Food

Importance of Fruit Juice in your Daily Diet

Are you a health conscious person? Do you love to eat fruits? Having fruit juice in your daily diet can help you in improving your immune system and make your body healthier.

Breastfeeding: Best Formula for Feeding Infants (Part I)

August 17 to 21 was declared World Breastfeeding Week. The purpose of this is to protect, support and promote breastfeeding as the best formula for feeding infants and the young child.

Breastfeeding is a key intervention for protecting infants’ and young children’s health development and survival in emergencies.

We hope that from these write-ups, more mothers will appreciate breastfeeding and want to breastfeed their babies; that they will understand the moral, nutritive and physical values breastfeeding offers both mother and child.

Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other containers. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. Most mothers can breastfeed for six months or more, without the addition of infant formula or solid food.

Human breast milk is the most healthful form of milk for human babies. There are a few exceptions, such as, when the mother is taking certain drugs or is infected with tuberculosis or HIV. Otherwise, breastfeeding promotes health, helps to prevent disease and reduces healthcare and feeding costs.

Breastfeeding: Best Formula for Feeding Infants (Part II)

Two initial studies suggest that babies with a specific version of the FADS2 gene demonstrated an IQ averaging seven points higher if breastfed, compared with babies with a less common version of the gene who showed no improvement when breastfed. FADS2 affects the metabolism of fatty acids, such as DHA and AA, which are known to be linked to early brain development.

Manufacturers of infant formula have been adding DHA and AA fatty acids to their products since this discovery over a decade ago. The researchers state, “Further investigation to replicate and explain this specific gene-environment interaction is warranted.” They concluded: “Our findings support the idea that the nutritional content of breast milk accounts for the differences seen in human IQ.”

But it’s not a simple all-or-none connection: it depends to some extent on the genetic makeup of each infant.

Horwood, Darlow and Mogridge tested the intelligence quotient scores of children with low birth weight at seven or eight years of age. Those who were breastfed for more than eight months had significantly higher intelligence quotient scores than comparable children breastfed for less time. They concluded, “These findings add to a growing body of evidence to suggest that breast milk feeding may have small long-term benefits for child cognitive development.

Long-term Health Effects

12 Dangerous Food Additives: The Dirty Dozen Food Additives You Should Avoid

In many countries around the world, more than 3,000 substances can be added to foods for the purpose of preservation, coloring, texture, increasing flavor and more. While each of these substances is legal to use in some countries, another thing is whether they are something you want to be consuming.
With any processed food you run the risk of consuming additives, and reading the labels to check out ingredients is like trying to decode a puzzle.
Eating fresh, whole foods is the best way to stay away from horrible additives. However, assuming you do include some processed foods in your diet, the following additives are ones you surely want to stay away from. Look for them on ingredient labels and if you see any of these on the list, do not touch it.
Propyl Gallate
This preservative, used to prevent fats and oils from spoiling, might cause cancer. It's used in vegetable oil, meat products, potato chipss, chicken soup base and chewing gum, and is often used with BHA and BHT (see below).
BHA and BHT

Viable Seed System Critical for Sustainable Planting

MNROVIA – The Mission Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Liberia says a viable seed system is critical for a sustained flow of improved materials to support food security and productive farming enterprises.

The Power Of Dried Bony: Have You Tried It?

Well, well, well …here comes a new day for me to get set and begin the preparation of a sumptuous meal. People are always tempted to clean their plates or bowls with their tongues after eating my food.

The Power of Dried Boney: Have You Tried It? (Part II)

It is time to go to the kitchen, friends. You’ve got to know how to effectively cater for your man’s belly first in order to become a sought-after caterer.

Finding Solution to Soaring Food Prices

The food prices in Africa have increased rapidly owing to a multitude of factors. These factors include but might not be limited to growing demand in fast growing economies; increased diversion of grains to bio-fuels and animal feed; as well as escalating production costs, fertilizers and agro-chemicals.

Torborgi and Its Kinds

Torborgi stands as one of the major Liberian dishes which transcend cultural, ethnic and religious bonds. As the name suggests, it is a sub-regional cultural meal liked by many Liberians. As it is perceived across the sub-region, the meal originated from both northern Liberia (Lofa) and the Guinean city of Macenta.

Locals of both Macenta and Lofa are noted for their love for torborgi and how excellently the meal is prepared by them. Also, the women of Macenta and Lofa are also well-known for their production of some of the best torborgi oil regionally.

Unfortunately, many people think immediately of bitter balls once they hear the word torborgi. However, there are more to it than just bitter balls.

Even with the bitter balls torborgi, there are several kinds of them. There are some who are fond of the ketele torborgi (which is extremely bitter); others, too, love the bigger bitter balls nicely prepared into torborgi.

Processing of Torborgi Oil

“The main ingredient in cooking torborgi is the oil,” Mama Flomo, an iced water seller at the Rally Time Market told Food & Nutrition (F&N) during a recent interview. Therefore, it is significant to know and understand how it is processed, she added.

Liberian Diets & Dishes

An anonymous interviewee once told this to Food & Nutrition: “The stomach, a highly ungrateful part of the human body, will every minute make human beings strive to find something for it. You can eat an entire cow now, within four hours your stomach will make you feel as though you have never tasted a thing in your life.”

Today's edition of Food & Nutrition (F&N) is a continuation of our last edition which looked at a specific Liberian dish, torbogee. However, our focus this time is on Liberian diets and dishes according to the various regions.

On the average, many Liberians eat rice (the country's staple food) at least twice a day. Others prefer to swallow (fufu or dumboy) instead and would do so at least twice a day as well. Most of what is needed in a sumptuous Liberian meal is grown locally and the diets are largely dependent on the locale of the inhabitants.

Basic ingredients needed in any Liberian dishes include dried meat (of any kind), carefully selected dried fishes (pike fish, cassava fish, bonnie), chicken, beef, pig feet, crabs, dried shrimps, pepper, onions, magi cubes, salt, and either fresh oil or veggie oil. The list could vary from one Liberian to the other.

Palm Butter

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