KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Women play a cru­cial role in nur­tur­ing and sup­port­ing both them­selves and those around them. Yet, amid their busy lives, one crit­i­cal truth of­ten gets over­looked—true strength be­gins with prop­er nour­ish­ment.

Eat­ing health­ily is es­sen­tial be­cause it di­rect­ly im­pacts a woman’s phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, and men­tal well-be­ing, ac­cord­ing to reg­is­tered di­etit­ian Farah Ali-Is­lam. This, in turn, en­ables them to ful­fil their roles as moth­ers, care­givers, pro­fes­sion­als, and lead­ers.

“A bal­anced di­et pro­vides the nec­es­sary nu­tri­ents to main­tain en­er­gy, sup­port re­pro­duc­tive health, and man­age stress,” said Ali-Is­lam.

“The teach­ings of Is­lam em­pha­sise the im­por­tance of car­ing for our bod­ies. As Prophet Muham­mad (peace be up­on him) said, “Your body has a right over you.”

By nour­ish­ing our­selves prop­er­ly, we align with these prin­ci­ples and en­sure the strength and vi­tal­i­ty need­ed to serve our fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ties, and our­selves.

“Prop­er nu­tri­tion al­so strength­ens im­mu­ni­ty, pre­vents chron­ic dis­eases, and helps women lead health­i­er, more pro­duc­tive lives while ho­n­our­ing the body that Almighty God has en­trust­ed to us.”

Ali-Is­lam found­ed Re­store Nu­tri­tion dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“Due to re­stric­tions on in-per­son meet­ings, I of­fered vir­tu­al nu­tri­tion con­sul­ta­tions, pro­vid­ing per­son­alised, ev­i­dence-based guid­ance to help in­di­vid­u­als achieve their nu­tri­tion goals and man­age med­ical con­di­tions,” she ex­plained.

“I al­so launched the Healthy Eat­ing dur­ing Ra­madan ini­tia­tive, which start­ed as a so­cial me­dia se­ries aimed at pro­mot­ing healthy food choic­es while fast­ing. This ini­tia­tive has since evolved in­to an an­nu­al in-per­son pro­gramme that of­fers nu­tri­tion ad­vice and food demon­stra­tions for Ra­madan, along with oth­er health top­ics.”

The di­etit­ian is com­mit­ted to help­ing in­di­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties adopt health­i­er lifestyle choic­es and, over the past 13 years, has gained ex­ten­sive ex­pe­ri­ence in clin­i­cal nu­tri­tion, hos­pi­tal food ser­vice man­age­ment, and com­mu­ni­ty nu­tri­tion and health pro­mo­tion.

“To bet­ter sup­port women’s health, I trained as a breast­feed­ing coun­sel­lor with the Breast­feed­ing As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she said.

“Al­though I did not con­tin­ue this work, the ex­pe­ri­ence deep­ened my un­der­stand­ing of nu­tri­tion dur­ing preg­nan­cy and breast­feed­ing and sparked my in­ter­est in women’s hor­mon­al health.

“I fur­ther stud­ied how di­et in­flu­ences hor­mone reg­u­la­tion, en­er­gy lev­els, weight man­age­ment, and con­di­tions such as poly­cys­tic ovary syn­drome (PCOS). This knowl­edge en­ables me to pro­vide tar­get­ed di­etary guid­ance to as­sist women in man­ag­ing hor­mon­al im­bal­ances and achiev­ing op­ti­mal health.”

Ali-Is­lam ad­vised Mus­lims who are tran­si­tion­ing from Ra­madan to reg­u­lar eat­ing habits to car­ry the lessons of mod­er­a­tion and bal­ance in­to their lives.

“The Prophet Muham­mad (peace be up­on him) taught us that “the son of Adam does not fill a ves­sel worse than his stom­ach,” which serves as a re­minder not to overeat, she said.

“As a di­etit­ian, I rec­om­mend grad­u­al­ly rein­tro­duc­ing food with three bal­anced meals and two healthy snacks each day. Make sure to in­clude all six Caribbean food groups: sta­ples, legumes and nuts, fruits, veg­eta­bles, an­i­mal prod­ucts, and fats and oils. Try to avoid processed, fried, and sug­ary foods; in­clude whole grains, high-fi­bre, and nu­tri­ent-dense foods.

“Con­tin­ue to drink plen­ty of wa­ter to stay hy­drat­ed and avoid sug­ary drinks. This tran­si­tion is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to ho­n­our the dis­ci­pline of Ra­madan by main­tain­ing a healthy lifestyle that re­flects the bal­ance and mod­er­a­tion em­pha­sised by Prophet Muham­mad (peace be up­on him).”

She high­light­ed the im­por­tance of mod­er­a­tion, re­fer­ring to it as a fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ple in both Is­lam and ev­i­dence-based nu­tri­tion.

“The Prophet Muham­mad (peace be up­on him) stat­ed, “The son of Adam does not fill any ves­sel worse than his stom­ach. It is suf­fi­cient for him to eat a few mouth­fuls to keep his back straight. But if he must, then let him fill one-third of his stom­ach with food, one-third with drink, and one-third with air (Tir­mid­hi),” she ex­plained.

“This Ha­dith high­lights the sig­nif­i­cance of mind­ful eat­ing, which aligns with nu­tri­tion­al prin­ci­ples re­lat­ed to por­tion con­trol and bal­anced meals.

“Nu­tri­tion teach­es us that mod­er­a­tion is es­sen­tial for en­sur­ing a bal­anced in­take of each of the six Caribbean food groups. This bal­ance helps in­di­vid­u­als re­ceive the ap­pro­pri­ate amount of nu­tri­ents.

“A well-struc­tured plate con­tain­ing ad­e­quate por­tions of pro­tein, com­plex car­bo­hy­drates, healthy fats, and fi­bre sup­ports di­ges­tion, weight man­age­ment, and long-term health. More­over, it re­duces the risk of chron­ic dis­eases and pro­motes op­ti­mal health.”

Women of­ten car­ry im­mense re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, bal­anc­ing work, fam­i­ly, and com­mu­ni­ty, and they fre­quent­ly pri­ori­tise the needs of oth­ers over their own. How­ev­er, their well-be­ing is the foun­da­tion of every­thing they do. Ali-Is­lam said achiev­ing hor­mon­al bal­ance in­volves more than just di­et and ex­er­cise; it al­so re­quires nur­tur­ing over­all health.

“By fu­elling the body with nu­tri­ent-dense foods, stay­ing ac­tive, and man­ag­ing stress, women can reg­u­late key hor­mones, re­duce in­flam­ma­tion, and sup­port their mood, en­er­gy lev­els, and re­pro­duc­tive health,” she added.

“It is equal­ly im­por­tant to pri­ori­tise reg­u­lar check-ups and dis­cuss nec­es­sary screen­ings with health­care pro­fes­sion­als. Dur­ing times of fi­nan­cial, so­cial, or emo­tion­al chal­lenges, seek­ing sup­port from fam­i­ly, friends, or trust­ed com­mu­ni­ty re­sources is cru­cial to en­sur­ing that health re­mains a pri­or­i­ty.”

To man­age stress and ex­haus­tion, she said, women are en­cour­aged to prac­tise mind­ful­ness tech­niques such as prayer, med­i­ta­tion, deep breath­ing, and self-care rou­tines.

“Reach­ing out for pro­fes­sion­al as­sis­tance through ther­a­py or sup­port groups can pro­vide valu­able guid­ance for emo­tion­al and men­tal well-be­ing. By nur­tur­ing all as­pects of health, women can re­store bal­ance, build re­silience, and gain the strength and clar­i­ty need­ed to ful­fil their own needs,” she added.