Eat more fish, less meat — Experts

A restaurant owner at Agege, Lagos State, Mrs. Ireti Lawal, receives a lot of patronage on a daily basis. In the afternoon, there is a long queue of people waiting to have a taste of her African dishes which are spiced with vegetable soup and fried fish.

But what attracts people to her food? A customer in his late forties who simply identified himself as Kunle said he likes the way she fries her fish.

He said “I’ve been eating at the kitchen since I started working in the area. Her food tastes so nice. Her vegetable soup is sweet, including her fried fish.”

There are many other people who, like Kunle, enjoy eating processed and fried food.

However, what they may not be aware of is that continuous consumption of processed and fried food could trigger diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart related diseases.

There are several reports of persons who slumped and died from heart-related diseases.

Speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH, a nutritionist from Mart Life Detox Clinic, Lagos, Mrs. Idowu Ashiru, urged Nigerians to be more conscious of their eating habits.

 She said, “Nigerians consume high amount of bad oil, that is, oil that has not been properly processed. Frying your oil for too long is bad. A large percentage of cooking oil sold in the market is not well processed. As you continually consume badly processed oil, it gets into your arteries and clogs up the arteries. This could lead to diabetes, heart attack and cancer.

“I always advise women to be careful about the way they fry their palm and groundnut oil. This type of oil should not be over heated because it becomes toxic to the body. Even when you want to cook with oil, a table spoon is good enough. Anything more than a table spoon is not good. In Nigeria, we are fond of frying our food but there are other ways to prepare dishes. You can either grill or bake your meals. These methods are better,” Ashiru said.

The nutritionist added that consumption of processed food is harmful to the body.

“Despite our love for processed food just because they are quick to prepare, these types of food are harmful. Natural food is always better.  Some people may be allergic to processed food and they won’t know. Rather than consuming processed foods, make your pounded yam the natural way. It may be time consuming, but it saves one’s life,” she said.

Also speaking on the subject, a doctor at the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Gbenga Alaba, explains what cholesterol is and how it travels in the body system.

“It is important for us to educate ourselves on cholesterol. Cholesterol is a type of lipid (fat) that is produced by the liver and can be got from the food we eat. It circulates in our blood system to play an important role for normal body functions and it is also a source of energy during a prolonged period without food. Cholesterol cannot travel in the blood system without the help of some proteins, so the combination of cholesterol and these proteins are known as ‘lipoproteins,’ in which Low Density Lipoprotein and High Density Lipoprotein are part of.   This is responsible for the transportation of cholesterol from the liver where it is produced to the peripheral cells in the body. Some people regard LDL as bad cholesterol because if the activity of LDL goes on unchecked, it can lead to heart diseases like myocardial infarction and brain disease like cerebrovascular accident (infarct stroke),” he said.

Alaba stated that some activities could trigger high cholesterol.

“Taking meals that contain saturated fats have an increasing effect on the body LDL cholesterol level. This is the reason why red meat is discouraged because of its high content in saturated fats. Cooking oil that gets solidified under room temperature (the one most people regard as sleeping oil) should also be discouraged because of its high content of saturated fats. Also, smoking is another bad habit. Not exercising, just sitting or lying down does harm to the body.  Studies have shown that people that are obese have higher LDL level compared to those that are not obese,” he said.

Nutrition expert, Mr. Okunola Oladimeji, advised that fish instead of red meat should be frquently consumed.

Oladimeji said, “We should imbibe the habit of eating food like fish. Nigeria has different types of fishes including locally harvested and imported such as Mackerel, catfish, shrimps, prawns; tuna, salmon; cods and other sea foods. We should endeavour to eat more fishes than meat because fishes are beneficial to the body. 

Fish protein is high in quality and contains sufficient amount of all essential amino acids the body requires for growth and maintenance of lean muscle tissues. The oil in fishes like mackerels is wonderful. It can equally enrich, as well as nourish our brains and skins.”

He also noted that diets with more fibre and protein help protect the body against diseases, hence, it is an ideal diet for every human being.

“Vegetables are high in fibre contents. Fibre can be called roughages and the diets that contain them are highly recommended as strong health eating diets,” he said.