’t enough, diseases grew even with the advent of drugs while foods are still grown inorganically (usage of fertilizers and other chemicals), because foods does much more than simply provide you with fuel. It is capable of promoting or worsening health, depending on what you eat. Furthermore, in the wakeW of these events, scientific research have proved that organically grown foods are more nutritive than the inorganic ones, as evidence does suggest that foods grown organically may be more nutritious as they contain low nitrate which reduces cancer as high nitrate levels are associated with an increased risk of certain types of cancer. Organic foods also release low pollution to the soil, as they preserve the water

and air condition of the soils. In addition, a research published by the NCBI in 2017 stated that, organic crops have higher antioxidant activity and between 18 and 69% higher concentrations of a range of individual antioxidants; increased intakes of polyphenolics and antioxidants has been linked to a reduced risk of certain chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and certain cancers.

Organically grown foods may be expensive as well as scarce, but they are definitely worth it. So I conclude with the words of Hippocrates “Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’, as it emphasizes the importance of nutrition to prevent or cure diseases.