From: Food beliefs and practices in urban poor communities in Accra: implications for health interventions
Food group | Healthy foods | Unhealthy foods | Reason for classification |
---|---|---|---|
Tubers and plantains | Fufu, ampesi, kokonte | ||
Cereals | Banku, boiled rice, kenkey, oats | Fried rice, oiled rice, indomie instant noodles | Oiled rice gives fever |
Fat and oils | Palm oil | toogbe, kelewele, fried foods, oily foods (“foods you can squeeze oil out of”) | |
Vegetables | Palm nut soup, light soup, palava sauce, cabbage stew, cucumber, cocoyam leaves, carrot | Palava sauce gives “blood” (stew made with cocoyam leaves, melon seeds and fish) | |
Vegetables gives strength and long life | |||
Animal foods | Smoked fish, dry smoked fish, akola | Sausage, meat, khebab, fried egg, fried pork, chicken skin | |
Fruits | Mango, banana | ||
Legumes | Beans | ||
Alcohol | Beer | ||
Other | |||
Dry foods | Dry food or unbalanced foods | Dry foods (made with less vegetables and protein ingredients but with a lot of carbohydrates) | |
Toxic foods | Foods planted with fertilizer | “Those chemicals disturbs our system” |