Promotion of Slow Foods

Nakuru,

Thursday, August 24, 2023

KNA by Veronica Bosibori

The Slow Foods Organization today launched a weekly promotion of healthy foodstuffs at the railway grounds in Nakuru city to discourage overconsumption of fast foods in Nakuru County. 

The secretary of the Nakuru Slow Foods organization, Florida Muthoni said it was quite disheartening that traditional foodstuffs such as millet are now being promoted by the international community, and yet those were the normal diets of citizens in the past. 

She said the slow foods organization was started in Italy to counter the prolongation of fast foods all over the world despite their negative effect on health, especially the contribution to weight gain and wild expansion of waists, which leads to non-communicable diseases. 

The secretary noted with concern that the younger generation tends to have some negative perception of slow foods or traditional foodstuffs, such as ugali made out of millet, pumpkins, and vegetables. 

However, she said the media, (especially through television advertisements) has created positive perceptions of fast foods such as chips, humbuggers, and pizzas, though they are devoid of important nutrients. 

Muthoni observed that true to the name the slow foods are just that; they are slow in cooking, and even their tastes are not as tantalizing to the palates as the fast foods, but they are the healthiest. 

She appealed to the government to promote ugali ya wimbi, to reduce the ever-increasing consumption of maize, which unfortunately is loaded with starches that end up being stored as sucrose in the liver. 

However, she said all wasn’t lost since a number of people have turned to slow foods, albeit a little too late, after the threats of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

She stressed the importance of changing the unhealthy breakfast of tea and bread, instead encouraging uji and sweet potatoes, bananas, nduma, and pumpkins to improve children's health and implant in them healthy eating habits. 

Additionally, she said in counties such as Baringo, where communities held fast to the slow foods, it wasn’t uncommon to find strong old people at the age of 90-100, while in urban areas it might be a search in futility.

Courtesy; KNA