1. Adding Seasoning Like Maggi, Knorr To Beans
I was in a friend’s house, as we were discussion about football teams and matches, we heard a louder conversation from his neighbours in the ground flat. One of them who is a Hausa woman said with clear boldness that she can not cook beans for her family without adding 4 to 6 cubes of seasoning such as Maggi, Knorr, etc., with many containing Monosodium Glutamate. The other said she uses just two cubes. Immediately, we both became completely speechless. My friend later said she (Hausa woman) only has three children all below age 10.
Friends, food condiment like this does not have any nutritive value it supplies to our body. It is best to reduce the amount we add to our meals. Instead, use natural food condiments like ginger, garlic and onions that have been found to be helpful in human health.
2. Adding Sugar To Yam
Growing up in a family where we never used sugars in tea, pap, custard and garri, it became culture shock when I recently discovered that many house wives add some table spoons of sugar to yam when cooking in their quest to make it sweet. I can only laugh in Ijebu.
Yam is a calorie dense food. Adding some sugars to it will only increase the calorie. No wonder the sudden rise in the cases of diabetes. For me, it is only a bad cook who does this. I stand to be corrected.
3. Frying Two Eggs With A Whole Bottle of Oil
This apparently sounds like an exaggeration but the truth has to be told. During my undergraduate days, a friend of mine appeared to have made a joke out of this – he was serious. He explained how a lady fried 2 eggs for him with close to a bottle of vegetable oil. Then, I never believed him until something of same extent happened to myself and a friend when we both visited a lady who obviously wanted to impress us. Sincerely, it was in the ratio of two eggs to 1 bottle of vegetable oil. We managed to eat three slices of bread each. As she steps out to pick her clothes when it was drizzling, I quickly rushed to drain the oil. No wonder she is overweight.
4. Adding Salt To Garri
This does not taste nice at all. I cannot fathom why anyone would do this. You would probably think this is an habit for the young children but as I surprised to hear of individuals who still do this. There has been a lot of campaign concerning the effect of consuming high amount of sodium. Yet, some people still indulge in this habit of soaking garri of all foods with pinches of salt. Haba…..Take am easy.
No doubt, some of you are practicing some or all of the above listed habits. The need to avoid them is critically important as they can lead you to unwanted debilitating health conditions. As a practicing nutritionist, the conditions I see and hear of on daily basis are scary and some of these unhealthy habit could be the leading cause.
You could share some other ones you do or you are aware of.
