Sadza as my family’s staple food and health issues surrounding it

Pardon my insolence…. i had a really hectic weekend and couldn’t find time to do justice to my blog. But i am here to make ammends. I am supposed to bring forth two pieces; one on health or fitness issues and the other about the staple food in my family. Being witty as i am, i attempted to combine the two topics into one entertaining yet educative one, so here’s an eye opener about how Zimbabweans everywhere eat their staple… are we doing it healthily or not..

As i did my research on how best to come up with my unique and holistic approach. I realised there has been a perception that sadza causes diabetes. One might wonder how people come to think of that. Well let me attempt to shed a bit of light in defence of our much loved staple food. 

Perhaps the most important question is What nutrients does Sadza contain? Sadza contains mainly carbohydrates and it is advised that it should make approximately one third of our diet. From my ordinary level Biology i learnt that carbohydrates are sugars that break down inside the body to create glucose. Glucose is moved around the body in the blood and is the primary source of energy for the brain, muscles, and other essential cells. There are two main types of carbohydrates, simple and complex. The more refined the carbohydrate the more quickly it is converted to glucose and released into the bloodstream. This can therefore cause peaks and troughs in blood sugar levels and results in variable energy levels – refined or simple carbohydrates should make up only about 10% of our daily carbohydrate intake.

 Complex carbohydrates, such as those found in starchy foods such as Sadza, potatoes, bread, rice, whole grains, pasta and oats release glucose more slowly into the bloodstream providing more stable and sustainable energy levels to the body.

 Sadza also provides fibre which is essential for good digestion and elimination. However, all maize meal is not created equal. The more refined the maize meal, the more simple carbohydrates and less fibre it contains. In contrast, the coarser the grain such as roller meal (mugaiwa) the better the fibre content and complex carbohydrates. Ideally we should be having our Sadza made from sorghum/millet based meals or the less refined maize meal ( mugaiwa).

 So is Sadza bad for us ?

We need to remember that we are what we eat and do after that. There is a lot of misleading information about how bad carbohydrates are and our Sadza is not spared as well. Weight control is about ensuring a balance between calories consumed ( what we eat) and calories burnt ( what we use). Too many calories ( a huge portion of Sadza) equal weight gain, too few calories ( small portion of Sadza) result in weight loss and just the right balance between what we eat and what we use equals weight maintenance. It’s not only what we eat that matters most ,it’s also what we do after eating. Our lifestyles promotes laziness as we are no longer walking or exercising enough. We are spending most of our time sitting and we hardly walk as we now drive everywhere. Just think of the time you spend sitting watching television or on social media chatting to friends.

Another issue is that we are taking a lot of simple sugars unknowingly in our diets. We may have our portion of Sadza but what we are eating in addition to this is very important. A lot of us do not drink water but juices and fizzy drinks. It may be shocking to know the amount of sugar in a can of coke or any other form of soda. Coke contains 10.6g of sugar per 100ml – so that’s 35g in a 340ml can (equivalent of 8 teaspoons of sugar). We are recommended to take only 30g ( 7 teaspoons) of added sugar per day . This means that we would have taken more than the recommended sugar if we just drink one can of Coke a day. Now if we look at our breakfast, lunch and supper to find out the amount of added sugars we will be getting. And if we look at the juices that we drink, we find that they have added sugars. And if we drink tea or coffee of which we may take several cups daily and put sugar in these hot drinks then we are going over the top with our sugar intake. Let’s say for example one drinks 4 cups a day of hot drink and puts one teaspoon of sugar in each cup. This means that per day that person is taking 4 teaspoons of sugar and if that person drinks 2 cans of Coke ( 16 teaspoons of sugar) then their intake of sugar per day becomes frightening- 20 teaspoons of sugar!

The typical Zimbo way of eating sadza

It’s not surprising to find someone who eats sadza daily for lunch or supper or for both and in some cases with a can of coke before the Sadza . The sadza is cooked with refined maize meal which is a simple carbohydrate and that will increase the already high blood sugar from the Coke . We down our Sadza with another can ( 8 teaspoons of sugar) or cans of Coke. We also hardly look at the portion of Sadza that we take needless to mention that we even ask for more from the restaurant chefs. We do not walk at all as we have our runners who buy meat and drinks for us whilst we enjoy music in our cars or if at home maids and girl children.  After that, we are back to sitting at our desks and try to do some work. We have hardly walked yet we have consumed lots of sugar. I deliberately left out alcoholic drinks but they have their side effects as well if consumed in excess… The large servings of sadza on the plate (mountain portion – Zimukonde), the added caloric intakes from soft drinks and meat combined with lack of adequate physical activity result in weight gain. This is especially true for those in the diaspora where meat is always available and often reasonably priced. The maize meal they use there is highly refined and has low fibre which is not good for health. It is weight gain which sadly puts us at high risk of developing diabetes.

 It is NOT the Sadza that is bad for us, but it is the maize meal that we use , the size of portion and what we do after eating it as well as other sugary drinks that we end up taking. We must enjoy our Sadza but we need to be fully informed about healthy lifestyles so that we stay healthy… 
We must remember that several risk factors have been associated with type 2 diabetes and include: family history of diabetes, obesity, unhealthy diet , not exercising, increasing age as we get older, high blood pressure, certain ethinicity, history of diabetes in pregnancy called gestational diabetes and poor nutrition in pregnancy, all increases one’s chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

Changes in diet ( to western diet ) and lack of physical activity ( no longer walking , now using cars) related to rapid development and urbanisation have led to sharp increases in the number of people developing diabetes. Addressing these factors will reduce our chances of developing this disease. 

As you can ” see ” It’s NOT Sadza as such but a lot of other factors as outlined above ,so we can enjoy our Sadza and stay healthy.