Nutrition everyday
One glorious day, on my way to school, I bought some waakye with egg and plantain, then topped it up with some gari. This is one of my favorite foods. Enroute to school via bus, I clutched my bag ever so tightly, all in anticipation of the meal I was to feast on upon arrival.
Finally, I got to my destination and just when I was ready to have all my food to myself, the unthinkable happened, my food poured on the floor…….
Have you ever been faced with a situation like mine? Then I certainly don’t have to type how the story ended.
The question then is, why is food so important that just having it in my bag deterred me from thinking straight?
To tackle that question lets first define what food is. Per our Junior high integrated science, it is a substance consisting of protein, carbohydrates, fats, and other nutrients important to the body of a living organism to sustain growth, vital processes and to furnish energy. This means for us to be able to carry out our everyday activities we need to eat food. In Africa most times we eat to satisfy hunger, but eating goes beyond satisfying hunger to giving the body all the necessary ingredients it needs to function well. Food is medicinal as well, in that, it heals the body off a lot of sicknesses and diseases. Let's not forget that food is pleasure and food is an art.
There are many herbs’ cloves for example, known in the local language as “Peppreh”, not only does this spice give a heavenly aroma to our dish but it’s further used to treat a lot of anomalies in the body, from headache, to treating acne and skin infection to treating toothache, etc. On a normal day, when you eat your favorite gobe with the red oil, plantain and gari, not only are you filling your tommy with your delicious food but the beans support the body with iron, plantain does same and is also a great source of potassium as well.
Have you now seen how important eating food is to the body? the medicinal and nutrient benefit its gives to the body among others. Imagine how weak one feels when one goes the whole day without eating. So please when next you get your favorite food and you are relaxed and ready to eat, please be extra careful not to commit the blunder I did with my waakye, otherwise you go explain tire.
Mary Arthur