GERIATRIC DISEASES ARE FOOD ORIENTED

Most recent three major causes of death in Japan are - Cancer, Apoplexy and Heart Diseases. These are classified as GERIATRIC DISEASE. Unlike other types of viral infectious diseases, patients of geriatric diseases are usually not conscious of their illness until it deteriorates to advance stages. Geriatric disease exists and remains in the body for a log time, developing slowly and gradually and suddenly appears at the final stages.

It is said that one of the causes of those geriatric disease is eating habit. Our eating habit changes because of economic development. We take more “ready-made’ food, instant food, etc., with lesser time emphasized on cooking. Many people go for fast food restaurants. Those foods are normally oily and many of us over consumed too much without realising it. As Japanese people take more modern day Western food rather than traditional Japanese food, they often consume animal fat and salt excessively. These changes in eating habit is said to be deeply related to increase in breast cancer and cancer in the large intestine. It is also related to the increase of cholesterol level, neutral fats or over-weight.

Shortage of Vitamin and Minerals intake became an important factor because of increasing frequency in intake of ready-to-eat food. Many people stressed on the need to eat more green vegetable, vegetable roots, or seaweeds and so on. But even if you consume plenty of these foods, the amount of mineral or vitamins contained in those foods have reduced considerably when compared to the past. The nourishment contained in plants is very dependent on the quality of the soil where the plant grows. The quality of plants that was grown and cultivated using compost is very different from those that used chemical fertilizer.

By Dr. Nishimuta Tadashi, M.D. Ph.D. Kurume University of Medicine