Podcast: Learning to feed your body and soul

"If we fail to feed our bodies with nutrients, we will suffer the consequences of fragility and starvation," says Dr Lebogang Masekela who has plenty of words of wisdom

The statement, you are what you eat, is quite a scary one, but yet very true! The food that we put into our bodies has a direct impact on how we feel, how we look and ultimately on our daily performance, writes podcast host Jo-Ann Prinsloo.

Podcast: Learning to feed your body and soul — Jo-Ann Prinsloo, the host of Health For Mzansi’s weekly podcast. Photo: Supplied

On this week’s podcast, we discuss all things nutrition and our relationship with eating with the insightful Dr Lebogang Masekela. Polokwane-born Masekela has always had a passion for nutrition, fitness, and weight loss from a young age. After struggling with binge eating and bulimia, Lebogang found her calling in teaching people how to eat healthily.

This passionate doctor founded “Nutrition 101 by Dr Lebogang”, which later evolved into “Dr Lebogang’s Nutrition & Wellness” in 2019.

She proves that one can indeed do it all and decided to take part in the Mrs South Africa 2023 beauty pageant to revive her dormant dream of modelling, coupled with being an ambassador for health and wellness. She is currently a finalist in this national beauty pageant.

Importance of nutrients

However, to draw on Masekela’s words of wisdom, she explains how the body is in actual fact made up of the nutrients we need to eat and that we become what we feed our bodies with. If we fail to feed our bodies with these nutrients, we will suffer the consequences of fragility and starvation.

To ensure our bodily health and strength, we need to become conscious eaters and be mindful that food does not only feed the body but the soul too.

In the podcast, Masekela shares the following tips to be a mindful eater:

Food diversity (include all food groups);
Eat to the rainbow (have 7 colours on your plate that represent the different food groups);
Eat foods in their most natural state, if possible, if not, steam; and
Do not forget to drink water.