Is our ethnic diet nutritious enough?

Pasta, rice, canjeero, sabayaad and malawax. A household without them is a household that is not Somali. They are versatile, easy-to-make and delicious.

Stop eating them.

Is what you thought I would say, right? Well, no. Not quite. I’m going to take a deep dive into what we feed ourselves on a daily basis. Look at Somali food, our staples in particular and the comparison between them and what a healthy diet should ‘look like’.

Where are we going wrong?

Our Somali cuisine consists mainly of carbohydrates which the body breaks down to sugars which is our main energy source. In fact, our breakfasts, lunches and our dinners are all carb dominant. Now, this will most likely mean that on a regular basis we will go over the calorie range that our bodies need to function which is around 2000-2500 calories. Any excess will mean that our blood sugars will be too high, causing the body to produce more insulin which causes your cells to store it as fat. Over a long period of time this can cause the famous aabo-bellies we always see and/or long term health implications.

Carbohydrates themselves are not an issue. The problem begins with what else is missing from your plate. When you have an oval plate with half of it being rice and the other being spaghetti and calling it Federation, there is little left for anything else.

If there is a stark contrast to the amounts of refined or processed foods such as bread, pasta, flour and white rice on a plate in comparison to whole foods such as brown rice, leafy green vegetables, starchy vegetables, nuts and berries, then this could lead to the potential risk of micronutrient deficiency. It is well known that every household cupboard there is a corner where you can find a bottle of vitamin D tablets. Imagine adding vitamins A,E,K, B1 to B12 to the list. Not to mention the trace minerals that we need.

With all that being said, surprisingly I think only slight modifications are needed to change how we perceive our traditional Somali diet. Here is a list of how we can do that:

1.     Change the staples into less starchy vegetables. Ever heard of cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles? They’re basically vegetables that have either been grated or spiralised to look and function the same as regular rice and noodles or spaghetti. A 100g of cauliflower rice will have about 25 calories compared to 100g of white rice which will have about 130 calories. So there is an immense difference in how much calories can be reduced due to this simple change.

2.     Portion control.  An interesting method I have come across that would be effective in portion control would be the ‘Hand method’. This basically uses your own hand as a guide to what types of foods should be on your plate. For example, a cupped hand for your starchy carb like rice, a palm sized portion of protein such as meat or chicken, a fist sized portion of vegetables and if you were to consume energy dense foods like nuts then use your thumb as a guide for that.

3.     Including a range of whole foods into our diet. An effective way to avoid micronutrient deficiency is to minimise the amount of processed foods that we consume and to replace them with their whole counterparts, i.e. brown rice vs white rice. White rice has the germ and the bran removed, which is the most nutritious parts of the grain. Brown rice has more vitamin B1 and B3 and minerals such as manganese and phosphorous. A 100 grams of cooked brown rice will provide 1.8 grams of fibre compared to only 0.4 grams of fibre from white rice. Basically, like with everything else in life the melanated version will do you better.

4.     Unsaturated fats and Omega 3. Not all fats are the enemy. Current evidence indicates that monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats such as olive oil can help with lowering ‘bad’ cholesterol in our bloodstream and maintaining heart health. Omega 3 can be found in oily fish such as salmon, herring and cod.

5.     Enjoy our traditional meals but in moderation. Enjoying the full Somali cuisine is a blessing and a privilege. Knowing that you can enjoy all the specialties and maintaining a healthy diet is the best of both worlds and that can be done by doing that a couple days a week or even just on Fridays, depending on your dietary goals.

Our food is our identity, it’s what we enjoy, and nobody can dispute how appetizing and delicious our cuisine is. But we should always be conscious of how much we eat and exactly what we put into our bodies. Our bodies are an amaanah or trust so we should be responsible with what we do with them.

I hope you enjoyed this read.

Jibril Ibrahim.

Here is a list of sources I think can be helpful if you would like to explore how to modify your own diet:

Somali recipes with a creative twist: http://www.somalikitchen.com

Ideas to replace carb bases with vegetables: http://www.somalikitchen.com

WHO guidelines for a healthy diet: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet

Quick easy meals to try at home: https://www.havehalalwilltravel.com/easy-healthy-delicious-recipes

Benefits of taking a plant centred approach: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/plant-based-diet-guide#foods-to-avoid