Being Healthy, young and more beautyful!

Being healthy, young and more beautiful
By: Weka Gunawan
A PhD student of Faculty of Medicine,
National University of Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia

I was a TV journalist for RCTI and Trans corporation, both are prominent TV station in Indonesia. I have many friends, well almost them was seeking for always being healthy. Why? Because our work so stressful. We must managed our emotion to face many kind of people and we must worked for almost 24 hours a day! We did not just type news, but we have to give our audience our best performance in camera! Sadly, we almost did not have ‘me time’. Spa and massage were so luxury for us. We could pay for the treatment but we could do it seldomly.

When we hit our late 20s and 30s. It is common for us to start thinking about ageing. Some of us worry. We loved our profession. We got passion on that. Then, we started to see our diet. We chose to eat better to control our body. If you see all of us now, you do not believe that we look much younger in our age!

These are my tips for you!

Eat fruit and vegetables
Set a goal of at least five servings a day. A large number of vitamins, antioxidant and fibre in fruit and vegetables.

Eat less red meat
You better choose chicken and fish for your diet. But, you still can eat meat for special occasion.

Eat less processed foods
The more “whole” foods you eat, the better. Choose wholegrain over white bread or brown instead of white rice. High fibre will reduce of your cholesterol and oestrogen level which in return reduce your risk of the disease. Processed foods are always have high sodium, so you could got hypertension too.

Soy, Soy and Soy!
Soy products: milk, tofu and tempe. They all are cheap, but healthy food! It contain phyto-oestrogen, theoretically this is useful reducing breast cancer risk.

Have eggs
Choline an essential nutrient found in eggs and needed for normal functioning of cells in our body.

I like beans
Beans are high fibre, low fat, vitamin packed source of protein and full of antioxidants. When I pregnant my third baby, I felt sick to others food except beans! And my baby’s weight was more three kg when born. Studies show that the nutrients and phytochemicals in these legumes can reduce cholesterol and extra benefit can protect against breast cancer.

Say no to alcohol (wine, beer and Tuak (traditional drinking))
The consumption of alcohol is clearly linked to an increased risk of developing cancer. Studies said that, “Those who consume one alcoholic drink per day have a very small increase in risk compared to non drinkers, while those who have two to five drinks daily increase their by one and a half times”

Just put away cigarette!
Stop smoking right now! There is no advantages in smoking at all.


Not only control your diet but also your exercise!

You must exercise every day. Since you wake-up in the morning you can do exercise even you do not want to leave your bed! Just give your self, stretching for your tendon and muscles. You can walk around your place. Note for your self every day that you want to more healthy today!

Do regular check up

Do regular check up annually in clinic and hospital. Get regular screening test such as pap-smear test and mammography. Do not wait until terrible symptoms arise.

Get sleep whenever or wherever you can

As a busy person, it is almost impossible to get 8 hours sleep. It is really luxury! So you must try to sleep wherever and whenever you can. Take deep breathe and get relax as much as you can.

Do I need supplements?

Yes, you still need supplements. Why? Nowadays, we could not manage the pollutions around us such as in air, water and even in food. So, you put supplement in your diet.

Saturday, 20 June 2009.