Health Tips Based on Experience

How Triangles of Fire Work in Our Body and Their Health Benefits in a World of Instant Food

Let’s see how the triangle of fire works in our body. During my early life as a countryside boy, my daily routine of food intake was all natural. The place where I lived remains the same as before, except for the coconut trees that we planted, which now look like towers reaching the sky. The surroundings are still a jungle even now.

During my childhood, especially on rainy days, we often faced a shortage of rice. I often heard my father borrowing a cup of rice to feed us seven kids for dinner. This scenario repeated itself until I graduated from high school. This is how my father and mother dealt with raising seven kids in their younger days.

Before I proceed, let me share a few unforgettable memories from those days. As I mentioned, during the rainy season, we had a shortage of rice. However, we had an abundance of vegetables like okra, beans, sponge gourd, bottle gourd, papaya, and water spinach.

We had almost every type of countryside vegetable except for broccoli, which seemed like an imported luxury. We also ate a lot of seafood because we lived just a few steps from the seashore.

Due to the rice shortage, my mom would cook a lot of water spinach, which we called “adobong kangkong.” For snacks, we usually ate fresh coconut, guava fruit, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. This was our lifestyle with all my brothers and sisters, and everything we ate was natural and fresh.

Because of this natural diet and healthy environment, we rarely got sick. I can’t remember my mom taking any of her children to the doctor until I was 17. I also remember that we only ate beef every three months because that was when we harvested the coconuts (copra), and my father sold the dried coconut meat in the city. One-third of the sales would be ours, and the other two-thirds would go to the landowner.

It may sound funny, but it’s a real part of my life. I don’t know how you feel about eating sardines, but in my place, eating sardines made us feel rich because it was a rare treat for my father to buy them. We were eager to eat sardines and noodles, and it was so exciting that if I had sardines, I felt like wiping the oil in my hair to show my neighbors that we had sardines.

During that time, I wasn’t familiar with city food, which included a lot of instant products. My best true experience with instant food was with coffee. My lovely mom would roast rice until it turned black, and that was our version of coffee, which we enjoyed whenever we needed it.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I became diabetic because of my undisciplined consumption of 3-in-1 coffee. I consumed a minimum of 5 to 7 packs of 3-in-1 coffee daily, which led to type 2 diabetes within two years. This happened so quickly that I could hardly believe it myself. This is a real experience that happened to me.

For many years, I heard debates about fat, overweight, obesity, and uncontrolled food intake leading to an unhealthy life and body. After studying my situation and learning more about food, I started comparing our body to a triangle of fire.

The “triangle of fire” consists of three elements necessary for a fire to ignite: heat, fuel, and oxygen. Similarly, our bodies require a balance of certain elements to maintain health.

Here is the photo of my few daily healthy food

1. Heat: Just as a fire needs heat to start, our bodies need energy from food. However, too much food can lead to an excess of energy, resulting in weight gain and health issues.
2. Fuel: The food we consume acts as fuel. Excessive intake, especially of unhealthy foods, can lead to obesity and related diseases. Moderation is key to maintaining a healthy body.
3. Oxygen: Oxygen supports the combustion process in a fire. In our bodies, physical activity plays a similar role, helping to burn off the fuel we consume. A sedentary lifestyle, on the other hand, can lead to the accumulation of excess energy (fat).

To extinguish a fire, removing any one of these elements is necessary. Similarly, to maintain a healthy body, we must manage our food intake (fuel), ensure adequate physical activity (oxygen), and maintain proper metabolic processes (heat).

Without fuel, a fire will stop. Fuel can be removed naturally, as when the fire has consumed all the burnable material, or manually, by mechanically or chemically removing the fuel from the fire. Fuel separation is an important factor. The fire stops because a lower concentration of fuel vapor in the flame leads to a decrease in energy release and a lower temperature. Removing the fuel thereby decreases the heat.

Without sufficient oxygen, a fire cannot begin, and it cannot continue. With a decreased oxygen concentration, the combustion process slows.

In my SOLAS training or drill, if there is a hot spot in my designated area, we need to perform the starvation process right away. This means we need to remove any combustible materials in the hot spot location to avoid more fire. From this scenario, I got an idea of how our body reacts when we eliminate food intake.

My journey has taught me the importance of balance in our diet and lifestyle. By understanding and applying the concept of the “triangle of fire” to our bodies, we can better manage our health in an era dominated by instant food. Let’s strive for a balanced, healthy lifestyle to prevent and manage health issues like, in my case, diabetes.

Thank you for reading up to this part, if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to leave them below, I’ll gladly read them!

Reynaldo M. Oliva