Dietary Deficiencies

Dietary Deficiencies

We went for blood tests the other week. ‘Bloods’ as those in the profession seem to call them. It’s funny that such educated people would choose such an ungrammatical word. Anyway, we couldn’t make an appointment at the hospital, so it was a question of pulling a ticket and waiting forty minutes.

The nurse took two phials of blood from each of us, which was painless and quick. I had to see the doctor the same day on a different matter, and she said that the results would be with us in a matter of days. It took eight, but, hey, that’s OK.

We received our results today, and I was really surprised by how much information they seemed to have gleaned from that small amount of blood. Luckily, there was nothing serious wrong with us, but my wife was warned of a slight iron deficiency, and I of one of Vitamin D.

Dietary Deficiencies

So, a brief check on the Internet revealed that I should eat more oranges, cereals, oily fish, beef liver and egg yolks, and my wife should eat more green vegetables, red meat, liver, nuts, lentils, beans and brown rice.

I should also spend more time in the sun.

Now, that is all well and good, but my wife has been telling me for months that our diet has been deficient in precisely these areas since we left Spain twelve months ago, AND she has been telling me to get out from behind my desk and get some fresh air – every day, in fact 🙁 !

All the things that we are missing were commonplace to us until we moved back to the UK. Spain and Thailand are synonymous with sun, more vegetables and less stodge like potatoes, pastry and flour-rich gravy.

Different Diets

Thai women know about diet and dietary deficiencies. They have a different way of looking at food. To them, food is medicine and not just a gut-filler or something ‘to keep you going’. I’m British and still love my bread, chocolate, chips, and pies etc, but my wife would choose raw vegetables and fruit over those every time.

She is ashamed of herself that she has let this happen to us, although I don’t think that it’s only her responsibility. She does though.

She’s taking over care of our diet from now on, like she has done for the last fourteen years, until we arrived here.

Do you know whether your diet provides all your body’s needs?

Please LIKE and SHARE this article using the buttons below and visit our bookshop

All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Dietary Deficiencies