Swallow
Swallow is a generic name for carbohydrate that often accompanies most Nigerian soups . Typical examples are fufu, garri and amala.
If you are trying to eat clean or lose weight on a Nigerian diet, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy swallows.
These foods are often very nutritious and serve great purpose in overall cardiovascular and gut health. The best options are often fermented in whole form. Think fufu, amala, garri, lafun etc.
[b]Five healthy swallows[/b]
[b]Garri[/b]
A byproduct of fermented cassava. By itself, cassava is a great source of carbohydrate yielding about 159 calories and 38g of carbohydrate in 100g. By fermenting and processing cassava into garri, some of the carbohydrate is converted to protein. Also, the water absorbability of cassava is drastically increased through processing which makes it a high satiety choice. The average healthy adult should aim for 1/3 cup per meal.
[b]Elubo[/b]
Now I am calling this elubo and not yam powder because I don’t want anyone to get confused. Yam powder/flour is one of the worst things you can eat whether you are trying to lose weight or not. It’s often filled with other fillers like potato powder and chemicals; it also has high calories and carbohydrate per portion . Because the yam hasn’t gone through any nutrition enhancing process, water absorbability is very low. Because such large amount of carbohydrate is packed into very small volume, the impact on your blood sugar is high. This is why you might feel very lethargic shorty after eating yam flour.
Elubo on the other hand even though a byproduct of yam goes through extended fermentation. This process again introduces amazing microbes, increases water absorbability when reconstituted and protein content is also increased.
[b]Fufu, Pupuru and Amala Lafun[/b]
These are is all byproducts of fermented cassava and excellent choices due to the added health benefits of fermentation as stated previously for garri and elubo.
[b]Whole Grain Swallow[/b]
Pick any whole grain product that you like – brown rice, whole millet, guinea corn (oka-baba), fonio (acha) etc. You can turn all these options into swallow, all you need to do is ferment then in water for about 4 days and then blend into a thick paste. Cook the paste as you would semolina (mix a little with water, bring a pot of water to a boil and stir in the mix. continue to stir until thickened). Whole grains come with amazing health benefits and are often high satiety due to high fiber content.
[b]Fresh Plantain Fufu[/b]
Plantains are good healthy food, but you do have to keep in mind that they are high in calories. The average medium size plantain (200g peeled) has about 244 calories and 58grams of carbohydrate. Here is how to turn fresh plantain into Fufu.
[b]Bottom-line[/b]
Eat traditional swallows in prescribed portions and AVOID wheat and poundo powder at all cost.
