Farmacy Series with the Wellness Farmer (Introductory Episode).

An Interview with Monsieur Pk on Maintaining Wellness and Body Beauty Naturally.

Did you know that natural food produce such as fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices are useful for maintaining a healthy body? This is an introductory article for the Farmacy Series, which will focus on natural remedies for maintaining a healthy and beautiful body. Enjoy the read.

Hello Monsieur Pk, can you tell us about Wellness in terms of how you understand it and indicate the relevance of wellness to us?

Thank you for this opportunity to feature myself and the concept of  Farmacy on Diet Maze.  From my point of view, wellness is about how you take care of yourself without worrying about any long-term side effects. Ideally, wellness encompasses healthy eating habits, good fitness activities, good sleep and good social life. I believe one of the ways to live a purpose-driven life is to keep healthy on purpose consistently through these holistic wellness practices. Thus, engage in some form of physical activity like walking in the morning, eat well by avoiding oily foods, excessive meat, alcohol, sugar, processed foods, soda drinks etc. Improve the quality of sleep by staying away from TV, laptop and phones screens a couple of hours before bedtime due to the adverse effects of blue-light emissions.

Monsieur Pk, if I am right, you mostly pursue a natural approach to wellness. Do share with us, some insights on your perception of natural approaches to maintaining wellness. 

Nature has a myriad of solutions to our health needs and this fact attracted me to going natural nearly a decade ago.  I believe Africans, including myself, are placed in a green environment for a unique reason – to eat green. Unfortunately, some of my fellow Africans often resort to liver-toxic drugs when they are sick, instead of looking at the natural options that our environment provides. Resorting to nature first was the lifestyle choice our grandmothers and grandfathers adopted many years ago and today, we can attest to the fact that they lived longer and healthier compared to our current generation. The current challenge however, is a gloomy reality, since growing old mostly accompanied by with multiple lifestyle diseases and spending so much money on disease treatment/ management. I believe the status quo  has to change to improve the quality of our lives to the benefit of the life expectancy rate in my home country,  Ghana and across the African continent.

What is your perspective regarding food and the Linkage with Wellness?

I firmly believe that food is medicine and when food is not consumed with intention, it can adversely affect one’s wellbeing. Basically, we are what we eat! That is why many food products have been linked to every aspect of wellness such as facial care, skin care, weight management, hair and many more. Thus, if we are conscious about what we eat, it has immediate and long-term benefits on our lifestyle and overall health. We note that non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension are on the rise and are closely linked to our lifestyle  and diet-related choices.

Can you share three tips on natural approaches to maintaining holistic body wellness?

Natural tips include (in no particular order) taking brisk walking sessions regularly in the mornings, as well as, eating fruits and vegetables frequently. Additionally, replacing the intake of animal products including milk with plant-based alternatives helps to keep the body healthy naturally. These precautions are useful for effective weight loss, help to boost the immune system and also help to detoxify the body.

Considering your years of residing in India and living naturally, kindly tell your readers about the concept of Farmacy. 

‘Farmacy’ is a concept is to grow your medicine. There are many natural herbs and spices that can be easily grown at home. These can be used in cooking instead of using synthetic spices that have harmful side-effects. Through Farmacy, you are able to create a farm or a garden at home, where you can easily pick your mint leaves, basil leaves, dandelion, turmeric, and other plant products to deal with common health issues at homes. For example, in stead of going for Valium for insomnia, you can take camomille tea to destress and help you sleep without side effects. Also, if you catch a cold, it would be better to take basil tea as an alternative to a synthetic painkiller. In the wake of conventional food produce grown with chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides and herbicides, growing your own vegetables and other foods produce remains a wise decision. Thus, you have access to fresh, richer and healthy organic food at home. In addition, we learn how to use natural food produce to prevent and cure diseases which is the core of ‘Farmacy’. At Farmacy, we share practical information on developing an all-round healthy lifestyle naturally.

Do share with us a take-home message. 

I entreat everyone to adopt sustainable healthy lifestyle choices to improve our quality of life – Eat well, exercise, sleep well and have a good social life. It really pays to take very good care of yourself because as they say, health is wealth!

The organic life is real and you can also be a part of it. Find me on Instagram@monsieur_pk

About Monsieur Pk

Kwasi Mensah Nyarko aka “Monsieur Pk” graduated from KNUST with a bachelors degree in French. He then proceeded to the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India for his Master’s degree in International Relations and Politics. Irrespective of his academic pursuits, he has been learning, practising and sharing information about living an organic life since he returned to Ghana from India. Monsieur Pk offers practical ways to live a healthy lifestyle and his ultimate goal is to see Ghanaians mainly, growing and eating foods which serve as medicine with far-reaching positive impact in our old age. Recently, he has ventured into setting up spices, herbs and vegetable gardens for nearly thirty families.