“Your food is supposed to be your medicine and your medicine is supposed to be your food.” African Proverb
This has been recognised in the Zambia Food-Based Dietary Guidelines that claim, “Evidence suggests most Zambians do not base their diets on diverse foods. The diet of most Zambians is monotonous, mostly dominated by maize-based foods such as Nshima, which makes up most of the dietary calories for most Zambian diets.”
Health and nutrition professionals are calling on governments to do more to encourage healthier diets across the African continent citing an old African Proverb on Food: “Your food is supposed to be your medicine and your medicine is supposed to be your food.”
The advice is to prepare food at home, avoid refined foods replace them with organic African foods. Start your own garden and use organic fertilizer and pesticides. When people include traditional foods in their eating habits, they tend to consume more nutrients and less calories as well as a strengthened cultural capacity and overall well-being.
Advocacy Action: How well publicised is dietary information in your country? Is there more that could be done in schools, the workplace, in the media? Are there traditional foods in your country that could be better promoted and priced more competitively?