I remembered when I was sick in bed one day and had to miss school.
There was a virus going round that time and for some reason or another I caught it. Being unwell and having to skip classes was not
something that often happened to me, as I was generally a pretty
healthy child and a good schoolgirl who actually enjoyed school and
learning new things!

However, what made this insignificant incident stick in my mind was
not the fact that I got sick but what my father said to me as I lay
stretched on my back feeling poorly and a little sorry for myself. In his kind voice, though somewhat more pragmatic than sympathetic, he
said something along this line: ‘try not to be sick because when
you’re sick you’re very selfish. People who get themselves sick means they can’t look after themselves and it’s unfair and a bother to other people who have to make time and effort to look after them.’

My father’s words might have sounded a little harsh and I really did
not appreciate it at the time. However, long after they were said,
his words continue to resonate within me and until now still become
the yardstick by which I measure my attitude towards health and
keeping healthy.
Being sick means not taking responsibility for your own health and
not looking after yourself. It is a sign of weakness in your character.
Being sick makes you a bother to other people who have to take care of you. To be sick is to be selfish. And who wants to be a selfish
person?

Thus I go through life with a greater consciousness for looking after
my health than most people of my age. And the universe seemed to
conspire to make sure that I stayed on that path. My early attempts
to take up smoking for example, failed miserably as the experience was traumatic enough to put me off cigarette smoking for good. (I
experimented with the lethal French cigarettes ‘Gitanes’ that almost
blew my lungs out!)

Meanwhile, during my student years, when canned food, cheap take-aways and greasy fry ups were the main staple for a cash-strapped student, I happened to live with a couple who taught me to read the food labels before I purchased anything from the supermarket, to avoid consuming anything that had additives, colourings and
preservatives and who grewtheir own vegetables in a nearby garden allotment. I was already on home grown vegetable, wholemeal bread and meat-free diet long before the word Organic became a trend in Jakarta socialite’s grocery carts and global warming a household word.

I gave up white sugar in my tea not out of choice but because my
landlady refused to stock the evil stuff in the pantry. It was a case
of learning to live without, that is to say, to kick the habit, plus
the understanding why it was a bad habit. It was hard in the
beginning but her persuasion was something for which I’m eternally
grateful. In the process, I learned that not only is sugar the cause
of many lifestyle-induced illnesses; this source of the world’s greatest addiction also has a history that was steeped in slavery, racism and global injustice. Plus, my tea tasted a lot better without it.

My attempt to more or less control what I put in my mouth and how I
feed my body is not just to put myself in position where I would not
be a bother to other people by being sick. I also had no wish to give
up the responsibility of looking after my own body to a doctor whose
idea of a cure is to prescribe medications but had no interest in or
could not influence my life style.

The few times that I did get sick, I was careful not to have the same
illness twice. This I did by making sure that I learned about what
caused it and how to avoid it. I’m not saying that I’m a health freak
or an example of perfect health. Nor do I hope that I’m committing
hubris by flaunting my dietary wisdom. However, taking care of what
you consume is not that difficult or requires a great deal of discipline and self-restraint. Actually a lot of it is just common sense and a willingness to listen to one’s body and cater to its needs.

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