Nutrition
Health benefits of almonds
• Spinach
Almonds pack a dense nutritional punch to benefit you and your body. If you’re looking to strengthen your heart, your bones, or even your libido, almonds can help do that trick.
Here are some major health benefits of almonds.
Lower Cholesterol: Eating almonds helps to lower levels of bad kind of cholesterol, called low-density lipoprotein (LDL), increase levels of the good kind, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Almonds also have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties to help protect you from heart disease.
Keep a Healthy Weight: Although they contain a high number of calories, almonds can actually help to reduce your risk of weight gain and obesity- as long as you pay attention to portion size. The protein and fibre in the nuts make you feel full faster, so you can better control your calorie intake while still satisfying your hunger.
Lower Blood Pressure: Almonds can help your systolic blood pressure, which offers even more protection against heart disease.
Essential Vitamins, Minerals, and Fibre: almonds are rich in valuable nutrients for your body, like magnesium, vitamin E, and dietary fibre. A single serving of almonds makes for a nutritious and filling snack.
Stronger Bones: Almonds have calcium and phosphorous, which improve bone health and can protect you from fractures.
Better Blood Sugar Control: Almonds seem to help curb blood sugar spikes after meals, which is key for people with diabetes.
Better Gut Health: Recent researches appear to suggest that almonds can protect the health and immunity of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. A healthier gut means a better immune system and a stronger body.
Nutrition although technically seeds, almonds are considered nuts. Like many nuts, almonds provide plenty of nutrients. An ounce of whole almonds contains; calories 152, protein six grammes, fat 13 grammes, carbohydrates sixgrammes, dietary threegrammes and sugar one gramme..
SOURCE: www.webmd.com
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
