Healthy eating

In our climes, eating healthy is usually associated with boring, dull, tasteless foods. This is not entirely surprising as the term health food conjures in our subconscious images of unimaginative salads and bland grains for diabetics. Personally, I feel there is no reason we cannot eat healthy and delicious foods at the same time. The trick, as always, is in striking the right balance between flavor and the amount of empty calories in your dish.

A little imagination and courage you will find can go a long way in spicing up your healthy dishes and make your meals interesting and something the whole family can enjoy. There are therefore numerous ways to improve the nutrients in your meal without introducing drastic changes.

To demonstrate my point, I will use as an example the popular Nigerian delicacy rice and stew. Ordinarily, this dish only contains a lot of white rice with some oily beefy or 'lamby' (most times fried) tomato sauce. As you rightly guessed, this will hardly receive laurels for its nutritious value. Thankfully, it is easy to reduce the calorific and cholesteric characteristic of this dish while increasing its useful nutrients without compromising taste and beauty.


The most obvious first step in 'nutrifying' your rice and stew is in the choice of the main components. As in any dish, it is always advisable to go for the freshest and most nutritious ingredients. For example, there are numerous varieties of rice and the best you can use is always the most wholesome. Personally, I prefer the low-carb brown basmati rice as I find its unique flavor appealing. As this rice variety still contains it's germ and bran layers, it provides B vitamins, magnesium as well as phosphorus and because it is high in fibre, greatly reduces hunger pangs - the precursor to junk food binging.