YOUR FOOD IS YOUR BEST MEDICATION

What goes on in your kitchen is an indication of your family health.

Your kitchen can either be a mortuary or a hospital. Foods have natural powers to heal and prevent the initiation and proliferation of diseases in the human body. In addition to the self-healing property of the human body, the quality of food consumption reflects how the body ward off diseases and recover when hit by diseases.

Studies in nutritional health has indicated several enemies of nutritious diet which include peeling, washing, high-heat, oxidation, frying and the addition of chemicals in the guise of preservative and seasoning. All the aforementioned make our foods powerless as all their therapeutic properties are lost and what we consume is chaff.

Food consumption in recent generations has been largely influenced by taste stimulation. We only love to feed on what tickles our taste-bud with little regard to how beneficial it is to our bodies.

How does these enemies of nutrition affect our health?

1) PEELING:

We peel most of our foods and fruits before cooking and consumption. The polishing of rice is a great devil as the most of its nutritional content would have been removed while husking and made worse by polishing. There are several nutrients contained in the outer membranous green envelope of fruits just like the tubers and stem foods store much nutrients near the peel. 

Some fruits are best juiced with their peels while foods like yam, potatoes, and groundnuts are best cooked without removing their protective skin layer which allows the food to retain most of its nutrients. They can now be removed at consumption.   

The consumption of unpolished rice (ofada, abakaliki, etc.) is of great health benefits. The bran makes it high in fiber. It also contains B vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidant and thiamine which is found in mother's milk. All of these are lost when rice is polished because of taste and flavor.

2) WASHING

While trying to wash our foods to get rid of soil, we most times wash to the detriment of the nutrients contained in the foods.

Yams are washed thoroughly before peeling and cooking most times. It is advisable you do not wash after peeling or better cook without peeling. 

A simple experiment is to observe change in color of the water while washing before cooking. A change in color is indicative of loss of minerals. The same applies to vegetables and other foods. Our cooking methods make us loose a substantial part of the nutritional value of our foods. 

3) HIGH-HEAT

We often fail to realise that our foods are made up of chemicals, molecules, ions and atoms which make them go through reactions influenced by temperatures. On high heat, minerals and nutrients because of their thermo-sensitivity are lost as we cook.

Approximately 97% of Water-Soluble Vitamins (B, C, Folic Acid) are damaged at the boiling point of water (100 degrees C).

Approximately 44% of fat-Soluble Vitamins (A, D, E, K) are damaged at the boiling point of water.

The body does not understand taste or variety in food supply. What the body understands and demands are nutrients and minerals which are mostly gotten thru the food we consume.

This explains for the third wrong cooking method we engage that renders our foods bland. Nutrition-depleted meals send the wrong signals to the brain making the body demand more nutrients (not more food) since the last meal did not meet the supply demanded. This demand is misinterpreted as demand for food which we quickly supply and the excess is stored up as fats which is one of many factors responsible for obesity.

Nutrition-rich meals consumed in the right quantity sustains the body for a longer duration than nutrition-depleted meals.

4) FRYING

Cholesterol has been wrongly labelled the bad guy despite the great works it does in the body. The truth is that no human body can survive without cholesterol. Cholesterol is responsible for several body functions which keep the body healthy.

One of such functions is the permeability of the cell membrane. The membranous layer which surrounds each cell and is responsible for the passage of nutrients into each cell and the exit of waste matters from the cell.

The body produces its own cholesterol using the fats with which we supply through our foods. The quality of the fats supplied also determines the quality of the cholesterol the body produces.

Frying has been implicated in the production of acrylamide in certain foods like potatoes. Acrylamide has been found to be a  carcinogen in cancer studies and experiements conducted on rats. The compound is created when a sugar and an amino acid called asparagine combine during high-temperature cooking or heating for extended lengths of time. 

Frying also denatures the structure of the oil we use by converting them to trans-fat. Cholesterol produced with trans-fat will have reduced permeability which will restrict the entrance of nutrients into the cell and the exit of waste products from the cell.

This makes the cell nutrient-deficient and toxic as wastes are retained. A toxic cell is at the risk of having its DNA altered which results in cancer.

Frying thus compromises the health of the body.  It also affects enzymatic procedures in the body resulting in conditions such as slow digestion.

5) ADDITION OF PRESERVATIVES & SEASONINGS

Several studies has been carried out to show the effect of several preservatives and seasonings on the body. Most of these chemicals only tickle our taste-buds but compromise the health of the body.

Carbonated drinks have been implicated as a major cause of many conditions. In an October 2006 article published in "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," nutrition scientist Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., and colleagues report that women who consume regular and diet cola tend to have weaker hipbones compared to those who do not drink these beverages.

Mono-Sodium Glutamate (MSG) overstimulates the cells leading to cell-death and it has been implicated as a leading cause of cancer and hormonal imbalance in individuals over the years.

The use of natural seasonings like curry, coriander, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, fennel, etc can replace the use of chemical seasonings for a healthy body. Besides, each of these seasonings have their own health benefits outside of stimulating our taste-buds.

Garlic is a blood thinner which can be helpful in situations with high-blood pressure. Others have anti-oxidative properties helping the body against cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

6) WRONG COOKWARE

The kitchen is about the most expensive room in most homes yet the quality of what is produced does not measure up with the value invested.

Aluminium cooking pots, pans and kettles is very common in homes with all its attendant consequences.

Aluminium is known to leach when used in cooking acidic foods. Most of the time, the aluminium pots become perforated as a result of continuous leaching. The dangers of aluminium is mostly seen in neuro-degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disorder, dementia, etc. Aluminium is one of several heavy metals found in the body which compromises the blood-brain barrier.

The non-stick cookware which is a modern day convenient cookware is aluminium coated with teflon made with Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) which is a strong carcinogen. The Teflon leaches into food and is consumed thereby increasing the individual’s risk of cancer.

The Saladmaster cookware is made up of 316 Ti Titanium stainless steel which is the highest grade of steel in the cookware industry. Titanium is used in surgical procedures like hip-bone replacement. It is non-corrosive, non-reactive and does not leach. It is an investment everyone should make into their health.

Earthen cookware are suitable alternatives where possible.