Healthy eating: Let’s go back to our roots

BY ANTHONY GATHAMBIRI

A  while ago I saw a photo in a local newspaper of a skull of our long gone ancestor. The article mentioned that the people of his time ate grass, herbs and the bark of trees. This diet made them strong.

"Our earth is full of vegetation which should be eaten to strengthen our bodies."

Today these foods could be regarded as the diet of uncivilised and primitive people. In fact, when we read about the root-eating Yohnamami of Brazil’s Amazon forest, we laugh at them, instead of laughing at ourselves who eat poorly.

I believe that it is in our nature to eat vegetables, as our ancestors did. I am not surprised to read in the Bible that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon ate grass.

It is something we have lost along the way. Our carnivorous diet has made us forget that our bodies need vegetables. This attitude has weakened our bodies. It has contributed hugely to diseases like diabetes. We need to revise our menus properly to be healthy.

We also need to revise our way of eating vegetables. When we peel fruits or vegetables that don’t necessarily need peeling, we waste the best part. For example, we throw the best part of the spinach, the stalk, to the pigs and sheep.

My friend Kgomotso Sebopela, a Comboni Missionary, told me recently that when he went home to Pretoria for his holiday, he picked a fruit from an indigenous tree and ate it. His friend was shocked because he has always regarded the tree as one for monkeys, not for our benefit.

Our earth is full of vegetation which should be eaten to strengthen our bodies. Nutritionists should promote the indigenous fruits and vegetables, of which few are being sold. I am not saying that they should cut grass and bring it to the market stalls, but to help us understand that some plants are healthier than what we presently eat.

If we deny our bodies vegetables, they will react. Diseases will visit us. Good eating habits should be emphasised in the school curriculum. What good is a university degree when our bodies are weakened by a poor diet?

Obesity is a problem in our country, in large part because of western diets. So let us get back to our roots!