Seven Foods

Earlier this week, an ex-colleague Harry sent me a video from YouTube recorded by someone who began by telling his audience that he was 112th year-old and that he wanted to share his story before he ran out of time. I asked Su to listen to the post at breakfast, and we had some good laughs and some great recalls. Later, I asked Harry who that man was, but he didn’t respond.

To cut the long story short, the guy was telling people that he started the regime around 55 or 60 and he was still alive and kicking, outliving most of his friends and some of his children, something I would like to come back to later. He stressed that it was not a vigorous or expensive regime and which everyone could follow easily. In the order he mentioned them, here are the seven foods: oatmeal, cooked with water or whatever one liked; walnuts or something similar; greens, such as spinach; fish, oily fish rich in omega 3 in particular; garlic; blueberries; and beans. I have just given you probably in less than one minute what he narrated in the video over 20 minutes plus, but it was rather educational, for he explained why the foods were useful and beneficial to the body and how he took on each category bit by bit overtime, gaining strength and keeping out the doctors as a result. If you are interested, I can forward you the link.

Su and I began to reminisce. It must have been some ten if not 12 years back when I felt that I was overweight such that I went to a Government dietitian – who was a very pleasant and pretty lady – for advice. She gave me a diet which I followed religiously, and she was very pleased with my progress. I had since followed that diet in spirit and I have been able to keep my weight, but more importantly, my sanity. The pretty dietitian had oysters on her list as something with zero calories and hence could be taken in any quantities. She also advised that alcohol is a substrate which is not forbidden but warned that the taker should be mindful of its calorific contents. I also enquired about the position of eggs, but she didn’t think they would be problematic because she was convinced that I wouldn’t take them in large numbers each day, the way that Rocky did in the movies. Thus, Su and I’s first response was that eggs and alcohol were not amongst the seven foods.

As to the ones that were, the first being oatmeal, over which I was somewhat religious and ritualistic when I began my weight reduction programme. I recall that I would cook my oatmeal with some herbal powder and most importantly an egg every morning before I went to my gym. The product was somewhat likeable, and I had it for many months, which helped. I couldn’t recall when and why I had stopped.

As to nuts, Su had often placed an assortment of nuts – walnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and peanuts – on the breakfast table, but I was often not mindful enough to pick them up so that they became stale and inedible. Today, Su came back with a handsome portion of walnuts at lunchtime. They should help. As to fish, blueberries, garlic, greens, and beans, they are staples on our breakfast and dinner table. It thus seems that we have stumbled upon most of the seven foods by chance.

I took the liberty of searching on the internet for “seven foods” and noticed that there was copious reference with medical doctors giving opinions and suggestions, including one who said he was 49 and suggested that everyone should take up the “seven foods” by 50.

It does seem that keeping healthy is a serious and paramount objective if one wants to live longer and that a healthy diet is the cornerstone. But aren’t we all aware of the age-old adage that “One man’s food is another man’s poison”?

Su and her siblings have been looking after their mother who is now back in Laguna City, and they face the problem that the domestic helper is about to take end of contract leave. Su made a call – a very good call – recently to go to one of her mother’s doctors who had treated her for gout for some prescriptions which turned out to be useful and have offered her mother significant relief. We will see.