A healthy recipe is a combination of foods with the right proportion of nutrients in agreement to your health or dietary needs. 

Here are traditional recipes from all over Africa with a healthy twist to the way they are prepared and served. I mean a cutting down in the amount of oil, no peeling of root foods like potato, yam and cassava, reducing the salt or salty spices, increasing the vegetable, reducing the cooking time and temperature, making a habit of eating fruits and lots more.

 

Oils

Africa is rich in oils, oils drilled from under the earth surface (crude oil), oil from animals (animal fat) and oils extracted from fruits and nuts (plant oils). Animal fat and plant oils are the ones that are mostly cooked in meals. Some plant oils are Olive oil, Palm oil, Coconut oil, Groundnut oil, Palm oil and Avocado oil.

 

Too much oil in meals is bad and dangerous! But how much is too much? And how much is just right? We will be finding out in the recipes.

 

 

Fruit

If you really want to know what fresh delicious tasty fruit is like, visit Africa. The fruits are juicy and rich in colour. And the African fruit taste is simply divine. African meals do not traditionally include fruits. That will be changed on this site. I will be introducing some smoothies and some fruit salads.

 

 

Vegetables

The colour says it all with vegetables. Healthy vegetables always have a bright colour around them and an excellent taste. Vegetables are best eaten fresh, they are never to be over cooked. If there’s a brownish colour around cooked green vegetables or an off colour on any vegetable, that veg is dead! This means most of the nutrients in the vegetable has been destroyed. Never steam vegetables. And vegetables are best cooked without water.

 

Meat

Meat is a very very important part of an African meals. Meats such as beef, goat meat, pork, lamb, squirrels, snails, turkey, chicken, duck, goose, and guinea fowl are all consumed in African meals And their gravy used in making meals, soups and stews.

 

Lean meat is the best, like chicken. Eat your chicken or poultry without the skin. Meats loaded with fat are to be avoided or de-fatted. Meats are high in calories and should be eaten in moderation. Do not fry your meat! 

 

Cooking

Just as we kill germs at high temperature, we can also kill the nutrients in our food and vegetables if we cook them at too high temperature and for too long!

 

 

 

Deep frying is the most unhealthy type of cooking. Fried food takes 7 – 8 times of the normal time to digest and stores unwanted fat and cholesterol in the body. It is best to boil, grill, roast or bake our food and avoid deep frying.

Water has the ability leach out the nutrients in food. Cook your food and vegetables in very little or no water to retain the vitamins and minerals in them.

 

 

Water

Healthy eating will not be complete without water. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning. An average of 2 litres of water should be drank by an individual everyday. Drinking warm water is much better than drinking cold water.

 

 

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