Windhoek
Of the three basic meals of the day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, breakfast is said by far to be the most important meal.
Nutritionist Albertine Shikongo, also known as sister Bertine, has been doing research on healthy living. She helps individuals know their body’s needs don’t need and body language. “When you don’t eat breakfast, your body is weak to all kinds of illness. A healthy breakfast will help your body fight against diseases that are harmful to you. Skipping breakfast can also affect your mood. It will make you feel tired, restless and irritable. It may take you longer to carry out chores or you just might not feel up to anything mentally active let alone physical,”
Sister Bertine was running the Devine Heath Centre for a while now but had to close it down for being unable to cope with the high demand from desperate individuals clamouring for her service, and because of lack capacity. However, she wishes to re-open it with the help or in collaboration with the government to aid more people know or understand their bodies. Besides helping with maintaining a nutrition plan, Sister Bertine helps sick people by monitoring what they consume, and if they are consuming enough food and water while on medication but most importantly whether they are eating healthy.
One of her researches has revealed that eating healthy has been proving expensive because the prices of healthy food is too high for many low-income families to afford therefore she pleads with the government to step in to make fruits and vegetables affordable to all. “Fruits and vegetables tend to be more expensive than processed foods for a number of reasons. The body need carrots, water melon, kiwi, parsley but not many can afford to buy this. Unemployed people cannot afford this. I request that government and private companies assist in doing something so that fruits and vegies can be affordable to everyone,” she says.
The reason she recommends people to opt for fruits and vegetables in their diets is because they offer the best way to prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
“I’ve tested or checked a lot of people who came to me for help on their body and the highest results where that people tend to take so much medicine and most of the times on an empty stomach or skipping meals. The more servings you have of fruits and vegetables in your diet, the lower your risk for all the major chronic health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, many cancers, high blood pressure, and the list goes on,” says Sister Bertine.
In her recent case, Sister Bertine visited an employed woman and son by putting her on a plan to monitor her daily intakes. She uses a scale that captures ones weight and the outline of a person’s body. It then uses that information to calculate your body fat percentage, water intake and thereafter put you on a eating plan to help with a healthy lifestyle that can fight or prevent any diseases. “I don’t charge people to know about their body, because I want people to know about their body inside, which many don’t know. To maintain the body fat is not only by excising but 80% is by eating healthy breakfast. When you eat breakfast you control body fat, if you don’t eat breakfast or healthy meals there is no way you can control the bad fat,” she says.
Her research also discovered that people who are overweight are healthier than underweight people. Women need 50% of water and men need 60% of water. “People don’t drink water; the body only takes 250 ml per hour and not cold water, the moment you drink ice cold water you freezing up your good fat. Some don’t like water and on our programme we teach you about water and give you a plan which you need to follow to help you.”
Sister Bertine adds that doctors need to educate people on the importance of medications. “It’s not healthy when taking them on an empty stomach. Another problem is pharmacists, they are becoming more like a restaurant, and you even find people with their own pharmacies in the house. Too much dependency on self-medication but some symptoms is a sign that the body does not have enough water…we need more fruits, vegetable restaurants and shops,” she says.
She is happy about the feedback she gets from satisfied individuals she helped with the programme and how living healthy lifestyles having regained their strength and confidence. “It makes me happy to see clients happy about their bodies and feedback from their doctor on how satisfied they are with the patient’s lifestyle. We are more interested in people who are sick or don’t understand their bodies. There is so much benefits that comes with knowing what to eat and how to eat it,” she concludes.
Sister Bertine works at Divine Health where they teach people on how and what to eat. They put people on a programme that consist of only fruits and vegetables. To know more about your bodies and for assistance contact 0812881654 or 0812743178.