Eat, sleep well to avoid diseases

Mombasa Kenya: Moi University Chancellor Miriam Were has attributed the rising burden of diseases to unhealthy lifestyles, including stress as a result of inadequate sleep.

Prof Were said one is supposed to sleep at least eight hours a day. Speaking in Mombasa Sunday, she said stress and life’s pressure are greatly contributing to sickness and the body’s inability to fight infections. 

Speaking during her first public lecture at the Moi University, Coast Campus, she stressed that sleep is great contributor to good health.

She said people who do not sleep well at night find it hard to concentrate during the day and are more often dehydrated and badly fed.

Were also warned against consumption of unhealthy foods like red meat or those with little fibre content.

She said the country is facing a crisis whereby most people are feeding more on red meat as well as white meat without balancing it with fibre-content foods.

Nyama choma

“We are told eating nyama choma is dangerous and therefore, most people are going for white meat. But I want to say that even the white meat is equally dangerous. Let’s go for food that is rich in fibre,” she said.

She observed that the Coast region is faced with high disease burden due to high intake of fat-rich junk foods and sedentary lifestyles.

“In this region, use of fatty food is serious. When you are invited to a home, you are given food full of fat. This is dangerous to the community,” she said, adding that the region’s high level of alcoholism and smoking is unhealthy.

“This culture of taking alcohol and later eating nyama choma is one of the things that must be avoided. The two lifestyles are unhealthy,” she said.

She asked the local people to exercise more and do more of walking instead of boarding vehicles even for short distances.