{"id":1343,"date":"2016-08-30T09:10:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T15:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/?p=1343"},"modified":"2024-01-24T08:54:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T15:54:21","slug":"nutrition-tips-from-ghana","status":"publish","type":"newsletters","link":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/newsletters\/nutrition-tips-from-ghana\/","title":{"rendered":"Nutrition Tips From Ghana"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

This summer, I was fortunate to spend a month in Ghana with this awesome group of high school students, chaperones, and host siblings as part of the American Youth Leadership Program<\/span>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The goal of our trip was a cultural exchange and leadership development. We also had a theme of nutrition and food security, which we explored through visiting schools and 4-H gardens and participating in a food security symposium.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"4-H<\/a>\r\n
4-H garden at Okuapemman Basic School in Akropong<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n
\"Food\r\n
Students from the US, Ghana, and Canada spoke at the symposium at Ghana Senior High School.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But I think I learned the most about nutrition through the real \u201cwork\u201d that we did in Ghana – living with our host families and experiencing Ghanaian culture. After being home for a few weeks and reflecting on my experience, I wanted to share a few nutrition tips that I picked up in Ghana. <\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I Don’t Really Need Dessert…<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019ll admit it: I have a sweet tooth! At home, I\u2019m used to eating chocolate or some other sweet most days – usually for dessert. In Ghana, we didn\u2019t normally eat anything after dinner. If we did have dessert, it was (delicious!) fresh mangoes or pineapple. And while I still love chocolate, I feel like living in Ghana got me out of the habit of needing to eat something sweet every day. I\u2019m hoping I can stick with this change and reach for fruit when I want something sweet.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"Chicken\r\n
Chicken and rice for dinner with fruit for dessert<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Eat At Home<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We rarely went out to eat\u00a0in Ghana.\u00a0<\/b>My host sister is an amazing cook and whipped up fast, delicious meals every day. We ate lots of chicken, fish, rice, banku<\/a>, fufu<\/a>, kenke<\/a>, peppers, plantains, and yams. \u00a0She also prepares food so much faster than I do, so I\u2019ve been inspired to work on my cooking skills and see if I can get faster! And in case you were wondering, no, there are no McDonald’s in Ghana. I only saw one fast food restaurant – a\u00a0<\/span><\/b>KFC in Accra.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Eat Less Processed Food<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We talk about this quite a bit in our Real Food classes<\/a>, but I was able to fully experience it in Ghana. Ghanaians eat much healthier than we do with very little processed food. The only processed foods I ate were biscuits (cookies, but not overly sweet) and FanMilk (frozen yogurt) for an occasional treat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Don’t Waste Food<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I was impressed that there was no food waste in Ghana. One example was fish. As someone who doesn\u2019t eat a lot of seafood, I was a little intimidated the first time I was served a whole fish:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"Fish\"\r\n
Fish with banku and peppers<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But once I figured out how to dig in, I really enjoyed eating more seafood. And why not eat the whole fish? I\u2019ll be making an effort to be less picky – and to eat more fish!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"Tilapia\"\r\n
Buying tilapia on\u00a0the Volta River<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Eat Local and In Season<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The difference in taste\u00a0was really obvious with the fruit I ate in Ghana. The mangoes (did I mention how much I loved the mangoes yet?), pineapple, and bananas were so much better than what we eat here. I don\u2019t know if I can ever eat an imported mango from the grocery store again!<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Some more delicious Ghanaian food<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\"Banku\"\r\n
Banku with okra stew<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n
\"Rice\r\n
Rice ball with groundnut (peanut) soup and chicken<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Author: Laura Balis<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer, I was fortunate to spend a month in Ghana with this awesome group of high school students, chaperones, and host siblings as part of the American Youth Leadership Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4321,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[421,957],"tags":[469,115,470,49,46,472,315],"class_list":["post-1343","newsletters","type-newsletters","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-living","category-newsletter","tag-4-h","tag-fish","tag-food-security","tag-foods","tag-fruit","tag-garden","tag-produce"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletters\/1343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newsletters"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletters\/1343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16830,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletters\/1343\/revisions\/16830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}