Try as you may, you are what you eat
When she said it was urgent, I knew that he must be feeling terrible. She never demanded an appointment when the day was already fully booked. When they arrived, he looked flushed with dry cracked lips. His eyes were wide and too shiny. His tongue looked coated and his breath smelt foul.
“For the last 2 days he refuses to eat or drink. I am worried that he is coming down with something. I don’t like antibiotics and how they affect him. The doctor seems to repeat the same prescription every time I take him there. Within a few weeks he gets sick again. We are just going round and round, with no permanent solution”, she said in one breath as they sat down in my office. .Looking at him it was obvious the little boy was not well. Glands swollen, slight fever, mouth breathing. “Tell me about his diet”, I wanted to know.
“How can his diet have anything to do with him being ill?” she asked with an incredulous look in her eyes. She was not reacting any differently to most patients. Somehow the information age bypasses most people regarding nutrition and lifestyle. They know endless details about sport and investments. What they eat themselves and what they feed their children does not seem to occupy much of their understanding or interest. .The fact that sugar can be harmful if eaten in large quantities is well known to people who have developed diabetes. For those people who still have reasonable blood sugar levels, sugar is taken in many forms without consideration of the effect it has on the body chemistry. Children in particular love to eat sweet things. They consume large quantities of cane sugar. They drink fruit juices all day long, thinking that the sugar in fruit is healthy. What happens in the body when sugar is eaten? .To control blood sugar levels to a normal level of between 3 to 6, the pancreas an important gland, which is very involved in the digestive processes as well, releases a hormone called insulin to regulate the blood sugar.