Lifestyle: How your job contributes to lifestyle diseases

There is a growing trend in our country these days; that is an increasing incidence in cases of hypertension, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, kidney disease and their complications.

It is a fact that the onset of these kinds of diseases and conditions has a lot to do with people’s lifestyle. Experts will say lifestyle acts as a risk factor for the onset and course of these kind of diseases.

The kind of food people eat, the time they eat these foods, the quantity of food eaten are key lifestyle factors that have something to do with these diseases and conditions.

Exercise is another key lifestyle factor that affects one’s ability to be free from lifestyle diseases or suffer from them.

We all know how important it is to work and earn money. The purchasing power and well-being of individuals and families depends on the ability of the bread winners of those families to work hard and bring money home.

That is why they work all day from dawn to dusk, breaking their back daily and having no time for anything else.

The average worker in a busy city has no time to eat in the morning. They must beat traffic and so travel to work early in the morning. They cannot take breakfast at home.

Some of them will take what they buy upon reaching their office before work begins. Others hardly get time to eat once they reach their office because clients would have been waiting for their services before they arrive.

Anyone who will live a life free of trouble from the lifestyle diseases mentioned above must have a plan that will enable them eat a healthy, well balanced meal for breakfast.

So if your work schedule makes it impossible for you to eat breakfast, the end result is not desirable. You will constantly be lacking energy in the morning if you skip breakfast all the time.

The body through some reactions will feed you at all cost. This however comes at a cost to the body. In the end, the stage is prepared for the development of certain lifestyle diseases.

It is always convenient and safe for the body if the needed energy is given to it through the food that we eat. That is why it is so important to eat breakfast and all other meals of the day. I therefore want to appeal to my brothers and sisters who find themselves in the busy cities to take steps necessary to enable them have a good and healthy meal as breakfast.

When you sit for long hours after eating, there is very little chance for the energy gotten from the food to be used up by the body.

This is the situation most people find themselves in when they go to work. Their jobs are sedentary; meaning they sit for a greater part of the working day.

Experts have been saying in recent times that sitting for long hours on its own alone predisposes to the development of lifestyle diseases. In order not to fall victim to this state of affairs, learn to get up from your desk from time to time during the working day. When you need a file from the next office, get up and go get it. Drop the intercom.

When it is lunch time, get up and walk to the canteen; do not send anyone. It is sad to note that a lot of people drive out of their office to have lunch.

This explains the congestion in traffic experienced at certain areas of town during lunch time. This really does not have to be so.

I’m also glad to note that I come across people who actually go for walks during their lunch break. They know how impossible it is for them to go for that walk at dawn or at night because they have to leave home early and arrive late and tired.

That is why seizing the opportunity to take a walk around their office location during lunch is just the way to go. We all can learn from them. There are so many other ways people can insert exercise into their day despite busy work schedules. Corridors and lanes within your house as well as compounds can serve as walking tracks. You can get a few minutes of walk either at dawn or in the evening. This simply requires a bit more sacrifice and seriousness. You just have to wake up some ten minutes earlier to be able to do this.

Also, in the evening doing so for a few minutes after supper will really help keep hypertension, diabetes, etc away.

Do not allow your work schedules to make you eat supper late all the time. It will serve you no good since the heavy food eaten late at night only gets stored as fat which predisposes to the lifestyle diseases. The worst you should do is eat something that is low in energy when it is late.

Do not hesitate to get some help from your dietician. Eat well and stay healthy!!!

This article will continue next week.

• The writer is a dietician and author of “Eating to prevent and manage lifestyle diseases and “Answers for your diet.” Contacts: 0244090262, (letsconsult@gmail.com)