Throwing a challenge to African medical doctors, nurses, dieticians, and nutritionists about diabetics

Greetings to all African medical professionals – doctors, nurses, dieticians, and nutritionists – wherever you are in the world.

As a complete layman, I have a challenge for you regarding the correct diet for diabetics, specifically African diabetics, and the reasoning behind it.

I am genuinely confused about which foods or diets are suitable for African diabetics, or diabetics in general – when to eat them and in what quantities. I’ve seen conflicting advice from professionals. One may suggest plantain is beneficial, but the next day, another will claim it’s not.

I’ve also heard advice to avoid, or consume in moderation, foods like rice and yams. We’re often told to steer clear of white rice and white bread, and to opt for wholemeal bread occasionally instead.

We’re advised to eat more greens – salads, cabbage, cucumber, carrots, broccoli, spinach, and lettuce. However, in Africa, many of these vegetables are not widely grown and are often expensive due to imports, making them accessible mainly to the wealthy.

When I was growing up in rural Ghana, our staple foods – the very ones now cautioned against for diabetics and even healthy individuals – were consumed without issue.

So, what changed? I implore our medical professionals to investigate thoroughly. We need comprehensive research to provide better solutions.

Diabetes is spreading rapidly across Africa, much like a wild harmattan bushfire. I urge African medical professionals to identify the causes of this alarming rise.

We shouldn’t be forced to abandon our local foods for imported “green” vegetables, mostly grown in Western countries. Why are African foods often dismissed, even by Africans themselves? Is it an inferiority complex?

Please, help us understand what’s causing this diabetes epidemic, which is claiming the lives of many Africans, especially Ghanaians.

Could the increase in diabetes be linked to the adoption of Western dietary habits.

I am deeply concerned about the conflicting advice from professionals regarding what diabetics can and cannot eat. One expert recommends something, only for another to contradict it soon after.

I ask you, our esteemed professionals, to investigate why Africans are suffering from and dying of diabetes – an illness that was once foreign to us.

This is the plea of a layman in the medical field.