Are you tired of hearing about how breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Well, this advice probably not going to stop until more of us start eating our morning meals.
About 18 percent of males and 13 percent of females between the ages of 35 and 54 are breakfast skippers, according to a 2011 study by the market research company NPD group.
But the evidence that suggests that breakfast is a meal not-to-be-skipped is overwhelming. In fact, I have never encountered a study that suggests the opposite.
Ghanaian cuisine has diverse traditional dishes from each ethnic group, tribe and clan from the north to the south and from the east to west. Generally, most Ghanaian recipe dishes are made up of a starchy portion (rice, fufu, banku, tuo, gigi, akplidzii, yekeyeke, etew, ato etc) and a sauce or soup saturated with fish, snails, meat or mushrooms.
Some of the main starchy Ghanaian recipe dishes are:
Cooked rice
Waakye - rice and beans
Fufu - pounded cassava and plantain or pounded yam and plantain, or pounded cocoyam
Banku/Akple - cooked fermented corn dough and cassava dough
Kenkey/Dokonu - fermented corn and cassava dough, wrapped in corn or banana leaves and cooked into a consistent solid paste
Kokonte - from dried cassava chips
Gari - made from cassava
Waakye - rice and beans
Fufu - pounded cassava and plantain or pounded yam and plantain, or pounded cocoyam
Banku/Akple - cooked fermented corn dough and cassava dough
Kenkey/Dokonu - fermented corn and cassava dough, wrapped in corn or banana leaves and cooked into a consistent solid paste
Kokonte - from dried cassava chips
Gari - made from cassava
However Lets take a look at some of the research showing the possible benefits of breakfast:
Diabetes: Skipping breakfast may increase a woman's diabetes risk, according to a study published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Women who ate breakfast an average of zero to six times per week were at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than women who ate breakfast every day.
Heart Disease: Eating breakfast was associated with a lower incidence of heart disease in men between ages 45 and 82, according to a July study in the journal Circulation. The study also found that skipping breakfast was associated with hypertension, insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar levels.
Memory: A 2005 Journal of the American Dietetic Association review of 47 breakfast-related studies found that eating breakfast is likely to improve cognitive function related to memory and test grades. Translation: Eating breakfast is a smart move!
Weight Loss: In one recent study, people who ate breakfast as their largest meal lost an average of 17.8 pounds over three months. The other participants consumed the same number of total calories per day, but ate most of their calories at dinner, according to the study published in July in the journal Obesity. The large-dinner group only lost an average of 7.3 pounds each over the same time period.
In a nutshell breakfast is very important and in Ghana the type of breakfast you eat actually depends on the kind of work you do. for instance Manual workers like people who do heavy jobs should eat breakfasts that contain a lot of protein and carbohydrate but the same time that food should also be balanced with all the necessary nutrients, foods like Waakye or Banku Red Red and rice isn't a bad idea for breakfast to a Manual worker.
Finally people who do less energy work like those who work in the offices should go for light breakfast foods which is balanced like oats with bread, salad bread with tea and some fruits etc
i hope this little peace has helped in some way. feel free to leave a comment and always remember to stay healthy.
