By Dr Nkemjika Umerah
Food choices and preferences of people reflect their ancient heritage (ancient diet). Food habit of people depicts who they are as regard to diet and it is their identity. Take for instance upon meeting a young man in an African restaurant in the USA eating “ora soup” and “eba”, that shows that he is an Igbo man.
In the same restaurant, seeing another eating ‘ewedu soup” with “eba’, that shows that he is a Yoruba man and on seeing another eating starch and “owo soup”, you will conclude that he is from Niger Delta.
There was no formal introduction but their food has already expressed their origin. They are familiar with their indigenous foods, they know how to cultivate them, they know how to prepare them and they enjoy the meals containing them.
In the Western World, the major Nutritional problem is over-nutrition. This is as a result of the fact that carb foods are cheap and the poor segment of the population barely afford quality food hence their choice of high carbohydrate food which predisposes them to obesity.
In contrast, in developing World, their nutritional problem is multifactorial thereby leading to triple burden malnutrition. By triple burden, it means a situation whereby under-nutrition, over-nutrition and micronutrient malnutrition thrive in a given community.
In Nigeria for instance, the malnutrition suffered by the rich is over-nutrition (obesity), while the poor suffer from under-nutrition (underweight) and the naïve and ignorant suffer from micronutrient malnutrition (hidden hunger).
The best approach to conquer malnutrition in the developing World is through diet diversification which has a direct bearing on food security. To diversify diet, there is need to re-introduce all the underutilized foods that have gone extinct back to the table menu.
Underutilized foods are those foods with under-exploited potential for contributing to food security, health (nutritional and medicinal), income generation and environmental services. They are neglected and there is growing ignorance among the young people about the existence of these nutritionally rich food.
The reason for their under-exploitation are new discovery (technology of food processing), time to harvest from the forest, association with poverty and backwardness, and lack of knowledge about their nutritional and health implication.
A lot of underutilized foods has been identified through focus group discussion and stable isotope analysis (Nutrition Anthropology). Some underutilized vegetables include “erimmiri” Boerhavia diffuse, African tulip ‘ulumiri’ Spathodea campanulata, Bush marigold ‘Anwiniwa-ani’Aspilia Africana, gooseberry ‘Akpuru’ Phyllanthus debilis etc.
While some underutilized fruits include Hog plum “echikara” Spondian mombin, Black plum ‘mbembe’ Vitex doniana, African locust bean pulp ‘mkpuru ugba’ Parkia clappatoniana, among others
Dr. Nkemjika Umerah is a lecturer in the Department of Food Science and Technology, ESUT. Email: [email protected]
