(820) Cholesterol

I was in the market when I heard one customer refusing to buy red meat because of the cholesterol content. Being a busy body, I suggested the folk remedy of a few spoonfuls of oats soaked over night. She asked me if I have tried it, I have not. As my cholesterol was and is naturally normal all along. Personally, I know of six people who tried it and found it helpful over a long period of time.

It was interesting to note that I acquired good eating habits from my grand mother. She had a tumour removed from her neck in her forties. Following Chinese herbal beliefs, she abstained from eating chicken, duck, goose and deep fried oily food. I was her shadow since I started to walk. Naturally I refrained from all these and more. It was funny that I found poultry having an unflattering odour -- which my mum said was fragrance. And so I never eat animal skin and thus avoided consuming animal fat. I seldom touch chicken (unless I absolutely have to eat a little to stave off hunger or to be polite), hence I avoided hormones pumped into the birds.

All my children loved pork fat fried into crispy bits but I habitually pick them out one by one. I have yet to meet another child who does not enjoy fried chicken, not in my generation nor my children's generation. In a poor area, we find rickets or beri-beri, now in our society of over-eating, we have cholesterol problems. Well, all God's 'chillen' got problems.