Our Health is Our Real Wealth

When I was young, I didn't bother at all about my health. Just like any healthy kid, then and now, health was the least of my concerns, even though it was a subject we studied in school. Thankfully for me, I grew up in a remote rural village where the only health-destroying junk food one can buy from stores were candies. But even that didn't appeal much to me as freshly picked fruits were more delicious to the palate. For meat, milk, eggs and vegetables, we didn't have to take the trouble of crossing a river and ride a rickety bus 20 kilometers to the nearest market. We raised poultry and grew vegetables in our backyard for our needs and to share with neighbors. Our farm animals provided the milk. Thus we had a daily supply of farm-fresh and healthy foods that didn't cost us a penny but the time we spent in growing them.

Years later I moved to the big city, hundreds of miles from home, for my college education. It was altogether a new life for me with so much city glitter to feast my eyes on. Food has always been my FIRST interest so on my first trip to the supermarket, the beautifully packaged foodstufs prominently displayed on the shelves with images of mouth-watering, finger-licking "so delicious" food, grabbed my attention ... and had me buying without hesitation.

Did I like what I bought? No. Maybe because I was not used to the taste of processed food the same way that city kids do not enjoy eating natural foods because they are not used to it. Over the years, that bias never changed. And boy, was I grateful that it was so because, without me realizing it, it kept me in tip-top shape all along, healthwise.

So I grew up in the best of health and remained so to this very day. I've never experienced hospital except once when I figured in a minor vehicular accident on my way home from work for which I was brought to the hospital by my cousin, a doctor, who closed the cut on my leg with a 9-stitch needle work. But I didn't have to lie in bed. I went home right after the treatment. Oh, yes, I did get sick through the years but they were ordinary ailments like flu, colds, headaches, upset stomach.

At my age now (secret), as I reflect on life, I couldn't help but be thankful that I grew up eating -- and loving -- natural foods. Quite a number of my friends, some of whom years my junior who were born with a silver spoon in mouth, are now suffering from degenerative diseases like heart ailments, cancer, diabetes, etc., and are hospital frequenters; some spending days on end in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives, others already "gave up the ghost."

So ... what's my point in saying all these in this post?

Well ... I just wanted to share my view, developed from experience, that HEALTH is our only REAL WEALTH in this life. Lose it and everything else becomes meaningless.

You may be the richest man on earth living in a palatial home, traveling the world on your own Gulfstream G550 jet, riding the waves in your own multi-million dollar luxury yacht but ... would you appreciate food if you are suffering from stomach ulcer or colon cancer? Would you desire to take part in a dance party with friends when you are stuck in your wheelchair? Would you gleefully sing under the shower when you have to be assisted to be able to bathe?

So don't take your health -- and your family's -- for granted.

Relative to our topic, I was deeply saddened when the news of the death of one of my favorite actors, Patrick Swayze, who lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, hit the entertainment headlines a few years back. I was just thinking maybe ... just maybe ... he could have been saved from an untimely death had he known about Nature's POWERFUL HEALERS.

We have lost another great actor (how many more would we lose?) to the scourge of cancer which medical science cannot -- and never will -- find solution to for as long as it remains a tool of the pharma industry for revenue growth rather than for the interest of the public at large, that is, disease prevention instead of merely treating symptoms.

Indeed, something is wrong -- really, really wrong -- with our health care system. But it is a multi-billion dollar industry now fast approaching the trillion dollar mark. It's good business, don't you think? The more people falling ill, the more money in the bank, right?

Never mind if the wretched sick are sucked dry down to their last penny and then ... die. Who cares? Not the giant pharmas! Not the greedy capitalists! Not the heartless doctors! ... not the funeral parlors!

Would you simply go on with your life as though you'll never get sick ... never die of disease? 

Well, it's been another fulfilling day on this blog writing something meaningful to share with you. Thanks again for your time reading. I would appreciate a comment from you.

Have a nice day. C ya.