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The immense benefits of fruits and vegetables in our diets
Last weekend, I bought a quantity of cabbage and apples to the house. Unfortunately, all of the fruits and vegetables were eaten by my siblings without leaving some for me to eat.
The fact is that though I was not pleased with what they did, I had no choice but to buy another one because I love nutritious fruits and vegetables.
Fruits and vegetables are widely recommended for their health-promoting properties and that’s why I cannot do without them. I think about them when planning my day. They’re part of my life. They’re a necessity.
Low intake of fruits and vegetables is among the top 10 factors for mortality in the world according to research. In sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, where there’s nutrient insufficiency from animal and dairy sources, fruits and vegetables consumption is proposed as alternative source of micronutrients including essential vitamins such as Vitamin A, B and C, key minerals like iron and fibre.
Low consumption of fruits and vegetables accounts for increased chronic diseases such as heart diseases and strokes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 2.6 million deaths could be averted by adequate fruits and vegetables consumption.
Fruits and vegetables have historically held a place in dietary guidance because of their concentration of vitamins, minerals and fibre. When you visit our hospitals and health centres, most of the diseases that are prevalent can be attributed to low intake of fruits and vegetables.
Many people are dying due to high blood pressure, heart diseases, stroke, cancer among others. This is said to be mainly due to the high intake of fatty and junk foods.
Fast food joints have become numerous in our communities, which have made many people lose interest in homemade nutritious foods. Of late, most people especially the youth prefer manufactured foods to homemade foods and this is the cause of the high rate of diseases. It is, therefore, imperative for us to include fruits and vegetables in our everyday diet.
Fruits such as apples, pears, citrus, bananas, mangoes, berries, melons and avocados should be part of our daily diet.
Vegetables also come in many forms and these include leafy green ones such as lettuce, cabbage, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber and many others. Others are onions, shallot, pumpkin, potato, sweet potato and yam. Legumes such as beans, peas are also good examples of vegetables.
They are naturally good and contain vitamins and minerals that can help to keep us healthy. These include vitamin A, C and E, magnesium, zinc, phosphorous and folic acid. For example, folic acid reduces blood levels of homocysteine, a substance that may be a risk factor for coronary heart diseases. Their high mineral content reduces risk of hypertension, heart attack and stroke. Their high vitamin content protects several micronutrient deficiencies.
Fruits and vegetables are essential for our health because they are low in fat, salt and sugar. They are good sources of fibre that helps one reduce obesity and maintain a healthy weight. Their high fibre content lowers caloric intake and weight, manages and reduces risk of diabetes, constipation and colon cancer. They help to also normalise one’s cholesterol and blood pressure levels.
Since vegetables and fruits contain phytochemicals (plant chemicals), they offer innumerable protective benefits to life. These biologically active substances can help to protect the body from some diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart diseases, cancer and high blood pressure (hypertension).
Undoubtedly, different fruits and vegetables contain different nutrients. The Australian dietary guidelines recommend that adults eat at least five kinds of vegetables and two kinds of fruits each day.
Children have a smaller stomach capacity and higher energy needs than adults. They cannot eat the same serving sizes as adults. However, we should encourage children to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. This will help them get the energy they need to play, concentrate better, learn, sleep better and build stronger teeth and bones.
The safety in the consumption of raw fruits and vegetables in Ghana also depends on how clean they are from farm to plate. As a result, I would like to encourage individuals to grow their own vegetables and fruits at home using container-gardens where land is not available.
In the same vein, fruits and vegetables should be thoroughly washed before consumption. The WHO recommended per capita intake of 400g per capita per day is equivalent to five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. For adequate intake, in any state of health, guidance must be sought from a registered dietician.
Continuous efforts to monitor, identify, encourage and promote the multiple importance linked to adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables will go a long way to address the numerous health problems and improve the health of the nation.
Let’s cultivate the habit of including fruits and vegetables in our diets and eschew the high intake of meat and fatty foods. This attitude will ensure that a healthy lifestyle is promoted so as to contribute our quota to the socio-economic development of the country.
By Doris Abaka Williams
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
