Healthy food should be one that will ensure satisfaction after eating and also the preservation of health for the consumer. It is very impossible to go through the day without eating.

Thus, in the ideal situation, everyone eats some food before the day ends. As we journey through the day, we get hungry at different places and locations.

We are,therefore, very likely to eat from different places every day. Once the location is outside our homes, we are likely to end up buying food. It is only those who cook and pack their own food that do not buy what they eat.

I have realised that the best way to get good and healthy food is to prepare it yourself after gaining knowledge on how to prepare healthy meals.

This is the only opportunity people have to enjoy food that does not make them sick at the end of the day or after so many years of consuming those foods.

Food sold outside the home, to a large extent, fails to deliver health and wellness to the masses who consume them.

It, however, becomes very difficult for the very busy person who spends just a few hours of the day at home, to eat homemade food.

There are some people who only sleep at home for a few hours, get up very early in the morning and off they go to work. Thus, telling them to eat homemade food sounds like a mystery, very far from reality.

They often just smile when we advise them to do so.

I,however, see a very interesting trend among people who are suffering from life threatening diseases.

That is, such people are willing to come to terms with me and bring their minds home. They are willing to think about ways to make their own food.

The question I often ask is this; "must it always be at the point of death that human beings should be ready and willing to make a change for better health"?

The answer to me should be an absolute "no".

Such lifestyle changes that promote health should be a way of life. This way, deadly and lifelong diseases will be prevented. There will be a better chance of living for longer.

I propose that you get your meals prepared at home and packed for you to send along to the office.

Lunch packs are not preserves of schoolchildren alone. Mind you, you have to be healthy so you can work and take care of your children.

Take your first meal at home before leaving. Carry your lunch along to wherever you are going. Get back home early enough to have your supper.

All these meals should ,however, be prepared with your health in mind.

Our food vendors should also take up the challenge of preparing healthy meals for their unsuspecting patrons. I look forward to a time when dieticians will be able to recommend food joints where people can get healthy meals.

Meals that are not loaded with mono sodium glutamate, where stews are not made in a lake of oil, where grilled fish is not done with cubes and oil, among others, a chop bar where light soup will be genuinely made and not a mixture of some artificial spice and water.

It is now very easy to get some artificial flavour to make soup taste like it is made from goat meat, while in actual fact there is no goat meat in it.

All these are not right and can be blamed for the deteriorating health of the nation. The nation must act to stop this now.

Proper regulations can be put in place to see to it that food sellers make healthy meals for the general public. This will offer better help to consumers.

The incidence of hypertension and its related deaths will reduce. People will no longer grow to become ill of one, two or three chronic diseases.

As it stands now, people start work, struggle through the ranks, get to the zenith of their carrier where they earn more money.

At this point, they have to start battling with some disease that cannot be cured or another.

Their current state can be blamed on previous years of inactions and wrong decisions about their diet and lifestyle.

The situation is even getting worse now as it is no longer those who get to the peak of their carrier that suffer from chronic diseases.

The very young are also being affected on an increasing note.

It is good to cook your own food the right way. Take up the challenge. Stay blessed!!!