WHAT HAS FOOD GOT TO DO WITH IT? Part 2

I will start off with tips on how to serve beans to make it more palatable and attractive as a meal.It is a well known fact that many people, both adults and children consider eating beans a punishment. Even in Latino cuisine and restaurants where beans feature, beans are served in ways that do the dish no justice at all.

Most of the beans dishes are served as " slimy" bowls of soup. Children hate slimy stuff. In Nigeria, beans dishes are mostly served as sloppy looking mess mixed in palm oil with weevils clearly visible in it and to many, the weevils and the resulting gas from eating beans make the experience undesirable.

Eating beans can be a pleasant activity if the meal is served properly. The best method of cooking beans is in a pressure cooker, which may not be available to many especially in the homeland. Pressure cookers can be dangerous if used carelessly. A pressure cooker will cook the beans properly, leaving them soft and intact, nor mushy. When beans are properly cooked, well done, the gas problem is diminished.

The beans can then be served as a side dish with chicken, fish and other foods. It can also be served half and half with rice and stew. Another way is to serve it with plantains, preferably plantain sliced and baked on a greased pan in the oven. The plantain can be fried, although baking is better.

Combining beans with rice cooked in the same pot, starting out with the beans and then adding rice when the beans is almost done, then adding onions, spices, salt, chopped or stewed tomatoes, vegetables and olive oil, simmer on low heat until done, stir and mix and serve.

For people who love soup, Lentil soup is a real treat, especially in the cold winter. Lentil cooks very fast and will get mushy if cooked with high heat. A wide variety of items can be added to the lentil soup--- onions,stewed tomatoes, chopped vegetables, cut up chicken, fish, olives, mushrooms,spices, a little bit of olive oil and the consistency can be thick which is more filling, to watery for a nice winter soup to get rid of the chill after coming home on a cold day.

Black and white ( black eye )peas or beans cause the most gas. Black beans become a good substitute. Black beans cook quickly in a pressure cooker. They taste great with rice or plantain or stew.

Beans ( any beans) with canned fish like---Sardine, Jack mackerel, tastes great and at same time is a complete meal loaded with protein, Omega 3 fatty acids, calcium from the soft fish bones, and carbohydrate from the beans. A few heads of boiled broccoli or cauliflower will put a finishing touch to that. Some children may not like the brocolli. Ouch, gas, you may think. Yes, but one can take care of that by having papaya for dessert ( papaya is not cheap and may not taste great when purchased from grocery stores). Farmer's markets or fruit stands offer the best choices of papaya. Better still, chewable papaya tablets are available where vitamins are sold. They are advertised as digestive aids and are quite inexpensive. ----------------------------------To be continued.

Back to Diet and exercise and good health------

Diet and exercise play a very important role in maintaining good health. Good health means every aspect of health-- physical and emotional, In the past,most emphasis had been laid on Cardiovascular health and the devastating effects of bad diet and lack of exercise.
Hypertension, Diabetes, Heart disease, strokes and other ailments which have direct link to obesity and bad eating habits, in addition to heredity are currently taking people out in large numbers in our homeland. The absence of adequate health care does not help the situation at all. People are dying in their thirties, forties and fifties from these diseases. One is then left to wonder how our forefathers managed to live to the ripe old age common in the past.

Infant and childhood mortality was high, but those who managed to survive the childhood diseases, mostly caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa, fared well in adulthood. Death in adulthood were mostly due to infectious processes again and those who survived lived to a ripe old age.
Today, in addition to the old infectious diseases and insect borne diseases, the problem of HIV/AIDS,Cardiovascular disease and disease from pollution is as real as can be. The older people are passing on and the younger people are dying in their prime. The life expectancy in Nigeria and especially in Igboland is at an alarming low numbers for both males and females. For many, it is not even clear what caused the premature death. As much as we believe that God decides how long we live on this earth, it is clear that we continue to tamper with God's plan for us by the way we live.

Our environment is under serious attack. Pollution of the air with constant burning of plastic trash and other toxic materials render the air unsafe for human consumption. Our soil and groundwater is under serious attack with the dumping of toxic chemicals, be it at mechanic joints, factories or at home where people dump chemicals indiscriminately. These pollutants find their way to our streams and groundwater which is pulled up from boreholes for consumption. Birth defects, miscarriages, diminished fertility in both males and females, and various forms of cancer are direct results of these various forms of pollution.

Bad diet and bad eating habits have compounded all these problems, making the future look very bleak indeed. It is my belief that our ancestors fared better and lived longer because of the way they lived and the way they respected their environment and their bodies. They were fighting off germs and dealing with genetic issues. Their diet actually had them well equipped to fight for survival and longevity. That has changed today. Eating the wrong things and over indulgence for those who can afford to have become serious and complicated problems, coupled with stressful living conditions.

To be continued-------CE