By BBN Specials, #NUTRIWEALTH By Folakemi Abdussalam
The spleen is an organ situated at the top left part of the stomach. The “amo” or the “inu eran” that goes well with Amala and Gbegiri*wink* yeah that’s spleen!.
This organ is responsible for protecting the body against infection. It does this by acting as a filter for blood. It filters the blood of infectious organism, so without it, immune response may be low. It also serve a store of white blood cells, recycles and stores red blood cell and help fight against infection causing bacteria. A defective spleen is known as splenomegaly.
Tips to keep your spleen healthy and functional.
1. Drink Sufficient Water! Water they say is the first remedy to every ailment. Because of the filtering function of the spleen, it need proper hydration. Imaging trying to filter a thick pasty solution and an overly watery one; that’s what you should think about your spleen.
2. Always eat your food warm and drinks either warm or at room temperature. Again imaging a boiling soup or water and you suddenly pour in ice cold water, it abruptly stops the whole heating process. In the body ice cold drinks are a shock! On the organ cells. It disrupts their processes and pose a health risk. Cold drinks ain’t good for your spleen. 
3. Eat small, frequent portions of food at a time. Eating large food portions overloads your body with work. It actually confuses your metabolic responses. Eating small portions and properly masticating food is more favourable. It also helps to keep your blood sugar levels steadily stable all through the day.
4.Avoid overly sweet foods and have a mild steady routine of exercise. Sweet foods put pressure on your spleen making it do extra work of filtering.
5. Ginger, black pepper, cloves, onions are very important consumables to improve overall spleen function and health. Also whole grains, leafy vegetables and carrots are highly beneficial.
You don’t want to catch that infection maybe pneumonia, meningitis….. take care of your spleen.
Till next week again!
Folakemi Abdussalam is an Entrepreneur. She writes from Lagos, via ([email protected]) and tweets via @ogifortified
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