Monday Mix

Are you hungry? Change your diet

Whenever a preacher seeks to remind his congregation of an immutable law, he says “it is written”. And if it is written, it cannot be questioned.

Judging by the way Kenyans have stuck to a diet derived from maize, one would be forgiven for thinking it is written that this is the only food they can eat.

So, after subsisting on ugali and kales for three days in a row, the average family will “change” by eating githeri on the fourth day. Many will only eat rice with cabbage occasionally. And on a really good day, they will eat chapati with beef.

And no sooner is this treat over than they will revert to ugali and more ugali. No wonder it has become impossible to satisfy the demand for maize flour.

Surely, there must be other foods more nutritious than maize. Take cassava for instance.

In some parts of western Kenya, a mixture of cassava and millet flour is not only known for its high level of nutrients but for energising men especially when eaten with groundnut sauce.

Yet, in spite of its ability to increase love on the domestic front, there has been no serious attempt to market this dish to more Kenyans.

Green bananas are equally nutritious if not more readily available. Yet even in regions where bananas grow in abundance, they are not considered a staple. Rather, they are sold so that the farmer and his family can afford… maize flour.

Scientists now say that because of the national obsession with ugali and maize-based foods, many people are walking around with full stomachs but, undernourished nonetheless.

Although there are numerous foods that are rich in carbohydrates — such as arrow roots, sweet potatoes, millet and sorghum — they have not been given the cult status that maize enjoys.

Now, Mr Abbas Gullet, the big man at the Kenya Red Cross Society, is telling Kenyans to consider other sources of food besides maize to reduce hunger and dependence on maize flour. Sadly, his plea is unlikely to be heeded.

Farmers in arid regions will plant maize, which requires substantial rainfall, even when they know that they stand a better chance of harvesting if they plant millet.

But why would they make such an obvious mistake year after year? The answer is simple. It is not fashionable to grow millet.

Over the years, consumers have attached stigma to this and other readily available foods in favour of non-indigenous varieties like maize and cabbage.