Cape Coast, Jan. 12, - Professor
Sarah Darkwa, a Food Scientist at the Department of Vocational and Technical
Education, University of Cape Coast (UCC) has expressed worry about the glamour
with which many Ghanaians have substituted local condiments or spices such as
“Dawadawa” for artificial seasonings.
Subsequently, she has advised
against excessive use of artificial seasonings as they often contained some
questionable ingredients that could be harmful to the human health, when used
over time.
According to her, such seasonings
had high amounts of salt or salt-related chemicals and were not as healthy as
traditional condiments in preparing foods.
Professor Darkwa who was speaking
on the topic “Food Science: A sweet killer of nutritional well-being” at an
inaugural lecture at UCC on Thursday, described these food seasonings as “sweet
killers”.
The lecture offered an
opportunity for Prof Darkwa to present some of her researches that examined the
use of local food materials in the preparation of healthy food products,
determination of glycemic loads and indices of some local foods.
Prof Darkwa, however advised
Ghanaians to resort to Dawadawa which was highly aromatic and could be used as
a healthy condiment in food preparation for good health rather than maggi cubes
which were made of artificial chemicals and flovouring.
“Dawadawa has a high protein and
fat content and a huge deposit of vitamins needed for the proper functioning of
the human body with nutritional components that can contribute significantly to
alleviating the widespread nutritional problems in Ghana if incorporated well
into our daily meals,” she stated.
She mentioned that cardiovascular
and chronic diseases and conditions such as stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity,
and arthritis were common in the country due to the high consumption of these
artificial seasonings.
She admonished Ghanaians to
change their social perceptions, which were leading them into dangerous
lifestyles, noting that tasty foods were not really made so by seasonings.
“The use of artificial food
seasonings as flavour enhancers has been globally accepted for different
recipes and these enhancers have taken the place of many of the traditional and
naturally produced seasonings, such as, dawadawa, which can be used as a
healthy condiment in food preparation for good health,” the professor of Food
Science bemoaned.
She said “there are four main
ingredients used in the production of stock/bouillon cubes. They are salt,
hydrogenated oil, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and colours and preservatives.
However, researchers have found these items harmful to the health”.
Prof Darkwa said although food
was a basic need of humans, it could promote health and likewise diseases and
therefore it was important to ensure that whatever one ate, being it in small
quantities, promoted good health.
She also cautioned against
excessive intake of non-alcoholic drinks as most of them contained high levels
of sugar and other harmful substances which tended to be detrimental to the
human body.
The professor, therefore, called
for more advocacy and more commitment from medical personnel and citizens’
change in lifestyles to fight it.
GNA
No comments:
Post a Comment