Diary 79- Health food for high income Malaysian population

As you are aware, Malaysia aims to achieve the status of high-income country by year 2020.

By 2020, Malaysian population will have higher purchasing power and a better quality of life.

This will lead to higher expectations on the food consumed: safe and quality food, health and nutritional food.

Malaysians then are knowledgeable, health conscious and highly concerned about what they eat and how food is produced and processed.

To meet this demand, the Malaysian government is finalizing its new Fourth National Agriculture Policy covering the period 2011 and 2020.

The policy framework is to create value based on consumers’ needs for quality, safety, nutrition, functionality and environmental sustainability.

Most importantly, consumer demand will ensure a viable market for organic products, biodegradable packaging materials, energy-efficient farming and processing techniques.

In view of this development, it may be time for all of us to think about the food we take and how it affects our quality of life.

Diary 78- Do you consume ordinary food?

Harbhajan Singh and I had the below conversation when we met at a workshop in Ipoh on 27 April 2010. I earlier passed him my health book, Eating for Good Health.

“Did you take the fried noodles during the break?” “No”.

“Did you eat the fried rice during break?” “No”

“Did you drink the tea with milk served?” “No, I bring my own health cereal.”

“As a health book author, I will be very irresponsible if I do not practice what I write in the book”.

“OK, I will purchase a copy of your book”.

However, there are always exceptions where breaking the rule is unavoidable such as visiting my parents in the village, attending wedding dinners and meeting new aboriginal friends. In such cases, the selection of food is confined to the vegetables and simple drinks.

Diary 77- No Nutrition in Organic Food?

Someone sent an email reminding the group members that there is no difference in nutrition of organic and ordinary food. Therefore, there is no need to consume organic food.

After reading the above email & information, I can only say that this is world of information diversity. It is up to the readers to make their own decision on to what extent they want to consume organic food or ordinary food. I do not intend to initiate an argument but just like to share the below with you.

1. How good is organic food for our health? Please read Kushi M & Jack A (2003). The Macrobiotic path to Total Health. New York: Ballantine Books.

2. You may continue to take ordinary food containing chemical fertilizer & pesticides. You may not feel the impact because for toxin in the vegetable, it is water soluble. It is thus not difficulty to detoxify this toxin. However, if you do not manage to detox this toxin, what do you think its impact on your health in the long run? Time will tell.

3. If you have a choice to choose organic food which is free from fertilizer & pesticides, would you still prefer the ordinary food grown with chemical fertilizer and pesticides?

4. Health is a matter of personal choice. You do not have to convince others. In my case, since taking health food (including organic food), I have not visited the clinic for the past 14 years and my family members are in good health. What else do you want in life when your family members do not take medicines and food supplement? Moreover, my late father-in-law, a cancer-patient, was able to lengthen his life for 10 years by taking health food. Even though eventually he passed away in 2009, it was a peaceful departure when we said "good-bye" & "see you again next life" to him.

5. Your health affects your happiness and family life as well as life on earth. Read John Robbins's books entitled "Diet for a New America" and "Food Revolution".

6. For these reasons, I encourage those having awareness to consume health food. Those interested in (4) should read my health book 'eating for Good health". If you do not wish to get a hard copy from me, find the contents in this blog.

Best health to all.

Diary 76- Meeting A Malay Vegetarian

It was a glad occasion to meet Mr Azami, aged 38, this morning (26 April 2010) at an official function in KL. He is the first Malay I met who said that he has been a vegetarian for the past 10 years.

We all know vegetarians are common among the Chinese Malaysians but Malay practicing vegetarian diet is a rare species.

He said that actually there are about 10 Malays he knows, in their 20s, who become vegetarians for environmental reason. They work in various NGOs.
Why did he become a vegetarian?

In 2000, his body weight was about 132 kg. He realizes the needs to overcome obesity to avoid various potential diseases. Over the years, he gradually switched to become a full vegetarian who does not even take any egg today.

What is the impact? His body weight reduces to 92 kg now. Fantastic! A reduction of 40 kg! I share his joy.

He plans to reduce the body weight further. With the current diet, I am sure he will be able to do so.

What are the challenges for him? He has to explain to friends and relatives why he becomes a vegetarian.

Saudara Azami, welcome to the world of healthy living!

Diary 75- Health Talk at Subang Jaya

This morning (25 April 2010), I delivered a health talk entitled “Living healthily without medicine at Subang Jaya Buddhist association (SJBA).

The turn-out was very encouraging with about 150 people attended the special health talk.

The talk lasted 70 minutes while the Q&A session took another 40 minutes.

Members were keen to learn about health food and how it can help them to attain and reclaim good health.

SJBA is special in the sense that the committee members are keen to promote healthy eating habit.

I met the leader, Ng Swee Aun, about three years ago when he attended my health talk in Petaling Jaya. The talk today was able to take place as Swee Aun felt that I could contribute something to the members and the general public. He even managed to share with us a recorded DVD program on cancer curing food, which is based on scientific research in Korea and Japan.

The members at SJBA are lucky to have Ivan Ho, an organic farmer, selling his products at SJBA every Sunday. After today’s talk, I observed that practically all his products were sold out. Last week, I prepared a 1-page proposal helping Ivan to initiate a farmers’ market in Petaling Jaya.

The committee members at SJBA are planning to allow interested members to start organic farming in the vacant compound. I hope someone will take up the idea.

SJBA and Swee Aun have shown a good example in promoting organic farming. Swee Aun earns my respect for doing all these good deeds.

It will open up a new window of health for members and their family members.

Diary 74- Food Allergies

Food allergy occurs when the body’s immune system identifies specific food item as “foreign” and produces antibodies, called immunoglobulin E (lgE), which attacks the food item. The chemicals released in the process cause unpleasant side effects.

Any food can cause an allergic reaction.

The common allergy-provoking food in children includes cow’s milk protein, egg, soya bean, wheat, peanuts and fish.

For adults, the common allergy-provoking food includes nuts, mushrooms and seafood such as fish, prawn, crab, shrimp, clam and squid.

Food allergies may be related to addictives and preservatives including monosodium glutamate (MSG), sodium benzoate, sulphites and tartrazine.

Among the symptoms of food allergies are itching in the mouth, swelling of the mouth or throat, body rashes, wheezing, nausea, diarhoea, vomiting and anaphylaxis (an extreme allergic reaction.

You should now know what to do to avoid food allergies.

Diary 73- Malaysian Cancer Statistics

Below are the cancer statistics for the Malaysian situation based on the National Cancer Registry Report 2006.

Cancer incidences:
Males =100 per 100,000 population
Females = 120 per 100,000 population
Chinese = 161 per 100,000 population
Indians = 93 per 100,000 population
Malays = 72 per 100,000 population.

All of us need to understand the above and take steps to prevent the occurrence of cancer.

Do not become a victim of this life threatening disease.

Much of the cancer is related to the food we take every day.

I will share with you some of scientific facts on cancer at appropriate time.

Diary 72- 112-Year Old Teresa Hsu

Last night (16 April 2010), I drove for almost 2-hour (due to evening after work traffic congestion) from Selayang to Subang Jaya Buddhist Association (SJBA). It was a worthy trip.

This was a rare opportunity to see and listen to 112-year old Teresa Hsu of Singapore.

For the benefit of those who may not have a chance to encounter her, the followings help explain why she is able to live that long while the average age of Malaysian is about 75.

How can we live a longer life? Ha! Ha! Ha!

What is your favorite food? Vanilla ice-cream.

How many hours do you sleep per day? I do not have a clock.

Congratulation for conferring an honorable doctorate degree. It was a mistake.

How to deal with difficult peoples? They are the unhappy people in society. Transfer merits and happiness to them via medication.

What if these difficult peoples continue to make things difficult for you? Keep a distance or just walk away.

How do you console people whose loved one just passed away? Tell him or her that the loved one has gone to heaven and live a happy life there. I will ask if he or she likes to listen to a child song. If he or she is ready, I sing one to cheer them up.

Do you ever fall sick? No chance to fall sick.

Why do you encourage people taking vegetarian food? We should not enjoy life at the expense of animal suffering.

How do you perceive death? I have no experience.

What is your advice to us? We are all brothers and sisters. Let’s show our love and compassion towards each other.

Sister Teresa Hsu was on wheel-chair as she had a fall recently. I hope she will recover soon.

The next time meeting her, I will make a request to hug her. May she live longer in good health.

Diary 71- Water for Healing

Have your heard of Dr Masaru Emoto?

He is the author of Messages from Water and Water Crystal Healing.

His experiments showed that when water is exposed to prayer, good thoughts, pleasant words, melodic music & songs, beautiful water crystals are formed.

On the other hand, bad thoughts, angry words, hard rock and metal music produce crazy crystal pattern.

Amazing!

More interestingly, pure and energized water from the former situation is related to the use of water for healing.

It is a common religious practice among the Buddhists to recite the Great Compassion Mantra to glasses of water.

With Dr Masaru’s findings, we now better understanding the Great Compassion water served at the various temples are well demanded by the devotees.

Other religious devotees also use such water for healing by reciting praying verses.

We do not know the actual impact of this practice. One thing for sure, drinking such water provides psychological comfort to patients and their family members.

Diary 70- Prostate Enlargement

This is a man’s problem. But man’s spouse should understand the problem too as it affects your life.

Scientifically it is called benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH.

It is believed to affect most men aged 45 and above.

Generally, the number of men with BOH increases with age. By 60, 50% of men is expected to have some signs of BHP.

BPH puts pressure on the uretha ad can cause a number of urinary symptoms such as frequent urination, difficulty starting urination, terminal dribbling, incomplete emptying of the bladder and inability to urinate at all.

As symptoms progress, a man may be at higher risk of bladder stones, bladder infection and even cancer.

As men age, the male sex hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT) starts to build up in the prostate, which causes the prostate to slowly enlarge.

My late father-in-law used to eat a lot of meat and sea food and was subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 61.

Can this problem be prevented?

I believe we can if we consume health food daily.

Diary 69 - Gout

Let’s learn something about gout.

Gout is a form of arthritis.

It is caused by a buildup of uric acid in the blood.

When uric acid crystallizes in the joints, it causes inflammation and pain.

Gout is becoming more common partly because of obesity epidemic.

What trigger attacks of gout? Consuming a lot of meat, seafood, sugar, alcohol (especially beer).

Frutose, the main sweetener in many sugar beverages, also increases uric acid levels in the blood.

What if one has gout?

Eat more fruit, vegetables and low-fat products.

Consume less meat, seafood, sugar, alcohol (especially beer).

Diary 68- Obesity Among Aborigines

While visiting two aboriginal villages in Perak yesterday (12 April 2010), it was observed that obesity is becoming obvious among the forest-dependent aborigines in Peninsular Malaysia.

In the first village in Bidor, the female aboriginal leader, categorized as overweight, has not been in good health for the last two week.

She attributes this to the warm weather and frequent travelling around the country. I gave her a copy my health book two weeks ago and hope that this would open up her mind.

The male leader of the other village in Gopeng is obviously obese.

Both are between 30 and 40 years old.

Some of the aboriginal leaders I met do not have better health. It is a pity that they do not know how to take care of their health.

Their struggle for better livelihood among the aborigines would suffer.

Diary 67- More Obese Malaysians

The news is not good as there are now more Malaysians categorized as obese.

The National Health and Morbidity Survey in 2006 showed the following statistics (Sunday Star, 11 April 2010).

The number of obese adults had more than tripled over a decade, from 4% in 1996 to 14% in 2006.

About 38% of youngsters aged between 12 and 18 were classified as overweight.

It was reported that “a recent survey of 10,000 students showed that 24% of those aged between six and 12 were either overweight or obese.

What is the implication on you and your children?

Being obese and overweight would lead to chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and even cancer.

If one of your family members is having such a problem, you could feel the suffering of all family members. Other than mental and physical suffering, there is likely to be a big hole in your pocket.

Act now to check overweight and obesity among your immediate family members.

Diary 66- Mosquito Bite

What has mosquito bite to do with health?

My wife’s school was having gotong royong to clean up the school compound yesterday (10 April 2010).

As the teacher responsible for cleaning the clogged drain, she has to show the good example by leading the team of students.

There were lots of mosquitoes in the clogged drain.

The students suffered with lots of mosquito bite. Their hands and legs soon showed red signs of mosquito bites.

My wife was the only exception. No mosquito bit her.

Sounds amazing.

Why? She did not use any mosquito repellent.

She felt the answer lies with the health food we take every day. She has stopped taking meat for the last 10 years.

The other reason we can think of is releasing mosquitoes caught in the mosquito nets certainly helps in the long run.

Sounds unscientific. It is true for those saving lives and do not take any meat. If we do not harm animals, no animals would harm us.

Diary 65- Drinking Coffee

“Coffee or tea?”

This is the commonly asked by the waiters and waitresses serving breakfast, lunch or dinner at restauranst.

“Are you not taking coffee? It is antioxidant.”

I have given up coffee with milk and sugar for the last 14 years.

Pure coffee may be antioxidant.

However, when this type of coffee is made into instant drinking mixed with dairy products and sugar, it may not be good to the body in the long run.

I do not drink coffee but do not stop those I love and care from doing so. My wife drinks coffee occasionally. I accompany her for this drink at her favorite shop where I choose a glass of wheatgrass drink.

She is reminded that she will have to pay the price later.

Health is a matter of choice.

Diary 64: Conversation with A Dato’

Whenever I have a little free time, I would find chance to talk to people about my health book.

I met this Dato’ at Kota Baru Airport on 31 March 2010.

“Did you choose to talk to me?”

“Not really. I am just looking around to see if there is anyone who might be interested in my
health book. You look like one of them.”

“What is so special about your book?”

“Well. There are two messages in this book. First, a cancer patient can live longer and suffer less by taking health food. Second, we all can live healthily without dependent on medicine.”

“Will your approach assist in reducing body weight?”

“Of course, it helps. I was 78 kg in weight before switching to health food. After 8 years, my body was about 58 kg. My body weight stabilizes since then.”

“How did that happen?”

“Just gradually switch to health food. Do occasional fasting. When you are hungry, do not take solid food. Just let the body fat burned. You will observe the impact within a month.”

“It makes sense. I will make a special attempt to reduce my body weight.”

Who is this Dato’? Suffice it to say that he is a successful Malay businessman.

Diary 63: Villagers Suffering From Leg Pain

I was back to the village in Terengganu last weekend (3-4 April 2010) to pay respect to ancestors during the annual Ching Ming festival.

The village has about 200 households.

The most disturbing phenomenon is many villagers have leg pains in one form or another. Just to mention those I know.

My step mum has difficulty walking after experiencing stroke about 5 years ago. Our neighbor’s wife has the same problem. She asked me if there is any specific medicine to reduce her pain. As usual, my answer is brown rice, vegetables, fruits and grains. Uncle Lim’s father has leg pain and his wife suffers the same fate. Brother Sow is awarded in the government hospital as he has problem breathing and swollen leg & hand. I visited him while on my way back to KL on 4 April 2010. Uncle Jim could not walk out of the house. Sister Yang suffers leg pain for the leg pain.

They have two things in common. First, all are above 60 years old. Second, all are dependent on medicines for a number of years.

To the villagers, they do not know the reasons for this leg pain. One thing for sure, they generally do not believe that it is caused by acidic food. To them, it is their fate.

I cannot say much.

Health is a matter of choice. We are responsible for our own health.

My choice for health food is clear. This will ensure my good health till my last breath on earth.

How about yours?

Diary 62: Diabetes Can Cause Death

Most of us, including myself, thought that diabetes would not bring death within a short period of time.

Most of the time we hear of people with diabetes passed away after some years. We learn that diabetics may also have eye disease, heart problem, kidney problem and high blood pressure. Death within a few days is uncommon.

The uncommon has happened to one of our colleagues in his mid-50s. Due to the seriousness of his diabetes, he was warded in ICU for a few days from 28-31 March 2010). A few of us were in Kelantan for some research work. By the morning of 31 March 2010, we were informed that he has passed away. He did not realize that he had heart problem and kidney problem.

Diabetes is a serious matter not to be taken lightly.

Another colleague in his mid-50s also has diabetes. We caution him to take care of this disease. With the passing away of the above colleague, he knows he has to be serious in handling diabetes.

What he needs is determination to change his diet.

Diary 61: At KL Book Fair

I almost missed the KL book fair this year (18-28 march 2010).

During the last 2 days, I went to the book fair held at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur.
A book distributor from Sabah was keen to assist distributing my health books. That is good news. He said that the health book “Makan Sihat Sebagai Ubat” is useful for the general public. I cannot say much he needs to review my book before making any decision.

Two visitors expressed willingness to recommend their employers to invite me to deliver health talks for the benefits of staffs.

The great thing about this book fair is that many youths were there.

A developed nation has citizens who like to acquire knowledge. Malaysia is moving towards the status of a developed nation. The citizens must develop this reading habit firtst.