Nigerians have been urged to always eat food that has adequate nutrients in right proportion to stay healthy.
A dietitian with Rivers State University, Doctor Catherine Olisa who gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt described balanced diet as meal that contains all the essential nutrients in right proportion.
She stressed that age, weight, gender, state of the health should be considered in the choice of food made.
Dr. Olisa noted that accessing healthy diet is not expensive stating that it is cheaper to cultivate vegetables in the neighbourhoods with plastic containers and a source of fresh food.
“There should be an increase in our vegetables and fruits. And for tomatoes if we just peel and cook them three to five minutes before we drop the pot it will make more sense.
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And we know that we can actually have some of those things planted around us. Gone are those days we think these things must always come from the north”, she noted.
Dr. Olisa said all food are good for consumption however, warned that food allergy and intolerance should be watched to avoid reactions.
“When we talk about food allergy we are talking about the immune system reacting to something that you take in, that the body sees as poison, harmful, or toxic. You talk about food intolerance that is the inability of the digestive system to digest a particular type of food.
That is why we talk about food perse intolerance, maltose intolerance some people would tell you I don’t take milk, for each time I take milk I fell bloated”, she stressed. The nutritionist emphasised that there is no scientific backing that blood group determines the choice of food.
