Nutrition
Eba and Egusi Stew
Ingredients
Egusi soup:
- 2 cups ground egusi (melon seeds)
- 1 kg assorted meat (beef, goat)
- Stockfish (pre-soaked/boiled) and smoked fish
- ½ to ¾ cup palm oil
- 5 cups spinach or bitter leaf
- 1 large onion
- 2–3 seasoning cubes
- Scotch bonnet pepper (to taste)
- 1–2 tablespoons ground crayfish
Eba:
- Gari (white or yellow/red oil-fortified)
- Boiling water
Preparation
For Egusi Soup:
- Boil the assorted meat with chopped onions, seasoning cubes, and salt until tender. Reserve the meat stock.
- Heat palm oil in a clean pot on medium heat. Add finely chopped onions and sauté.
- Add the ground egusi and fry for 8–10 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until it turns slightly toasted and crumbly.
- Gradually add the reserved meat stock to the fried egusi while stirring to avoid lumps.
- Cover the pot and let egusi simmer for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the oil separates and rises to the top.
- Add ground crayfish, pepper, and the cooked meat/fish. Stir and cook for another 5–10 minutes.
- Add the washed/chopped vegetables (spinach or bitter leaf) and simmer for 2–5 minutes until wilted but still green.
For Eba:
- Boil water in a kettle or pot until it reaches a rolling boil.
- Pour hot water into a bowl. Gradually sprinkle the gari into the hot water.
- Stir vigorously with a wooden spatula to prevent lumps until the gari is fully incorporated and smooth.
- Cover the bowl for 1–2 minutes to allow the heat to steam the eba.
- By Theresa Tsetse
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Egg stew is a traditional dish from Ghana. It is very healthy and easy to prepare. The dish is traditionally served with rice, plantain and any other meal of one’s choice.
Ingredients
-1 litre of vegetable oil
-2 fresh salmon
-10 large tomatoes
-5 large onions
– 6 eggs
-3 tablespoonful of pepper
-1 tablespoonful of powdered garlic and ginger
-1 tin of mackerel
– I large green pepper
-3 tablespoonful of tomatoes paste
Preparation
-Wash tomatoes, onion, green pepper and blend
-Put oil on fire and add onion and powdered pepper to it
-When onions turn golden brown, add blended tomatoes and tomato paste to it. (Allow it to cook for 3 minutes.)
-Add eggs and salmon to stew and leave it for a minute before stirring.
– Add seasoning to the stew and serve.
By Linda Abrefi Wadie
Every baby deserves a healthy start. But in Ghana, too many children are being born already behind, too small, too fragile, and at far greater risk than their peers. Low birth weight, defined as weighing less than 2.5 kilograms at birth, affects an estimated one in seven newborns in this country.
That is a significant proportion of children beginning life at a disadvantage, often due to preventable causes.
Children born with low birth weight face a steeply uphill journey from their very first breath. They are more susceptible to birth asphyxia, infections, hypothermia, and respiratory complications.
They are more likely to die in their first month of life. Those who survive face higher risks of stunting, impaired cognitive development, and a greater likelihood of developing non-communicable diseases including type two diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease later in life.
Low birth weight does not just harm the child today. It shapes their health for decades.
The most powerful determinant of a baby’s birth weight is what the mother eats, and how healthy she is before and during pregnancy. Research in Ghana has consistently shown that maternal anaemia, poor dietary diversity, and inadequate antenatal care are all strongly linked to low birth weight.
A study in Cape Coast found that mothers with low dietary diversity during pregnancy were significantly more likely to deliver low birth weight babies. In Northern Ghana, maternal anaemia in both the first and third trimesters of pregnancy increased the risk of low birth weight. What a woman eats is what her baby weighs.
Education matters too. Mothers with secondary or higher education have been found to be less likely to deliver a low-birth-weight baby, a difference attributed to better nutrition knowledge, improved antenatal care attendance, and healthier health-seeking behaviour overall.
This points clearly to the need for a whole-of-society response, not just a clinical one.
Ghana has made some progress on low birth weight, but the burden remains unacceptably high and in some parts of the country, it is worsening. Other important risk factors must not be overlooked.
Adolescent pregnancy, which remains prevalent in several regions, is strongly associated with low birth weight because young mothers are often still growing and competing with the fetus for nutrients.
Malaria infection during pregnancy, particularly in endemic areas of Ghana, damages the placenta and restricts nutrient transfer, further increasing the likelihood of a low-birth-weight baby.
These risk factors compound the effects of poor maternal nutrition and limited antenatal care. Leaders in government, health facilities, and communities must prioritise maternal nutrition before, during, and after pregnancy.
Reducing low birth weight is not complicated. It requires feeding mothers well, supporting them through antenatal care, ensuring access to iron-folic acid supplementation and malaria prevention during pregnancy, and treating their health as a national priority, not an afterthought.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
