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Monica Cheru-Mpambawashe Lifestyle Editor
The more things change the more they stay the same. So it would appear when it comes to what we term human civilisation.
In some areas it seems that each step forward brings us back to the past, except that where our ancestors operated with innate intuition, we are applying scientific explanations.
This phenomena is most apparent in the field of medicine. Our ancestors ate simple unprocessed foods, led active lifestyles and used natural remedies to help them get over their ailments. But life was tough as they fought malnutrition, wild animals and harsh elements and later on territorial turf wars.
They had to become creative in order to survive. With the creation of tools, the discovery of fire and subsequent developments that have resulted in life as we know it today, they also set about researching on the how and why of life, including in medicine.
So we got a pill for everything; pills to avoid pregnancy, a pill to promote conception, pills to help us gain weight, pills to help us lose excess weight, pills to keep us awake, pills to send us to sleep, the list is endless.
Meanwhile, many of us have sedentary habits as we drive from place to place and spend our lives surrounded by gadgets that do almost everything for us, except our bodily functions. A visit to any hospital, clinic, or alternative healer will show that too many of us are not enjoying life as we should. That is not even taking into consideration those soldiering on by trying to ignore ailments that have not yet developed to the stage where they demand attention.
Greenworld consultant nutritionist Mr Ngoni Chandiwana says that our health problems are mostly lifestyle linked with the problem that today is that the majority of us do not take the time to understand our bodies:
“We eat processed foods that contain a lot of things that our bodies are not designed to deal with and breathe in contaminated air. So now non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and hypertension are killing off most of us silently and not so silently.”
Mr Chandiwana says we tend to ignore the early warning signals that our bodies send telling us to attend to matters before they get out of hand.
“Often people feel generally unwell, say recurrent headaches, generalised aches or protracted fatigue, without feeling the need to urgently find out exactly what is wrong. As a result aliments flourish until they manifest in symptoms that cannot be ignored and that is when a person seeks medical attention,” he said.
He says that given the right tools the body can heal itself. Just as the nature shows on Animal Planet and National Geographic show wild animals turning to Mother Nature when the chips are down, humans too can heal their bodies through natural remedies.
“We are what we eat. So if given the right nutritional elements the body can use food to heal itself. Unfortunately it is almost impossible for us to get our full nutritional requirements from our daily food intake. For example a glass of milk a day does not provide enough calcium to meet most people’s recommended intake.”
This is where supplements come in. Supplements of natural elements required by the body like vitamins, minerals and trace elements have long been recognised as necessary for good health.
During the Napoleonic Wars the British Navy introduced rations of lemons among its sailors to curb incidences of scurvy, a condition caused by lack of vitamin C which sets off a debilitating disease which starts off with feelings in general malaise and progresses to spongy gums, spots on the skin and bleeding of mucous membranes and could be fatal.
Mr Chandiwana says that taking supplements is not about going to the nearest outlet and getting whatever takes your fancy. There is need for informed guidance from the experts. So one needs a diagnostic test which maps out the condition of the body from head to toe highlighting any problem areas so that solutions that fit the individual can be tailored.
There are several distributors of supplements in the country and Green World Zimbabwe is one of them. The local network is part of an international chain headquartered in the United States of America with branches in Canada as well as Asia and Africa.
Mr Chandiwana is one of the four top local distributors who were awarded cars at a ceremony held at Rainbow Towers in 2013 which was attended by more than 1 500 distributors from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Namibia as well as vice president of Green World Group Mr David Zhang. The others winners were Tendai Chinoperekwei, Gwinyai Chikwinya and Audette Chinoperekwei.
On their website en.world-food.com, the mother organisation describes themselves as follows:
“The Green World USA is a transnational group of companies engaging itself in scientific research and development, manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, herbal medicine and herbal cosmetics of a complete systems-oriented nature with its headquarters based in Michigan of the United States of America and manufacturing facilities in South California. It is registered and accredited by FDA (Food and Drug Administration) of USA.
Then Dr Deming Li, the founder of the Green World was determined to take the herbal systems especially the traditional Chinese herbal systems and the outcome of her scientific research and to introduce these wonderful herbal treasures to everyone, everywhere in the world.
With this in mind, she invested significantly setting up the Green World’s new health products manufacturing facility and a Traditional Chinese Medical Centre in Tianjin, the largest coastal opening city in Northern China along the Bohai Bay to the West of the Pacific Ocean in consideration of the fact that China is becoming an up-surging economic power and most importantly, China is the soil which nurtured and contributed the treasure of Chinese medicine to the whole world.
In 2004, World (Tianjin) Nutrition and Health Products Co, Ltd was formed and now the Green World is extending its businesses to medical equipment, herb cultivation, international trade, investment and capital operation and advertisement, etc it is a well-organised organisation with over 50 subsidiary companies all over the world run by highly professional management team and eight scientific research institutes and centres both in the United States and China with the prestigious world-level scientists and research fellows on board.”
Online Reporter