If you ask the average Nigerian boy or girl from a low or middle-class family about their diet, they’ll probably mention a handful of stapble foods, such as rice, bread, yam, beans, and garri, in different combinations for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Almost every Nigerian from a low or middle class family have mostly these foods in different proportions.
The problem with this diet pattern is that it restricts our nutrient intake to mostly carbs and proteins, limiting our intake of essential vitamins, minerals, and other macronutrients. A healthy meal comprises foods that provide all essential nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, healthy fat, proteins, and carbs in the right amounts. Therefore, tabled here is a guide to helping each family draw out a healthy diet plan for optimal growth and development.
DAYS
BREAKFAST
LUNCH
DINNER
SUNDAY
Oats, Milk, with a serving of fruits (Banana or apples)
Jollof rice, Chicken, Steamed Vegetable,
Boiled Yam and catfish peppersoup
MONDAY
Bread and egg sauce/ with tea or green tea. Add a serving of fruits (banana)
Moi moi and Eko (corn meal)
Amala (Lafun) and soup of choice and goat meat
TUESDAY
Boiled yam/boiled potatoes with fish sauce, or vegetable stew
Wheat meal with any soup of choice and meat
Beans and Garri (cassava flakes)
WEDNESDAY
Cereal (Golden morn, corn flakes, etc.), with fruit salad OR custard
Semovita, Semolina or Tuwo shinkafa with soup of choice and meat
Boiled plantain with fish sauce
THURSDAY
Rice and stew (Banga stew, or Vegetable stew)
Beans pottage with fruit snack (watermelon)
Coconut rice with meat of choice, and grapes
FRIDAY
Toast bread & sausage with tea or beverage
Wheat with soup of choice and meat, with carrot
Rice and Beans with fish sauce
SATURDAY
Moi moi/akara/kosai with pap (koko, akamu, ogi, eko)
Potato & plantain porridge with beef sauce
Pounded yam in moderate quantity with any soup of choice
As you can see, this makes for a healthy diet pattern, ensuring that your plate contains all the nutrients you need in the right amounts. Keeping your diet this simple and rich keeps you and your family healthy all week long, all year round.
Chiamaka just completed a yearly wellness check at the hospital. The process was covered by her health maintenance organisation and she got the chance to see a doctor and run basic tests to ascertain her state of health. When she came back to the hospital to review her results, she was told by the doctor that the level of cholesterol in her body was higher than normal.
Kunle always complained of anal itching over the last three weeks. These itching was intense at night and would often wake him up from sleep. Sometimes he itches himself to the point of cutting into the skin around his anus. Surprisingly, when he complained at school, Jide his best friend said he had similar symptoms and went to see his family doctor last week.