Thursday, March 28, 2024

Let’s eat more Kapata, Chibwabwa, Kalembula and Impwa -CSO-SUN

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Zambians should take pride and start consuming more indigenous vegetables and fruits to improve their nutrition status, a nutritionist has advised.

Nelly Phiri, the Nutrition Program Officer at the Zambia Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition Alliance said local vegetables such as Chibwabwa, Impwa and Kalembula have more nutrition value than most western foods.

Zambia is one of the most malnourished countries in the world with close to 40 percent of children under five years stunted while a growing adult population is obese.

[pullquote]Years ago, we never used to hear of malnutrition because we used to grow our own vegetables in the backyard[/pullquote]
Ms. Phiri said consuming local vegetables and fruits is cheaper and beneficial for households with low incomes.

‘Most of these vegetables and fruits contain vitamins like A,D, A, K which are fat soluble vitamins and B Complex which are water soluble vitamins and these can be gotten from our local fruits such as Baobab fruit which is locally known as Masau including the Masau which also have other mineral elements which people can benefit from,’ Ms Phiri said.

Ms Phiri added that the indigenous vegetables and fruits are mostly organic and are not grown using artificial fertilizers.

‘Most of these vegetables are wild vegetables like Kapata and Kalembula and we don’t need any fertilizer,’ she said.

She added, ‘Let’s take pride in what we have as Zambians and make use of that. Most people think if you want vegetable you have to go to Spar, Pick N Pay. Years ago, we never used to hear of malnutrition because we used to grow our own vegetables in the backyard and they were grown without fertilizer which enhanced nutrient absorption,’

18 COMMENTS

  1. Katapa not Kapata. The headline will attract unpalatable comments especially that many a people do not finish reading the whole article. They quickly excitedly misunderstand.

    • The lady is right. Zambians should also be encouraged to eat pumpkins, sweet potatoes, ifisashi, sorghum and peanuts. Nshima is the most useless food one can ever eat. It has no nutritional value whatsoever. The consuming of corn has also been cited as one the reasons South-Central Africa has been plagued with HIV compared to other nations whose staples does not include corn.
      Since I have been in the diaspora, I rarely eat nshima. I may eat nshima 3 times a year. My diet consists of sweet potatoes, pumpkins, sorghum, nuts, white meat such as chicken, fish, fruits especially mango and paw-paw. I have a perfect physique and I look way better than most of my Zambian friends who eat nshima three times a day. Especially the drunkards!

    • You do not need a nutritionist to know that African indigenous foods are the healthiest on earth! Put the burger and fries down!

  2. Eat Kapata compound, Jean Kapata or Henry Kapata. This is so funny ba LT.
    Okay but serious, those vegies we eat from supermarkets are toxic. The idea of growing your own is simply the best. Mind you some chiwawa commercially grown also has inorganic fertiliser. Big up CSO-SUN. Keep hammering the message

    • Ms. Phiri spoiled the campaign when she said “consuming local vegetables and fruits is cheaper and beneficial for households with low incomes”.
      She should have encouraged consumption of these foods based on the nutrition values they offer not because they are affordable to low income households. Most middle class Zambians eat expensive junk food because it tastes good and therefore nutritious when not; and to bee seen to be able to afford it.

  3. The truth is a lot of people in Zambia are already eating all types of vegetables and fruits, in particular the ones you have mentioned. This is because they do not have money to supplement this diet with nyama or apples or whatever.

    And yet, this is clearly not enough. What did you think they survived on? Stop teasing and be serious for once so efforts can be made for poorer people to add to these wild growing vegetables an all round sustainable diet.

    You are busy having barbecues all year round and yet preaching to us to stick to ibondwe and masau? What cheek.

    • You have a point @Indigo. Many Zambians can only afford this sort of diet and if they are unhealthy, then it is not adequate.

    • “Ocean funding” the email address or name very scaring. Can’t get that loan you may end up doing more than the loan.

  4. Guys,
    Katapa is good against attacks from malaria.
    When I worked with the mine in Luanshya, I ate cassava leaves twice a week on the same day.
    Because it contains low dosage of cyanide. Once you eat katapa, as you sweat, the cyanide leaves the body. When a mosquito lights on you, it smells the cyanide and flies off. In my 3 years in Luanshya, I did not contract malaria. On the other hand, my expat colleagues caught it several times. I then went to work at the Frontier mine at Sakania in DR Congo. I got a friend to send katapa for me every week which I ate. There, some expats caught malaria several times during the 2 years that I was there. I escaped the scourge!

  5. The article is spot on and I am one of the people who like to eat local vegetables. But the writer has gone off mark when she says “consuming local vegetables and fruits is cheaper and beneficial for households with low incomes”. Who says consuming local vegetables is beneficial for people with low income?.

  6. “local fruits such as Baobab fruit which is locally known as Masau including the Masau” Mubuyu and Masau are completly different

  7. Its because people cannot afford to buy beef/ meat due to harsh economy caused by the pf thugs. Its alright people can eat these cheap foods.

  8. It’s not cheap food its naturally nutritious and health food bafimbwi. I always crave for these food stuffs. I wish I was on zambia where I used to eat real and natural foods not these tasteless foods we eat overseas.

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