It’s a new year (and it’ll continue to be till at least March). And with new years come resolutions you only intend to keep for a couple of weeks. One of those resolutions for me was to eat healthier. Turns out many Nigerians had the same plan. But what does it mean to eat healthy?
For these 5 Nigerians, this is what it is:
“It’s a lot of stress and can be expensive but for me it’s worth it.”
“For a while, I honestly never gave my diet a whole lot of thought. I used to eat what I want when I wanted it. But as I got older it became harder to keep the pounds off, so I started paying a little more attention to my diet.
For me, healthy eating is first of all smaller portions. Nigerians consume ridiculously large portions of food with each meal. It’s amazing to watch. It also means cutting out as many carbs as I could, which is really really really hard with Nigerian food. So I try to stay away from white bread and replaced regular rice with couscous.
It’s a lot of stress and can be expensive but for me it’s worth it.” – Anita“Has never crossed my mind…but I try.”
“I can’t even lie until you asked me just now, it has never crossed my mind. I just eat what I see, there’s really no time or money to be giving it any extra thought. Once in a while, I’ll sha buy orange from mallam. Shey orange is a fruit and fruits are healthy. But I don’t really think of it as eating healthy, I just happen to really like oranges. I also like
“Avoiding junk food like a plague.”
“For me, it’s avoiding junk food like a plague. Junk food and soft drinks plus anything that comes in a pack I try to avoid. I really like to cook so I tend to cook most of what I eat which really gives me control over what I eat. If I want snacks, I eat fruits I think I’m just generally a healthy eater. “– Deyo
“Owo and Starch is life.”
“I didn’t think about it until my mum got hypertension, which meant a drastic diet change for a woman who can eat Eba three times a day. I do most of her cooking and it was just easier to eat what she does. So that means way less salt, no palm oil which is really hard because we are from Delta and Owo and Starch is life. But I like that I’ve been forced to do it. Might be in my head but I definitely do feel healthier as a whole.” – Ivie
“Not being able to eat the things that I love.”
“Personally, healthy eating is not being able to eat the things that I love and that has been quite a struggle. On most days, I ignore the nagging grasshopper on my shoulder that tells me having half a box of pizza at midnight is really not a good idea. On other days I fight the urge to wolf down like ten chocolate bars as a midday snack and take a bowl of fruits instead.” – Omotoke
