I still remember in my early teens some of my relatives or neighbors would ask me to accompany them to see their doctors in my hometown of Al-Ahsa. Sometimes they would even ask me to accompany them to Alkhobar or Dammam for their routine medical check-ups.
The reason was the little English that I had learned at school. During those days many, if not all, the doctors were from India and Pakistan. Most of them did not know Arabic. We usually visited Fakhri or Aldossary hospitals in Alkhobar. And during our visits to those doctors, I would play the role of a young translator. Well, I was paid for my services on each visit. It was not in cash; instead, they would take me to watch a Hollywood flick at Dhahran Aramco Almunirah Camp and after the movie we would eat a cheeseburger at the Aramco cafeteria.
During my visits to the doctors, one thing that caught my attention was that they used to advise almost each and every patient to increase their calories intake by eating more meat, chicken, eggs, liver and cheese etc. I am talking about days, when putting on weight was seen as a sign of affluence. Being slim was not the “in” thing. It was seen as an indicator of malnutrition. We used to think that the fatter a kid, the healthier he was.
In short the good old doctors had taken up as a personal mission to make their patients eat more and more and to gain weight.
Times have changed now. We have come a long way since then. These days whenever I visit a doctor alone or accompany a friend or relative, the first thing a doctor asks is a reduction in our calorie intake. Obviously, that is possible if and only if we reduce the amount of food we consume. And the doctors, in almost every case, advise the patients not to eat chicken, meat, eggs, cheese and not even white bread. So, what should we eat?
These days being an overweight kid is no longer seen as a good sign. These days a fit person is the one with toned and fit body. Well apart from joking things have changed with our changing lifestyles. Our sedentary lifestyle and newly-acquired eating habits have contributed to many health issues we are currently facing and obesity tops the chart.
With the changes in eating habits, many forms of so-called healthy foods either fresh or canned are hitting the shelves. In the past no one would ask for tea without sugar. People would laugh at you if you drank tea with no sugar. Now there is sugarless gum and even sugarless corn flakes. And what is more is the way we consume salt, which affect our blood pressure. To be frank, sugar and salt are the two most delicious food ingredients but the doctors keep telling us that we have to reduce the amount in every meal. But, a meal with no salt or sugar is simply tasteless. So, what should we eat?
Email: [email protected]
