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Table 4 Examples of healthy and unhealthy foods mentioned by participants

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”