WHY YOU SHOULD CUT DOWN ON CONSUMPTION OF WHITE FLOUR PRODUCTS

Many  Africans have a wrong conception of development. We have been brainwashed to think of development only in terms of ‘catching up with the West.’ The problem is not in catching up, but in the fact that we seem to be catching up only with the wrong things: consuming western goods, western products, western culture, western food, western clothes, western theories while throwing away ours.

Take the case of fast-food joints and the fast rate at which they are springing up everywhere.  These food joints sell processed foods loaded with artificial spices and sweeteners. Even in the semi-rural areas, trees are being cut down to make space for the building of fast-food joints. Houses that were once inhabited by human beings are being turned to shops for selling of soft drinks, biscuits, snacks,bread, juices, etc. These products have one thing in common: they are products made from wheat flour and sugar. The variety of juice drinks are enormous. They come in various bottle shapes and sizes, colour and flavour, all made of water, sugar, colouring, and flavours. Parents prepare their children for school by loading their school bags with these snacks: canned drinks, chin-chin, biscuits,  sweets, bread, etc.

It is strange that no one in the government circle is talking about the health risks of this trend which people associate with ‘development.’ The Nigerian government does not even have an agency (or is there any in existence?) that certifies the hygiene, safety, and quality of these foods. Neither are there agencies that inspect the environment and kitchen conditions of the countless restaurants and fast-food joints springing up every day, which is the practice in the so-called developed countries that we are trying to imitate.

Some people may argue that there is nothing wrong with eating bread. However, in the past twenty years, modern science has altered the genetic structure of wheat, in the bid to make then grow quickly and more commercially viable. This species of wheat has now been introduced into all processed foods.  The bread of the 1960s to 1980s was made from a healthier species of wheat, while the current strains are products of genetic alteration. They have adverse effects on your health: It is no wonder that cases of diabetes, cancer and hypertension abound today in our society, both in the cities and in the villages. Well, that is the price we pay for ‘development.’ Let me warn you. If you suffer from diabetes, asthma and epilepsy,  wheat and wheat products are the most dangerous food you can ever eat. Stay away from them, until you are sure that your wheat is grown organically.

Recently, research in the UK concluded that children of poor parents are now fatter than rich ones. It was observed that over the past decade, the rich have started to slim down, while the poor got bigger. Why is this so? It was discovered that fast-food shops are often filled with schoolchildren from poorer families, where they get cheap, spicy and tasty junk foods, which make them put on weight. These foods are tasty but contain very little nourishment.  It is hard to escape unhealthy food in the poorer neighbourhoods, the research stated. Posters in supermarkets and on bus-stops display deals for fizzy drinks and burgers. Newsagents’ doorways glitter with packets of sweets and crisps. Even a church, converted from a bingo hall, has a snack-dispensing vending machine in its lobby. The children of Camberwell Green, a London suburb, it was noted, are among the fattest in England. Half of ten- and 11-year-olds there are overweight or obese (meaning that a boy of average height would weigh over 40kg). By contrast, in Dulwich Village, a few miles south, where household incomes are twice as high, only a fifth of children are in that category, one of the lowest levels in the country. The reason is that the rich and well educated are best placed to act on the knowledge of the benefits of natural and organic food.  They have more time to cook healthy meals at home and are more likely than poor folk to live near green spaces, join sports clubs and patronise organic foods shops. The rate at which fast-foods spread in the poorer areas is three times higher than in, the more affluent areas.

In many of Nigeria's cities and semi-urban areas, you will notice a high growth of fast-food joints and supermarkets in poorer suburbs and even slums. The target is poor customers, who want cheap and tasty food: biscuits, chin chin, popcorn, burns, doughnuts. Delicious they are, but healthy they are not. So even among the so-called poor in Nigeria, obesity has become a problem. In fact, the paradox now is that the rich are getting slimmer, while the poor are getting fatter. If your health is important, stick to the old village wisdom of cooking your own food and stay with the traditional  delicacies like pounded yam, garri, amala, fufu, local rice, beans, palm oil, coco-yam, sweet potatoes, green vegetables and local spices. Replacing our traditional food with french fries, pizzas, pies, wheat, semolina, cornflakes, sweets, ice-creams, chocolate and other processed food is bad for your health.