-Faith &
Fast Food
By Solomon Mensah
 |
| The Aged of Loma Linda Excercising |
Looking
through the rear window of my room somewhere
in Accra, the self-angered sea lies
billowing furiously. Its billowing sound, like that of a thunder, uncomfortably
forces me to get up from my slumber and prepare for school every weekend. Ouch!
But today,
7th December, 2014, while the sea roared, I fluttered left and right on my bed and shuddered under the thick yards of ‘Efie-abosea’- a cloth we used back in Sunyani Secondary
School. No school today! So … I can sleep.
But I would listen to the BBC, almost all day, when I finally wake up as
I always do on Sundays whenever I have the time to.
The BBC Report
On their
(BBC’s) ‘Heart and Soul’ this morning, Peter Bowes takes his listeners all the
way from London to Loma Linda, a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States of
America.
Loma Linda, which translates as Beautiful Hill, has a population of about 23,
261, according to its 2010 census. Out of this, a large proportion of the
city’s residents are Seventh-Day Adventists who, by practice, are vegetarians.
“I’m Peter
Bowes and I have come to Loma Linda to learn more about the Seventh-Day Adventists, who make up about
half of the population here. What is it about the way of life of this
evangelical Christian denomination that helps its followers live to a ripe old age;
up to a decade longer than the average American?’ the story rolled.
In the
report titled “Living Longer in Lovely Hill,” Bowes visits a retirement home
where a daily ritual of an exercise class for the elderly was ongoing.
They sat straight up on chairs holding sizeable metal bars.
What!?
“Up, down, up, down,” the teacher instructed while they (elderly) lifted and lowered their arms pointing to
the ceiling and the floor of the classroom, respectively.
“What is
the average age, roughly, of this class?’ the awed Bowes asked the
teacher. “Maybe around 93 or something but our eldest was 101 [years].”
Loma Linda- the Mecca of longevity
Here, at
the Californian City, the Seventh-Day Adventists say they live basically on the
teachings of the Bible and on the principles of their church. They practice
vegetarianism and do more of exercises even at old age.
This
lifestyle of the Seventh-Day Adventists makes them grow older and older. Dan Buettner is an
American researcher. He labels Loma Linda as a blue zone; a concept used to identify a demographic
and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives.
The City including Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy) and Nicoya (Costa Rica) are all marked by researchers as blue zones. In Peter Bowes’
words, Loma Linda is the Mecca of longevity.
Faith
& Fast food
Somewhere in 2012, a great debate ensued in Loma Linda; the debate as to whether the City should allow the influx of fast food
eateries such as that of McDonald’s.
“Without a single liquor store, and legally
smoke-free for nearly three decades, the tiny hillside town of Loma Linda brims with pride about its devotion to
health and spiritual well-being.
So... news that McDonald's was coming to town, with its
special-sauce-slathered Big Macs and 500-calorie sheaves of large fries, has
triggered enough political reflux to put City Hall on the defensive,” writes
Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times.
In ABC News’ item uploaded on YouTube, January 24,
2012, titled ‘Faith Matters,’ the debate got much more intensified. McDonald’s
said to the ABC News that “Our line of premium salads can be ordered without
meat. We also have other offerings including apple slices and oatmeal. We
believe the new restaurant will help fuel economic growth.”
Reacting to matters, Dr. Wayne Dysinger, head of
preventive medicine at the Loma Linda University Medical Center said: “McDonald’s does not fit the Loma Linda brand of health and wellness. Compare it to
smoking laws: There’s no question that smoking is harmful to people’s health.
Exposing people to fast food also is harmful to their health.
Cutting a long story short, McDonald’s after the
legal tussle with Loma Linda has established its restaurant in the City.
But for the ardent vegetarians of the Loma Linda who prefer living longer to enjoying
fleeting and transient pleasures, they have adopted the fish-in-the-salty-sea principle
of not letting itself taste salty.
“You may not believe this … I have never touched
tobacco in any form. I have never touched alcohol, never touched
coffee,” Henry Nelson, 91, said.
Any lesson to the Ghanaian?
Indeed, there are lessons the Ghanaian could learn from the Adventists of Loma Linda. Here, in Ghana, food poses a great threat
to a number of people. Many are those who are digging their graves with
their teeth.
Like the spillage of the Bagri Dam, fast food eateries, that which Dr. Dysinger deems dangerous to one’s health, flood
almost every corner of our country. We buy it, and hold it firmly on the tips
of our fingers like the terminal report card in the hand of a pupil. Show off!
This aside,
many of us buying food from chop bars would shoot a finger directing
the chop bar operator the sort of meat she should serve us. Ironically, we brand the taxi/trotro driver as the
meat addict who points to the soup with his car key to tell the meat he would
prefer. We hardly exercise after these food intake and the
list is endless.
But all is not lost. Inasmuch as we breathe, we
have the chance to critically consider what we consume. Perhaps, for those of
us who have never physically seen a 'flying-coffin' on the tarmac of an airport, except for those that fly above our
heads, Loma Linda and its healthy
principles might seem far away and impossible to learn from. Very!
However, the Valley View University (VVU),
Oyibi-Accra, presents to us an epitome of Loma Linda’s example. The Adventist University pays
particular attention to what its students eat. “Meat is not served at the
campus’ cafeteria. They produce their own drinking water and yogurt, bake their
own bread, cultivate vegetables … I mean the school promotes a healthy lifestyle,” Kyereh-Yeboah Victor, an immediate past
student of the School told me in an interview.
He says if he had his way, he would always eat from
the VVU campus. But that should
not be the case. Wherever we find ourselves, whatever faith we profess
(Adventism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Islamic and what have you), we must take a
cue from the healthy lifestyle of the citizens of Loma Linda and try practicing.
I do not in any way suggest to you to refrain from
eating meat or fast food. I eat it myself. However, I think it is about time we
ate it in moderation. Christmas is here and in our various homes meat, alcohol
and others will ‘flow.’ While we wine and dine, remember that somewhere
in America where happiness abound, citizens there eat with their minds.
The writer is a freelance
journalist.
Twitter: @Aniwaba
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