Healthy food, my medicine
Published:Sunday | August 3, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Rochelle Keane, Lifestyle Writer
According to healthy-lifestyle motivator, Peta-Gaye Linton, the only way to live a good life is to live a healthy life. Linton knows this from experience, having made the change three years ago, motivated by her health. Linton was proud and excited to share with Outlook how she transformed her diet to improve her health and her life.
"I am a foodie by nature. I was brought up in the kitchen with my grandmother and had no choice in the matter. 'You are a girl, so you have to go in the kitchen; the skills were given to you,' she would always tell me. I decided I needed a break, and by my 20s I stopped cooking all together and used to eat out a lot. Then I realised that the foods I was eating were affecting me. I started suffering from sinus problems and other issues. I took a note of it for about three months, then I decided to experiment and prepare my own meals, and I was not ill at all. I never had any more health problems and I began to do some research and linked the foods I consumed to the negative effects on my health - my skin, my sinusitis, the matter of my health card being maxed out before the first quarter because I was always on medication. I then said 'this is no way for someone to live, I need a change!'"
If you never thought about your food being used as your medication, Linton is living proof that it can. No longer needing to go to the doctor for anything but her routine check-ups, her love and desire for healthy living is contagious. "I believe in life and an energetic life. Yes, we will all die, one day, but I rather be running and fall and die than to spend six or eight months in the hospital then die, all because the food I ate didn't help me go but instead helped me slow down physically."
Linton's diet currently comprises more fruits and vegetables and she eats meat probably twice a week. For protein, she substitutes meat with legumes and nuts. She is able to provide a programme for persons, depending on their challenges, and is more than willing to help people make that healthy-lifestyle change.
By bringing balance to her body, she researched a diet that would assist her metabolism and immune system to make her stronger and healthy. Realising that food affects not only her physically but also her bubbly personality, she experimented with almost everything and, with each experiment, she learned something new about food. "I started to think back to my grandmother's kitchen and decided to begin cooking as basic and natural as possible, because we never had as much additives and preservatives then as we do now."
the art of cooking
Being taught the art of cooking from an early age Linton's dedication and aspirations in the area of food and a healthy lifestyle stem from the need to inform and let people know what works for them and the foods that are good and those that aren't.
Food is her passion; although she was formally trained as a computer technician, she left her comfort zone and decided she needed to do what she loved.
"Food is your diet, food is your medicine, food is your life, so don't just grab something on the road, take the time to eat. The grab and go started as healthy snacks, but now we have changed the healthy snacks to eating regular snacks, resulting in us complaining about how sick we feel. But, of course, you would feel sick if you're not eating right."
You are what you eat and, with that, it cannot be emphasised enough how imperative it is that what goes into your body will sustain your livelihood.
"Live and enjoy being healthy ... don't try and get admitted to the hospital because your diet doesn't work for you." Linton advised.
Established for over a year, Linton's catering services, Life Cuisine, can get you to consume what you need to for a healthier you. If you need to revamp your diet, Linton can be contacted at lifecuisine2@gmail.com.