Recently, the World Health Organization just released a report on processed meats being a possible cause for cancer. This made me very sad. Not just because I love bacon (with a passion) but I suddenly realised how the much of the devastation from these ailments are due to a borrowed life. I also hear that vegetarians are getting smug because of this report. But the bad news is that vegetarians are not safer from these experiments. A lot of the vegetables they eat are genetically modified. The point is this whole problem is in the process of growth and not the food itself.
According to the report, the method of preservation, curing and taste improvement of these meats is the cause of this disaster. Truly, if the climate of these western countries is to be taken into account, there is a legitimate need for very good production, preservation and storage techniques but where do we draw the line? I checked to know how bacon is made to be what it deliciously is, and I felt like I was in a science lab. In fact, one of the bacon products I bought boasted of being naturally smoked. So that implies that some other bacon products are probably not naturally smoked. If you want to know the entire process, check it on the internet. It is a vast topic that I cannot exhaust here. Hours and weeks to prepare a meal is uncalled for. This is where the problem begins.
In Nigeria, Suya is a popular delicacy loved by every living soul, except of course you are vegetarian. It is beef grilled over firewood; with herbs, spices and vegetable oil, Suya is ready in 2 hours, and as healthy as can be. Even though we still enjoy our Suya, we love, and in some cases, have replaced our Suya with bacon, ham, salami, sausages, the list goes on. In fact, it is a thing of pride and wealth to declare our love for these meats. That is why in this part of our world, junk foods cost more than real foods. I guess I can say thanks to poverty as majority are forced to eat real foods, because the chemical foods are way beyond their reach? Our love for junk foods blind our eyes to the dangers these foods cause.
The experiments and adventure on animal products are the same on plant products. They have succeeded in growing seedless watermelons, grapes, oranges, and other naturally seeded fruits. To be fair to them, they want easy-to-consume fruits while making a decent profit. But unfortunately, they fail to realise that once the true nature of anything is distorted, problems are bound to occur.
Against all that has been said about meat (red, white or black), there is absolutely nothing wrong with meat in its simple state. The process of growing and preparing these foods is the problem. Meat had been eaten long before Jesus was born, and after He was born, He ate it and enjoyed it as meat. Wheat, like meat has been demonized as well. When I hear about the #gluten intolerance and how wheat makes one sick, I wonder because in Africa we eat wheat and it only makes us fat, because we eat a lot of it and not because it is sickening.
Foods that should be for life, growth and health are now a leading cause of health problems around the world. But I make bold to say that in Africa, it is different. I stand to be corrected though. I believe we still grow our plants the way they should be grown. Our cattle feed on grass; we have plenty of them. Our tomatoes and peppers, and poultry foods taste better than those that I have had outside this country. They do not look as big as the Wests’, and that is because their natural composition has not been altered. But we still lust after the Western kind of foods and lifestyle because we want to be like them, just as Israel wanted a king so they could be like other nations; but then suffered many consequences.
A lot of us in Africa advocate and wear sunscreens because of sunburn or skin cancer. I am yet to see or hear of one black man who's got sunburn or skin cancer. We were born under the sun, live with the sun, cook with the sun, and need I say that our skin is uniquely made for our climate. In our coldest of weather, the white man will feel very comfortable but the black man will run for cover. The result is the same with the sun. Under the hot sun, our boys and girls trade their wares, run their errands and cook from sun up to sun down. We are a sun people uniquely made like our brothers of other ethnicity. God made us differently and placed us in different locations with climates suitable for our physiology. We should embrace that.
Today, cancer is ravaging our society and killing the young and old. More people have died of cancer in third world countries than in the West. These people create a lifestyle, but have a good system to manage the consequences of their lifestyle. We borrow their lifestyle and suffer the most because of our unpreparedness for the consequences of them.
Thankfully, we still grow our plants and flocks the way they should be grown and so the opportunity abounds for us to reduce our vulnerability to these problems. I strongly believe that like #AIDS and other diseases that terrorised our world over 20 years ago, the menace of #cancer will be defeated and plague us no more. Here in Africa, we certainly do have our own problems that is as bad as distorting the natural process of food production. But we owe it to ourselves to remain within the boundary of our healthy cultural dispensation as regards to food.
The distortion of our natural food processes is as bad as climate change. Genetically modified foods (#GMO) have destroyed more people than the issue of climate change has ever been reported. My plea to the West is to stop experimenting with plants and animals, and return to growing and cultivating them just as it was in the beginning. And to my third world folks, knowledge maybe acquired from anywhere in the world but must be adapted to suit the resources available locally. Our climate is one that favours an all year-round production of food products, so we must maximise this advantage by being more adaptive with the food products available to us and stop relying on processed or modified foods from the west. We should learn to curb our appetites for things that we are capable of producing within our localities, and search for variants of such desired products that are locally available.
We may be called the third world but the number 3 is not bad at all. As it is written, a three-fold cord is not easily broken. So let us stay AS WE ARE, and improve only on the deficiencies that threaten our uniqueness in a volatile world.
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