Om LOMBARD : ORIGIN of the DETERIORATION of our HEALTH, our IMMUNE SYSTEM, the STRESS and the LINK between the DIET and HEALTH for espacesjeunes.com 23/10/2011 – MAURITIUS

Since the transition to cultural tendencies and the modern lives, our diet had become astonishingly poor. First, the consumption of fruits, vegetables and fresh products has declined , at the expense of frozen foods, canned foods, snacks and foods with calories, lacking the essential nutrients: dough, plain bread, rice and potatoes. Moreover, the vegetables and fresh fruits consumed no longer have the same nutritional richness like in the past. For the last 50 years, the proportion of the three minerals, the phosphorus, iron and calcium has declined from 9 to 16%. That of protein has declined by 6%. That of riboflavin has declined by 38% and the one with ascorbic acid (provider of vitamin C) has decreased by 15%. This has a direct influence on our health, our growth and our resistance to illnesses. The extensive use of pesticides and weed-killer, the excess of fertilizer which increases the speed of the plant growth and proportionally reduces the fixation time of the micronutrients, even the soil is worn out by the intensive techniques, whose overall content of nutrition is decreasing in certain areas. Also involved the conservation treatments, extensions of time to transport and selection of plant according to their output. Farmers prefer plants which grow up fast, yield a lot and have an attractive appearance. However, the more the yield is high, the less the plant wastes energy to absorb the oligo-elements and the more the nutritional output is weak. The problem, serious in itself, goes along with bad eating habits and “deliberate” practices of impoverishment of certain food, example the BREAD: bakers have switches to flour very poor in minerals and other nutrients because they are easier to rise and sometimes considered more attractive. Our consumption of food quality has declined. But our needs, themselves, have increased. Indeed, modern living conditions, especially in mega-lopes (heavy traffic, speed and intensity of communication, noise, pollution) cause STRESS and thus increases our need for micro-nutrients. The stressful condition is necessary and useful for the survival in a hostile environment. It allows an increased awareness, a greater attention to details, quicker responses. But it is harmful to the organism when it becomes our constant or predominant state. In fact, our body secrets hormones like (cortisol, insulin, leptin, adrenaline…) that is harmful to the well-being of our organs to the cell renewal, accelerating aging and consuming vitamins, minerals and micro-elements. Stress can become intense and so frequent that you can no longer, in the rare moments of relief, including during our sleep, find a normal state of relaxation, advantageous to the regeneration of one’s organism, for a hormonal readjustment, and a way back for emotional peace. To that extent, where it is generally neither possible, nor even desirable, to abandon the advantages of transport and quick means of telecommunications, it becomes essential for maintaining good health in the long run, to change our eating habits and lifestyle to better struggle against stress. One century ago, life depended upon permanent opportunities to stop, to settle, at least on intellectual ground. The transportations which were often on foot, horseback, bicycle, the absence of telephone, the slowness of the mail, gave time to reflect and to meditate. The causes of stress were rare. This makes that our great-grandparents did not need, as much as us, to be concerned about their nutrition, nor to learn to relax.